BIZ nr 5(425): Poland, Germany and the origins of World War II. A short response to a propaganda offensive by Russian falsifiers of history

BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR WESTERN AFFAIRS Poland, Germany and the origins of World War II. A short response to a propaganda offensive by Russian falsifiers of history

Since December 2019, Russia has been waging a propaganda war to discredit Poland with a thoroughly manipulated version of the events that led to the outbreak of World War II. This, in fact, is not the first time that Russia engages in such a campaign as similar attempts were made in 2005 and, most prominently, 2009. On the latter occasion, which involved a meeting between Donald Tusk and Vladimir Putin on the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Russia attacked Poland by releasing a collection of archival documents and a famed documentary on Russian television. An article published at the time in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily described Vladimir Putin’s attempts to downplay the role of the Soviet Union in starting World War II.