Symon - Musician Monument Defiled By Swastika (Photo) :: Charter'97 :: News

A monument to Symon – Muzyka (Symon-Musician) stands in the center of Minsk, between Kamarouski market and Philharmonic Hall. A swastika appeared on the plinth last week. But it could be seen there on Monday still.

“We are not responsible for monuments!” a reporter of “KP v Belarusi” was told in the house maintenance and repair office of Savetski district of Minsk. “We are responsible for buildings and territory”.

“But monuments are situated on your territory”

“No, we are not responsible for them!”

Representatives of the department of historical and cultural heritage and restoration (Belarusian Culture Ministry) told to call the Culture Department of Minsk

“We are responsible only for memorial plates!” told representatives of the city culture department.

As it turned out, architecture committee or Culture Ministry are not in charge of the state of monuments as well.

Only in the culture department of Minsk city executive committee got interested by the information about the accident. The head of culture department if Minsk city executive committee promised to fix the problem, though City Auto Roads Repairing organization is in charge of washing monuments.

The City Auto Roads Repairing organization (Gorremavtodor) representative said:

“A swastika? Well what of it? We haven’t removed it, because there hasn’t been a demand for it. We shall clean it after receiving a request”.

By the way, the complex of monuments on Yakub Kolas Square (Symon-Muzyka, Yakub Kolas and Granddad Talash) is considered to be an informal symbol of anti-fascists, and sometimes they gather here.

Photo by svaboda.org