Boris Sokolov:The Baltic states in the Second World War in the Public Opinion of Modern Russia

21.11.2007

Boris Sokolov

Moscow, Russian State social University

The Baltic states in the Second World War in the Public Opinion of Modern Russia

Most of Russian publicists and journalists are sure that now the history of World War II is capitally revised in the Baltic states. The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian historians and politicians are strongly criticized for so-called “revision” of the results of the Second World War. The Russian historians and journalists consider as main examples of such a revision the statements about the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States in 1940 under Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the recognition that most of the soldiers of the Latvian and Estonian legions of the Waffen SS fight for the independence of their countries and were not criminals. The facts of collaboration of Latvians , Lithuanians and Estonians with the Germans are considered by the Russian elite as a kind of so called “counterbalance” to the Soviet occupation. By the way, there are a lot of mistakes, connected with the participation of the Baltic peoples in the World War II on the German side, even among Russian historians. For example, docent of Saint-Petersburg University Dmitrij Lanko states that the Latvians could serve only in the Waffen SS, but not in the Wehrmaht, because they were not Aryans (http://www.versiya.org/2007/34/2/). But the Latvians and Estonians were considered the Aryans by the Nazis from the very beginning of the German-Soviet War, and that is why they served both in Waffen SS and Wehrmacht. The Lithuanians were not considered the Aryans till 1943, and only in that year they were proclaimed the Aryans and allowed to serve both in the Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht.

It means, from the point of view of most of the Russian historians, politicians and ordinary civilians, that collaboration pays back occupation. But this position is rather covered, because the official Russian point of view is that there was no Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, and that events of 1940 were the free-will joining of the Baltic peoples to the Soviet Union. In last years the problems of position of the Baltic States during the Second World War were aggravated by the celebration of the 60-th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War in Russia and the passions about the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. These events stimulated publication of some new books devoted to the Baltic countries in 1939-1945. First of all, three collection of archival documents (“Latvia under Nazis’ yoke”, Moscow, 2006; “Estonia: the bloody trail of Nazism, 1941-1944: The Crimes of Estonian collaborationists during the Second World War”, Moscow, 2006;  The Tragedy of Lithuania, 1941-1944. The Crimes of Lithuanian collaborationists during the Second World War”, Moscow, 2006) should be mentioned. They were published by “Europe” Publishers, which is controlled by Gleb O. Pavlovskij, political scientist and technologist, who is close to the Kremlin. Two books of Russian historian Alexander R. Dukov, “For what the Soviet people fought” (Moscow, EKSMO, Yauza, 2007) and “Genocide’s myth: the Soviet repressions in Estonia (1940-1953)” (Moscow, Alexey Yakovlev’s Publishers, 2007) also should be noted. He tries to minimize the volume of the Soviet repressions in the Baltic states and to exaggerate the participation of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian collaborationists in the holocaust and other crimes against civilian population both in their countries and on the other territories of the USSR. The mentioned collections of documents are also concentrated on Baltic collaborationists’ taking part in holocaust and punitive actions against Soviet partisans and civilian population.

The authors of the collection of documents “Latvia under Nazis’ yoke” states that “the cutthroats of the police battalions “Waffen-SS” who were qualified by the International Nuremberg Tribunal as criminals, are presented to the young generation of democratic Latvia as fighters for freedom and independence”. They also repeated the legend about officers of the Latvian SS legion which torn babies to pieces.

The other old legend, included in the collection “Latvia under Nazis’ yoke” is about The Salaspils camp as a death camp, where thousands of Soviet children were used as donors of blood and then killed. But this is a quite foolish action to starve and kill donors of blood There is an Evangelic motive of Herod, who killed innocent babies. This document is titled “Act about the liquidation of the German-fascist aggressors of 35,000 Soviet children on the territory of Latvian SSR” and is dated by 5 May, 1945. There is some interesting statements in the text of this act, which was widely published just after the war: “Fascist aggressors themselves and with assistance of heir fawners, German-Latvian(?) nationalists deliberately liquidated civilian population – women , children and old people… Fascist had an aim of liquidation of the whole future generation of Soviet people… The Germans organized a factory of children’s blood, which was pumped out from the veins of the Soviet children and used for the needs of the German Army”. The Soviet investigators state, that in 1942-1944 7.000 Soviet children were liquidated in Salspils camp, 3.500 – in Riga, 2.000 – in Daugavpils and 1.200 – in Rezekne. This document also states that thousands of Latvian civilians were killed in process of “evacuation” in camps in Riga, Daugavpils, Rezekne and other camps. By the way , more than 90% of civilian victims in Latvia and other Baltic states under the German occupation were Jews, but in this Act of 5 May, 1945 and many other documents of three collections, which was firstly published in war and post-war years, Jews are not mentioned. They were mentioned only both in the protocols of interrogations of Germans and collaborationists and evidences of witnesses of the Nazi crimes.

