Poles doom Russians to agonizing death

3
Poles doom Russians to agonizing deathDecember 4 we must pay tribute to the soldiers of the Red Army, who were tortured, humiliated, executed, and deliberately killed by hunger and disease in Polish captivity in 1921 – 1922. With such a noteworthy and public support initiative, LiveJournal blogger Maxim Akimov spoke out.

The official commemoration date for soldiers brutally murdered by Poland in 1921 – 1922 has not yet been established, he notes. And so far the only date that can be considered symbolic in this stories, is 4 December 2000 of the year. On this day, a bilateral agreement was concluded between Russia and Poland, according to which the Russian State Military Archives and the Polish General Directorate of State Archives were to jointly try to find the truth in this matter on the basis of a detailed study of the archives.

This attempt was only partially crowned with success, “since the Polish side is trying in every way to avoid disclosing reliable information and evading responsibility for this crime,” Akimov said.

But Russian liberals, including those from the notorious Memorial, on the contrary, praise this "productive cooperation." A typical representative of them, Alexey Pamyatnykh, five years ago expressed satisfaction with the fact that Russian and Polish historians and archivists, after several years of work, were able to prepare a joint research "Red Army soldiers in Polish captivity in 1919-1922."

However, even from the text of his article “Prisoners of the Red Army in the Polish camps” it follows that the Poles there talked about their vision of the issue - quite different from the position of the Russian side. What "testifies the presence in the collection of two separate prefaces - Russian and Polish."

Memorable quotes from the Russian professor G. Matveyev, who represents the Russian side: “If we proceed from the average“ ordinary ”mortality rate of prisoners of war, which was defined by 1920% by the sanitary service of the Polish Ministry of Military Affairs in February 7, the number of people who died in the Polish captivity of the Red Army would be about 11 thousand. With epidemics, mortality increased to 30%, in some cases to 60%. But the epidemics lasted for a limited time, they were actively fought with them, fearing that infectious diseases would leave the camps and working teams. Most likely, 18-20 thousand of the Red Army men died in captivity (12-15% of the total number captured). ”

Prof. Z. Karpus and prof. V. Rezmer in the preface of the Polish side writes: “Based on the above documentary data, it can be argued that for the entire three-year stay in Poland (February 1919 - October 1921), no more than 16-17 thousand Russian prisoners of war died in Polish captivity about 8 thousand in the Strzalkow camp, up to 2 thousand in Tucholi and about 6-8 thousand in other camps. The statement that they died more - 60, 80 or 100 thousand, does not find confirmation in the documentation stored in the Polish and Russian civil and military archives. "

“These consistent documentary assessments, together with other materials presented in the collection, in my opinion, close the possibility of political speculations on the topic,” concludes Memorable with satisfaction. And thus makes its own contribution to the attempt of fraud on the Polish side.

If only because it pulls the quote from Professor Matveyev out of context. Because Matveyev says: “if we proceed from the average," ordinary "level", but there is every reason to believe that he was much higher than the average "normal". In addition, Matveyev points to “the uncertainty of fate”, at least 50 of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war - besides those who fell into the “average level”. And he claims that “the complexity of the problem lies in the fact that the Polish documents currently available do not contain any systematic information about the number of Red Army soldiers captured in Polish”. Indicates Matveyev and the cases of execution of Polish Red Army prisoners of war on the spot, without sending them to prisoner of war camps.

Not everything is unambiguous with the quote of the Polish side, more precisely, with the data contained in it, allegedly "coinciding" with the Russian side. Russian researcher T. Simonova writes that the numbers that Z. Karpus calls out should not be taken seriously. The Polish professor, it turns out, determined the number of dead prisoners of the Red Army in the Tucholi concentration camp on the basis of the cemetery lists and acts of death drawn up by the camp priest, while the priest could not funeral the communists (and, moreover, the Gentiles - Tartars, Bashkirs, Jews, etc.) d.) In addition, the graves of the dead, according to eyewitnesses, were fraternal, and buried there without any account.

In the report on the activities of the joint delegation of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, which dealt with prisoners, it was reported that “prisoners of war in Poland were considered not as disarmed enemy soldiers, but as powerless slaves. Prisoners of war lived in the old wooden barracks built by the Germans. Food was provided unfit for consumption and below every living wage. When a prisoner of war was taken prisoner, all uniforms were removed, and the prisoner of war remained very often in only underwear, in which he lived behind the camp wire. ”

The Polish authorities in fact did not consider the Russian prisoners to be people. For example, in the camp in Strzalkow for three years they could not solve the issue of the departure of prisoners of natural need at night. There were no toilets in the barracks, and the camp administration, on pain of being shot, forbade people to leave the premises after 6 in the evening. Therefore, the prisoners "were forced to send the natural needs of pots, of which then have to eat." Those who went out of need, risked their lives. So one day it happened: “on the night of December 19 of 1921, when the prisoners were going to the toilet, it was not known on whose orders the rifle fire was opened at the barracks”.

