User:Digwuren/Denial of Soviet crimes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Denial of Soviet crimes is a set of beliefs and related political views denying numerous historicaly established crimes and actions committed by the Soviet regime.[1]

In the case of the Baltic states, the very fact of occupation is most commonly denied. This view is widely rejected by Western historians and politicians,[2] but, as of early 21st century, it remains the official position of the Russian Federation.[3][4] As of May 2007, Russia is the only country in Europe to maintain this position.[5]


Contents

[edit] Claims of occupation deniers

The claims made by the deniers include:

This denial has a number of characteristics also found in denialist ideologies such as Holocaust denial.

[edit] Motivation

Orginally, denial and coverup were parts of Soviet propaganda system intended to make events happening within USSR seem "natural" and caused by "free will of the people".[8]

[edit] Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

Main article: Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which, among other things, included a secret protocol dividing the independent countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania into spheres of interest of the USSR and Germany. Subsequently, all of these countries were invaded by either the Soviet Union, Germany, or both.

For decades, it was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of such a secret protocol, and sometimes it was declared a Western forgery.[9] Indicative of the Soviet stance is the opinion expressed by Andrey Gromyko in his memoirs (published in 1989): the secret protocol of the pact is said to be a blatant lie, which will soon be refuted.[10] Only after the Baltic Way demonstrations of August 23, 1989, set on the 50th anniversary of the pact, a special commission under Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev performed investigation of the existence of the secret protocols. In December 1989 Yakovlev concluded that the protocol had existed and revealed his finds to the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies. As a result, the first democratically elected Congress of the Soviet Union passed a declaration admitting the existence of the secret protocols, and condemning and denouncing them.[11]

[edit] Occupation of Baltic republics

Main article: Occupation of Baltic states
Further information: Baltic Offensive
Further information: Occupation of Latvia

In 1939, Soviet Union pressured all three Baltic states to accept military bases, promising military cooperation in return and threatening to attack, having amassed large numbers of troops near the borders, if refused. In the following year, the military set up puppet governments and violently deposed of the previous, democratically elected governments; the puppet governments immediately petitioned for acceptance into Soviet Union, leading to annexation of the territories of the Baltic states.

During 1941-1944, Baltic states were military held by forces of Nazi Germany; for the rest of 1940-1991, the Baltics were occupied by Soviet Union, which destroyed the original economic and social structures as politically inconvenient, deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians (millions from Eastern Europe as a whole) into theGulag, killed many people, moved valuables (such as industrial machinery, contents of museums and gold held by the banks) to Russia, organised colonisation by hundreds of thousands of Russophones and extracted local natural resources in a non-preservative way, causing significant, often lasting, environmental damage. Most of that was covered up by Soviet authorities through falsification of history; some of these are even now being actively denied by Russian Federation's officials.

Most occupation denial claims regarding the Baltic republics are centered on either claims that the territories on the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea were Russian to begin with[12], as they had been parts of the Russian Empire before the Russian revolution of 1917, when all three declared independence, or references to the puppet governments fraudulently installed by the Soviets being legitimate[13] and having "voluntarily asked to be accepted" into the Soviet Union. All of these forms of arguments are used to support occupation denial. Officials of the Russian Federation and a number of Russian historians[12] maintain Soviet troops were invited and that annexation was freely and voluntarily requested by the Baltics. [14] This reflects an increasing tendency of national and local Russian authorities to rehabilitate the Soviet past. [15]. The demise of Soviet power has been associated in the national psyche with loss of Russian greatness.[16] In response, Russian stature is increasingly defined by Russia's officials associating Russia with past geopolitical domination derived from Soviet imperialism or Russian imperialism.[citation needed].

The occupation was not directly mentioned by the European Community (now European Union) in August 1991, when it recognized the local Supreme Soviets, which had declared their independence from the Soviet Union, as restoring Baltic sovereignty on Baltic soil.[17] In recognizing "democratically elected parliaments and governments," the statement does not explicitly omit the governments of the Baltic S.S.R.'s as non-democratic; however, in earlier instances, the European Parliament had (on January 13, 1983) explicitly disapproved of the continuing Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Parliament condemned "the fact that the occupation of these formerly independent and neutral States by the Soviet Union occurred in 1940 following the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact, and continue[d]."[18]

[edit] Katyn massacre

Main article: Katyn massacre

In 1940, Soviet Union killed thousands of Polish citizens near Katyn.[19]. The bodies of the victims were buried in nearby forest. Thousands of the bodies were found in 1943 by Nazi Germany, who proceeded to use them as a propaganda tool, accusing GPU to have committed a mass murder.[20][21]

