Monument to 22 Red Army soldiers

The modern monument is located on the mound , which is called among the locals " Polish hill ". The monument is a grassy rectangle measuring 6 x 12 meters, in the middle of which is an Orthodox cross made of stainless steel 3 meters high ^[1] . The back cross is supported by an angled stone slab. In front of the memorial there is a granite tablet with inscriptions in Polish and Russian (the Russian version of the original tablet inscription contained a grammatical error and a typo; currently, the second version of the memorial tablet is presented in front of the monument, which indicates in Polish and Russian that in which the Red Army soldiers died, it was not for Ossuv , but near Ossuv , in addition, a clarification was added that parts of the Red Army marched to Warsaw ):

“Tu spoczywa 22 żołnierzy 235 i 236 Pułku Strzelców 79 Brygady Armii Czerwonej, którzy idąc na Warszawę polegli w boju pod Ossowem w dniach 14 i 15 sierpnia 1920 r.”
“22 soldiers of 235 and 236 rifle regiments of 79 brigades of the Red Army are buried here, who marching to Warsaw fell in battle near Ossuv on August 14 and 15, 1920.” ^{[2] [3]}

In the first version of the project of the Polish sculptor Marek Moderau, on the back of the monument behind the cross there were 22 equally spaced bayonet-shaped posts, set at an angle to the side of the cross and equally spaced from each other ^[4] . As conceived by the author, these columns symbolized 22 dead Red Army soldiers. After protests by the Polish public and acts of vandalism, these columns at the end of October 2010 were replaced by upright columns for lamps ^[5] . The inscription was also changed - the phrase “którzy idąc na Warszawę” (“which are going to Warsaw”) was removed from the Polish version.

Until 2007, the mound was in an abandoned state and was little known even to local residents. In 2000, archaeologists made two assumptions. According to one version, the mound was a Mongol-Tatar burial, another version suggested that the fallen soldiers of the Red Army were buried here during the battle for Ossuv. In April 2007, archaeological excavations began as part of the creation of the Ossuv - Gateway to the Battle of Warsaw 1920 cultural and historical complex. In September 2007, the theory was confirmed that human remains were buried in the mound. In May 2008, excavations were carried out by archaeologists of the National Heritage Institute . Research was carried out with a georadar , which showed that the mound was repeatedly subjected to illegal excavations. In the period from September 8 to 12, two mass grave sites with 22 human remains were discovered, fragments of English uniforms, the Red Star badge and the Orthodox cross ^[6] . The discovered human remains were collected and buried in a grave on the mound ^[7] . The grave was entered in the register of military graves of the Masovian Voivodeship .

In 2008, the idea of ​​creating a monument was supported by the speaker of the Polish Sejm Bronislaw Komorowski , who invited the Russian ambassador Vladimir Grinin to the future ceremony of opening the monument, which was planned for August 15, 2010 ^[6] .

In June 2010, work began on the construction of the monument, which was held by the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom under the leadership of the Polish historian Andrzej Kunert . The project was developed by the Polish sculptor Marek Moderau .

On July 15, 2010, Andrzej Coupert announced that the Polish president’s administration is considering inviting the opening ceremony of the monument to the new president Bronislaw Komorowski and Russian ambassador Alexander Alekseev . The opening of the monument was planned on August 15, 2010 , on the Day of the Polish Army.

On August 13, 2010, the Russian program Vremya Novostei announced the upcoming opening of the monument as a sign of reconciliation between the Polish and Russian peoples. The program said that in Poland after the Soviet-Polish war, about 130 thousand Red Army soldiers were captive, half of whom died in prisoner of war camps ^[8] . This figure provoked a negative reaction in the Polish media, the meaning of which boiled down to the assertion that the Russian authorities were trying to create their own “Katyn” in Poland and level the Katyn crime by erecting a monument in Ossuv. On the same day, the monument in the Polish media began to be called "Bolshevik."

On the planned opening day, a rally of protesters gathered near the monument, with whom Andrzej Coupert argued for two hours, asking them to disperse. Active protests forced Andrzej Cupert to announce the postponement of the ceremony ^[9] , ^[10] , ^[11] . At the same time, a car with the Russian ambassador turned around a few hundred meters from the monument in the opposite direction.

On August 15, 2010, the monument was subjected to the act of vandalism for the first time: three red stars were painted on the plaque ^[12] .

On August 27, 2010, the Krakow organization of veterans sent an open letter to Donald Tusk with a request to remove the bayonet-shaped posts and transfer the cross to the mountain of crosses in Grabarka ^[13] . On August 31, 2010, the local council expressed indignation that the monument was erected without coordination with the local population.

On September 17, 2010, the monument was again subjected to an act of vandalism. On the memorial plate was inscribed in red paint "Katyn 2010" ^[14] .

Numerous protests and acts of vandalism forced to remove bayonet-shaped columns and announce a new date for the opening ceremony in early November. The reconstruction of the monument ended in the last days of October.

On November 2, 2010, the re-opening of the monument took place, which was not attended by senior officials. The ceremony was modest and took place without incident.

• Mateusz Piskorski " The graves of the Red Army in Poland were not treated in a Christian way "