Last week, the Russian Embassy in London posted a video on its official Twitter page, in which it regretted Poland’s stance regarding the country’s „liberation” of Poland from German occupation at the end of World War II.
https://twitter.com/RussianEmbassy/status/1532419539576684550
“Liberation of Poland cost USSR over 600,000 soldiers and officers […] The Polish government stated that people will never forget they gained their freedom thanks to brilliant victories of Soviet arms, thanks to abundant blood of heroic Soviet fighters […] But Poland HAS forgotten…” Russian Embassy in the UK wrote.
In their short video accompanies by the above-mentioned comment, Russian officials fail to mention several important historical facts shedding light on the reasons most Poles do not perceive the presence of Soviets troops on its soil as any kind of liberation whatsoever.
First and foremost, the USSR was Nazi Germany’s main ally between 1939 and 1941. Both countries collaborated closely, supporting each other militarily, economically, and strategically. Both countries agreed to divide Central and Eastern Europe between each other with the pact between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin (better known as the Ribbentrop – Molotov pact) in late August 1939.
Second, the propaganda video does refer to Germany’s invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939 but omits the uncomfortable truth that two and a half weeks later, on the 17th of September, the Soviet Union was taking over Poland’s eastern regions (today’s southeastern Lithuania, western Belarus, and Western Ukraine).
Third, and probably most important of all, Russian officials fail to acknowledge that the Red Army’s march through Poland meant rapes, looting, and, above all, a new form of brutal occupation.
https://twitter.com/georgephilipb/status/1532684996628054016?s=20&t=JOyG5SZOLkHDqeOQZUk6OQ
Many points could be added to this list, such as the massive murders of tens of thousands of Polish civilians ordered by Stalin in the late 1930s on (the Polish operation of the NKVD), not to mention the Katyn massacre in 1940.
The video attached to the comment ends with bitter comments regarding Poland’s progressive dismantling and removal of its monuments commemorating soldiers of the Red Army.
In mid-April, the Institute of National Remembrance informed about the dismantling of Soviet monuments in three towns in Poland.
This Spring, Soviet monuments were dismantled in the towns of Między Błoc and Siedlec, in the province of Greater Poland, and in the village of Garncarsko, in Lower Silesia.
The president of the Institute of National Remembrance, Dr Karol Nawrocki, was present during the dismantling of one of such monuments in Siedlec. He emphasised that the process of de-communisation of Polish space is particularly important, also in the context of the current events in Ukraine.
“For all those who […] want to […] this monument as à sign of liberation […] I invite them to have a look at photos of the burning Gniezno Cathedral – one of the symbols of Christian culture in Poland – after the end of hostilities in January 1945” – Nawrocki told the press.
The Soviet Union did never liberate Poland. It replaced one bloody totalitarianism with another, less ostensible and – unfortunately – ill known across the West.
Author: Sébastien Meuwissen
