Russian WWII documentary angers Poles
Eduardo Murillo | 25th August 2009

Russian TV claims Poland and Nazi Germany planned to invade the Soviet Union.

A Russian, state-controlled TV channel broadcast a documentary claiming that Poland was planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in alliance with Nazi Germany.

The documentary was broadcast on the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which was a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, pledging neutrality between these two countries if one of them was attacked by a third party. The pact was signed in August 23rd, 1939 and remained until June 22nd, 1941, when Germany implemented Operation Barbarrosa, invading the Soviet Union.

The authors of the documentary claim that the Polish government had a secret alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan in 1933 to invade the Soviet Union. They cite documents, yet to be made public, which prove that Poles conspired with the Nazis, planning to invade the Soviet Union. According to the documentary, Japan’s role would be to attack the eastern borders of the Soviet Union.

Shortly after part of the documentary was aired in June, the Polish Embassy in Moscow strongly protested and qualified the documentary as deceitful and unreliable. The Russian Foreign Ministry, responded saying that the government is not responsible for the contents of programmes broadcast by state TV and claims that opinions voiced in TV documentaries should not come under the consideration of state agencies.

Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Poland next week to commemorate the beginning of World War II at Westerplatte in what is now Gdansk.

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