Why do poland and russia

In , 46 percent of Poles believed that Jews suffered more than Poles; in , that number had dropped to 26 percent. In contrast, the proportion of those who believe that Poles suffered more rose from 6 to 20 percent, and the share of those who think both groups suffered equally increased from 32 to 51 percent. Thus, democratization only fueled the traditional Polish identity as a victimized nation.

And a victim cannot also be the executioner. A law passed in envisaging prison sentences of up to three years for public statements accusing Poles of complicity in the Holocaust was no political anomaly for modern, European Poland. Although later Warsaw watered down the law under international pressure, a survey shows that 39 percent of Poles agree that historians who discredit Poland—for example, by writing about Polish involvement in the Holocaust—should be tried in court.

World War II is just as crucial for Russian national identity. However, whereas Poland sees its sufferings in World War II as evidence of its righteousness and nobility, Russia espouses a cult of victory: a victory achieved at great cost, and powerful proof that Russia can overcome all difficulties and win against all odds.

Still, the ultimate conclusions drawn by Poles and Russians are similar. Both nations see their role in World War II as exceptional and as one that still entitles them to special treatment by the rest of the world. The Poles explain this entitlement by the unsurpassed suffering their nation underwent during the war; the Russians by their unsurpassed contribution to the defeat of the Nazis.

Both nations are certain of their exceptionalism and the debt due to them from the rest of the world. Both nations feel passionately about events from eight decades ago.

Above all, both nations view any accusations over the roles of their ancestors in the war as the greatest sacrilege, deserving of the harshest vengeance. They reflect the national conviction of modern-day Russians and Poles that the heroic acts and suffering of their grandfathers fully paid for any of their sins, so no one should dare talk of their wrongdoings.

This cult of the forefathers who fought in World War II is almost religious in its fervor and pervasiveness, and it is difficult to conceive that an agreement reached by historians or politicians could push the majority of Poles and Russians to abandon their beliefs for the sake of mutual forgiveness. True, the Kremlin capitalizes on the memory and interpretation of World War II for its own political purposes: legitimizing itself and undermining the opposition.

After all, democratic elections and changes in government in Poland have not made much difference. It would be reassuring to attribute the obsession of the Russian regime with the memory of World War II to the personal predilections of the leadership, or lack of political legitimacy. It might seem that a new generation of politicians could fix the situation if they only had the political will. However, more than five decades of German-Polish attempts at reconciliation have shown that perception of history has less to do with the personalities of national leaders than one might think.

The lengthy and laborious dialogue between Germany and Poland also sheds light on what Poland and Russia can and cannot hope to achieve.

The historical dialogue between Germany and Poland began during the Cold War and was conducted in favorable circumstances, with the investment of significant resources.

Still, notwithstanding all the efforts made, the process of reconciliation between the two nations remains incomplete, demonstrating how difficult it is to achieve progress in dialogue on sensitive issues of shared history.

As far back as , Polish bishops sent an open letter to German bishops calling for mutual forgiveness. In the years since, German officials and public figures have made numerous apologies to the Polish people, admitted full culpability for the tragedy of World War II, waived any counterclaims, and paid reparations to many Poles.

Over the decades, the Polish-German dialogue has spawned a plethora of joint commissions, programs, NGOs, and conferences dedicated to the shared history of the two nations. Since the late s, these efforts have taken place in the favorable conditions of German and European unification, with Germany and Poland willing to offer major concessions to overcome the divisions of the Cold War and to make Eastern Europe a part of the West from the viewpoints of politics, economics, and values.

Yet half a century later, the Polish government is still demanding billions in compensation from Germany for the losses incurred during World War II. Poland is also calling on Germany to erect a separate memorial specifically to the Polish victims of Nazi terror.

The Russo-Polish relationship lacks the favorable conditions that sustained the German-Polish historical dialogue. Russia and Poland have shown little interest in closer economic cooperation or in working hard to improve relations. The two countries find themselves on different sides of the new geopolitical divide, and the scale of personal contacts between them is modest, despite their shared border.

