Posted on 05/06/2005 5:14:29 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Though Russia did need to gain their own victory against their aggressors at that time, they took the opportunity to then oppress and take over other lands as was attempted by them.
WW2 marked for them the beginning of when they became a version of Hitler with their own behavior on many other countries IMO.
Lithuania thinks the EU is just like Communism.
Socialism for sure, a little totalitarianism, maybe...
Communism, nope, that's far worse.
"Though Russia did need to gain their own victory against their aggressors at that time, they took the opportunity to then oppress and take over other lands as was attempted by them.
WW2 marked for them the beginning of when they became a version of Hitler with their own behavior on many other countries IMO."
Good sentiment but as a mater of fact, the Kremlin had liquidated 12 million between 1921 and the rise of Hitler. And Hitlers rise was possible only because of hysteria in
Germany to the liquidation of hundreds of thousands of Mennonites by the Kremlin.
http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/soviet_articles/holodomor_letters.htm
What is it about people who say, "I have already apologized and refuse to do so again" when they have never really apologized at all?
My coworker is from there. She says nothing has really changed....I asked he why it costs 60 cents a minute to call Lithuania and 10 cents a minute to call Moscow...that extra 50 cents is a tax going into someones pocket.
She would rather be broke in Santa Monica than be back in Lithuania....she lent her sister $2500 to buy a house...her family is always calling her asking for $$$...I feel sorry for her.
I kinda wish Bush wasn't going to Russia to celebrate V-E Day with Putin. Let's hope there are no more embarassing comments about "looking into his soul." Or was it his eyes? Whatever.
The guy has always looked like a creep to me. Once KGB always KGB. He wants to be dictator & is well on his way to being one. He's made the situation in Chechnya worse than it ever had to be, on the excuse of the war on terror, and because he invoked the war on terror we've let him get away with it. I still think he is behind the poisoning of the Ukrainian president. And a day before the US president is due to arrive, the creep insults the US by telling us to "look to our own democracy."
Once again, WHY is Bush going there?????
The article mentions an open letter by Vaclav Havel and others. Is there any link to the text of it?
I haven't seen it.
"...WW2 marked for them the beginning of when they became a version of Hitler..."
True, except that they were even worse than Hitler.
Tyrants are the same no matter what name you give them.
So true, and we have an article where Russia is having trouble saying Stalin was like Hitler posted here in FR.
I know it is painful for them to acknowledge their past as the bad guys, but when everyone else knows, what's the supposed big secret they think they are going to hide?
Actially, it's more of a note than a letter...
Hmm... inappropriate. Havel is a serious man, and is deeply respected.
Bet they(the Soviets) wouldn't have had such a hard time if Stalin hadn't killed almost 20 million of his own people.
I think it's highly unlikely that this or any Russian president will go around in sack-cloth, with ashes on his forehead, begging the forgiveness of every postage-stamp sized country that an ethnic Georgian dictator brutalized 3 generations ago.
What worries me is the here and now.
My apologies for the use of language some FReepers might be unfamiliar with. Here is the translation:
The book title : "Yawning Heights"
The two-liner from it:
"I'm proud of the [sh*t] pile I'm sitting in,
And I am licking my own derriere"
But, to repeat, wasn't the renaming of cities and streets a repudiation of the Soviet past? Does Russia have the temperament and resources to do like Germany, and pay reparations? You know better than most how difficult it is for the Slav to admit a mistake. They can survive any hardship, except for embarassment.
It would be nice if every Stalin and Lenin statue got pulled down, but Putin is president of Russia, not the US. He has a Russian electorate to please, not a Lithuanian one. Those starpyory vote en masse, and still like to wave those things every May and November.
When I was in Czechia, I kept mixing up radnica (Czech for city hall) with zadnica. But that was the least of my worries ;-)
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