On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, in Warsaw, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz laid a wreath at the Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East to mark the 86th anniversary of the Soviet aggression against Poland.
Photos: Maciej Nędzyński/MOND
“We are in a special place in Warsaw, on a special day – the anniversary of the criminal attack of the Soviet Union on Poland. On September 17, 1939, when Poland was fighting and defending itself, the Polish Army was stabbed in the back. We were attacked according to the secret Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, concluded at the end of August 1939, and to the brutal invasion of Germany against Poland, the Soviet Union joined,” said Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
“At that time, Poland was left alone on both fronts – apart from declaring war, France and Great Britain did not launch the actions so many in Poland were counting on. The memory of all those who lived through this – Polish Army soldiers, those who later heroically built the Polish Underground State, the Home Army, the Peasant Battalions, all forms of armed struggle and sabotage, those who built the internal state structures based on education, justice, and passing on to future generations the idea of a free Poland – remains our obligation,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
“In a moment, I will be with our soldiers, because the memory of the past is very important – it is our identity and tradition. But what matters most is what lies ahead. We must secure our homeland so that a situation like that of 1939 never happens again. We are building the security of the state on three pillars: the strength of society, the strength of alliances, and the strength of the army. All of these must complement each other. The largest divisional exercises in many, many years are underway – since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, there have never been such exercises in Poland. ‘Iron Defender’ – at the Orzysz training ground, I will soon observe these operations, which complement yesterday’s part of the ‘Autumn Fire’ exercise,” emphasized the Minister of National Defence.
The Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East, located at the intersection of Muranowska Street and General Władysław Anders Street in Warsaw, is an open railway wagon placed on tracks, carrying Latin and Orthodox crosses, as well as Jewish and Muslim headstones, symbolizing the multinational character of the victims.
On September 17, 1939, in violation of the Polish-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Red Army entered the territory of the Republic of Poland, carrying out the arrangements of the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The consequence of the alliance between two totalitarian regimes was the partition of a lonely and abandoned Poland.
