Lech Kaczyński’s tragic death was a direct cause of the détente in PolishRussian relations, proclaimed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin just after the Polish Air Force Tu-154 Crash. However this rapprochement is far from the political concept of the President. Considering the Polish internal debate on a proper form of Polish-Russian relations, I would like – in this short article to present a way as to how President Kaczyński understood challenges, that both nations have to pick up.

Katyn crime, also known as the Katyn massacre, was one of those historical facts that were kept secret for a very long time. From 1943 when it was revealed to 1990 the soviet Union denied their responsibility for the massacre. Eventually, publishing the original documents on the order of Borys Jecyn and handing tchem down to Poland on 14 October 1992 definitely confirmed the perpetrators of the crime. In the historic consciousness of both Polish and Russian societies there are still many questions and doubts about “the background of the picture” of Katyn crime. Therefore I found it very sensible to analyze the problem of Katyn crime in various history course books in Poland and Russia.

After the collapse of the communist political system both countries Poland and Russia introduced new history course books in all types of schools. The new course books not only mention the problem of Katyn crime but also say who was responsible for it. However, the Russians try to neutralize the crime by so called anti-Katyn, emphasizing the death of several thousands of Soviet soldiers imprisoned in Poland in the war of 1920 and after it.

Katyn crime, also known as the Katyn massacre, committed on the orders of the authority of the Soviet country, then treated as classified information, finally totally denied, was one of those historical facts that were kept secret for a very long time. From 1943 when it was revealed to 1990 the soviet Union denied their responsibility for the massacre. It changed on 13 April 1990 when the government agency TASS released the official statement confirming the soviet commission of the crime. Therefore I found it very sensible to analyze the problem of Katyn crime in various history course books in Poland and Russia, formerly The Soviet Union.

In the communist times in Poland the authors of history course books generally omitted the problem although surprisingly it appeared in so called Stalin times and in the eighties when Poland was governed by general Wojciech Jaruzelski.

It looked similar in the Soviet Union. The situation changed at the end of Michail Gorbaczow pierestojka and glasnost period when the students of the 11th grade were informed in their history course books about the death of Polish officers in Katyn in 1940.

Memory nodes. The issue of the Katyn massacre in Polish-Russian relations

The article focuses on discussing the impact of the conditions regarding the Katyn massacre on the current relations between Warsaw and Moscow. The history of these two countries is characterized by a long and difficult past, which is why numerous unresolved disputes, burdens and myths have arisen and are still visible today, negatively affecting bilateral contacts. In 1989, right after the fall of the communist system in Poland, the new political elites, coordinating the process of democratic changes in our country, made efforts to sort out the controversial threads in the common Polish-Russian history. Without a doubt, the most important of them was the Katyn massacre. For the political elites of the Third Polish Republic, explaining the overall circumstances of those events was the most important goal of diplomatic activities undertaken towards the Kremlin. In Warsaw’s opinion, untangling this knot of memory from the history of relations between the two countries was supposed to help free them from past burdens and negative accumulations and contribute to strengthening friendship in current times. Unfortunately, it quickly turned out that this topic soon became one of the main elements negatively burdening mutual relations.