Oct 21
AleksPolitics, Soviet Past
Mayor of Riga, Nils Ušakovs from Harmony Centre and Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis from Unity party bloc. Photo courtesy of the State Chancellery.
RIGA – Just a week ago, it appeared as though Latvia was on the verge of making a step forward. For the first time since Latvia’s restored independence almost 20 years ago, the pro-Russian political party came close to forming the country’s next 16th cabinet. Even if the government with Harmony Centre would have lasted for a week or a month, it would have done more to consolidate the society than 20 years of the state integration policy.
The talks, however, failed before they even started because of a debate related to the country’s Soviet past. Specifically, it relates to the event of June 17, 1940, when the Soviet tanks rolled in after Moscow claimed Latvia violated the terms of the 1939 Soviet-Latvian cooperation pact. Even more specifically, it relates to the term “occupation.” For the record, I don’t have a problem acknowledging the fact of the occupation. But now the term “occupation” has evolved into something distant from the 1940 events.
Since it emerged in Latvia back in the late 1980s, the term, it appears, has evolved into a loyalty test for non-Latvians, even those who are naturalized citizens of this country. The political debates go something like this:
Translation: Dale Carnegy: How to forget the occupation and start living a happy life." Source: satori.lv
“Tell me, do you believe that the Soviet Union occupied Latvia in 1940?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you really?”
“Yes.”
“Say it like you mean it.”
“I mean it.”
“Let me hear you say it.”
“The Soviet Union occupied Latvia in 1940.”
“Was Hitler as bad as Stalin?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I understand that this is an oversimplification. Yet, it appears some folks will never ever ever let it go. To them, every ethnic non-Latvian will always be an occupier, who is always serving his master in the Kremlin and never actually adapted to the independent democratic republic of Latvia. It appears though as Latvians themselves have to come to terms with their own past.
I stumbled across this quote from a member of the Latvian Popular Front, Mavriks Vulfsons, written in the distant 1989 in the newspaper Atmoda, the Awakening.
Genuinely looking into history’s eyes, we have to name all that happened in the past by their true names. There was violence against the sovereign Latvian state, and there was dissatisfaction with the Ulmanis regime. There were brave and honest fighters for democracy and socialism in Latvia, and there were the Stalinist repressions. There was a no less bloody occupation period. There were Hitlerite henchmen and Latvian soldiers on the front’s both sides. There was the Victory and repeated repressions. (…) There was one historical injustice, which one should never forget, but it belongs to the past and it is irreversible. But still – without a 100-percent honest evaluation of the past, it will be difficult to forge our future according to those demands, which is given to us by our people, party, and time.
Jun 18
AleksHistory, Soviet Past, Uncategorized documentary, the story story
RIGA – To paraphrase the forefather of the first workers country in the world, Vladimir Lenin, the most important art form for the proletariat is film. The Bolsheviks were among the first ones in the world to develop a fresh, new film industry as way to impact public opinion, rather than a source of making money as it has been in the West.
In 1924, just seven years after the October Revolution, the Soviet filmmakers released a silent film “Unusual Adventures of Mr. West in the Bolshevik Country.” In the film, frightened by the foreign press regarding the Bolsheviks crimes, a U.S. Senator Mr. West decides to visit the Soviet Union to “learn of the savages that invaded that distant land.” The Internet Movie Database says, “Through various mishaps, Mr. West discovers that the Soviets are actually quite remarkable people, and, by the end of the film, his opinion of them has changed to one of glowing admiration.”
Mr. West was a work of fiction. The Soviet Story is not. Written and directed by the Latvian filmmaker Edvīns Šnore, the 90-minute film tells a tale of the Soviet atrocities, all too familiar to eastern Europeans. The Holodomor. Katyn.
