The War on Monuments in Poland - there will be no winners

MINSK, 21 Sep — Sputnik. In mid-July, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed amendments to the law banning communist propaganda, which provide for the demolition of Soviet monuments in the country. Already in the second half of September, about 230 monuments to the soldiers of the Red Army can be dismantled.

Ex-Prime Minister of Poland: Russophobia has become a state doctrine

Leading the government of Poland from 2001 to 2004, the well-known politician Leszek Miller, in an interview with Sputnik Polska, spoke out against the "destruction of cemeteries or places of memory."

“I can only regret that there are Poles in my country who engage in vandalism,” he stated.

The politician put forward his version of what is happening. In his opinion, various Polish politicians began to rewrite the history of the country and claim that the Second World War ended for the state in 1989 with the end of the “Soviet occupation”.

“Russophobia has become a state doctrine that is currently being implemented by the government, and this certainly cannot do without affecting the minds of the Poles, especially the younger generation. This is not only the hostility of strangers, Russian, or Soviet soldiers. But in general, such a time when Polish politics is more likely to focus on differences, conflicts, disputes, and not on the search for a unifying principle, ”the politician noted.

Leszek Miller is sure: warming up the conflict between Poland and Russia (the leadership of the Russian Federation condemns the demolition of monuments - Sputnik) is the wrong decision. The figure urged to seek common ground and conduct a dialogue between states.

Belarus is also unhappy

The Belarusian side also spoke critically about the idea of ​​demolishing the monuments. In addition to politicians and public figures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic also spoke out against such a "war" with memorials. The Foreign Ministry recalled that for the Belarusians, the war is not just words, almost every family went through it.

As Dmitry Mironchik, head of the information department and press secretary of the Foreign Ministry, noted in July, it was Soviet troops who opened the gates of Auschwitz and helped the Poles return the national state. “It is cynical to equate Soviet soldiers and Nazis,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in July.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called such an initiative an attempt to rewrite history and erase the state memory.

The Belarusian parliamentarians also condemned the Polish idea. Thus, the profile committee of the House of Representatives adopted a statement calling not to demolish Soviet monuments erected to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Some Belarusian politicians spoke quite sharply about this outside of official papers.

“Then they will start writing their own history, rewriting it and saying that it was the USSR that attacked Germany. Then extremism and Nazism will be promoted, and we will come to what it was in Germany in the late 1930s, when fascism was born, ”Dmitry Shevtsov, deputy chairman of the Standing Committee on International Affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, said at the Sputnik press center.