09.07.2018

FIDE head calls for the preservation of memorials to Soviet soldiers

The Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Business Patriotism Avanti addressed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with an initiative to buy out and relocate to Russia the memorials to Soviet soldiers stationed on Polish territory. Alternatively, volunteer patrons from Russia should assume all the obligations for their maintenance. Nearly 500 monuments to the Great Patriotic War are under threat of demolition in Poland.

A member of the General Council of Avanti, president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that moral responsibility for the safety of memorials to Soviet soldiers lies on their descendants – the present generation. He said that the initiative can be supported not only by the Russian business community but also by other countries’ citizens.

"This is a worthy cause. It is blasphemous to destroy the memory of those who shed blood and fought for freedom. My grandfather also participated in the liberation of Warsaw, Poland. When I was a little boy, I went over medals for the liberation of Berlin and Warsaw on his uniform. Of course, we – their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – must do everything to preserve the memory of this war and never forget how our relatives liberated humanity from fascism.
Therefore, these monuments do not just have to be preserved but to become a reminder of those terrible years when fascism could spread over the whole world. I think this initiative will be supported not only by the Russians," Ilyumzhinov said.

 16.08.2017