[Cronos]

1. No one in the Baltic states or Central Europe is talking about tearing down Soviet soldiers graves
2. You're right it's not about Lenin status but rather about memorials to Soviet actions in WWI
3. But the thing is that for many (Czechs excepted), the Soviet defeat of Germany was NOT a liberation (like how western Europe was liberated by British, American and other troops), rather it was
   • For countries that fought on the side of the Allies (well, only Poland) - it was a different occupation - a bit less bloody than the German, but still an occupation until 1990
   • for countries that fought on the side of Germany (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria), an occupation
   • For Baltic states - the return of the old nightmare. They had been occupied by Russia in the 1700s and 1800s and had undergone intense attempts at Russification.

   I can speak for Poland that people don't mind the gravesites for the brave Soviet soldiers who died) but they don't want to see a monument that talks about "the Liberation of Poland by her Soviet brothers" or communist motifs talking about how Poland was saved by the USSR.

[Rashputin]

I guess I talk to different people than you do. I've had Poles who came to visit my relatives that want the cemeteries gone and whether they disinter the remains and send them back to Russia or just remove the markers doesn't make any difference to them.

I see you point and agree, but the Russians who died fighting to throw Germans out of Poland didn't have much choice in the matter one way or the other. They went where they were sent and a lot of them died fighting the Germans there. With the exception of some special troops, the vast majority were just State property used to achieve State goals.

Let them at least be individuals with a decent, undisturbed, resting place when they're dead.

JMHo