The new monument, unveiled this week, features a sculpture of two soldiers who died in September 2023 while fighting in Ukraine. Local officials first signaled plans to erect the memorial back in May.
It stands on the site of an earlier monument dedicated to Poles and Lithuanians exiled to the region, whose dismantling unfolded in stages: a plaque listing the exiles' names vanished from the site in June 2023, and local authorities later confirmed the entire structure had been taken down.
That memorial had stood since 2002, made up of five boulders engraved with the names of Polish scholars — Wacław Sieroszewski, Edward Piekarski, Jan Czerski and Aleksander Czekanowski — who conducted research on local culture after being exiled to Yakutia. A separate plaque at the site commemorated victims of exile from the 17th to 19th centuries as well as those repressed under Soviet rule in the 20th century.
(jh)
Source: PAP