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Estonia’s hatred of everything Soviet is ‘demonic in nature,’ Bishop Ryakhovsky says
Interfax ^ | 18 January 2007

Posted on 01/18/2007 3:11:33 PM PST by lizol

Estonia’s hatred of everything Soviet is ‘demonic in nature,’ Bishop Ryakhovsky says

Moscow, January 18, Interfax - The Russian Pentecostal leader Bishop Sergey Ryakhovsky called Estonian authorities’ decision to demolish the Liberator Soldier Monument and to re-bury the soldiers killed in battles for Estonia’s liberation from the Fascist occupation ‘a shameful act’.

‘What people can be troubled by the soldiers, who can no longer do or say anything to resist having their good names and feats humiliated and disgraced? Is it possible that they descend from those, whom Soviet soldiers saved from the SS gas chambers?’ he asks in his article published by the Pentecostals’ website on Wednesday.

He noted that the ‘shameful act’ of re-burial rather ‘looks like paltry revenge from those, who are too feeble to hurt the living ones, so they turn against those, who either cannot resist or are virtually defenseless.’

Ryakhovsky noted that under the ‘Third Reich’ thousands of Estonian citizens, first of all Jews, were doomed to be exterminated by the Nazis, ‘and it was only the Soviet troops who managed to prevent the overall slaughter.’

‘Today the Soviet Soldier Monument is rather a memorial of the struggle against the Nazis and no longer a symbol of the imperialist policy of the state that no longer exists,’ he added.

The Pentecostal leader said he regretted that there were some signs that Estonia already became a successor of the Nazi Germany and forgot its Christian roots.

He thinks one of those signs is ‘humiliation of the Russian-speaking “non-citizens”, which became a gloomy reality in the Estonia of today.’

‘Simple men and women had the ground taken from under their feet; they were publicly marginalized and made pass through tribulations and disgrace in order to obtain citizenship. All these look but paltry revenge, a demonic trick that most countries, even tyrant-headed ones, would consider too ignoble for themselves.

The Fascists lost the war in 1945 and now they are trying to gain their revenge by ‘demolishing the victors’ voiceless memorials,’ he said.

‘I am sure that the ‘war’ on memorials will end in a defeat of the attackers because they in fact are fighting not against bronze or stone statues, but against their own memory. If a nation losses its memory, it will loose itself after all,’ the bishop concluded.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: estonia; russia; soviet; sovietunion

1 posted on 01/18/2007 3:11:39 PM PST by lizol
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To: lizol

And Stalin was an Angel!


2 posted on 01/18/2007 3:13:39 PM PST by unkus
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To: MomwithHope; sidegunner; outofstyle; quesney; Brad's Gramma; OriginalChristian; Huber; ...
Eastern European ping list


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

3 posted on 01/18/2007 3:15:27 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
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To: lizol
What people can be troubled by the soldiers, who can no longer do or say anything to resist having their good names and feats humiliated and disgraced? Ryako - Some are trying to do somewhat the same thing in Austin with Robert E. Lee
4 posted on 01/18/2007 3:18:23 PM PST by SF Republican
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To: strategofr; GSlob; spanalot; Thunder90; Tailgunner Joe; propertius; REactor; twinself; ...

Ping


5 posted on 01/18/2007 3:18:27 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
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To: lizol

If Estonia had been conquered by the Nazis and then given it's freedom in 1945, it would have been free in 1945. The way things happened, they had to wait an extra 45 years for freedom.

So in Estonian eyes, that monument is a monument to 45 extra years of slavery.


6 posted on 01/18/2007 3:20:21 PM PST by samtheman
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To: lizol

The good bishop should be sent to a GULAG "point", for that's where he and his ilk belong. The Balts could even organize a camp or two on these lines specifically for the purpose.


7 posted on 01/18/2007 3:28:20 PM PST by GSlob
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To: lizol

Could it be said that Bishop Ryakhovsky ’s love of everything Soviet is ‘demonic in nature’?


8 posted on 01/18/2007 3:30:00 PM PST by TBP
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To: lizol
Seems like he could have expressed himself differently and aroused less antagonism.

Wouldn't any Russian Pentacostalist bishop (do Pentacostalists have bishops?) worth his salt find enough that's demonic in Sovietism to phrase his idea in another way?

9 posted on 01/18/2007 3:32:49 PM PST by x
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To: x
(do Pentacostalists have bishops?)

Some do. It depends on the organization.

10 posted on 01/18/2007 3:35:15 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (We must have faith For when it is all said and done, Faith manages. And the impossible is achieved)
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To: lizol

The only reason the soviets "liberated" anybody from the nazis was to enslave them to communism.


11 posted on 01/18/2007 4:03:54 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: lizol
‘and it was only the Soviet troops who managed to prevent the overall slaughter.’

Yeah, but only to pave the way for yet another slaughter.

12 posted on 01/18/2007 4:09:54 PM PST by curiosity
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To: lizol

Soviet is ‘demonic in nature,’


13 posted on 01/18/2007 4:30:30 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: lizol

The Russian Orthodox Church continues its collaboration.


14 posted on 01/18/2007 7:21:46 PM PST by rmlew (Having slit their throats may the conservatives who voted for Casey choke slowly on their blood.)
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To: rmlew
If the story is reported correctly, the bishop in question is not part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Soviets killed large numbers of Latvians and Lithuanians. I don't know the details about Estonia, but I would guess their experience was similar.

Estonia was occupied by Stalin in 1940, overrun by the Germans in 1941, then re-occupied by the Soviets near the end of the war. "Liberation" would have been restoring their independence, not resubjugating them to a different version of totalitarianism.

15 posted on 01/18/2007 7:33:10 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus
If the story is reported correctly, the bishop in question is not part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Sorry, you are correct. This was a Pentecostal. I misread the story. I also thought that Pentecostalism was not a recognized denomination in Russia.

The Soviets killed large numbers of Latvians and Lithuanians. I don't know the details about Estonia, but I would guess their experience was similar
The Communists liquidated political opponents in every country they invaded. The Red Army was also none too discriminating. And I'm not even going to go into the pervasive war crimes promoted by the political commissars.

Estonia was occupied by Stalin in 1940, overrun by the Germans in 1941, then re-occupied by the Soviets near the end of the war. "Liberation" would have been restoring their independence, not resubjugating them to a different version of totalitarianism.
The crimes of communism have never been prosecuted in most of the former USSR. The president of Russia is a KGB aparatchik.

16 posted on 01/18/2007 7:48:49 PM PST by rmlew (Having slit their throats may the conservatives who voted for Casey choke slowly on their blood.)
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To: lizol
So according to this guy hatred of mass murder, secret police, and gulags is demonic?? I would think that love of these things would be demonic.
17 posted on 01/19/2007 1:52:33 PM PST by G8 Diplomat
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To: lizol

This never-ending nonsense about liberation by the Red Army.
Too bad they forgot to go home after the liberation.


18 posted on 01/19/2007 1:53:13 PM PST by vahet pole
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To: lizol

Thanks...bump


19 posted on 01/19/2007 11:56:59 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (Pray for peace, but prepare for the worst disaster. Protect your loved ones.)
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