60th Anniversary WWII celebrations in Russia leave bitter taste in Baltic countries

By Aussiegirl

A controversy is brewing over the plans to celebrate the 60th
Anniversary of the end of WWII in Russia as two of the the Baltic
countries have refused to participate. Having some Lithuanian friends
and knowing some of the horrors they suffered at Russian hands AFTER
the end of the war I am not surprised in the least. The end of the war for
these countries meant the end of independence which they enjoyed
between the two world wars and their delivery into the hands of Soviet terror,
execution, deportation and slavery.

Read some news history you might be surprised to learn:

Analysis: Russia, Baltics spar over WWII:
[World News]: By GARETH HARDING, Chief European Correspondent BRUSSELS,
March 9 :

Supporters of the European Union often like to boast how the 25-member
bloc has helped heal the wounds of Europe's bloody past, expunge the
bitter memories of the World War II and put an end to historical
rivalries among opposing states.

But the decision by the presidents of Estonia and Lithuania not to
attend Russian celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the end of
World War II on May 9 shows that Europe's bloody past has yet to be
consigned to the history books in some parts of the continent.

"The sufferings of the people of Estonia caused by World War II and
those of the following years have not yet died away from the memory of
the people," said Estonian President Arnold Ruutel Monday, explaining
why he would not be joining other world leaders in Moscow.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that, after the end of German
occupation, the chance to restore their own state was forcibly taken
away from the people of Estonia."

Valdas Adamkus, the President of Lithuania, said he would be
celebrating
the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism, but not in the Russian
capital.Recounting how over 350,000 people -- one tenth of the
country's
population -- were imprisoned, deported to Russian gulags or massacred
inside Lithuania, he said: "The perpetration of such crimes continued
in
our country when the cruelest war in the history of mankind was
officially over.The name of Lithuania disappeared from the map of
Europe
for five decades.And we probably would not find a single family in
Lithuania who had escaped losses and terror."
Earlier this year, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said she
would
attend the commemoration in Moscow's Red Square, along with U.S.
President George W.Bush and over 60 other heads of state.But the
Latvian
leader, who was brought up in a refugee camp in Germany, launched a
blistering broadside against Russia."Under Soviet rule, the three
Baltic
countries experienced mass deportations and killings, the loss of their
freedom, and the influx of millions of Russian-speaking settlers," she
said, recalling how the victory over fascism led to "brutal occupation
by another foreign, totalitarian empire, that of the Soviet
Union."Vike-Freiberga said mankind's most devastating conflict might
not
have occurred had the two totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union not agreed to carve up Eastern Europe between themselves
under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939. "In commemorating those who
lost their lives during the Second World War, we must not fail to
commemorate the crimes against humanity committed by both Hitler and
Stalin.We must not fail to mention these two totalitarian tyrants by
name, lest the world forget the responsibility that they bear for
beginning that war."

Josef Stalin is still regarded as a hero by many elderly Russians for
the part he played in defeating Nazism, and the idea that Moscow and
Berlin were equally responsible for starting the war would be dismissed
by most Russians as revisionist nonsense.In an interview with
journalists before meeting Bush in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, last
month, Russia lashed out at those attempting to "rewrite history" or
"diminish the part played by the Soviet Union and the Soviet Red Army
in
the victory over Nazism."In the four years of conflict, Moscow lost
more
than 20 million of its citizens in the fight against fascism -- more
than any other country.
Putin also vigorously defended the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, arguing
that
it was in the best interests of Moscow at the time and that Western
allies had also supped with the devil by signing the Munich agreement
with Hitler in 1938.Putin's remarks provoked an outcry in the Baltic
States, independent countries between the two world wars that were
forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and only broke free
from its clutches 50 years later.All three are now members of the EU
and
NATO and are active in pushing for a more hard-line approach to Russia
in both organizations.

Former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar told United Press
International
that Russia failed to accept the fact that it was no longer a
superpower
holding large swaths of central and eastern Europe in its
grip."Russia's
imperialist aspirations are the main problem, which is why you see a
rise of neo-Stalinism in Russia.Moscow still lives in hope of restoring
the Russian empire -- as the world witnessed by its intervention in the
Ukrainian elections."

Baltic leaders want Putin to sign an agreement recognizing their
countries' borders and to apologize for Soviet atrocities both during
and after World War II.Some even want Moscow to pay reparations for the
death and destruction caused by half a century of occupation.But the
Russian president, a former KGB operative, has made it clear he has no
intention of saying sorry.In a thinly veiled reference to
Vike-Freiberga, who presented Putin with a book on 20th century history
in January, the Kremlin chief said: "I would advise the new-found
historians, or more precisely, those who want to rewrite history, that
before rewriting it and before writing books, they should learn to read
them."