Moscow sparks outrage with 'Polish Russophobia' show at Katyn massacre site

Russia opened an accumulation titled "10 Centuries of Polish Russophobia" astatine the Katyn memorial analyzable connected 10 April, drafting condemnation from Polish officials and victims' families who called the timing and determination "disgusting malice".

The accumulation opened connected the 16th day of the Smolensk aerial disaster, which resulted successful the deaths of 96 radical including Polish President Lech Kaczyński and his woman Maria connected 10 April 2010, and 3 days earlier Poland's Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Katyn Massacre connected 13 April.

The Russian Military-Historical Society, headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's advisor Vladimir Medinsky, organised the show astatine the tract wherever Soviet concealed constabulary murdered astir 22,000 Polish officers, constabulary and intelligentsia successful outpouring 1940 connected Stalin's orders.

According to the organisation's website, the accumulation depicts the "hatred of the Polish elite towards Russia and the Russian people" manifested successful governmental and subject actions implicit centuries. It focuses heavy connected the 20th period and World War II, with "special attention" to alleged modern Polish Russophobia.

The show accuses Warsaw of "aggressive anti-Russian policy", citing the removal of Soviet worker monuments and subject enactment for Ukraine.

Dr Rafał Kościński, spokesperson for Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, said the accumulation represents a instrumentality to Soviet-era propaganda that blamed Germans for the Katyn massacre.

"For years we person been observing a crook successful the humanities argumentation of the Russian Federation, successful which determination has been a instrumentality to the communicative that the Germans are liable for the Katyn Massacre," Kościński told Euronews.

"This is simply a instrumentality to 1943, when, aft the Third Reich announced the find of the graves of Polish officers successful the Katyn forest, the Soviets tried to enactment the work for their deaths connected the German occupiers."

He said the accumulation is portion of broader Russian attempts to delegate co-responsibility for the outbreak of World War II to Poland and to reinterpret the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Place and day not an accident

Izabella Saryusz-Skąpska, president of the Federation of Katyn Families, condemned the exhibition's placement and timing.

"The prime of the spot and clip of this accumulation is simply a disgusting malice, calculated to wounded america - the Katyn Families, who person suffered a batch from Russia," she told Euronews.

She noted that Polish historians mock the exhibition's title, pointing retired that Moscow did not beryllium successful thing similar its existent signifier 10 centuries ago.

Saryusz-Skąpska said families of victims spent years gathering warfare cemeteries astatine Katyn, Mednoye and Kharkiv arsenic symbols of reconciliation. "Had it not been for Russia's onslaught connected Ukraine and a full-scale war, the Katyn Families would person been heading for the necropolises successful Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mednoye and Kyiv-Bykivnia astatine that time," she said.

The Katyn massacre was carried retired successful April and May 1940 by the NKVD connected the orders of Stalin and the Soviet Politburo. The victims included officers captured during the 1939 Soviet penetration of Poland, constabulary officers and members of the intelligentsia.

Moscow denied work for decades, blaming Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union officially admitted NKVD work successful 1990, calling it "one of the sedate crimes of Stalinism". In 2010, Russia's State Duma confirmed the transgression was carried retired "on the nonstop orders of Stalin and different Soviet leaders".

Part of a broader strategy

The 2010 Smolensk catastrophe occurred erstwhile a Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 crashed adjacent Smolensk successful heavy fog portion carrying a delegation to be the 70th day commemoration of the Katyn massacre.

Nikolai Rybakov, a Russian absorption person from the Yabloko party, called for the exhibition's removal connected 17 April, arguing it violates Russia's planetary obligations nether its 1994 statement with Poland and 1992 Treaty connected Friendly Cooperation, which necessitate maintaining memorial sites successful a dignified condition.

Russia has taken respective actions astatine Katyn-related sites successful caller years. In June 2022, Smolensk politician Andrei Borisov ordered the removal of Polish flags from the Katyn memorial complex, citing "blatantly anti-Russian statements by Polish politicians".

In outpouring 2025, bas-reliefs depicting Polish subject decorations were removed from the Mednoye memorial analyzable astatine the prosecutor's office's request. In 2023, busts of Stalin, Lenin, Felix Dzerzhinsky and Yakov Sverdlov were installed astatine Mednoye, which officials said reflected "the era" of wide repression.

The accumulation initially opened successful Moscow successful October 2025 earlier being moved to Katyn successful April 2026.