Three memorials in western Russia dedicated to soldiers of the Polish Home Army have been vandalized.
The information was first broken by the Memorial society, the Nobel Peace Prize winning NGO dedicated to upholding the memory of and educating about the Soviet regime’s crimes that has faced persecution from the Kremlin.
The news was confirmed on Tuesday by Poland’s consul general in Saint Petersburg, Grzegorz Ślubowski.
The three memorials attacked are located in the vicinity of the town of Borovichi and the village of Yogla in the Novgorod Region in western Russia, an area that once housed a network of gulag camps.
Between 1944-1946, according to the consulate, some 600 Poles died in the network from disease and exhaustion. They were buried in unmarked graves.
The news was confirmed on Tuesday by Poland’s consul general in Saint Petersburg, Grzegorz Ślubowski.
The three memorials attacked are located in the vicinity of the town of Borovichi and the village of Yogla in the Novgorod Region in western Russia, an area that once housed a network of gulag camps.
Between 1944-1946, according to the consulate, some 600 Poles died in the network from disease and exhaustion. They were buried in unmarked graves.
Paweł Wroński, a Polish foreign ministry’s spokesperson, called the vandalism an “outrageous incident”.
“This is not about the memorials but about commemoration in a place where victims are buried. This is one massive graveyard,” he continued, adding that Poland had demanded Moscow launches an investigation, and identifies and punishes the perpetrators.
He also said that memorials to fallen German and Hungarian soldiers, who were killed during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, have not been disturbed.
A local resident, Wroński continued, had said that attack was carried out by a small group of people who had heavy equipment at their disposal.
The vandalism comes at a time of increasing tensions between Poland and Russia set against the backdrop of the Ukraine war.
Moscow recently announced that it would close Poland’s consulate in Saint Petersburg, in a tat-for-tat move following the closure of the Russian consulate in the Polish city of Poznań.
Warsaw, which has become one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters, has also accused Moscow of carrying out acts of espionage and sabotage on Polish soil.
“This is not about the memorials but about commemoration in a place where victims are buried. This is one massive graveyard,” he continued, adding that Poland had demanded Moscow launches an investigation, and identifies and punishes the perpetrators.
He also said that memorials to fallen German and Hungarian soldiers, who were killed during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, have not been disturbed.
A local resident, Wroński continued, had said that attack was carried out by a small group of people who had heavy equipment at their disposal.
The vandalism comes at a time of increasing tensions between Poland and Russia set against the backdrop of the Ukraine war.
Moscow recently announced that it would close Poland’s consulate in Saint Petersburg, in a tat-for-tat move following the closure of the Russian consulate in the Polish city of Poznań.
Warsaw, which has become one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters, has also accused Moscow of carrying out acts of espionage and sabotage on Polish soil.
Not the first instance
The attack on the memorials is the latest in a series of incidents targeting the memory of Poles killed in Russia.
Over the summer and during early autumn of 2023, numerous memorials commemorating victims of not only Soviet but also tsarist repression were removed from various cemeteries and places of mass executions across Russia.
The monuments, which commemorated not only Poles but also victims of numerous other nationalities persecuted by Russian imperial and Soviet authorities, were often removed clandestinely under the cover of darkness.
Over the summer and during early autumn of 2023, numerous memorials commemorating victims of not only Soviet but also tsarist repression were removed from various cemeteries and places of mass executions across Russia.
The monuments, which commemorated not only Poles but also victims of numerous other nationalities persecuted by Russian imperial and Soviet authorities, were often removed clandestinely under the cover of darkness.
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