Russian Ambassador Alexander Karpushin has reacted to the article by the Ambassador of Poland, Mr. Karol Bachura, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.
Russian-Polish relations, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the different historical views of our countries are some of the topics covered in the article.
The open letter, as well as the original counterpart article, were published in the “Albanian Daily News” in English.
My dear friend, colleague, Mr. Ambassador Karol Bachura!
At the reception on the occasion of the Day of the Polish Army and in an “Albanian Daily News” interview on August, 31 you stated out in detail a new approach of the current Polish administration to reading of the origins and causes of World War II. It is no coincidence that I used the word “new” – in recent years ithas undergone significant transformations.
I am absolutely convinced that the anniversary of the beginning of the most terrible war is not an occasion for triumph, but a moment of sorrow and reflection. In fact, while emphasizing exaggeratedly the significance of the Pact signed by Moscow and Berlin, you have thereby made the Soviet Union responsible for unleashing of the most terrible conflict in the history of mankind. However, you did not indicate that the Soviet troops, as provided for in the Pact, entered the eastern regions of Poland and the current western regions of Belarus and Ukraine only in mid-September, while the Polish government were already leaving the country. Now Warsaw denies the liberation (and per se salvation) of the countryfrom fascism by the Red Army. And this is despite the fact that 600 thousand (!)out of 1 million Soviet soldiers and officers who died during the liberation of all European countries lost their lives on the battlefield in Poland in 1944-1945. Another 1 million Soviet prisoners of war were killed in Nazi camps and buried in the territory of Poland. While calling on Russia “to choose the path of merit baseddiscussion on historical issues for the benefit of good bilateral relations,” for some reason you deliberately omit this fact. Unfortunately, the enormous price paid by the Red Army is no longer its “merit” for modern Poland.
Our common historical memory based on which we could build “good bilateral relations” seems to be intentionally destroyed by our Polish colleagues. In the 1990s our governments signed the agreement on burials and places of remembrance of victims of wars and repressions. In 1997 there were 561 monuments in Poland outside burials. Later on Warsaw declared war on Soviet monuments and in 2017 legislated their demolition. In September 2018, according to the results of the audit of the Russian Embassy in Poland, there were only 134 of those left. And this is against the background of respect for places of remembranceinherent in Polish society.
I believe that any discussion on historical issues my esteemed colleague calls for should be based on the desire to find a common language in our difficult history of bilateral relations. For example, Mr. Ambassador, while stressing out the “miracle on the Vistula” in August 1920 and emphasizing the heroic actions of the Polish troops, you ignore completely some facts that are inconvenient for you, but significant for us. First, the outbreak of war was initiated by the aggressive nationalistic aspirations of Warsaw, which seized the opportunity of the catastrophic civil war in Russia and launched hostilities, having crossed far beyond ethnic Polish borders. Moscow not only did not aim to war with Poland, but also tried to avoid it in every possible way, from the end of 1918 to the spring of 1920Moscow made numerous peace proposals to Warsaw, including those on territorial concessions significantly superior to those that Poland later received under the Riga Peace Treaty. It is true that afterwards the results of the Russian-Polish war turned out to be great territorial losses for us and tens of thousands of victims. In your article, the execution of Polish officers in Katyn is mentioned, but the reprisals against 150 thousand Red Army soldiers captured by Polish troops is held back. According to our scientists, in the Polish prisoner camps, which became the forerunner of the Nazi concentration camps, in 1919-1921 about 25-28 thousand people died due to abuse, hunger and diseases. Poland continues to believe that it did not violate international humanitarian law and does not even allow the Russian military-historical society to place a memorial sign in honor of the dead prisoners of war. Nevertheless, the Katyn memorial complex was opened in Russia back in 2000.
In addition to the legacy of the Soviet-Polish war of 1920-1921 throughout the 1920-1930s Poland conducted active anti-Soviet propaganda, provocations took place on the borders. It should be recalled that Poland was one of the first to conclude a non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1934. Speaking about the reasons for the beginning of World War II, we must admit that the main catalyst for Hitler’saggression, some kind of a prelude to this tragedy, was the so-called Munich Treaty of 1938, which not only played a tragic role in the fate of Czechoslovakia, where Hitler occupied the Sudetenland, but was also one of the key events that preceded the outbreak of World War II. Poland played an improper role in this, tearing off a part of Czechoslovakia’s sovereign territory – the Tieszyn region. Warsaw did not allow Soviet troops to provide assistance to this country, while forbidding the aviation and military contingent of the USSR to pass through its territory. After this what could Moscow think about the position of Warsaw? The hostility of the Polish elite to our country played a cruel joke on the Poles themselves when they faced the aggression of Nazi Germany.
This year, an event in Warsaw dedicated to the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II left an unpleasant impression not only on Russia. I am convinced that the Polish side acted unethically without inviting the Russian, Serbian, Chinese delegations. None of the leaders of the victorious powers came to Warsaw. It does not seem to be a coincident. This is a symbolic reaction to the Polish version of “historical memory”.
Polish historical memory has strong recollections of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (which delayed Hitler’s aggression against the USSR for two years and despite its ambiguity became one of the important factors in the victory over Nazifascism), September 1939, Katyn and the Warsaw Uprising. The Russians remember the horror and heroism of the Great Patriotic War, many upheavals of our difficult history of the 20th century. I am convinced that between all these pictures of events and their interpretations, while having the political will, there are no insoluble contradictions. Otherwise, we have a risk of going down that roadagain and again.
Yours sincerely,
Ambassador of Russia A.KARPUSHIN
