Posted on 04/13/2025 11:26:23 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
Speaking in Kraków on the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Katyn Massacre, Duda laid a wreath at the Katyn Cross and paid tribute to over 22,000 Polish officers executed by the Soviet NKVD in 1940.
"It was genocide – a premeditated extermination of a vital part of Poland’s elite," Duda said.
"They [Soviet Russia ed.] managed to kill them, but never managed to erase the memory of their heroic stance from our nation’s consciousness."
The president condemned both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for attempting to destroy the Polish state, quoting Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov’s reference to Poland as a "bastard of the Treaty of Versailles."
Duda also recalled the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk that killed President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others en route to a Katyn commemoration, calling it a further sacrifice that reinforced Poland’s duty to remember.
"Glory to the heroes, eternal memory to the fallen, and eternal shame to the perpetrators," he concluded.
Ceremonies were held across the country, with central events in Warsaw attended by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Officials from the Institute of National Remembrance emphasised that the victims included teachers, doctors and scholars – the backbone of the Second Polish Republic.
Dr Filip Musiał of the Kraków branch of the institute noted that the massacre deprived Poland of a generation of leaders, calling the victims "representatives of a lost Republic."
The Katyn massacre was ordered on 5 March 1940 by the Soviet Politburo, resulting in the execution of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals by the NKVD secret police.
Officials have said that the root cause of that decision was a secret agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
(Excerpt) Read more at polskieradio.pl ...
As I’ve posted before, I object to the word “genocide” being bandied about so carelessly. Katyn was a ghastly crime against humanity, a terrible massacre. But it was not genocide. The word “genocide” is robbed of its power when overused like this. The Holocaust was genocide, as were the Rwandan, Armenian and Herero genocides. Every massacre is not a genocide.
Poor Poles. First the Ukrainians massacred them in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, then came the Germans, then the Soviets at Katyn.
The Croats and the Ukrainians have not reckoned with their barbarity, either, nor have the Turks.
Anybody think the DNC would hesitate to do to YOU what the NKVD did to the Poles.
They would not. They do it on a small scale. Think all those that died under Hillary. In other countries that’s the only way to keep power. It might be the 2nd amendment that keeps it from expanding here.
You fail to mention the holodomor. Soviets responsible for katzn were still receiving their pensions even after the Russians admitted they were responsible. FDR was informed that the Russians were responsible and he sent the informant to Samoa.
I was going to post this too! Thanks. Excellent movie. Hubby was in Poland on business years ago and a workmate gave him the dvd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taVdIFONkCw
That monument was built by Russia because the site is in Russia today. Putin was the first Russian leader to admit it was the NKVD, and literally released the long denied to exist order, signed by Stalin, to murder them.
When the Polish delegation was killed in the plane crash, they were flying in to a ceremony the Russians were throwing to honor the murdered Poles.
After the tragedy, Putin order the Polish made movie “Katyn” to be shown without commercials on Russian public TV stations and historian discussion panels followed it.
They always forget that part. It’s more fun to keep the grievance alive to help beat the war drums.
It was sometime before 2010, that is when the monument was being dedicated...inside Russia. And the admission came before that. That is why they were hosting the Russian delegation.
Your message is, “Putin is such a sweet guy….”
Here’s a napkin…you might need to dab it a bit. I think you missed a spot.
And we must never forget the perfidy of reporter Walter Duranty and his employer, the New York Times. At last reports the NYT has still not taken his photo off their display which honors Times' Pulitzer Prize winners.
The USSR was just Czarist Russia that did not know how to farm. The current Russians Republic is just the USSR with more food.
I didn’t mention Cambodia, either, even though lots of people mistakenly call it genocide. What happened in Cambodia was democide, not genocide.
The Holomodor was a ghastly crime against humanity. But was it genocide or democide? Some believe it was intentional (genocide), others that it was collectivization gone terribly wrong (democide), while still others believe it started out as the latter and then Stalin decided not to let a crisis go to waste.
It was part of the wider Soviet famine which affected various parts of Russia as well as Ukraine, and millions of Russians also died of starvation during that famine.
A dear older friend who was Ukrainian (now sadly deceased) told me how her farming family in Ukraine was denounced as “kulak” by other villagers because they were hardworking farmers more successful than their lazier neighbors when the commies took over. It went like this: if you worked hard and had two cows, your jealous neighbors would denounce you in hopes the stinky commies would give them their your stuff (including those cows!) after they dispossessed you. It turned out her family survived because they had to flee after losing all, and ended up in a large Russian city before the Holomodor struck.
She didn’t hate Russians because of the Holomodor, though, not a bit. After all, Stalin was a Georgian and Trotsky was a Ukrainian. She did despise communism and what it did to her and her family and her people.
A number of people here on FR seem to think Ukrainians hate Russians because of the Holomodor. Huh. The Ukrainians who really hate Russians are in Western Ukraine, in what used to be Eastern Galicia and Volnhynia which were part of Poland at the time of the Holomodor.
Back to democide. The commies are by far and away the kings of that, with a body count of over 200 million.
Duck off pervert
You promote a ruthless killer…and I am the pervert. Nice.
A good friend of our family, Roman Pucinski, was chief investigator for the US Congressional Special Committee which investigated the Katyn Massacre back in 1952. (I was only 9 or 10 at the time.)
Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Pucinski
Granted the second amendment does keep things at low simmer but knowing were your local DNC offices are at & having a range card for it are part of your duty as a citizen.
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