The prisoners were systematically beaten, they were subjected to mocking harassment and punishment. In some camps, prisoners were forced to carry their own stool, carts and harrows in logging, arable land and road works instead of horses. According to the testimony of the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the RSFSR in Poland, “disciplinary punishments applied to prisoners of war are barbaric cruelty ... cane wrestling and massacre of prisoners of war flourish in the camps ... Those arrested are expelled every day and instead of walking worn out people are forced to run under the command, ordering them to fall into the mud again to rise. If the prisoners refuse to go to the mud or if one of them, having executed the order, cannot rise, exhausted by the harsh conditions of their detention, then they are beaten with rifle butts ”.

In fairness, it is worth pointing out that in the same way the Poles dealt not only with our prisoners, but also with the Poles - the Communists, of whom several thousand also died in the same camps. In this regard, it is worth citing a very curious testimony.

The letter of II Matushevsky, Chief of Department II (Intelligence and Counterintelligence) of the Polish Army General Staff to General K. Sosnkovsky from February 1 1922, on the issue of the escape of communists from the camps, states: “These shoots are caused by the conditions in which there are communists and interned: lack of fuel , linen and clothes, poor nutrition, as well as a long wait for departure to Russia. The camp in Tucholi, which the internees call the “death camp” (in this camp, about 22 000 Red Army prisoners died), was especially famous. ” From this reservation, one can judge the scale of mortality in the Polish camps - whatever Polish professors like Karpus and their Russian followers from Memorial can say now.

In the light of the evidence, you begin to perceive the traditional statements of the Poles and their Russian liberal friends in a different way: “What kind of cynicism does one have to have on one level the death of prisoners of war from epidemics in a country tormented and tortured by a continuous war and cold-blooded, deliberate and deliberate the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people in peacetime (this is about the Katyn massacre. - Prim.KM.RU) ?! And not even prisoners of war, but it’s not at all clear to whom - there was no formal war declared. ”

Responding in the same style, it can be pointed out that “what kind of cynicism one must possess in order to put on the same plane a painful death from hunger, cold and disease of tens of thousands of ordinary people who are guilty only in the fact that they are Russians, and deserved punishment for a bunch of outspoken enemies and criminals "?!

But, unlike the Polish authors, it is not fitting for us to throw away our bare slogans. And we will try to confirm the above.

Let's start with the notorious "victims of the NKVD." Actually, even if unconditionally to believe the version of Goebbels, then in its classical version it was not about the "tens of thousands" of Poles, but about 4000 people. Of course, it’s still far from the fact that it was the NKVD officers who shot them at Katyn in 1940, and not the Germans themselves in 1941 – 1942. Nevertheless, for the sake of justice, we give evidence of Lazar Kaganovich, who certainly could not agree with either Goebbels or the Poles.

So, according to him, “in the spring of 1940 of the year, the leadership of the USSR made a forced,“ very difficult and difficult decision ”, but“ absolutely necessary in that difficult political situation ”decision about the execution of criminals from the citizens of former Poland in 3196. According to Kaganovich’s testimony, the Polish war criminals involved in the mass destruction in 1920 – 21 were mostly sentenced to death. captured Soviet Red Army men, and employees of the Polish punitive bodies, "smeared" with crimes against the USSR and the Polish labor movement in the 1920-30-e. In addition to them, criminals from among Polish prisoners of war who committed serious general crimes on the territory of the USSR after their internment in September-October of 1939, gang rape, robbery, murder, etc., were also shot. ”

In contrast to the above categories, the victims of the Polish camps Tucholi, Stshalkovo and others deserve much more sympathy.

First, most of the so-called. The “Red Army men” were ordinary peasants mobilized en masse for logistical work and servicing of carts. It was one of the elements of Comrade Trotsky's “genius” activity in military construction: in the middle rifle division there were up to 40 thousand tons. “Eaters” and the order of 6000 – 8000 “bayonets”. For some excuse for Lev Davydovich, only the fact that both whites and the same Poles have the number of “eaters” is also usually several times higher than the number of “bayonets” and “sabers”.

