Tag Archives: Russia

Everything about Russia in all its incarnations through the centuries – Rus Tzardom, Russian Empire, USSR, Rusian Federation.

The Road to Victory – My Grand-Uncle’s Path from Moscow to Berlin

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This article, first published on the 22nd of June 2015 at 04:00 in the morning, is a living, often-updated, tribute to my grand-uncle, who fought that war from the very first days and until the victorious end. Moreover, it’s a tribute to all 27 million Soviet citizens, who perished in that war, and tens of millions more, who suffered hardships and losses to bring about the Victory. It is therefore, when the Western “leaders” refused to attend the Victory parade in Moscow on the 9th of May 2015, they effectively did a dance of glee on the bones of those 27 million perished people, and were perceived by all Russians (and here I use “Russian” in a broad sense, encompassing all 200+ nationalities that live in the Russian Federation, all the normal people of the former USSR, and all the foreigners, who sympathise with Russia) as modern-time Western heirs to Nazism. I previously translated an article, written by the President of the RF, V.V.Putin, describing his family’s struggle in the blockaded Leningrad. In this article here, I will touch upon my own family’s history.

In Memory of Georgy
In 2015 the Russian Ministry of Defence launched a new web-site, consolidating, digitalising and geo-tagging all the newly-declassified information about those Soviet citizens, who fought (and died) in WWII, in the Great Patriotic War. The site is aptly called People’s Memory. A good English language article about it can be found at Russia Beyond the Headlines:

The new People’s Memory website, launched by the Russian Defence Ministry, is the largest of its kind in the world. The site, dedicated to those who served on the Eastern Front in World War II, allows users to locate the resting places of soldiers whose burial sites have remained unknown to their relatives until now, as well as acquire knowledge about their military careers.

Knowing my grand-uncle’s name, family name and patronymic, as well as his year of birth, I managed to locate him, and what I learnt, confirmed those disjointed memories I had of him from my childhood. I vaguely remember his face, and more his blazer, covered in orders and medals. He used to visit us in Moscow between 23rd of February and the 10th of May, celebrating Victory Day and meeting with the ever-thinning numbers of his brothers-in-arms. From the stories, re-told by my mother, I knew that he fought in the War as part of a tank division. That he was at one point surrounded, cut off from the main force for several months. That for some time he was presumed dead, until their company managed to reunite with the main force. That at another point he received a heavy concussion, but returned into the ranks. And that he finished the War in Berlin. But not much more. People’s Memory allowed me to go deeper and see his path and the deeds that lead to the awards.

There is memorial public initiative in Russia, The Immortal Legion, where people add photos and what information they remember of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, lest it is forgotten. I have enlisted Grand-Uncle Georji into the legion, publishing what I found here at the authentic Immortal Legion’s official site.

Moiseev Georgy Mihajlovich, born on November 11th, 1920 in Altai Krai in Siberia. At the age of 18, he was conscripted to the regular service as a tank mechanic in October of 1939. The regular service lasted at that time for 2 years, and in 1941 he would have been demobilised. But so came the War. He first became demobilised from the active army 23.11.1946. This date, over a year after the end of WWII in the European direction, makes me think if grand-uncle Georgy might have been deployed to China to liberate it from the Japanese occupation. However, I do not have any documentary evidence for that, besides this strangely late date.
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Russia Means Peace

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When leaving Norway from Oslo airport Gardermoen, one could see sayings in various languages, embedded into the floor of the airport departure hall. After several modernisations and upgrades, only a few remain. One of them is in Russian. It reads: “И в чужих странах тот же мир”.

mir
Photo by the author.

I’ll translate it a bit later, please bear with me. First let us look at the last word: “мир”. The Russian word “Mir” is well-known in the Western world thanks to the second Soviet space station, which carried this name. What few of the Westerners realise, is that this word carries two meanings, depending on the context.

It means both “World” and “Peace”.

Coming back to the saying above, it can be translated as both “And in the foreign countries there is the same peace” and “And in the foreign countries there is the same world”. As there is no context here, both meanings apply.

World and Peace. Peace and World. Without peace, there is not world, and world is incomplete without being in the state of peace. That’s Russian philosophy in a nutshell, embedded into the Russian language itself.

Any literate and educated person, would have at least heard, if not read, the monumental work by the great Russian author Leo Tolsoy: “War and Peace”. The English translation of the title does not convey all the depth that Tolstoy put into it. The title in Russian is “Vojna i mir” (“Война и мир”). With the knowledge of the double meaning of the word “mir”, which I described above, my reader will quickly notice that “War and Peace” is only one side of the meaning of the epic work about the First Great Patriotic War of 1812. The other side is: “War and the World”, which is the profound intention of Leo Tolstoy – conveying how war affects people and relations in the world.

Incidentally, there is another Russian world that carries the meaning of “World”: “Свет” (Svet). And it too has two context-defined meanings. It’s other, more frequent, meaning is “Light”…

And Russia is busy trying to build conditions that would bring peace to the world, despite all the spanners that certain Western “partners” throw into the works, trying hard to coax a war. One such peace building work was the recent visit of President Putin to Vatican, meeting with the most powerful (in the quite way) man in the world, the Pope. Lada Ray expertly analysed this meeting in her article Putin’s New Ally: Pope Francis.

And as a postscript: I intentionally chose an English word with two contextual meanings for the title of this article. For even though “Russia” does not mean “Peace”, nevertheless, Russia definitely means peace.

And what about the restoration of the territorial integrity of Russia..?

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A few days ago, after having been insultingly absent from the memorial Parade in Moscow commemorating the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism, Frau Merkel again started saying something about restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

With this in mind, I want to address in this article a large pink trumpeting elephant in the room, that all but a few Western politicians are studiously ignoring:

What about the restoration of the territorial integrity of Russia?

Ron Paul noticed in one of his articles that whenever forces are set in motion to split off a bit of Russia, these forces are hailed as democratic (like it happened in the 90’s with NATO-armed Islamic terrorist insurgency in Chechen Republic), and conversely, whenever peoples try to join Russia, they get vilified and demonised. As it happened with 2.4 million Crimeans, who for their democratic choice were put under sanctions, disconnected from international payment systems, and Apple and Google closed accounts of those that have some on-line data or development.

