Katyn Forest, 1940Russia wants to establish a revisionist committee to investigate ‘distortions of the historical record’ caused by Polish historians, informs radio Echo Moskvy.
The President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, has signed a decree to create the Committee for the Counteraction against Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia. “We need to free Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian and Estonian historians from the oppression of their countries’ dictatorships,” says Sergey Markov, a politician of United Russia, a major pro-president party.
Apart from Markov, the committee will consist of Russian politicians, historians, officials and secret service agents, including the head of Russian intelligence. It will investigate, they argue, distortions of the historical record caused by foreign historians as, in Markov’s opinion, “there are no such cases in Russia”.
Markov claims that in Russia’s neighbouring countries, like Poland, Latvia, Ukraine and Estonia, the ruling elites are instilling an anti-Russian ideology and continue falsifying history. The newly established committee is to try and halt such attempts and “reveal historical truth”, says Markov.
Several disputes have occurred among Russian, Polish and other countries formerly under the influence of the Soviet Union over the historical record and Stalinist crimes. Polish historians and politicians are particularly annoyed at Moscow’s refusal to take full responsibility for the murder of over 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn massacres of 1940, which Warsaw says amounted to attempted “genocide”.
Post-Soviet governments have rejected the war crimes charges. Others in Russia still argue that the Soviets was not to blame at all and stick to the original explanation given after the graves of the officers were found during WW II that the Nazis were responsible for the deaths. (mg/pg)