| Higinio Polo is a graduate in geography and history, with a PhD in contemporary history from the University of Barcelona. In June 2008, Vaclav Havel and other prominent exponents of the political right and anti-communism put forward the Prague Declaration. In the Declaration, they insisted on the idea of equating Nazism and communism, issuing a verdict intended to be final, receiving support from the European Union. Apart from the lack of rigour of that declaration, and their recourse to the grossest of lies of the conservative libellers that ignore the obvious link between Nazism and fascism with the capitalist system, the idea was not new and in reality has precedents in the U.S. Cold War propaganda, and more recently in the political activity of the governments of the Baltic countries. Their current nationalist identity has an obvious affiliation with the national fascism that was Hitler Germany's accomplice during the Second World War; even if those links have been able to be concealed today. Havel's Declaration (supported by various legislatures, including Bulgaria and the European Parliament itself in 2009) and other similar ones have encouraged the new historical revisionism in Europe, emphasizing the condemnation of communism and enabling the resurgence of Nazism from Europe's past, in a mad race that has the Baltic countries as some of its main protagonists and disseminators. In spite of the false parallel, the truth is that it is the communists who are being persecuted in Europe today, while the Nazi and fascist veterans and their followers are supported by the Baltic governments, and their activities are tolerated in other countries. For this reason, amongst other notable denunciations, Efraim Zuroff, American historian and head of the Simon Weisenthal Centre in Jerusalem, published an article in The Guardian in 2010 where he warned of the Nazi activities in Latvia and Lithuania and anti-Jewish slogans on the placards of the marches in those countries, as if more than 60 years had not passed since the end of the war. Zuroff also condemned the passivity of the European Union towards the activities of the Nazis. While European institutions, betraying their professed democratic convictions, have not been bothered in the least by the jailing of communist leaders or attempts to declare certain communist parties illegal, they apathetically watch Nazism being glorified within the borders of the European Union. The situation is very concerning particularly in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. As these governments maintain their official discourse that seeks to equate communism with Nazism, soldiers of the Red Army with Nazi troops, Hitler's Germany with the Soviet Union, confusing the victims with the executioners, they treat Nazi veterans as "freedom fighters" -- as some government ministers have dared to call them. Estonia has become the regular meeting place of Nazi veterans from the Waffen-SS, with government support that even sends messages of greeting to their gatherings. Within the Estonian Ministry of Defence is found one of their main propagandists. For years there have been parades, events and gatherings to exalt Nazism. In 2004 news appeared in the international press about the plan to erect a monument in Estonia to the SS and veterans of the Waffen-SS 20th Division, 1st Estonia Grenadier who collaborated with the Nazis and continue to freely hold events in the country today. They were not isolated groups -- between 60,000 and 70,000 Estonians joined Nazi detachments fighting on the side of Hitler's Germany. In Sinimäe, Estonia -- where the main battle between the German army and Soviet troops took place during World War II -- hundreds of people gather every year, accompanied by the local authorities and Nazi veterans from Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark and Austria, as well as past Waffen-SS members to march under Nazi flags. One of their requests is to erect a monument in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, to the veterans of the "Second Liberation War," as they call their participation alongside the Nazis during the war. After 1945, many of these Nazis continued to fight against the Red Army as guerrillas, backed by the CIA and British Secret Service, until their demise in the 1950s. Books such as The Estonian Legion and The Estonian Soldier written during the Second World War by Mart Laar (former Prime Minister of Estonia and current Minister of Defence), in which he takes up preserving their memory and defending the actions of those men inside the Nazi ranks, are regularly sold during these fascist propaganda events under the official protection of the Estonian government. Around these Nazi brotherhoods, other initiatives are proliferating. Musical groups like Untsakad have released recordings of Estonian Nazi songs. In 2008, all the country's book stores were selling a calendar with twelve propaganda posters of the 20th Waffen-SS Division. In spite of protests from citizens on the left and democratic