Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

everything on Stalin and communism: “At Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam
Stalin was not alone, he was there with the leaders of the main
Western Allies. They all, by mutual agreement, took the decisions
that resulted in the situation that arose in Europe, and they were all
responsible for the suffering that many people endured as a result
of those decisions. All of them. Stalin and the others and as far as
Spain is concerned, the others even more than Stalin.”
The debate will continue, but let us consider here the recommendations
of Wim van Meurs: “In the first place, it is essential to distinguish
between nations on the one hand and democracy on the
other, both as objective and as norm. By implying that what is good
for the nation must also be good for democracy or that the nation
takes precedence over democratic values, moral contradictions
arise, for instance the apparent need to justify Nazi collaboration
for the sake of the nation. Secondly, it is necessary to promote understanding
for the peculiarity of the double dictatorial legacy in
the new member states in the public debate in Western Europe
and to counter Western prejudices of alleged fascist sympathies
and irrational anti-Russian sentiments in Eastern Europe. Thirdly,
we need to avoid confusing the nostalgia of the last generation of
war veterans and ideological outbursts of neo-fascism and national
Bolshevism among the younger generations. Finally, middle ground
has to be found between the implicit condemnation of an entire nation
on the basis of the past strength of and support for totalitarian
movements in a country on the one hand, and national amnesia
claiming that fascist and communist leanings had always been alien
to the democratic national character on the other.”
Bronisław Geremek wrote that while enormous progress has been
made in unifying East and West in institutional and economic terms,
the unification of memory still has to happen. This problem cannot
just be treated as an element of our cultural diversity because common
memory is the foundation of a feeling of shared identity.
Finally, it is interesting to have a look at the contradictory experiences
of Germany and modern Russia. While the Germans have
dealt extensively with and recognized their terrible past, the Russians
have done this to a much lesser extent. The most plausible explanation
is that Hitler was totally defeated and Stalin not. He was
the victor and the communist system, albeit in a different form,
survived him. This, however, does not justify historical amnesia.
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