Poland – Lukashenka’s enemy no. 1 - TVP Weekly - Magazine of viewers and readers

Civilization

Poland – Lukashenka’s enemy no. 1

03.08.2022

Most probably the Belarusian dictator is incapable of making any move. Since the 2000 election many thousands have been through Belarusian prisons, numerous social organizations and independent media have ceased to exist; the Union of Poles in Belarus has been broken up, Polish schools are being closed down, Polish press doesn’t exist.

Alexander Lukashenka and his associates’ policy towards Poland is becoming increasingly absurd. In the state media our country is depicted as an enemy ready to invade Belarus. Anyway, Poland has always been an enemy – hence the barbarian destruction of the graves of Home Army (Armia Krajowa – AK) soldiers, the organization being called “Nazi” or “collaborating with the Nazi”. At the same time Polish citizens have been granted a visa-free regime with Belarusian propaganda trying to convince that that there is such poverty in our country that Poles are storming the frontier with Belarus just to buy salt or buckwheat groats.

If one was to analyze these actions, it would turn out that they lead to nothing. Belarusian protests have been crushed; several tens of thousands people were arrested. But through it all there happened nothing that could have convinced the inhabitants of Minsk, Grodno or Brest to Lukashenka – and if somebody reckons that the anti-Polish propaganda reaches those people – they are mistaken. Surely, as in every country ruled by a dictator there is a group that supports him. These are people linked to the authorities in one way or another. Of course, they will write senseless an utterly ahistorical articles or scanting anti-Polish slogans during state-organized demonstrations. The situation nationwide however won’t change.

The conclusion can be only one: Alexander Lukashenka is demanding something impossible from his associates and they are striving to give it to him. He wants to regain at least some support by pointing at a dangerous enemy, i.e. Poland. But for the Belarusians we aren’t – and won’t be – such an enemy. The regime is then making chaotic and senseless moves to please the dictator. If you can’t convince everybody let at least Alexander Lukashenka be convinced.

Polish tombs under attack

Tumultuous history of Polish lion figures in Lviv

As an irritating symbol of Polish “occupation of Lviv” the lions were removed before a tank action on August 25, 1971.

Demolishing cemeteries of Home Army soldiers is something absolutely unparalleled in the entire world. It can only be compared to the 1971 devastation of the Cemetery of the [Polish] Defenders of Lviv carried out by the Soviets. Let us recall that the tombs of Polish soldiers at that time were knocked down with the help of tanks and construction machinery.

In Belarus, it all started with Mikuliszki in the Grodno Voblasts. The quarters of soldiers of the Home Army 3rd and 6th Brigades of the Vilnius Province, who died in 1944, were razed to the ground. Then it was the turn of Kaczyce, where the soldiers who died in a clash with NKVD troops in 1945 were buried. However, it was not the end of the story – the action of destroying graves was very wide-ranging. And in the Grodno region alone, there are over half a thousand burial sites of the Home Army partisans.

It is mainly about the graves of Home Army soldiers who died at the very end of the war. There were numerous units of the Home Army in the Vilnius and Grodno regions. At the beginning of July 1944, the Home Army began an operation aimed at capturing Vilnius before the Red Army troops entered. Initially, as part of a greater “Tempest” plan, it was expected that the Germans would abandon the city in a rush, so its seizure would be relatively easy. However, in May – June 1944, a decision was made to carry out the operation nicknamed “Ostra Brama” (lit. “Gate of Dawn” – referring to a landmark of Vilnius – translator’s note), that is to take the city by fighting, with the forces of the AK Vilnius and Novogrudok provinces. It was a total of 18 thousand people, unprepared to take up offensive actions in the city.

The main strike was planned from the east and south-east. Meanwhile, on June 23, the very successful Soviet “Bagration” operation commenced as a result of which the Germans began to abruptlywithdraw. On July 2, the Home Army began – by an order from London [the seat of the Polish government-in-exile – translator’s note] – the “Tempest” operation, and on July 7, the commandant of the Home Army Vilnius District, lt. col. Aleksander Krzyżanowski, nom de guerre “Wilk” ordered to launch the “Ostra Brama” operation. Simultaneously the Soviets approached Vilnius. By 13 July, Home Army and Red Army units jointly captured the city, and a Polish flag hung on the Castle Hill.

However, this interaction ended quickly. During the negotiations lt. col. Krzyżanowski was arrested, other officers alike which was followed by an outbreak of clashes. The Soviets detained approximately 5,000 Home Army soldiers, some of whom joined the “People's” Polish Army, others ended up in a camp at Kaluga. Some partisans broke through to the Grodno region and fought against the Soviets, NKVD units in the first place. And it is their graves that are now being demolished.

”Nazi Home Army”

The destruction of graves of Home Army soldiers fits in the narrative of the Belarusian authorities. On April 9, 2021, a criminal case was initiated against former Home Army soldiers – very few still living in Belarus – accused of “genocide against the Belarusian nation”. Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, imprisoned since March 2021, is accused by the authorities of, inter alia, “rehabilitation of Nazism”. This “rehabilitation” was to consist in cultivating the memory of Home Army soldiers. Very instructive is the statement of the prosecutor general of Belarus, Andriey Shved, who called the Home Army “fascist criminals”.

