Meeting of Russian, Polish leaders could shed light on 1940 massacre

A historic meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top leaders of Russia and Poland is expected to provide new details about Russia's mass execution of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 and may open the way toward improved relations between the two countries.

The mass slaying of the Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police is one of the darker and less known chapters of World War II, said Kyle Parker, a Russian expert and policy adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. agency that helps formulate American policy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk -- the Russian and Polish prime ministers -- will meet at the execution site in Smolensk, Russia, to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre, which Russia blamed on Germany until 1990.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040604925.html

Russian, Polish Prime Ministers to remember political repression victims

The Prime Ministers of Russia and Poland Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk are due to attend events to commemorate the victims of the political repressions of the 1930s at the Katyn Memorial in the Smolensk region, in the west of Russia. The memorial was erected at the site of mass-scale executions, where Polish Army servicemen, among others, were gunned down back in 1940.

Read more:http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/07/6087356.html

Putin Commemorates WWII Massacre

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.

Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russiaat a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html

Surgery in Poland stunts man's MS symptoms

For years, the Ottawa man's multiple sclerosis had been slowly reducing the number of fingers he could type with, but, after flying to Poland for breakthrough surgery not yet offered in Canada, some symptoms are reversing themselves.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Surgery+Poland+stunts+symptoms/2771091/story.html

Remembering Katyn, 70 years later

The Polish prime minister will attend Wednesday's ceremony in Russia marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Poles by Soviet forces. It is an unprecedented step, and one which could herald a new era in strained relations between Poland and Russia, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.

The families of the victims of the Katyn massacre have endured decades of lies, discrimination and frustration.

For 50 years, the Soviet Union blamed the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers on the Nazis, who uncovered one of the mass graves in the forest of Katyn, near the city of Smolensk, in 1943.

It was only in 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev admitted Soviet responsibility.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8606126.stm

Is Russia finally ditching its revisionist history on Katyn?

In this era of commerce and trade, it often happens that countries that might once have gone to war play out their antagonisms through other means. The immigration debate plays this role in Mexican American relations. For a time, the trade dispute over soft wood lumber (yes, really) fulfilled this function in Canadian American relations: At stake were different attitudes toward the role of government in industry, Canada's sensitivity to American economic power and many other issues, though you wouldn't know it if you weren't paying attention.

In Central Europe, the outstanding example of this phenomenon is the discussion of the Katyn massacre, the memory of which continues to shape the relationship between Poland and Russia. At issue is an event that took place 70 years ago: the Soviet Union's murder of some 20,000 Polish officers in the spring of 1940. The officers had been captured by the Red Army, which invaded eastern Poland in 1939 just after Nazi Germany invaded from the West. Soviet secret police murdered them on the direct order of Joseph Stalin. Later, Stalin switched sides, joining the Allies against Hitler, and he blamed the Germans for the officers' murder. That lie remained part of official Soviet and Polish communist history until communism collapsed and the Soviet Union fell apart. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet communist leader, took responsibility for the murders. In 1991, the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, published the archival documentation.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503550.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Polish politician welcomes Putin's visit to Katyn

The upcoming visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Katyn, where thousands of Polish POWs were massacred by Soviet forces in WWII, demonstrates a "new trend in Russia's approach to history," a Polish politician said on Monday.

Putin will visit the western Russian location on April 7 to take part in a memorial service marking the Katyn massacre. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is also expected to attend the ceremony, while Polish President Lech Kaczynski is to travel to Katyn on April 10.

"The very fact that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Katyn and honor the memory of the victims of the Katyn tragedy is an event of huge importance," Andrzej Przewoznik, who heads Poland's council for the protection of the memory of World War Two victims and veterans, said.

Over 20,000 Polish officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were killed in the Katyn forest in 1940, as well as in prisons and other locations, by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100405/158446299.html

Poland could become major gas supplier

Oisin Fanning, chairman of British firm San Leon Energy, said, "Poland is going to emerge as a significant gas producer and there is a lot of interest."

Interest as been spurred by "some of the best fiscal terms in the world," said Aurelian Oil and Gas Chief Executive Officer Rowen Bainbridge.

The government is asking for only 23 percent of the take, which "is creating a very large commercial incentive to develop these deposits," he said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2010/04/05/Poland-could-become-major-gas-supplier/UPI-12281270495487/

Russia, Poland to come clean on shared past

Russia and Poland can look forward to more mutual frankness and openness after the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accepted an invitation from his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin to visit commemorations in Katyn near Smolensk, where Stalin’s secret police shot dead some 20 thousand captured Polish officers 70 years ago this summer.

Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/05/6018972.html

Wajda’s “Katyn” shown on Russian TV before premiers’ meeting

A film by prominent Polish director Andrzej Wajda about the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet soldiers in Katyn in 1940 premiered on the Russian TV channel Kultura on April 2.

The appearance of the film in Russia is seen as a positive sign in Russian-Polish relations as the two countries are still arguing about the role the Soviet Union played before the start of WWII. Over 20,000 Polish prisoners, mainly officers, were executed after the partitioning of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.

The fact that the massacre was staged by the NKVD police force in a forest near Smolensk in Western Russia was recognized by the Soviet Union in 1990. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk will take part in the memorial service marking the 70th anniversary since the tragedy on April 7. Polish President Lech Kaczynski is expected to attend a memorial service on April 10.

