Thank you. Dear friends, first of all I must say that I´m really honored and happy to be back in Hungary in the same building again and I´m happy that I´m not being back in the way how many Hungarians were brought to this building during the history. I am voluntarily here.

My topic today is on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the fate of Europe. Of course this is so vast a topic that you couldn´t cover it with half an hour so I can only give some small ideas and knowing that lots of topic will be covered by the soon former presentation and with the coming presentations.

The first problem to talk about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the fate of Europe is very clearly that the connections is not to understand in many places in the world including in many places in Europe. When we are looking by the one of the latest polls, by example made in Russia, large majority of the Russian people think that the second world war started in 1941. What happened before doesn´t exist and this is a very clear sign.  This means that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact doesn´t exist either.
 
For the Western audience that picture is not better. Norman Davies in his marvelous book ˝No Simple Victory˝ asks when to go to the streets of any Western capital of Europe and to ask from people ˝What were the first three military operations during the second world war?˝.  I think he´s right that that he is sure that he will not get the right answer, because the first three military operations were actually were first the Hitler´s attack against Poland, then Stalin´s attack against Poland, and then Stalin´s attack against Finland. That was how the second world war started. And this is not unfortunately such a clear understanding that it was so. It´s especially a pity because really I at least am of a strong opinion that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact changed the course of history and actually is one of the most sad events in the modern history also because it mainly paved the way to the second world war which was one of the most devastating and bloody wars in the humankind´s history. A big part of this loss, this sacrifice, this tragedy, are coming namely from this sad event.
 
Of course there are several reasons and several events which paved way to the second world war: the rise of Communism in Russia, the rise of Hitler in Germany, the western appeasement policy, weakness of democracies, shameful Munich treaty, and so on, so on. But, when we put it shortly actually and look at the larger picture it is, even without all this smaller or bigger events, clear that when we have the totalitarian rulers or totalitarian systems in Europe this means war. Because totalitarianism as a system means war. It´s built the aggressivity inside of this system from the first steps. When we look even on the communism in Russia, the aggressive attitude, the wish to widen to widen the communist empire is from the first steps inside there. In 1920 the world was saved from the communists by the Polish cavalry. I think this event is still one is which is not enough discussed. I think we must discuss and remember these battles even more especially as we have next year the 90th anniversary of this.
 
When we looked on the whole preparedness what both Communists first and then Nazis did immediately after the race of power to prepare to the war, to the prepared their countries to the war, then it´s very clear that when it as it is said that in one by the Russian writer Checkoff when you put the gun to the wall during the first part of some spectacle it will be launched in the third one at the end and that is the same with totalitarian regimes. To prepare to the war means for them to go to war. So it´s no wonder that also those two systems, Nazis and Communists found each other so clearly. They both hated democracy.  They both wanted to return to them the territories lost by the Versailles Treaty.  So, there was very strong common ground which was unfortunately not, or not noticed by the by the Democratic west which were reluctant and happy and thought that everything goes well.
 
At the same time as we heard soon from the beginning of the 1939 the negotiations started between Hitler and Stalin after the Stalin has signaled to the Hitler that he is ready for the deal and all this what was the negotiations with the Western countries, with Great Britain and France, was just a cover to take the better conditions. To the end of the war was Hitler actually in quite a bad situation.  He has prepared for the attack against Poland but at the same time he understood that the in the current situation it´s not very good thing to start the war because he needed first of all to avoid the war on two fronts to have the guarantee that it will be done, and the second which was even more important, he needed the raw materials to overcome the German blockade. It was clear to everybody that the British and French tactic will be the economic blockade of Germany and to just to move them economically out. So, they needed, Hitler needed a partner. Without a partner, to attack Poland has been very dangerous gamble and it looks even that Hitler was not sure go do it or not.  So, he needs the treaty and at the end Stalin got from Hitler everything what he wanted. When we look at how the negotiations went and looking on this maps which was drawn on the so-called spheres of influence, with every step, with every day Stalin got the better conditions because he was in the better position to negotiating and Hitler at the end gave to Stalin nearly everything what Stalin wanted or even a little bit more as probably the Soviets hoped.
 
To explain to be Politburo and to the Soviets, Stalin really had several speeches which were leaked to the west and which was mentioned in the former presentation.  To put it shortly, it´s clear that Stalin said it clearly and loudly, first of all without signing this pact Hitler probably doesn´t attack Poland. ˝When we sign this packed it means the war, the world war. And, we need this war because it´s no hope to get xxx xxx in the Europe.  There will be no revolution. To get to the power we need the new war and war in the world. During this war both camps the Hitler and the Western democracies will weaken each other and when the time is there then we will intervene.˝ But it was not clear even for Stalin on which side he will intervene. But, in some side to just to make the Soviet Soviets ruler of the Europe and then, of course, rulers of the world.  It was very simple tactics.
 