anti-fascist groups, the government has continued to tolerate and protect Nazi activities that are spilling over into neighbouring countries. In Helsinki -- taking advantage of an annual exposition that promotes Estonian products -- t-shirts glorifying the Estonian SS Legion and pro-war pamphlets calling for attacking Russia and destroying Moscow are often sold. The Anti-Fascist Committee of Estonia, that works to stop the promotion of Nazi ideas, has denounced the justifications being given for the crimes against humanity that the Estonian members of the Waffen-SS committed. The Estonian government's complicity toward Nazi activities contrasts with its commitment to the persecution of communists. In May 2008, entrepreneurs and politicians (among them the former Prime Minister Mart Laar, Count Damian von Stauffenberg and businessman Meelis Niinepuu) established a foundation to "launch an inquiry into the crimes of communism." The foundation was headed by Ranno Roosi, former advisor to Lennart Meri (a conservative who came to the presidency as the Ismaaliitt [Fatherland Union] candidate, and passed away in 2006). In an attempt to avoid international criticism, Estonian government officials formulate ritual declarations condemning both communism and Nazism, even though their practical application is limited to persecuting communist ideas and everything that has to do with the Soviet Union. These include: the demolition and removal of monuments dedicated to the Red Army such as in 2007, where the government dismantled the monument to the Soviet soldiers who liberated Tallinn, located in the centre of the city, and moved it to a military cemetery (although they have not been able to stop people from putting flowers on it); and the trial of Arnold Meri, an elderly Estonian man who had been awarded the distinction of Hero by the Soviet Union for his guerrilla activities against the Nazis during World War II. The liberation of Estonia from the Nazis cost the lives of 150,000 Red Army soldiers. The conservative governments that have ruled Estonia have made a point of condemning the "Estonian genocide," supposedly organized by the Soviet Union between 1940 and 1953, accusing Moscow of the deaths of 60,000 Estonians during that period. However, the true numbers were made known when historian Alexander Diukov published his investigation in 2009 (The Myth of Genocide, Soviet Repression in Estonia, 1940-1953) that reduced the number of deaths to less than 10,000 and affirmed that genocide did take place, but against the Soviet population, which in 1941 saw 2.5 million Soviet prisoners of war perish at the hands of the Nazis. In addition, each year the Erna Raid is held to commemorate the special Waffen-SS battalion, the Erna Long-Range Reconnaissance Group. The Raid retraces the route from Tallinn to a former Nazi military base 150 kilometres away. Under the pretext of a military exercise and competition, the Raid is actually a glorification of Nazism and the actions of the Estonian legionnaires during the Second World War. Government support has gone so far that former Estonian Minister of Defence, Jaak Aaviksoo opened the 17th annual Raid in 2010 [Aaviksoo also opened the Erna Raid in 2009 -- TML Ed Note]. The Raid has been taking place for 18 years. The latest provocation came from former Prime Minister Mart Laar who launched an initiative to call the Estonians from the Waffen-SS "freedom fighters" though, due to international reaction, the government was forced to cover up its intentions by publishing a communiqué in January 2012 in which it claimed its aim was to "recognize those who fought for the independence of Estonia," a category that could include the country's Nazi veterans and, for external consumption, equate the actions of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The open support of the Estonian government for these activities goes so far as to announce them on official websites in a deliberate attempt to make heroes out of yesterday's criminals. Collaborating in the glorification of Nazism, the government sets up all sorts of roadblocks to anti-fascist demonstrations and has gone to the extent of declaring the Anti-Nazi Committee of Estonia a "danger to the state." Members of the anti-fascist organization Nochoy Dozor among others, demonstrate against the Nazi activities and continue to pay tribute to the Red Army soldiers and Estonian victims of the Nazi extermination camps, but many other Estonians who adhere to a nationalist ideology are pleased with the Nazi veteran parades. It was not in vain that historical figures of Estonian nationalism like Juri Uluots, the Prime Minister in 1940, led the call to fight with the German Nazi troops against the Red Army. Each year on March 16 in Latvia, there is an official commemoration of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS, an initiative started in 1994 soon after the fall of the USSR. The Latvian Legion, that came to number over 100,000 men, participated in the Nazi siege of Leningrad where more than a