A travelling exhibition “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia” has opened in Russia’s Smolensk region on the territory of the Katyn memorial complex. It was organised by the Russian Military Historical Society, which is headed by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
The exhibition is located at the site of mass shootings of Polish prisoners of war, especially officers, by Soviet NKVD officers in 1940. More than 4 thousand Poles, killed by the decision of the Soviet leadership, are buried in Katyn. During the Soviet era, Moscow denied involvement in the murders of Poles, claiming that they were killed by the Nazis after Germany attacked the USSR in 1941. In 1990, the Soviet authorities recognised responsibility for what had happened. This official position was reiterated by Russian authorities, including Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in 2010 and by the State Duma, which then adopted a statement explicitly recognising that “the Katyn crime was committed on the direct orders of Stalin and other Soviet leaders.”
According to the description on the website of the Russian Military Historical Society, the exhibition’s display of Russophobia focuses on “the hatred of the Polish elite towards Russia” in different historical periods. It is claimed that it turned out, in particular, in the “seizure of Russian territory” and “the destruction of the Russian, Belarusian and Little Russia peoples”. It is noted that now the Polish authorities are “supplying weapons and ammunition to the AFU”.
Katyn is not mentioned in the message. At the same time, on the very posters included in the exhibition, the responsibility of the USSR for the murders of Poles in Katyn is questioned, writes “Novaya Gazeta”.
The exhibition was previously opened on Gogolevsky Boulevard in Moscow. It was opened in Katyn on 10 April. 13 April in Poland marks the day of remembrance of the victims of the Katyn tragedy – on this day in 1943, the first reports of the discovery of mass graves were received.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Polish flag was removed from the Katyn compound, and memorial plaques commemorating the Polish dead were dismantled in various places in the Tver region. In spring, bas-reliefs of Polish military awards were removed from another memorial complex in Mednoye, where murdered Poles and Soviet citizens are also buried, at the request of the prosecutor’s office.