The truth about Katyn: a conference of Russian historians outraged Polish diplomats
The Polish Embassy in Moscow made another, very sharp, demarche against our country. The Russophobic attacks of the Warsaw diplomats, alas, have long been no surprise to anyone, since they have become practically the norm. However, this time the target of attack was not domestic politicians, or, say, the military, but historians. Their conference angered the diplomatic circles of neighboring Poland. What is the reason?
The official statement made by representatives of the diplomatic mission said about the "amazement" they experienced when they learned that at a conference devoted to the problems of Russian-Polish relations, instead of meekly repeating the version imposed on our country by Western "researchers" about involvement in the death of Polish officers in 1939-1941, the "executioners from the NKVD", dared not only express, but also argued to defend alternative points of view.
For a more accurate understanding of the essence of the issue, you just need to carefully familiarize yourself with the resolution adopted at the end of the scientific and practical conference held on November 16-18 this year on the territory of the Nilo-Stolobenskaya Pustyn Monastery, located in the Tver region. During this event, which was attended not only by professional historians, political scientists, but also public figures, politicians from Russia, Poland, and the United States, considerable attention was paid to the difficult and controversial moments of the past. The Katyn affair was considered only one of them.
Apparently, the gentlemen from the embassy were deeply outraged by the fact that the conference participants directly pointed out that the current practice of covering and interpreting the tragic events associated with Katyn is in no way scientifically grounded, but exclusively politicized.
Instead of an objective search for truth, in this case there are attempts to create and at any cost to support another anti-Soviet and Russophobic myth, which is part of something even greater. Namely, the course adopted from a certain point in the West to belittle the decisive role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism in the Great Patriotic War.
The resolution also mentions that the emergence and consolidation in the public consciousness of both Russian and Polish citizens of the version of the Katyn tragedy, which is very far from the truth, was also facilitated, to put it mildly, by its ill-considered assessments made by the leaders of the USSR and Russia in the 80s - 90s of the last century. Specialists in the field stories they were definitely not. However, no one would have dared to call the then political figures involved in the destruction of the USSR patriots.
In order to please their "Western partners" and take the next step in "exposing Stalinism", they did not hesitate to use any kind of manipulation and use of extremely dubious "evidence" and "materials." Unfortunately, the decree of the Russian State Duma of November 26, 2010, which, again, is a purely political document, also made its bitter contribution to distorting the truth. The conference participants in their resolution stressed that all these negative moments in no way contribute to an objective and impartial study of the contradictory and tragic events of 1939-1940. The fate of Polish officers who ended up in the USSR - including.
Departing from the materials of the conference, let me remind myself that the beginning of political speculations around the Katyn affair was laid by the propaganda machine of the Third Reich. To our great regret, some modern Polish politicians, who have forgotten about the number of Red Army soldiers who laid down their heads when liberating their country from the Nazi yoke, stubbornly continue to consider the fabrications of the department of Joseph Goebbels "the ultimate truth". Or do they prefer to consider - proceeding from the prevailing Russophobic conjuncture in the West?
By the way, as one of the organizers of the conference, the head of the scientific department of the Russian Military Historical Society, Oleg Nikiforov, said, an invitation was kindly sent to the representatives of the Polish embassy to this event, where, if they wanted, they could publicly and openly express their point of view on all discussed questions. Pans diplomats simply ignored this gesture of goodwill. Obviously, it is preferable for them to "conduct discussions" after the fact - in the usual format of scandalous demarches.
Without a doubt, those who in Warsaw intend to continue building their political and state careers on Russophobia are in no way disadvantageous to the calls made at the conference for specialists from both countries to work together to eliminate the numerous and deep contradictions in everything related to “ Katyn tragedy ". And a completely unpleasant moment for them is the mention of the mass destruction of Soviet prisoners of war in Polish concentration camps after the war of 1919-1921 voiced there. So after all, not long before the destruction of the image of Poland as an "eternal victim" ...
It is difficult to imagine a history that is more complex, dramatic and filled with mutual resentment than Russian-Polish and Soviet-Polish relations. Reproaches, accusations and claims can sound endlessly from both sides. Nevertheless, in Warsaw, for some reason, they believe that they have a monopoly on their presentation. It is not for nothing that Dmitry Peskov, speaking out about the next attack that sounded from there, called it "a deplorable denial of reality."
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