The Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Missouri, Wojciech Golik, sent the following letter to the US Senators from Missouri, Roy Blunt and Joshua Howley, and to Congresswoman Ann Wagner, a member of the House Committee of Foreign Affairs. Similar letters were sent to St. Louis Post-Dispatch and to local TV stations.
“In an outrageous move last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Poland of being responsible for starting World War II alongside Nazi Germany. This is yet another egregious example of Russian propaganda and historical revisionism, the sole aim of which is to incite division and polarization not only within our alliance, but also in our respective domestic affairs.
As an Honorary Consul of Poland, but first and foremost as an academic, I have always believed that facts matter. In an era when there are nefarious actors whose aim is to alter facts and to distort history solely for political gain, we cannot stand idly by.
This is yet another test of our ability to respond jointly to such propaganda. Let me stress that this is a continuation of what we have seen in Poland as well as in the United States. I believe quite strongly that the upcoming year, with so many meaningful anniversaries, will present the Kremlin with ample opportunities to peddle these falsehoods even further. We can choose to stand by and watch this unfold – or take a stand and finally say that enough is enough.
A few days ago the Prime Minister of Poland issued a statement in which he stated that : “President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions and has always done so deliberately… The Russian people – the greatest victim of Stalin, who was one of the cruelest criminals in the history of the world – deserve the truth. I believe that Russians are a nation of free people, and that they reject Stalinism, even when President Putin’s government is trying to rehabilitate it.”
Together, in the name of those who perished, we must preserve the truth.
Wojciech Golik
Honorary Consul of Poland in Missouri”
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH – Letter: The truth must be preserved against Putin’s falsehoods