Of course by the Russian current historians these documents are strongly objected, argued that they actually don´t exist, that they are falsifications, and so on. But at the same time there is enough evidence from the different sources, including the diaries of Comrade Dimitrov and so on, which all hint exactly to the same direction, exactly the same of reasoning.  So all these documents couldn´t be falsifications.  When one of them we can put under the doubt we wouldn´t put under the doubt of the line of the Stalin of the way of thinking how the Soviets acted and why they signed the pact.
 
So, the goal of the pact was the world war and the world war was what was fought. In 1st of September Hitler attacked Poland from one side and in the 17th of September Stalin attacked the Poland from another side and the both together they finished there this country and wiped them away, as Molotov said, the bastard of Versailles, from the map of the world, at least for some time.
 
With this first victory and the friendship as it was seen in the congratulation telegram of Stalin to Hitler, the friendship which is strengthened in the blood that looking on this time´s newspapers its lot of very interesting materials about this time - of course they continued.  First of all Stalin gave order to the whole communist parties in Europe to support Hitler and to turn against their own governments, to turn against the war.  It started really to criticize their governments, to getting to the war, which is imperialistic war, and then it ended with the support of the Germans during the aggression. It´s one of the most interesting topics is to read the newspapers of the French Communists from 1939 to the 1940 or the Norwegian or Swedish communists on the time when Norway was occupied when they urged to welcome the German soldiers and to make the real friendship with them. It´s a very sad part of the left history in the Europe. Of course which everybody has tried desperately to forget and deny till now. But it exists because the newspapers just doesn´t disappear.  It´s not, thank God, Orwell´s world where the newspaper disappeared, but they exist and everybody can read and everybody can look on this this by now which is sometimes I can say again very very interesting.
 
At the same time when both sides continued the cooperation when it said that from the beginning they the Soviets and Nazis didn´t like each other or they were sure that they will not this Corporation would will never last actually it´s not true.  During the first two days, two years of the second world war the Soviets and the Nazis were the best partners.  They really cooperated in every area. Starting from economy, starting from military, which was on this time in the presentation, and you can actually add lot of, a lot of other examples to the same way. They actually liked each other, very clearly. Because even on the way how they launched the terror or in Poland or in other places actually they were exchanged experiences.  
 
There is, not beautiful or very sad, memoirs of the commander of Auschwitz how he explains how the KGB officers gave all the necessary materials how the labor camps in Siberia are build up to just follow the same models in Auschwitz, and so on.  Again, nothing to do. All the statements, documents, exist and there are lots of evidence on the Gestapo and their cooperation, exchanging of prisoners, arresting the people of other faiths, and so on, and so on.  So, this was part of the combination, and especially this raw materials, who helped Hitler then to conquer all Europe, nearly.
 
At the same time the Soviets moved on their own way.  In the end of September the Baltic countries got the ultimatums and were demanded to deliver the military bases to the Soviets.  When first Estonia really thought maybe to resist and to fight against those demands, they were threatened by war. And knowing now the Russian archives this was not just threatening.  So, it was ready for the war. The orders to attack Estonia immediately when Estonia refused to sign those so-called peace treaties are now came out from the Russian archives.  So the picture is absolutely clear to say no has meant the same kind of war as the Poland and other countries then had. So, unfortunately the Baltic governments decided to be wise, politically correct.  So to avoid the war they signed the treaties believing the Soviet promises that these treaties will be signed only to the time of the war and they will not threaten the nations and the independence of the Baltic countries, which was of course a bad mistake.
 
The Fins were maybe not more clever, but they had just instinct everything which was coming from the Russia, to fight. So they even by the instinct as the government refused the military commanders said that it is hopeless fight but the Finns nevertheless decided to fight.  And when they got the same demand they fought, and lost lots of territories, lost lots of people but saved their independence and country. This is very often forgotten part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that the Finnish fate would be exactly the same as for other countries who were the victims of the pact.  There was no difference actually, only with this difference that Finland fought and they were attacked only by the, directly by the Russians, not by the Germans.  And actually to repulse the attack from one side, being defeated was possible for Finland because the Red Army was in this time not enough strong to conquer Finland. And of course this valiant resistance what the Finns did played a most important role in in this.
 
