Historical Revisionism

The photo to your left is one of Nazi German and Soviet Russian soldiers sharing a chuckle in Brest-Livotsk in September 1939. They are sharing a moment because they have just finished dividing Poland under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed that August. The Soviet Russians and Nazi Germans were allies under that pact. They were allies until Germany reneged on that pact when it invaded the USSR in 1941.

However, in Stalin World, the Soviets and Nazis were always enemies. Mortal foes. It was fascism versus communism and communism triumphed. This is the interpretation of this period of history as espoused by the Council of Russian Communities in Estonia, who sent a letter to Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Jüri Ratas this week requesting that they allow people lay flowers at the memorial to the Soviet soldiers who took Tallinn in September 1944.

The context is the Estonian Presidential Election, and how any barricade could effect the outcome.

“We do not exclude that in connection with Estonian authorities’ ban of any political activity near the monument, on September 22, acts of civil disobedience to authorities and clashes with police, which can result in victims from both sides and unpredictable political consequences, may take place.”

According to the authors of the letter, "they considered monument at common grave of Soviet soldiers to be monument in honor of all people, who died in struggle against German Nazism liberating Estonia. According to them, it is a considerable part of the 20th century’s common history, which may not be changed in connection with peculiarity of the current moment. Those, who do not respect their own history, do not have future, the statement’s authors stressed, categorically opposing to revision of outcomes of WWII."

But if you read up on the history of the Holocaust, that which the Nazis are most frequently condemned for (along with the territorial invasions), you'll find that it's first real euthanasia campaign started in 1939 while the Soviets and the Nazis were allies.

The Soviets had no problem shaking hands with a Nazi Germany that euthanised its own citizens. It wasn't an issue when they carved up Europe in 1939. The issue was territory and when the Soviets got their hands on this little clump of land on the Baltic Sea it took 50 years, a Baltic Chain, a Singing Revolution, and coup for them to give it back to its rightful owners.

Under the premise of spooky Stalinist history, everything the USSR did up until the very moment that Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 was just fine, including the partitioning of Europe. Because how can you condemn the actions of your enemy when you yourself abetted that enemy, shook hands with him, signed territorial agreements with him, and worked together to destroy both foreign governments and people?

Whose historical revisionism then is less rational?