Disinfo: Poland presents a different history of WWII and ignores facts presented by new documents

Summary

In honour of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Warsaw, documents were published that no one had ever seen. They shed light on the events that happened during the occupation of Poland, even though there was no Poland then, it was a part of the Third Reich. Today in Poland they prefer not to remember this. They present a different [version of] history. In every way, they ignore many facts.

Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism. It accuses Poland of falsification and re-writing of history. According to this policy, the official Russian historiography is the only “true” way of interpreting the historical events of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

On January 9th, the Polish parliament adopted a resolution “condemning the provocative and untrue statements by representatives of the highest authorities of the Russian Federation attempting to hold Poland liable for the Second World War.” In December 2019, Polish Prime Minister issued a statement about false pro-Kremlin narratives attacking Poland - see here.

It is a historical fact that both Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR were harsh totalitarian regimes, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of people. It is a proven historical fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact contained the Secret Supplementary Protocol, which assumed the division of Poland and other Eastern European countries between the USSR and Germany. Thus, the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact enabled the German and Soviet military aggression against Poland in September 1939, which resulted in the occupation of this country by Germany and USSR, triggering the beginning of WWII. According to mainstream Polish historians and the views of the predominant part of Polish society, in 1944-1945 the USSR occupied Poland, establishing the undemocratic and repressive Communist Poland. Poland was kept under the Soviet sphere of influence until 1989.

Pro-Kremlin outlets accuse Europe of "covering-up of facts about the Second World War" and providing an anti-scientific point of view. The European Parliament called the war the bloodiest tragedy of the century, which resulted in millions of victims of authoritarian regimes both of fascist Germany and the USSR. The European Parliament adopted a resolution, describing the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 23 August 1939 as a key element, causing World War II:

The Second World War, the most devastating war in Europe’s history, was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, whereby two totalitarian regimes that shared the goal of world conquest divided Europe into two zones of influence.

Read similar examples of the Russian historical revisionism concerning Poland - It is thanks to Russia that Poland today exists as a country, Nazi Germany considered Poland its best ally, USSR was forced and reluctant to sign Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Poland wages information war against Russia and that the EU fiercely rewrites the history of WWII.

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ru.armeniasputnik.am (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 182
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 20/01/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Poland, Russia
  • Keywords: Historical revisionism, WWII
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