It is high time to settle the losses caused to Poland by the USSR. The head of the Institute of War losses speaks

It is high time to settle not only the losses caused to Poland during World War II by Germany, but also those that were the result of the USSR's actions – Dr. Bartosz Gondek, director of the Institute of War Loss, told PAP.

Dr. Bartosz Gondek is a historian, at the head of ISW stood in the spring of this year. In the first conversation, after taking this position, he declared that he was going to put more emphasis on the matter of losses suffered by Poland as a result of the USSR's actions – from the invasion of the Red Army on September 17, 1939.

He reminded that scientists have been studying the losses suffered as a result of the activities of the Germans for eight decades.

“Meanwhile, the losses arising as a result of the Soviet Union's activities were talked as little as possible. Until 1989, this topic was not allowed at all. And when formal obstacles disappeared, scientists did not immediately take these issues. We made up for the arrears in many chapters of our history. As a result, the state of research in this field is still very poor” – he explained.

He drew attention to difficulties with access to sources stored in Russian archives. “With the exception of a short episode during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, they are in practice, especially from 2022, not available to us,” he emphasized.

He noted, however, that interesting Polish researchers can also be found in the collections of archives in Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the full -scale war, using them is definitely more difficult than before, but with the help of the Ukrainian side it is possible.

On the 86th anniversary of the USSR's aggression against Poland, the director of Gondek, asked by PAP about the matter of settlements for the damage suffered during World War II, emphasized that it was “it was the time to settle not only the losses caused to Poland during World War II by Germany, but also those that were the result of the USSR.”

“I am completely not appealing to the argument quoted to the lack of any desire to talk. Russia is a legal heir to the USSR. To this day, it unhappyly detains the property not only from the Second Polish Republic in 1939-1941. War losses, which we should settle in this case, also concern the goods looted in 1944, and those that stole and then stole the Germans, and then The Soviets appropriated them, “he said.

He noted that “not forgetting about war losses resulting from the activities of the Germans, the Institute of War losses in its works places special emphasis on the losses caused in Poland by the Soviets.” He specified that it was also about those after 1945, from the time of stationing in Poland of the northern group of Soviet troops.

He announced that the effect of research of the Institute of War Loss will be two more publications this year: studies and materials and volume of source texts. (PAP)

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