Celebration of the 77th anniversary of Soviet aggression against Poland and of the Siberian Day

September 17, 2016
10:34 pm

Today in Przemysl, on the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union's aggression against Poland, ceremonies were held with the participation of the Speaker of the Polish Parliament.

- All the genocide and murders committed against Polish citizens during World War II have their source in these two dates: September 1 and 17," Marshal Marek Kuchciński said today during the celebration of the 77th anniversary of Soviet aggression against Poland and the Siberian Day at the Monument to Siberian Deportees and Victims of Katyn in Przemyśl. On September 17, 1939, following the agreement between Hitler and Stalin, the Soviets invaded Poland. Their main goal became liquidation of patriotic Polish elites and intelligentsia. Those who wanted a free and strong Poland were imprisoned and then killed in a way that offended human dignity and morality. They were murdered without trial, with a shot to the back of the head. The symbol of this cruelty is Ostashkov, Katyn or Miednoje, which for decades hid nameless graves. Hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens were deported to the East, to Kazakhstan, Siberia, or the northern parts of the Soviet Union.

- Three dates in Poland's recent history are strongly intertwined: 1920, 1940 and 2010 - said Marshal Kuchciński. - In the Katyn forest in 1940 Russia committed an act of genocide against Polish prisoners of war. It was them who 20 years earlier - in the Battle of Warsaw - stopped the Bolshevik invasion of Europe and resurrected our Homeland - he reminded. In 2010 Katyn crime reminded of itself in a cruel and sinister way. Those who wanted to pay homage to the murdered, lost their lives themselves - all the participants of this national pilgrimage, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, died in Smolensk in the service of the Republic.

- The monument before which we stand is one of the signs of our national memory. The truth will always win, although sometimes we have to wait persistently for its victory. And it is worth waiting, because only the truth can be a lasting basis for harmony, reconciliation and peace - concluded the speech of the Speaker of the Polish Sejm.

Another ceremony on September 17 is part of the current of restoring the memory of heroes. Today, at the Zasan cemetery in Przemysl, Captain Wladyslaw Koba was buried. Koba was a great commander and patriot, a cursed soldier. During World War II he organized armed and diversionary actions. He fought for the Modlin Fortress, later in the Home Army and in the Freedom and Independence Association in Przemysl and Rzeszow. In 1947, he was arrested. In 1949, during a secret trial, he was sentenced to death. He died at the hands of the communists the same year, and his body was hidden from the world - in a mass grave in Zwięczyca in Rzeszów.

Captain Koba's death was not in vain, however. Poland did not forget about him. Thanks to the exhumation, after 67 years he lived to see a dignified burial - next to his wife and daughter, in Przemyśl. The Speaker of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński, who was present at the funeral ceremony, spoke about the restoration of honor and dignity to the Polish state, which took place only in recent years.

- This is what happens in Warsaw at Łączka, in Powązki or in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where there is a special plaque dedicated to the members of the cursed soldiers, this is what happened in Gdansk where we recently buried "Inka" and "Zagończyk". And today this is what is happening in Przemysl," said the Speaker of the Sejm.
- We owe a great debt to our heroes. That is why we must do everything we can to ensure that their bravery will be permanently engraved in the consciousness of present and future generations - he concluded.