The film made the international headlines after Russian nationalists burned Šnore’s effigy near the embassy of Latvia in Moscow. The Latvian national TV showed it last night on the day commemorating the Soviet occupation of Latvia back in 1940. Then, with an agreement of the Latvian government, the Soviet tanks rolled into the small Baltic nation and launched the year of terror. While the film received a lot of positive reviews, I found it an excellent work of modern propaganda. It’s no better than any other Soviet propaganda films. In some way, it is even worse than a propaganda film as it presents itself as a documentary. It is not. With a deep voice of the narrator on the background, images of mauled bodies, shot men, dead children flashed the screen at the Occupation Museum to an audience of mostly young people this afternoon. The director chose to repeat the grueling images again and again, with a clear purpose to disturb a viewer. The images are intertwined with commentaries from Western historians and former Soviet dissidents.
Not a single time, the narrator contradicts the so-called experts during the 90-minute film. For a good measure, the infamous Putin quote about the fall of the Soviet Union being the greatest calamity of the last century is played twice. It creates an impression that the script was written ahead of time – and experts were there to provide weight to the already conceived view of history. The visual effects, the replayed images are there to manipulate the audience, not to educate them. It is on the same par as Soviet propagandists who twisted facts, interviewed a certain group of people to get a certain point of view across.
In a way, I agree with a historian Gustavs Strenga. Perhaps, Latvians – as Russians – aren’t ready yet to study history for history’s sake. Twenty years after gaining independence from the Soviet Union, Latvians would rather use history as a political tool, which differs very little from Russian “documentary” masterpieces we’ve seen in the last several years.
And Lenin was right after all – films still matter.
May 24
AleksIdentity, National Minorities, Soviet Past ethnic identity, Russia
RIGA – Latvian miserabilism wants company.
It’s not enough that Latvians dwell on the past, dipping into an abysmal well of self-loathing and victimization that is an integral part of the Latvian ethnic identity as folk songs and dances. Eighteen years after they own their own house, Latvians want former invaders to feel as miserable as they are. The government is calculating a bill of the Soviet occupation to send to the Kremlin. At the same time, bills aren’t being sent to Germans, Poles, and Swedes who occupied what was to become Latvia. I guess there are occupiers and then there are occupiers.
A notorious victim complex needs a scape-goat. Up until late 1930s, the blame was with the Germans, the long-time oppressor of ethnic Latvians that became a subject of many Latvian folk songs. Following the Soviet occupation, the victim complexed Latvians turned from hating Germans to hating Russians.
On one hand, Latvian intelligentsia takes an immense pleasure in self-loathing. On the other hand, this eternal, “nobody loves me,” “no one has a pity on us” motif is evident in today’s Latvia. It’s other people’s fault for their miserabilism. Always. It is a constantly resurfacing theme in the pubic discourse on government matters. “Look, they steal, they hate us, they are corrupt, but we are poor, we suffer and bear it.” The nation of Latvia strives on appeasement and misery. Facing up to the fact that some Latvians participated in the killing of the Jews during the war is tough because if you accept it, you can no longer claim you’re a victim of the circumstance, but a willing participant.
Compare their mentality with Russians.
Ridden by centuries of dictatorship rule, Russians learned to adjust for survival. When you’re fighting for survival, pragmatism takes precedence over principles. Russians who may not have bought into ideals of a bright, glorious, communistic paradise, still uttered allegiances to the Party in exchange for a better job or some kind of benefits. In the West, they’d be called “sellouts.” In Russia, it was a matter of survival. Principled people were shipped to Siberia, killed, or were forced to flee to the West. It’s similar for ethnic Russians in Latvia. Most of those who naturalized since independence sold out. They gave the expected answered on familiar questions without much faith in what they were saying.
It’s just bizness.
Russians well aware of the Stalin crimes. Even one of the most anti-Latvian newspapers in town, Chas, published several accounts of ethnic Russians being deported along with the Latvians during the Soviet occupation. I’ve yet to talk to any Russian who does not know about “the great resettlement of the people.” Or about the Stalin’s oppressions. It’s no wonder that in 1989, the Soviet government called the Soviet-German pact invalid from the moment of its signing. While some political forces in Russia would like to see that 1989 declaration repealed, it is unlikely to erase what Russians know about that period of history.