Read more: http://rt.com/Politics/2010-04-05/roar-wajdas-katyn-shown.html

Dash for Poland’s gas could end Russian stranglehold

American technology to produce shale gas is unleashing a scramble for drilling rights in Poland, where experts believe vast reserves of unconventional gas exist that could help to weaken Russia’s grip on Europe’s energy supplies.
“There is a landgrab under way,” said Oisin Fanning, the executive chairman of San Leon Energy, a British company that has secured three licence areas in the region with Talisman. “Poland is going to emerge as a significant gas producer and there is a lot of interest. All of the majors are coming in and Gazprom is looking at this with some alarm.” He said that Talisman planned to spend $140 million (£90 million) on its Polish drilling programme, which will start next year.

Read more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7087585.ece

John Paul ‘ignored abuse of 2,000 boys’

As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI, with the worst crisis of his reign.

Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his 26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood.

The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an Austrian friend of John Paul’s who abused an estimated 2,000 boys over decades but never faced any sanction from Rome.

Read more:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7086738.ece

Polish film triggers conflicting views in Russia

The film “Katyn” by the Polish director Andrzei Wajda about the mass killing of Polish officers by the Stalin regime in 1940 has triggered conflicting views in Russia. 
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/03/5968625.html

Krakow guards its past

This Polish City has not been overrun by tourists, yet its squares, churches and old buildings make an alluring destination for anyone fascinated by history

"You must go there," my friend Halina had enthused about Krakow, the place of her birth. "It's the most beautiful place in the world."

I had been worried that this beauty in southern Poland had generated the popularity from which Venice suffers. But I found even Krakow's busiest streets uncrowded, with tourists in a minority. Newcomers seemed to stop and stare at yet another achingly beautiful high-cheekboned blonde. Krakow is a university town, and I wonder how the male students get anything done.

Another comparison with Venice comes up. Like Venice's Piazza di San Marco, Krakow's main market square is lined with cafés shoulder to shoulder and has just as many pigeons as does the square in Venice.

Read more:

 

More-secular Poland marks Pope John Paul's death

A trumpet in Warsaw sounded a mournful tone Friday at 9:37 p.m., marking the minute five years ago when Poland's revered native son Pope John Paul II died.Believers held solemn commemorations of the pope amid Good Friday observances recalling the suffering of Jesus. Singing hymns in the torch light, they followed a group of men who carried an enormous cross in a Way of the Cross procession.
"It was a great pope we had, and it's important to pay homage to him," said Barbara Pelka, 69, one of thousands who turned out in the rain for the ceremony. "This is our tradition, this is what we should be doing."
The cross was then erected at Pilsudski Square, where John Paul, as the newly elected pope in 1979, delivered a Mass in which he subtly challenged the communist leadership and inspired the anti-communist movement that eventually helped defeat communist across eastern Europe.
Read more:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkHBmTzia-_YzdHho98zxotLTEjgD9ER54GO0

Sex Abuse Scandal Casting Shadow Over Pope John Paul II's Sainthood

Five years ago Catholics around the world were mourning the death of Pope John Paul II, who headed the church for 27 years. Now questions have arisen over his record combating pedophile priests and it appears his fast track to sainthood may be slowing down.

Catholics around the world are marking Good Friday but at the same time also the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, the most popular pontiff of the modern age and a prime candidate for sainthood.

Read more: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Sex-Abuse-Scandal-Casting-Shadow-Over-Efforts-to-Make-Pope-John-Paul-II-a-Saint---89766977.html

From Poland, America Looks Like Wisteria Lane

America, the promised land for all Poles. For more than a century, so many people emigrated from Poland to the U.S. in search of their American dream and sent their hard-earned dollars back home.

Here’s the latest example, from conservative daily Rzeczpospolita, which writes on its blog today:

“What does a tourist see zipping through America over one week? He sees unlocked doors in suburbia, unlocked cars and bicycles left on the porch, not strapped to anything. He sees people who smile to each other on the street completely for no reason. He doesn’t see anyone littering. He sees that each and every car stops at the Stop sign that’s on every street corner instead of traffic lights. And no driver or almost no driver exceeds the speed limit and it won’t even occur to the driver not to stop before a pedestrian crossing even if the pedestrian is only getting ready to cross the street.”

That must be one of the most naïve descriptions of any country that I’ve read in a while. No crime at all? Nobody steals, no burglaries, and everyone is just smiling happily as they walk the always sunny and impeccably clean streets.

Indeed, just like many Poles used to think that “Dynasty” showed the absolute truth about America, now they seem to believe that the U.S. looks exactly like it does on “Desperate Housewives.”

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/04/01/from-poland-america-looks-like-wisteria-lane/

Mosque Building Brings Islam Fears to Poland

In a sight familiar in some west European countries but new to Poland, dozens of protesters demonstrated in a Warsaw suburb last weekend against the construction of a mosque.

Plans by Poland's tiny Muslim community to build a place of worship and an Islamic cultural centre face opposition in a sign that concerns about Islam may be spreading eastwards to the staunchly Catholic European Union member.

Between 15,000 and 30,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Chechnya, live in Poland -- the biggest ex-communist EU state where more than 90 percent of the 38-million population declare themselves Catholics.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/01/world/international-uk-poland-mosque-feature.html