Republished May 19, 2016 - 9:13 AM
Original Publication Date May 19, 2016 - 7:15 AM
WARSAW, Poland - City councillors in the northern Polish city of Szczecin have decided to move a giant stone monument honouring the Red Army out of a central square and into the city's main cemetery.
There was no date set for the move of the monument, the head of the council's office, Rafal Miszczuk, told The Associated Press Thursday.
It was erected in 1950 when Poland was under communist rule, as a sign of gratitude for the Red Army's victory over Hitler's troops in the city during World War II.
The idea to remove the monument was first suggested in 1991, shortly after Poland shed communism and a massive removal of symbols and street names related to the former regime took place. Miszczuk could not say why the move was not implemented then.
Councillors from the ruling right-wing party say the obelisk-like towering structure isn't popular, is often vandalized and should be moved. It will be placed in a cemetery where Red Army troops are buried, among others. Some 600,000 Soviet troops were killed on Polish soil in battles against Hitler's army.
Tuesday's vote came as the new government is planning to remove monuments praising the Soviet army, arguing that it brought the nation a brutal communist regime after World War II. The state National Remembrance Institute is planning to put them all in one place eventually as an historic exhibition.
Memorials at Red Army burial sites will remain untouched
Moscow protested last year when local officials in the northeastern town of Pieniezno started to dismantle a monument of Gen. Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who died there of wounds in 1945 and is Russia's national hero. In Poland he is held responsible however for the persecution of Polish anti-Nazi resistance fighters.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016