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Lietuvos rytas - Lithuania | Thursday, September 21, 2006

The different interpretations of the invasion of Poland

Jacekas Komaras takes the 67th anniversary of the Red Army's invasion of Eastern Poland as an opportunity to remind people that the interpretation of the events of September 17, 1939 is still controversial in several countries today. In the secret supplement to the Hitler-Stalin pact, Germany and the Soviet Union divided Eastern Europe up into spheres of influence. Following the end of the war, large parts of Poland fell under Soviet rule and now belong to Belarus. "The Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, is fond of this date and has declared it a public holiday commemorating the liberation of the western parts of the country from Poland. Cities like Grodno and Minsk even have streets named after September 17. But for Poland this date was a stab in the back. And for Lithuania it meant the end of independence… Many Lithuanians are still haunted by the Soviet stereotype, but at least we can hope that our children will learn the truth about September 17, 1939. In Russia, however, it's very unlikely that schools will change what they teach their pupils about this over the next ten to twenty years."

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