Polish parliament condemns 1939 Soviet 'aggression'

The FINANCIAL -- WARSAW, The lower house of Poland's parliament adopted on September 23 a resolution condemning the entry of Soviet troops into Eastern Poland in September 1939.The text of the document was agreed last week during negotiations involving the leaders of all parliamentary parties and Sejm Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski."On September 17, 1939, the Soviet forces committed an act of aggression against Poland, violating its sovereignty and trampling on the statutes of international law. The grounds for the Red Army's invasion were given by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939 in MOSCOW between the Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany," the document reads."Poland fell victim to two totalitarian regimes - Nazism and communism."The document refers to Soviet troops' entry into western parts of what are now Ukraine and Belarus, and at the time had been under Polish control since the end of the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.The Soviet Union said the move was to protect Ukrainian s and Belarusians, as the Polish government had fled the country in the face of the German attack and could no longer guarantee the security of its own citizens.The resolution classifies as genocide the event, as well as the Katyn massacre, in which several thousand Polish POWs were executed in western Russia's Katyn forest in 1940.The Sejm also called for respect of historical truth for the benefit of Russia and Poland."The Polish Sejm condemns any attempts to falsify history and urges all people of good will in Russia to take joint efforts to expose and condemn Stalin-era crimes," the resolution said.Last week, Russia's NATO envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, accused the Polish leadership of Russophobic sentiments in its views on the outbreak of the Second World War."The Polish version is a lie and the attitude of the Polish leadership is provocative," he said.He said that by accusing the Soviet Union of genocide, Poland risks being accused of genocide against the Russian people during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century, when Polish forces ransacked MOSCOW .A Russian historian called Poland's decision historically irrelevant, and accused "certain groups" in Poland of attempts to prevent bilateral relations from improving, and of seeking confrontation with Russia."The reasons behind this are far from rational - it is caused by an ING rained Russophobia and lack of love for our country," Alexander Dyukov, head of the Historical Memory Foundation, told RIA Novosti. http://finchannel.com/news_flash/World/47621_Polish_parliament_condemns_1939_Soviet_%27aggression%27/