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COLD WIND BLOWS FROM THE BALTICS AS VE DAY APPROACHES
April 19, 2005
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Romanov) The closer VE-Day approaches, the more resolved Baltic politicians appear to be to spoil it.
They are reluctant to recall Auschwitz, the Battle of Stalingrad, the British seamen who died in the icy waters of the Barents Sea delivering aid to Russians in Murmansk, the fighting in the Ardennes, the French Resistance or people who fought the Nazis within Germany. For them, the fate of the Baltic republics is probably the most important result of WWII.
According to the Baltic leaders, there was nothing remarkable about the Nazis' retreat from Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn, whereas Soviet troops' entering the cities was a tragedy. Therefore, the Nazi death camp in Salaspils near Riga, where children were tortured and forced to donate blood for German soldiers, is now called a labor correctional facility in the Baltic republics. Red Army veterans are imprisoned in the republics, while former SS members are allowed to march on the streets. The European Union has turned a blind eye to those events, apparently treating them as insignificant. This is exactly how many Europeans treated some European leaders' Munich accord with Hitler.
Lobbyists have worked in some countries to promote the Baltic countries' position. A "Baltic faction" in the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, has submitted a draft resolution to Congress, demanding that Russia acknowledge the illegal occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia from 1940 to 1991. This is both a political and economic demand. Should Russia admit that the territories were annexed, Latvians, Estonians, and Lithuanians will be lining up at Russian embassies seeking compensation for the damage caused by their liberation from the Nazis.
I wrote once historical truth was a dangerous thing, including the truth about war. However, it is not so dangerous for the Russians and Germans. The former have condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Stalin regime's crimes, whereas the latter have denounced Nazism and Hitler. The truth is more dangerous for the Baltic republics, which could not decide whether they should side with Moscow or Berlin and pledged allegiance to both of them. The evidence can be found in archives. There are commitments in the archives signed by certain Baltic politicians who made frequent visits to Moscow and Berlin before WWII.
The documents containing the Baltic leaders' requests to join the Soviet Union are kept at the Russian Foreign Ministry. One can naturally argue that these documents were written under pressure from Stalin. This is obviously true in part. However, at least two things should be taken into account while discussing this problem. First, other countries also interfered in the Baltic republics' affairs. Indeed, European politicians were hardly innocent and many major powers wanted to swallow the tiny Baltic region, but Stalin was the first to do so in 1940.
In addition, people in the region were divided into two almost equal parts at the time, i.e. pro-Soviet and pro-German. This is something the Baltic leaders are not willing to recall today, but is extremely important. The pro-Soviet population had their reasons. For example, many of them thought they might lose their property with the advent of German troops looking for new lands. Many people talked about the Soviets, but little was known about them, as distinct from the Germans, and so a hope, albeit phantom, remained.
For Jews, who made up a large percentage of the Baltic population, the choice was clear. Before WWII, Vilnius was largely populated by Jews. The Soviet Union meant life for them, and Nazi Germany death. Therefore, it was not surprising they welcomed the Soviets. This writer visited a large beautiful synagogue in Vilnius 15 years ago. It was empty not because local Jews had emigrated to Israel, but because all of them had died in the Holocaust, as the Nazis had killed almost every Jew in Vilnius.
Those few that did survive say those marching under SS banners in a civilized, anti-fascist, democratic, and politically correct Europe committed the most atrocious crimes against Jews.
I do not mind repentance, as many of my relatives were killed or died in Stalin's prisons. I only want both Stalin's jail wardens and SS accomplices who killed Jews, and the civilized Europeans who were not outraged by the Munich accord to show repentance. The nine Congress members should also repent their betrayal of the American soldiers killed in Normandy and the Ardennes. If the dead could vote, none of the politicians lobbying the Baltic countries' position would be sitting in Congress today.
The VE-Day celebrations will take place anyway for those who survived the massacre and in memory of those who never came home. It is not that important whether Baltic politicians will pay tribute to Russian war veterans. Ordinary people in the Baltic countries remember the wartime reality, and they will commemorate Russian soldiers. The soldiers fought to protect them, not the politicians, after all.
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