Then there's the Soviet statue in Seattle.
The present-day nationalist backlash is a result of decades of communist lies and brainwashing. Unfortunately, such an aggressive attempt to erase the communist past is likely to ratchet up tensions and make conflict more likely. Much better to let these monuments decay naturally, to symbolise the decline and fall of the aggressively imperialistic but inherently rotten and mendacious USSR.
Christopher Cytera
Cambridge
Keep the monuments - use them as teaching points.
This stuff happened.
Then there's the Soviet statue in Seattle.
I wish the world went after the Communists with as much passion as we’ve gone after the Nazis the past 75 years.
To be fair, we could keep the monuments, but instead of using them to “honor” the Communists, we’d use them to remind them of the lack of respect for life the Communists had, depicting the soldiers as in the wrong, yet at the same time victims of Communism in a way (since several of them largely did their actions because they were essentially forced to, not because they actually wanted it). At least it’s not a statue of Stalin or, God forbid, Lenin that they’re keeping up as a monument.
Of course that being said, it’s probably for the best if we just tear them down, history or not. After all, Karl Marx learned quite a bit about the French Revolution and Reign of Terror, and I’d suspect from his comments about “not caring less” if they’re viewed as monsters upon reenacting 1793 after taking the helm that he was at least familiar with various barbaric stuff they did including the Vendee and General Louis Grignon’s infamous torch operations there, yet he not only advocated reenacting the Reign of Terror, but even going as far as to make it even more gory than back then. Sartre made similar remarks when voicing his support for the death penalty as well. And Foucault arguably took it even further than them and advocated instead that they reenact of all things the September Massacres to allow for popular justice. Man, those guys really seem to make the old saying “those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it” seem like meaningless dreck, especially when they clearly knew history yet STILL aimed for repeating it anyway.
My Dad fought in the Liri Valley during the 4th assault on Cassino, May 1944. He had great admiration for the Polish soldiers who were fighting in Italy. I’m sure they hoped that the western alliance would keep Russia honest, but that they were not surprised by the Russia betrayal that came in August. Russia delayed its advance into Warsaw so that the Nazis could crush the Warsaw uprising,making it easier for them to subjugate the Poles. President Trump did not collide with Russia, but the Russian government is filled with corrupt murderous thugs led by a empire-building sociopath. Not unlike the Democratic Party. Never trust a Russian or a Democrat.
Of course we have Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's iconic written accounts too. But the visuals of Baldaev's illustrations really shock you to the core.
Lech Walesa knew too well about the Soviet atrocities. He had to walk on egg shells in order to win Poland it’s freedom during the Soviet collapse, especially with the communist puppet Wojciech Jaruzelski, who should have been executed for treason by Polish patriots.
Respect the graves of those Soviet soldiers who died pushing the Nazis out of Poland. Most of those poor souls were simple peasants. They were caught up in a conflict not of their making.
And leave alone any monument marking their sacrifice. But tear down - at once - any monument glorifying Stalin or communism.
“...Unfortunately, such an aggressive attempt to erase the communist past...”
It’s NEVER a bad thing to “aggressively erase communists”.
They deserve it.
I saw several plots of buried USSR soldiers and their monuments, while in Poland. They are being left to rot. I had commented on them as we passed them. The old polish saying,”We fought the Germans for revenge, the Russians for fun.” (I don’t remember the exact words but it was like that.)
Whatever
If it were not for Hitlers tremendous losses in the winter of 42 trying to take Stalingrad. WWII may have been far different
The Russians were allies in defeating the Nazis
Bkmrk.
Not a dimes worth of difference.