The Soviet government immediately denied the German charges and claimed that the Polish prisoners of war had been engaged in construction work west of Smolensk and consequently were captured and executed by invading German units in August 1941. The Soviet response on April 15 to the German initial broadcast of April 13, prepared by the Soviet Information Bureau stated that "[...]Polish prisoners-of-war who in 1941 were engaged in country construction work west of Smolensk [...] fell into the hands of the German-Fascist hangmen [...]."[22]

This denial lasted for decades[23]; only in 1989 did Soviet scholars admit that Joseph Stalin had indeed ordered the massacre, and in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the NKVD had executed the Poles.[24] However, even in 1990 - 1991, Soviet Journal of Military History (Vojenno-Istoričeskij Žurnal) published a series of articles, laying the blame on Germans.

In March 2005 Russian authorities ended a decade-long criminal investigation into the massacre with no one charged. Russian Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov put the final Katyn death toll at 14,540 and declared that the massacre was not a genocide, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, but a military crime for which the 50-year term of limitation has expired and that consequently "[...] there is absolutely no basis to talk about this in judicial terms." [25][26][24] Furthermore, despite earlier promised to the contrary, President Vladimir Putin's government refused to allow Polish investigators to travel to Moscow in late 2004[27] and 116 out of 183 volumes of files gathered during the Russian investigation, as well as the decision to end it, were classified.[26][28][29]

[edit] External links

[edit] Man-made mass starvation in Ukraine

Main article: Holodomor

In late 1920s and 1930s, Soviet Union's political leadership was actively pursuing collectivization as a matter of policy. This significantly decreased agricultural output; Ukraine being one of the highest-yield regions, got hit harshest. This caused the projected agricultural output plans to be severely underfulfilled. In response, the Party leadrership blamed 'kulaks' for sabotage and deliberate underperforming.

On December 6, 1932, a new regulation was issued that imposed the following sanctions on Ukrainian villages that were considered "underperforming" in the grain collection procurement: ban on supply of any goods or food to the villages, requisition of any food or grain found on site, ban of any trade, and, lastly, the confiscation of all financial resources.[30] Measures were undertaken to persecute upon the withholding or bargaining of grain. This was done frequently with the aid of 'shock brigades', which raided farms to collect grain. This was done regardless of whether the peasants retained enough grain to feed themselves, or whether they had enough seed left to plant the next harvest.

This deprivation of food and seed grain led to one of the worst famines in modern history, killing millions of people.

The Soviet government denied initial reports of the famine, and prevented foreign journalists from travelling in the region. Scholars who have conducted research in declassified archives have reported[31] "the Politburo and regional Party committees insisted that immediate and decisive action be taken in response to the famine such that 'conscientious farmers' not suffer, while district Party committees were instructed to supply every child with milk and decreed that those who failed to mobilize resources to feed the hungry or denied hospitalization to famine victims be prosecuted."

However, aid to famine-stricken regions had only a limited impact on the famine. Between February and July 1933 at least thirty-five Politburo decisions and Sovnarkom decrees selectively authorized issue of a total of only 320,000 tons of grain for food for 30 million people.[32] Documentary evidence confirms the cases when the Soviet leadership expressed even personal interest in ensuring the aid distribution.[33]

Documents from the Soviet archives suggest, however, that the aid distribution was made selectively and the aid's purpose was limited to sustaining the agricultural workforce. A special resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Ukraine ordered dividing peasants hospitalized and diagnosed with dystrophy into ailing and recovering patients. The resolution ordered improving the nutrition of the latter within the limits of available resources so that they could be sent out into the fields to sow the new crop as soon as possible.[34] The food was dispensed according to the special resolutions from the government bodies and was given in the field where the laborers worked.

