Its historical “truth”: why Poland invites Russia to mark only some dates of the Second World War

Polish authorities are awaiting the arrival of a high-ranking delegation from Russia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation by the Soviet soldiers of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Auschwitz. This was announced on August 25 by the head of the Polish President’s administration Krzysztof Szchersky.

“We expect a senior Russian delegation to be on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in January. We hope that we will be able to receive such a Russian delegation in Poland, as it was during the previous anniversaries of the liberation of the camp, ”the Polish Radio official quoted the official as saying.

At the same time, Shchersky emphasized that the Auschwitz Museum, not the Polish authorities, would issue invitations to these events.

In the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, which is also often called Auschwitz, in the gas chambers and crematoria during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis destroyed Jews, Soviet prisoners of war and representatives of the Polish intelligentsia. According to historians, between 1.5 and 2 million people died in this concentration camp.

The Auschwitz camp complex was liberated by soldiers of the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Selective Invitations

Krzysztof Shchersky spoke about Russia after journalists asked about the reasons for the absence of representatives of the Russian Federation on the list of invitees to participate in events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 2019. According to the official, such a decision was made by President Andrzej Duda.

“The president decided to invite the EU, NATO and the Eastern Partnership. Russia does not participate in any of these three organizations and, therefore, does not participate in these celebrations, ”Shchersky explained.

He told reporters that about 250 guests from all over the world will arrive in Warsaw, including presidents, prime ministers, parliamentarians, foreign ministers, defense ministers, as well as special emissaries from European royal families.

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“They will all be guests of the president during these holidays here in Warsaw,” the head of the Polish presidential administration added.

In turn, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Polish government, Jacek Sasin, said that he considers the presence of the Russian delegation at the events in Warsaw “inappropriate” because of the conflict in Ukraine, which Poland traditionally blames for the occurrence of Moscow.

“It would be inappropriate to celebrate the anniversary of armed aggression against Poland with the participation of a leader who today acts in this way towards his neighbor,” Sasin said in an interview with Polish Radio.

Senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vadim Volobuev believes that, despite the obvious key role of the USSR in the victory over fascist Germany, the purpose of such statements from Poland is to prove a different historical “truth” to the modern Russian leadership.

“The current Polish leadership makes a strict demand that Russia recognize its alleged responsibility for the outbreak of World War II on a par with Germany and agree to equate communism with fascism. Russia, naturally, will not go for it, ”the expert noted in an interview with RT.

War with memory

Poland has consistently pursued a policy of historical revisionism regarding the exploits of Red Army soldiers during World War II. In an interview with Izvestia, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev said that over 420 Soviet monuments have been demolished in the country over the past twenty years.

In addition, in 2017, Poland adopted amendments to the law on decommunization, providing for the removal from public space until March 31, 2018 of all memorial objects that “propagandize communism” and are outside the territory of military graves.

• Monument of Thanks to the soldiers of the Soviet Army in Warsaw. Archive photo
• Reuters
• © Kacper Pempel

“Monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators are also included in this category. According to the current Polish historical policy, they allegedly did not liberate the country, but occupied it, and these monuments symbolize “Soviet domination in Poland in the post-war period,” the diplomat said.

According to Andreev, Warsaw will not publish official information on the number of demolished and remaining Soviet monuments. But, according to the list compiled by the Russian Embassy and the Polish Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom in 1997, there were 561 such monuments outside burial sites.

In the summer and autumn of 2018, the Russian embassy and consulates general in Poland conducted an audit - at that time, 134 monuments remained.

“The Polish authorities defiantly ignore the protests of the Russian side and do not hide the calculations that after the demolition of the monuments is completed the issue will be closed and the topic will gradually disappear,” Andreev added.

Sobibor without Russia

Another example of Poland's use of the history of World War II for unfriendly attacks against Russia was the situation around the museum in the former Nazi camp Sobibor.

In 2013, Russia was invited to take part in the reconstruction of the museum, created on the site of the Nazi death camp Sobibor, operating in Poland from 1942 to 1943. According to the calculations of historians, from the hands of the Nazis killed from 150 to 250 thousand Jews. The camp was closed by the Germans and destroyed after the uprising of prisoners, led by a Red Army officer Alexander Pechersky.

The initiators of the project were Poland, Israel, the Netherlands and Slovakia. The renewed museum was supposed to open in 2020. In Moscow, they responded positively to the proposal to take part in the reconstruction, but Poland began to hinder Poland in every possible way.

In July 2017, Warsaw officially announced that work in the museum would be carried out without the participation of the Russian Federation. This decision was criticized in Moscow. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called him an example of "historical amnesia."

“We consider the decision of the international steering committee responsible for the construction of the renovated museum on the site of the former Nazi death camp Sobibor not to allow Russia to participate in the project as a glaring fact of historical amnesia,” the diplomat said.

Poland itself said that the responsibility for the refusal lies not only with Warsaw. According to Vitold Washchikovsky, who was then the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, such decisions are the responsibility of the international committee that runs Sobibor.

Subsequently, applications for the creation of an exhibition in Sobibor were sent to the Victory Museum, the State Museum of Modern History of Russia and the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO). All of them were also rejected.

In this regard, RVIO appealed to the head of the European Council Donald Tusk with a request to influence this situation. Speaking to reporters, the scientific director of this organization Mikhail Myagkov emphasized that he considers the decision not to allow Russia to participate in this project politically motivated, aimed at belittling the role of the USSR in the liberation of Europe from Nazism.

Invited Invitation

Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland on October 13, so the current Polish leadership needs to demonstrate that it reliably guards the Polish “historical frontiers,” Vadim Trukhachev, Ph.D.

“While the Law and Justice party will remain in power in Poland, this will happen all the time, because the struggle with Russia and its perception as an existential enemy is the basis of the party’s foreign policy program,” he explained.

However, the Polish authorities are forced to invite Russia to ceremonies dedicated to the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp due to the inability to deny the role of the USSR in the release of Auschwitz prisoners, Vadim Volobuev explained.

“But if the desire of the Polish authorities was taken into account, they would not have invited anyone from Russia to these commemorative events.” But they cannot do this, because it would not find understanding even in Poland itself, since it was the Soviet army that liberated this camp. But on September 1, they will demonstrate that Poland and other countries are on guard of “democracy” and will make attacks on the Russian side, ”the expert noted.

Moreover, according to Volobuev, the lack of a Polish invitation to participate in the September events of Russia is only at hand.

“If they had invited September 1, then Russian representatives would have been able to listen, and not only from the lips of the Poles, there were a lot of unpleasant words, but they were spared this. In this regard, the Poles actually played in our favor and acted in accordance with Russian interests, although they themselves do not realize this, ”the expert concluded.