- Статьи
- World
- "No one remembered that Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland and Europe were liberated from Nazism by the Red Army"
"No one remembered that Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland and Europe were liberated from Nazism by the Red Army"
Young Poles, like their peers in other Western countries, mostly believe that the United States, Great Britain and Poland won the Second World War, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev told Izvestiya. According to the diplomat, this year the Russian embassy in the republic will hold a series of actions to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Polish cities from fascism. But he noted that Russian representatives are not given the opportunity to speak at the memorial events on the occasion of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Auschwitz. Against this background, the campaign to destroy monuments to Soviet soldiers continues, and Russophobic sentiments are being fueled in Polish society. Despite this, there are few organizations in Poland that try to preserve historical truth.
"This is an outrageous manifestation of historical revisionism."
- On January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland's Auschwitz will be held, with Warsaw once again not inviting the Russian side. Why is this possible?
- Let me start by saying that yesterday there was a briefing at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the official representative of the Ministry, Maria Zakharova, gave a very strong commentary, where all the accents are set out as clearly as possible. I highly recommend reading it. Returning to your question - this is not the first year this has been happening. At the previous such event, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 2020, Russia was still represented, and I was assigned to be there. But the situation has changed a lot since then. The following year, even before the beginning of the SWO, fundamental changes were made to the scenario of these events. For the first time in 2021, the ambassadors of Israel and Russia were not given the floor. Previously, when international representation was at the level of heads of diplomatic missions, the floor was always given not only to representatives of Poland, former prisoners of Nazi camps, but also to the ambassadors of Israel and Russia.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. It was the largest and longest-lasting of the Nazi extermination camps, so it became one of the main symbols of the Holocaust. The exact number of death camp inmates who died has not been established to this day.
This was a matter of principle for us, because after 2014, at these events, except for the Russian representative, no one remembered that Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland and Europe were liberated from Nazism by the Red Army. This was done under the politically correct pretext that it was important to focus on the suffering, the fate, the prisoners of the death camp. This is certainly fair enough. That is why January 27, the day of liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the Red Army, is celebrated as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date combines the memory of both the victims of the Holocaust and the liberators who ended it and liberated the world. So what is happening now around the commemorative events related to the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp cannot be called anything other than the abolition of historical memory.
Central gate of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Auschwitz
Just as they are now trying to denigrate Russia in various fields: politics, economics, culture, and so on, so assertively, unscrupulously they are trying to cancel Russia and its role in world history. Of course, these futile attempts are doomed to failure, but it is all the more important for us to preserve the real memory of the true history of our country, its role in the world and not to allow anyone to mock this memory.
- Has any formal document been adopted preventing the Russian Federation from being invited to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz?
- Until 2015, high-level events on the round and semicircular anniversaries of the liberation of the camp were held under the auspices of the President of Poland. They were officially organized by the Polish authorities. Official invitations were sent out. Vladimir Putin came to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp in 2005. But in 2014, everything changed after the coup d'état in Ukraine, Crimea returned to Russia, and the situation in Donbass escalated.
And when preparations began for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January 2015, the organizers faced the question: what about Russians? Not to invite the president of Russia? It is inconvenient, but it is also unthinkable to invite. Then they came up with the idea that henceforth and henceforth these events are no longer organized by the Polish state, but by the museum's directorate. And the directorate is not in the position to send invitations to foreign leaders. So the directorate simply announced that there would be events, and whoever wanted to come to them could come.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a tour of the museum exposition in block 14 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Auschwitz, January 27, 2005.
In our protocol practice, high-level visits are not organized "by announcement". At that time it was decided that a delegation headed by the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, would come to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And five years later, I was assigned to represent Russia - there was still some decorum then. But now we proceed from the fact that it is unacceptable for us to be present at a place where, at best, they will keep silent about us, and at worst, they will simply be rude to us, and we will be forced to listen to it in silence, because no one is going to give us the floor. On the part of the West, all this is an outrageous manifestation of historical revisionism and simple immorality.
"The process of fighting against monuments has not stopped"
- This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. What events on this occasion does the embassy hold in Poland?
- On January 17, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Warsaw was celebrated. We and our Polish friends were at the memorial cemetery of Soviet soldiers here in Warsaw and laid wreaths there. January 19 was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Krakow. In general, it is a special story, because the former Polish capital is the most beautiful city, which remained intact, unlike Warsaw, destroyed by Hitlerites by 90%. Krakow was liberated almost undamaged thanks to the actions of the Red Army and the fact that Marshal Ivan Konev gave the order not to fire artillery at the city so as not to damage the cultural heritage sites. Thanks to the outstanding operation of our intelligence, it was possible to thwart Hitler's plans to blow up Krakow. Many buildings were mined, but the efforts of our scouts, in particular Alexei Botyan, foiled these plans.
Memorial Cemetery-Mausoleum of Soviet Soldiers in Warsaw
Up to May the anniversaries of liberation of large Polish cities will alternate. At the end of April we traditionally go to Braniewo in the north of Poland, near the border with the Kaliningrad region, where the largest in Europe cemetery of Soviet soldiers is located. More than 30 thousand Red Army soldiers and officers are buried there. And on May 9, we traditionally hold commemorative ceremonies here in Warsaw and at our consulates general in Krakow and Gdansk.
- Has the process of fighting against monuments to Soviet soldiers in Poland stopped or at least slowed down?
- No, it has not stopped. In 2017, amendments to the so-called decommunization law were adopted. Among other things, monuments "propagandizing the totalitarian system, including the communist system" are subject to decommunization. The law does not explicitly say so, but the accompanying documents clearly explained that the so-called decommunization, removal from public space is subject to the so-called decommunization, including the monuments to the Red Army soldiers, the Soviet-Polish brotherhood in arms, because, allegedly, these monuments promote communism. No objections were taken into account regarding the fact that these are, in fact, monuments to people who fought and died on Polish territory. During the liberation of Poland more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers died - more than during the liberation of all other European countries combined.
Monument to the Soviet-Polish brotherhood in arms in the center of Legnica
In total, during the liberation campaign of the Red Army in 1944-1945, about one million Red Army soldiers died outside the borders of the Soviet Union. Over 600 thousand of them were killed in Poland. Thanks to these people, thanks to the Victory, there is today's Poland, Poles live on their land. According to Hitler's plan "Ost", 85% of Poles were to be exterminated or deported somewhere far away to Siberia. The remainder were to be Germanized or presumed to be used as slave labor. No objections to the fact that this is an insult, a desecration of the memory of those thanks to whom Poland exists today at all, were simply not taken into account.
- Are there people or organizations that help you preserve historical memory in Poland?
- Yes, there are a small number of public organizations, Poles who are not indifferent, mostly people of age, who still remember from personal experience what it was like in the times when the Soviet Union and Poland were friends, who remain on the positions on which they were brought up. But the majority are either under the influence of the massive Russophobic propaganda that is being carried out in Poland by the political elites and the mainstream media, or they prefer not to get involved.
The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Liberation of Poland from Nazi troops
Unfortunately, the outlook is bleak. Already now the younger generations of Poles, as well as citizens of other Western countries, mostly believe that the United States and Great Britain won World War II, Poland was there somewhere with them, and the Soviet Union, as Trump just said, at best "helped" the United States win the war. There are those who can also say, when asked who fought who, that "the Soviet Union fought on the side of Germany, against the free world". There are very few people who are really ready to support us in word and deed. And the majority are either agreeers or active opponents who adhere to the approach that now Russia is "the enemy of free Europe", including Poland, and therefore all means are good in confronting it.
