[extropy-chat] Redefining the word 'liberation'

[Amara Graps]

There was an interesting political to-do in the Baltics when I
visited Riga and Tallinn last month. The Baltic presidents were
invited to Putin's Moscow May 2005 celebration of the defeat of
the Nazis in World War Two. The politicians in the Baltics had
decided to make a united stand/statement against such an ironic
event, and to refuse the invitation. Then the Latvian present
thought better, and choose to accept the invitation. She decided
that she could use the event to make a statement of her own.

Amara


Vike-Freiberga: ‘I’ll go to Moscow’
http://www.baltictimes.com/art.php?art_id=11770


See this link for her whole speech for her (timely) statement
http://halldor2.blogspot.com/2005/01/latvian-presidents-statement.html

I've shown part of her speech below.

<begin quote>

Latvia, together with the rest of Europe, rejoices at the defeat
of Nazi Germany and its fascist regime in May of 1945. However,
unlike the case in Western Europe, the fall of the hated Nazi
German empire did not result in my country's liberation. Instead,
the three Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were
subject to another brutal occupation by another foreign,
totalitarian empire, that of the Soviet Union.

For five long decades, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were erased
from the map of Europe. Under the Soviet rule, the three Baltic
countries experienced mass deportations and killings, the loss of
their freedom, and the influx of millions of Russian-speaking
settlers.

On May the 9th of this year, Europe's leaders will meet in
Moscow. This is the date when Russia traditionally pays tribute
to the millions of Russians who died during the Second World War,
and celebrates its costly victory over Nazi Germany.

As the President of a country that subsequently suffered greatly
under the Soviet rule, I feel obliged to remind the world at
large that humanity's most devastating conflict might not have
occurred, had the two totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and
Soviet Union not agreed to secretly divide the territories of
Eastern Europe amongst themselves. I am referring to the shameful
agreement signed on August 23rd of 1939 by the foreign ministers
of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Vyatcheslav Molotov and
Joachim von Ribbentrop.

A week-and-a-half later, as a direct result of this disgraceful
pact's secret supplementary protocols, Hitler invaded Poland and
started the Second World War. The Soviet Union then occupied the
eastern half of Poland, with Hitler's full compliance, and
invaded Finland later that year.

Then, in June of 1940, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. These invasions and occupations
had been foreseen and agreed to in advance by Hitler and Stalin.

It is precisely these two dictators who bear the brunt of the
blame for the immense human loss and suffering that resulted
during the war that ensued. In commemorating those who lost their
lives during the Second World War, we must not fail to
commemorate the crimes against humanity committed by both Hitler
and Stalin. We must not fail to mention these two totalitarian
tyrants by name, lest the world forget the responsibility that
they bear for beginning that war.

<end  quote>