On the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Polish President Karol Nawrocki drew parallels between past and present-day aggression in a message posted on social media. In his statement, he referred to “unresolved injustices” and “sick dreams of an empire.”
“Eighty-six years ago, Stalin and Hitler signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact—an agreement that paved the way for World War II and claimed the lives of millions around the world. Poland was the first victim of German, and later Soviet, aggression,” Nawrocki wrote on Saturday, August 23rd. He continued: “Germany has still not paid its historical debts, while imperialist sentiments have reawakened in Russia. The world must learn from these facts and prevent sick imperial ambitions from claiming more lives.”
Signed on August 23, 1939, just days before Germany’s invasion of Poland, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Its secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence between Berlin and Moscow, roughly along the Narew, Vistula, and San rivers. Often referred to as the ‘Fourth Partition of Poland,’ the pact sealed the fate of the Polish Republic.
The pact not only paved the way for Poland’s occupation but also curtailed or eliminated the sovereignty of several countries in the region, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania. Germany and the Soviet Union also pledged to suppress any efforts by Poles to preserve their independence.
