In addition, Joseph Stalin had purposefully stopped the Soviet advance through Polish territory just short of Warsaw immediately after the outbreak of the uprising, and he not only refused to aid the insurgents but also refused to allow planes of the western allies to land and refuel on Soviet-held territory to ensure that only very limited supplies could be delivered to Warsaw.

[1][3][4] As a result, the uprising was brutally crushed by the Germans over a period of 63 days while the Soviets watched on (even after they had finally resumed their offensive and capturing the right bank the River Vistula in mid-September 1944).

As a result, the significance of the uprising was downplayed for many years after the war, and the Home Army and the wartime Polish government-in-exile were condemned by communist propaganda.

Such political factors made official memorialisation of the Warsaw Uprising impossible for decades, and subsequent debates about the form and location of the monument further delayed the project.

The larger, elevated element shows a group of insurgents actively engaged in combat, running from the artistic vision of a collapsing building, represented by a more abstract composition.

[3][5][7] The smaller element shows insurgents descending into a manhole, a reference to the use of Warsaw's sewer system by the insurgents to move across German-held territory during the uprising and specifically to the evacuation of 5300 resistance fighters from Warsaw's Old Town to the city centre at the beginning of September 1944, a five-hour journey which started from Krasiński Square.