The Polish Embassy in Moscow has informed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the removal of a symbolic headstone honoring Polish victims of political repression in Piwowarisze near Irkutsk, along with a cross memorializing Lithuanian victims that stood beside it, as stated by Ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski to the Polish Press Agency PAP.
Today a formal note was delivered to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlining concern over the removal of both memorials. The ambassador emphasized that the two sites are treated as a unified memory space because the suffering of victims should not be divided by nationality. He noted that the Polish memorial was established in 2015 with the support of a Polish community organization and the permission of local authorities.
The embassy protested the removal and relocation of these monuments to an unknown site, calling the action a denial of an important piece of shared history. In the note, the Embassy requests a precise explanation of the current location of the removed memorial and the reasons behind its removal, underscoring its significance as a memorial site.
The Lithuanian cross, which stood adjacent to the Polish monument, was also removed, a development described by the ambassador as surprising. He explained that the cross represents the Christian faith, a major religion in Russia, and recalled that representatives from both nations frequently placed flowers at both the cross and the Polish tombstone. This act of joint remembrance has long been a symbol of connection between Poland and Lithuania.
Polish and Lithuanian memorial
Photographs attached to the note show both monuments and the surrounding area after the removals. News about the monuments in Piwowarisze, a well-known burial site for victims of Stalinist repression, appeared on Friday. The ambassador indicated that the stated reason for removing the monuments was to reorganize the alleyways in the area.
The Polish memorial in the Piwowarisze complex took the form of a tombstone depicting a weeping figure. Its inscription, in Russian, conveyed a message of lament and remembrance. Beneath the cross engraved on the stone was a line in Polish reading Rest in peace. The memorial was erected in 2015 through the initiative of the Polish Cultural Autonomy Ogniwo and the Irkutsk consulate.
The Lithuanian memorial consisted of a wooden cross standing several meters tall, also installed in 2015 within the same memorial complex. Both monuments were part of a broader array of commemorations honoring victims of terror from different nationalities and faiths. The site also includes a symbolic menorah recalling Jewish victims, Orthodox crosses, and other memorials bearing the names of those who suffered. Many of these commemorations were placed by descendants of the victims themselves.
In the 1930s, near the village of Piwawaricha, now on the outskirts of Irkutsk, an NKVD facility operated as a closed site where prisoners were shot and their remains buried in dug pits. Historians estimate the total number of victims at around 15,000 to 17,000, with mass graves only gradually uncovered in 1989 and several pits still unidentified. In contemporary Russia, Pivowarikha became the first mass burial site of repression victims to receive official cemetery status, with the property managed by the regional authority responsible for cultural heritage.
The topic has been the subject of extensive (and ongoing) discussion in regional and international circles, highlighting the sensitivity surrounding memorials that commemorate victims of political terror and the ongoing debates about how history is remembered and presented in public spaces.
READ ALSO: a report on the removal of Poland and Lithuanian memorials due to reorganization in the region, as covered by PAP and reported by Polish outlets.
Source: wPolityce