Over the last century, Russia’s territorial integrity was violated both illegally and illegitimately on many occasions – in the North, West and South of Russia. In this article I touch upon only three cases pertaining the state, still known today as Ukraine.

In 1917 a violent coup d’etat happened in Russia. It carried many of the characteristics of what later became known as “colour revolutions” – a small minority group, financed largely from the West, carried out a “red” revolution. As the result of this coup Russia became fragmented, large chunks of it being split off. Some, like Finland and Latvia had only lose affinity to Russia (and yet, Finland chose a Russian navy flag from the time of Peter the Great as a template for their own national flag). Other, like Georgia, joined Russia of their own accord to protect themselves and enjoyed centuries of such protection, while remaining largely self-governed. And then there were integral parts of Russia, part of its heartland – Belorussia, Malorossia, Novorossia, Crimea.

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“Life is such a simple, yet cruel thing” – recollection of the Great Patriotic War written by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin

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This recollection of the War was written by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and published in Russian Pioneer on the 30th of April 2015. Soviet Union lost 27 million people in that War, and almost every single family has a recollection of losses and hardships connected with it. And the family of the President of RF is no exception. Read on my unofficial translation from Russian below…

Frankly, father did not like even to touch the subject. Rather, it was like this: when adults were talking to each other and remembering something, I was just around. All the information about the war, about what happened with my family, came to me from those conversations between the adults. But sometimes they addressed me directly.

Father served in Sevastopol, in the detachment of submarines – he was a sailor. He was drafted in 1939. And then, after returning from service, he just worked at a factory, and they lived with my mother in Peterhof. I think they even built some house there.

He was working at a military enterprise when the war started, giving the so-called “reservation” that exempts one from conscription. But he wrote an application to join the party, and then another application – that he wants to go to the front. He was dispatched to the subversive detachment of the NKVD. It was a small detachment. He said that there were 28 people in it, and they were deployed into the near rear for carrying out acts of sabotage. The undermining of bridges, railway tracks… But they were almost immediately ambushed. Someone betrayed them. They came to a village, and then went out, and when after a while they returned, the Nazis were already waiting for them there. They were chased through the woods, and he survived, because he climbed into a swamp, and spent a few hours in that swamp, breathing through a reed. This I remember already from his own story. And he said that, while sitting in the swamp and breathing through the reed, he heard how the German soldiers were passing nearby, just a few steps away from him, how the dogs were yapping…

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Denouncing everything Soviet? Then return the territories.

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Below is my translation from Russian of an article, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 15th of April 2015, written by Alexander Kolesnichenko and Ekaterina Mirnaja.

Not only the TV series “Seventeen Moments of Spring” were banned in Ukraine, but also the medals and orders of the veterans of Great Patriotic War. Incidentally, it is now also impossible to call this war in this terms.

The new authorities threaten to send to jail all those who do not agree to equate communism and Nazism.

A Blow to the Veterans

The Supreme Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) approved a package of laws, which equates Soviet symbolism to the symbols of Nazi Germany. You can go to jail for 5 years for the public performance of the Anthem of the USSR or for marching under the red flag with the hammer and sickle. The country must remove all monuments to Soviet leaders and completely abandon the Soviet toponymy up to and including renaming of cities. That is, Dnepropetrovsk, Kirovograd, Dneprodzerzhinsk – all may sound in new ways. Renaming and removal of the monuments will affect primarily the unstable south-eastern regions. Including, for example, Artiomovsk, which is located 30 km from the front line. Even though there was recently conducted a referendum in the city, in which the citizens decided to leave the city’s name. “In the event of a change of names, people will need to renew passports and documents for real estate. Who will pay for it? – angrily demands Andrew Zolotarev, a political analyst in Kiev, and also draws attention to the fact that the symbolism will have to be chiselled down from hundreds of buildings. – Who will pay for the repair of façades?!”

But worse than wasting of any money, is the slap in the face, received by the Ukrainian veterans. Not only did Rada equate nationalists from the OUN and UPA, that is, those who worked during the war with the Nazis, to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Now it is not clear whether the elderly, who saved the world from fascism, are allowed to put on their medals on May the 9th – or if they’ll get thrown into prisons for 5 years for “Soviet propaganda”? “This is cynicism of the highest degree – to prevent the veterans to wear their orders the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory. The Victory Banner, too appears to be a symbol of the communist regime? – political analyst Mikhail Pogrebinsky told AiF. – I can not imagine how with such ideological line they are going to keep the country at least in its current borders.”


(Lenin’s present of 1922 included the following oblasts [counties] Harkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhje, Herson, Nikolaev, Odessa; Stalin’s present of 1939-1940,1945 included Lvov, Ternopol, Zakarpatie [Transcarpathia], Ivano-Frankovsk, Chernovick. [It should be remembered that it was Lenin that after 1917 revolution in Russia separated Ukraine into a separate state])

However, there indeed may be questions with the borders. Rada decided: from 1917 to 1991 a “criminal totalitarian regime” reigned in the country. But during the time when the Communists were “rampaging” in Ukraine, its territory markedly increased (see. Map). So the attempt to tear itself away from the Soviet past, casts doubt on the legitimacy of the Ukraine as a state. Because it actually was created by the Communists, with whom until recently many of those, who today denounce the Soviet regime, identified themselves. “For example, Turchynov was head of the department for propaganda, Poroshenko was a member of the Communist Party, Nalivaychenko was a KGB agent. Whoever you take, they were all members of the party! Even Yatsenyuk was one of the activists of the Young Communist League, and his father – the head of the Party cell,” – says political analyst Yuri Gorodnenko.