This belief is just as vital to Russians as belief in the exceptionalism of their suffering is to the Polish people. The dubious prospects of dialogue with a secondary foreign partner like Poland are hardly enough to compel Russians to forgo a key element of their national identity. Attempts to achieve a comprehensive reconciliation between the two nations are bound to fail and may even drive the sides further apart.

However, this does not doom Warsaw and Moscow to eternal estrangement. To start with, history should not be the only topic of bilateral relations, as it currently is for Russia and Poland. The two countries still have an extensive infrastructure of bilateral relations. Russia also has differences with other European states, like Hungary and Serbia —some even greater than those with Poland—in their historical interpretation of World War II events.

Another lesson from the German-Polish experience is that focusing on targeted objectives can be more productive than attempting ambitious but hopeless national dialogue. The people of Poland and Germany have not achieved full reconciliation despite tremendous efforts and investments.

However, there are many individuals, including in positions of power, who have relinquished mutual aversion, or at least discount that aversion in their decisionmaking. Polish politicians might never find themselves motivating voters with pro-Germany slogans, but Germany and Poland have been able to set aside their differences and build close economic cooperation.

Polish society will not accept the Russian interpretation of World War II and vice versa, so the two nations should stop trying to force their revisions onto each other and jeopardizing their relations over every historical bone of contention. Poland and Russia have much in common culturally and in national mentality, and they maintain a strong interest in each other.

Despite all of the challenges in bilateral relations, the two countries still have an impressive infrastructure of bilateral ties, which could shift from looking for opportunities for conflict to making progress. This will not make anti-Russian slogans in Poland and anti-Polish slogans in Russia less popular. But it could bring those areas of bilateral relations where Warsaw and Moscow can achieve mutually productive cooperation out from the shadows of historical trauma.

Embassy to Russia. Poland has deployed extra troops to the border, and warned of a possible "armed" escalation, fearing that Belarus might try to provoke an incident. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which are all part of the EU, have seen a surge in the number of people trying to enter their countries illegally from Belarus in recent months. On Tuesday, Lithuania declared a state of emergency on its border with Belarus, which will come into effect at midnight.

Poland has seen the most arrivals, especially around its major border crossing at Kuznica. Poland has been accused of pushing migrants back across the border into Belarus, contrary to international rules of asylum. Journalists and aid agencies have been banned from accessing the area. He described how he had arrived in Belarus's capital, Minsk, from Baghdad at the start of November, and was now in a make-shift camp metres from Poland's barbed-wire fence.

Every night they fly helicopters. They don't let us sleep. We are so hungry. There's no water or food here. There are little children, old men and women, and families.

The European Commission has accused Mr Lukashenko of luring migrants with the false promise of easy entry to the EU as part of an "inhuman, gangster-style approach". Brussels says his actions are a retaliation against EU sanctions, which were imposed after his widely discredited re-election and subsequent crackdown on mass protests. Activists say the migrants are being used as pawns in a political game between Belarus and its EU neighbours.

Lithuania has also moved troops to its border with Belarus to prepare for a possible influx of migrants. Its government said declaring a state of emergency was a precautionary response. About two dozen migrants who were detained in Lithuania after illegally crossing over from Belarus were suspected of having links to terrorist organisations, Lithuania's vice interior minister Kestutis Lancinskas told the BBC.

Most of them presented fake IDs when they were stopped and background checks are still ongoing, Mr Lancinskas said. He could not comment on which terrorist organisations may have links with the migrants, nor when they were detained.

Our intelligence services are doing their best to prevent those kinds of activities. In an interview with the Belarusian state news agency, Mr Lukashenko said he wanted to avoid any military escalation on the border which could draw Russia into a conflict. He said he was "not a madman" and knew what was at stake, but remained defiant, saying "we will not kneel down".

The Belarus defence ministry has accused Warsaw of violating agreements by moving thousands of troops to the border. Belarus insists migrants are arriving there legally and that it is merely acting "as a hospitable country". Russia has praised its ally's "responsible" handling of the border row and said it is watching the situation closely. Are you in the area? Have you been affected by what's been happening?

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