In this, Latvian miserabilism isn’t compatible with Russian mentality. Russians don’t dwell on the past. They hardly learn from it. They don’t intend to put on sackcloth and ashes, roaming around the world in a state of perpetual mourning – unless it’s for bizness purposes. Nor should they. The Victory Day celebration is now part of the new Russian national identity – it’s got little to do with the figure of Joseph Stalin himself. It’s accentuated in the Baltics because Russians here feel as if the government or the ethnocentrism of Latvians threatens their own ethnic identity in their attempt to remake local Russians into ethnic Latvians. While some Russians would hold Stalin’s portrait dear and near to their hearts, they are dying out. When new generations of Russians came to the monument that Friday, Stalin was replaced with the Russian tricolor. For the younger generation, it’s a rebirth of the new Russia and May 9 is an integral part of the new Russia’s national identity as much as the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon’s France was part of the national identity until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Russians aren’t Germans. Their mentality isn’t European, no matter how much you try to make them to be. Baltic Russians have a chance to become European, but it will takes years if not centuries. Regardless, though, they will not develop a perpetual guilt complex similar to the one espoused by modern Germans, who feel guilty for the crimes of their fathers and grandfathers, nor will they subscribe the perpetual guilt complex of the ethnic Latvians. Russians appear to be pragmatic people after centuries of oppression and fighting for survival under czars, Bolsheviks, communists. Russians want to move on instead of living in the past as Latvians appear to.As any pragmatics, Russians want to make money, have good jobs, raise their children, live in peace, rather than bickering over how many Latvians were actually in the Arajs commando, or how many Russians acknowledge the occupation. Now is the time to shred miserabilism, roll up our sleeves, and press on to a future without forgetting the past.
May 13
AleksHistory, Soviet Past, Uncategorized History, Latvia, Russia
RIGA – History plays an important part in the inter-ethnic relations in Latvia as well as in the relationship between Latvia and Russia. It has a direct impact on people here.
Russians who live here in the Kremlin-saturated media sphere know about the Soviet occupation. It’s hard not to. The Occupation Museum is next-door. Some have naturalized and answered the question about what happened on June 17, 1940. Latvia has many, many days of mourning, commemorating those who had been sent to Gulags.
Elderly people – the ones waving red flags at the Victory monument last weekend – get their news from Moscow. Young people like to watch comedy shows, music shows, films available on Russian TV.
Of course, some of those shows are turned into propaganda. In a Russian film “We’re from the Future” (trailer) four young hip heroes – you know they’re hip because they drive hip cars and one of them even has a hip tattoo of a swastika, another has a hip nickname like Borman – anyway, four young hip heroes make a living selling World War II medals they find in graves outside St. Petersburg. They uncover a mud-hut with skeletons inside. Anyway, they go skinny dipping in a nearby lake. They dive in. And when they come back out they end up in 1942 on the Soviet side of the front, learning an obligatory lesson that connects their modern lifestyle with those soldiers who perished during the Second World War.
But the film is not about Stalin, or his crimes. It is part of the great search for the national identity.
When it comes to the Stalin crimes, much wood has been turned into paper for publications about that topic. The Soviet Union Congress of Deputies, a fully elected parliament, in 1989 even adopted a resolution (the link’s in Russian) condemning the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 and its secret protocols declaring them void from the moment of their signing.
At the same time, the press took a whiff of freedom and became high on publishing anything about the Stalin years – from a documentary research on the crimes to an absurd accounts of private lives of Stalin and his comrades.
A documentary was released here in Rīga trying to piece together communist crimes to persuade the West to place an equal sign between the communist crimes and the crimes of Nazi Germany. Surprisingly, the film caused little interest – some 900 people saw the film called The Soviet Story since it opened last week. But, the film would actually be a waste of time for educated Russians in the Baltics even if it’s subtitled in Russian. Nothing the film shows people don’t already know.
Most sane people without any political agenda don’t question whether Stalin’s crimes had taken place. In fact, the Russian-language press here went into great length to show that Baltic Russians (some did live here before 1940), too, suffered under Stalin. Russians generally question the necessity of those atrocities. They attempt to explain away deportations of Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russians, Jews from this part of the world into Siberia. They say they deserved it for being too rich, or too intelligent, too political, too influential, or too nationalistic.
