The news agency quoted Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz as saying that the authorities in Warsaw “voiced strong opposition" after top Russian officials, “including in particular President Vladimir Putin and the chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin," made a series of "insinuations” about historical issues in recent days.
Russia’s Putin has reportedly voiced anger at Poland in several of his recent statements, suggesting that Poland was in part responsible for the outbreak of World War II.
Poland’s Przydacz was quoted as saying on Friday that some recent claims by top Russian officials about the causes and course of the war were “based on the propaganda of a totalitarian state” and showed “that the Stalinist narrative is consciously and aggressively trying to enter the Russian historical mindset.”
Przydacz also said that such attempts to falsify history “are the best proof that international efforts are still very much needed to clearly condemn not only Nazi but also Soviet totalitarianism,” the PAP news agency reported.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz. Photo: gov.pl
According to the BBC, Putin has in recent days mentioned Poland and its wartime history five times at key meetings.
While attending a defence ministry board meeting on Tuesday, the Russian leader, “in an unusual outburst,” described the Polish ambassador to Nazi Germany as "scum and an anti-Semite pig," the British public broadcaster has reported on its website.
Two hours later, Putin brought the subject up again at a meeting with parliamentary leaders, with lower-house Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin demanding an apology from Poland, according to the BBC.
The following day, during a meeting with businesspeople, Putin "surprised everyone with how deeply he was immersed in historical materials relating to the start of World War II and Poland's positions," the BBC reported, citing the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
The Russian president has also announced plans to write an article about Poland’s role in World War II, according to the bbc.com website.
The British public broadcaster said Putin's “sudden interest” and criticism of Poland follows a European Parliament resolution that blamed both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for the outbreak of the war more than 80 years ago.
European lawmakers in September passed a resolution condemning a secret agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that opened the door to those countries invading Poland in 1939 and paved the way to the horrors of World War II.
The BBC reported that the Soviet Union has frequently been accused of carving up Poland together with Nazi Germany under its pact of non-aggression with Hitler, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Even though the Soviet Union does not exist anymore, its victory in World War II is “one of the most venerated pillars of state ideology” and is still celebrated in Russia “with much fanfare and bombast every year,” the BBC said.
It noted that Poland’s foreign ministry at the end of last week countered Putin’s accusations in a statement, by describing them as “false narratives.”
Last month, an international conference was held in Washington to discuss topics such as the struggle of Polish soldiers on various fronts of World War II, the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the 1940 Katyn Massacre of almost 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviets.
The Poland First to Fight conference aimed to remind the world that Poles were victims of Nazi German and Soviet occupation, and that Poland as a country suffered massive losses during World War II, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.
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Source: PAP, bbc.com