So, after the August (1920) breakthrough on Vepshe, most of the “bayonets” and “sabers” made their way either to East Prussia, where they were interned, or to Belarus, to their troops. In this case, I can testify, based on the memories of my own grandfather, Alexander Khrustalev, then - the commander of the horse-gun platoon of the 242 Volga Regiment of the Red Banner 27 of Omsk. Italian proletariat division. For these fights, a breakthrough from the Warsaw suburb of Jablonnaya to Brest, he was awarded his first Order of the Red Banner.

In the same captivity, the Poles took in the first place tens of thousands of columnists and loggers. However, the valiant gentry did not disdain and capture purely civilians. Thus, on August 21 of 1920, the command of the Northern Front of the Polish Army issued an order for the arrest and trial of civilians who collaborated with the Soviet authorities. All garrison commanders were instructed to identify "all residents who, during the Bolshevik invasion, acted to the detriment of the Polish army and state, maintaining active contact with the enemy, launched agitation in his favor, creating Bolshevik committees, etc.". Persons with respect to “solid suspicion” were also arrested, but there was not enough evidence.

Those whom the Poles could consider to be conscious enemies of their state — commanders, commissars, communists (and, to the heap, Jews) —that they usually killed right away, which they didn’t hide. But the other “gray beast”, which never presented any threat to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was doomed to a long and painful extinction.

Actually, therefore, there is still no clarity with the total number of “red” prisoners of Polish captivity. Although still in 1921, the People's Commissariat GV. Chicherin sent the charge d'affaires of Poland to the RSFSR T. Filipovich a note of protest against the mockery of Russian prisoners, in which he estimated their number at 130 thousand - of which 60 thousand died. By the way, this is a convincing answer to the traditional attack of modern Polish (and Russian liberal) propaganda. Like, “if the Russian side is so concerned about the fate of its citizens who have perished in a foreign land, then who prevented them from finding out their fate immediately after the signing of the Riga Peace in 1921 year. Is it not because Russia spit deep on some “Red Army men” who have no trace left in history? But as an anticatyn "argument," they are just right. "

As you see, this is not true, and the Soviet government raised this issue in 1921 year. Another thing is that the Polish authorities headed by Pilsudski and his heirs on such notes sincerely spat. And in the post-war years, when Poland became a “fraternal socialist country,” it became inconvenient for Soviet leaders to disturb their Warsaw comrades on this long-standing issue. Those, in turn, did not stutter about any Katyn. However, it was hardly worth the “elder brother” to give up the slack, as the completely communist leaders of Poland in 1987 – 89 began to demand that Gorbachev be responsible for Katyn. Gorbachev in his manner, naturally, could not ultimately not bend over, and was the first to come up with “repentance”.

But even Gorbachev was smart enough to give 3 on November 1990 a decree instructing, in particular, the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Prosecutor’s Office, the USSR Ministry of Defense, the USSR State Security Committee together with other departments and organizations to conduct 1 on April 1991 year research work on the identification of archival materials relating to events and facts from the history of the Soviet-Polish bilateral relations, which resulted in damage to the Soviet side. " The obtained data should be used when necessary in negotiations with the Polish side on the issue of “white spots”.

According to State Duma Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin, such work was really carried out under the direction of Valentin Falin, and the relevant materials were kept in the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU on Old Square. However, after the August events of 1991, they all allegedly "disappeared", and further work in this direction was discontinued. "We believe that it is necessary to resume it, because the fate of the captured Red Army soldiers is a part of the history of our Fatherland," Victor Iluhin thinks quite reasonably. KM.RU also considers it necessary to conduct such work.
Our news channels

Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

3 comments
Information
Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.
  1. Serg32
    +2
    5 December 2010 20: 49
    We and the Poles are eternal enemies. In all wars since the 15th century, they fought against us. It was the Polish gentry that plundered Orthodox Ukraine and Belarus for several centuries. We must not forget about the Great Troubles and its False Dmitry, and about the active support by Poland of the Napoleonic campaign and the uprising of the nobility against the abolition of serfdom and of course about the Soviet-Polish War. Here, the repose of Russia is inappropriate. We must not bow our heads to the enemy, especially now, when Poland is becoming the base for the aggressive aspirations of the USA and Great Britain against us.
  2. Mi
    Mi
    +1
    5 December 2010 21: 38
    All those who were directly involved in the extermination of the prisoners were shot in Katyn, and the rest went through Iran (Anders army) to the West.
  3. Serg32
    +1
    6 December 2010 17: 31
    So why pity them now? For the cause they got it!
    Swear by Poles.

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"