On All Fronts

The new Ukrainian laws, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, are not just an attempt to “erase from the memory of millions of Ukrainians the true pages of the history of Ukraine of the XX century”, all is more dangerous and more serious: “Against the backdrop of a declared combat on the supposedly totalitarian past, Kiev introduced a truly totalitarian methods to eliminate unwanted parties and non-governmental organizations… Sets rigid censorship of political thought for compliance, perverted notions of good and evil… While hiding behind the rhetoric of the civil rights and liberties, Ukrainian lawmakers in fact passed acts that directly restrict the exercise of rights to freedom of thought, conscience, belief and expression.” It is no coincidence that this decision was preceded by the expulsion of the Communist Party of Ukraine from the Parliament, along with the attempts to ban it and prosecute its leaders.

Meanwhile, this week marks one year of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” (ATO) in the south-eastern Ukraine. Sad anniversary was marked by fire from tanks near Mariupol and Donetsk. The “economic war” with Donbass continues: a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Kiev would not give a single hrivna to people living in DNR and LNR. Pensions and benefits are accrued to the accounts of citizens, but it is impossible to get them while Ukraine has no control over these territories. It is interesting: do Kiev “fighters with the past” seriously expect to regain control of millions of people whom they continue to exterminate by shellings, blockade, and, now, with the ideological taboos?

Ungrateful Europe.
What would have happened should we push Hitler back just to our borders

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This is a translation from Russian of two historical articles, published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 3rd of April 2015.
The main article was written by Georgy Zotov. A subsequent expert opinion is presented by historian Rudolph Pihoj.

Soviet soldiers distribute bread to the residents of the city of Breslau during the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Victory “AiF” tried to imagine: what would the map of Europe look like, had USSR not given thousands of kilometres of territories as present to those countries that now call us occupiers. And if they would give up these lands now.

Wroclaw – one of the most touristic cities of Poland. Crowds with cameras are everywhere, there’s not a spare spot in the expensive restaurants, taxi drivers ask for ungodly prices. At the entrance to the marketplace there waves a banner saying “Wroclaw – a real Polish charm!”. All seems fine, but as early as in May 1945 Wroclaw was called Breslau and had not belonged to Poland for 600 consecutive(!) years before that. The Victory Day, now referred by Warsaw as “the beginning of the communist tyranny,” added to Poland the German Silesia, Pomerania, as well as 80% of East Prussia. No one mentions this now: in other words that was a tyranny, but we’d still grab that land. “AiF” observer decided to understand, what would the map of Europe look like now, if our former brothers in the East were left without the help of the “occupiers”?

Whole cities as gifts

– In 1945 Poland received the cities of Breslau, Gdansk, Zielona Gora, Legnica, Szczecin, – says Maciej Wisniewski, a Polish freelance journalist. – USSR also gave the territory of Bialystok; with the mediation of Stalin, we acquired a disputed with Czechoslovakia city Kłodzko. Nevertheless, they believe here: the partitioning of Poland by the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact, when the Soviet Union took the Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, was unfair, but the transfer by Stalin to Poland of Silesia and Pomerania is absolutely fair, you can not dispute this. It is fashionable to say now that Russians did not liberate, but conquered. However, it turns into an interesting kind of occupation, when Poland got for free a quarter of Germany: and on top of it, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers shed their blood for this land. Even the GDR resisted, not wanting to give Szczecin to the Poles – the dispute over the city was finally solved only in 1956, under pressure from the USSR.

Apart from the Poles, the Baltic States express a strong indignation by the “occupation”. Well, it’s worth remembering: the current capital – Vilnius – was also presented to Lithuania by the USSR; by the way, the Lithuanian population of Vilnius was then… barely 1%, with Polish being the majority. USSR returned to the Republic the city of Klaipeda – Prussian Memel, owned by Lithuanians in the 1923-1939, and annexed by the Third Reich. Already back in 1991 the Lithuanian leadership condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but no one returned neither Vilnius to Poland, nor Klaipeda to Germany.
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Repentance of Berlin.
After 70 years, the Germans have an unambiguous attitude towards the Soviet victory

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Below is my translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 6th of March 2015.

– Excuse me, but where is the monument to Soviet soldiers?

– Stay on the road. Walk a little further and you’ll immediately see the gates.

The memorial in Berlin’s Treptow Park is the largest outside the former Soviet Union, and one is immediately struck by its size. Police strolls by, watching order, cleaners gather fallen branches. People come here all the time – and, surprisingly, not only the residents of the former East Germany (GDR), but also quite the Westen Germans. I met a businessman from Hamburg, a 34-year-old Herbert Müller, who made a special trip to the monument – to lay flowers and pay tribute to the Soviet soldiers. A situation that is quite difficult to imagine in today’s Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic.

Traffic controller Katya Spivak at the crossroads of Berlin. May 1945. Photo: RIA Novosti / Jacob Ryumkin

“The monstrous meat grinder”

– On the 9th of May I always think about the suffering of the German and Soviet soldiers, who were involved in a terrible slaughter, the bloodiest in human history – Herbert tells me. – Do you know what angers me the most right now? Politicians in Western Europe forgot about the Second World War and are aggressively pushing us for a showdown with Russia. They learned nothing from 50 million victims. How would supplies of modern weapons to Ukraine help to maintain truce in this country? We can not change anything in the last war, but we can prevent the next: that’s what we have to think about!

Herbert Mueller never saw his grandfather – he was killed near Moscow in December 1941. The same story, with a few exceptions, will be told by almost every German – grandfathers in the service in the army, the SS, the Gestapo, fighting in the Volkssturm. Some died at the front, some were captured, and some even hanged as war criminals: I got to talk to a woman, whose grandfather served in the Majdanek concentration camp. However, I heard nothing negative with regard to the Victory Day, in contrast to our former friends from Eastern Europe. Of course, for the Germans, the 8-9 May is not a national holiday, but rather an occasion for mourning for the dead relatives. Something that no one has forgotten, is the bombing of Berlin and other cities by the Anglo-American aviation. “40,000 civilians were killed in Hamburg in 1943, two years later in Dresden – 25,000. We can’t even put a memorial to them – the “allies” of Germany will misunderstand – says businessman Volker Heinecke, who in 1942, as a two-year child, was kidnapped by the Nazis from the USSR and placed in an SS child centre “Lebensborn”. – I was five years old, but I remember very well how residential neighbourhoods of Hamburg burned: the bombs fell nearby”.
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Prague Winter.
What is the Czechs’ attitude towards the coming 70th anniversary of the Victory?

