-
Soldiers stand guard by the monument of World War Two in Poland - Source: Reuters -
Related
Polish President Lech Kaczynski warned against efforts to
rewrite history as nearly 20 European leaders gathered on Poland's
Baltic coast to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World
War II.
Russia and its former satellites in Eastern Europe are at
loggerheads over the role of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1939,
when he clinched a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that
opened the way for the invasion of Poland and World War II.
While Russians are deeply proud of their country's victory over
Hitler in 1945, Poles, Balts and others say Stalin also bears
direct responsibility for the outbreak of war for carving up Poland
with Hitler and also annexing the Baltic States.
"(We need) to oppose attempts to write history anew, to question
the truths of World War II, the scale of the casualties of Nazism
and also of total Communism," Kaczynski wrote in the Polish daily
Rzeczpospolita.
Echoing that view, communist-era Polish dissident Adam Michnik
wrote in Gazeta Wyborcza: "For us, as for many Russian democrats,
Stalin was a criminal and an aggressor. The creator of the lands of
the Gulag is entirely comparable with Hitler."
At a ceremony held before dawn at Westerplatte on the Baltic coast,
where the Germans fired the first shots against Poland at the start
of their invasion on September 1, 1939, Kaczynski compared the
Soviet Union's murder of 20,000 Polish officers in the forest at
Katyn and elsewhere to the Nazi genocide against the Jews.
"What's the comparison between the Holocaust and Katyn? There's one
thing linking those crimes, though their scale was different. Jews
perished because they were Jews. Polish officers perished because
they were Polish officers," he said.
Humility
"It's not Poland that has to learn the lesson of humility. We have
no reason for that. Others have - those who caused this war,"
Kaczynski, a conservative nationalist, told a gathering of war
veterans and government officials.
Poland wants Russia to apologise for Stalin's decision to have the
entire Polish officer corps shot at Katyn in 1940.
For decades, Moscow blamed the deaths on the Nazis, but after the
fall of the Soviet Union it acknowledged they had been shot on
Stalin's orders.
Kaczynski has been a fierce critic of Russia's approach to former
Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia, saying Moscow has not
abandoned what he calls its imperialistic stance towards its
neighbours.
Poles and other east Europeans are keenly awaiting a speech by
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin scheduled for later in the
day, though Russian officials have played down suggestions he might
issue an apology for Stalin's actions during the war.
Putin has urged Poles to set aside historical grievances and forge
a forward-looking partnership with Moscow.
In bilateral talks on Tuesday morning with Polish Prime Minister
Donald Tusk, Putin was expected to focus on security and energy
issues.
Polish television showed the two men chatting in Russian and
English on the pier at Sopot, a seaside resort next to the city of
Gdansk.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
