Professor Giennadij Matwiejew from Moscow University was amongst those interviewed in the report. The academic questioned the veracity of Polish estimates of the numbers of Soviet victims following a war that Poland, which had just regained its independence after over a century of partitions, unexpectedly won against the might of Trotsky‘s Red army.
“The Poles never provided us with lists of the dead, although they were obliged to do so under the terms of the Treaty of Riga,” he said.
“I do not no how they work out the estimate of 18,000 – 20,000,” he added.
Some Russian estimates reach at least 10,000 higher.
According to Polish historians, and some Russian historians, the deaths of the Red Army internees were due to illness and malnutrition.
However, yesterday's report added further grist to the mill, with allegations of sadism on behalf of the Polish camp commanders. The programme went as far as to suggest that in some cases, executions were ordered.
In conclusion, the report declared that the appalling standards of the camps amounted to “a veiled genocide.”
Katyn fallout?
In Poland, the focus on the camps is being interpreted as a manner of balancing out the Katyn crime of the Second World War, during which 22,500 Poles, mainly reserve officers, were shot on Stalin's orders.
“Harsh words need to be used here,” said Professor Andrzej Kunert of the Council for the Protection of Sites of Struggle and Martyrdom.
“This is a desperate attempt - and many fear to use the word - to "justify" the Katyn massacre.
Marcin Bosacki, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reveals that a letter of complaint has been sent to the television channel, which he describes as “operating under the dictates of the propaganda of Russian authorities.”
The matter of the Soviet victims of Polish camps often comes to the fore when Katyn is in the news.
Earlier this month, there was a furore when unidentified persons installed a plaque on a monument in Strzalkow, Western Poland.
The Russian inscription referred to Polish death camps, and was seen as a riposte to an official Polish plaque that was intended to be installed at Smolensk (site of the 2010 air disaster) referring to the “genocide” of the World War II Katyn crime. (nh/pg)