It is thanks to that generation, which then was bleeding on the streets of Warsaw, fought arms in hand for a free Poland (…) thanks to its courage, heroism, determination Poland exists

— said President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday at the Warsaw Uprising Monument, as part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising.

He emphasized that thanks to the generation of insurgents’ children, despite the fact that Poland „was not fully free, sovereign and independent, the myth of the Warsaw Uprising lasted and survived”.

It was thanks to it (…) the grandchildren of the insurgents could live in this myth, they could cultivate it (…) It is thanks to all this, today, this youngest generation of conscious, adult citizens, we can speak out, who the Warsaw insurgents are, what the Uprising really was

— emphasized Andrzej Duda.

He recalled a dispute with the communists who „were willing to agree to honor the insurgents, but they did not want to pay tribute to the Uprising”.

Because there was an idea in it, it was not just an armed uprising, it had its purpose (…) there was a great will to fight for the liberation of Poland, but there was also a fear of what would happen (…) The commanders were aware of who was coming from the East, who was approaching Warsaw [Soviet Army] (…) This uprising was also an act of politics, so that it was Poles who would welcome, as hosts, the approaching Russians in their capital, which they liberated themselves

— said Duda.

Stalin saw one thing, that Poles are steadfast, not easy to subjugate, that they would not allow themselves to be easily stamped out, that they are proud and dangerous, that heroism and courage until death was not alien to them. (…) If we add the Indomitable Soldiers to this, nobody seems to doubt why Poland did not become yet another Soviet republic, but the state. It is to you, my dear insurgents, that we owe this

— marked the president.

Tłum. K.J.