The trust could not be established because, for most of their history, Poles were the nation of farmers who saw their prosperity in working the land. Russians saw their prosperity in conquering and grabbing the wealth of others. Poland was always high on that list of others. Most of today’s Ukraine was once a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1654 Russians managed to take a big chunk of it and the rest by the end of the 18th century. Now, Putin and his clique see Russia’s prosperity not by exploring its resources but by stealing from Ukraine.

In Katyń, the Soviets killed about 20,000 interned Polish officers. Putting it next to information that many Red Army POVs were killed implies that Poles did it. Germans did it.