23 August: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
In the second half of the 1930s, Poland pursued a balanced foreign policy. In 1932, it had concluded a non-aggression pact with the USSR and two years later with Germany. Regrettably, given Poland’s geopolitical position between two war-seeking totalitarian powers both accords were violated and on 23 August 1939 the USSR and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (named after the foreign ministers), a plan for yet another partition of Poland and borders of influence exerted by the occupiers.
Remember. August 23 - European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes
On 23 August, on the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes is observed. It was on that day in 1939 that an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union opened a road towards the tragedy of the second world war and its consequences: concentration camps, gulags, Holocaust, crematoria, labour camps, and many years of the cold war and further criminal regimes.