Russia plans monument to soldier killed in Ukraine war at site of demolished memorial to exiled Poles

Yakutsk’s chief architect, Semyon Sergeyev, told the Yakutsk-based news outlet YSIA that a monument to Dmitry Yegorov — a participant in the war in Ukraine killed in 2023 — will be erected at the intersection of Poyarkova and Kurashova streets. The site previously held a memorial to exiled Poles.

“We are currently preparing the site and the foundation for the monument. The contract for this work was signed last year. The concrete work and cladding are nearly complete. The monument has already been made in Krasnoyarsk using non-budgetary funds; the question of purchasing and delivering it is now being resolved. As soon as it arrives, we will install it immediately,” Sergeyev said.

Yegorov volunteered for the war in 2022, according to the agency. He served in the rifle battalion of the 155th Guards Separate Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet of the Eastern Military District. According to the official account, in September 2023 Yegorov “repelled a Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive” near the settlement of Novomayorske in the Donetsk region. He was wounded and later died. Vladimir Putin awarded Yegorov the title of Hero of Russia.

A memorial to exiled Poles had stood at the site since 2001. It consisted of five stones arranged in a semicircle, bearing plaques with the names of Polish scholars and researchers who had been exiled to Yakutia and subsequently made significant contributions to the study of the language and culture of the Yakut people. The stones bore the names of Waclaw Sieroszewski, Eduard Pekarsky, Jan Chersky, and Alexander Chekanovsky. One stone was dedicated separately to the victims of exile and repression.

In the spring of 2023, a fence went up around the memorial, and the plaques bearing the names of the Poles soon disappeared. The regional department for the protection of historical and cultural monuments said the memorial was not a protected cultural heritage site. That September, the stones bearing the names of the exiles were removed to an unknown location.

In April 2026, the Katyn memorial complex in the Smolensk region opened an exhibition called Desyat vekov polskoy rusofobii “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia.” The Katyn memorial stands on the site of the burial of around 4,000 Polish officers shot by the NKVD in 1940. The Russian Military Historical Society said the exhibition was dedicated to the hatred of the Polish state elite toward Russia and the Russian people across various periods of history, and how that hatred manifested in concrete actions.