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Below is my translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 27th of February 2015. The title is a play on concepts. “Prague Spring” was a period of political and cultural liberalisation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Prague residents enthusiastically welcome Soviet tankers

Over the last 25 years they repeatedly tried to rewrite history in the Czech Republic so as to show – Prague was liberated by whoever, but not by the Soviet troops. However, this period is now referred to by some citizens of the country as “madness”.

– When was Prague liberated? We celebrate the Victory Day on 8th of May. I do not know what happened there. It seems that the Americans wanted to help the Czechs, who revolted against the SS. But they were prevented by the Russians. Anyway, that’s what we were taught.

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Crimea – The Way Home. A review of a documentary film.

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A definitive documentary on the reunification of Crimea with Russia is aired today. Here is a quick translation of the blurb as presented on Rossia TV site.

This full-length documentary was conceived to preserve the history of every major episode of events that took place in the Crimea in the spring of 2014. Filming lasted for 8 months and covered Foros, Sevastopol and Simferopol, and Kerch, Yalta and Bakhchisaray; Feodosia, Djankov, Alushta and a dozen settlements of the Crimea. A long conversation with Vladimir Putin was recorded while the events were fresh, and later, more than fifty interviews with participants and witnesses of the Crimean spring. How it all began? How Russia received an official request from the legitimate president of Ukraine to save his life?

It was an operation, the likes of which has not been seen in recent world history. Vladimir Putin himself reveals a year later all the details of how a few kilometers before the ambush with machine guns, Viktor Yanukovych had been secretly evacuated, and a detailed reconstruction is dedicated to it in this film.

“It was the night of 22 to 23 February, finished at about 7 am, and I let everyone go and went to sleep at 7 am. And, in parting, I will not deny, when parting, before everyone left, I told all my colleagues, there were four of them, I said that the situation in Ukraine turned out so that we have to start working on the return of the Crimea to Russia. Because we can not leave the area and the people who live there to fend for themselves, under the roller of the nationalists. And I put forth some tasks, said what and how we should do, but immediately said that we will do so only if we are absolutely convinced that this is what the people themselves who live in the Crimea want”, – said in an interview Vladimir Putin.

So the first order, which was given by the president, concerned not the security services and the Ministry of Defence, but his administration, which experts and sociologists conducted a closed survey in the Crimea. What questions answered Crimeans, when even the word “referendum” was not yet spoken?

“It turned out that of those wishing to join Russia, there 75% of the total population. You know, a closed survey was conducted, outside the context of a possible merger. For me, it became obvious that if we come to this, the level or the number of those who would like to this historic event to occur, would be much higher, “- said the Russian president.

Korsun pogrom. How many people were killed or missing after Ukrainian nationalists attacked the convoy of the Crimean people and burned their buses? How a militia of the Crimea was formed? Who was its leader?

How “polite people” first appeared in Crimea? Who were they, by whose orders were they sent to the peninsula? And how long did the special operation take the resulted of which on the night of February 27 was to take under control of all key government buildings?

“The ultimate goal was not to capture the Crimea and do some annexation. The ultimate goal was to give people the opportunity to express their opinion on how they want to live. I tell you quite frankly, honestly tell you. I thought for myself, if people want, then so be it. So if they will be there with greater autonomy, with some rights, but as a part of the Ukrainian state. So be it. But if they want a different way, we we can not leave them! We know the results of the referendum. And we did what was required to do!” – said the Russian leader.

How did they managed without bloodshed to disarm 193 military bases of Ukraine in the Crimea? What was the secret of the Black Sea Fleet, which invited Ukrainian colleagues to negotiate exclusively to Hersonissos? How did they manage to close in the bays Ukrainian Navy ships? But why did it not go without assault and shooting in Feodosia?

How Russia came into contact with NATO units in the Crimea, and at sea, with the naval forces of the Navy? About what did Vladimir Putin talk in those days with Barack Obama? And how did our coastal missile complexes “Bastion” come to the Crimea, suddenly changing the whole course of events? Two outspoken interviews with Vladimir Putin, and all the episodes of the Crimean spring, which determined the course of Russia’s recent history – see in the film “Crimea. The Path to the Homeland.”

In the meantime, Yatsnejuk, in his typical evil clown amplua, threatens to create a film, titled “Crimea. Crime and Punishment.” Sure. He should know how to commit crime against humanity and to create punisher Nazi battalions that slaughter the population of Donbass (a fate, that was also slated to Crimeans by the West-Ukrainian coup-makers).

If ever a film under his proposed title is created, its full title will be “Crimea. Hrushov’s Crime and the Punishment of Ukro-Nazis”.

Blood and Vienna.
Even After 70 Years the Soviet Soldiers Are Respected in Austria

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Below is a translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 20th of February 2015. The title is a play on words. “Vienna” is written the same as the word “vein” in Russian.

In contrast to our former allies in Eastern Europe, it is well understood in Austria: in 1945 Soviet troops freed their country from the regime of Adolf Hitler.

A very old, completely grey-haired man tells me how to get to the ​​Schwarzenberg square. “You have an interesting accent. Are you Russian?” – “Yes.” He immediately switches over to my mother tongue, pronouncing some words with difficulty. “My name is Helmut Hurst, for two years I was with you as a … war-time-prisoner. Got mobilised to the Volkssturm straight from school in April forty-five, when your troops entered Vienna. No training, got handed a rifle with no bullets – and forward into the fray for the great Fuhrer. I’m not dead only thanks to the Russians, although I was captured with weapons in my hands. Thank you.”

USSR saved us

After the statements of the Republic of Poland and the Baltic states that the anniversary of Victory is not a liberation, but the beginning of a “new occupation”, you come to Austria as if to another planet. A completely different attitude. The press service of the capital gladly told me: for the 70th anniversary of the entry of the Red Army into Vienna, they plan to lay flowers at the monument to Soviet soldiers, conduct a memorial service at the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp, open the Museum of the liberation of Vienna, and even stage theatrical performances.

