Isamaa Reeturite Liit www.isamaaliit.com

Sorry, I am been duringlast year busy with Estonian economic crises, how to get out of this by cutting the budget. Next week this work looks positively to end and I can return more to my other hobbies – including blooging. But soon now I want to turn attention to one very interesting report – of course for these people who read Russian – where Russian current administration is attacking the history text books of its neighbouring countries, blaming them too be “anti-Russian”. In real meaning it mostly means that they just like too much like Germans – as Estonians are blamed that they did not liked to be swallowed by Russia soon in XIII century – or Swedes, because Estonians think, that the Swedish rule in XVII century, when the peasants got first time some freedoms from the Swedish kings, was better as Russian rule afterwards, when all these rights were taken from them. The reports of such kind are very illuminative on the thinking of current Russian rulers, encouraging is, that by the report, quite big part of Russians themselves are not believing the official version of history, presented by the Russian new official textbooks. This is of course  sign of hope.

On Friday the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed  a resolution that equates the Nazi regime with Soviet Stalinism. The resolution, titled “Reunification of divided Europe” and put forward by Lithuania and Slovenia, states that Europe has suffered from two totalitarian regimes: the Nazi and the Stalinist. Both brought about genocide and crimes against humanity. For a final and Europe-wide condemnation of totalitarianism, the OSCE resolution offered to set a Nazism/Stalinism remembrance day on August 23 . On 23. August 1939 Europe-dividing Molotov-Ribbentrop was signed by Germany and Soviet Union, dividing Europe between two dictators and paving way to the start of II World War. The resolution states so that both Stalin and Hitler were responsible for the start of this most devastating war. I can only agree to this point of view.

Even as the vote on resolution was nearly unanimous, the debates were very heated. “The USSR destroyed more people than Hitler. Russia occupied my country in 1921, and now President Medvedev has created a special commission to glorify criminals,” Georgian MP Georgy Kandelaki said during the discussion. Greek Communist MP Kostas Alissandrakis noted that the resolution is “not aimed against Stalin, who is long dead, but against Communism in general, and in the times of a crisis, when workers’ discontent is on the rise”. The head of Russia’s delegation to the OSCE, Aleksandr Kozlovsky, called the resolution an “insulting anti-Russian attack”.“Those, who put Stalinism on the same scale as Nazism are forgetting that the Soviet Union suffered the most casualties and made the biggest contribution to Europe’s liberation from Nazism,” Kozlovsky said. Russia’s delegation tried desperately to block the resolution, when they failed, the delegation just walked out before the voting.

The European Parliament adopted on 2. April a Resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism which. The Resolution, which was originally initiated by EPP-ED Members Jana Hybáškova (Czech Republic), Tunne Kelam (Estonia  ) and József Szájer (Hungary ), is an historical breakthrough. Following the plenary debate on 25 March 2009, the adoption of this Resolution is the first formal and full acknowledgement of the evils of communism by the European Parliament. The Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament, Joseph Daul MEP, recalled: “2009 is a deeply symbolic year, since we celebrate both the 60th anniversary of the creation of NATO and the beginnings of the cold war, and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which ended it. This is why we have proposed to launch a Europe-wide day of remembrance which will help Europe reconcile its totalitarian legacy, both from the Nazis and the Communists. I am disappointed though that the Socialists, because of the un-reconstructed Left, seem to be opposed to such a declaration. If we do not understand our past, we run the risk of repeating it in the future”, said Joseph Daul. “Europe will not be united if it will not learn about and from the crimes against humanity and horrors of the past, and if it doesn’t recognise the common history. These horrors have to be studied and acknowledged. This is why we ask the Council and the Commission to mark August 23, the anniversary of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, as a European Day of Remembrance of the victims of Nazism and Communism and to contribute financially and politically to the establishment of a Platform of European Memory and Conscience”, declared Jana Hybášková MEP, one of initiators of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and communism. József Szájer MEP emphasised that there are two standards in this question: human dignity and unquestionable respect of life based on the Christian tradition and universal human rights which originated at the time of the Enlightenment. József Szájer MEP condemned the practice of estimating which inhuman dictatorships killed, or humiliated more people. Estonian MEP Tunne Kelam, one of the authors of the Resolution, concluded that in parallel to economic and political enlargement, Europe needs enlargement of its consciousness of the terrible crimes that were committed by totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Our ultimate goal is reconciliation which can be achieved by admitting responsibility, asking for forgiveness and fostering moral renewal, Kelam concluded. Kelam was especially satisfied that the EPP-ED Group showed genuine European solidarity. “It is important and symbolic that among the co-initiators of this Resolution there were not only MEPs from Eastern Europe, but also German, British, Swedish Members of the EPP-ED Group Presidency, two EP Vice-Presidents from Spain and Italy and also MEPs from France and Germany “, Kelam said. “The European Union was forged out of the horrors of the Second World War and is the most successful reconciliation project in history. We are now a Union of twenty-seven Member States and in order for this project to continue being a success; we have to understand each other’s pasts. I am very glad that the Czech Presidency, both in this case and in other initiatives, such as its international conference in June on Holocaust era assets, has shown a willingness to confront the darkest chapters of our common history”, concluded Joseph Daul MEP.

