Russia's secret service and Poland sign agreement to swap archival documents

The Russian secret service archives will be available for Polish historians to study and the families of victims to the totalitarian system will be allowed to keep their deceased relatives' belongings. Interior Minister Marek Biernacki and Russian deputy head of Federal Security Service Viktor Komorogov signed an agreement yesterday, under which the documents, now in the archives will be exchanged. According to Interior Ministry spokesman Marcin Trzcinski the agreement is a sign of warmer relations between the two neighbors. He added the agreement will enable the historians to shed some light, not only on the Katyn executions, but also on the history of the Polish conspiracy in the USSR after the World War I and during 1939-1941. Russia is interested in learning the fate of Russian inmates who died in Polish prisons. According to Russian sources more than 80,000 Red Army soldiers died in camps in Poland, whereas the Poles claim that number does not exceed 18,000. Biernacki said, the analysis of documents will commence later this year and in the future the belongings of the victims will be returned to their relatives. (Zycie, page 3) J.K.