Also, the grain exports during 1932-1933 continued, even though on a significantly lower level than in previous years. In 1930/31 there had been 5,832 thousand tons of grains exported. In 1931/32, grain exports declined to 4,786 thousand tons. In 1932/1933, grain exports were just 1,607 thousand tons and in 1933/34, this further declined to 1,441 thousand tons.[35]

To further prevent the spread of information about the famine, travel from Ukraine and some Don regions - was specifically forbidden by directives of January 22, 1933 (signed by Molotov and Stalin) and of January 23, 1933 (joint directive VKP(b) Central Committee and Sovnarkom). The directives stated that the travels "for bread" from these areas were organized by enemies of the Soviet power with the purpose of agitation in northern areas of the USSR against kolkhozes. Therefore railway tickets were to be sold only by ispolkom permits, and those who managed to travel northwards should be arrested.[36]

[edit] Legal status

Some formerly occupied countries have proposed criminalising occupation denial as a form of hate crime. As of May 2007, the only legislature known to have considered such criminalisation was Saeima of Latvia, which rejected the proposal in January 18, 2007.[37] In Estonia, such a proposal was rejected by the Ministry of Justice as constitutionally questionable under a legal principle similar to the Vagueness doctrine and never presented to Riigikogu for consideration.[38]

On April 19, 2007, an agreement was reached in European Union to ban Holocaust denial union-wide if it incites violence or hatred against specific groups.[39] The Baltic states had pressured to get denial of Soviet occupation, particularly Stalin's regime's crimes covered by the law, but in the end, this was rejected and replaced with a declaration condemning the mass murder committed under Stalin.

[edit] Quotes

Russian Federation's foreign minister Sergei Ivanov (Russian: Сергей Иванов), May 7, 2005, in an address to Red Army veterans, reported by RIA Novosti[12]:

“ То, что говорят, что СССР оккупировал прибалтийские государства — это абсурд и чушь. Нельзя оккупировать то, что тебе принадлежит. ”

Translation:

“ Those who speak of USSR occupying the Baltic republics — this is absurd and nonsensical. It is impossible to occupy what already belongs to you. ”

Oleksandr Golub, of the Communist Party of Ukraine, March 2, 2007, commenting on president Yushchenko's initiative on opening an occupation museum in Ukraine, reported by for-ua.com[40]:

“ It is just another inadequate action of the President. What occupation? This is absurd. [...] Communists will use all influence on the parliamentary majority to prevent opening of such museum. ”

Russian Federation's president Vladimir Putin, undated news conference in 2005, reported by The Moscow Times on May 25, 2007[41]:

“ [having explained how with MRP, Germany had "given back" Estonian territory to the Soviet Union in 1939] This means that if in 1939 the Baltic countries had joined the Soviet Union, then in 1945 the Soviet Union could not have occupied them, because they were already part of the Soviet Union. ”