The Red Army entered the city on April 5th 1945, and already on April 13th the remnants of the Nazi army in the capital of Austria (then part of the Third Reich) surrendered. Soviet troops remained in Vienna for a little more than a decade – they left after the restoration of the sovereignty of Austria as an independent state.

– Austrians seriously differ from Eastern Europe in terms of the perception of the Second World War – explains historian and researcher Gerhard Zauner. – In 1945, Poland and Czechoslovakia met Russians with flowers, rejoicing and shouting “Hurrah!”, the girls hung on their necks of your soldiers. 70 years later the Poles and Czechs pretend that there was no liberation at all, that only “new occupants” came to them. It’s completely different in Austria. Brainwashed by Goebbels’ propaganda, people were waiting: that any moment bearded Cossacks will appear on the streets of Vienna and will devour the Austrian babies. Back then we did not consider ourselves to be victims of Nazism, because Austria welcomed Hitler and fought together with the Germans. However, after 70 years, many of our citizens are grateful to your people.

First, the USSR rescued a small nation from further destruction – hundreds of thousands of Austrians have already been killed and the Western and on the Eastern Fronts. Secondly, Vienna was not subjected to massive air strikes, and this is preserved the historical neighbourhoods. Third, at the demand of the USSR, Austria became a neutral state, and later our guys did not die in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Flowers on the graves

Austrian press has organized an opinion poll: “Do you want to dismantle the monument to Soviet soldiers?”. 91%(!) of Austrian voted against. And while our former friends in Eastern Europe are now publicly announcing May 9, 1945 as the beginning of the “Soviet tyranny”, for millions of people in Austria, this date is the liberation, and not a conquest. Austria finances maintenance of military cemeteries, where Soviet soldiers are buried (in the storming of Vienna 40,000 people were killed), and restoring monuments at their own expense. Driving through the eastern part of the country, I saw with my own eyes how the villagers (and not only the elderly ones) bring flowers to the graves of our soldiers. When I asked them why they do this, they were amazed by the question: “These are our liberators!”

But there is a fly in the ointment. For six consecutive years, on the eve of May 9th, hooligans poured paint on monument to Soviet soldiers on Schwarzenberg square: either black, or (on the last occasion) yellow-blue. The fence behind the monument, as well as containers for projectors are covered by graffiti. Attackers have not been found, although in Vienna City Hall assured me that now the perimeter is covered by video cameras: the crime is unlikely to happen again.

The fence behind the monument to our soldiers is covered with graffiti. Photo: AiF/ Georgy Zotov

“Enough Christmas trees for all”

– First of all the suspicion falls on neo-Nazis – we have more and more problems with the radicals of the right-wing movements, – thinks the ex-worker of the Communist Party of Austria, Alexander Neumann. – There is a version that vandals are visitors from Poland or Ukraine. Although, of course, Austria is responsible for such incidents. But, you must agree, it’s a couple of cases – not a mass phenomenon. When the memorial on the square Schwarzenberg was spilled with paint last year, dozens of volunteers organised a vigil at the monument, and one of them vowed to “punch the face the Nazis are not respecting Russians.”

Austrian politicians are delicate in their comments on the topic og 70th anniversary of the appearance in Vienna of the Soviet troops. According to the press service of the Parliament, “different views are expressed: most people would say that this was a liberation, a minority – that a military defeat, but no one would call the entry of the Red Army in Vienna for and illegal occupation. In Austrian history school books, the point of view is clear: 1945 is a year of the liberation of Austria, and nothing else.”

“We must admit, all kinds of things happened, – says the former soldier of Volkssturm Helmut Hurst. – Soviet troops stayed with us for 10 years, there were love affairs, Austrians gave birth to children, and then classmates teased the poor kids as “ferfluhter russen” – “cursed Russians”. My neighbour did not like the Russians – a Soviet truck damaged his lawn. Another neighbour scolded bureaucracy: to move from one area of Vienna to another, you had to obtain five commandant seals of the USSR. However, after seventy years, we are grateful to the Russians for getting rid of Hitler. In captivity, I worked in a sawmill. Since then, if someone is talking about a possible war with Russia, I say, “No problem. Russians taught us to fell trees in the POW camps … there are a lot more Christmas trees there – enough for everyone!”

The Hungarian Amnesia. How do people on the Danube treat the anniversary of the liberation of Budapest

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Below is a translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 13th of February 2015:

Red Army soldiers in the battle for Budapest.

Despite the fact that Hungary joined Hitler and attacked the USSR, the position of the local historians is often the same: in 1945 the country became a “victim of Soviet tyranny.” Is this true? An “AiF” observer is trying to make sense of the situation.

In number 3 of “AiF” we published a report from Poland “The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman” (English translation here): why Polish politicians and the media ignored the memory of Soviet soldiers who liberated Warsaw. The article caused an unprecedented surge of responses and questions from readers: how do things stand with memory in other European countries? In this regard, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Victory, “AiF” begins a series of reports from European capitals that the Red Army occupied after Warsaw: on February 13, 1945 it liberated Budapest.

Soldier with PCA was removed

– Of course, we are absolutely not like Poles – a freelance journalist Laszlo Kovacs, who in 1981-1986 studied in the USSR, politely starts the conversation. – In Hungary, there is no general negative attitude towards Russia, our Prime Minister is in favour of the construction of the “South Stream” and the cessation of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions. However, as in the rest of Eastern Europe, our media since 1989, hammered into people’s minds the same thing, that in 1945 the evil Russians came here and brought on tips of their bayonets the communist regime. We tend to forget that in fact it was Hungary that joined Hitler and declared war on the Soviet Union and sent to the Eastern Front hundreds of thousands of soldiers – during the Battle of Stalingrad a whole Hungarian army perished there. We took the land of the neighbours in Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. In just one year the Hungarian police and SS together with the Germans destroyed 450,000 local Jews and 28,000 Gypsies. It’s just awful. The Red Army saved Hungarians from becoming a Nazi monsters.