The disagreement is not whether crimes have taken place. The disagreement is about the interpretation of those crimes.
May 11
AleksHistory, Society, Soviet Past, Uncategorized History, veterans, wars
RIGA – Here’s what the previous post is not about. It’s not about whether Russians have a right to celebrate the end of World War II the way they chose. It’s not about whether Russians were liberators or occupiers. It’s not about political consequences of the Second World War. It’s not about how good integrated Russians should celebrate this day. In a way, the previous post isn’t about March 16.
But here’s what this post is about. It’s about memory of people who died in the most awful war the European continent has ever seen. Every country has a day to remember its men and women who died serving their country. Americans celebrate Memorial Day. The British celebrate the Remembrance Day on November 11.
Each of these days are tied to a particular war, of course. Americans started commemorating the Memorial Day after the Civil War. It began first as a way to commemorate those Americans who gave their lives in the Civil War and after the First World War it included all men and women who had given their lives serving their country.
The Remembrance Day commemorates the end of the World War One. But now it involves veterans from WW1, WW2, the Falklands, Kosovo, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq – some of which may or may not have been just and liberating.
Back in 1998, Latvian officials failed to explain the significance of March 16 to the international community. At that time, it’d been suggested to commemorate deaths of all fallen soldiers on November 11, the day of the Bear-slayer. However, it didn’t take place. November 11 is still largely about Latvia in 1919. And now March 16 is no longer an official day of commemoration and hardly any of the government officials attend its ceremonies.
My previous post was misinterpreted to mean that Latvians should join Russians in celebrating the Victory day. It wasn’t so. I was my dream it were so, but I realize that it’s my sick idealistic fantasy. The post was also misinterpreted to mean that any criticism of the Latvian government concerning the Second World War ultimately means the glorification of the Russian government and role of the Soviet Union in that war. This kind of black and white thinking is not what the previous post was about.
Nor was the post about politics. It was not about whether the war – any war – was just any more or any less so than wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam. Would we remember the two soldiers who died in the war in Iraq recently by pointing a finger at the government who sent them there contrary to what majority of Latvians thought? Or would we say that those soldiers who died there searching for the weapon of mass destruction were simply wasting the time and resources? How would we tell that to children and then grandchildren of those people who died in wars like that? I, for one, couldn’t do it.
But it seems that’s what we’re doing with those who died in the Second World War. For Latvia, those men and women regardless of their uniform or allegiance, or even deaths of civilians mean absolutely nothing. And I find it repugnant.
And that’s what the previous post was about.
May 10
AleksNational Minorities, Soviet Past
Take a look at the updated photo gallery from May 9 celebrations at the Victory Monument in Riga
RIGA – In the last few days, I’ve been wrestling with the question of appropriateness of the Victory Day celebration. On one hand, the cruel regime of Hitler was replaced by the lesser evil Stalin when the Allies achieved the victory in distant 1945. On the other hand, for many Russians here in the Baltics and even for some Latvians whose family died in the war, it’s a very important, and a very personal holiday.
The official dictum uttered by the former president Vaira Viķe-Freiberga says that Latvians have nothing to celebrate on May 9 as their country ended up occupied for the following 50 years. But the war, in fact, was over in May 1945. Germany surrendered and the European continent saw no large-scale military conflict again for many years. That’s a historical fact.
While it was almost impossible to spot an ethnic Latvian at the Victory monument yesterday, I saw some. Ethnic Latvians also fought the Germans on the Soviet side. Numbers are insignificantly low, but I’m not sure how many people have to die for a cause to make a holiday appropriate.
And here, in Latvia, almost every Russian family has lost at least one relative in the war. My great-grandmother’s brothers died fighting the Germans. Natalia Antonova writes:
My grandmother started crying on the phone:
“I don’t want you to ever know what it’s like to hear the shelling and know that it’s coming for you.”