million Soviet citizens died. In spite of this, Latvian authorities did nothing to impede the wide circulation of a film, The Soviet Story, containing gross historical manipulations. In 2001, Vaira Vike-Fraiberga, former president and daughter of a Nazi collaborator, tried to avoid international criticism by having the commemoration continue unofficially. In Lestene, (Latvia) there is a monument that pays tribute to Latvian Nazis that was inaugurated by government ministers. In addition, organizations like Daugavas Vanagi (Hawks of the River Daugava) openly support the Nazi parades. Daugavas Vanagi is an organization created in 1945 in Belgium to help Latvian Nazi prisoners. It has offices in the US, Canada, Australia and in other countries, where they continue to maintain youth groups that dress in paramilitary attire. The annual parade of the Latvian Waffen-SS Legionnaires was banned by Riga's Municipal Council (in Latvia), but the courts overturned the decision, having received support (up until 2011) of Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, who publicly defended ceremonies in homage to the Nazi veterans. Latvians who collaborated with Nazi Germany in the extermination camps were particularly bloodthirsty. The confrontations between participants in the Nazi marches and the anti-fascists (who have at times attended dressed as concentration camp prisoners) have been frequent and the Latvian police have not hesitated to arrest anti-fascists such as Deputy Victor Dergunov. Complicity with the Nazis has reached such an extreme that the former Latvian President Valdis Zatlers declared in March 2008 that international public opinion made a mistake when it characterized Latvian members of the Waffen-SS as Nazis. This complicity is contrasted with an anti-communist obsession. It should be remembered that in Latvia, the Communist Party is banned and communists operate under the name socialists. The main communist leader, Alfreds Rubiks, has been incarcerated numerous times by conservative governments, having served a total of six years in prison. The anti-communist and anti-Russian obsession led the Latvian parliament (the Saeima) in February 2004, to revoke the right of Latvian citizens to educate their children in Russian, by passing a discriminatory law that promotes an actual segregation of Russian-speaking Latvian citizens. Incredible as it is, this is taking place within the borders of the European Union. Latvian nationalism denies citizenship to close to 20% of the population, who as a result have no rights; transforming these citizens, who cannot even vote in elections, into stateless persons even though they were born in Latvia. Entry into NATO and the EU has reinforced the segregationist inclinations of the conservative government, which calculated that neither the western military alliance nor Brussels would object to the decision, as has effectively been the case. The Latvian government has also begun the revision of World War II history. Vasili Kononov, a veteran communist guerrilla, of almost 90 years, was accused of having killed civilians who collaborated with the Nazis during the war. Kononov, whose family died in the extermination camps, is a Latvian who fought against the Nazi troops in Latvia, destroying military targets with explosives and blowing up trains that were transporting arms. He has been tried six times in Latvia and has served two years in prison. He was accused of having executed peasants who exposed Soviet guerrillas to the Nazi occupation authorities. His sentence was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, but in 2010, a government appeal successfully reversed it. One of the representatives of the Anti-fascist Committee of Latvia, Eduard Goncharov, asserted that the Latvian conservative government's plan was to begin a process to challenge the verdict of the Nuremberg Trials and that this was a consequence of revanchism: those who fled with the Nazis when they withdrew from Latvia, are today in power in the Republic. For that reason it should be no surprise that in Latvia propaganda for communist ideas is prohibited, and although spreading Nazi ideas is also prohibited, it is clearly tolerated. In Lithuania, where the Nazis assassinated more than 200,000 Jews, conservative governments have sought to erase the history of the killings, because nationalist ideology and the Lithuanian Nazi collaborators are implicated in them. It is no coincidence that the killings were carried out by Lithuanians under Nazi orders, which is why those currently in power are trying to hide these facts. It is not by chance that, during her visit to the United States, the Minister of Defence Rasa Jukneviciene laid a wreath at the tomb of General Povilas Plechavicius. Plechavicius arrived in Lithuania with the Nazi troops during Operation Barbarossa and fought against the anti-fascist Polish guerrillas, as did many thousands of Latvian nationalists. The Lithuanian president, Valdas Adamkus (2004-2009), fought on the side of the Nazis during the Second