{"id":203490,"date":"2026-09-13T09:50:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/203490\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T09:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:50:39","slug":"historical-truth-mixed-with-lies-lukasenkas-chief-ideologist-lectures-students-on-1939-soviet-invasion-of-poland","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/203490\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical truth mixed with lies: \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s chief ideologist lectures students on 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U\u0142adzimir Piarco\u016d, first deputy head of Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s administration, visited Barysa\u016d State College on September 10 to lecture staff and students on what he considers the correct interpretation of the 1939 \u201creunification\u201d of Eastern and Western Belarus and to debunk \u201calternative\u201d views on the partition of Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The topic of his lecture was \u201cPeople\u2019s Unity Day as a Factor of National Pride.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (Viktor Koretsky, Deutsches Bundesarchiv, Aleksandr Rodchenko (\u041c\u0410\u041c\u041c \/ \u041cDF) \/ Pozirk's collage)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Propaganda silent on Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

September 17, the day the Red Army marched into Poland in 1939, was established as People\u2019s Unity Day in 2021 to mark \u201cthe reunification of Western Belarus and the BSSR\u201d following the Soviet invasion of Poland. However, instead of creating unity, the controversial holiday has divided the nation because its introduction coincided with large-scale reprisals against political opponents of the government, chillingly reminiscent of the crackdown on ethnic Poles and other groups that followed the annexation of Western Belarus by the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus became almost twice as large after the \u201creunification.\u201d But there was a flip side to the coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Army\u2019s advance was part of an agreement between Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler on \u201cspheres of interest\u201d in Eastern Europe. The agreement was codified in a secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population of Western Belarus was transferred from Poland\u2019s authoritarian state to the Bolshevik totalitarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belarusian government\u2019s propaganda booklets on People\u2019s Unity Day, published by the Scientific Research Institute of Theory and Practice of State Governance of the Management Academy under the President of the Republic of Belarus, make no mention of the pact or the terror that followed the Soviet invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsheviks\u2019 election traditions replicated by \u0141uka\u0161enka<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe historical basis for People\u2019s Unity Day was the reunification of the BSSR and Western Belarus, forcibly included in Poland in 1921 for nearly two decades without considering the Belarusian people\u2019s opinion,\u201d says one propaganda booklet. It describes Poland\u2019s control of Western Belarus as an \u201coccupation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the territory was transferred to Polish control by Soviet Russia under the Treaty of Riga after the Red Army, which sought to spread global revolution westward, was defeated near Warsaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian negotiators did not invite a Belarusian delegation to Riga. However, the author does not mention this, probably for fear of irritating Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Treaty of Riga, the parties renounced their territorial claims. That did not prevent Stalin from later striking a deal with Hitler to partition Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Multinational People\u2019s Assembly of Western Belarus unanimously voted to approve the establishment of Soviet rule in the area and reunification with the BSSR, while residents of former \u2018kresy wschodnie\u2019 [eastern borderlands of Poland] met Red Army soldiers as liberators,\u201d the booklet says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author deliberately changes the chronology of events. Stalin\u2019s troops invaded the territory first, and only afterward did the Soviet Union hold an election for the People\u2019s Assembly. The election was held in the best Bolshevik traditions, with carefully selected candidates under the close watch of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peasants forced to join collective farms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Life was hard for Belarusians under Polish rule, and many sincerely welcomed the Red Army. One eyewitness recalled: \u201cWhen we saw skinny, ragged and dirty soldiers wearing ripped coats and boots wrapped in rags, lame and skinny horses, our spirits fell immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another eyewitness quoted in the collection Western Byelorussia and Ukraine in 1939-1941. People, Events, Documents<\/em>, published in Russia in 2011, said: \u201cSoviet people started buying everything and anything for Polish zlotys. . . Private shops were closed. Shortages of everything persisted immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey started to force everyone to join collective farms but no one wanted to join. Everyone understood what this Soviet power is about. . . They took away our threshers and horses to the collective farm. It was a very poor collective farm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose who had 10 hectares of land, 3-4 cows were quickly branded as \u2018kulaks.\u2019 Their property was confiscated and people were deported to Siberia. Three families were deported to Siberia in our village.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official propaganda booklet lacks such accounts. Instead, it says that \u201cany negative interpretation of the 1939 events connected with the reunification of our country is nothing but flagrant falsification of history and a bitter insult for our people and the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polish regime was brutal, but Soviet regime was more brutal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Interwar Poland was a tough place for Belarusians. Its government pursued a policy of assimilation of ethnic minorities and persecuted Belarusian activists for political reasons, while the eastern provinces lagged behind in development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The booklet highlights, partially distorts and exaggerates these trends. It claims that Poland annexed the territory, banning the Belarusian language and the Orthodox faith. It even accuses Poland of carrying out an ethnocide against the Belarusian people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It describes the camp for extrajudicial detainees in Biaroza Kartuzskaja \u2014 a really nasty place \u2014 as \u201ca prototype and a school for personnel for the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, such as Treblinka and Buchenwald.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond doubt, in 1939 the population of Western Belarus went from the frying pan into the fire. It went through Sovietization, nationalization of property, forced collectivization, mass repression and deportations to Siberia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the NKVD executed about 22,000 Polish officers and prisoners in what is known as the Katyn massacre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a turbulent, bloody period full of human tragedies. Therefore, timing a holiday to September 17 was never a good idea, also because it was one of the most traumatic periods for Poles. Minsk uses the occasion to ramp up anti-Polish propaganda. At the same time, officials are reaching out to Warsaw in an effort to mend ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical truth based on lies, false claims and twisted facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Belarus\u2019 authorities stick to a one-sided picture of those events because their rule is based on and deeply rooted in Stalinist practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they told students the truth, young minds might draw parallels that are undesirable for the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, elections in Belarus are just as much a stage-managed ritual as the People\u2019s Assembly ballot in 1939. The current government\u2019s persecution of people for \u201cextremism\u201d and \u201cterrorism\u201d is reminiscent of the persecution of \u201cenemies of the people\u201d during Stalin\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After invading Poland and partitioning it between the USSR and Nazi Germany, Stalin attacked Finland and then annexed the Baltic countries in the summer of 1940. After World War II, the Kremlin established communist regimes in a large part of Europe. The imperialist expansion was defended with false claims and cynical lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the \u0141uka\u0161enka regime is helping Moscow carry on its aggressive war against Ukraine. Union State propaganda justifies it as a sacred war against a Nazi regime. In fact, this is an \u201calternative truth\u201d that Piarco\u016d blames on his ideological opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 10, he told the audience in Barysa\u016d: \u201cSpeculations on history are made in the first place to create incorrect and false stereotypes among youth. Historical truth is heavily mixed with lies, fake claims and twisted facts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was a remarkably accurate description of the booklets produced for \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s propaganda officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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