Monument to General Zygmunt Berling will be moved to a museum

The monument to the commander of the First Polish Army was unveiled in 1985 at a junction connecting Wał Miedzeszyński and Łazienkowska Thoroughfare. General Berling was a very controversial figure. His opponents underscore that during his cooperation with NKVD, he supported the idea of Poland as a future Soviet satellite state and passed death sentences onto deserters and soldiers of independent underground forces. According to his supporters, Berling managed to save many of his compatriots from Soviet labor camps.

After 1989, the monument was desecrated with red paint a number of times.

Decision about moving the monument has been taken based on the so-called decommunization law. The spokesperson of the Praga Południe district office Andrzej Opala informed that the district is bound to remove the monument by end of the year. It will be transported to the Polish History Museum which is being built at the Warsaw Citadel.

The voivode's decision is unambiguous, we must move the monument, yet we still need to find funds to finance this operation," said Opala. He added that despite the relatively low cost of such moving, estimated at 50,000 zlotys, the district must first focus at priority expenditure, such as construction of school facilities on Gocław.

Opala said that local government's project assumes creating a garden square to replace the monument. He also encouraged residents to send their own proposals on how to use the soon to be free space.

Pursuant to the so-called decommunization law, Warsaw dismantled the Monument of Gratitude to Soldiers of the Red Army in the Skaryszewski Park.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvnwarszawa.pl