In March, the Monument to the Soldiers of the Soviet Army painted in blue and yellow. (source: TASR)
Slovakia belongs to Slovaks, not Russians. Russian Occupation 68.
Inscriptions in red such as these and others appeared on the stairs and a sidewalk between the mounds of the Monument to the Soldiers of the Soviet Army, and on a nearby information board in the centre of Košice.
According to the police, the incident happened overnight between Friday and Saturday. Criminal proceedings for damaging someone else's property were initiated.
Painted several times
A final resting place for soldiers who died during the World War II, the monument is owned by the city of Košice, and is registered in the Central List of the Monument Fund.
In recent months, it has been painted over several times. The inscriptions referred to the war in Ukraine.
Just two days after the Russian invasion, Peter Toldi from Košice sprayed the monument in yellow and blue. "To show that we have an open-air museum of communism and (secret police) State Security in the city. That even 30 years after the revolution we still have the symbols of the criminal-totalitarian regime," he explained his actions.
Several other monuments damaged
Artist Peter Kalmus was threatened with up to eight years in prison for cutting down communist symbols from the Košice monument in 2016. In court, Kalmus defended himself by claiming that sickles and hammers are the propaganda of a criminal regime. He was acquitted by the Košice Region Court in February 2019.
Kalmus also made headlines for spraying red paint on the bust of former communist politician Vasil Biľak in the village of Krajná Bystrá, Prešov Region, together with another artist, Ľuboš Lorenz.
In March, the Soviet Army Memorial in the area of the Military Museum in Svidník was also sprayed in blue and yellow.
At the beginning of the month, Slavín, a memorial and military cemetery for fallen Soviet troops in Bratislava, was painted blue and yellow.
Author: Katarína Grécziová
