Agitation and propaganda. Causes and consequences instead of just bare facts. There's always only one truth. Good evening. It's not that simple. Patriotic hysteria and a zealous bullying campaign that followed the statement of Russian high schoolers in Bundestag have clouded our eyes making us unable to recognize something bigger behind the repentant testimony of the shy teenagers. Indeed, isn't it perhaps too late? Twerking girls in front of the Malaya Zemlya memorial. A million views on YouTube. The video still hasn't been deleted. This video practically blew up the Internet. Eggs fried over the Eternal Flame caused a storm of protest. The Eternal Flame in Kiev. The kids frying an egg over it even before the events of Maidan aren't lawbreakers anymore. Now, in some sense, they are heroes because they were expressing their civic stance.
- It's sad how our society sees only the negative side.
- What do you mean?
- I Mean that everyone saw us frying an egg over the Flame, but no one saw us bringing up an issue of our senior citizens and veterans.
- Don't you support them?
- I certainly do.
This week concrete was poured over the Flame. The second time this month. Because the authorities don't guard the memorials and go all out in support of the nationalists and fascists it was to be expected. Soon they'll just demolish it instead of just pouring concrete. Russia again. A random YouTube video. The location is unclear, but the time is fairly recent.
These are not some random outbursts of the so-called "pubertal hype," not some random rotten apples, but the symptoms that can be seen in all ex-Soviet republics, in all countries from the former socialist block.
An egregious case of the desecration of the Soviet soldiers' memorial happened in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The vandals painted a couple of swastikas over the Alyosha monument. They also wrote nationalist slogans, one of which read "Bulgaria above all".
See? Even Bulgaria is now über alles. Are these separate facts somehow connected to the statement in the Bundestag? Indeed, they are. It's not even about the degrading system of education. It's obvious there were no innocent Wehrmacht soldiers in Stalingrad that didn't deserve to die from the harsh conditions of imprisonment. It's about the evidential shifts in the collective consciousness. It's absurd to blame the high schoolers. They are the consequence, not the cause. The more people urge us to deal with the consequences, the fewer people pay attention to the cause. And the cause lies in the ideals and values, the ones the Soviet soldiers fought for can't exist without the social and economic model that allowed them to win. Similarly, the opposite fascist ideals appear when inequality and injustice triumph. You can't mix fire and water. Selfless heroism and today's selfish consumerism.
"We've got an amazing video to show you from Poland. 60 thousand people including families took it to the streets shouting Nazi slogans and urging to build a "White Europe." The Polish authorities criticized the slogans, but insisted that the rallies are a demonstration of patriotism".
As you see, Poland is far ahead of Bulgaria. The demonstrations of patriotism here don't end with just memorial desecration, which is proceeding at full throttle.
The Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army in the middle of Szczecin has been completely demolished. The municipal authorities are now planning to demolish another monument of the Conquerors of Szczecin.
The conquerors. Not liberators, but conquerors. The notion corresponds to the main ideological vector of the Cold War. Covering up for the diehard Nazis, the Pentagon and NATO continued the "thrust toward the East" interrupted in 1945. The fight against communism isn't over with the destruction of the USSR and must be finished entirely. The controversy that began with Ronald Reagan and Helmut Kohl visiting the SS-veteran graveyard in Bitburg, continued with the withdrawal of troops from Germany and should have ended one day with a Soviet occupation museum right at the Red Square.
Franco A., a soldier of the Bundeswehr, registered as a Syrian refugee, and, according to the investigation, planned a series of terrorist attacks in Germany. A man named Maximilian was arrested today in his office. He is a possible accomplice of Franco.
The appearance of the secret Nazi-cells in the Bundeswehr is not really surprising. Just like the fact that 90 seats in the Bundestag are occupied by the ultra-right AfD. They say it supports the normalization of relations with Moscow. Perhaps. Anyway, the MPs were glad to listen to their Russian guests that share their opinion about history not being black and white.
Alexander Gauland, leader of AfD: "No country was ever forced to accept the false past the way Germany was. We are not to blame for the 12 years the Nazi's were in power. It doesn't correspond to our identity anymore. The Germans have the right to reconquer their land and their past".
Jorg Baberowski, historian: "Hitler wasn't a psycho or a barbarian. He didn’t let anyone speak about the elimination of all Jews while dining".
It's not just Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. It's a well-known fact that fascism is a result of oligarch’s rage. Just like at the times of the burning Reichstag, the popularity of the ultra-right movement always has embittered magnates behind it. And only the most naive can hope to cooperate with those magnates due to the historic reconciliation. There's no reason for reconciliation. Just like there was no land beyond Volga in 1942.
"Everyone knows that the basis of Nazi military education was the misanthropic race theory. The theory of the superiority of the German race and the inferiority of all other ethnicities. Honor and nobility were driven out of the minds of the German soldiers. They had no respect for the long-standing international rights and traditions. Conscience was considered a human vice.
Hitler said: "I free the man from the devouring chimera that is conscience." Conscience, like education, cripple the person".
Luckily, we are still being crippled by conscience and education. But it's being dealt with. November 22nd is the 75th anniversary of the Stalingrad Encirclement. German newspapers have published an interview with Egon Hoffmann, one of the remaining Wehrmacht-veterans. Oddly enough, he still doesn't consider himself innocent.
"Egon Hoffmann was 18. He served as a motorcyclist in the 29th infantry division when Stalingrad was surrounded. It's hard to convey the feelings of the 300,000 soldiers of the 6th army when they were surrounded. Only 6,000 will return home. Every year, on a November Sunday, he goes to Limburg to see his old comrades. They aren't going to discuss the pride and achievements of the German soldiers despite being urged by the leader of AfD. In Stalingrad we had only one motto: crawl now or fall forever."
Agitation and propaganda. See you soon. Let there be peace in your home.