Before and after: a monument to our soldiers completely anonymised. Photo: RIA Novosti, AIF / Georgy Zotov


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Andrey Karaulov: For Russia the ’90s Were Worse Than WWII

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Following is a telling reply to a reader question, published in Russian in newspaper Argumenty i Fakty:

Deputies are trying to demand a compensation from Germany for the losses suffered by Russian in the Great Patriotic War. But why don’t they take care of the cases that happened 20 years ago and hold accountable those who bankrupted factories, ruined farms?

Reply by Andrey Karaulov, journalist:

– What has been done to the country in the era of perestroika by “young reformers” is unimaginable. Yes, the Germans during the War destroyed the factories on the occupied territories, they blew them up. But during World War II, to save plants, Stalin evacuate them to Central Asia, Siberia.

While during the 90s, 262 largest plants that fed the entire country were culled. These were primarily metallurgical plants, plants that produced the world’s best ball-bearings, and so on. Machine tool construction suffered the biggest blow. 187 of 262 factories were brought back to life by Putin. But some, such as the Ukhtomskij Plant in Lyubertsy is impossible to revive. To understand what the 90s cost Russia, go to Lyubertsy, walk around the wasteland, where once there was a chain of several companies with more than 8,000 jobs. Previously, there was the production of the different machines for agriculture. And now, all’s empty. I remember when in Krasnoyarsk I went with the camera around a plant, which produced tires. Only horror movies could be shot in those workshops nowadays. We have transcripts of Gaidar Cabinet. Unique plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur producing our SU jets (today they are considered the best in the world) was proposed to be re-profiled into the production of Chinese bicycles. They said back then, they will be in high demand.

Today we pay for those mistakes (translator: I would call them crimes!). The best scientific schools are destroyed. I once asked Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov: could we in the ’90s, after Gaidar, Chubais and Nechayev ploughed through our industry, build a nuclear bomb? He categorically said, “No, we wouldn’t be able to.” Because all that was needed for its production, had been destroyed… Why those reformers are not held accountable today? Firstly, because all decisions that were taken back then, were approved by Boris Yeltsin. The fact of the matter is that there was no one single saboteur, but a lot of people in power. So should we judge the whole former government? Some are not among us, and others far away. Dead are Boris Fyodorov, Yegor Gaidar. We do not, after all, think of judging the Bolsheviks and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, because of what they made in 1917.

The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman. Why Poland is not happy to be liberated from fascism?

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In a very strong post by Lada Ray, Wake Up, the Soldier of Ukraine!, a reader Paul commented the following:

You know, seeing how the Poles and Galicians view Russia, I would say that Russia’s attempts to sweep things under the rug with ideas of Slavic brotherhood and such were not wise. Even within the Ukraine, Eastern Ukrainians saying “We are brothers” while Western Ukrainians said “We are not brothers” didn’t work out so well. It might have been better to say “We are cousins; we don’t always agree, but let’s work together when we can.” A bit of an overgeneralisation, but you get the idea. The point is that you have to stand up for yourself in this world, and get your position across, particularly when it seems like you are facing a bully.

One can make the case that the Soviet and Russian leadership wanted a huge Ukraine that contains too many groups and cultures as a way to prevent NATO or nationalism from gaining territory. The drawback is it really isn’t a normal country, and this made it easy for the West to take over with Bandera types.

I think that the reason Russia was not overly-concerned with brotherly nations forgetting the positive aspects of Russia, was because Russians themselves would not forget or deny the help that they receive and would not think it necessary to remind of such acts in return. In a way, reminding someone of the acts of kindness from you can be viewed as an insult. Turns out it was not so self-evident that reminders were not in order…

It looks like the common Poles still remember, though, as illustrated by the following article by Georgy Zotov, published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 15th of January. Translated to English below, by yours truly.

G. Zotov is a travelling journalists, living in various, often dangerous, parts of the world and getting to know the local people. His articles are always a revelation about the moods of the people “lower down”, often contrasting with what we hear from MSM from the “higher ups”.

The title is a refrain on the wartime march Farewell of a Slavic Woman.

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Descendants of the White Emigration Against Russophobia in Western MSM

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The descendants of the first wave of Russian emigration published an open letter, condemning the overt russophobia touted in Western main stream media (MSM). The letter was first published in Russian on the site of newspaper Rossijskaja Gazeta, and they intend to publish it in French in Le Figaro. Further action will be an official translation of the letter into English with an open collection of signatures of support in Europe and all over the world.

After a short background, I will present here my own, unofficial, English translation of the letter.

Historical background

The first wave of Russian emigration – the White Emigrations happened after the coup d’etat of October 1917 that was led by Lenin and “Bolsheviks”. The people, who emigrated were the top-layer of the Russian society – noblemen, writers, thinkers, intelligentsia, as they rightly feared for their lives at the hand of the coup-makers. Those who stayed behind, hoping the madness would pass, mostly perished during the 20’s and the Stalin’s purges.

Though these people fled, they by no means betrayed Russia, they and their children and, now, grand-children, continued to be truly devoted to Russia. During the Soviet period they fought however they could against the Soviet system, sometimes making questionable or ill-advised alliances with Western powers under the (often wrong) principal of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Many in the West were (and still are) also wrongfully setting an equation sign between Russia and USSR. This misconception, together with the Soviet propaganda of vilifying these people as anti-Russian, led many in-power in the West to believe that the White emigration and their descendants are against Russia.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as it comes now in the truly patriotic open letter that they wrote, addressing the leaders of European countries, denouncing the rampant russophobia that tarnish the country, which they, even in third generation consider to be their motherland.

About the letter

After the letter, the newspaper presents their interview with the initiator, Prince Shakhovskoy. It is not translated here.

Dmitry M. Shakhovskoy – Doctor of Historical and Philological Sciences, Professor Emeritus of French universities and St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. He is a representative of the princely family, originating from the legendary Rurik. Among his ancestors are such prominent figures as a poet and writer of XVII century Simeon Shakhovskoi, Procurator of the Holy Synod Shakhovskoy Jacob, who was considered the most honest man of his time, a hero of The First Great Fatherland War, who participated in the Battle of Borodino and the conquering of Paris, General Ivan L. Shakhovskoy.

