"The Unhistorical Path" of Poland. What is it leading to?
On September 1, 2019, the world will celebrate 80 years since the start of World War II. Official events in honor of this mournful date are held in Poland, as a rule, on the small peninsula of Westerplatte in the Gdansk Bay, where the first salvos of a war that lasted almost six years and cost humanity tens of millions of lives were fired.
Monument to the Heroes of Westerplatte
Surrender of the Polish garrison of Westerplatte (for the Poles this is heroism)
Round dates of the beginning of the war are special events. In Poland they prepare for them in advance, carefully, draw up lists of guests of honor and work out the script for the official part.
According to tradition, on September 1, the top officials of the countries participating in the Second World War from the anti-Hitler coalition, as well as the states allies of Poland, are invited to Gdansk. Well, since the USSR bore the brunt of it in that war, breaking the back of the fascist vermin, the Soviet and then Russian leaders were traditionally the center of attention of the receiving party.
However, already at the end of March this year, strange speeches began to be heard from Polish government officials that on the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII in Poland they were not happy to see the Russian delegation led by President Putin. So much so that our country will not be invited to official events in Westerplatte this time.
Despite the fact that in early February, President Duda’s press secretary Blazej Spichalski said that Poland would be happy to see everyone who wanted to join in honoring Polish wrestlers, and the Polish Foreign Ministry even recommended that the President’s Office invite Putin to Gdansk on September 1.
The Polish demarche was considered offensive by the Kremlin and did not go unanswered. The press service of the President and the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed their negative assessment of this and demanded an explanation from the Polish side, saying that any memorial events dedicated to the beginning of the Second World War “cannot be considered complete” without the participation of Moscow.
“It is obvious that the decision to make the event private is another manifestation of the distorted worldview of the Polish administration, which, in order to please momentary political “priorities,” systematically falsifies the chronicle of the Second World War and the post-war period,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that this act of Warsaw will remain on the conscience of its current authorities.
In Warsaw, they expressed dissatisfaction with the characterization of “secret” and put two officials working in support of President Andrzej Duda - Krzysztof Szczerski and Pawel Mucha - to take the rap.
Officials launched into explanations that Poland considers the historical logic of the Russian foreign policy department in the context of September 1939 to be “problematic,” and that the events at Westerplatte on September 1 will take place as part of a meeting of Poland’s allies and partners, with whom Warsaw “works in close cooperation for the good of peace.” , based on compliance with international law, respect for the sovereignty of states and their territorial integrity." These include countries of NATO, the European Union and the Eastern Partnership.
Developing the topic, officials said that “for the aggressors (plural!) in 1939, violations of international law were typical, which at the moment remains a threat to the world.”
If anyone doesn't understand, the last phrase contains a veiled allusion to
the events of March 2014 that led to the reunification of Crimea with Russia.
And in general, as the Polish side explained, future events should be assessed “not in a historical, but in a modern format.” “We (Poland) are not following the historical path. We do not invite all states,” said Pavel Mukha, deputy head of President Duda’s office.
Since there was such a drinking spree in Poland, the farce of inviting the German delegation to Westerplatte looks quite organic in this theater of the absurd.
It is interesting that instead of Putin, Andrzej Duda invited Belarusian President Lukashenko to join the “celebration of partnership in the name of peace and respect for international law.” If Minsk accepts this proposal, then Old Man’s appearance in Poland will be the first official visit to Europe in 21 years and a signal for the lifting of personal sanctions on him along with the “last dictator of Europe” sign.
Obviously, Duda could not make this decision on his own, but only with the blessing of the “senior partners” from the EU and, possibly, the USA.
The West’s cunning plan is obvious: to lure Old Man into the trap of a “European handshake”, at the same time humiliating Putin, pointing out the double-dealing of his closest ally. It is doubtful that Lukashenko, with all his contradictions with Moscow, would accept the Poles’ invitation to take Putin’s place at Westerplatte. Let's see, in short.
One should not think that the master's foolishness is dedicated exclusively to the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War. The openly hostile attitude of Polish politicians towards Russia was splashed out on Putin when he visited Gdansk ten years ago.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk invited Putin (at that time the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation) to Gdansk to attend official events marking the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII, and both sides expected a noticeable warming in Russian-Polish relations from this visit.
Putin visited Westerplatte and participated in a joint press conference with Tusk, which touched on the causes and mistakes that led to the Second World War. Both prime ministers, in the presence of journalists, tried to express the most pressing issues in a diplomatic manner, avoiding the sharpest corners. Putin then said that history cannot be painted with one brush and he was in Poland not to make assessments, but to honor the memory of its heroic defenders. Tusk – that Russia and Poland should not be afraid of the truth.
At the same time, Putin expressed the opinion that the Second World War was started by the Munich Agreement, in which Poland took an active part.
And everything would have gone off decorously and nobly if Polish President Lech Kaczynski, bruised all over his head, had not climbed onto the podium.
Contrary to common sense and elementary politeness to the invited guest, “Duck” spewed nonsense that “Bolshevik Russia dealt a fatal blow to Poland with a knife in the back at a time when the Poles were still resisting the Nazis,” and actually compared the execution of Polish officers in Katyn with the Holocaust, saying that “Jews were shot because they were Jews, and Polish officers because they were Polish officers.”
However, the same “Duck” then admitted the correctness of Putin’s words that Poland, along with Germany, bears part of the blame for the Munich Agreement and the division of Czechoslovakia.
