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

Q: In Germany there is a strong feeling of collective guilt. You don’t
see that in Russia. The trend is in the opposite direction even:
Stalin is presented as a saviour of the country in World War II.
Why, in the light of the terrible crimes committed, are the Germans
so sensitive, to talk about their guilt and even emphasize it, while
the Russians do that much less?
Very simple, the Germans were defeated and the ideology which
fired the Holocaust and other atrocities was completely discredited
because it led to the defeat and death of millions of Germans.
On top of that, the German population was re-educated. This College,
Saint Anthony’s, was actually founded by a group of British intelligence
officers who had developed the re-education campaign
for Germany. In Russia – not the Soviet Union – the Stalinist ideology
was victorious. It was the greatest source of pride they had
ever had.
Q: Even though Khrushchev undermined that ‘glorious’ image?
Khrushchev’s criticism was only a minor setback for this huge reservoir
of pride in victory. The other factor is there has never been any
form of re-education. The average Russian is completely unreconstructed
in terms of history. It is part of the background of the huge
problems in Eastern Europe where the Russians are still actively
propagating their Stalinist history. In Estonia and the other Baltic
States they still vividly experience this. Look at the question of war
memorials. Should one regard a war memorial to the Soviet liberators
as a source of pride? Since Stalin took away a quarter of the
population of Estonia they are not very keen on having a tribute to
the Soviet liberators. When the Estonians moved the memorial in
the spring of 2007 – mind you, they didn’t destroy it, but moved it
politely and with respect from the central square of Tallinn to the
cemetery – the entire computer system of the Estonian government
was paralyzed next day by ‘unknown’ cyber forces. It was a plain reminder
of its large neighbour’s looming presence.
Q: The totalitarian interpretation of twentieth century history asserts
Hitler was a one off phenomenon: he was responsible, as
was Stalin, while the general population was not guilty. So the horrors
of Nazism and Stalinism were not rooted in German and Russian
societies. A different historical interpretation says that these
regimes grew out of a societal trend to conclude that much broader
51 Norman Davies