A monument to Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky has been decapitated by vandals after it was stolen from a cemetery in the Polish city of Legnica.
The statue of Rokossovsky, who commanded the Soviet troops which liberated Poland in 1944-45, was stolen from its pedestal within a local exposition in a military cemetery on Thursday night. A day later, the 600kg bronze statue was found in a field outside of the town with its head missing.
Shameful Polish war against #WWII memorials continues. Even cemeteries are not a safe place for relocated monuments.Another act vandalism has been committed in ??Legnica against sculpture of Soviet, Polish Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, Chief Commander of the ??Legion of Merit. pic.twitter.com/oca2Aj9gtb
According to local media, police are now searching for the perpetrators.
The monument to Warsaw-born Rokossovsky was first erected in Legnica in 1978 and renovated in 1998. The reasons behind the act of vandalism are yet to be established.
Soviet monuments often become a target for mistreatment in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. On several occasions, they have suffered not at the hands of vandals, but of the local authorities themselves.
In April 2020, a monument to Marshal Ivan Konev, who commanded Soviet troops liberating Prague from the Nazis in May 1945, was removed from its pedestal in the Czech capital.
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