The letter below can be found on the pages of organisation “Russian Bridge” in Russian and French.

The Open Letter

For almost a year, the Ukrainian events were of deep concern to of us, the descendants of white emigration, especially since in contrast to the people around us, we, due of our origin, have access to comprehensive information. Knowledge of the recent past, namely the past of the pre-revolutionary Russia, gives us the opportunity, and with it the duty, to expose the obvious historical falsifications that led to the current drama in Ukraine. In the face of heightened tensions in the Donbass as well as in the international relations we come to a conclusion is that the aggressive hostility, unfolding now against Russia is devoid of any rationality. The policy of double standards is above any limits.

Russia is accused of all crimes, without a priori evidence it is declared guilty, while other countries are shown an amazing lenience, in particular with regard to observing human rights.

We in no way refuse to protect those values upon which our ancestors brought us up, doomed to exile after the 1917 revolution. We do not refuse neither the condemnation of the criminal acts of the Bolsheviks and their successors, nor restoring of the historical truth about that terrible time. But this does not mean that we can put up with with the slander that daily falls on modern Russia, its leadership and its president, which is sanctioned and gets dirt thrown at it, contrary to elementary common sense. This self-destructive for the European countries ridiculous idea prompts to serious thought all those, who see in it the desire of the West to rather prevent the development of Russia, than to settle the crisis in Ukraine. Especially ridiculous are the systematic attack on everything, that is somehow related to the “Russian world”: we are talking about the historical, geographical, linguistic, cultural and spiritual realities of the great civilization that has enriched the world and that we are rightfully proud of. We also resent the shameful silence of the European official institutions and the media with regard to the brutal bombing that Ukrainian army, supported by military groups under Nazi symbols, pours in Donbass on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Such silence is perceived by the Kiev authorities as providing them with full right to continue killing and destruction. For months, children and old people are killed or seriously injured, and prisoners are tortured. And now the Kiev government has in addition introduced a complete blockage (gas, electricity, railways, pensions, salaries, medication, institutions, hospitals, etc.), to finally destroy the region, which al the while it declares to be an integral part of its territory. And how not to condemn violent acts committed by the supporters of Kiev in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine?! Priests are persecuted, forced to flee and even killed; fifty temples have been bombed, of which twenty were completely destroyed; believers are persecuted. Where are the European values?

We can not put up with the daily slander against modern Russia that is falling upon us.

Despite the complete rejection of the Soviet Union, our fathers and grandfathers greatly grieved the suffering endured by the Russian people during World War II. In turn, we will not stay as indifferent and silent witnesses in the face of the systematic destruction of the population of Donbass, blatant Russophobia and hypocritical approaches, completely contrary to the interests of our beloved Europe. We really want to hope that the countries that once gave shelter to our families, will again take the path of prudence and impartiality.

Paris, November 26, 2014
P.S.

This letter is compiled by the Prince and Princess Dimitri and Tamara Shahovskaya, with the initiative being supported by the group “Russian Bridge”, established in February 2011 by the descendants of white emigration.

Published online on November 26, 2014, this letter was supported by more than one hundred representatives of princely and aristocratic families from different countries. Every day, more and more letters of “solidarity with Russia in the hour of the Ukrainian tragedy” come to e-mail solidairesdelarussie@gmail.com.

The letter was signed:

