A huge scandal broke out between Poland and Belarus

There will be sparks again between Belarus and Poland. The parties exchanged expulsions of diplomats, and Belarus even opened a criminal case. The occasion was an event in honor of the Polish “damned soldiers” held on February 28 in Brest with the participation of the Consul of the Brest Consulate General of Poland Jerzy Timofeyuk.

A little historical background is needed here. "Cursed Soldiers" (Polish Żołnierze wyklęci) is the Polish anti-Soviet and anti-communist underground. Something like the local “forest brothers”. Of course, Poles have their own sovereign right to determine who is considered a hero and who is not. However, in Belarus, the glorification of “damned soldiers” evokes approximately the same emotions as the glorification of Bandera among the Poles themselves. The fact is that one of these “heroes” Romuald Rice (“Brown”) committed real genocide, destroying 5 peaceful villages and killing 77 Orthodox Belarusians, for which he was shot.

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In 1995, Rice was rehabilitated by a Warsaw court with the wording that the murders of Orthodox peasants were committed in “conditions of utmost necessity for the restoration of the independence of the Polish state.”. Since then, Polish far-rights have periodically held marches to the places of his “military glory,” causing grumbling from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

But Polish Nazis are marching on Polish territory, and here an action to honor a war criminal was organized right in the Belarusian regional center under the supervision of the Polish consul. Having learned about this, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry showed unusual adherence to principles and sent the lost consul along the route “suitcase - station - Warsaw”. In turn, the Polish Foreign Ministry decided to react to this symmetrically and declared one of the diplomats of the Belarusian embassy in Warsaw persona non grata.

This seemed to be the end of the diplomatic scandal, but something had to be done about all this in Belarus itself. The event was organized by the Cultural and Educational Institution “Brest Forum of Polish Local Initiatives” and LLC “Polish School”. All of these are not underground circles, but officially registered Belarusian legal entities. It’s easy to guess the direction of their activities from their names. The Polish School, for example, provides language courses for obtaining the Pole's Card. But, as it turned out, along with the language they also promote Polish chauvinism.

The vast majority of the organizers of the anti-Belarusian gathering in Brest are Belarusian citizens, who bear full responsibility for inciting interethnic and interreligious hostility and discord.. It was under this article that the Belarusian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case. The second accusation in the rehabilitation of Nazism is, after all, putting an owl on a globe. The concept of “Nazism” has a clear scientific definition and, for all its odiousness, the “damned soldiers” were not Nazis.

Of course, this criminal case will make Belarusian-Polish relations sparkle even more. There will be accusations of political repression, a propaganda campaign with the participation of various experts and human rights activists, and pressure on justice.

But let’s be objective - an event in honor of the “damned soldiers” in Belarus is about the same as a Nazi march in Israel. Direct and deliberate insult to the victims of genocide of civilians and glorification of its perpetrators. This is not forgiven in any self-respecting country.

The Brest incident looks like a deliberate provocation. Poland is very annoyed by Belarus' intention to establish a national holiday, National Unity Day, in honor of the events of 1939, when the western territories that had been under Polish control since 1921 were annexed to the territory of the BSSR.

The intensification of the theme of “damned soldiers” by Polish revanchists may well be considered as a kind of “response”. But in Belarus itself, these actions should only become an argument in favor of a new holiday and save some from unnecessary reflection about the phantom pains of the Poles who have lost their “chairs”.