Workers in Poland have dismantled one of the country's best-known monuments to Russian soldiers who died freeing Poland from Nazi occupation.

The monument to the Red Army's defeat of the Third Reich and pushing the German forces back through Eastern Europe was torn down today.

Polish authorities began a drive to move communist-era symbols from public places to museums and this has has seen the statue to fallen Soviet soldiers in Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw, removed.

New laws in Poland have cracked-down monuments to soldiers of the communist-era or expressing any gratitude or any promotion of totalitarian ideology.

When the demolition began the park employees called the police, who arrived, checked the worker's permits and allowed them to carry on with removing the structure, reported the Russian media.

Workers dismantle one of the best-known monuments expressing gratitude to the Soviet Red Army for freeing Poland from the German occupation

Heavy equipment taking apart the communist-era monument in Warsaw, Poland, after new laws banned the promotion of totalitarian ideology

Polish authorities began a drive to move communist-era symbols from public places and to museums and this has has seen the statute in Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw, torn down

A Warsaw police commandant said: 'They checked all the documents and permits for the dismantling of the monument and went.'

The dismantling is scheduled to end on Thursday and the park will be landscaped to create a walkway.

Part of the Soviet monument will transfer to the Cold War Museum, near Szczecin, in the West Pomeranian Province of Poland.

Monuments erected during the reign of Joseph Stalin on the Skaryszewski Park were dedicated to Soviet soldiers who died in September 1944 during the battle for Warsaw Praga.

It was built in the burial place of 26 soldiers who died on September 13, 1944.

Names of buildings, funds for housing and communal property have all be changed under the new laws introduced in 2009 but stepped up last year to increase the 'decommunisation' of the country.

The statue was built in the burial place of 26 soldiers who died on September 13, 1944, as the Red Army pushed Hitler's forces from the capital of Poland

When the demolition of the monument began park employees were said to have called the police, who inspected the permits and let the workers continue

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the removal of the monument a 're-writing of history'

In 1968, after some renovations to the monument, the remains of the fallen soldiers were transferred to the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw and the monument moved into Skaryszewski Park.

Agnieszka Climb, the representative of the Warsaw city hall, said: 'The dismantled monument will transfer to the Institute of national memory.'

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the dismantling of the monuments the 'rewriting of history'.

It comes as Israel marked the 70th anniversary of its first diplomatic mission as a new nation today with a re-enactment in the city that hosted the outpost in Warsaw.

Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari, flanked by other diplomats, hung the Israeli flag from a balcony of the historic Bristol Hotel in central Warsaw.

Just as in 1948, a small crowd on the street below applauded and sang the Israeli national anthem.

In 1968 the remains of the dead Russian soldiers were transferred to the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw and the monument moved into Skaryszewski Park

Part of the Soviet monument will transfer to the Cold War Museum, near Szczecin, in the West Pomeranian Province of Poland

The removal of the monument came as Israel paid tribute to its first diplomatic mission as a new nation outside of its homeland in Warsaw

Israel chose the Bristol as the seat for its mission because the hotel was one of the few buildings that had not been destroyed by Germany during World War II.

The Israeli Embassy in Poland is in a leafy residential neighbourhood.

During the ceremony, embassy officials showed a brief video of the 1948 ceremony establishing the mission.

Holocaust survivor Marian Kalwary attended today's re-enactment of an event he witnessed as an 18-year-old at his mother's urging.

The Star of David on the Israeli flag he saw raised with pride that day was the same symbol that Warsaw's Jews were forced to wear a few years earlier while confined to a ghetto a few blocks away and sent to death camps by Nazi German forces.

The Communist-era built Palace of Culture and Science building in central Warsaw, Poland, now has a cinema inside

Kalwary said his mother was very moved by the ceremony recognising Israel's place on the world stage, describing it as a moment he could never forget.

The anniversary re-enactment follows efforts by Poland and Israel to repair their typically strong ties after a Polish law that sought to regulate what could be said publicly about the Holocaust caused tension early this year.

A presidential adviser read out a letter of greeting from President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday.