SPECULUM VERUM
As Poles, we are proud of it, that we remember the victims we suffered during World War II. And it is, theoretically, right pride.
The problem is that, that very often this memory is used to practice current politics, and the victims become its hostages. Yes Sir, in my opinion, with the victims of the Katyn massacre. And it lasts, with small breaks - to this day.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki practicing such a dirty policy of using victims for current politics, whose historical primitive and crude digressions and theories often call for vengeance to heaven - he deigned to make on fb profile (Or rather, someone from his staff, but he signs it) entry on the occasion of the anniversary of the Smolensk catastrophe and the anniversary of the disclosure of information about the discovery of the Katyn graves. There we read the same set of slogans and pompous tirades. What catches the eye, this is clearly moral abuse, which is the juxtaposition of the photo of the Katyn graves with the photo of the crashed Tu-154 plane. The first impression everyone will have is that of the viewer, it's a belief, that in both cases the murder was committed by representatives of one country, i.e. Russia. In my opinion, although it is not clear from the text, this is the purpose of this visual manipulation. Simple people will not enter into digressions - for them the matter is clear - the murder was committed by the Russians.
And finally, the Prime Minister lies, which is no surprise in his case, because he lies at every opportunity, informs: “Russia has been trying to hide the truth about Katyn for years, and then she did everything she could, let the world forget this story. The Smolensk tragedy with 10 April 2010 brought that Soviet crime to the surface, reminded the world of her again. It also reminded us of the true face of Russia and its authorities.". Firstly, Russia has never tried to hide the truth about Katyn, because the truth about Katyn was revealed by the USSR in 1990 year. How then would Russia hide the truth about Katyn? Only the Prime Minister knows. Secondly, Russia has no reason, to deal with informing the world about the crime in Katyn, because he has much greater tragedies and crimes on his mind, than this. Why would Russia want to do that?? And what would it be for? What Russia had to do, is to reveal the truth, express your position, make archives available for historical research and open cemeteries. And she did. This should be the end of this matter as a political matter.
However, Poland was not interested in this, because Poland, or rather its politicians, recognized it, that Katyn is to last forever as an instrument of festering in relations with Russia. Well, how to read the Prime Minister's final proposal, that Katyn is to constantly remind us "of the true face of Russia and its authorities". And that's it. Remembering the victims, worthy of commemoration is not enough. The dance macabre is to last over these graves, which ended in tragedy 10 April 2010 year. It was like a warning - do not use the memory of the victims for politics. The sobering was short-lived, only a few weeks. Then everything went back to "normal", and so it is to this day.
While preparing to write this text, I looked at my previous publications 12-13 lat, published in the volume "Virus of Russophobia" (Warsaw 2010). I don't really need to write anything new, because nothing has changed. As an example, let me remind you of some of my thoughts on this topic from years ago. First, it's a matter of recognizing the day 13 April for "Katyn Day". Why 13 April and no 5 brand, that is, the day Stalin and his companions signed the order to kill Polish officers. Date selection 13 April is highly unfortunate, but at the same time he puts the whole Katyn question in a definite place, propaganda and political dimension. Here is an excerpt from my text on the subject:
"Katyn Remembrance Day has been set for us on 13 April. Why? Because it was the day of revealing the news about the massacre in Katyn. The problem is that, that this revelation was made by the Goebbels propaganda machine. The Germans had known about the graves since autumn 1942 r. Goebbels saw an opportunity for a propaganda strike. He had two goals: firstly, try to undermine the unity of the anti-Hitler coalition, secondly, it was an opportunity for him to intensify his attack on the Jews. He wrote in his diary: “Here is further proof of the existence of close cooperation between the Jews and an omen of fate, that awaits Europe, if it ever falls into the hands of Eastern or Western individuals belonging to this subversive race.".
During the day's meeting 8 April 1943 r. he informed, that he intends to send neutral journalists to Katyn, representatives of the Polish community and British prisoners of war, to witness the opening of new graves. He brought Alfred Berndt from Tunisia, propaganda specialist. Goebbels ordered the press to cover Katyn two or three times a week. Radio Berlin broadcast information about the discovery of the Katyn graves 13 April 1943 r. Then the reptilian press in the General Government and newsreels went on the attack. One of them, in Polish, announced, that the murder was carried out by "Jewish-Bolshevik torturers". This term has been repeated many times. Finally, a conclusion - if Europe does not want such a fate, must rely on a German soldier, guardian of civilization. After the breakdown of Polish-Soviet relations over the Katyn case, Goebbels triumphed and was bursting with pride. Operation Katyn was one of his great successes.
Do in this situation choose a date 13 April for Remembrance Day celebrations was the right thing to do? Couldn't you have chosen something else?? Np. 5 brand (date of signing by Stalin the decision to liquidate Polish officers) or any other? This is unacceptable, to give joy to the Nazi master of lies and provocation, roasting in hell, after so many years, even considering the fact, that Radio Berlin's message was true at that moment. But the intentions were false, they had nothing to do with sympathy for the victims and their families, they had nothing to do with the pursuit of truth. It was just a satanic trick of Mephistopheles. Real shame, that one of the decision makers forgot about this very important fact. This date should be changed, because it somehow offends the memory of the victims - because once again they become victims of manipulation with Joseph Goebbels in the background".
In Poland, no one notices it, more, often public institutions use propaganda materials straight from the Third Reich, bu mentioning from time to time displaying the "famous" poster "Katyn" depicting NKVD officers with prominent Semitic noses shooting back the voices of a Polish officer. Where is this poster from?? We read about its original origin: The Katyn massacre (Nazi propaganda poster) (1943). And there is this poster (was he) openly sold as a "souvenir" in the shop of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw! I saw him with my own eyes, and when I asked an employee of this Museum about it, known neo-pagan nationalist Russophobe, he shrugged. He must have thought, so what?.
There is also a conclusion from the Prime Minister's entry, that we are dealing all the time not only with the concealment of the Katyn massacre, but a conclusion can also be drawn, that Russia does not recognize it as a crime of the NKVD at all. Many people in Poland think so. So let's recall briefly how it really was. Already at the end of years 80. of the twentieth century, on the wave of perestroika, texts directly suggesting who committed the crime began to appear in Poland. It's me, as a collaborator of the magazine "Konfrontacje" (nr 4/1988) I published an article about the Polish generals killed in Katyn and elsewhere, from which it was clear, that they died in 1940 year. It was a political text, that was government policy at the time, so censorship didn't stick to it. Wojciech Jaruzelski's efforts to get the USSR to reveal the truth about Katyn were finally successful. 13 April 1990 year o 14.30 Moscow time, the government news agency TASS issued an official confirmation statement, that Polish prisoners of war were shot in the spring 1940 r. by the NKVD. The NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria and his deputy Vsevolod Merkulov were found guilty.. Moscow expressed its deep regret in connection with the Katyn tragedy, calling it "one of the gravest crimes of Stalinism". “The disclosed archival materials in their entirety allow us to conclude that Beria was directly responsible for the crime in the Katyn forest, Merkulov and their helpers” – it was stated.
Already in the era of Boris Yeltsin's rule, 14 October 1992 r., by order of the President of Russia, chairman of the Committee on. State Archives prof. Rudolf Pichoja handed over to the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, the main documents regarding the Katyn case at the Belvedere Palace. It was e.g. decision issued by the Politburo 5 brand 1940 r., in which the highest Soviet authorities ordered the shooting of Polish prisoners of war imprisoned in camps in the USSR. 2 of August 1993 r. A team of experts at the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation published a final report on the legal classification of the Katyn massacre. In point. 6 pisano: “Murder in April–May 1940 r. 14 522 POWs from Koźle, the Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps of the NKVD Boards of the Smolensk oblasts, Kalinin and Kharkiv, and at the same time 7305 prisoners from NKVD detention centers in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, followed by a mass deportation of their families deep into the USSR - was the gravest crime against peace, against humanity". The investigation, however, has practically come to a standstill: no charges were brought against anyone for the next fourteen years, and prosecutors did not recognize the Katyn massacre as genocide. 21 September 2004 r. The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation has discontinued the investigation into. the Katyn massacre.
