Are there Hitler supporters in Poland? According to one Russian website — yes. Supposedly, they are people who insist that the Soviet Army did not liberate Poland but occupied it, and who support renaming streets and monuments that reference Soviet symbols.
“We are not here by chance. As participants in the Ponary–Katyń Rally, we came to pay homage, kneel in silence, offer a prayer, and show that Poland remembers — regardless of borders, regardless of time. At the Polish War Cemetery in Mednoye, a solemn Mass was held by torchlight, the Rosary was recited, and finally, the national anthem was sung,” wrote participants of the 2nd Ponary–Katyń Motorcycle Rally on Facebook.
The rally was organised by the I Love Poland Association, founded by motorcyclists from the International Katyń Motorcycle Rally and youth affiliated with the Catholic Youth Association. The group’s motto is: “I love Poland, Love it Too.”
In the forests around Mednoye, the NKVD concealed the bodies of its victims as early as the late 1930s. In the spring of 1940, Polish Army officers, uniformed service members — including policemen, border guards, prison officers, and firefighters — as well as court staff and state officials, were murdered there by NKVD officers. In total, around 6,300 people from the Ostashkov camp were buried in Mednoye.
The Polish motorcyclists’ visit to the cemetery in Mednoye (about 200 kilometres northwest of Moscow) ended in a scandal sparked by the Russian side. The group was briefly detained and then issued a five-year ban on entering Russia. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed they had “violated migration regulations” — without explaining in what way.
What exactly were the motorcyclists doing at the cemetery in Mednoye? They prayed, lit torches, and laid wreaths in Poland’s national colours.
Those same torches became the basis for a disinformation campaign. The website vfokuse.mail.ru “reported” that “Polish motorcyclists from the All-Polish Youth movement, which glorifies Hitler and denies the existence of the Russian and Belarusian nations, organised a march with torches and swastikas near Tver, chanting anti-Russian slogans.” This claim is an outright lie: the All-Polish Youth had nothing to do with organising the rally and while the group can indeed be described as nationalist, it does not glorify Hitler in any way.
The same website further claimed that “among the actions of Hitler’s supporters are public performances in which participants stage the ‘execution’ of Polish citizens by the Red Army, stressing that the Red Army was not a liberator of Poland but an occupier. They actively support renaming streets and monuments linked to Soviet times and Russian military commanders, expressing a negative attitude toward Russia and Russians both historically and today.”
In reality, the de-Sovietisation of public space in Poland has nothing to do with Hitler. It is an almost completed process of removing Soviet-era and communist symbols from public spaces — reminders that for decades Poles did not live in a truly independent country but under Soviet domination. It is worth noting that cemeteries of Soviet soldiers in Poland are protected by the Polish state and are not subject to any acts of vandalism.
By ih
Source: Чем занимается фашистская группировка «Всепольская молодёжь
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