The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) resolved on Wednesday that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany share the blame for starting World War II. Russia, which lost over 20 million people during the war, is up in arms.
Among the 28 resolutions passed by the 18th Annual Session of the OSCE in Vilnius, Lithuania last week is one laying equal condemnation on both Stalinism and fascism for starting World War Two. Both of them brought about genocide and crimes against humanity, according to the Lithuania- and Slovenia-proposed resolution entitled “Reunification of Divided Europe.” The overwhelming vote of parliamentarians from over 50 OSCE countries was 201-8, with 4 abstentions; Russian delegates walked out in anger.
Angry Russia Threatens
"This is nothing but an attempt to re-write the history of World War Two," said Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the foreign relations committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, according to Interfax news agency. "The reaction of the parliament to this document will be immediate and it will be harsh."
The OSCE resolution calls for a day of remembrance for victims of both Stalinism and Nazism – and the chosen date is August 23, the date in 1939 when Nazi Germany and Stalin-led Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact. Just a few days later, Germany attacked and conquered Poland, thus beginning World War II; Germany violated its treaty with Russia two years later when it attacked the Soviets.
Thesis: Soviets Goaded Hitler into War With Europe
The thesis has been proposed that the Soviets signed the agreement with Germany in order to ensure that Hitler would launch his war in Europe, which the Soviets believed would pave the way for bringing Communism into Europe.
“The USSR destroyed more people than Hitler,” Georgian MP Georgy Kandelaki said during the pre-vote debate. “Russia occupied my country in 1921, and now [Russian] President Medvedev has created a special commission to glorify criminals.”
An “insulting anti-Russian attack,” Aleksandr Kozlovsky, the head of Russia’s delegation to the OSCE, called the resolution. “Those who put Stalinism on the same scale as Nazism are forgetting that the Soviet Union suffered the most casualties and made the biggest contribution to Europe’s liberation from Nazism.”
Mikhail Margelov, Chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “Using humanist ideas as a cover, [people with historical complexes] attempt to put Russia and Germany on the same level and blame Russia for all the mistakes of Stalin’s regime.”
Anti-Stalinism More Than Anti-Semitism
Prof. Judy Baumel-Schwartz, a Holocaust historian at Bar-Ilan University, played down the significance of the resolution. “This is just a re-hash of a German position of 20 years ago," she told Israel National News, "in which the Germans tried to rid themselves of guilt by saying that Hitler had merely copied Stalin's tactics of the 1930's... By playing down the Nazis, there is an element of anti-Semitism, but in truth it's really anti-Stalinism."
Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to attend events in Poland this September commemorating the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II – but the resolution puts the visit in jeopardy. In addition, some former Soviet republics may demand compensation from Russia, which some consider the Soviet Union’s successor, for the Soviet occupation of their countries.
The OSCE, the world’s largest security organization, was formed in 1972, with the aim of preventing conflict in Europe, Asia and the Caucasus.