In 1987, the Soviet Union and Poland took the unusual step of setting up a commission for the study of “blank spots” in their common history – that is to say, sensitive events banned from public discussion or falsified for ideological purposes.

The initiative was kept under the supervision of each country’s communist establishment. Still, it was the first tentative official acknowledgment that not just historical events but also decades of silence and lies surrounding them had undermined trust between the two countries.

Financial Times