Main focus of Tuesday, August 25, 2009

70 years Hitler-Stalin Pact

Germany and the Soviet Union signed the so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact 70 years ago. Shortly before the invasion of Poland in September 1939 marking the start of World War II, the non-aggression pact guaranteed Soviet neutrality for the German Reich should Germany enter into conflict with Poland and the Western powers. A secret additional protocol set out spheres of interest in Central and Eastern Europe. The consequences of the Pact can be felt in Europe to this day.

Luxemburger Wort - Luxembourg

"The 'thunderbolt from Moscow' still reverberates in today's world," writes the daily Luxemburger Wort about the Hitler-Stalin Pact. "As a warning: for where there are unjust regimes, dictatorships of all colours, disregard for human rights and nations' rights, where morals, dignity and political decency are treated cynically the demonic grins of [Adolf] Hitler and [Joseph] Stalin, the twentieth century's worst criminals, are smirking in the background. Thank God that up to now they have had no successor to match the extent of their savagery. But their perfidious spirit - they were enemies in their ideological opposition but allies in their mutually beneficial atrocities - still prevails today in some states whose regimes don't appreciate the values of universally peaceful coexistence. There are other rogue regimes. [Former US president George W.] Bush was criticised because he called a spade a spade. But unfortunately he was right." (25/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » History, » Germany, » Poland, » Russia
All available articles from » Léon Zeches

Postimees - Estonia

"It's only natural that we in Estonia should above all consider the Hitler-Stalin Pact and its secret additional protocol as the tool that stripped us of our freedom. For us the anniversary is not only cause to remember; most Estonians alive today experienced the consequences of it first-hand," writes the daily Postimees in a commentary criticising Russia for not facing up to its past: "Unfortunately Moscow's selective memory still influences foreign policy today. And even if in the political arena of the 21st century democratic states no longer sign such 'master race' treaties without considering the consequences they will have for others, one cannot say with certainty that this sort of policy has been relegated to the past. The decision-making process for the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline and the war between Russia and Georgia in August last year have once more put Europe to the test." (25/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » History, » Remembrance culture, » Estonia, » Russia

NRC Handelsblad - Netherlands

By organising a human chain 20 years ago on the 50th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Baltic states demonstrated that they wanted to break away from the Soviet Union. Now they call on Russia to confront the past. The daily NRC Handelsblad writes that they themselves should do the same: "The relation between the role of victim and the role of victimiser still hasn't balanced out two decades later. It's common knowledge that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fell victim to the satanic deal in 1939, and also that they were occupied by the advancing Red Army in 1944. … Less attention is paid to the fact that the [German] Armed Forces and the SS were welcomed as liberators by large sections of the population in 1941. Above all Jews fell victim to the reflex of welcoming the enemy's enemy as a friend. This is not an argument for trivialising the historical traumas that the Baltic countries suffered in the 20th century. But the ongoing search for a political historiography shows that the 20th century still hasn't ended in our new Europe." (25/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Lithuania, » Latvia, » Estonia, » Russia

Rzeczpospolita - Poland

The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita comments on Russian journalist Oleg Khlebnikov's new interpretation of the role the Soviet Union played in the outbreak of World War II: "In today's Russia it takes a lot of courage to write that the Soviet Union went to war on 17 September 1939 [the day of the Soviet invasion of Poland]. This is what Oleg Khlebnikov wrote in the daily Novaya Gazeta, thus entering into a direct confrontation with the official state version of history which talks of the 22 June 1941, the day on which Hitler's troops attacked the Soviet Union. The article in Novaya Gazeta incites both surprise and admiration. This consolation, however, is small compared with the Kremlin's swelling wave of propaganda aimed at denying at any cost that the Soviet Union bore any responsibility for the events in Europe 70 years ago. The Moscow historians portray the Poland of 1939 as an ally of Nazi Germany. This thesis is utterly false and it hurts. It is so outrageous that it's not even worth the trouble of polemicising against it." (25/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Remembrance culture, » Poland
All available articles from » Marek Magierowski

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