Soviet Russia

Since May 2005, when parties happened to mark sixty years from the end of the WW2 in Europe, the controversy on the full meaning and implications of the success over Fascist Germany has gathered momentum.

This debate was excited by the debatable move of the then Russian president Putin to commemorate the anniversary in Moscow on May 9th with the collaboration of all EU leaders. In 2005, the Estonian and Lithuanian presidents opted not to attend.

The Western european Parliament reacted to these developments by initiating an independent debate on the effects of WW II. This debate occurred on May 11th, 2005 and resulted in an EP resolution in which, doubtless for the 1st time Europe-wide, the experiences and conclusions of the other piece of Europe were represented. To this other bit of Europe, that after 1945 was left under the Soviet totalitarian domination, Stalin’s triumph over Hitler brought not real liberation but instead liberation from liberty they’d longed for while under Fascist occupation, liberation of mothers from their youngsters and better halves from their partners who were murdered or sent for ten – twenty-five years of slave work to the far reaches of the USSR. The EU Parliament concluded that for some countries the end of World War Two meant replenished tyranny inflicted by the Stalinist Soviet Union.

simultaneously the Kremlin-initiated parties arranged in 2005 and once more in 2010 highlight the ongoing misunderstanding about the two dates announcing the end of the war, and the different meaning assigned to all of them. The surrender of the Nazi Wehrmacht was signed on May seven, 1945 in Reims, with the collusion of all 4 associated powers, including members of the Red armed forces. Still, Stalin asserted on a fresh act of defeat on May nine according to his very own eventuality in order to intensify the Red Army’s role in defeating Hitler. These 2 dates designate 2 antithetical dimensions of WW II. The 7th of May marks the victory of a hard-won triumph over Fascist totalitarianism. The 9th of May, from another perspective, could well designate the victory of one totalitarian dictatorship over the other. So , the location and form of the rites arranged by Russian totalitarian leadership in Moscow can barely be associated with the fundamental beliefs that the historical victory in the 2nd World War was fought. The Bristish historian Gregor Dallas has described May nine as a “poisoned peace”.

I saw Estonia attacked by the Red military in 1944.

As a witness to the successive general marauding and elimination, I still remember the words of the Soviet captain who entered the farm where my folks was staying : “My soldiers aren’t the worst ones. But be careful of the NKVD [later KGB] troops who will follow us they’re the ones you ought to be terrified of”. To try to make human contact and to circumvent the Soviet officer’s apparent wish to grab my father’s watch, my folks had started a dialogue with him in Russian and a