The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation expresses its deep indignation at the desecration and destruction in the Republic of Poland of graves, tombstones, monuments, other memorial constructions that perpetuate the memory of Soviet soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country from fascism.
The decisions agreed upon by Warsaw on the dismantling of memorial sites combined with manifestations of vandalism on the part of unidentified and generally unpunished individuals become the norm for attitudes to the memory and burial places of soldiers and Red Army officers on Polish soil. For our state, which has defeated Nazism at the cost of colossal efforts and millions of human lives, such actions are absolutely unacceptable.
In the opinion of the State Duma, this is a direct challenge to the convictions of all genuine anti-fascists who sacrificed their lives, fighting for the deliverance of the peoples of Europe from the Nazi yoke.
Deputies of the State Duma express indignation at the persistence of attempts to rewrite history, underestimate the contribution of the Soviet people to the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and distort the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Poland.
Only in 2015 in the Republic of Poland there were almost thirty cases of desecration or destruction of Soviet memorial sites. In this case blasphemous acts of vandalism by the Polish side are not commented on. One can not recall a single statement by government officials condemning such actions, and the official investigation of these resonant crimes in a number of cases resulted in the acquittal of those responsible.
The result of this policy should be considered the decision to demolish the monument to the army general twice Hero of the Soviet Union ID Chernyakhovsky, installed on the site of his death in the city of Penen- nno, the desecration by unknown vandals of more than 50 tombstones and monuments on the graves of Soviet soldiers in the cemetery in Milejcice, where buried about 1600 soldiers of the Red Army, who died on Polish soil, dismantling of a monument to a Soviet soldier-liberator in the town of Melets at the end of November 2015. A few days earlier in the city of Garvolin, unknown people destroyed dozens of tombstones in a military cemetery, where more than 10,000 of our soldiers were buried. And these are only some facts of abuse of memorial objects.
The deputies of the State Duma consider the fact that these events take place in Poland in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and the end of the Second World War.
The State Duma draws the attention of the Polish leadership to the need to conscientiously implement the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Poland on burial places and places of memory for the victims of wars and repressions
of 22 February 1994. On the need to fulfill its obligations “under bilateral and multilateral treaties on the maintenance and preservation of monuments, including monuments in which the remains of foreign servicemen or victims of war are located” are also indicated in paragraph 9.5 of Resolution 1652 (2009) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe “Relation to memorials the subject of various historical interpretations in the member states of the Council of Europe “.
For its part, the Russian Federation fulfills all its obligations to protect and maintain the places of memory and burial of Polish citizens (for example, in the Smolensk and Tver regions), ensuring the safety of graves, tombstones, monuments, other memorial structures, as well as maintaining them in due course .
The State Duma calls on the Sejm of the Republic of Poland to end the war with monuments and memorial sites. Monuments, obelisks and tombstones of soldiers and officers of the Red Army, who gave their lives for the liberation of Poland, must be under reliable state protection.
Deputies of the State Duma urge the Polish side to take exhaustive measures to search for and punish the vandal offenders, as well as the immediate restoration of the destroyed tombstones and memorial complexes, which are a tribute to deep respect for the soldier’s feat.
Deputies of the State Duma remain convinced supporters of strengthening friendly and good-neighborly relations with all peoples and are ready to continue to direct their efforts to ensure that Russian-Polish relations are based solely on the desire for all-round cooperation for the benefit of our peoples and states.