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'Up to Quarter of Million Red Army Soldiers Perished in Polish Captivity.' Fact-checking of Political Analyst Belyaev's False Claim
According to Polish estimates, 66 thousand Red Army soldiers returned home during the prisoner exchange.
Belarusian pro-government political analyst Belyaev claimed that almost none of the 200–250,000 Red Army soldiers captured by the Polish army in the 1920s have returned home. This statement was made during a discussion about the anniversary of the establishment of the concentration camp in Byaroza-Kartuska, Brest region of Belarus. The Weekly Top Fake team found that Belyaev's version of events differed from the official one.
Political scientist Alexey Belyaev shared his alternative history facts on the air of Radio Minsk, on June 17, 2024.
“When Tukhachevsky's army advanced on Warsaw, in 1919 they started expelling Poles from that territory, and in 1920, near Warsaw, a miracle happened, the Red Army was driven back. There, around 200–250 thousand Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner, and almost none of them survived and returned,” the Dean of the Belarus State University Journalism Faculty said.
His statement contradicts the official version of history in both Russia and Poland. The Battle of Warsaw took place in 1920. Russian researchers counted fewer prisoners over several years of war — from 1919 to 1922 — than Belyaev did for that one battle.
The collection of documents titled “Red Army Soldiers in Polish Captivity, 1919–1922,” published officially by Russia, mentions 157 thousand prisoners across the entire war. This is the very source used by the Russian State Archive. The number of fatalities in Polish captivity is estimated to be between 25 and 28 thousand; the exact figure is unknown.
The data displayed on the stands in the museum in Katyn says, that 75 thousand people were exchanged and returned home.
According to Polish estimates, 66 thousand Red Army soldiers returned home during the prisoner exchange. Around 14–16 thousand may have died in the camps.
Hence, at least half of the prisoners, according to archival data from both Russia and Poland, returned to the USSR alive. And between 14 and 28 thousand people died in captivity, not 200–250 thousand.
