American and British authorities have not always told the truth in the past, have not always correctly described what happened. Remember all their claims that the Russians shot down the Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine.
The Polish Parliament should note – before September 1, 1939, during World War II, 10 million Chinese citizens had already lost their lives.
This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism. These words of Vyacheslav Nikonov (grandson of Molotov) are an attempt to erode the disastrous historical role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by stating that WWII started before September 1, 1939 (referring to Munich Agreements, the Japanese invasion of China, etc.).
The World War II started on September 1, 1939, from the German attack on Poland. This invasion was a direct consequence of the Secret Protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, where Nazi Germany and the USSR divided the “spheres of influence” in Eastern and Central Europe. The Soviet Union attacked Poland on September 17, 1939, implementing its part of the Secret Protocols.
Mainstream historiography traditionally perceives such historical developments as the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the Japanese invasion of China (1937), Anschluss (1938), Munich Agreement (1938) as the pre-war events. These historical episodes lead the World to WWII, but they are not perceived as parts of WWII, which lasted from September 1, 1939, to September 2, 1945.
Read similar examples of the Russian historical revisionism concerning Poland - Poland posed a military threat to the USSR in 1938-1939, Nazi Germany considered Poland its best ally, If Poland realized a rational policy in 1939, Moscow would have had a different approach towards it and Poland re-writes the history of the Warsaw uprising accusing the USSR of its failure.