The board brought to the scandal

The anniversary of the tragedy near Smolensk, where on April 10 last year, 96 members of the Polish delegation, headed by President Lech Kachinsky, were killed in a plane crash, could well contribute to the further Russian-Polish rapprochement, which began literally in the first days after the catastrophe on the basis of sincere sympathy, the Polish grief and our people and representatives of the authorities. But it seems that it will not. Before the mourning events really began to begin, the scandal erupted. It is associated with the replacement of a memorial plate on a memorable stone established by the relatives of the dead at the site of the disaster near Smolensk. Now it is no longer written on it that the Polish delegation flew to honor the memory of the dead in Katyn.

Advisor to the Polish President Tomash Nalench expressed the opinion that the stone plate was replaced without an instruction of the Kremlin. Of course, the Polish side would very much like to think so as not to raise a scandal to a higher level. However, knowing the true degree of independence of Russian governors, especially when it comes to problems related to foreign policy, the Smolensk governor, who at the same time tried to shift responsibility to the city authorities, is hard to believe. Especially considering that the tablet was removed hastily, on the night of April 9, just before the arrival of the first Polish delegation, led by the wife of President Anna Komorovskaya, so that the Polish side would not have time to declare a protest. Obviously, President Medvedev really did not want to lay a wreath to the stone, the inscription on which reminded the Soviet crime in Katyn.

Undoubtedly, the incident with the memorial board near Smolensk adds points of the Polish opposition on the eve of the parliamentary elections, allowing it to once again criticize the current government for excessive concession to Moscow. Moreover, according to the latest surveys, today 70 percent of the Poles, along with the opposition, believe that the circumstances of the disaster near Smolensk will never be clarified until the end (only 50 percent of such skeptics). The Kremlin does not want the Party "Law and Justice" to the authorities in Warsaw, which is distinguished by a much more sharp tone in relation to Russia.

But, as it seems, the Russian elite is unable to overcome the complex of the older brother in relation to Poland. Poles, they say, need to indicate their place. So that all signs of signs with seditious inscriptions about "genocide" do not dare arbitrarily. Maybe one of the Kremlin political technologists gave the idea with a replacement of a sign so that on the days of the anniversary the Polish seal concentrated on the question of replacing a memorial inscription, and not on disagreement about the investigation of the disaster near Smolensk.

However, even if such a plan existed, it turned out that the episode with a signs on a memorable stone became a significant appendage to Russian accusations of silence the circumstances of the tragedy, and did not supplant these accusations from the pages of newspapers. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in an interview with BBC said that the Russians are hiding the details of the Smolensk catastrophe "not because there are some terrible secrets, but because, as a rule, they do not like to recognize their mistakes and weaknesses." Yes, this is really our national trait. But I think that in addition to the reluctance to recognize errors and responsibility for genocide in Katyn, in the case of a memorial plate, an imperial desire to put former Russian subjects in a place was also manifested so that they would not dare to erect their monuments and publicly criticize the older brother without permission.

But if desired, the issue with a sign could be solved quietly, without a scandal and to universal satisfaction. It was possible, for example, to agree that the word "genocide" will be replaced by the word "execution" on the plate, since the Russian side reacts so painfully to the genocide committed during the time of Stalin. And, of course, it was not necessary to turn the replacement of the signs into a provocation, carrying out this on the most eve of mourning events. And the statement of the Smolensk governor about the fact that “the tragedy with an airplane is one story, and the tragedy in the Katyn forest is a completely different”, and the proposal of the Smolensk administration to give the Poles their memorial plate with the words about the genocide or send it to the Katynsky memorial near Smolensk as a mockery of memory and Katynsky and Smolensk victims. After all, it is well known that the Polish president and the people accompanying him were heading for the mourning ceremony in Katyn. But it seems that the imperial desire was more strongly to humiliate the Poles again (the first such humiliation after the Smolensk catastrophe was the publication of the Mac's tendentious report).

And another episode that fits into the same imperial complex. More recently, a collection of articles of the Russian-Polish group on complex issues "White spots. Black spots" (M.: Aspect-Press, 2010) was published in Russian and Polish. The article "Katyn Crime" by Andrzej Pshvyvodnik, secretary of the Council for the Protection of Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom, among the 96 passengers of the presidential plane of the deceased in the disaster near Smolensk (his name on the title of the book, was imprisoned). And on the 335th page in the text of his article, I read the phrase that surprised me, which is indicated "undertaken after 1990 by historians and publicists associated with the government circles of the Polish Republic, actions aimed at concealing and falsifying the truth about the Katyn murder, which is the subject of annoyance and irritation of the Poles." I know perfectly well that in Poland there are simply no historians and publicists, all the more connected with the government circles of the Polish Republic, "who would try to revive the old Soviet version that the Germans carried out the execution in Katyn. My Polish friends kindly provided me with the Polish edition of this book (Białe Plamy-Czarne Plamy. Sprawy Trudne W Polsko-Rosyjskich Stosunkach 1918-2008. Warszawa, 2010). There, in the text of Pshevik, on the 332nd page instead of “With the government circles of the Polish Republic” it is written literally: “With government circles of the Russian Federation” (z kręgami rządowymi federacji rosyjskiej). Then everything falls into place.

In Russia, there are many not only publicists, but also rather prominent politicians, like the recently deceased Viktor Ilyukhin, who, so far, contrary to firmly established facts, claim that Stalin is innocent in the execution of the Poles in Katyn, as they were as if the Germans were shot in the 41st. And it was not a mistake to say that these publicists are connected with Russian ruling circles, since the films where they set out their version appeared until recently on federal television channels, actually controlled by the Russian government. It is unlikely that we are talking about a typo. It is hard to believe that someone could recruit the Polish Republic instead of the "Russian Federation". Rather, it should be assumed that the co -chair of the group on controversial issues from the Russian side and (or) the editors of the Russian publication were frightened that the Russian government was criticized in the text of the pshvystvik, and preferred to shift the guilt from the sore head to a healthy one, attributing to the Polish historian a word that he could not say in a terrible dream. All the same, after all, they knew that the melting of the Russian translation of the pshvyznik would no longer read.

I think here, in addition to fear of the authorities, played the role of the same dismissive attitude. With the Poles, they say, you can do as they would never dare to do with the Americans. I think that the leaders of the group on difficult issues from the Russian side need to at least publicly apologize to the Pshevik family, as well as send out the liner indicating the error in his article to all addressees of the newsletter “White spots. Black spots”.

Already in May, the group on difficult issues is supposed to be transformed into the center of dialogue and consent of Poland and Russia, which will fulfill wider functions, in particular, to combine the efforts of not only historians, but also journalists of the two countries in the coverage of not only problems of history, but also current events in Russian-Polish relations. If the Russian side will continue in this way to cheat in matters of history and modernity, it is unlikely that the work of the center of dialogue and consent will proceed in a non -conflict atmosphere.