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

eference to a common destiny, and to the victories and defeats
that have marked people’s memories.
We need to be aware that recent history – that of the 20 th century
– is a divisive factor. Take the example of the Great War, which
constantly recurs in family stories, local places of remembrance, literature
and tradition. For the British, French and Germans, it is a
traumatic memory. Paradoxically, Verdun brings together the former
enemies in remembrance of that shared massacre and lessons
about the stupidity of war. The Dutch writer Geert Mak, in his major
book on 20 th century Europe, has painted an arresting picture of
Verdun as a place of remembrance. In the moral crisis that followed
the 1914-1918 war, François Furet saw the origin of the two ideologies
and the two totalitarian systems. But for most of the Central
European countries, that war is primarily associated with the
birth (or rebirth) of national sovereign states. The Poles, deprived of
their national independence throughout the 19 th century, fought on
all fronts and in all camps, but at the end of the war regained their
national independence. The federal states such as Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia emerged at the same time. The destiny of the
European people was perhaps a common one, but their memory is
not: there is a substantial split.
It is the same with the Second World War. For Western Europe,
this war was primarily an epic confrontation between Nazi Germany
and the Allies, who included the USSR. For the countries of Central
Europe, the Red Army remains primarily an invader, acting within
the framework of the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreements. For Poland,
the start of the war was marked by the invasion by Nazi Germany
on 1 September 1939 and by the Red Army on 17 September the
same year. And shortly afterwards by Katyn. For the three Baltic
States, the start of the war meant the Soviet invasion, followed by
their forced incorporation into the USSR. It is not surprising that
the memory of these countries is marked by these events – and
western Europeans know little, if anything, about them.
The work of European integration achieved in the second half of
the 20 th century is admirable. But at the same time, to the east of
the Elbe, the subordination of other European peoples by a totalitarian
empire continued. From the Berlin uprising in 1953 to the
explosion of freedom in 1989, resistance to a regime imposed from
37 Bronisław Geremek