President Lech Kaczynski will make a speech to commemorate the Soviet invasion of Poland 70 years ago today – many wonder whether it will be diplomatically ‘offensive’.

President Lech Kaczynski will give a speech at the Memorial of Those Murdered in the East of Poland in Warsaw, a monument which commemorates Polish soldiers killed by the Red Army and NKVD special forces or sent to Soviet labour camps in Siberia.

In his speech Kaczynski will point out who is responsible for the attack on 17 September 1939 and what the consequences of the attack were for Poles and Poland. “Without truth there can be no forgiveness,” will be a keynote message in the President’s speech. 

Lech Kaczynski will probably refer to the recent row in Parliament over a draft bill to commemorating 17 September and the heated debate over whether the mass murder of Polish officers in Katyn in 1940 should be called “genocide” or simply a “war crime.” MPs reached a compromise this week where Katyn will be referred to has having the “characteristics of genocide.” 

The government is afraid that the presidential speech may be too strong and possibly offensive and will worsen already difficult Polish-Russian relations.

“We are afraid that Lech Kaczynski wants to wage WW III all over again,” says a source close to Prime Minister Tusk.

The official commemoration events will be accompanied by cultural events with the participation of world renown artist, such as Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance and Klaus Schulze from Tangerine Dream, who will perform a piece “In Tribute to Poland”. (mg)