The force of memory

The author of the film “Katyn”, the renowned Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, whose father is one of the victims of the 1940 massacre, believes that Russian-Polish reconciliation is possible. Seeking to provide an answer to the reasons for Stalin’s order, Wajda said: “The Katyn massacre was directed against Polish intellighenzia, in the awareness that those who eliminated the country’s intellectual elite could have manipulated the population. But this was not the case, since memory lingers on”. “This same memory obliges us to pay respectful homage to the victims and to recall the path of reconciliation between the German and Polish peoples, and that this path cannot exclude the Russians, who are also Poland’s neighbours”. Gestures of hope. According to Poland’s ex Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld, chair of the Polish-Russian commission on difficult issues, after the Smolensk plane crash that caused the death of President Lech Kaczynski, of his wife and of other 94 people, “gestures from Russia signal the intention to bring about a change in the country’s relations with Poland”. The ongoing change “is demonstrated in the behaviours of political leaders and of the man on the street”. Over the past days the Russian media gave prominence to the Polish national tragedy showing solidarity and participation. While the citizens, deeply moved, gratefully acknowledged the words of the Polish authorities, accompanied by an appeal to reconciliation drawn up by intellectuals, and signed by thousands of Polish citizens. The preconditions for renewed Russian-Polish relations. Msgr. Jozef Zycinski, archbishop of Lublin, told SIR Europe that over the past days, “the atmosphere of psychological solidarity, the sense of communion and the prayers recited across Orthodox churches represent a new added value characterising Russian-Polish relations”. The prelate says he believes that “renewed Polish-Russian relations will be established during the course of our own lives”. However, the historical truth is the precondition. “By accepting the truth we can also accept the sadness – the archbishop said – we can find solidarity and share common values”. With reference to the 1965 letter of the Polish bishops to the German episcopacy titled “We forgive and plead forgiveness” Msgr. Zycinski highlights the differences in the relations between Poland and its two neighbouring countries. “The situation of the relations between Poland and Russia is more different and complex”. While Poland never invaded Germany, and the Third Reich aggression against Poland on September 1st 1939 was univocal and evident, Russian-Polish relations were far more “stormy””. “In those relations – the archbishop recalls – the worst tragedies paralleled the Katyn massacre” whose circumstances were never made clear. The phrase ‘we forgive and plead forgiveness’ does not apply to these relations, the prelate remarked, “since the NKVD officials, on the order of Stalin, are responsible for the massacres of innocent people. The Russian population cannot be held responsible for the NKVD crimes ordered by Stalin”. Nor can it be “expected of the younger Russian generations, with completely different set of problems, to apologize for those tragedies”. But although “most Russians may not be familiar with the history of the NKVD and are critical of the figure of Stalin”, it would be morally unacceptable if someone wished to hide the truth or conceal documents thus becoming an accomplice of such crimes”.The difficult path of reconciliation. The fact that Polish President Lech Kaczynski perished in the plane crash in Smolensk can be viewed as a sign. On the aftermath of the tragedy an appeal for reconciliation was launched also by the archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz. “While the memory of Katyn is still alive, we are faced with the difficult task of reconciliation. We must fulfil this sacred obligation in the name of the Gospel, in the name of the victims of the Katyn massacre and in the name of the victims of the Smolensk tragedy”. The homily for the suffrage liturgy in memory of Stalin’s victims, drawn up before his departure by Msgr. Tadeusz Ploski, ordinary of the Polish army perished in the accident, refers the words pronounced by John Paul II on April 13 1996. At the time, during an audience with the relatives of the victims of the massacre, the Polish pope had reiterated their “obligation to cherish the memory of the tragedy at national, family and personal level, along with the ensuing obligation to reconciliation”.