Historical Mirror-World or Victory Day in the Baltic States
A woman shakes hands as she greets a man
wearing medals and military decorations during
Victory Day celebrations in Riga May 9, 2014
In
Login if you are already registered
(no votes) |
(0 votes) |
Ph.D., Director General of Center for Study of Integration Prospects, Editor-in-Chief, RuBaltic.Ru, RIAC Expert
Since 1991, after gaining independence, each republic of the former Soviet Union has embarked on a path of creating its own “national” history. This process has become particularly expansive in the Baltic countries: even the history of the Great Patriotic War is being fundamentally revised.
Since 1991, after gaining independence, each republic of the former Soviet Union has embarked on a path of creating its own “national” history. This process has become particularly expansive in the Baltic countries: even the history of the Great Patriotic War is being fundamentally revised.
“Occupation” not liberation
Rewriting the history of World War II (and, accordingly, of the Great Patriotic War) began in the Baltic states before the Soviet Union’s collapse, when Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost reforms were underway. First, the Popular Fronts across these republics proposed an entirely different interpretation of those events. On May 13-14, 1989, the “Baltic Assembly of Popular Fronts of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania” convened in Tallinn and passed a Resolution on Stalinist Crimes, stating that “after being annexed in summer 1940, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were seized by the totalitarian regime which launched a campaign of inhumane acts.” [1]
The document’s authors demanded that the Stalinist policies were recognized as crimes against humanity, that compensation and pensions are paid to the victims of repressions out of the USSR’s state funds, and to the creation of an “independent legal mechanism similar to the Nuremberg Tribunal to examine crimes against humanity.” [2] Two weeks later, on May 25. 1989 the I Congress of People's Deputies opened in Moscow, at which the majority of the Baltic States’ representatives were members of the Popular Fronts and were all of a particular cast of mind. The first issue raised by Baltic delegates at this Congress of People's Deputies, was the revision and the condemnation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939.
By 1991, denying the legitimacy of incorporating the Baltic States into the Soviet Union formed the basis of the post-Soviet statehood of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
As a result, by 1991, denying the legitimacy of incorporating the Baltic States into the Soviet Union formed the basis of the post-Soviet statehood of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This “occupation doctrine” of the Baltic States (in an apt remark by Renald Kh. Simonyan, a Russian sociologist and researcher of the Baltic region) has led to a revision of these republics’ participation in the Great Patriotic War. This perception of the war as a fight against two occupying forces – Nazi and Soviet – laid the foundation of the Baltic States’ policy. This concept inevitably raises the question: who, then, were the true heroes of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in that war? The soldiers who fought in the ranks of the Red Army, or the collaborators who took the side of the Third Reich?
The post-Soviet Baltic States made their political choice in favor of the latter, allegedly due to the fact that the collaborators were fighting not for the Third Reich, but for their country’s independence. Thus, national historiography has adopted the concept of a “triple occupation” of the Baltic States in the 20th century, according to which, the Baltic States were occupied in 1940 by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and again by the Red Army in 1944. The historical validity of this position in this case is irrelevant, as it is the political expediency of adhering to the “occupation doctrine” framework that is of foremost importance. Accordingly, the system of official memorable dates associated with those events is established in line with this specific perception of the Great Patriotic War.
“Victory Day the other way round”
Latvian Legion Day, Riga March 16, 2014
After gaining independence, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia removed Victory Day from their holiday calendars. At best, the date of Nazi Germany’s surrender is positioned by them as a tribute to the memory of all victims of World War II.
This revision of the political outcome of the Great Patriotic War in the Baltic republics has led to the authorities taking part in the commemorative events honoring collaborators. Latvia appears the most vivid example in this respect, as the government coalition includes the National Alliance – a political union of the country’s right-wing parties. Members of this union take an active part in SS-Legion and their young followers’ marches, held annually on March 16 in central Riga.
The first such event took place in 1994. The date was chosen as on this day in 1944, Latvian Waffen-SS divisions engaged in a battle against Soviet troops that had liberated the Baltic states. Despite the marches’ openly pro-fascist connotation, March 16 was an official national remembrance day of the Republic of Latvia for two years, in 1998 and 1999, and was removed from the list of “State remembrance dates” only under pressure from international organizations.
This perception of the war as a fight against two occupying forces – Nazi and Soviet – laid the foundation of the Baltic States’ policy.
However, the lack of any official status for Latvian Legion Day does not prevent certain representatives of the country’s political elite from marking it. For example, in 2014 Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Einars Cilinskis took part in annual commemorations of Latvian soldiers who fought in Nazi units, and was fired for doing so. However, the National Alliance, which Einars Cilinskis represented in government, is still part of the ruling coalition and openly supports March 16 – the date, which has been established as de facto antipode of Victory Day on May 9.