Polish charge d’affaires in Belarus Marcin Wojciechowski laid flowers and lit candles on the graves of Home Army soldiers in Mikuliszk – in a cemetery that was barbarously razed to the ground. Polish national memorial places in Belarus will not be forgotten. Glory to the heroes!pic.twitter.com/CgKG145qUA
— PLinBelarus (@PLinBelarus) July 5, 2022

Sounds absurd? Not for everyone. It would be enough to read official Belarusian media or, e.g. websites such as “Vmyestye z Rassiyey” (“Together with Russia”), an organ of Russian organizations in Belarus. It reads that “the Home Army was a Nazi organization”, “based on the Nazi ideology”. That it had fought against Germany means little – deliberations about the Warsaw Rising held at that webpage (“why did Polish Nazis combatted German Nazis”?) could be commented on as utter gibberish.

. But official Minsk sustains its theses. Viacheslav Danilovich, the principal of the Public Academy of Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus has said recently – as quoted by the official “Bielta” press agency that “cases of the Home Army cooperating with the Nazi occupant have been confirmed”. As it claims, “the Home Army’s main objective was to restore Polish borders from September 1939”. In the end, Danilovich persuaded, “there were clashes with Belarusian guerilla and after the official dissolution of the Home Army the so-called “cursed soldiers” still got engaged in conducting genocide of the local population, including Belarusians”.

Naturally, when Danilovich talks about the “Belarusian guerilla”, he means Soviet partisans. The rector of the presidential high school speaks of alleged “cases of the Home Army collaborating with the Nazi occupant” although he is unable to give a single example of it. He stresses however the fact that “the genocide of the Belarusian nation” was perpetrated by Nazi invaders as well as their accomplices (understood – from the AK) which makes it perfectly clear that they cannot be glorified. By implication – the graves of Polish partisan contribute to glorifying “Nazis’ accomplices”. Therefore they ought to be demolished...

Poles are begging for buckwheat groats

Alexander Lukashenka had already argued that Poland was poverty-stricken and Poles were coming at the Belarusian border to beg for salt and buckwheat groats. Why specifically for his – nobody knows. The Polish Internet was flooded with a wave of mockery but the Belarusian media get bogged down in lies.

Quite unexpectedly Minsk introduced a visa-free regime for the citizens of Poland and some other countries, among others, Lithuania. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs discouraged people form trips and the border crossings are practically deserted.

It is quite different on Belarusian TV: they claim the situation has changed dramatically. The television’s website maintained recently that within a short period of time “100,000 Europeans” had reached Belarus. “The majority of whom takes a short route – to the closest shops and petrol stations. Here the number of Polish clients increased by one third, and the sales are up two- three-fold. The reason for that are Poland’s record-breaking prices of oil, energy carriers, and products. The sanctions turned out to be a boomerang” – we read. It is confirmed by a certain “Zbyszek from Warsaw”: “in Poland prices went up, went up heavily. Gas, electricity, food, everything is up, the fuel too. Price increase by 300% for specific goods. If not 300% then it’s 100-150%. It’s all because of sanctions. Most probably that’s America, it’s their fault”.

Choose freedom at MiGhty speed

Polish pilots were fleeing the communist Poland using military aircraft.

“Krzysiek from Łuków” spoke in a similar tone: “the prices went up, you need a lot of money, the inflation rate is high. There is little coal, there is not much gas either and I don’t know what will be in the future. It is the politicians to decide, we do not decide, they think everything is all right but we think it is not and we can do nothing”. There is an interesting observation: behold, it turns out that it is important for Poles to see “made in Belarus” labels on the products they buy.

The newspaper “Pravda Gomel” quotes Siergiey Klishevich, deputy to the lower house of the Belarusian parliament and a representative of a small, licensed communist party (there is another, oppositionist one): “the lives of Poles have been changing dramatically under our eyes. At first Poland was subject to a series of severe lockdowns which overwhelmed the health service, now the authorities are pouring funds to put up Ukrainian refugees and to cover military expenditures. As a result services, fuel and products are becoming more and more costly. The situation is aggravated by street crime, thefts, robbery, illegal employment in which the Ukrainian diaspora plays a key role”. Deputy Klishevich is only surprised why of their problems Poles accuse Russia and not the real guilty, that is to say, the US.

That’s how official Minsk wants Belarusians to perceive Poland.

Dictator’s entanglement

One thing is for sure: as long as Alexander Lukashenka rules Belarus, there will be no improvement in Minsk-Warsaw relations. What’s interesting, Lukashenka doesn’t benefit from the anti-Polish action at all. At the same he is losing the opportunity to make any move in international politics. Earlier on, he strived to maneuver between Russia and the West, now he’s becoming utterly dependent on Vladimir Putin. Except that most probably the Belarusian dictator is incapable of making any move. When, after the stolen 2020 election and mass protests, he imprisoned several of his top opponents, their release and a certain softening of the dictatorship allowed him to normalize relations with Europe. But now things have gone too far; Since the 2000 election many thousands have been through Belarusian prisons, numerous social organizations and independent media have ceased to exist; the Union of Poles in Belarus has been broken up, Polish schools are being closed down, Polish press doesn’t exist.

As a matter of fact one needs to await a change of power in Minsk. Alas, before it occurs, the dictatorship will be more and more pitiless, and the anti-Polish policy will be preserved. The cemeteries of Home Army soldiers can be rebuilt – and it will happen one day. The worst of all is that in a European country of 10 million the scope of liberty has shrunk to almost nothing with people ending up in jail for a slightest sign of opposition to authority. And it is ruled by a dictator who has become completely detached from reality.

–Piotr Kościński
–translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

Civilization