Recognition without repentance

That Putin did not say in Katyn

“There can be no excuses of the totalitarian regime,” Vladimir Putin said at memorial events in Katyn on April 7. But the condemnation of the crimes of the Stalinist regime does not mean that the state’s attitude to its victims has changed dramatically. So far, we are talking about the rehabilitation of the executed Poles, nor about the resumption of the investigation of the "Katyn case". The New Times sorted out the half of the position of the Russian government
“Repressions were crushing people, without analyzing nationalities, beliefs, religions. Entire classes became their victims: the Cossacks and priests, ordinary peasants, professors and officers - including the tsarist army, who came to serve in the Soviet army and did not spare them - teachers and workers. ” Putin said that we used to hear on mourning actions dedicated to the anniversary of the Stalinist repressions. They used to hear from historians and human rights activists. But not from the Prime Minister of Russia.

Do not wait
A few minutes before his software speech, Putin, along with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tupskoy, knelt before the memorial in memory of the executed Polish officers in Katyn. And this symbolic gesture impressed those present. But nothing followed the gesture. And the Poles expected that Putin would call the Polish officers guilty of the execution. He did not call them. The Poles expected that Putin would transmit the so-called “Belarusian List” to the Prime Minister Tuska-documents about the execution in Belarus in 1940 four thousand Poles. He did not transmit this list.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk shake hands

as a sign of reconciliation

The Poles expected that Putin recognizes the victims of political repression shot in Katyn in Katyn. Not recognized. In the last issue, The New Times told in detail why the relatives of the dead Polish officers, desperate to achieve their rehabilitation in Russia, complained to Strasbourg. At the end of March, the Commissioner of the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights, Georgy Matyushkin, answered questions from Strasbourg judges on complaint No. 29520/09 "Wolf-Sea and others against Russia." The complaint of Polish citizens said that the investigation of the circumstances of the death of their relatives was ineffective and they did not have access to the materials of the criminal case. They complained that they were not recognized as victims in the case of the investigation of the circumstances of the Katyn execution. They complained that neither the main military prosecutor’s office nor the courts recognized their relatives as victims of political repression.

Was there an execution?

The answers of the Russian government are amazing with cynicism and do not leave hope that in the coming years the Russian legal position regarding relatives of Polish officers will be revised.

From the Memorandum on complaint No. 29520/09 “Wolf-Severskaya and others against Russia”:

“... During the investigation, it was found that certain officials from the leadership of the NKVD of the USSR exceeded the powers, as a result of which the so -called“ triple ”made extrajudicial decisions regarding some (!) Polish prisoners of war ...
... it turned out to be impossible to determine the circumstances of the seizure of Polish citizens and their detention in the camps of the NKVD of the USSR, the nature of the charges against them and whether their guilt was proved. It turned out to be impossible to obtain information regarding the execution of the execution of specific persons, since all records were destroyed and it is impossible to restore them. During the investigation of the criminal case ... it was not reliable that the relatives of the applicants died as a result of the crime. Under such circumstances, there are no grounds for recognizing applicants to victims in a criminal case ... "

At the end of the memorandum, even the legality of the investigation of the Katyn execution itself is called into question: “By the time the criminal case was expired, the statute of limitations for criminal liability expired ... Susponds in criminal case No. 159 died before its initiation. Even if the performers of the crime were alive in 2004 (termination of the criminal case. - The New Times), they would be subject to exemption from criminal liability. ”

Covering of the crime

And most importantly: Russia refuses to submit to the European court a decision on the termination of a criminal case, classified in December 2004 (together with 36 volumes of criminal case No. 159), since "this can cause damage to Russia's security." Namely, in this 200-page document in a compressed form, the main evidence in the case of the Katyn execution is set out. “It directly follows from this decree that all people transported from camps to the NKVD department were then shot. From the testimony of all the witnesses interviewed, it is clear that none of them could be saved, ”says Anna Stavitskaya’s lawyer. - The list of persons directed from the camps is in the case file - it is not classified. But in the memorandum of the Russian government, what the prosecutors told us in court: it does not matter that there are these lists, we do not know - maybe these people fled on the way, they were not on the submarine. ”
At the end of the memorandum, the Strasbourg judges are invited to recognize the complaint of the Poles against Russia unacceptable. “In everything that says and is done by representatives of the Russian authorities on the“ Katyn question ”, half -heartedness is felt,” the historian Nikita Petrov told The New Times. - In words, the monstrosity of the Stalin regime is recognized, but in fact nothing is done to restore justice. On the one hand, Putin states that there are no excuses for Soviet arbitrariness, and on the other, preventing specific steps to overcome this shameful past, he and the President of Russia actually become covers of Stalinist crimes. ”

Putin and Tusk in Katyn near the memorial executed Polish officers.

Here both premieres kneeling in memory of the dead

But there is another opinion: the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk believes that the Russian-Polish meeting in Katyn was a “turning point”. Many noticed that the Russian prime minister for the first time in recent years mentioned the name of Stalin in connection with the execution in Katyn. Putin called the execution of Polish officers "of the revenge of Stalin for death in Polish captivity 32 thousand Soviet prisoners of war."
The chairman of the international Memorial Arseny Roginsky appreciated the statements of the Russian prime minister in Katyn as a “step forward”. “For the first time at the official level, the Katynsky plot was called a crime,” says the human rights activist. - This is important for mass consciousness. An assessment of totalitarianism was given. Now it remains to show on the channel “Russia” the film “Katyn”, and then teachers will be able to tell the students: watch this movie, because even Putin believes that Stalin has committed a crime out of revenge. ” However, half -truth, as you know, can be more dangerous than lies. On the one hand, the Katyn crime is recognized and confirmed at the state level, including the statements of Putin Prime Minister. On the other hand, the shamelessness and lies of the answers of the Russian government to the questions of the judges of the Strasbourg Court, the classification of materials, which are already 70 years old. What are the authorities afraid of? What will you have to pay compensation that relatives of executed officers may require if they are recognized as victims of repression? But this (if the question arises about it at all) only money. The reputation of a country that has enough courage to finally part at least with a part of its bloody past - isn't it worth a lot?