“Illegal” and “immoral”: Russia responded to Warsaw’s demand to return the paintings of the Pushkin Museum

Federation Council Senator Igor Morozov, in an interview with RT, commented on the demands of Polish Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Glinsky - he claims that Russia is obliged to return works of art that were taken out of Poland during World War II.

According to Morozov, the country's authorities have no right to such requests.

“The Polish leadership has no right to demand anything from Russia.

Especially when it comes to the results of the Second World War.

The government of the Soviet Union did everything possible to give Poland a new territory at the expense of East German lands, ”he explained.

The senator stressed that the Soviet Union, unlike other countries, literally saved Poland from starvation by sending trains with provisions there.

“Russia did everything possible in 1945, despite the greatest post-war problems in the Soviet Union, to deliver several trainloads of grain to the Polish people in order to save them from starvation.

And today, the grandchildren of those Poles who survived in incredible conditions, in which neither the UK nor the USA helped them, together with the Anglo-Saxons oppose Russia, support Ukraine with weapons and military personnel in the form of PMCs.

Poland after the war was restored at the expense of part of the reparations transferred to the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the restoration of Polish industry - this was again part of the generous attitude of the Soviet people towards our Slavic brothers, ”he said.

Morozov also recalled that the Soviet secret services managed to prevent a terrorist attack planned in Krakow, and said that "the Poles should be grateful for centuries."

“Krakow by the neo-Nazis, who are now supported by the Poles, was supposed to be blown up and cleaned to the ground.

It was the Soviet secret services who did everything possible to prevent this explosion from taking place.

This act of terrorism against Poland and the Polish people was stopped.

For this, the Poles should be grateful for centuries, but we see the opposite attitude.

Therefore, when the Polish leadership declares some kind of cultural heritage from the Second World War, then let them look into history and learn everything that I said, ”concluded Morozov.

Olga Kovitidi, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, also believes that the statements of the Polish authorities contradict historical truth and pose a threat of confrontation between the two peoples.

“Any statements by the current pro-American Polish administration, which sold Poland’s independence to the Anglo-Americans for 30 pieces of silver, grossly contradict the interests of the Poles themselves and historical truth, creating threats of unnecessary artificial confrontation for our peoples,” the senator assures.

In a conversation with RT, Kovitidi noted that Poland should "forever and ever remember and honor the feat of the Russian soldier who preserved the people of Poland and its statehood."

Special Representative of the President of Russia for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi, in turn, told TASS that the claims for fine art objects made by Warsaw against Russia in the context of the existing relations between the two countries, as well as the call of the Polish authorities to abolish Russian culture, are not only legally unfounded but also immoral.

“In the current conditions of unprecedented sanctions against the Russian Federation, the “cancellation” of Russian culture in Europe, I consider the presentation of such claims by European states to be immoral,” he stressed.

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The ex-minister of culture noted that Russia does not plan to consider Poland's claims.

At the same time, Shvydkoy mentioned that at the end of World War II, the USSR returned a number of cultural objects that belonged to Poland.

Over 27,000 art objects and 20,000 books and other materials were handed over to the Polish authorities in 1956.

On Wednesday, September 14, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and Heritage Piotr Glinski demanded that Russia return seven works of art that were taken out of the country during World War II.

Glinsky stated that hundreds of thousands of other works of art could have been taken from Poland to the Soviet Union.

“In the case of hundreds of thousands of objects lost by Poland as a result of World War II, the trail leads to the Russian Federation and the former Soviet republics,” the minister said, quoted by InoSMI.

However, according to him, due to the inaccessibility of the collections and archives of Russian museums, it is difficult for the Polish authorities to determine the exact number of Polish art treasures located on the territory of Russia.

The Ministry of Culture of Russia reported that there were no official requests from Poland regarding the return of the paintings to the department, RIA Novosti reports.

The department noted that the canvases were brought to the Soviet Union during the implementation of the process of compensatory restitution for the actions of Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II.

Therefore, this issue requires a special solution.

The transfer of cultural property is regulated by the federal law "On cultural property transferred to the USSR as a result of World War II and located on the territory of the Russian Federation."

According to the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Drapeko, Poland does not fall under the norms of the mentioned law.

“These demands are wrong.

We have a special law on restitution about who and in what case we return the trophies, and what they have to prove.

Poland does not fall under the norms of this law, ”she explained in an interview with RT.

Drapeko noted that Russia has more than once fulfilled its obligations by returning a number of items to both Poland and Germany.

“There were cases when Tsarskoye Selo and Gatchina returned things, it was possible to prove it.

But that was during the good years of our friendship with Europe.

And we returned the collection of books to them.

We returned to Germany the stained-glass windows from the church, which we had kept after the war.

There are such cases, and we have provided for this in the legislation, according to which this can happen.

And we ourselves are also looking for our missing paintings,” concluded Drapeko.

This is not the first time that Poland has made claims to Russia regarding cultural objects.

In 2013, a conference was held at the Center for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Accord, during which former Polish Minister Bohdan Zdroevsky noted that the country is trying to return 31 works from abroad, 18 of which are in Russia.

In April 2022, Glinsky even stated that despite the achievements of Russian culture in various fields, it should disappear from public space.