The USSR occupied Eastern Europe and called it “liberation” – Russia repeats crime in Ukraine | Sergei Lebedev

WI often hear that Russia is inability or unwillingness to deal with the crimes of his past that have led to the restoration of tyranny and military aggression that we are now seeing. Such a story usually only focuses on internal Soviet acts: forced collectivization, the great terror of the 1930s, the Gulag system and so on. Some of these things were nominally recognized as crimes, but no attempt was made to hold the perpetrators into account. Russia's Perestroika democrats were generally against the transitional judiciary.

However, the most politically sensitive Soviet crime is almost always left out of the discussion. And Russia's failure to tackle this special crime is far more dangerous and influences the fate of many nations.

This crime is the Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe, which lasted for decades and led to many dead and arrest, the destruction of social and cultural life and the refusal to freedom. The injustice was immense.

In internal Soviet crimes that were impunity, at least legally recognized and their victims were reminded. External aggression and work were not. Even Russian dissidents and liberals never risk awakening the problem.

For this reason, there are two concepts of memory and history in relation to Central and Eastern Europe that cannot normally coexist that conflict and contradict each other. You are completely against; They cannot be reconciled with diplomacy: Soviet liberation Against Soviet crew.

It was only when the Soviet troops finally retired from East and Central Europe 45 years after the end of the Second World War did the real liberation came when the Soviet Union collapsed and the occupied nations found their way to independence. However, it was easier to restore or establish statehood and independence than to achieve the sovereignty of historical memory.

The progressive image of The Soviet Union in its last days, the great hopes of the moment, protected Moscow from serious criticism and accusations in connection with the occupation of Eastern Europe. This reluctance was the result of a trust or perhaps only for pragmatism – the desire not to irritate Moscow and undermine his good will in order not to burden the losers of the Cold War too much. The most important protection that Moscow enjoyed was of course based on the status that it was victorious through National Socialism.

As a self -proclaimed successor state of the USSR, Russia has built its international political profile on the myth of the Soviet liberation, which provides moral capital and prescribes gratitude for their “liberation” from Nazism to the former professional areas.

Yes, the Soviet losses were real. And yet it is really tragic that these losses have contributed to submitting nations that longed for freedom and replace a dictatorship with another. The Soviet soldier, who is still reminiscent of Statues, which is still reminiscent of the landscape of Europe from Berlin to Sofia, was not a liberator. He was a Versklasser. And no blood casts of the Soviets to defeat the Nazis can excuse the Soviets' own role as occupiers.

It is no coincidence that the Soviets do not only recognize the existence of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. In modern Russia, equivalence between the roles of the USSR and the Nazis is criminalized. In 1939 and 1940 the Soviet Union Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as parts of Poland, Finland and Romania occupied. For 22 months it was a loyal ally of the Nazi Germany. This first wave of Soviet crews can in no way be camouflaged as a “fight against National Socialism”: it revealed the real intentions of the Soviets. What followed was indeed a geographically expanded re -development. This was a separate goal of the war, not necessarily connected to the one to defeat the Nazis.

Unfortunately, the understanding of the Soviet occupation as a crime has not become an integral part of modern European history. It is geographically limited to the east, blurred, insufficiently represented; It is part of the stories of individual nations, but it does not form a powerful international narrative that is shared through the continent. However, this understanding has a profound influence on modern European life and is the key to European security. Only when you fully grasp the cruelty and consequences of the Soviet crew can you understand the concerns of the closest neighbors of Russia, your historically grounded fears and your need for security.

The eastern regions of Ukraine are now occupied by Russian troops. For the first time since 1989, large areas of the European continent in which millions of people live have been under the control of a penetrating state. But it seems that too many Europeans have already forgotten what profession means.

Russian citizenship is imposed. In fact, this is a mass instruction program, since those who do not agree to treat and are forced as foreigners. Russia follows the same path as the USSR, for example, in relation to the Baltic States to rusify The conquered region reorganized its national composition and makes it part of her state.

Ownership is confiscated and redistributed. “Settlers” are introduced to form the backbone of the occupation regime. The politics of memory is reversed, monuments that mark Soviet crimes disappear, streets are returned as a symbol of Russian rule. All of this is part of an attack on national identity, an attempt to extinguish it.

The Russian security services extensively use filtration techniques, and anyone who is classified as politically unreliable can be detained. Heavy torture and sexualized violence are widespread. The Ukrainian prisoners of war, which were released from captivity, report on the same torture, abuse and intentional malnutrition to break them physically and mentally.

Everyone who knows the story behind the iron curtain recognizes the pattern immediately. All of this was a dark reality for Poland and Lithuania, East Germany and Romania and others. Mass shifts, the brutal rule of the secret police, the withdrawal of property and civil rights … but it never became a real stigma for the USSR or later Russia. It never became something that is ashamed of a nation, something that demands justice and punishment, recognition and cheese.

And here we are are now: the occupier is back. And the occupier learns the war just like the Soviets.

Vladimir Putin's army has a gruesome advantage over western armies that have strongly invested in keeping their staff out of their way. It can maintain losses that would be absolutely unacceptable for each western country. But it is also technically advanced enough to counteract western military technologies.

Western science was the first to minimize the participation of troops on the ground and use machines for new tasks. Putin's army, which also uses real drones, also contradicts people. It has made soldiers in dispensing disposable units.

With the full invasion of Russia, we have entered the era of global moral climate change. Just as an earthquake all over the world can affect or a single volcanic eruption can pollute the sky over several continents, Russia's aggression changes the political climate worldwide.

This is another very real, but not yet fully recognized result of the war. It may be the most common results. Since thousands of troops were sent in the fight and killed by Ukrainians who defend themselves, Putin not only gets a few Ukrainian territories, but also erodes the political landscape worldwide, disturbs alliances, exhausts the patience of voters in the NATO countries and drags us into hell of moral relativism.

What can be done about it?

The western and southwestern Europe, which was never exposed to the reality of the Soviet occupation, must now hear the voices of those who have experienced first -hand.

It is difficult to say whether Russia will soon be held accountable for its crimes against Ukraine. In order to build a future at all, a real future, it will be of the greatest importance to develop a cultural and historical concept that opposes the attempt to separate and rule the attempt to separate and rule.

On the initiative of Václav Havel, Joachim Gauck and other prominent former dissidents, August 23, the date of signing the Molotov RibbenTrop pact is the day of EU memory to victims of Stalinism and Nazism or Black Ribbontag. The understanding of the meaning of this day could and should be deepened in order to involve a broader perspective on Russian imperialism, which was part of the Soviet communist policy, but survived.

We have to focus on this day in the focus of a long-term and coordinated memory policy in order to include existing institutions such as ENRS to the strength of the European network and solidarity, which mainly includes Eastern European countries. We also have to build new ones on continents and counteract both left -wing and right -wing stories that continue to make excuses for Russia.

The USSR collapsed because its artificial unity was enforced by violence and oppression. The perseverance of the EU depends on the persistence of its voluntary unit. But unit is not a matter of course. It is a product of mutual knowledge and compassion of many cultural bridges that combine people.

It's time to start building.

This article is adapted from the writer's closing address Helsinki debate about Europe1May 8, 2025