There are no German documents or witnesses, who could verify these facts about 35,000 killed children and about Salaspils as a factory of children’s blood. These and many other documents from the mentioned collections are mainly propagandistic, not juridical.  The Latvian historians established, for example, that the Salaspils camp was both a transit and labor camp, but not the camp of mass execution and factory of children’s blood. Among the prisoners were the Jews, deported from the Germany, participants of Resistance movement, deserters, Gipsy. These historins also established that, according to German documents, that the Germans liquidated in Latvia 100 thousands civilians, including about 90.000 Jews (20.000 of which were deported from Lithuania, Austria, Hungary and Germany), 2.000 Gipsy and 2271 diseased (Blejere Dajna et al. History of Latvia . The 20^th Century, Riga, Jumava, 2005.  P. 265-269).

The Russian historians in some cases manipulated with quite doubtful figures. Dukov, for example, states that the Estonian historians exaggerate the number of victims of the Soviet repressions in 1940-1941, before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. He argues his statement by two main facts. Firstly, the figure of killed in the first year of the Soviet occupation of Estonia, 1,950, was published in 1943, during the German occupation. Secondly, Dukov cites t he NKVD statistics, which testifies that in 1940 only 1863 men were executed in the whole Soviet Union, mainly as criminals, not political prisoners. In 1941 there were executed 23,786 men, including 8,001 as political prisoners, but most of them were killed after 22^nd June. Of course, it was impossible that more than one quarter of victims, killed as a result of political repressions in the period from June, 1940 till June 1941, were inhabitants of Estonia. But the NKVD statistics is obviously false. For example, in 1940 were executed much more than 1863 men, because only in April and May 21.7 thousand Poles, both military and civilian, were killed at Katyn and other places, without any trial, under sentences of administrative three. It may be suggested that the 1863 executed were executed under court sentences, and the others, executed in administrative orders, were not covered by this figure. But the Estonian historians, by the way, stressed, that many victims of the Soviet terror of 1940-41 were killed without any trial (Tannberg Tonu et al. History of Estonia, Tallinn, Avita, 1997, p. 267-268).

It should be stressed that both Russian and foreign historians cannot freely work with NKVD and NKGB documents, because FSB archives remain confidential.

All the mentioned books are primarily based on the materials of the Soviet State Emergency Commission on investigation and establishment of crimes of German-fascist aggressors and their accessories. But this Commission  , as commonly known, falsified many cases of crimes , having an aim to attribute to the Germans and their collaborationists the Soviet crimes of the pre-war period , the arrested political prisoners, killed by the NKVD during retreat in 1941, and also the victims of fighting activities in 1941-1945, including those, who was killed by Soviet bombs and shells. The Katyn is the most bright example.

In 1941 from the NKVD prisons of the occupied regions were evacuated 141,527 prisoners, including 3,722 from Latvia, 1,363 from Lithuania and 4,047 from Estonia. 9817 prisoners were shot in the prisons, 1443 were shot in the process of evacuation, 59 were killed for an attempt of escape, 23 were killed by German bombs and 1057 died from the other causes (http://www.pseudology.org/GULAG/Glava09.htm). Taking into account the whole number of prisoners and the number of prisoners in the prisons of the Baltic states, the whole number of short prisoners from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia may be estimated as minimum at about 730 prisoners. Besides that, some Lithuanian prisoners just before the war were evacuated to the Byelorussian prisoners and many of them were killed during the evacuation (http://www.belgazeta.by/20070430.17/530344991).

The Soviet Emergency Commission also tried maximally exaggerated number and volume of crimes, committed by Germans and their collaborationists. Some of its documents are quite fantastic. For example, one of them is testimony of a Wehrmacht corporal Le Curte, which stated, that when he and his comrades set fire to a Russian village, he warned the inhabitants they should stay at their houses, because those houses would be burnt (The Nuremberg trial, Vol. 5, Moscow, 1991. P. 99). Such idiotic idea may be dictated by an NKVD investigator.

