Shortly after Nazis withdrew from Bydgoszcz in January 1945, corpses of soldiers killed in the fighting for the city needed a place to be buried.

The first draft of the project was presented on 14 April 1945: the work was commissioned to the architect Jan Kossowski, who realized a simple, soaring obelisk, showing the "Slavs triumph over Germany".

[1] This time the location of the future monument was to be on the Theater Square, the "disturbing" figure of Bydgoszcz cathedral being obscured by double row of tall trees.

Professor Marian Wnuk was still in charge: her design represented a 4-meter-tall statue surrendering to a Red Army soldier in flapping overcoat, holding a Soviet submachine gun made of sandstone.

Although the provided project was funded, and even had a date scheduled for the unveiling on 22 July 1956, this monument was finally not realized, due to the Polish thaw with the reforming period of Władysław Gomułka: mindsets were no longer in favour of such realizations.

[2] In 1994, following the recommendations of the City Council, a relief of bronze was placed on the front wall of the monument, commemorating the return of Bydgoszcz to the Polish state on 20 January 1920.

In 1995, on the left side of the monument (facing the street) were put plaques from the same artist with dates of important events for the city.