BUOYED BY AMERICAN AID the USSR was assured of victory over the Third Reich.  As early as February 1943, the Soviets established the Trophy Brigades. Their purpose was to join in the ransacking and share with the Allies the spoils of war.

Every German home and office, thousands of factories, tens of thousands of cars, millions of captive slaves became a prize of war. Germany’s entire merchant marine and manufacturing base became war booty. The ransacking of Germany reduced the Reich to an empty shell. The allied plunder included the surrender of Poland and a further twenty free nations to Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Poland has compiled a list of cultural objects that it considers lost due to the USSR.

In January 2020, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on Twitter a list of their country’s cultural heritage that the department know is lost due to wartime looting by the Red Army’s top brass. According to the ministry, Polish culture “suffered huge losses” due to the actions of the Soviet authorities.

The list includes paintings: “Madonna and Child” by Lucas Cranach the Elder from Głogów’s church, “Madonna and Child with a Parrot in the Landscape” by an unknown artist of the 16th century, “Girl with a Pigeon” by Antoine Pesne, “Bird Courtyard” by Daniel Schulz, “Portrait of Johann von Schwarzwaldt” by Hans Holbein, “Forest Landscape” by Jan Brueghel the Elder, “Diptych of Winter Fields” by a Dutch artist of the 15th century (they are all from the collection of the city’s museum in Gdansk).  

A statement by the Polish Foreign Ministry said that “special units of the NKVD plundered valuable works of Polish art, many of which are still in Russia. The Red Army and the NKVD repeatedly destroyed and confiscated,” the Foreign Ministry added.

Recall that the reason for the deterioration of Russian-Polish relations was the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the diplomat Józef Lipsky, who served as Polish ambassador to Berlin in 1934-1939.

#Soviet #RedArmy did not bring Poland freedom. The German occupation was replaced by Stalinist oppression and enslavement. And Soviet troops remained here for almost 50 more years… VIDEO.

On 17 January 1945, the Red Army entered Warsaw.

Warsaw was a flattened moonscape with 6% of its prewar population left in the city.

The horrors of German occupation gave way to almost 50 years of Soviet oppression.

Russia will not return Poland ‘trophy’ works of art. Moscow will not engage in any talk about the return of cultural goods. This issue does not exist for her – said the head of the Ministry of Culture of Russia Vladimir Miedinski. He stated that the relocated cultural goods were Russian property.

– There are no and there can be no favourable conditions in which Russia engages in any talks about the “return of cultural goods.” This issue simply does not exist for us – said Vladimir Miedinski .

The RIA Novosti agency said that the minister’s comment refers to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs commentary on losses to Polish culture as a result of the USSR’s actions.

Miedinski said that cultural goods that were “moved as part of compensatory restitution” are now “owned by the Russian Federation.”

Only Russia “as the owner has the right to dispose of them,” he noted.

When the 1st Polish Army under Red Army command crossed the Vistula on January 17, 1945, Soviet propagandists called it a liberation, a label that stuck for over seven decades. Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4.