Zur Situation der Schändung und Zerstörung von Denkmälern für die Kämpfer gegen den Nationalsozialismus in den Jahren des Zweiten Weltkriegs (Bericht des russischen Aussenministeriums)
Since the end of the World War II, approximately 4,000 monuments to Soviet soldiers have been raised in Europe. A total of more than one million Red Army soldiers are buried in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. In general, the peoples of the USSR and Europe paid a much higher price for the Victory over Nazism, measured in tens of millions of lives.
As a reminder: the Soviet army, besides, of course, the territory of the Soviet Union, including its constituent republics, liberated Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia (today there are two separate States – the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Hungary, Austria (the eastern part of the country and Vienna), Romania, Yugoslavia and a number of other European countries from Nazism. Most of the Soviet monuments are installed exactly in these countries. There are also monuments to the Soviet soldier in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and France.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many memorials were located in the territories of Russia's neighbouring countries that were established in the territory of former Soviet republics. The political course to revive of Nazism and the rewriting of history set in a number of these countries have had a strong impact on the memorial heritage of the Great Patriotic War.
"Decommunization", the destruction of monuments to our common history and culture, the desecration of the graves of fallen Soviet soldiers, neo-Nazi torch marches, the glorification of Nazis and their collaborators, the physical elimination of ideological opponents – many of these manifestations, and often all of them at once, have become commonplace in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as in Poland, the Czech Republic and a number of other European countries. Namely these countries have become the "subjects" of this report. Under the guise of laws on "decommunization" and by demolishing monuments to Soviet soldiers, the governments of these countries are trying to "reinforce an anti-Russian front". At the same time, monuments to Nazi criminals are raised, they legally protected and rare actions by activists against monuments to Nazis are severely prosecuted. The key objective of such steps is the complete cleansing of historical memory.
This report has been prepared as part of the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to draw attention to the manifestations in foreign countries of various forms of glorification of the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
The report is devoted to the actions of certain States, primarily the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine, which, using Russia's Special Military Operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine and protect the peaceful population of Donbass as a pretext, have dramatically increased the scale of their long-standing practice of destroying Soviet, Russian, and often their own, memorial heritage in their territory. To this end, the relevant legislative framework has already been drawn up and gets even more extensive.
In terms of content, this document is based on the provisions of the UN General Assembly thematic resolution "Combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance". The resolution stresses, inter alia, that the General Assembly expresses its deep concern at the increasing attempts and incidents of desecration or destruction of monuments erected in honour of those who fought against Nazism during the World War II, as well as the unlawful exhumation or removal of their remains; strongly condemns incidents involving the glorification and propaganda of Nazism, such as the acts of drawing of pro-Nazi graffiti and drawings, including on monuments to the victims of the World War II.
As part of the efforts to affirm the Victory as the common heritage of the UN Member States and to prevent the destruction or desecration of monuments and memorials to those who fought Nazism in accordance with the provisions of the said UN General Assembly resolution, this report focuses on the policies of the above-mentioned European countries with regard to monuments and memorials dedicated to the Red Army soldiers who liberated Europe from the Brown Plague, anti-Nazi soldiers and members of the Resistance Movement, and their safeguarding.
Vollständige Version des Berichts (auf Englisch)