World War against the Soviet Army, and after the war ended settled in Germany with his family; not an isolated case among Lithuanian nationalist politicians. The Lithuanian parliament, in June 2008, also banned Soviet and Nazi symbols, resorting in the same clumsy manner to equating fascist and communist ideology that Vaclav Havel introduced in the Prague Declaration. However, in May 2010, in a revealing act, the Lithuanian courts established that the Nazi swastika is part of the "cultural heritage of the country," and as such it can be used, unlike the hammer and sickle or other communist symbols. This longstanding understanding for Nazism and the persecution of communism has managed to find its way into European institutions due to the passivity of the EU, as denounced by Efraim Zuroff. As an example, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated a verdict in 2008, that dismissed the charges presented against the Lithuanian authorities for the kidnapping and imprisoning of communist leaders, like doctor Mikolas Burkiavicius, who was the secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party. Burkiavicius had spent eleven years in prison since his conviction in 1994 for participating in activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, thousands of Lithuanian communists have been subjected to political persecution. A real insult to justice, with this verdict, the ECHR collaborated de facto with the passivity of the European institutions -- of both the European Union and the Council of Europe -- in restricting citizens' rights in Lithuania. However, while the authorities allow demonstrations with racist slogans ("Lithuania for the Lithuanians," obviously directed toward those who are "different"), and neo-Nazi symbols, repression rages against the communists and the left. In April 2011, the trial against the president of the Popular Socialist Front, Algirdas Paleckis, opened. Paleckis stands accused of "denying the Soviet aggression against Lithuania." The basis for the trial was that Paleckis challenged the official version of what took place on January 13, 1991 at the Vilnius Television Tower, where 14 people died, supposedly assassinated by Soviet troops during the last months of the Gorbachev government. Paleckis maintains, with solid proof and testimonies, that the killings were a provocation organized by the Lithuanian nationalists, whose armed forces (Department of Territorial Protection, DPT) fired on a crowd with the intention of later holding the Soviet government and army responsible. They achieved their objective. Even though Paleckis was acquitted in January 2012, the prosecutor put forward an appeal, reopening the trial. In Lithuania, the political degradation of the country has even led to the deposing of a president, Rolandas Paksas, in April 2004 for links to the mafia; meanwhile, the "democratic sensibilities" of the country's authorities can justify the fact that in 2009, evidence appeared (cited by the U.S. ABC television network, that echoed the declarations of a former U.S. secret service agent) that the government had permitted the creation of a secret CIA prison on the outskirts of Vilnius in 2002 where detainees were tortured. The current president, Dalia Grybauskait did "not dismiss the possibility" of the existence of this secret prison. In the Baltics, nationalism seeks to dispute the outcome of the Second World War and even reverse, if it could, the verdicts of the Nuremberg Trials. Racism, the cult of weapons and militarism, contempt for minorities, xenophobia and hatred toward Jews and Roma are becoming ever more prevalent in this and other regions of Eastern Europe. Tolerance towards acts glorifying Nazism and fascism, nationalist racism and contempt for minorities coexist with the repression of communism and a troubling anti-democratic shift that should worry the citizens and institutions of Europe; as the alarm bells are not only coming from the Baltic countries -- even though they have become the focus of most concern. Similar campaigns have arisen in Romania; Hungary (where there is severe persecution against communists); the Czech Republic (where the right wants to make the communist party, one of the most important in the country, illegal); as well as in Poland. As a result of these nationalist and conservative politics, fascist movements are growing. While the witch-hunt continues in the Baltics against the communists, and the persecution and suspicion of Jews, minorities and the left continues to be the standard of conduct for the governments of these countries, to date no trial has been initiated against the Nazi criminals from Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. The venom of the fascist snake continues to poison the continent: no one can imagine, without being moved, the idea of Nazi soldiers once again parading in Germany and because of that, it is disturbing that Nazi flags are still fluttering in the winds of the Baltic countries. (Translation from original Spanish by The Marxist-Leninisty) |