Poland accused Vladimir Putin of manipulating history after he wrote an article in which he said that the pre-war Polish government had thrown "its people under the roller of Hitler's machine of destruction."
This article was published just a week before Vladimir Putin hosts the annual Victory Parade, canceled earlier due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and ahead of a nationwide referendum that could see him remain in power until 2036.
Vladimir Putin uses the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 as an argument to justify Russia's special place in the world.
Dwelling in detail on the events of 1939, Vladimir Putin writes that Poland itself is to blame for the Nazi invasion of its territory in September.
"The tragedy of Poland is entirely on the conscience of the then Polish leadership, which prevented the conclusion of the Anglo-French-Soviet military alliance and relied on the help of Western partners, and put its people under the roller of Hitler's machine of destruction," he says.
He further writes that the military formations of the Red Army were introduced into "the so-called eastern crusades - now these are parts of the territory of Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania", instead of writing that the Soviet Union invaded Poland in accordance with the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
Poland reacted with indignation.
Stanislaw Zaryn, director of the National Security Department of the Polish Prime Minister's Office, said: “This is not the first time that a Russian president has manipulated history to present a false picture of World War II. The "war of memory" that Russia continues is aimed at whitewashing the shameful Soviet past, erasing from the collective memory the fact that Stalin and Hitler colluded with each other during the war, and reinforcing the myth that the Soviet Union was the only winner of Nazi Germany."
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In the 1990s, the Russian authorities publicly condemned and apologized for numerous crimes committed by the Soviet regime. In recent years, however, the Kremlin has tried to whitewash its wartime history, arguing, among other things, that the 1939 signing of a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, which divided Europe into spheres of influence, was a forced measure.
Matthew Day, Nataliya Vasilyeva