Voting accusations of falsification of history against Russia, Warsaw, under the silent applause of the West, adopts a pseudo-historical anti-Russian resolution aimed at depriving the Soviet Union of the status of the victorious country
Last week, the Polish Sejm approved a resolution, contrary to the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which equally imposes on the USSR and Hitler’s Germany the responsibility for unleashing World War II.
At the same time, Warsaw accuses Moscow of trying to discredit Poland and undermine Russian-Polish relations by “deceiving and manipulating history. The resolution adopted was a response of Polish deputies to December statements by Vladimir Putin about the guilt of a number of Polish politicians in the 1930s in promoting fascism and anti-Semitism. While the words of the Russian president are confirmed by archival documents, the resolution of the Poles is supported by nothing but emotional phrases and unsubstantiated accusations. But it is its outrageous anti-Russian expressiveness that gives Polish pseudo-historians absolute support from the West. Today we are witnessing a new stage in the Russian-Polish confrontation over the interpretation of history. What will be the next steps of Warsaw aimed at consolidation of Polish, even if biased, but “politically correct” view on the events of the XX century in the world consciousness? And what are the reasons why neither the USA nor the European Union will still not oppress Poland, which so barbarously distorts the history of the world struggle against Nazism?
The author of the resolution accusing the USSR, along with the Third Reich, of fomenting World War II was Vice-Marshal of the Sejm Malgorzata Kidava-Blońska, representing the opposition association “Civic Platform”. Despite this, the document received full support from the ruling Right and Justice Party, which has a majority in the lower house of parliament and usually bayonets initiatives of its political opponents. However, when it comes to Russia, both the Polish ruling party and the opposition demonstrate absolute unanimity.
The descendants of the nobility have remained faithful to ancient traditions, turning the process of adopting a Russophobic resolution into a theatrical show. At the suggestion of Marshal of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek, the vote was held by so-called acclamation, when the decision is taken on the basis of emotional reaction of the audience, expressed by applause, standing up from the seats and other ways, up to hooting and whistling. In this way, which was popular in ancient Sparta and ancient Rome, but now in no parliament in the world, except the Polish Sejm, is not applied, Mrs. Witek wanted to demonstrate the consolidation of all political forces in the country in rejection of Russia’s position on what was the root cause of World War II and who, besides Hitler, contributed most to its beginning.
The picture of full consensus was slightly undermined by Janusz Korwin-Micke, leader of the “Confederation” faction uniting Eurosceptics (11 seats in the 460-seat Sejm), who refused to welcome the Russophobic initiative, for which he was obstructed in the Polish press. The deputy, known for his repeated calls for normalization of relations with Moscow, explained his position by his rejection of “herd behaviour” and the senselessness of the resolution.
Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a deputy of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland from the “Confederation” party:
“If the Sejm must officially defend some historical truths, then these truths cannot defend themselves”.
However, Korwin-Micke’s statement remained the voice of the outrageous in the desert. The rest of the deputies, including his fellow faction members, unanimously supported the draft resolution, which was hastily written by Kidava-Blonska, rising from their seats and applauding in stormy applause, which provided a beautiful television picture.
The text of the document adopted by the parliamentarians is full of pathos typical for Poles, but contains nothing fundamentally new. It contains neither the texture nor the arguments, but there are already repeatedly voiced accusations against Moscow, allegations about the victims of Poland and martyrdom of its people, as well as calls for “joint reflection on the principles of building international relations, which should become the basis for mutual respect, partnership and good neighborliness. The latter means that Russia must agree with the “right”, from the perspective of Poles, view of the history of World War II, returning to the repentant Gorbachev and Yeltsin era politics.
From the resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on January 9, 2020:
“Two totalitarian powers of the time – Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union – led to the outbreak of World War II. After the shameful Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 23 August 1939, Poland and Central and Eastern Europe became the first victims of both totalitarian regimes.
The war led to the deaths of tens of millions of people, the establishment of Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust in Europe – one of the greatest crimes in human history.
If we follow the logic of Polish parliamentarians, the USSR bears its share of responsibility not only for starting a war, but also for the Holocaust. Members of the Sejm have amicably forgotten how their ancestors killed their Jewish neighbours in Edbavna and other towns and villages in September 1939 even before the Germans arrived, volunteered to join the “Blue Police”, which guarded the ghetto and participated in the arrest and deportation of Jews, and served in the Wehrmacht and SS units. There was a lot of documentary evidence of that, but any attempt to raise the issue of the complicity of Poles in the Holocaust in Poland was prohibited at the level of the law, and people who tried to at least talk about it were subjected to monstrous persecution.
