Andrzej Wajda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, fot. Agencja Gazeta
The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev honoured Andrzej Wajda in Warsaw with the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation.
The decoration ceremony of
Andrzeja Wajdy was held during the 5th Polish-Russian Forum of Civic Dialogue at the Palace on the Water in the Łazienki Royal Park. On his two-day visit to the capital of Poland, Dmitry Medvedev opened the Forum on Deceember 6, 2010 together with the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski.
"Your art is highly appreciated and liked in our country", said Dmitry Medvedev to Andrzej Wajda. "I am convinced that such art, which has, to a significant extent, grown out of the Second World War experiences, will keep on inspiring the best minds in our countries so that our countries and our societies could live in harmony and friendship (…) and so that we could develop power for an open and friendly dialogue, not closing our eyes to the past, and remaining open to the future", said the Russian President.
"Receiving the Order of Friendship directly from you, Mr President, I would like to express my deep gratitude. I believe that from your side it means more than just a gesture of a politician. I believe that your decision to fully explain the Katyń massacre expresses the feelings and views of people of today's Russia", said Wajda during the ceremony. "You are the first President of Russia who has taken the decision to declassify all Katyń documents and pay honour to the massacre's victims", he added.
The information about the decoration of Andrzej Wajda with the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation was released by the Kremlin's press service in August this year. The justification to the award provides that the director was honoured for his significant contribution to the development of Russian-Polish relations in the field of culture. However, Wajda believed that the President of Russia awarded him particularly for directing the film about Katyń.
As Wajda did not receive the award in person in Russia, the decoration ceremony was postponed until the President Medvedev's December visit in Warsaw. "It is wonderful. I am very glad this happened to me at this age", the director commented in August the fact of being awarded the Russian distinction. He also emphasizes the immense significance of "the fact of screening "Katyń" on the Russian television where it was seen by several million viewers".
"The subject which since 1940, the year when the massacre happened, had been a complete lie, or had not existed at all, suddenly came to light in Russia", said the director. "I relate this distinction awarded by the President of Russia to screening of the film "Katyń" which aims to cross a barrier of a difficult situation between our nations in terms of the Katyń case", said Wajda.
The Russian state television Rossija showed
Katyń twice. First is was broadcasted on April 2, 2010 (on the thematic channel Kultura), and the second show was screened on April 11, 2010 in Rossija's prime time.
Before the screening on April 2 Wajda admitted that he had not believed he would live to witness such a moment. In his statement for the Russian TV, the director noted that while working on the film, the Polish and Russian actors though only about "finding a way to a mutual understanding of the fact that the system, or regime should be separated from the nation, and Stalin should be separated from our friends Muscovites". "There is a poem by Adam Mickiewicz, "'Do przyjaciół Moskali" / "To My Friends Muscovites". We also wanted to dedicate this film to our friends with openness and hope for mutual understanding", stated the director.
Following the screening, a debate was transmitted live. Their participants unanimously agreed that "Katyń" is not an anti-Russian but anti-totalitarian picture. Wajda's film precisely depicts the truth about a tragedy which both nations have suffered from, commented the Head of the Federal Archival Agency Andriej Artizov. Director of the Institute of General History at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Aleksandr Tschubarian stated that the film accurately shows what is known from the archival materials, namely that the Polish officers in Katyń were shot by the NKVD, not the Nazis as it was claimed during the times of the USSR.
"There were many opponents in Russia against the screening of this film", observed Konstantin Kosachov, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament. He also expressed a belief that after the film had been screen, there "would be considerably less of them". In Kosachov's opinion showing Wajda's drama was a momentous event in terms of understanding our common tragic history.
During the ceremony held at the Palace on Water the Minister of Culture of Poland Bogdan Zdrojewski and of Russia Aleksandr Avdeyev signed a letter of intent regarding the establishment of Polish-Russian Centre for Dialogue and Understanding both in Moscow and Warsaw. The centres are to be open on January 1, 2011. The letter of intent was signed in the presence of the President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski and the President of Russia, Dmitr Medvedev.
Source: PAP/Polish Press Agency, wiadomosci.gazeta.pl