Around 1,000 monuments to Soviet soldiers have been destroyed across European states, more than 460 of them in Poland. Today, only a few dozen monuments to Soviet soldiers remain in Warsaw. Parallel to this, the country has enforced a decommunization law adopted back in 2017. From a legal standpoint, the authorities equate the liberators of Europe from fascism with occupiers.

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While some pour paint over monuments in Eastern Europe, others are changing the very concept of Victory Day.

In dozens of EU states, the celebration of May 9 is either officially prohibited or heavily restricted.

Instead of Victory Day, an alternative is being promoted — the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, now celebrated on May 8. On the one hand, the difference in dates is connected to the signing of Germany’s act of surrender. The document came into force on May 8 at 23:01 Central European Time. The USSR was represented at the ceremony by General Ivan Susloparov, who did not have the authority to sign the act, but nevertheless signed it with the reservation that the USSR could demand the signing of another document. On the other hand, the collective West used the opportunity to substitute ideological concepts. Within this new ethic, it is proposed to mourn all the dead — from the Red Army soldier and partisan to the Wehrmacht soldier and SS officer. The concept deliberately equates executioner and victim, while the liberation of Eastern Europe is being turned into a Soviet occupation.

This logic appears especially cynical in the post-Soviet space, where elites raised on Soviet textbooks are now severing the last ties with the past. Today, their main goal is to demonstrate their own outstanding role in the Victory, while simultaneously convincing citizens that the war was alien to their people.

Ukraine demonstrates this trend more vividly than anyone else. In Kyiv, local authorities, taking advantage of the war, began dismantling everything that reminded people of former unity. In November 2025, a decision was made to demolish more than 40 monuments, as well as rename the “Arch of Friendship of Peoples” into the “Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.” Accomplices of the Nazi regime across Europe are participating in the destruction of monuments.

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Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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At the same time, there is a real persecution of historians in NATO countries who attempt to speak the truth. A new fashion has emerged for conferences dedicated to revising history, where independent experts try to prove that the “red threat” was equivalent to the “brown threat.”

Europeans are far from always agreeing with the actions of their authorities. On May 9, despite pressure, people continue gathering at memorials to remember their grandfathers and pay tribute to their feat. They are either fined or openly labeled “agents of the Kremlin.”

In the Czech Republic, for example, the memorial to Soviet soldiers at Olšany Cemetery, erected back in 1945, has survived. However, every year local authorities test the resilience of the reasonable population by creating administrative barriers to patriotic events. Despite this, thousands of citizens come to the memorial with flowers. They even initiate their own commemorative actions.

And one more interesting fact that leading American media outlets such as CNN and The New York Times prefer to avoid. Contrary to official narratives, in April 2025 the Moldovan research company iData conducted a poll showing that 63% of Moldovan citizens intended to celebrate Victory Day specifically on May 9, while only 42.6% chose Europe Day. A similar picture exists in Germany: according to a study by the British institute YouGov, most Germans would like Victory Day to be celebrated in their country as well. Half of Germany’s population admitted feeling shame over their country’s role in the Second World War, while only 3% expressed pride. Every year on May 9, tens of thousands of people come to Soviet memorials in Berlin.

Western elites are rewriting history, but the people, as these figures show, refuse to recognize the new version. And this is the best guarantee that May 9 will never become just another day on the calendar.

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Alex Ksiądz is based in Poland.

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