The removal of the memorial in Brzeg, in southwestern Poland, fell on Ukraine’s Independence Day and exactly six months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is part of a longer effort to remove hated communist symbols from public spaces in Poland and across the region.
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has worked with local communities to remove dozens of similar Soviet-era memorials. Rafal Leskiewicz, the institute’s spokesman, said that as of March, when a decision to remove them was announced, 60 such monuments remained. The monument in Brzeg is the 24th to be demolished.
He said it was important to remove such memorials because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also because a 2015 Polish law calls for their removal. Work to dismantle the Brzeg monument is expected to take several days, he said.