Katyn genocide victims' bodies recovered

The Polish - Russian Historical Commission concluded their two-day session in Moscow. Historians and politicians discussed the painful history of both nations in the period 1918 until the present times. The talks focused mainly on the 1940 Katyn genocide, still largely denied by the Russian side.

Joanna Najfeld reports

In the Spring of 1940 in Russian forests, at Stalin's personal order, the Soviet NKVD executed over 20 thousand Polish citizens - soldiers and civilians, the intellectual elite of the country. Over decades of communist domination in Eastern Europe, the massacre was denied or silenced. Russians tried to put the blame on Germans and the families of Katyn genocide victims were persecuted and repressed.

The issue of Katyn genocide has ever since been a burden on Polish-Russian relations. A thaw took place in early 1990s, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin passed to Polish authorities the copies of Soviet documents ordering the massacre.

But later the policy of denial and silencing was reintroduced. Russian leaders have made statements deemed scandalous by the Polish side. Russian media have been notorious in Katyn genocide denial and children have for years learned from their history textbooks that the massacre either never took place or Soviets were not to blame.

Aleksandr Gurianov is the head of the Polish section of the Memorial Association, fighting in Russian courts for the judicial rehabilitation of Katyn genocide victims. He says the Russian judiciary is also very stubborn in pushing their version of history. 'From our point of view, the court is acting against the law. We have a long way before us,' Gurianov said.

The sessions of the Polish - Russian historical commission have not gone very smoothly either. The commission gathered to explain all circumstances, as the members said, of the crime committed by Stalin's regime and finally solve the question of the Katyn genocide. However, opening the meeting, Russian foreign minister said it was a heresy to compare Stalin's rule with Hitler. Commentators started wondering what does each side consider as solving the divisive issues. Examining the truth or shutting down the debate once and for all?

Finally, after two days of discussions, the commission decided on a joint publication. Polish and Russian historians are to describe most controversial issues from their separate points of view and these are to be published within one book, chapter by chapter in two voices. The book is to be out in two languages in 2009.

One of the chapters will concern the fate of Russian POWs during the Polish-Russian war of 1919-1921. This issue is often raised by the Russian side as their counter argument to the Katyn massacre.

'Russia is trying to balance its responsibility for the Katyn massacre by trying to show that Poland is not so innocent either. Such statements from the Russian side are pure propaganda and instruments to counterbalance the Katyn massacre,' says Wojciech Konończuk, a Polish expert on Russia, of the Center for Eastern Studies. Polish historians have presented a lot of evidence that the death of Russian POWs in 1920 in Poland was in no way comparable to the Katyn murders. Russian captives died in an epidemic, which killed many Polish soldiers and civilians alike, while Polish officers in Katyn were individually shot in the head by the NKVD at Stalin's personal order, explains Konończuk:

'From the beginning of 1990s, some nationalistic circles in Russia started to claim that Poland is responsible for mass-killing of soldiers who became POWs during the famous Polish-Soviet War. In fact, this is an attempt to create an "anti-Katyn" to justify the real Katyn. But, the latest Polish and Russian historical research definitely proved that such charges are groundless. The victims among Russian captive soldiers were not a result of planned extermination or genocide but disastrous epidemics. This Russian attempt to revise history, although not supported officially by the Kremlin or Russian authorities are aimed at a propaganda effect among Russians and many simple Russians indeed believe it's true.'

With such discrepancies in the understanding of history in the public and political spheres, is it feasible to expect Russia to admit to the genocide, so that both countries can close the issue once and for all? Professor Jan Malicki of Warsaw University is sceptical Russia is able and willing to do that: 'Poland cannot resign from considering the truth about the Katyn genocide a sacred cause. But on the other side the Russians look at it completely different. They treat Polish officers as enemies of the Soviet Union.' The logic of Katyn massacre denial is at the core of Russia's political identity and we cannot realistically expect that to change anytime soon, added Professor Malicki.