A similar “anti-Victory Day” exists in present-day Estonia. However, it is not celebrated in the capital’s center. Every year, surviving legionnaires of the 20th Estonian Waffen-SS Division and their young followers as well as radical nationalists from neighboring countries gather in late July in a village called Sinimäe. This place was chosen for particular reasons: it saw fierce battles between the Red Army and the armed forces of the Third Reich, including the Estonian SS-Legion. The core Europe and international organizations choose to ignore this tradition in modern Estonia, while Russia is its chief critic. Just as in Latvia, Estonian SS veterans, however, de facto enjoy the patronage of the local government. In 2013, for example, in response to the traditional criticism by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its Estonian counterparts argued that in Sinimäe all those killed and injured during World War II were remembered and that remembering the victims was humane.
In Lithuania there is no alternative to Victory Day on May 9. This could well be because Lithuanians did not raise a Waffen-SS Legion, and it is difficult for Lithuania to find “national heroes” that could have played the role of fighters against “Soviet invaders” during the Great Patriotic War. In addition, throughout the 1990s and the 2000s, the Lithuanian establishment was far less hostile towards Victory Day and its sacred meaning than either Estonia or Latvia. [4] However, today the situation has changed dramatically. In 2015, Lithuania became the only European state that refused to participate in Moscow festivities on May 9 in any form, including at ambassadorial level. Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius offered a very extravagant explanation for such a decision, stating that “the state of Lithuania was not involved in World War Two.”
May 9 will be celebrated
Yet, it would be wrong to assert that Victory Day in the Baltic States is not celebrated. Regardless of the fierce political resistance, throughout the past 25 years numerous public initiatives have emerged, which not only keep the holiday alive, but make its celebration even more wide-spread.
This revision of the political outcome of the Great Patriotic War in the Baltic republics has led to the authorities taking part in the commemorative events honoring collaborators.
For example, in Latvia over the last several years a civil society organization “9maya.lv” has been active in collecting donations for veterans, in organizing volunteer clean-up at mass graves and celebrations on May 9 at the Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders in Pardaugava. Every year, tens of thousands of people take part in these celebrations. With Riga City Council support, controlled by the opposition Consent party, concerts are annually organized in the Latvian capital.
The Military cemetery in the capital of Estonia is the central place where people come to celebrate May 9 in that country. On the initiative of the Estonian leadership, the Bronze Soldier, often called “Alyosha,” was brought here from the center of Tallinn in April 2007, causing a campaign of civil disobedience completely unprecedented in Estonia’s post-Soviet history, which ended in bloodshed. However, residents of the Estonian capital continue to lay flowers at the old location of the monument Tõnismägi and gather to do honor to the memory of World War Two veterans at the Military cemetery.
The Bronze Soldier monument, with the stone
structure reconstructed, at its new permanent
location, the Tallinn Military Cemetery,
June 2007
The existing tradition of celebrating Victory Day in Lithuania is closer to Estonia than to Latvia. On May 9 people go to military cemeteries across Lithuania to pay tribute to those who died in the struggle against Nazi Germany; the main location for the placing of flowers in Vilnius is the Antakalnis cemetery. A ban imposed in Lithuania (as in Latvia) on Soviet symbols poses quite a problem. Moreover, given the anti-Russian hysteria that has been whipped up by the Lithuanian media and ruling politicians over the past year, it can be assumed that even wearing a St. George Ribbon on May 9 this year may be fraught with problems.
Of course, Victory Day in the Baltic States, as well as in other post-Soviet republics, cannot but be celebrated, if for no other reason than because thousands of veterans of the Great Patriotic War are still alive. In Estonia, veterans, blockade survivors and prisoners of concentration camps are members of the republic’s Union of veterans' organizations. In Latvia, there is the Association of veterans from the 130th Latvian Riflemen’s Corps and Latvian Partisan Brigades, the Society of Residents of Besieged Leningrad, the Society of former underage victims of the Nazi regime residing in Latvia, etc. In Lithuania there is the Committee of the World War Two Antihitlerite Coalition Veterans Org., residing in the Republic of Lithuania.
Given the anti-Russian hysteria that has been whipped up by the Lithuanian media and ruling politicians over the past year, it can be assumed that even wearing a St. George Ribbon on May 9 this year may be fraught with problems.
The Baltic States’ legislation provides no special legal status or privileges to members of these organizations, while, say, SS legionaries in Latvia are equalized in rights with former political prisoners and may qualify for additional payments (€100) to the pension and a number of housing and utility benefits. Incidentally, on the eve of Victory Day last year President Vladimir Putin resolved to establish as of May 1, 2014 a life-long monthly endowment (1000 rubles) for World War II veterans and prisoners of concentration camps residing in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, regardless of their nationality.
In the upshot, despite the conscious official disregard of Victory Day for ideological reasons, May 9 in the Baltic countries continues to be celebrated. Moreover, the political pressure even promotes social mobilization on Victory Day. However, one must admit that an excessive politicization of historical memory is a damaging consequence of this state of affairs.
1. The Baltic Assembly of Popular Fronts of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (May 13-14, 1989). Tallin, 1989
2. Ibid.
(no votes) |
(0 votes) |
