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Russia ready to relocate dismantled monument to Soviet general from Poland to Russia

The authorities of the Polish city of Pieniezno dismantled the monument to Chernyakhovsky in mid-September 2015
The monument in Pieniezno (archive) ITAR-TASS/Sergey Medvedev
The monument in Pieniezno (archive)
© ITAR-TASS/Sergey Medvedev

MOSCOW, November 2 /TASS/. The Russian Military Historical Society is preparing papers necessary for relocating a dismantled monument to Soviet WWII military leader Ivan Chernyakhovsky (1906-1945) from Poland to Russia, the Russian Military Historical Society told TASS on Monday.

"We have already warned about the dangers of a creating a precedent for returning Soviet WWII memorials from Eastern Europe (to Russia)," the society’s press service quoted Vladislav Kononov, the society’s executive director, as saying.

"Monuments should stay where they were installed and unveiled in order to preserve history. But in this case the barbaric attitude to Chernyakhovsky’s memory in Poland does not leave us any other choice than to relocate the bas-relief from Poland to Russia," Kononov said adding that he could not think of a better place for the monument than the city of Kaliningrad (former Konigsberg), which used to be part of Eastern Prussia.

"The youngest Red Army general (Chernyakhovsky) died in battles in the territory of Eastern Prussia," Kononov explained.

According to the Russian Military Historical Society, Ivan Chernyakhovsky’s granddaughter Anastasiya Orlova has welcomed the idea of relocating her grandfather’s monument to Kaliningrad.

Ivan Chernyakhovsky, the holder of two Hero of the Soviet Union titles and the youngest general in history, died in February 1945 at the age of 38.

The authorities of the Polish city of Pieniezno dismantled the monument to Chernyakhovsky in mid-September 2015.