Of course this friendship developed very well but at the end the friendship between totalitarian countries never lasts forever. At the end of 1940 the Soviet side gave the new demand to Hitler, now moving to the Balkans, demanding that they can have the right to fully conquer Finland which means to have the second war against Finland where the plans were soon prepared and ready.  And in this time Hitler, who has got his success in Europe, nevertheless became doubtful and was not ready to give the Soviets all this what they wanted just for nothing.  And from this moment when those talks failed, both sides actually understood that they will become the war, both sides started to prepare to this.  So, to the summer of 1941 both sides were ready to attack each other in this surprise attack and Hitler just was a little bit faster attacking first before the Stalin had time to attack him. And so the world took another form. 
 
The West just was in desperate situation had to find an ally, and they used one gangster from this moment on to fight against another gangster.  Of course there was a moral dilemma from the beginning, how it´s possible.  Unfortunately, of course, or fortunately because it was time of the war the West just tried to put all the moral aspects of policy away. That´s resulted that the promises which were given to the nations, free nations, that they can restore their independence were forgot.  The Poland who actually was the reason why the West and the whole went to the war to protect Poland was forgot and betrayed also. Which was especially tragic because asking afterwords why the west at all went to the war when the country whom they wanted to save was then afterwords given away to the Soviets. In such of bad behavior that even the Polish valiant troops who fought with the allies during all the war were not even allowed to take part in the victory parade in London which was just, we can say, shameful act. And from the bloody dictator Stalin became nice uncle Joe who was the great leader and so on. It´s better when you want to spare your nerves don´t read the comments of the Western newspapers on the special kind of democracy in the Russia and about how hardly the people working in somewhere in Siberia. The visits of the Russian vice presidents to the Siberian labor camps of course, they were getting the knowledge that there are labor camps is I must say quite tragic part of the Western history.
 
And in this context we can say that all other things were forgot also.  There were attempts in Central Eastern Europe to the liberate the country before from the Nazis before the Communists arrived. There were uprisings in Tallinn. There was most famous uprising in Warsaw. But with the, we can say, with the direct or indirect support of the Soviets they were crushed because the Soviets were not interested in any independent government or in any real government in the territory.  And so with the Yalta agreements the things at least were finished and Europe more or less divided.  Even as a part of the agreements didn´t want to recognize it at least for some time.
 
With all this context it´s clear that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was forgot also for some time. It just disappeared. Of course what as I before said as famous Russian writer Bulgakov have said that manuscripts doesn´t burn.  So, they were never, they somehow always survived and documents and history and memory also.  The same happened with Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Even as it was denied and hided in the Soviet archives the German official who had the order to destroy the pact nevertheless didn´t do this. They hide it and then gave the documents to the allied side. Of course I don´t know how happy the Americans were looking on these documents but at the first time they tried to ignore them. In the first time they were used in the Nürnberg process by the advocates of Hess to demonstrate what was the role of the Soviet Union to start the second world war. Of course they denied, Soviet Union say they doesn´t exist and the western part just ignored that. Like the same happened with Katyn where the Soviets tried to explain and blame the Germany in killing thousands innocent Polish officers in Katyn which they tried to do also in the Nürnberg process. So it´s, this was the process where several at least top documents were coming out.
 
With some years of course as the cold war started the Western attitude changed and the documents all these documents of the Nazi Soviet cooperation were published and became known but not too much used always.  At the same time in the other side of the Iron Curtain we can say that this Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had lasting influence in this sense that even not seeing this document or not knowing exactly how it exists everybody felt this on their own skin because they were occupied and they understood that that was what really happened with them. Which means that when you are looking on the events after the second world war it´s very easy to see how in all territories which were moved under this Soviet control with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact their started immediately in 1944 the last parties and movement, large parties and movement against the Soviets. It started from the Baltics from the north.  It went down the same line to the Poland to the west Belarus, to the west Ukraine, then down to the Bessarabia to Romania to Bulgaria. The countries which were a victim of this treaty actually they started to fight because they were sure that this injustice must be changed. Freedom must be returned to them and the only way to return this is to fight. That was the clear evidence when you´re looking on this armed resistance which actively lasted until the 1956 when the Western allowance to the Soviets to cast their Hungarian brave uprising just signalized to all of those parties that there is no sense to fight with the weapons because even when you liberate your country nobody will help you. The West will just ignore you and let the Soviets do whatever they would like to do. Then the resistance moved to the other forms, to the political resistance, underground organizations, to the labor movements, intellectual movements, and so on. And Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact the secret protocols which were then published in the West.  They were smuggled quite quickly behind the Iron Curtain published in nearly all possible underground magazines started from the 60s and 70s.  So what the underground movement did with the documents over quite existing and real.   And these became very quickly the base for the national resistance because everywhere it was demanded in Poland in the Baltic countries by the opposition just to clear this treaty and the secret protocols null and void and to restore their former situation. All the times included connected with this like Katyn and so on were largely discussed and largely investigated by the underground movements. Especially of course in the Poland where the Katyn crimes were one of the cornerstones of the national resistance against the Communists. And in the Baltic countries in 1979, 35 dissidents signed the common letter to the governments of Germany and Soviet Union and including to United Nations demanding the world to condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and to fix the results of it. This was joined after by several Russian dissidents including Andre Sakharov and it was the basis for the first large declaration on the Baltic occupation in the European Parliament launched in 1983 on the initiative of Otto Von Habsburg who was very known person for all of us.
 