War is banal and blind and savage and ultimately meaningless. But there is still something to smile about today, at least for me. If only because its survivors had children, and those children had children, and one of them was me, and another one was my beautiful baby brother. And there’s a reason why we’re here, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives finding out what that reason may be.
And it appears to me by making May 8 or 9 just another day, we void the sacrifices made by those who gave their lives in that banal, blind, savage, and ultimately meaningless war.
I spent most of yesterday at the Victory monument, roaming around, watching people, snapping photos. For a while, it seemed that Riga had turned into Daugavpils, a Russian-dominated Latvian town. It seemed Riga turned into little Russia. A red SUV drove around with a large Russian tricolor (Russians, like Texans, like things big). Russian embassy emissaries were everywhere organizing the 10-hour long concert for the public. The percentage of people wearing sports track suits was the highest at the Victory park than in another other part of Latvia.
In the morning, it reeked of the Soviet nostalgia with a lone portrait of Stalin and red banners. In the evening, youth came out with Russian tricolor and appear to be more patriotic about Russia than Russians across Latvia’s eastern borders. I saw only one man wearing a Latvian hockey jersey and a ribbon of St. George.
I couldn’t understand the ubiquitousness of the Russian flags. At any time, you’d expect the Russian national anthem blast through the speakers. The organizers should have thought to promote a healthy patriotism toward the country they find their homes, Latvia, but I suspect any Latvian national anthem would have been greeted with boos from the large crowd and give more work to the police.
After a short interview in the afternoon, I couldn’t refuse getting a drink with two men twice my age. It’s impolite. One man, Viktor, now teaches computer science at a local school, having worked as an engineer most of his life. His trade is no longer needed in Latvia and he couldn’t adapt to the new way of life after Gorbachev’s reforms. A non-citizen, he moved to Latvia from Russia, just like many others. He likes to compare Russians and Latvians.
“See this monument. This ain’t Milda,” he told me, referring to the nickname for the Freedom Monument a revered site for many Latvians.
The anger at this country, at the apathy of the government, at prevalent corruption and theft, and – frighteningly of all – hatred toward everything Latvian is enormous. For them, the anger trumps over any other emotion. Perhaps, this anger at callous, flippant attitude of the authorities toward those who fought on the “wrong side” – politically speaking – during the war drives many, many people to remember this Victory Day by laying tulips at the feet of the monument.
And throughout the day, even as late as 10 p.m., people kept pouring in to lay flowers.
Loudspeakers blared Soviet-era war music and thousands, young and old, trooped to the war monument honoring Red Army soldiers who fell in World War II. Parents with children, teenagers, many veterans – carrying a bouquet of flowers – flooded the square near the monument under a watchful eye of police.
The VE-Day of May 8 went barely noticed in Latvia. The president and other high-ranking officials attended a ceremony at a military cemetery. For the country with many days of mourning (June 14, March 25, December 4) – no flags signified a day of commemoration. In fact, the whole day was very subdued.
The end of the war signifies the beginning of peace. Tens of millions of people died in that war. Those who returned found their cities, towns and villages in crumbles. One gentleman told me he had spent three years at a concentration camp in Germany. If it hadn’t been for the Russians, who knows what would have happened, he said.
My family own family was lucky, I guess. Only two of my distant granduncles died in the war. My great-grandfather along with my grandmother nearly became victims if it hadn’t been for a technicality. The Nazis killed 200-300 men, women, and children of the village of Audrini in January 1942. My family lived next-door in another village. Audrini was burned to the ground. About 30 of the Audrini villagers were publicly shot in the Rezekne market square, and the remaining villagers were transported to the nearby Anchupani Hills where they too were shot.
These stories are many. The war impacted almost every family in Latvia – whether they ended up packing their suitcases and boarding for Germany, or decided to remain in the occupied Latvia.
The end of this awful war is hard not to commemorate.
May 08
AleksHistory, National Minorities, Soviet Past cukmens, minorities, PR, victory day
RIGA – Latest PR move of the Latvia’s Ministry of Environment turned their faces red.
