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'There are people in Lithuania who remember that they were released 79 years ago, not 'captured' -- Historian Alexander Dyukov
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.by Oleg Krivoshapov [REGNUM] “Today, July 13, at 11:30 p.m., the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, salutes the valiant troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, who have captured the capital of Soviet Lithuania, the city of Vilnius,” said Stalin’s order, handed over to General of the Army Ivan Chernyakhovsky, the youngest of the front commanders . The 3rd Belorussian Front, under the command of Chernyakhovsky, had been fighting heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and on the streets of the Lithuanian capital over the previous week. The 17,000-strong Wehrmacht grouping was not helped by either the fortifications erected on the outskirts of Vilnius or the hastily deployed reinforcements, including the Luftwaffe landing force. The Nazis lost 7,000 people killed, more than 5,000 chose to surrender. It is significant that in the ranks of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Lithuanians from the Vilnius partisan brigade under the command of Marionas Miceika and the Trakai brigade of Theophilus Monchunskas participated in the liberation of the city. Before the arrival of the Red Army, there were three large detachments of Lithuanian anti-fascist partisans operating in only one Sventsyansky district, which derailed German military echelons. This is evidenced by documents from the archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, published by the Russian Military Historical Society several years ago. At least 10,000 soldiers and officers served in the Lithuanian Rifle Division formed at the beginning of World War II, and another 13,000 came to serve in the Red Army during the liberation of the republic in 1944. Eight Lithuanians received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, four of them were partisans and underground fighters. Obviously, most (if not all) of those who fought against the German occupiers had previously welcomed the return to Lithuania of its ancient capital, Vilnius, from Polish occupation, which happened with the direct participation of the Soviet Union. Archival documents testify that many Lithuanians also welcomed the republic's entry into the USSR in 1940. But in the modern Republic of Lithuania, a different interpretation of history has dominated for three decades, and completely different “partisans” are considered heroes - those who at least did not resist the Nazi occupation, and in 1944-1945 went into the forests to fight, including against their compatriots. And in 2000, the Seimas of the Republic recognized as a fundamental legal act the declaration of the “Lithuanian Front of Activists” - a group that, after the retreat of the Red Army, but even before the arrival of the Nazis, on July 23, 1941, staged Jewish pogroms in Kaunas and managed to establish the first concentration camp for “non-Aryans” . It is not surprising that the current Vilnius leaders do not at all object to the new appearance of German soldiers on Lithuanian soil - for the first time since 1944. In June 2022, President Gitanas Nauseda signed an agreement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the NATO summit in Madrid. On June 27 of this year, the head of the German military department, Boris Pistorius, confirmed Berlin's intention to deploy a Bundeswehr contingent in Lithuania Finally, it is significant that on the eve of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital hosted a NATO summit, whose participants did not hide their intention, as was the case with Nazi Germany 80 years ago, to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. About historical parallels and about the modern interpretation of the events of World War II, IA Regnum spoke with the director of the Historical Memory Foundation Alexander Dyukov , a specialist in the history of the Soviet partisan movement and pro-Nazi collaborationism in the Baltic states and Western Ukraine. IA Regnum: Nowadays, those who “collaborated with the West” during World War II are often compared with the current Baltic leadership. Is there an exaggeration here? Alexander Dyukov : It should be noted that one of the main characters of the summit held in Vilnius was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis . He acted as one of the main hosts by virtue of his position. If we look at the biography of Mr. Landsbergis, we will see that his great-grandfather was one of the ministers of the pro-Nazi collaborator government. The one that was created in 1941 with the beginning of the occupation of Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities. The modern Lithuanian government openly elevates itself to that government of the forty-first year - the collaborationist pro-Nazi. It is no coincidence that the ashes of the head of this government, a member of the "Lithuanian Front of Activists" Juozas Ambrazevicius , who died in the United States, were transported to Lithuania in 2012 and buried with state honors. This has been implemented consistently since Lithuania gained state independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. IA Regnum: The grandfather of the current minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, the first head of post-Soviet Lithuania, Vytautas Landsbergis, in 2000, being the speaker of the Seimas, tried to declare Ambrazevicius one of the legitimate leaders of Lithuania. Then this decision, fortunately, did not pass. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the decision to solemnly rebury the collaborator in Lithuania a mockery of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, but this was ignored in Vilnius. AD: As we can see, the descendants of those people who served the Nazis in 1941-1945 serve the collective West. And they actually do exactly the same thing, with a few exceptions. Just as in 1941 they were required to fight the so-called "Soviet occupiers", so now they are fighting Russia, not sparing their own military personnel, who are now privately present in Ukraine and are also participating in hostilities . At the same time, modern Lithuania has lost more population during the years of independence (since 1991) than during the Nazi occupation. The demographics leave much to be desired. In addition, many able-bodied residents of Lithuania do not see prospects for themselves and simply leave the country. If we look at the provisional collaborationist Lithuanian government of 