Polish-Russian Disputes Over History as an Important Factor in Their Mutual Relations

Abstract

Typically, scholars researching the causes of international discords, conflicts and wars have an inclination to concentrate on geopolitics, competing ideologies, territorial disputes, divergent security or economic interests, to name a few. Still, it appears that one of a plenty of reasons for which states might disturb their mutual relations is often sidestepped or even entirely ignored—namely, the disputations about the past. The case of Poland and Russia may serve as a cogent example that agonizing and grisly developments from the past still could have a severe impact on the present. In this chapter, the most far-reaching disputations about history between contemporary Poland and the Russian Federation are presented. Undoubtedly, this matter has had a considerable clout on political relations between these two neighbouring states in the twenty-first century. This substantiates the thesis that enormous national traumas from the foretime, by no means, have been fully overcome. To what degree have arguments over the past been treated instrumentally by Russian and Polish political leaders and to what extent are they the true reason for the difficulties in mutual relations between both countries? How can one solve genuine arguments over the past in such a way to alleviate the collective pain of once deeply traumatized and persecuted nations? The author briefly describes the selected instances of arguments between Russian and Polish leaders, diplomats, state institutions concerning events from history. Moreover, the author tries to shortly respond to the questions mentioned above.