Latvia: Still Haunted By Soviet Past

RFERL ^ | August 16, 2006 | Claire Bigg

[sergey1973]

RIGA, August 16, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- August 21 marks the 15th anniversary of Latvia declaring full independence from the Soviet Union, after the failed coup attempt in Moscow a few days earlier. Since then Latvia has gone from strength to strength, joining the European Union and NATO in 2004.

"June 17, 1940, the Soviets came in, and in 1941, the Germans came in and pushed back the Soviets," says Oskars Gruzins, a young guide at the Museum of Occupation in the heart of old Riga, as he shows tourists a large map of Latvia. "After the Germans were defeated, the Russians took the Baltic countries once again and we were occupied until 1991."

Running his fingers along the lines crisscrossing the small Baltic country, he's showing them the different stages of Latvia's occupation.

[sergey1973]

Russia & Eurasia Ping List

---

Please FRMail me if you want to be added or removed from the Russia & Eurasia Ping list.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[lizol]

Eastern European ping list

---

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

[annalex]

Not to distract from the Latvia article, but the sidebar at source contains comments by Gorbachev and Sergei Khruschev about Nikita Khruschev's speech of 1956 denouncing Stalinism. Worth reading.

"we were all wrong about that"

[varon]

BTTT

[annalex]

little hope of seeing Russia offer words of apology, let alone reparations

Then the Russians wonder why NATO is welcomed at their door.

[RoadTest]

The people who have lived under (way under) Communism make GREAT free people when they get a chance.

Oh, that the Iranian, Cuban and North Korean people might be set free!

[DTA]

>>>>>>>>Latvia: Still Haunted By Soviet Past<<<<<<<

Haunted by Soviet past, but Latvian Nazi past is fondly remembered and Nazi mass murderers of Jews are publicly celebrated

What

[GarySpFc]

Then the Russians wonder why NATO is welcomed at their door.

No, they are angry, because they were promised NATO would not go into the countries bordering Russia.

[annalex]

Here's someone else who is angry, and for a better reason.

[Ciexyz]

Kudos to our Latvian friends.

[Alex-DV]

Who is that guy?

[annalex]

Check the article at source.

[sergey1973]

Yes, I've read it--thanks alex for pointing this out. The tragedy is that 1956 revelation of Stalin cult did not go far enough in condemning Communism as a ideological and political system. It's no surprise since Kruschev himself was a communist who thought Stalin crimes only as Stalin abuses--not the logical result of Communist ideology.

[annalex]

It also concentrated on the ideological error of the "cult of personality" rather than on the actual crime against justice that it was; and it dwelled on the repression of fellow communists (who often were themselves among the criminals) while glossing over the mass murder of the true innocents, such as the kulaks.