In general, the reluctance of the Poles to see Putin on September 1 at Westerplatte is not the moment of truth in Russian-Polish relations, but only its consequences.
The moment of truth is the refusal of former Polish President Branislaw Komorowski to come to Moscow to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Instead, Komorowski organized his own “casino with mahjong and lols” on May 8, 2015, inviting EU leaders to Westerplatte.
“My initiative is to organize something that has been planned for a long time. This idea has not arisen in recent days. There will be an international conference organized by the European Solidarity Center, the Museum of the Second World War and other institutions, to which renowned historians will be invited to discuss the end of the war, to discuss whether it was liberation or also the emergence of new problems,” Komorowski explained.
In turn, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, Grzegorz Schetyna, said that he does not understand why Victory Day is celebrated in Moscow and not in Poland.
“Why are we so easily accustomed to the fact that Moscow is the place where the end of hostilities is honored, and not London or Berlin, which would be even more natural?” - Skhetina cried into the vest of the radio station RMF FM.
Let us remember that this is the same Schetyna who voiced her refusal to invite Putin to commemorative events in honor of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army under the degenerate pretext that “the gates of the camp were opened by Ukrainian soldiers.”
In general, the ideas of the “London Poles” finally triumphed in Warsaw, who in Poland itself were called the most vile of the vile, exuding the confidence that “the Germans could only kill us, and the Russians could deprive us of ourselves.”
Well, since Donald Tusk suggested that Russia and Poland should not be afraid of the past, we will express everything that Poland is so afraid to admit, refuses to admit, or admits through clenched teeth.
For what happened on September 1, 1939, our Western neighbors should blame themselves first of all. The USSR is blamed for the conclusion of the Non-Aggression Pact (or Molotov-Ribbentrop), which today is interpreted by falsifiers as “allied agreements between Stalin and Hitler.” But then what to do with a similar pact concluded between the Pilsudcians and the Nazis on January 26, 1934? And also similar agreements of the Western powers, which from a certain point considered Hitler a “respected partner” and did not disdain to associate with the frantic Adik?
This agreement allowed Berlin and Warsaw to live passionately for five years, exchanging experiences and hatching joint aggressive plans.
In 1937-38, two Polish-German conferences of history teachers were held to promote a joint “correct” view of certain events. The Third Reich eagerly published the memoirs of the founding father of the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Józef Pilsudski. Finally, in the spring of 1938, Poland took part in the Nazi aggression against Czechoslovakia, occupying its Cieszyn region and some areas of Slovakia.
Many may be shocked by the fact that before the war, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler came to Poland on a friendly visit, sharing his experience of building concentration camps with the Polish side. The result of cooperation was the death camp in Bereza Kartuzskaya, where the defenziv sent dissidents.
Well, for the fact that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany, Warsaw should make claims to Paris and London, which took upon themselves the obligation to “protect an ally in the event of German aggression.” Who is to blame that their promises turned out to be just beautiful words?
As a result of the fascist occupation, Poland was transformed into the General Government of the Third Reich, and to its territory, due to its geographical location and developed infrastructure, the Nazis brought people from all over Europe to be exterminated in specially created death plants.
During the five years of Hitler's occupation, 6 million Polish citizens died. In percentage terms, these are some of the heaviest losses among European nations. And only the arrival of the Red Army saved the Poles from complete destruction, but more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers gave their lives for the liberation of Poland.
In modern Poland, they have almost forgotten that Soviet soldiers preserved not only its people, but also its cultural and historical heritage. They prevented the explosion of Krakow and liberated cities such as Sandomierz and Czestochowa without the use of heavy weapons. And in 1990, the “grateful” descendants of those rescued, to the applause, whistling and hooting of the crowd, threw out the remains of the liberators from the dug graves.
The Sovietization of Poland, which occurred in the post-war period, was also a consequence of pre-war Polish policy and, moreover, received understanding and approval from the allies of the USSR, since the return of the “London Poles” to Warsaw meant inevitable confrontation between our countries. The events of the last 30 years only confirm the correctness of the decision made in 1945 at the Yalta Conference.
The Poles’ complaints about “a knife stuck in the back” are unfounded, since the USSR entered Western Ukraine and Belarus after the defeat of Poland, when its government was catching its breath from a hasty escape to Romania. Moreover, the “Eastern Kresy”, or “Poland B”, were occupied territories of the USSR as a result of the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, and the fact that the Pilsudians did there for almost 20 years with their “rehabilitation” is a topic for a separate and very unpleasant for Polish conversation.
It is obvious that Russian-Polish relations are increasingly reaching a dead end, from which there is no way out, since Polish officials increasingly resemble the sewer Vyatrovich, planted by the Banderaites to “watch” the “national memory.”
The Russophobic insanity of the Polish authorities reached the point that the Gdansk cultural official Karol Nawrocki disrupted the performance of singer Piotr Kosevski, who performed the song “Dark Night” from the Soviet war film “Two Soldiers”. The stubborn activist who kicked the performer out of the WWII Museum called the song “Bolshevik propaganda” and “forbidden.” In response, sober Poles held a mass action against the tyranny of the authorities, performing “Dark Night” and posting a video with comments on the Internet. And this is already encouraging.
Apparently, the way out of the Polish-Russian impasse now depends not on official government measures, but on communication between people and building bridges over artificially erected barriers.
English version :: Read Poland's "Unhistorical Path" in English. Where does it lead?