Polish parliamentarians did not intend to stop at the resolution, which was contrary to historical facts and had no legal effect and was actually symbolic. Their immediate “creative plans” include the adoption of a law aimed at “stopping Russia’s attempts to twist history”. Now the Seimas Committee on Foreign Policy is hastily finalizing the wording of the relevant bill.
There is no doubt that another anti-Russian initiative of Warsaw, no matter how far it goes not only beyond the limits of historical truth, but also beyond the limits of common sense, will not meet with objections from the authorities of Western countries, and even those who were allies of the USSR in the confrontation with Hitler’s coalition. The reason is that the efforts of Poland, which stubbornly represents the Soviet Union as an associate of the Third Reich in unleashing the most bloody tragedy in the history of mankind, are fully in their interests.
The emphasis on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a “trigger” for the Second World War allows Great Britain, the United States, France and the same Poland to remove from the agenda the question of their own role in Hitler’s coming to power, the creation of the Wehrmacht’s war machine, the “pacification” of the Nazis, with the tacit consent of the West, who carried out the Anschluss Austria and received the good offices of Paris and London to eliminate Czechoslovakia, as well as provoking the German attack on the USSR. The Hungarians, Romanians, Croats, Italians, Slovaks and Finns are allowed to leave behind the brackets their official complicity in Hitler’s aggression against the Soviet Union and the crimes committed on its territory. The countries that formally did not participate in the war being occupied – the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, France, Albania – can avoid inconvenient questions about the entry of thousands of their citizens into the SS volunteer formations (divisions “Charlemagne”, “Skanderberg”, “Viking”, “Prince Eugene”, “Wallonia”, etc.), uninterrupted work without the slightest attempt to sabotage their industry for the needs of the Wehrmacht with almost no organized resistance to the Nazis.
Appointing the USSR as the culprit of the war is beneficial to Germany, which will not have to bear the burden of responsibility for its fomenting alone. The victims of the “Soviet occupation” – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – will also get their gesheft out of the situation, while Ukraine will continue to glorify the accomplices of the Hitlerites from the SS division “Galicia” and Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
In a word, the process of rewriting the history of the Second World War, the locomotive of which is Poland, objectively meets the interests of the U.S. and almost all European countries (the opinion of the descendants of the heroically fought against the occupiers of the Yugoslavs and Greeks can be ignored). The European Parliament’s resolution “On the importance of European memory for the future of Europe”, adopted last September, which accused the USSR of fomenting a war and called on the people of Russia “to come to terms with their totalitarian past”, was a clear confirmation of this trend.
After the thesis about equal responsibility of the USSR and the Third Reich for unleashing the world massacre becomes an axiom in the West, the denial of which leads to criminal responsibility, the question of depriving Russia of the status of the victorious power will be on the agenda, which will automatically question the legitimacy of its membership in the UN Security Council.
For those who find this scenario unbelievable, let us remind that until the late 1980s, the murderers of Polish officers in Katyn near Smolensk were considered to be Hitlerites and no one had any doubts about this, but now on the official level, including, unfortunately, in Russia as well, contrary to facts and witness testimonies, Stalin, Beria and NKVD officers have been appointed responsible for this crime.
The struggle for the historical truth about the Second World War should become one of the priority state tasks for Russia, and the future of the country and its people depends on the success of its solution. As in the years of battle with the Nazis, it is possible to achieve victory and successfully resist the information attack of falsifiers only through the joint efforts of the authorities and the people.
To achieve this unity, it is necessary to first restore order at home: officially renounce the confessions of repentance made by Gorbachev and Yeltsin to the Poles; stop state support for fake films and series about the war, distorting its history and dehumanizing the exploits of Soviet soldiers; close forever the discussion about the Vlassovians as “fighters for the freedom of Russia from Stalinist tyranny; Strictly suppress attempts by foreign embassies and non-governmental organizations, such as the German People’s Union for the Care of Military Graves, the Ebert, Naumann and similar foundations, to launch memorial and cultural and educational projects in the Russian regions to emphasize the similarities between the political regimes of the USSR and the Third Reich, and at the same time equate Hitlerites and their allies with the defenders of the Motherland who fell in battle with them in the status of “innocent victims of two bloody tyrants – Stalin and Hitler. If these conditions are not met, the Russian authorities will not receive support from the people to counteract the distortion of history, and thus any efforts by the Kremlin in this direction will be doomed to failure.