- Author:
Lech Wyszczelski
- E-mail:
lech.wyszczelski1942@gmail.com
- Institution:
Akademia Obrony Narodowej w Warszawie, Uniwersytet Przyrodniczo-Humanistyczny w Siedlcach
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2063-4281
- Year of publication:
2023
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
73-94
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/ksm20230304
- PDF:
ksm/39/ksm3904.pdf
Russian “historical policy” towards Poland. The “Anti-Katyń” issue
The Russian Federation ruled by Putin seeks to rebuild the superpower position of the USSR, formerly the Russian Empire. A certain difficulty for her is Poland’s attitude and its eastern policy. Hence the use of information warfare means to combat it, including a specific “historical policy” whose origins date back centuries. Due to the need to admit to committing the Katyn massacre, in order to weaken its meaning, the “Anti-Katyń” issue was promoted, based on the alleged genocide of Poles on Russian prisoners of war in 1919–1920. This is a propaganda invention not confirmed by historical facts.
- Author:
Konrad Słowiński
- E-mail:
konradslowinski@kul.lublin.pl
- Institution:
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3714-8992
- Year of publication:
2024
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
114-146
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/npw20244006
- PDF:
npw/40/npw4006.pdf
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.
- Author:
Ireneusz Topolski
- Institution:
Marie Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7152-8329
- Year of publication:
2024
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
156-171
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/athena.2024.83.09
- PDF:
apsp/83/apsp8309.pdf
The aim of this paper is to analyse the military importance of the Kaliningrad Oblast. The geostrategic location of the Kaliningrad Oblast determines its military importance on a global, regional and local scale. The exclave is a kind of ‘barometer” that determines the state of relations between Russia and the West, which translates into the level of security in the Euro-Atlantic area. On the one hand, the region bordering the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union is extremely important for ensuring Russia’s security and significantly increases the strategic depth in the western direction. Secondly, the military potential deployed in the Kaliningrad Oblast poses the greatest threat to the Baltic states and Poland.