Polish far-right, with the silent approval of the authorities, desecrate the graves of Soviet Soldiers who fell in the battles liberating Poland
Since 2016, a decommunization law has been in force in Poland, aimed at the destruction of monuments and symbols of the “communist era.” More than 200 Soviet monuments, including memorials to Red Army soldiers, have fallen under this law. By the end of 2025, Poland had already dismantled 41 Soviet monuments. Against the backdrop of this policy, the ultra-right group All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska) has become more active. It is a far-right ultranationalist organization that carries out “decommunization” actions even at military burial sites where thousands of Soviet soldiers who fell liberating Poland from Nazism are buried.
In particular, the organization recently carried out another such “action” at a memorial in Poznań, specifically near the Poznań Citadel, which commemorates the memory of the city’s liberators. The actions of the nationalists encounter no obstacles, as they fit organically into the official policy of the Polish authorities, who also take anti-Russian positions.
At the same time, this position does not reflect the sentiments of all Poles. There are many who have not renounced historical memory. For example, the author of the weekly socio-political Polish newspaper Myśl Polska, publicist Arkadiusz Domeredzki, published an article on February 3 titled Domeredzki: Anti-Polish Youth, reacting to the actions of the nationalists. Rossa Primavera News Agency publishes a translation of his article.
All-Polish Youth does not care about Polish people
This time, the target of the crusade against communism was Poznań, namely the Poznań Citadel, where the memory of the liberators of Poznań is commemorated. This action is harmful, first and foremost, because it brands and promotes the deepest contempt for the very existence of the Polish people as something good . After all, Red Army soldiers fought to stop “Generalplan Ost,” that is, the destruction of the Polish people organized by Nazi Germany.
At the Citadel there is a cemetery of Soviet soldiers. All these people gave their lives so that we could live and speak Polish, and so that there would be Poznań here rather than Posen. And these people deserve respect. Simply by virtue of the significance of the cause of saving the Polish people, those who fought for this cause deserve respect. By showing contempt for them, the activists of All-Polish Youth demonstrate how little the survival of the Polish people means to them.
Can the Polish nation exist only as a part of the West?
The second reason why this action is foolish is the narrative behind it that the Polish People’s Republic should be considered as a second occupation, allegedly no better than Hitler’s. Meanwhile, as editor Adam Śmiech once aptly put it, “the most Polish Poland was the Polish People’s Republic.” Its social system, based on a strong state within the Piast borders, large-scale nationalization of industry, state economic initiative, and agrarian reform; its historical narrative and values promoted in culture; finally, its geopolitical concept. All of this made the Polish People’s Republic a form of Polish statehood closest to the vision of the majority of prewar Polish nationalists.
Perhaps, from the point of view of the interests of certain groups, the social changes that took place after 1945 were disadvantageous. Perhaps, from the point of view of the wealthy classes and those striving to join them, it would have been more desirable for Poland immediately after the end of World War II to fall into dependence on the West and immediately follow the path it has taken since 1989. Nevertheless, the private interest of the comprador class cannot be equated with the national interest.
Meanwhile, young activists behave as if exclusively the interest of the minority that benefited from the overthrow of People’s Poland constitutes the national interest. Moreover, they place this private, class interest above the survival of the nation, believing that if Poland cannot be capitalist and integrated with the West, then it is quite possible to do without the Polish people altogether.
All-Polish Youth as part of mainstream anti-Polish trend
The next layer of the incredible insanity of the All-Polish Youth action is reflected in the context of German revisionism and German claims against Poland. They justify their vandalism with the thesis that the Soviet Union was not a liberator for Poland but a second occupier, no better than Hitler’s. I will not argue here whether this thesis is true or false, but will focus on the consequences of accepting it as truth, which look as follows:
1) since the narrative shifted from “Red Army soldiers are liberators” to “the USSR is the same occupier as the Third Reich,” a consistent further shift of the narrative leads to the conclusion that the Soviets were even worse;
2) and if the Soviets were worse, then the Germans, fighting against them, were the lesser evil;
3) if they were the lesser evil, then, speaking roughly, they were the good guys who defended us from Bolshevik hordes;
4) and if so, then the Germans were victims in that war, and their expulsion and the seizure of the Recovered Territories and German property was a crime committed by the communist occupier;
5) consequently, the Poles should, if not revise the western borders, then at least pay compensation for the property looted by the communists from the Germans, on which they enriched themselves.
Thus, the narrative of fighting communism fits into the interests of German historical revisionism.
