The monument situated in the city centre is a reminder of the post war history of Olsztyn. Earlier, it bore the name of the Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army, since it commemorates the march of the Soviet army into Olsztyn in January 1945. The monument was unveiled in 1954, and was enrolled into the relics registry in 1993.

The author of the design was Xavery Dunikowski – a sculptor who survived the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The monument was built of stone elements of the Hindenburg Mausoleum, which collapsed in 1945. It commemorated the Battle of Tannenberg.

Two pylons of the monument, according to its creator, were to symbolise an unclosed triumphal arch. A figure of a Soviet soldier was carved in one of them. In the other, there were carved bas-reliefs presenting battle imagery and the symbols of the Socialist accomplishments.

Despite the attempts to move the monument (called by the people of Olsztyn, “the gallows”) into some other place, it still stands on Xawery Dunikowski square (formerly, the Red Army square), opposite the building of Olsztyn Regierungsbezirk in which the Marshal’s Office and the Voivodeship Administrative Court have their seats nowadays.