The monument was erected in 1954 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Soviet forces liberating Bulgaria, which had been allied with Nazi Germany in World War II.
On Wednesday, following years of heated debate, workers began to dismantle the 45-meter-high (147-foot) installation, removing the figures at the top, which showed a Soviet soldier holding an automatic rifle, a woman with her child, and a worker.
In a statement (here in Greek), the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) strongly condemns the monument's dismantling. The statement reads:
"The KKE denounces in the most unequivocal way the unacceptable desecration and destruction of the anti-fascist monument in honor of the liberating Red Army in Sofia.
The destruction of the monument, which was installed in 1954, ten years after the liberation of Bulgaria by the Red Army and the armed Bulgarian anti-fascist movement led by the communists, is another "link" in the "chain" of the destruction of similar monuments in many countries of Europe. It is a disaster made by anti-people governments with the "backs" of the EU leading the anti-communist campaign and the unhistorical equation of communism with fascism.
The unacceptable Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the context of capitalist Russia's intra-imperialist conflict with the USA, NATO and the EU, is artfully used together with the unrealistic comparison of the USSR with today's Russia, to "destroy" anti-fascist monuments in many countries of Europe, with the aim of rewriting History, erasing the heroic contribution of the Red Army and the Soviet Union to the crushing of fascism, which is "flesh from flesh" of the capitalist system and was defeated with enormous sacrifices by the first socialist state, the USSR and armed guerrilla movements.
The KKE condemns the specific efforts and calls on the peoples of Europe to react decisively against the specific aims and practice.
History will not be rewritten!
Long live the titanic contribution to humanity of the Red Army!"