On one hand, creating a mascot such as cūkmens, or pig-man, (pictured) to educate the public about enviornment and to fight swine-like behavior of uncouth Latvian public in woods and lakes of this beautiful country may seem like a good thing. After all, no one wants to be a pig.
On the other hand, declaring May 8 – Victory in Europe Day – a day of victory over plastic bags to promote linen bags serves as a slap in the face of those who died in the Second World War, regardless of their nationality. It’s just down right a stupid, or perhaps, ignorant, move on the part of the government. Many Latvians don’t understand what Victory Day means to Russians. Mostly ethnic Latvians work in the government. And the incident further underscores the deep division within the small society as Russians and Latvians are drifting further and further apart.
The government lent Cūkmens to the Lithuanian chain, Rimi, to celebrate replacing plastic bags with linen ones in its stores throughout Latvia.
It has to be added that no one is more vigilant when it comes to Victory Day then the local Russian newspapers. Russia Today “reports”:
The Latvian government are using a mascot called Pig Man, who is meant to symbolise litter louts, in a bid to help clean up their streets.
But the end of the campaign was to coincide with Victory Day, on May 8.
Earlier a Latvian Russian-language daily, The Telegraph, had labeled the move to hold the so-called ‘Day of Victory over plastic bags’ a provocation.
May 04
AleksHistory, Politics, Soviet Past, The Godmanis government democracy, Economy, Politics
RIGA – Today marks the rebirth of the independent Latvia. Eighteen years ago the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a resolution restoring the Baltic nation’s independence after 50 years of Soviet occupation.
For some Latvians, the last 18 years have been disappointing.
Husbands leave their wives and children to make a living picking mushrooms in Ireland. Pensioners continue to struggle to get by on trifling pennies as they watch prices rise. Perception of government corruption continues to persist from almost every corner of the state apparatus. And most importantly, people feel left out of the important decision-making.
Latvia’s independence movement in late 1980s became known as the Third Atmoda, the Awakening. People were filled with hope for the rebirth of the nation, treasuring each moment of that freedom. After years of oppression and tyranny, ethnic Latvians were finally getting their country back. Certainly, no one woke up on May 5, 1990, realizing that they were living in a different country. The change came gradually – one by one.
The resolution established the basic principles that were to guide this country domestically and internationally.
The courageous move on the part of the de facto parliament back in 1990 could not have taken place in today’s Latvia. The current members of the Saeima in the ruling coalition are discipled to vote as their bosses – in Riga, not in Moscow – tell them, creating an atmosphere of political cynicism and public distrust. In 2007 Latvians celebrated the Fourth of May heading into a referendum on the confusing, revoked national security laws. It legally failed because voters tended their summer homes.
This year, the Fourth of May arrives at the time when two grass-root campaigns are before discontented Latvian public. As the International Monetary Fund observers said this week, the public trust in the current government is low.
Within weeks the parliament is set to consider a legislation – initiated by the Latvian Labor Unions – to give the voters the power to dissolve the parliament and call early elections. On the other hand, a group called “Society for different politics” (Sabiedrība citai politikai -SCP), led by former minister of economy Aigars Štokenbergs and former foreign minister Artis Pabriks, is urging people to sign up an initiative to amend the pensions laws. The signature drive concludes May 15. They already forced the government to raise pensions once in April, then another raises are coming up in June and October.
Regardless whether these two initiatives get approved or rejected, they have already sent a strong message to the cynical government. Will it listen? – that’s another question.
Feb 22
AleksHistory, Soviet Past, Uncategorized History, KGB, oppression
Russian sign reads, “No Smoking” inside the basement of the corner house in Riga
RIGA – Russian-language signs adorn the walls of the narrow low-ceiling hallways that zigzag through a dirty, dusty basement under dim lights between tight cells in the most notorious building in Riga.
During the 50 years of the Soviet occupation that ended in 1991, the building on the corner of two city arteries housed the regional KGB headquarters, instilling fears into Latvians that no one dared to utter its real name.
Instead, everyone, including a Latvian writer Anita Liepa, called it “the corner house.”
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