Thanks to an appeal by the IPN’s President another stage of decommunization in Poland begins. The dismantling of a monument commemorating the Red Army located in Chrzowice, Prószków County, Opole Voivodeship — will take place during a press briefing on 23 March 2022 at 2:30 p.m. The event with the participation of the IPN’s President Karol Nawrocki, PhD, will be broadcast on the IPNtv channel.

“I appeal to the authorities, to erase from the public space all names and symbols referring to people, organizations, events or dates from the communist era. It is high time we took action. The Institute of National Remembrance offers its assistance as to the verification of the names of streets and squares referring to the communist legacy and terminology” — stressed IPN’s President Karol Nawrocki, PhD, in his statement on the decommunization of the public space of 4 March 2022.

“Let us emphasize that there can be absolutely no consent for any forms of commemorating the totalitarian communist regime and people serving it!”, he added.

The Mayor of Prószków, the county where the monument to the Red Army is located, has responded to the appeal. The monument is situated in Chrzowice (Prószkow County) by public road. It was erected in 1949 by the County Monument Building Committee, on the grounds of the former cemetery where 620 Red Army soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian Front were originally buried. The remains were later exhumed and moved to the Red Army war cemetery in Kędzierzyn-Koźle. The obelisk is 5 meters high with a visible red star and an inscription in Polish and Russian: „Eternal glory to the heroes of the Soviet Army fallen for the freedom of nations in 1945.”

Apart from the IPN’s President, the event will be attended by Prószków Mayor, Krzysztof Cebula and the Director of the IPN’s  Office for Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom, Adam Siwek.

Source: Institute of National Remembrance

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