The House of European History invites you to attend an academic discussion on the memory and legacy of the Nazi-Soviet Pact – or Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – with guest speakers from Great Britain, Lithuania and Poland.

This Pact between Hitler and Stalin signed on 23 August 1939 marked the alliance of the Third Reich and the USSR that lasted until the German attack on the USSR in June 1941.

The secret protocol in the treaty between Moscow and Berlin paved the way for Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to invade Poland, and thus for the outbreak of World War Two in Europe.

In the years and decades after the war, Soviet and later Russian propaganda has sought to minimise and relativise the Pact and its consequences.

In the late 1980s, refugees from communism in the West established “Black Ribbon Day” on 23 August as a focus for anti-Soviet protests.

On 23 August 1989, 2 million people formed a human chain called the Baltic Way, a defining moment in the Baltic states' battle for independence from the Soviet Union.

In 2009, the European Parliament adopted a resolution proposing to recognise 23 August as the “European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and ;  

What is the Pact’s historical significance? To what extent is the German-Soviet relationship born in August 1939 part of our collective memory of the Second World War? Join the panel discussion to learn more about the Pact and its legacy today.

Speakers

Dr Violeta Davoliūtė is a specialist in historical trauma, the politics of memory and national ;She is a professor at Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science.

Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specialising in modern German and Central European history, with particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and World War Two in Europe.

Joanna Urbanek is a curator at the House of European History.

She was previously involved in creating the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, Poland.

She specialises in the social and political history of the 20th century, mainly the Second World War and its aftermath.

Moderator

Christopher Burns was host of the Euronews talk show The Network for five years.

He writes, films, interviews, voices and edits video packages and printed content for all uses.

He is also a moderator, media consultant and media trainer.

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