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anne Applebaum: The New Criterion A Dearth of Feeling, an essay about the absence of memory of communist crimes
  2. ^ Jamestown Foundation: U. S. Senate, European Parliament condemn occupation of Baltic states
  3. ^ BBC News: Russia denies Baltic 'occupation'
  4. ^ International Herald Tribune 6 May 2005: Moscow spurns calls for an apology by Judy Dempsey
  5. ^ Tunne Kelam, MEP, addressing the foreign commission of the European Parliament on May 8, 2007, as reported by SL Õhtuleht on May 8, 2007: Kelam: Venemaa on ainus riik, kes ei tunnista Balti riikide okupeerimist
  6. ^ a b Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Deportation from Estonia in 1941 and 1949
  7. ^ Andres Küng: Communism and Crimes against Humanity in the Baltic states, a report to the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation seminar on April 13, 1999
  8. ^ Estonian Museum of Occupations Rahva hävitamine
  9. ^ Lithuanian quarterly journal of arts and sciences, Volume 34, No. 2 — Summer 1989: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939: Legal and Political Consequences
  10. ^ Memories by Andrei Gromyko ; translated by Harold Shukman. London [etc.]: Hutchinson, 1989
  11. ^ Jerzy W. Borejsza, Klaus Ziemer, Magdalena Hułas. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe. Berghahn Books, 2006. Page 521.
  12. ^ a b c RIA Novosti: Иванов назвал "абсурдом" заявления об оккупации СССР Прибалтики
  13. ^ “There was no occupation. There were agreements at the time with the legitimately elected authorities in the Baltic countries,” the Kremlin’s European affairs chief Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters.—Reported May 6, 2005, retrieved from the Daily Times
  14. ^ Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Russian ambassador to the European Union, convened a news conference in Moscow to insist that Soviet forces were invited into the Baltic states by their governments, an assertion that was the official Soviet line for half a century. "One cannot use the term 'occupation' to describe those historical events," Yastrzhembsky said, according to news accounts. "At that time, the troop deployment took place on an agreed basis and with the clearly expressed agreement of the existing authorities in the Baltic republics." A statement on the Russian Foreign Ministry Web site elaborated on that view, contending that under international law there was no occupation "because there was no state of war between the USSR and the Baltic states and no military actions were being conducted and the troops were introduced on the basis of an agreement."—Reported in the Washington Post, May 6, 2005
  15. ^ 'Iron Felix', Back at Petrovka 38 (Dzerzhinsky returns to Lubyanka) reports the restoration of Felix Dzerzinsky's bust in November 2005 to the courtyard of Moscow's police headquarters, from where it had been removed in 1991; originally reported in the Moscow Times.
  16. ^ "Look at the great Russian people. In the past the mere mention of their name used to destroy the walls of impregnable fortresses. Now we are defeated by Lilliputians. Everybody is trying to hurt Russian[s], inflicting as much pain as possible... this word has become an empty sound without meaning."—Aleksandr Kazintsev in "Russkaia krov" (Russian Blood), Den', 9-15 August 1992, p. 5. [1]
  17. ^ "The Community and its Member States warmly welcome the restoration of the sovereignty and independence of the Baltic States which they lost in 1940. They have consistently regarded the democratically elected parliaments and governments of these states as the legitimate representatives of the Baltic peoples." EC Press Release 81/91 - reprinted in the European Journal of International Law
  18. ^ European Parliament (January 13, 1983). "Resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania". Official Journal of the European Communities C 42/78. 
  19. ^ Fischer, Benjamin B., "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field", Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999–2000
  20. ^ Engel, David, Facing a Holocaust: The Polish Government-In-Exile and the Jews, 1943–1945, 1993, ISBN 0-8078-2069-5. Google Books page view
  21. ^ Goebbels, Joseph. The Goebbels Diaries (1942–1943). Translated by Louis P. Lochner. Doubleday & Company. 1948
  22. ^ Zawodny, Janusz K., Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre, University of Notre Dame Press, 1962, ISBN 0-268-00849-3 partial html online
  23. ^ FrontPageMagazine.com: The Lies of Katyn by Jamie Glazov, August 8, 2000
  24. ^ a b Yahoo News: Russia says WW2 executions of Poles not genocide March 11, 2005 online
  25. ^ Длинная тень массового убийства, translated from article printed in Süddeutsche Zeitung
  26. ^ a b Mosnews: Katyn Massacre Was Not Genocide — Russian Military Prosecutor, 11.03.2005 online
  27. ^ Ecumenical News International, "Polish priest deplores Russian blocking of massacre enquiry", 8 April 2005, by Jonathan Luxmoore
  28. ^ Guardian Unlimited, "Russian victory festivities open old wounds in Europe", 29 April 2005, by Ian Traynor
  29. ^ STATEMENT: ON INVESTIGATION OF THE “KATYN CRIME” IN RUSSIA, Memorial statement
  30. ^ Memorandum on Grain Problem, Addendum to the minutes of Politburo [meeting] No. 93. Resolution on blacklisting villages. ^ December 1932
  31. ^ Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 424
  32. ^ Davies and Wheatcroft, p.214
  33. ^ On April 6, 1933, Sholokhov, who lived in Vesenskii district, wrote at length to Stalin describing the famine conditions and urging him to provide grain. Stalin received the letter on April 15, and on April 16 the Politburo granted 700 tons of grain to the district. Stalin sent a telegram to Sholokhov "We will do everything required. Inform seize of necessary help. State a figure." Sholkhov replied on the same day, and on April 22, the day on which Stalin received the second letter, Stalin scolded him, "You should have sent answer not by letter but by telegram. Time was wasted" Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 217
  34. ^ CC C(b)PU resolution cited through Stanislav Kulchytsky, "Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians?", Den', 29 November 2005
  35. ^ Davies and Wheatcroft, p.471
  36. ^ Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939., Ithaca. N.I., 2001, p. 306
  37. ^ regnum.ru: Latvian parliament rejected idea of criminal punishment for denial of “Soviet occupation”
  38. ^ Estonian Ministry of Justice: Vastus TOM-i vahendusel esitatud ettepanekule "Antikommunism", April 19, 2006 (Microsoft doc file)
  39. ^ EU to seal deal on 'diluted' legislation criminalising denial of the Holocaust
  40. ^ Communists against creation of Occupation Museum in Ukraine, March 2, 2007
  41. ^ The Moscow Times: Behind Putin's Estonia Complex by Lynn Berry, May 25, 2007

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Categories

Until this page goes back to main space, the category links are nowikified.

[[:Category:History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia]] [[:Category:History of Latvia]] [[:Category:History of Lithuania]] [[:Category:History of Estonia]]