A monument commemorating Polish and Lithuanian victims of political oppression has been demolished in Russia’s Perm region at the location of the former Galiashor settlement, local Centre for Historic Memory reports.
This was noticed on Friday by locals. It is unknown yet who demolished the monument and when they did it, the Centre says.
The monument was a wooden formation that rested upon a concrete socle. On its sides, 89 names of deported Polish and Lithuanian people who died in Galiashor were written on two metal plates. It was erected near a graveyard where Poles and Lithanians, deported here in the 1930s-1940s, had been buried.
The monument was constructed using private funds, including donations from the people who lived in Galiashor before the locality was settled out. It was located in a forest, away from any active settlements.
“For me, it is completely obvious that the only reason why the monument was destroyed is the ethnicity of the people it was devoted to.
Poland and Lithuania are now considered “unfriendly countries [by Russia’s authorities], therefore everything related to them will be destroyed,” Robert Latypov, the chairman of the Perm branch of Memorial, told Novaya Gazeta.
He also added that the monument was made of concrete and steel reinforcing and was a very firm formation, so either blasting works or specialised machinery had to be used to destroy it. Local authorities have yet to comment on the matter.
