The first Monument of Gratitude to the Soldiers of the Red Army was erected in
Sanok in late 1944 or early 1945. It was built near another memorial, as Nazi authorities had established a monument in 1941 to honor German soldiers who died during the capture of the
Molotov Line in June 1941, at the start of the
German invasion of the Soviet Union. The inscription read:
"Zur Erinnerung an den 22. Juni 1941 Festungs-Pionierstab 24 Vorm. Oberbaustab 33. 1940-1942". The Soviet monument incorporated a dome from a Soviet bunker in Krzywuła near Lesko. After the war, the metal letters of the German inscription were removed. This monument was dismantled in 1957. From August 1944,
Adam Mickiewicz Hill became the site of initial burials of Soviet soldiers. The deceased were buried in shallow, disorganized coffins, with
blood plasma leaking from them. The graves were marked with wooden memorials resembling miniature oil derricks topped with five-pointed stars. The markers were painted red, while those for Muslim soldiers were painted green. This war cemetery was located on the hillside above the current monument's site. In 1945, a monument was erected as an integral part of this necropolis. The monument was intended to express gratitude for the alleged liberation of Sanok from the
German occupation. The initial Monument of Gratitude to the Soldiers of the Red Army was established in 1947. Subsequently, an obelisk was erected in 1951 at the site of a military burial, commemorating Soviet soldiers who died in frontal battles in 1944. The monument was clad with black marble slabs taken from the . Four plaques bore inscriptions in Polish and Russian. A
red star was placed at the top of the monument. In 1952 and 1953, the bodies of Soviet soldiers were exhumed and transferred to a designated section of the
Central Cemetery on Rymanowska Street. Rallies were held in front of the monument to commemorate the anniversary of the
Polish Committee of National Liberation, the formation of the Red Army, the Soviet Army,
Victory Day, the German invasion of Poland on 1 September,
1 May, the anniversaries of Sanok's liberation from German occupation, and the
October Revolution. The monument's reconstruction was carried out through community efforts. In late 1976, work began on a new monument. A plaster model was created, and the monument was forged from copper sheet, with copper scrap collected from schools for this purpose. The project was led by from the
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in
Kraków. The monument, made of patinated copper sheet, was designed by , , and . The monument was erected in 1977 at the site of the previous one. In 1977, a medal designed by Wojciech Firek was minted. Its obverse bore the inscription "In memory of the soldiers of the Red Army who fell in the battles for the liberation of Sanok", and the reverse featured an outline of the Sanok Monument of Gratitude with the text "Sanok 5 XI 1977". Following Poland's political changes in January 1990, the part of the inscription referring directly to the Soviet state (specifically "Red Army") was removed, along with the red star, and the inscription on the pedestal was changed to: "In memory of the soldiers who fell in the battles for the liberation of Sanok". In the 1990s, letters from the inscription began to disappear. After the revitalization of this part of the city, the inscription was fully removed. In late 2015, the city authorities announced plans to relocate the monument to the . On 5 July 2016, the Sanok City Council passed a resolution to transfer the monument to the Kraków Branch of the
Institute of National Remembrance. In the vote, 16 councilors supported the resolution, four abstained, and , president of the Sanok branch of the , argued for keeping the monument in place. On 15 September 2016, the monument was dismantled. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Maria Zakharova commented on the dismantling of monuments in Poland, stating that "Moscow will not leave this without a response". == References ==