By the information distributed by independent Chechen media in internet the Sulim Yamadaev (former commander of Battalion “Vostok”) was killed on Sunday in Dubai. Few Russians were captured by the police in Dubai. Cameras got them on tape while they were shooting Sulim. As Security Forces of UAE says, Russians that were captured, are Russian FSB agents. Yamadaev was soon some time under investigation and wanted by Chechenia’s current leader Kadyrov. Battalion “Vostok” participated under leaderhip of Yamadaev in August war against Georgia. Chechen figthers helped Russia there a lot. They were first Russian unit entering Tsinkvali and participating there in street fights and on 11.08 they saved large Russian column from full disaster when they were ambushed by Georgians. When the information is true, then it proves once again, what happens with them, who fight on the side of Moscow  in their wars against other Caucasus nations.

At the opening of this week’s Strasbourg plenary session, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering made a declaration on the 60th anniversary of the deportation of thousands of citizens of the Baltic states to Siberia by the Soviet regime. He told the House “This week we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the deportation of some 100 thousand Baltic States citizens. This enormous wave of Soviet deportation started during the night of 24 to 25th March 1949 and resulted in tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians being forcefully moved from their home, deprived of their civil and human rights and often losing their lives due to harsh and inhumane conditions in the Soviet prison camps. Nearly every family in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as in other former Soviet Union republics, was affected by the cruel force of the totalitarian communist regime. In nearly every family you will find traces of people who perished in Siberia, who were persecuted by the KGB or imprisoned and harassed by the totalitarian regime. This is not a distant and obscure past; it is still very much a living memory in the minds of many people who are citizens of the European Union. Therefore, it is our moral obligation and a fundamental duty as Europeans, rooted in our common values, in honouring the memory of those many victims, to reiterate our strong and clear condemnation of those horrific crimes committed by the totalitarian communist regime in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the victims deserve nothing less than an objective, in-depth and thorough evaluation of the past, because there cannot be reconciliation without truth and remembrance.”

Declaration condemning these crimes will be presented to the Parliament tomorrow. This is important achievement as European Socialdemocrats tried till the last minute to get it out from agenda. Hearings on the crimes of communist last week in Brussels nevertheless had strong impact on Parliament and helped the case happily forward. Czech Presidency and President Havel played important role supporting the condemnation of communism. Looking on year 1968 they know what the communism is.

It is symbolic, that this declaration will be discussed on the day, when 60 years tens of thousands  Baltic people were deported to Siberia.  Today Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) passed its declaration, condemning communist crimes and remebering victims of communism.