Repeating some parts of Russian history will be a crime

May 28, 2021 Estonian Life No. 21 2021

Equating Soviet leaders, army decision-making, military activity with their ally, Nazi Germany, will be a criminal violation. Calling the details in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 a Soviet/Nazi collaboration will be a crime. As will the denial of the Soviet Union's leading contribution in ending WWII.

Legislation introduced recently in the State Duma entitled “The Soviet Peoples’ Victory in the Great War for the Fatherland 1941-1945” would penalize anyone denying the “the Soviet peoples’ decisive role in destroying Nazi Germany and trivializing the Soviet Union’s humanitarian mission in liberating the European states”.

The proposed law does not mention the possible penalties. As a guideline, the Russian criminal code law already specifies a five year sentence for attempts at rehabilitating Nazism, for using unsanctioned facts about Soviet WWI activity including the possible criminal activity of Soviet soldiers.

Picture this: On September 22, 1939, the streets of Brest-Litovsk were decorated with intertwined swastika and hammer and sickle banners marking the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed a month earlier on August 23. The Wehrmacht and Red Army held a joint parade there on September 22 celebrating their successful invasion of Poland, exactly as the Pact had intended.

Laas Leivat, Toronto

Repeating some parts of Russian history will be a crime

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