Press Release, 17.04.2026

Photo: “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia” exhibition at Katyn / Photo by the Russian Military History Society

Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov has sent a formal letter to Irina Velikanova, Director General of the Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, calling for the exhibition “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia” to be removed.

In the view of the Yabloko leader, placing this exhibition on the grounds of the memorial complex is unacceptable: it contradicts the memorial’s purpose, its legal status, and the very principles underlying state policy on commemorating the victims of political repression.

It should be noted that the Katyn Memorial Complex was established by a Decree of the Russian Government on 19 October 1996 and comprises two parts — the site where more than 8,000 residents of Smolensk and the Smolensk region, victims of the political repressions of the 1930s, are buried, and a military cemetery containing the graves of more than 4,000 Polish prisoners of war who were shot. It is therefore simultaneously a memorial and a burial site, one that requires a regime of use that is respectful, legally sound, and appropriate to its character.

On 10 April 2026, an exhibition entitled “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia,” organised jointly with the Russian Military History Society, was opened on the grounds of the Katyn Memorial Complex.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov with Yabloko colleagues at the Katyn Memorial Complex on 2 June, 2022 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

In Rybakov’s view, the content of the exhibition is not commemorative in character but overtly political and propagandistic. According to the organisers, as stated on the official website of the Russian Military History Society, the exhibition “is devoted to the history of Polish Russophobia”, that is, to “the hatred of the Polish state’s elite towards Russia and the Russian people”. This means the exhibition is not a solemn, historically grounded, or academically neutral display aimed at preserving the memory of repression victims, but rather an instance of using burial ground to convey a political and ideological message.

The letter also notes that the placement of the exhibition panels does not fall within any of the purposes set out in the statutes governing the Katyn complex, and that such use of the memorial therefore contradicts its designated purpose and violates the requirements of Russian law.

“A burial site cannot be used in a manner that undermines its solemn and respectful character. An exhibition built around the concept of the ‘Russophobia’ of an entire people turns a space of remembrance for repression victims into a platform for political polemics. This runs counter to Russian laws on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression and to the state’s framework for commemorating their memory, which calls not for the exploitation of sites of remembrance for confrontational purposes, but for the restoration of historical justice,” Rybakov stated.

Photo: A Yabloko delegation laying flowers at the Katyn memorial (Smolensk region) on 2 June 2022 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Furthermore, the exhibition violates Russia’s international obligations: the 1994 Agreement with Poland and the 1992 Treaty on Friendly Cooperation, both of which oblige the parties to maintain sites of remembrance and burial in a dignified condition, free from anything incompatible with a respectful character. An exhibition in effect accuses Poles of centuries of Russophobia, and placing it directly within a cemetery for Polish prisoners of war introduces a motif of enmity and ideological confrontation into the space of burial.

Nikolai Rybakov has demanded that the use of the memorial’s grounds for displays incompatible with its purpose be discontinued, and that the question of dismantling or relocating the exhibition outside the complex be given due consideration.