International conference of historians “The Legacy of the World War II Reconsidered After 70 Years” organised by the Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, Museum of the Second World War and European Solidarity Centre under honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland.
The 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War oblige us to keep alive memory of its causes and consequences, of millions of victims, and to pay tribute to all those who shed their blood to end that global military conflict. It is hard to find more symbolic place than Gdańsk, where on September 1st 1939 at Westerplatte a small unit of Polish soldiers heroically stood firm against the 3rd Reich aggression, which commenced the dramatic in consequences armed conflict. In the end of XX century Gdańsk again became a symbol. This time of the peaceful uprising of people in the name of solidarity, freedom and democracy, that led to ultimate overcoming of the legacy of the WW2 i.e. the Yalta system. The WW2 and decisions made at the Yalta Conference of 1945 left Europe divided. Born in 1980 in Gdansk the “Solidarity” movement triggered the wind of historic change that crashed the Iron Curtain and led to reunification of the Old Continent within the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance.
This year we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the triumph of the ideas of freedom and democracy, which allowed Central and Eastern European countries to decide on their own about their destiny against the geopolitical logic of the Concert of Powers carving out spheres of influence and suppressing democratic aspirations of nations.
The meeting took place at the European Solidarity Centre. The institution that preserves the memory of Poles and Europeans about joint victory over the totalitarian past, which contributed to the establishment of the core principles of the peaceful cooperation in Europe, namely democracy, rule of law and rejection of the use of force, and the threat of use of force in international relations, which altogether constitute a powerful lesson to be drawn from the era of WW2 and the Yalta order.
Two parts of the event: international conference of historians, commemorating the victory of the peoples of Europe over the Third Reich, as well as over the Yalta order, and political debate in which a discussion between eminent historians Timothy Snyder, Norman Davis, Yuri Afanasyev, Georges-Henri Soutou, Stoefan Troebst and Andrzej Paczkowski about the role of the legacies of the Second World War and the Yalta order in the historical memory of Europeans will be followed by speeches of politicians. The ultimate aim was to formulate a political message: no more war, no more spheres of influences, no more incapacitating the democratic will of the nations.