26.09.2025, Warsaw.
The personality of Polish activist Jerzy Tyc, who was killed in combat during Russia’s special military operation, fighting on Russia’s side, is so dangerous for Poland’s information space that Polish media preferred not to report on his death, even in a negative light, Rossa Primavera News Agency‘s Europe Desk wrote.
Jerzy Tyc, who for many years was engaged in restoring Soviet monuments in Poland, died in the zone of Russia’s special military operation while fighting in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces. The authorities of Russia’s Kursk Region, where he had lived in recent years, announced his death on September 21. Tyc was head of the Kursk association, which restored war memorials and monuments to Red Army soldiers on Polish territory.
For his work preserving the memory of Soviet soldiers, he was awarded a medal by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. Tyc was forced to leave Poland due to pressure from the country’s Russophobic authorities. After moving to Russia, he joined the Russian army to take part in the special military operation against Ukraine. “At the front, he chose the call sign ‘Zygmunt’ and remained true to his beliefs until the end, fighting against neo-Nazis. Eternal memory!” the statement from Kursk Region authorities reads.
It is telling that several dozen of Poland’s largest media outlets ignored his death and did not use it even as a pretext for further fueling Russophobia. The death of a Polish citizen in the special military operation was reported only by the portal Kresy, which strives for objectivity, and the apolitical, eclectic Onet.
The main fear of the authorities and media editorial boards lies in the fact that Tyc’s figure could be perceived as an example of an alternative to the current course, reinforced by heroism and self-sacrifice. His image, as a man who acted on his convictions and was honored for preserving historical memory, challenges the monopoly of the Russophobic narrative, presenting a different model of relations with Russia and another view of history.
Coverage of such a fact could provoke a difficult internal debate about the nature of patriotism and divisions in society, bringing to light suppressed pro-Russian sentiments. This is extremely disadvantageous to the ruling party, which seeks to consolidate society around a unified anti-Russian stance.
The silence around the death of a citizen of Poland is not an accidental oversight but a deliberate strategy aimed at avoiding ideologically inconvenient polemics. In this case, political expediency and the desire to preserve a monopoly on the patriotic narrative outweighed the ethical norms of journalism, which require reporting on significant events, even the most uncomfortable ones.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