1941, we will find that, although it declared itself to be the "government of Lithuania", it was, to put it mildly, not entirely subjective and practically subordinate to the occupation authorities. If we look at the actions of the modern Lithuanian government over the past 30 years, we also see a government that is not particularly politically subject. What issues can this Lithuanian government decide? By and large, economic policy issues cannot be resolved, because these issues are “brought out” in the EU. It can resolve issues related to internal problems, to suppress the discontent of the population and issues related to the external confrontation between Russia and Belarus. Outside these areas of responsibility, the Lithuanian authorities, of course, are not subject, the Western countries are subject in them. IA Regnum: Was the memory of those Lithuanians who fought against the Nazis in the Red Army completely ousted under the post-Soviet authorities? Or is it still saved? A.D.: Indeed, the collaborationist pro-Nazi formations (which left a terrible mark not only in Lithuania, but also in Belarus and Ukraine) did not represent all Lithuanians. Lithuanians fought in the Red Army, in the Soviet partisan detachments. Together with the regular units of the Red Army, eleven Lithuanian partisan detachments entered the capital of the Republic of Lithuania in 1944, which, of course, were not one hundred percent Lithuanian, but along with Russians, Jews, they also included many Lithuanians. And, in fact, if we are talking about those detachments that participated in the liberation, then, of course, at least half of the personnel in them were ethnic Lithuanians. Lithuanian Chekists also participated in the liberation of Vilnius, the old city, Mount Gediminas. It was a special operational group, and already in it all were Lithuanians. And already in 1989-1990, attacks on Soviet war memorials began. Doused with paint, knocked down by bulldozers, even blew up. That is, already then there was a huge aggression of nationalist elements precisely against Soviet monuments. And this problem has not gone away. Attacks on Soviet monuments have also taken place in the last ten years. Including monuments in cemeteries. The Lithuanian authorities themselves consistently removed Soviet monuments. For the time being, they did not touch the monument in the main cemetery, where about 3.5 thousand Soviet soldiers are buried and where a huge memorial ensemble was built in Soviet times. There are burials of both military personnel and partisans. And last year, the Vilnius City Council decided to demolish the memorial. Not just a monument "somewhere out there", but a memorial in the cemetery. The UN Human Rights Committee in 2022 banned the demolition of this memorial until it is decided that it is not a cultural heritage site. But, despite the ban by the UN Human Rights Committee, the Vilnius authorities destroyed the monument in December last year. It was this monument that was the main "point of memory" about the Great Patriotic War for the inhabitants of Vilnius. That is why it was destroyed. IA Regnum: Nevertheless, they “endured” for a long time. Why did you decide to destroy it now? A.D.: The memorial was not demolished for a long time, since demolishing the monuments in the cemetery, where many ethnic Lithuanians are buried, was, as it were, “not comme il faut”. Maybe they wanted it, but no one would understand them. And in 2022, it became clear to them: their hands are untied. And they decided to destroy the memorial despite the direct ban of the UN Committee on Human Rights. IA Regnum: Were there any objections? A.D .: Of course, there are still people in Lithuania who remember that 79 years ago it was a liberation, and not a “second occupation”, as modern authorities say. I personally know these people - native Lithuanians by origin. The trouble is that in the last ten years, at least, consistent repressions have been carried out against these people, criminal cases are being opened against them, many are already behind bars. Among them there are already quite elderly people, although not always. For example, Algirdas Paleckis , a left-wing Lithuanian politician born in 1971, is now behind bars on trumped-up charges. IA Regnum: What exactly was he accused of? A. D.: In fact, in the “wrong interpretation” of the latest history, the Vilnius events of 1991. Algirdas, being a politician, quite a system, having already served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, having been awarded state orders, said, in general, the obvious thing that in 1991 "their own people shot at their own." Criminal cases were opened against him for justifying the “Soviet occupation”, he was “pressed”, and in the end a criminal case was fabricated that he allegedly collected information in the interests of Russian intelligence agencies about Lithuanian judges, which is a frankly fake embroidered with white thread. The man received a criminal term and is now in prison. This is one of those Lithuanians who always remembered the reality, remembered that the Soviet power in Lithuania was by no means an occupation, but a completely different phenomenon. Many other people like Algirdas, again, were squeezed out of the country by instituting criminal cases. We, in Russia, have political refugees from Lithuania who fled precisely because criminal cases were opened against them. For example, for speaking incorrectly about the "forest brothers." Many in Lithuania, of course, are simply intimidated and try to keep quiet. Of course, any public forms of expression for them are excluded. IA Regnum: From your point of view, have you succeeded in “reflashing” the mass consciousness over the past 30 years? AD : I think that the radical anti-Russian statements of Lithuanian politicians, of course, do not reflect the general ideas of the population, which, again, is somewhat intimidated. For example, when Belarus canceled short-term visas for Lithuanians, just a huge number of people from Lithuania went there. To some extent, this was due to economic issues - people refueled with cheaper gasoline and bought something that costs much more in Lithuania. I must admit that I have not been able to enter Lithuania for almost ten years now, it is forbidden for me. But I manage to communicate with Lithuanians who travel outside their country. This communication shows that there is no horror in Lithuania either before the Russians or before Russia. Despite the pressure exerted by the political elite of modern Lithuania. Posted by: badanov 2023-07-14 |
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