Polish President Lech Kaczynski has voiced his anger at the Soviet¹ role in World War II at commemorations marking the beginning of the global conflict.

波兰总统Lech Kaczynski在纪念仪式上表达了对于二战时期苏联政府造成全球冲突开始的角色的愤怒。

In front of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, Mr Kaczynski said the 1939 Nazi²-Soviet non-aggression pact³ had divided Europe.

At an earlier event in the port city of Gdansk, he had described Russia's actions as a "stab in the back".

Mr Putin said all pacts⁴ with the Nazis⁵ were "morally unacceptable".

The day of ceremonies began at the exact time and location where, on 1 September 1939, a German battleship fired at a Polish fort on Westerplatte peninsula - the first shots of World War II.

Speaking at the dawn ceremony, Mr Kaczynski, referring to the occupation of eastern Poland by Soviet forces a fortnight later, said: "On 17 September... Poland received a stab in the back... This blow came from Bolshevik Russia."

Later, Mr Kaczynski used the occasion of the wreath（花环）-laying ceremony to again criticise⁶ Moscow for its war, which focused on what he called the tragic⁷ occupation Poland endured under the Nazis following its military defeat.

Relations between Poland and Russia are currently thorny⁸, partly because of differing historical interpretations⁹（解释） of events at the start of the war.

Mr Kaczynski said the Soviet-German pact, signed a week before the first shots were fired, had divided Europe into areas of influence and had preceded（在……之前，优先） a conflict which caused the deaths of 50 million people.

He also recalled the Katyn massacre¹⁰（大屠杀） of 1940, in which 20,000 Polish officers were killed by Soviet secret services, saying it was an act of chauvinism（盲目的爱国心） and in revenge for Polish independence.

For 50 years Moscow blamed the Nazis and only admitted responsibility in 1990, but Russian courts have ruled it cannot be considered a war crime.

Improving relations?

Mr Putin, in his speech after Mr Kaczynski, said all pacts between European states and Nazi Germany were "morally unacceptable," including the 1939 Nazi-Soviet accord（一致，调和）.

"All attempts to appease¹¹（安抚，缓和） the Nazis between 1934 and 1939 through various agreements and pacts were morally unacceptable and politically senseless, harmful and dangerous," Mr Putin said.

"We must admit these mistakes. Our country has done this."

He also said that improved relations between Germany and Russia since the war should be an example for improving Russian-Polish relations.

"We sincerely want Russian-Polish relations to get rid of the accumulated（累积的） legacy¹² of the past... and to develop in the spirit of good-neighbourliness and co-operation - that is to say, to be worthy¹³ of two great European peoples," Mr Putin said.

German Chancellor¹⁴ Angela Merkel spoke¹⁵ of the "immeasurable suffering" which began with Germany's invasion of Poland.

"No country suffered from German occupation as much as Poland.

"Here at the Westerplatte, as German chancellor, I commemorate¹⁶（纪念，庆祝） all the Poles who suffered unspeakably from the crimes of the German occupying forces."