Ramis Yunus: why the West is not having fun on Victory Day

RAMIS YUNUS, political scientist (USA)

There are a lot of differences in approaches, but the most important is that the allies talk about the Second World War, which began on September 1, 1939, and Russia talks about the Great Patriotic War, which began on June 22, 1941. And if we add to this the pre-war Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the subsequent redistribution of Europe, the annexation of the Baltic States, Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and the Soviet-Finnish war, as a result of which the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for unleashing this war on December 14, 1939, then you get a pretty clear picture of the contradictions between future allies. Suffice it to recall that for the Soviet invasion of Finland a "moral embargo" was imposed on the USSR - a ban on the supply of aviation technology from the United States, which negatively affected the development of the Soviet aviation industry, which traditionally used American engines.

Returning today to the events of 76 years ago and looking at how the former allies live in different ways, economically and politically, it is not at all surprising how many, and not only in the West, continue to treat recent history in different ways, because the contradictions between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition were both ideological and strategic.

This is the shooting of Polish officers and soldiers in Katyn, which divided Poland and Russia for many years, and all those in the republics of the former Union who fought with arms against the Soviet regime - the Musavatists in Azerbaijan, the Dashnaks in Armenia, the Social Revolutionaries in Georgia, the Basmachi in Central Asia, forest brothers in the Baltics and many others. And the main question here is the question of assessing their activities. If you are for Soviet power, then these are all bandits, if against, then they are all heroes. And until this painful rethinking of its recent history and repentance for millions of ruined lives in the dungeons of Stalin's camps, with all its bloody content, takes place in Russia, this huge country with its greatest culture, the country of Pushkin and Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, will not soon become understood the civilized world. And an example of such repentance can be the same defeated Germany, which after the Nuremberg Tribunal repented for the evil caused by Hitler to humanity, and today is the flagship of Europe in matters of democracy.

And to answer the question: where is Russia today - the winner and successor of the USSR, you don't have to think for a long time. To do this, just look at the reports of international organizations on free elections, free press, human rights, corruption and many other foundations of a democratic society. And the answer, I am sure, is in the elementary plane of understanding that until the same Nuremberg process under the Stalinist regime takes place in Russia, it is not worth waiting for an understanding between Europe and Russia in the near future. And the fact that there are virtually no friendly countries around Russia today is not the result of some kind of external conspiracies, but, first of all, of our own short-sighted, aggressive and unbalanced policy. This is what should be of particular concern to Russians, for any crisis lays down the algorithm of relations between peoples for years to come. And no court of history will return the dead, will not pay the bills for the crippled lives of millions in World War II.