Poland remembers dark chapter after 1939 attack by USSR

Poland was on Tuesday remembering the Soviet invasion at the start of World War II and the merciless treatment of its citizens by the Red Army.

Warsaw's Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East

Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

It is common historical knowledge that the war broke out with an attack by Hitler's Third Reich against Poland on September 1, 1939.

But it seems fewer people are aware that a similar invasion was launched by Stalin's Soviet Russia barely 17 days later, adding to the tragedy of the Polish nation.