Acting Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky said that the movement of works of art following the Second World War to the USSR was carried out as part of compensatory restitution, so there can be no talk of returning these cultural objects today.
“Cultural values transferred to the implementation of compensatory restitution are the property of the Russian Federation. These values remain the property of world culture today, but only the Russian state, as the owner, has the right to dispose of them. There are no and cannot be any favorable conditions under which Russia will enter into any negotiations on the theme of "return of cultural property." This question is simply non-existent for us, ”RIA Novosti quoted Medinsky as saying.
So acting Minister of Culture reacted to the statement of the Polish Foreign Ministry on the right of Warsaw to several works of art in Russia.
The diplomatic service said that Polish culture "suffered huge losses due to the actions of the USSR."
🇵🇱 culture suffered tremendous losses due to Soviet actions.
⚫Special NKVD units looted valuable pieces of Poland's Art - many of which are still in 🇷🇺.
⚫Red Army and NKVD repeatedly destroyed and confiscated what Germans couldn't rob or burn down. # LiberationWITHOUTfreedompic.twitter.com / Fa8qUNnqQK
“Special units of the NKVD plundered valuable works of Polish culture - many of them are still in Russia,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said.
The Polish Foreign Ministry claims that such works of art include Madonna Glogovskaya by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Girl with a Pigeon by Antoine Pan, Bird Courtyard by Daniel Schulz and Forest Landscape by Jan Brueghel the Elder.
The export of art from territories captured by the Nazis was agreed between the USSR and the Allies after the end of World War II, Vadim Trukhachev, Ph.D.
“I mean that some pictures from the collections of museums in cities such as Wroclaw and Gdansk, which in the past were German Breslau and Danzig, could get into the USSR as trophy values. The export of values from German territories was discussed at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, where all this was framed, ”said the expert.
According to Vadim Trukhachev, taking this into account, the response of the Russian Ministry of Culture is reasonable.
“The acting Minister of Culture of Russia, Vladimir Medinsky, is right, since the USSR returned to socialist Poland everything that could be, so the claims of the Poles in this case are unfounded,” the expert emphasized.
Deputy Director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University Vladimir Shapovalov called the demand of the Polish Foreign Ministry absurd.
“There is no such question and cannot exist. They are well aware of this in Warsaw. Such statements are needed for domestic consumption in order to maintain anti-Russian hysteria. Obviously, in the near future Russia will hear a lot of absurd statements addressed to it, ”the political scientist emphasized.
Historical disputes
On January 17, the Polish Senate adopted a resolution "in protest against the rewriting of history by the authorities of the Russian Federation and Russian politicians."
According to Polish Radio, the resolution says that the start of World War II on September 1, 1939 and the Soviet Union’s attack on Poland on September 17, 1939 were recognized by Russia in public declarations in 1993 and 2010.
Also, according to the upper house of the Polish parliament, in 1939-1941. The USSR allegedly took an active part in hostilities on the side of Nazi Germany.
The next day, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Moravecki announced that Warsaw would fight against falsification of history, as well as defend its good name in the international arena.
“We will not allow falsification of our history, we will not allow spoiling the good name of Poland, we will defend it,” Polish Radio quoted him as saying.
It is worth noting that such statements by the Polish authorities made against the backdrop of their refusal to officially celebrate on January 17 the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Warsaw by the Red Army from Nazi Germany.
Also, the Polish authorities have not yet sent invitations to Vladimir Putin to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz) concentration camp by the Soviet troops, although such plans were announced in the summer of 2019 by the press secretary of the President of Poland, Blazhej Spykhalski.
Warsaw previously refused to invite Russian officials to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 2019.
Vladimir Shapovalov noted that Poland has been pursuing a similar policy for several years.
“At the moment, there is a sharp increase in anti-Russian propaganda in Poland. The Polish government has relied on maximizing the role of Poland as the main victim of World War II. This anti-Russian hysteria is designed to mobilize voters. Having no serious reason to be proud of any achievements in socio-economic policy or foreign, since Poland has quarreled with all its neighbors, the government replaces real achievements with an information attack, ”the expert noted.
Documentary evidence
Against the background of repeated demarches of the Polish leadership, Russian leader Vladimir Putin promised to open a center for archival documents about the Second World War, which he announced at a meeting with veterans in St. Petersburg. The center will be open to both Russians and the whole world.
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“And we will shut our mouths to those who are trying to change the story, misrepresent it and belittle the role of our fathers and grandfathers, our heroes, who died defending their homeland and almost the whole world from the brown plague,” he said.
Vladimir Putin also mentioned the creation of the archival complex, which should contain the largest and most complete collection of archival materials about the Second World War, in his last message to the Federal Assembly. Then the President of Russia noted that the country should defend the truth about the Victory and confront "arrogant lies and attempts to re-read history."
Warsaw’s attempt to rewrite history at the state level was also warned by the acting Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov. He noted that Poland is convincing Western countries that at the World Holocaust Remembrance Forum on January 23 in Jerusalem, they promote the Polish point of view on the outcome of World War II.
“Attempts to defame our country in terms of the outcome of the Second World War, the causes of the Second World War and attempts to use this lie in order to weaken Russia's position in the international arena today will continue,” Lavrov said.
According to Trukhachev, Poland has long been engaged in rewriting history and trying to discredit the role of the USSR in the Second World War.
“This is a consistent Polish policy that has been pursued by the country over the past 30 years, especially in recent years. However, Moscow is now actively opposing this, ”the expert concluded.