Yurievskij, His Serene Highness Prince Georgij A.
and Jurjevskaja, Her HighnessElikonida, (Switzerland)
Vera F. Albertini, (France)
Andreoli Olga A., born. Trubnikova (France)
Marianov, Arkady A., (Belgium)
Averino, Michael B. (France)
Baryatinsky, Prince Vladimir V.
and Baryatinsky, Princess Yolanda, (France)
Beglan, Marie-France, (England)
Belyavcky, Nikolay S.
and Belyavckaya, Gilen (Belgium)
Bereznikov, Aleksey A.
and Bereznikova, Claude (France)
Bobrikov, Alexander P., (France)
Bobrincky, Nicholas B., (Germany)
Boldyrev, Aleksandr (France)
de Boreysha, Irina P., (Switzerland)
Brune de Saint-Hippolyte, Sophia (France)
Butlerova Vera N., (France)
Vinand, Olga, born. Rosina (England)
Vinogradov, Michael, (France)
Vorontsov-Velyaminov, Michael W.
and Vorontsova-Velyaminova, Shantal, (France)
Davydov, Konctantin K. (France)
Durdin Mak, Dmitry P. (Belgium)
Drutskoy-Cokolincky, Prince Aleksandr A., (Belgium)
Gendercon-Ctyuart, Anna C. born. Countess von der Palen, (England)
Gendercon-Ctyuart, Andrei, (England)
Genko, Nector N.
and Genko, Mariya I. born. Ctarocelckaya (France)
Golubinova, Nadin, (France)
Gorohov, Zherar A. (France)
Grabar, Michael N. (France)
Grekov, Nikolai N., (France)
Guchkov, Ivan A. (Switzerland)
Grigorev, Aleksey P. (France)
Ignatev, Count Nikolai N., (France)
Zhivolup, Vladimir, (France)
Ivanova, D. Mariya
born. Countess Tatischeva (France)
Kameneva, Tatyana, (France)
Kapnist, Countess Veronica J.,
born. Liset (France)
Kapnict, Count Sergei A., (France)
Carmignani, Roger (France)
Knyupfer, Elena V. born. Yagello (England)
Kozyrev, Vladimir, (Belgium)
Kolla-Mucin-Pushkin, Rocticlav V. (France)
Aleksandr Kolchak R.
and Kolchak, Zhanin (France)
Krylov, Ivan P., (Belgium)
Crewe, Philip, (Belgium)
Kurdyukov, Ivan S. (France)
Lavrov, Oleg N., (France)
Lazarev, Ivan N. (France)
Louis Kicelevskaya, Anna M., (France)
Luchaninov, Sergey (USA)
Marshalk, Georgy (France)
Matchere, Georgy A. and
Matchere, Nadezhda V., born Princess Volkonckaya (France)
Matsnev, Andrei, (France)
Miller de la Cerda, Aleksandr N.
Miller and de la Cerda, Anna O.,
born. Countess Tolstoy, (France)
Miloradovich, Anna (Kanada)
Muratova, Kseniya M. (France)
Muruzi, Prince Konctantin P.
and Muruzi, Princess Suzanne (France)
Mure, Mariya A. born. Trubnikova (France)
Naryshkin, Peter A., (Cape Town, South Africa)
About de de Cizhi Mariya G. born. de the St Ippolit, (France)
von der Palen, Baroness Irina G. (Belgium)
von der Palen, Count Sergei C., (Switzerland)
Pasco, Serge (France)
Pervyshin, Rocticlav N.
and Pervyshina, Kceniya B. born Mashtaler (France)
Pernik, Yefim, (France)
Plott, Alexander V.
and Plott, Elena V., (France)
Pocylkin, Dmitry, (Belgium)
Pridun, Johann (France)
Pridun, Stephen, (France)
Pushkin, Aleksandr A.
and Pushkin, Mariya-Magdalina born. Durnovo (Belgium)
Pule, Marina R., born. Pervyshina (France)
Rampelberg, Marianna D.
born. Parfenova
and Rampelberg, Rene-Mari, (France)
Rebinder, Cerafim A.
and Rebinder, Elena A. born. Pochitalova, (Switzerland)
Rebinder, Sergey A.
and Rebinder, Elena K. (France)
Renn, Darya A. born. Rozov, (France)
de Rennenkampf, Aleksandra P., born. Nefedov (France)
background Rozenshild, Nataliya A., (France)
Ruccel, Elizaveta P. born. Ctefanovich (France)
Ruchkovsky Aleksey G.
and Ruchkovskaya, Nataliya A. born. Babkova (France)
Cafyannikov, Paul A., (Belgium)
Svechin, Ivan N.
and Svechin Deniza (France)
de Ippolit the St, Peter G. (France)
Stenbok Fermor, Count Andrei I., (France)
Stenbok Fermor, Countess Kseniya A., (Italiya)
Sukkar (Caharov), Antonio S. (France)
Culatskaya, Ekaterina A., (France)
Terentev, Aleksandr V. (France)
Tolstaya, Countess Colette M. (France)
Tolstaya, Countess Marina M. (Belgium)
Tolstoy, Count Dmitry C., (France)
Trotsky, Dr. Sergey C., (Austria)
Tunguzova, Tatyana A., (France)
Ucova, Tatyana K., (France)
fon Tsurikov, Catherine L. born. Countess Ignateva, (Germany)
Fedorov, Andrei N., (France)
Fedorova, Tatyana, (France)
de Fermor, Peter A., (France)
Filatova, Julia, (Belgium)
Finnson, Xenia P. (France)
Finnson, Vera (France)
Shakhovskoi, Prince Dmitry M.
and Shahovskaya, Princess Tamara G. born. Thorzhevskaya (France)
Sheremet, Count Petr P. (France)
Shidlovskaya, Irina A. born. Golovina, (France)
Shidlovskaya Marina Yu, (France)
Shirikova, Tatyana, (Switzerland)
Shorohov, Andrei P. (Belgium)
Yanov, Nicholas M., (France)

The French “Mistral” Slapstick Comedy – Sovereignty Lost

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France has become a sad sight. The once proud and independent state that dared defy Great Britain and send navy help to the colony of GB that unconstitutionally self-proclaimed independence to later become the United States (by the way, this right the USA now denies other regions seeking democratic self-determination), has now turned into a helpless pushover, suffering from the very state that they helped create.

First France will probably never see its gold again, that was sent for “safe-keeping” to the US.

Second France was robbed for billions of dollars on some trumped up charges against its leading bank BNP.

And now, the saga of Mistrals.

Russia does not really need these helicopter carriers. They are best suited for invading small coastal states, missions largely performed by the USA. This does not fit Russian military doctrine. Mistrals were ordered when Serdjukov was the Minister of Defence. His level of corruption reached quite high levels, and this project is just one of many that did not have Russian defence interests at heart, but Serdjukov’s own pocket.

France has been under huge pressure by NATO/US and EU (through the US trojan horse – Poland) to not deliver on its contracts. NATO/US went as far as saying that they will buy Mistrals instead, but it’s not that easy – Mistrals are built to Russian military specifications and standards and will not work with NATO. Moreover, they are stuffed with Russian high-tech communications and equipment from the very early stages of construction. Should France not deliver the ships, they’d still be required to return the equipment, and that would basically mean cutting up the ships, after which they’ll be little more than scrap metal.

So France has become the butt of the jokes and the laughing stock of the world for its handling of the situation. First they’ll deliver, then they won’t, then they’ll wait a little, then they won’t again, then they’ll deliver, but later, and so on. Each time France was close to delivery, like in a classical Punch and Judy show, Poland (as Mr. Punch) would pull a big stick and slap France for thinking it’s a sovereign state. I agree with Mr. Lavrov’s assessment that France does not behave as a sovereign state would. It has become a lapdog, a vassal.

And so, the comedy is close to it’s end – Russia prepares to sue France and to get its money and equipment back. Russia actually wins from such course of action.

NATO/EU/US continue to push France and its shipbuilding into the abyss, for who will trust France to build something for them after this? EU has already killed shipbuilding in Greece and, before that, in Poland, which during the Soviet times was the leading shipbuilder in Easter Europe, even taking orders from Great Britain. Now Polish docks stay silent. Maybe it’s a Polish form of revenge?

So far France seems to be slated to become a loser.

PS: Joseph Biden, during his visit to Kiev (to observe the results of his handiwork and to appoint the proxy Ukrainian “government”) said that France is on the right track in handling this case. Applying the axiom that whenever the USA praises you, you are doing something wrong for your country and something right for the USA, then France should definitely start panicking.