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Latest update: 06/11/2012
- communism - Estonia - Europe - Far-right - Lithuania - Ukraine
Timothy Snyder, Professor of History, Yale University
Far right movements are on the rise in central and eastern Europe. The nationalist party Svoboda has just enjoyed a breakthrough in the Ukrainian elections. How do these movements exploit old memories of Communist oppression for political gains? And what would it take to write a national history that rises above the narrative of victimhood? Yale University historian Timothy Snyder explains.
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I just finished writing a
I just finished writing a long commentary on the interview of Timothy Snyder.I could not send it so after the long required registration my message disappeared.Thanks a lot for bureaucracy!In any case the interviewer should read up on the subjects that he is going to cover. Thus his expressed "shock" at the Latvian SS veterans marching this Spring in Riga is totally unwarranted.First,the Latvian Legion as it is called in Latvia,held mostly 18-20 year olds dragooned against their will to fight on the Eastern front against the Soviet Red Army.They were not involved in the killing of Jews or other civilians. Indeed, the Legion was formed in 1943,several years after the Nazis had exterminated all Jews in Latvia.Just out of curiosity is the interviewer equally shocked that the Red Army veterans remember their own fallen comrades or that they still idolize Stalin?
Timothy Snyder provides a
Timothy Snyder provides a good overview of the "Bloodlands" in Eastern Europe, outlining their actual historical experience of the Nazi and Soviet killings, in contrast to most Western symbolic perceptions of these two totalitarian regimes.I just want to question the interviewers seemingly shocked announcement that Latvian SS veterans were allowed to parade in Riga this year.I think it would help him gain more factual perspective if he spent some time reading up on the history on the Latvian Waffen SS.These mostly young [18-20 year olds] were dragooned into military service against international law by the Nazi occupiers.They were not involved in the killing of Jews or other civilians but were stationed in the Eastern front fighting the Soviet Red Army.Indeed,the Latvian Legion, as it is currently called, was created only in 1943,several years after the Nazis had exterminated Latvia's Jews.