August 23, 1939

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the construction of memory and memory eruptions around August 23, 1939, the date the Soviet Union and Germany signed a non-aggression agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Baltic countries first revived the memory of August 23 in the early 1990s; the bitter memory of the pact’s devastating impacts on their sovereignty has become central not only to their commemorative calendars but also to the broader post-communist Eastern European memory. During the first decade of the new millennium, the new post-communist members of the European Union lobbied to place August 23 at the center of European memory of the war. In reaction to developments in Eastern European memory, Russian President Vladimir Putin reinterpreted the Pact, using deflection, disinformation, and distortion to construct a particular historical narrative inside Russia. That, in turn, provoked anger and fear in Eastern Europe.