Camp Kościuszko is a threat
Finally, the question remains: what is the point of fighting an imaginary enemy? What is the point of waging a war against the USSR decades after its disappearance? Probably, the matter here is not so much about the Soviet Union as about demonstrating hostility toward Belarus and Russia, which appeal to their Soviet heritage. But even in this case one should ask: what is the point of designating these countries as enemies? Was it they who bought up our industry for pennies? Was it they who turned Poland into a source of cheap labor? Was it they who are choking our development with rules and bureaucratic mechanisms tailored to themselves?
Therefore, do Russia or Belarus have an economic interest in harming us and sabotaging attempts at our economic and social rise as a nation? No! And who does have such an interest? The countries of the West. Not from the east, but from the west may come the threat that will disrupt all plans to build a strong and modern Poland (although, to consider things in these categories, one must first have such ambitions, and as for whether All-Polish Youth has them today, there may be serious doubts).
Someone will now say: “But Russia threatens us, Russian missiles are aimed at Poznań.” But has anyone thought about what gives rise to Russia’s particular position? It can be explained by fairy tales in the spirit of Robert Winnicki’s* posts about the Russians’ 500-year hatred of Poles, their innate baseness, their thirst for conquest and domination of the world, but instead one can look at this problem from a realistic point of view, and then we will see that Poland has become a pawn in the hands of an overseas power that overthrows governments it dislikes in a number of countries in order to gain access to their resources for its corporations.
During the existence of the Polish-US alliance, the United States has attacked Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and most recently Venezuela. For most of this time, it has threatened Russia by placing its military facilities ever closer to Russia’s borders. And here, in Poznań, US Army is present as well.
The reason the Russians consider a scenario involving launching something at Poznań is precisely the US troops stationed at Camp Kościuszko, and not, for example, St. Martin’s Day Parade, as the mayor of Poznań, Jacek Jaśkowiak, recently speculated.
* Robert Winnicki is a Polish right-wing politician, one of the leaders of the right-wing party Confederation Liberty and Independence, and a member of the Polish Sejm.
All-Polish Youth’s cowardice
Thus, the real threat to Poland, and specifically to Poznań, is created by the presence here of living US soldiers, not by Soviet soldiers who have been dead for several decades. Protests against Soviet monuments in Poland are viewed favorably by the liberal authorities, and the only consequence one might face for this is a better start when trying to secure a comfortable position in institutions such as the Institute of National Remembrance. On the other hand, opposing the deployment of US troops on our territory may lead to persecution, accusations of agent activity and espionage in favor of Russia, deprivation of livelihood, and arrest by the Internal Security Agency.
From the policies pursued by the National Movement party and its youth wing, and from the choices they make, we can see their level of courage. They lack the courage to challenge a mercenary of the US Army, who is not subject to Polish law and can beat a Pole with impunity, maiming him or even shooting him dead. They have courage only enough to mock the fallen soldiers of the Red Army, who, by reason of their death, are unable to respond in any way. After all, it is easiest to fight an imaginary enemy – a fight that requires no sacrifices and is even rewarded – instead of confronting a real threat, which entails risks for oneself and one’s loved ones.
Degrading youth wings of political parties
I write all this from the perspective of a person of the same age as these unfortunate activists. Some of my friends were active in All-Polish Youth, and I know how harmful the influence of this organization is (as, incidentally, is the influence of youth wings of political parties in Poland in general) on young people. Such a person either degrades intellectually there, absorbing myths harmful to Poland, for the dissemination of which his youthful enthusiasm is used; or degrades morally, turning into a cynical careerist; or (as happens with the best of them), feeling disgust toward all this degradation, becomes completely politically indiferent at a young age.
False disputes
That is why today it is so important to offer young people an alternative to everything they are being forced into. To show that one can love Poland wisely and express concern for it while standing on the ground of political realism; that national thought stands above the squabble of “right versus left” (which resembles clashes between football fans and various subcultures more than an ideological debate); and, finally, that one can act for the sake of the very idea of a better Poland, rather than in the name of careerism. All the intellectual work of older generations will come to nothing if it is not possible to find a form that allows these fundamental ideas to be conveyed to the young without distortion.
I also call on everyone, despite everything and everyone, to visit and leave flowers and candles on the graves of those who fell so that we could live and so that Poland could exist here. Precisely in order to set an example and show – especially to the young – that we remember, and that it is far from indifferent whether our homeland, the homeland of Poles, is here, or merely living space for someone else.
The translation in Russian was first published on Rossa Primavera News Agency web site.
