The law on decommunization, which was updated in Poland, does not allow local authorities to demolish the monuments of the Red Army. As the leader of the Polish Kursk memorial, Jerzy Titz, told TASS on Friday that lawyers in Warsaw came to this conclusion, hired to analyze the situation.
In July, the Polish authorities adopted amendments to the law banning the propaganda of communism or another totalitarian system in the names of buildings and objects.
The document provides for the demolition of monuments of the Soviet era, including, as legislators claimed, memorials in honor of the Red Army. The Institute of the National Memory of Poland, for which the role of the advisory body was fixed in the law, counted 229 dismantling memorials on the territory of the country to the Red Army soldiers.
“The Kursk Society has asked the Warsaw legal bureau to prepare a legal examination of the decommunization amendments approved in the Sejm and the possibility of demolishing the monuments of the Red Army on their basis.” Expertise unequivocally asserts that in this text of the law this is impossible, that this will be a violation of law “, Tuts said.
“Warsaw lawyers consider this case obvious: in order to demolish the monument, it must be proved that it really propagates, praises, symbolizes communism,” he said, adding that “the examination contains documents, rulings of the court in Strasbourg concerning, among other things, the red star and affirming , That this symbol does not propagate communism. “
As Tuts stressed, one must understand that the law does not have a clear formulation directly pointing to the monuments of gratitude of the Red Army. “We no longer have monuments propagating communism.The law is written in such a way that, according to law, no monument of the Red Army can be demolished unless they prove in court that this object influences, for example, the growth of the number of Communists In the republic, which is impossible, “the Kursk leader said.
According to Tuts, the institution of national memory that counted in Poland 229 drifting monuments of the Red Army can only express its opinion on this or that monument. The authorities do not necessarily have to agree with him. “We will use the expertise of lawyers in court if local authorities decide to demolish a particular monument,” he concluded, without excluding that it would come to the international court.
The essence of the amendments
The updated law on decommunization states that monuments and other similar objects “can not pay tribute to individuals, organizations, events or dates that symbolize communism or another totalitarian system.” These memorials do not include monuments located in cemeteries or other burial grounds, objects that are not for public display or are shown for scientific purposes, as works of art, as well as monuments included in the register of architectural monuments. Those Polish lawmakers who do not belong to these categories are offered to dismantle memorials within 12 months after the amendments come into effect, which will happen already in October this year.
Position of the Russian Federation
The adoption of the new law by the Russian Foreign Ministry was called a deliberate provocation and stated that it would not remain without consequences. The Federation Council appealed to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with a request to instruct the relevant departments to develop proposals on possible restrictions on Poland.
Since 1994, an agreement has been in force between Moscow and Warsaw, which obliges the parties to keep records and take care of the safety of “all discovered places of memory and burial” of victims of wars and repressions. The Polish side insists that it is her job to care only for monuments located in the cemeteries and military graves. Memorials established outside such places, Warsaw considers as symbols of communism, which must be eliminated.