7 house 2010 r. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the daily Izvestia, that Katyn is an example of falsifying history. He was in favor of presenting the truth about the crime to Russians and foreign citizens, who are interested in it. Medvedev handed over to the Marshal of the Sejm, Bronisław Komorowski, acting as president 67 volumes of investigation files, which in the years 1990–2004 on. The Katyn massacre was conducted by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. Dropping off the investigation, the Russian side made it secret 116 she 183 volumes of files. At last, in November 2010 r. State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, adopted a resolution, in which she recognized the murder of Polish officers as a crime of the Stalinist regime, and the USSR – for a totalitarian state. Boris Yeltsin during a visit to Poland in 1993 he apologized for Katyn in the presence of many witnesses and cameras. Mimo that, as Eugeniusz Jabłoński wrote in a letter to Przegląd:
“There is a conviction among the Polish elite and the majority of society, that the Russians to this day have not apologized to the Poles for the Katyn massacre. And that is why the president or prime minister of the Russian Federation should do so on the occasion of his next visit to Poland. And when it doesn't, there are words of disappointment and indignation. This was also the case during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Westerplatte. Meanwhile, the Russians - the legal successors of the Soviet Union - apologized to the Poles a long time ago for the Katyn massacre. He did so in 1993 r. at the Powązki Cemetery, in front of the Katyn cross, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin. He then uttered the highly significant word "prastitiie" (forgive me) and shed a tear, very moved. It happened in the presence of many people, journalists, photojournalists and television cameras. This scene and this act of regret are therefore well documented, and filmstrips are widely available. It is therefore surprising, that we hardly ever use these records, we don't resemble them, we do not expose. And that is why this momentous gesture and this repentance of the Russians have not been and still are not fixed in the consciousness, memories and feelings of Poles”.
And then there's the matter of cemeteries. After the first survey and exhumation works, carried out as part of the Soviet investigation in 1991 year with the participation of representatives of the Polish side, and after signing (as a result of lengthy negotiations) 22 February 1994 of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of the Russian Federation on graves and memorial sites for victims of wars and repressions, it became possible to conduct, in years 1994-1996, Commissioned by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, survey and exhumation work in Katyn, Miednoye and Kharkiv - i.e. where the corpses of Polish prisoners of war from the NKVD special camps in Kozielsk were hidden, Starobielsk and Ostashkov. W 2000 The Polish War Cemeteries in Katyn were officially opened and consecrated, Miednoye and Kharkiv.
7 April 2010 In 2009, the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid wreaths and flowers at the Katyn cemetery. He said then: “In front of these graves, before people, who came here to honor the memory of their loved ones, you could say: let's forget everything, but that would be two-faced. We are obligated, to preserve the memory of the past, and we will, no matter how bitter the truth is. Polish and Russian historians are working at the moment, to discover this truth and facilitate an opening between our countries. This will help us escape from the dead end of misunderstanding and constantly holding each other accountable, as well as constantly dividing countries into these, which are right, in the, who are to blame".
It's amazing, but every time, when these gestures and events took place - not enough sacramental resounded in Poland! Once, Jarosław Kaczyński was asked, a master at festering and sowing hatred, what would the Russians do?, for him to be satisfied, this one said: "Put on a casual outfit, kneel down and beg forgiveness. From whose side? With his? It's clear, that the so-called. elites in Poland have never been interested in closing the Katyn case, but they were always very willing, to close the Volhynia case without any gestures from the Ukrainian side. This double morality shows the hypocrisy and perfidy of politicians in Poland.
When, after the Smolensk catastrophe, in the first weeks, Poles and Russians united in pain after this tragedy, and Jarosław Kaczyński made a famous speech to the Russians, beginning with the words "Brother Russians" - it seemed, that it will be a turning point in our relations. But already then, as I wrote in the text "Smolensk - Russia - Kaczyński":
“Throughout his presidency, Lech Kaczyński was an opponent of Russian policy, it even became a banner for the camp of Polish Russophobia, although he was probably pushed to such positions by his surroundings. In fact, as it now turns out, He was not an ideological Russophobe at all. In the last undelivered speech, he called for reconciliation - this was the main message of this text. Just a few lines, but how important. So if this death is to result in good, that's how we should interpret it.
We need to talk about it out loud, because there are already voices trying to use this tragedy to further fester, poisoning our minds and hearts, to sow, let's not be afraid of such a statement, hate. One MP, well-known to us for his right-wing views - gives an unimaginably stupid and compromising interview published in a Catholic daily [it was about "Nasz Dziennik" and this MP was the late Artur Górski - HE.]. Already on TVP, fragments of Lech Kaczyński's speech are shown, omitting the conciliatory fragments, already a known morbid Russophobe announces in ... church, that it was a catastrophe, of course Russian. in a moment, when we have a great chance for a Polish-Russian breakthrough, we will have to deal with such excesses again”.
I was an optimist, I did not believe, that these murmurs come from hell, become the prevailing narrative. Was Jarosław Kaczyński's change of line a way to meet these murmurs on his part?, or he came to the conclusion himself, that return to the unconscious, irrational Russophobia - will be good from a political point of view. Or maybe never, even when he preached a message to the Russian brothers - he did not believe it and waited for the moment, when he returns to the old road. Only he knows.
