“Restitution of the First Republic of Poland” – 1 of the threads of the disinformation communicative about “aggressive Poland”

Russian disinformation centres do not limit their activities in portraying Poland as an ‘aggressive’ state that is ‘preparing’ to occupy the lands of its neighbours. This 1 of the key narratives promoted by the Russian disinformation apparatus is being developed with dozens of threads adapting it to current events. 1 of the presently promoted themes refers to the “restitution of the First Republic”.

The subject of the ‘First Republic of Poland’, or alternatively the 3rd Republic of Poland ‘wishing’ to transform itself into the First Republic of Poland, is peculiarly beneficial from the position of the Kremlin’s current information objectives, as it covers both Belarus, Russia and Ukraine with its ‘reach’. Moreover, the issue of the ‘rebirth of the First Republic’ is profoundly rooted in the consciousness of the population of post-Soviet areas, a consequence of russian propaganda, giving emergence to the roots of the Russian disinformation apparatus. “The Republic of Poland” (implicitly the First Republic of Poland) is an entity portrayed as an “evil force” that not only “occupied Russian lands” (in the Kremlin’s perception, Ukraine and Belarus), but led to the “rupture of Slavic unity”. It is worth remembering that in Russian political myths it is emphasized that it was as a consequence of “Polonization” that the Ukrainian population (Ukrainians as Russians deceived/fooled by Poles) and its language (Ukrainian as the Russian language “polluted” by Poles). From this perspective, it is Poland that is “guilty” for all the crises in the European area of the erstwhile tsarist Russia, and is even “guilty” for the ongoing war in Ukraine – if not for the “intrigues of Warsaw”, the unity of the “Russian nation” would proceed to this day.

The above story did not end its life at the beginning of the 20th century, nor after the collapse of the USSR. It is inactive a serious component of the Kremlin’s and average Russians’ perception of the situation in the region and of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus itself. In the context of the ongoing disinformation run creating Poland as a country allegedly ‘preparing’ to attack Belarus, the subject of the ‘restoration of the Republic’ is presented as a ‘historical argument’ convincing, among others, Belarusians that Poland is about to start its plan by starting a war. In this context, the messages created by the Russian services about Poland’s alleged plans to occupy western Ukraine are being mentioned. The combination of both threads creates a “convincing” imagination of reality, where Belarus will shortly be attacked by both Poland and Ukraine (which is allegedly already under almost full control of the 3rd Polish Republic).

In doing so, the Russian side and Belarusian disinformation centres mention Lithuania as a country that will join in hostile actions against Belarus and Russia. An attack is besides to come from Lithuania, and joint Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian troops are to lead to the ‘absorption of Belarus’ into the ‘new First Republic’. A key component of this communicative is the message that the Belarusians can win this war. The triumph is to be guaranteed by the “brotherly support” of the Russian Federation, which “once again” will save the Belarusian nation by protecting it from “Polish slavery”.

A distorted imagination of past plays an exceptionally serious function in Russian disinformation. A profoundly rooted false imagination of the past is an component that authenticates the propaganda threads that service as a binder for messages relating straight to the present. For Moscow, ‘controlling history’ and imposing ‘its vision’ of the past on its neighbours is simply a tool for its current political goals – hence, among others, Moscow’s ‘extreme sensitivity’ to attempts to deconstruct Russian myths (especially those concerning the past of the Second planet War).

Author: dr Michał Marek

Public task financed by the Ministry of abroad Affairs of the Republic of Poland within thegrant comp etition “Public Diplomacy 2023”