It also should stressed that, using materials of the Soviet Emergency Commission, there is difficult to find out the real belonging of the German soldiers and collaborationists to the concrete units of SS , Wehrmacht and police. What is why in many cases it is very difficult to say, which collaborationists took part in concrete crimes, were they soldiers of Latvian and Estonian SS legions, members of police formations or SD parties. Some SD members after the war were convicted for their activities. For example, Latvian Viktor Aryse, Commander of SD party, the so-called “Aryse party, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1979 by the Hamburg Court (Blejere Dajna et al. History of Latvia. 20^th Centyry. P. 262).

Most of documents in mentioned collections are devoted to holocaust and look like as very reliable. There are many members of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian police formations, taking active part in these actions, but not the soldiers of Latvian and Estonian SS legions. Some police battalions were later included in the legions, but in such cases an individual responsibility of some legionaries, but not the responsibility of the legions as a whole. The most of crimes against humanity were committed by several hundreds members of SD parties which were included into legions only in 1944.

Most of the Russian population consider now that the states of Baltia were not occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. There are some interesting polls, illustrated this trend. Under Levada-centre’s poll, in 2006 only 4% of respondents think that the events of 1940 were definitely occupation, and 11% - more likely occupation than something else. At the same time, 36% of respondents think that there was no Soviet occupation of Baltia at all, and 33% - more likely the events of 1940 were not a Soviet occupation. In the period of 2005-2007 the percent of respondents, thinking , that the joining of the Baltic states to the Soviet Union was a result of free- will of their peoples, grew from 31 till 37. At the same time, the per cent of those, who think, that the joining was a result of Soviet pressure, declined from 29 to 26. In 2005 17% of respondents thought that the joining of Baltic states was a result of secret agreements between Stalin and Hitler. In 2007 this figure declined to 12%. In 2005 only 12% of respondents were ready to make excuses for the Soviet occupation of Baltia, in 2006 – 5% and in 2007 – 10%. At the same time, 71 % of respondents were against such excuses in 2005, 70% - in 2006 and 72% - in 2007. This is the result of state propaganda, aiming to discharge Soviet actions in The Baltic states during the Second World War. And in 2007 39% of respondents were sure that Russia in conflict with Estonia about the Bronze Soldier had looked noble and only 9% considered that Russia looked malicious and vindictive. But at the same time only 33% of respondents thought that Russia in this conflict had been strong and self-confident, while 35% thought that Russia was weak and not sure in its own strength (http://www.levada.ru/press/2007091704.html). The Russian public opinion now even criticises the authorities for not enough resolution in realization of Imperial policy. That is the consequence of both the state-organized propaganda and the people’s nostalgia about the great power – the Soviet Union and the stability of life in the Brezhnev epoch.

The Russian authorities continue to deny the fact of the Soviet occupation of Baltia in 1940 and after 1944-1945. Yet in May 2005 Putin’s assistant Sergey Yastrzhembskij officially stated, that the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states “is out of the question” (Profile, # 17, 9 May 2007, http://www.profile.ru/items/?item=11451). President Vladimir Putin at the meeting with the members of European Jew Congress on 10 October 2007 states that the Latvian and Estonian authorities show indulgence to representation of Nazis and their abettors-chastisers as heroes”. He compared this situation with the denial of holocaust which treated as a crime in many European countries (http://www.korrespondent.net/main/211401). By the way, here Putin simply repeated the words from the preface to the collection of documents “Estonia: the bloody trail of Nazism”: “The official persons of the Estonian Republic also take active part in the process of representing Nazi criminals as heroes” (in both cases the Russian word “Geroizatsija” was used) But the authorities of the states of Baltia have never tried to rehabilitate both the Nazis and the Estonians, who committed military or humanity crimes. They  allowed the meetings of veterans of SS legions, who really made no crimes.

The Russian historians of patriotic orientation argue the thesis that there was no Soviet occupation of the Baltic states by the figures of the growth of industrial output of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and liquidation of unemployment in the first year of the Soviet rule (Emeljanov Jurij. The Baltic states in the Second World War // Nash Sovremennik, 2007, # 6 (http://www.nash-sovremennik.ru/p.php?y=2007&n=6&id=2). After the Soviet occupation the works, which had been closed due to the war and crisis, were reopened. But the confiscation monetary reform, as well as the growing deficit of goods due to the liquidation of market economy, caused a mass dissatisfaction. And the main cause of dissatisfaction was, of course, abolition of national independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Jurij Emeljanov states: “Modern profaners of Soviet warriors’ tombs try to liquidate the memory about the Victory of the Soviet people over Hitlerism, which saved the Baltic peoples from enslavement and destruction” (Ibid.). But the transition of remains of Soviet warriors from one Tallinn cemetery to the other one could not be considered as an act of profanation.