Someone will ask - in that case, is everything settled in the case of Katyn, explained? I'll answer, politically and historically yes. I don't believe in new, documents classified by Russia, these are myths. Yes, after the investigation was closed 2004 justification was suppressed, but it was probably political in nature. Russia figured it out, that this case is not about clarifying the truth, only to keep it pilloried as a criminal state. Hence the stiffening of the position. If Poland, after the opening of the cemetery in Katyn, announced, that from now on Katyn is only a historical matter, research on this topic would probably continue, but it happened otherwise. In Poland, such an ending was not wanted, it was demanded that Katyn be recognized as genocide (The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia was not far from such a qualification), reparations and bring Russia to justice. In the case of the state, which is the heir to the main victor in World War II and which lost over 1,000 in that war 20 million people - it was unacceptable. In Poland it was known, that by making such demands we close the way to dialogue. And that was it.
Nevertheless, from the formal point of view, nothing has changed 2010 year has not changed. Is not truth, that Katyn is being lied to in Russia. Appearing in various environments, mostly communist, votes denying the responsibility of the USSR - are not official votes, which none of us care about. I already wrote about it in 10 years ago, quoting the PAP report from the meeting of the so-called. National Assembly, grouping the opposition against Putin: "The organizers presented a 35-minute documentary "Katyn meanness". Its author - journalist Yuri Mukhin, known for his anti-Polish publications and speeches - argued, that the Poles were not shot by the NKVD in 1940 year, but Hitler's 1941 year. According to Mukhin, signed by Stalin and other members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(b) resolution z 5 brand 1940 year, sentencing Polish prisoners to death, as well as other documents, confirming the responsibility of the USSR for the Katyn massacre, were forged by the KGB. In his opinion, happened at the end of the year 80. by the then General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev, and it was done, to break up the Warsaw Pact, and draw its Eastern European members into NATO. Mukhin also accused the authorities of the Russian Federation, that they acknowledged Russia's guilt without considering the case by the court, as heir to the USSR, for the Katyn massacre (…)
The National Assembly was formed in May 2008 on the initiative of the opposition coalition The Other Russia. participates in its work 85 nationalist groups, leftist and liberal, against the policy of the Kremlin. In addition to the United Civic Front (OGF) Garry Kasparov and the outlawed National Bolshevik Party (PNB) Eduard Limonow, tj. the two largest formations that make up the Other Russia, these include. Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Oleg Shenin, Russian Communist Party-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (RPK-CPSU) Alexei Prigarin and the Red Youth Vanguard (AKM) Sergei Udaltsov. Among the organizations represented in the National Assembly was also the Army of the Will of the Nation (AWN), headed by Mukhin. the intention of the animators of this initiative is that the National Assembly is to be a forum for a civilized debate about the future of Russia”.
"Gazeta Wyborcza" was delighted with this assembly, because it is the opposition to Putin and there was also ... Garry Kasparov. I was writing: “The presence of Garry Kasparov in this company makes, that some media in Poland attempted to censor this report, without mentioning the composition of that National Assembly at all, just like a few months ago, the fact that the head of the National-Bolsheviks, Eduard Limonov, was beaten up by the Russian militia was cut out in the telegrams, because it weakened the tone of the information, that in Moscow they are beating up democrats. Now, however, the matter is more serious, because it touches on a very important issue for Poles. Therefore, "Gazeta Wyborcza", piloting our "democratic opposition" in Russia, was forced to take a clear stand. Waclaw Radziwonowicz wrote: “The National Assembly is a not-so-successful conglomeration of these, who say no to Putin for various reasons. in this loose community, which, moreover, has never met since its inception last year, there are also a lot of assholes. Sunday's outburst of Mukhin and his ilk is not the voice of the Russian opposition. and it doesn't matter".
And I finished this text, which will also be the conclusion for today: “Official Russia recognized the Katyn massacre as the work of the NKVD and Stalin, Russia disclosed documents in this case, making them available to the Polish side, Russia has opened war cemeteries on its territory, including in Katyn. If it's still a problem in your relationship, it is e.g. the effect of its excessive politicization. Katyn has become, Unfortunately, card in the game against modern Russia. Our media say yes about Katyn, as if the truth about this crime had not been revealed at all".
For information, there is also an episode of Katyn in my family history. My grandfather, Jan Engelgardt (ur. 1895), stayed in september 1939 arrested by the NKVD in Volhynia, very b. soldier of the 1st Corps of Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, as a military settler and member of paramilitary organizations. There was no trace of him. In the disclosed 1991 year of the so-called. on the Ukrainian Katyn list - his name appears among those murdered in 1940 year in Kharkiv.