Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday that the dismantling of bas-reliefs depicting the Virtuti Militari war order and the September 1939 Campaign Cross at the Polish War Cemetery in Katyn was “a disgraceful act.”
“These are shameful actions in relation to what happened there, to the blood that remains in that soil, to the elite of the Polish nation,” he told a news conference, calling the symbols “remembrance for Poland, and a pang of conscience for Russia.”
The removal followed an order by prosecutors in Russia’s Smolensk region, who said the plaques violated rules on cultural heritage and commemorating victory in the Great Patriotic War, the official Russian term for World War II.
The move was pushed by Valery Kuznetsov, deputy speaker of the Smolensk regional Duma from the Communist Party, which continues to deny Soviet responsibility for the Katyn Massacre. Similar Polish symbols were removed from monuments at the Mednoye cemetery in May 2025.
Around 4,421 Polish officers and cadets lie buried at Katyn, part of a broader crime in which about 22,000 Polish citizens – including army officers, police and civilians from the pre-war elite – were murdered by the NKVD in spring 1940 on orders from top Soviet leaders, including Josef Stalin.
For decades, Soviet authorities blamed Nazi Germany before the Soviet Union acknowledged responsibility in 1990.
The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said it “strongly condemns the act of devastation” at Katyn and called the destruction of places of remembrance “conduct unworthy of civilized nations.” It urged Russian regional authorities to restore the bas-reliefs, calling them an integral part of Polish identity and historical memory.
IPN recalled that the Virtuti Militari, created in 1792, is one of the oldest existing military decorations, honoring outstanding bravery, while the September 1939 Campaign Cross commemorates the defense of Poland at the start of World War Two. Together they symbolize “the continuity of Poles’ struggle for freedom,” it said, rejecting Russian claims the awards are “Russophobic.”
In a joint statement, the head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression and the president of the Federation of Katyn Families demanded the restoration of Polish symbols on Katyń cemeteries and accountability for what they called an “act of barbarism.”
Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage also condemned the removal as “barbarism,” calling it an attack on the memory of Poles murdered by the NKVD and on values that “should unite, not divide.”
The ministry noted that Poland maintains 1,833 burial sites of Russian soldiers from World War I and World War II, including about 700 Red Army cemeteries, and demanded equal respect for 384 Polish memorial sites on Russian territory.
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Source: PAP