So not a country with it's own freedom at all then. I thought you said they were free. Imagine telling a country it's free when the USA installs whatever government it chooses.

I’m aware of the Katyn massacre and the purges of anticommunists in the USSR on a widespread level

Man oh man. I'm so glad that the Katyn massacre affected other countries other than Poland! Feel free to tell the class how this wasn't "particularly against Poland".

For those who don't know...

The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 defenceless Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD, at Stalin's order in April and May 1940.

So basically the death count of Palestine right now... which has been labeled a genocide by the UN and multiple other parties. This is JUST that one event. Not including the USSR's "anticommunist purge". Which is estimated to have killed more than 100,000 Poles and Deported Millions more (most of them likely dying as population of Siberia and other places they were sent to didn't see a matching population boost).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_repressions_of_Polish_citizens_(1939%E2%80%931946)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Poles_(1944%E2%80%931946)

Approximately 250,000 Polish prisoners of war were captured by the USSR during and after the invasion of Poland.

The Soviet forces murdered almost all captured officers, and sent numerous ordinary soldiers to the Soviet Gulag.

In total, the Soviets killed tens of thousands of Polish prisoners of war.

The Soviet NKVD executed about 65,000 imprisoned Poles after being subjected to show trials.

Approximately 100,000 Polish citizens were arrested during the two years of Soviet occupation.

the Soviets deported a total of more than 1,200,000 Poles in four waves of mass deportations from the Soviet-occupied Polish territories.

with more than 220,000 people sent primarily to far north and east Russia, including Siberia and Khabarovsk Krai. The second wave of 13 April 1940, consisted of 320,000 people sent primarily to Kazakhstan. The third wave of June–July 1940 totaled more than 240,000. The fourth and final wave occurred in June 1941, deporting 300,000.

rounded up by order of Lavrentiy Beria of the NKVD and deported to Siberia and various gulags in the Soviet Union reached 50,000 in 1945 alone.

According to official data, during the state-controlled expulsion between 1945 and 1946, roughly 1,167,000 Poles left the westernmost republics of the Soviet Union, less than 50% of those who registered for population transfer. Another major ethnic Polish transfer took place after Stalin's death, in 1955–1959.

Oh and before you say something really fucking stupid...like "Poland wanted to be soviet controlled".

The Poles and the Soviets re-established diplomatic relations in 1941, following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement; but the Soviets broke them off again in 1943 after the Polish government demanded an independent examination of the recently discovered Katyn burial pits.The Soviets lobbied the Western Allies to recognize the pro-Soviet Polish puppet government of Wanda Wasilewska in Moscow.

Why would they want to be Soviet controlled when they specifically broke ties with Russia over the Katyn massacre?

Funny how the purported opinion of polish citizens about Russia isn’t affected by propaganda, but the french polls are somehow.

No it's not funny at all. It's expected that normal people wouldn't know about every military operation that occurred during WW2. Specifically the US landing at Normandy and other similar operations. When I talk about the opinion of my family it's first hand experience of how they lived. There's a distinct difference in how you would expect a person to know about the events.

And before you comment again...

Fucking 6 million Poles died in WW2. 1/6th of that was Russia.

Andrzej Paczkowski puts the number of Polish deaths due to Soviet repression at 90,000–100,000 of the 1.0 million persons deported and 30,000 executed by the Soviets.[40]

According to Zbigniew S. Siemaszko the total of those deported was 1,646,000 of whom 1,450,000 were residents and refugees (excluding POWs).[41]

According to Franciszek Proch the total of those deported was 1,800,000 of whom 1,050,000 perished.[42]

Millions of poles died to Soviet hands. Mostly on foreign soil that they were forced to. Imagine causing 1/6th of the total losses of a war and then claiming that the Soviets were a godsend!. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties_of_Poland

In 1989, the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev apologized for its crimes against Poland.

But nah! Totally not Genocide at all! And Russia hasn't even owned up to some extent that they did it! I'm sorry, you're fucking wrong and this conversation is done.