Of course there are several counter measures were clear. It wasn´t enough to talk on Molotov-Ribbentrop pact publicly to get to the tale because the secret protocols didn´t exist. Many signet people who signed this were put to the jail at least one of them died as a result of hunger strike so this was real thing. It was real attempts to destroy the memory, to destroy all this pact. But they always failed because with the first signs of weakening of the Soviet systems namely the Molotov Ribbentrop packed became the cornerstone of all resistance. ´87 saw the first large political demonstrations were held in Estonia to condemning, the public condemnation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the secret protocols. In some countries they were just attacked by the police in other places the more peacefully being the first anti-Soviet political public demonstrations which changed the course of history because it was soon in ´87. And then it of course continued with the 1989 the 21st August with the famous Baltic chain which united more than 2 million people across the Baltics demanding with one voice the condemnation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and and the return of the freedom to the Baltic countries. This was probably the first event by the many analysts seen from the space because this human chain was so long and so large going through all the Baltic countries.
 
So which means the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact is not only the day of the of the very sad events but it´s day of fight.  Using this day, using this events soon starting from ´89, and this was before the changes started in Poland or the all this way of revolution started in Central and Eastern Europe it was the breakthrough demonstrating to the all people in central and Eastern Europe that the Soviet Union is weakening you can trace you can do something you can´t trust the Communists now because they even don´t control the borders their own territory. And when they couldn´t control their own territory how they can control this countries who are captive. So influencing each other as we took from the Polish Solidarity or from the heritage of the Hungarian uprising from the Prague Spring, moving so and demonstrating that when we are moving together we can win. Actually, it was possible to really to win and crush this empire of evil and to return the freedom to our countries.
 
That was good times and unfortunately as I said before in many countries even now there are many people who don´t want to remember these days they don´t want pretty much to remember what was communist or how we got back our freedom. They don´t want to remember very much the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and how we lost our freedom. And that is sad events in this sense that when we deny our history, the history is having the bad possibility that it can repeat itself.
 
So for the conclusions. First Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with its secret protocols really paved way to the second world war which was one of the biggest tragedies of the world history.
 
Second, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the secret protocols was a criminal act, crime against the peace.
 
Third, Molotov-Ribbentrop must be clearly condemns and countries who signed this its better to apologize. Germany has done it by the declaration and official statement of Helmut Kohl. We are still waiting that Moscow does the same. But looking on the reactions of the last Polish declarations on the Soviet aggression in the 17th of September I must say there are not very much signs that they will accept this. And that is important that when we are not getting such of understanding and we really condemn such policies then looking on how this pact is explained in the Russian current textbooks and the Russian leaders and they say that was necessary for the security of the Soviet Union guess maybe it was not nice thing to do but it was necessary because we were threatened. And when you base your policy on this that when you are feel yourself threatened you will conquer the neighboring countries than we are getting the foreign-policy which is dangerous also today. And looking on the events in Georgia, the Russian aggression against Georgia, looking on many other things on Russian behavior this is what can happen. So when we are not dealing with this history which is always passed and not the most important thing in the life we are in the danger that we can come to the similar situation in the modern world also which will be tragedy for everybody like for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was because at the end it was the biggest tragedy for the Russia and the Soviet Union itself. Loosing 27 million people which was largely thanks to this pact and the mistakes done in connection with was enormous victims. The Russia itself and Russians were the biggest victims in this pact and it´s really it´s not only we are there the victims but really all world, all Europe. And we will not recognize this we are really in the situation that it all can repeat itself.
 
Thank you.