In Jersey City, right by the entrance to the PATH train at Exchange Place, there is a wacky statue of a russian dude with a rifle stabbed into his back. What is that all about? Who put that thing there and what is it commemorating?
Thanks.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: The website of the City College of New Jersey has the statement. The statue depicts a Polish soldier.
“The imposing Katyn Forest Massacre Monument stands at the end of Montgomery Street. It was sculpted by Polish-born Andrzej Pitynski of New York. The bronze statue of a soldier–mouth gagged, hands bound, and struck in the back by a bayoneted rifle–stands atop a granite base that holds Katyn soil. It commemorates the massacre of thousands of Polish prisoners by the Soviets in April and May 1940. The Soviet troops had invaded eastern Poland by order of Joseph Stalin. The event led to the partition of Poland and the dissolution of the nation during World War II. The eastside of the pediment has a bronze relief depicting the plight of starving Poles sent to Siberia.”
http://www.njcu.edu/Programs/jchistory/Pages/E_Pages/Exchange_Place.htm
This artist came to the U.S. in 1974, but the statue was there by Sept. 11, 2001, since there are some strking photos of the statue with the smoke from Manhattan billowing overhead. There are a number of other memorials to the Katyn Forest Massacre around the world.