In relation to the 76th anniversary of the end of #WW2 it is important to remind that since 1989, Poland has not destroyed a single burial site of Red Army soldiers. There is a distinction between respect for soldiers’ burials and maintaining objects glorifying totalitarianism

• emphasized Institute of National Remembrance.

Find below the full statement

The position of the Institute of National Remembrance with regard to statements of representatives of the authorities of the Russian Federation in the context of Soviet World War II cemeteries.

The Institute of National Remembrance is regretfully observing a return by the Russian Federation to methods of distortion of facts known from the darkest times of Soviet totalitarianism. The revival of Stalinist narrative about World War II is accompanied by false accusations against countries such as Poland of destroying cemeteries and graves of Soviet soldiers.

The Institute of National Remembrance is regretfully observing a return by the Russian Federation to methods of distortion of facts known from the darkest times of Soviet totalitarianism. The revival of Stalinist narrative about World War II is accompanied by false accusations against countries such as Poland of destroying cemeteries and graves of Soviet soldiers.

The Russian Federation is well aware of the fact that Soviet cemeteries in Poland are properly maintained and well looked after, often better than such cemeteries in Russia itself. Since regaining independence in 1989 and renouncing its dependence on the Soviet Union, the Republic of Poland has never allowed any graves of Soviet soldiers to be destroyed on its territory. Even when it is necessary to move an existing burial Poland has always ensured compliance with the highest exhumation standards, with the remains of the fallen ceremonially transferred to graves in war quarters. New funerals are held, with representatives of the Russian Federation officially invited to participate. This is always the case, despite widespread knowledge in Poland that the Red Army was used by Stalin in 1944-45 to enslave the entire Polish nation and forcibly impose communist authorities dependent on Moscow.

Polish institutions, official bodies and state offices organise burials of any remains found of Soviet soldiers, whose dignified burial was not taken care of by the Red Army during the war. Representatives of the Russian Federation are always invited to participate in the exhumations of Soviet soldiers, whose remains are still being found every year despite the fact that more than 75 years have passed since the end of the war.

Poland organises funerals showing respect for the death of every soldier. Representatives of the Russian Federation have repeatedly expressed their appreciation for the efforts made by the Polish side. At the same time, they try not to publicise these facts in Russia or internationally. Instead, they promote untrue views and false interpretations.

Poland makes a clear distinction between respect for soldiers’ burials and maintaining propaganda objects glorifying Soviet totalitarianism in Polish towns and cities. In 1939, in alliance with the German Reich, the Soviet Union brought disaster to Poland, with the death and destruction of many of its citizens. The most visible example and symbol of Soviet atrocities are the Katyń Massacre and the ordeal of hundreds of thousands of Polish men, women and children who were brutally deported deep into the USSR and Soviet Gulags. The graves of Polish citizens murdered and exterminated there are scattered all over Russia.

Despite the struggle of the Polish Republic against Germany during World War II, after 1944-45 the USSR was responsible many more decades of enslavement and further victims, with tens of thousands murdered, arrested and deported deep into the USSR. For this reason we cannot agree to the maintenance of propaganda sites glorifying criminal Soviet totalitarianism, just as we cannot agree to the glorification of the totalitarian national socialist German Reich. Our memory of the victims of Soviet enslavement does not allow us to pay tribute to such criminal ideology and a state of oppressors. No nation that respects the memory of innocent victims would be able to accept this.

The double standards of Russian narrative and the distortion of facts do not bear good testimony to the information policy of the Russian Federation.

Soviet soldiers’ cemeteries in Poland - well-kept and respected (Fot. wPolityce.pl):

Attached we provide extensive information from the Institute of National Remembrance on the approach of the Red Army towards fallen soldiers, Polish-Soviet relations, Polish care for Red Army war cemeteries and related issues.

Source: IPN