See No Evil

In the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Leopold Unger discusses Reconciliation According to Putin:

"Let this be a day of reconciliation," said Vladimir Putin, as he sent out the invitations to the May 9 commemoration in Moscow. Putin had the best of intentions. But a misunderstanding arose. The word "reconciliation" is understood differently in the countries to the east and west of the former Iron Curtain.

In the East - in the view, for example, of citizens of Poland and the former "Pribaltika" - reconciliation means repentance and truth. Therefore, independently of this decision" to go or not to go" to Moscow, the Poles and the Balts see this dilemma in moral categories and wait for some Russian "mea culpa" on the issue of the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, the crime at Katyn, the interpetation of Yalta, and so on.

The political attitude of the West (in general terms) towards Moscow's invitation is a different one, not so much immoral as amoral. Firstly, it is rare that anyone knows or understands what the Poles are talking about, what Katyn was, what the Nazi-Soviet agreement meant for the Poles and Balts. Here the war began not in September 1939, but in May 1940. Yalta, which sealed the Soviet domination over there in the East was here in the West the beginning of stabilization (the Marshall Plan) and prosperity.

Secondly, here in the West they know (and if they don't know, then the Kremlin will explain this to them) that May 9, after the liquidation of November 7, is the only one great true holiday of Russia, the ally that shed most blood in the war with Hitler, and is today the most important partner in the fight against terrorism. After all, they say here, we keep silent about the present massacre in Chechnya, so as not to grieve over some episodes dug up from 65 years ago. Poland is a member of EU and NATO, whose members need the best relations with Russia, the main provider of energy to the West. For Putin, as Schroeder has just said, there is no alternative.

Thirdly, what’s all the fuss about? Everyone has had their 60th anniversary. In Normandy, in the summer of 2004 the West had its reconciliation, it was a solemn occasion, everyone was crying. The Poles have already had their two 60ths, in 2004 – the Warsaw Uprising, in 2005 the Liberation of Auschwitz, and those were also solemn occasions, everyone cried. So now it’s the turn of Russia and her 60th. When they call for truth and repentance, the Poles are morally in the right, but they shouldn't spoil this party, either for the Russians or for the invited guests. However, it's hard to expect and demand that the Russians specially on this occasion of their biggest holiday should open before the world the horrible pages of their recent history, in which many Russians, who are still alive, took part.

Fourthly, the banal observation that absentees aren't in the right is not always correct, but, as could been seen from the distance, the absenteeism of the Poles might have even suited the Russians. The Kremlin is anxious to see a few heads of the really big states legitimizing the Putin’s world-wide status and shoring up his diminishing prestige. On the other hand, for Putin and his Chekists, the arrival of the Poles or, devoid of any complexes, the Lady President of Latvia, brings the risk of a scene, and possibly also qualms of conscience (if a such thing exists in this profession).

Obviously, it could be wondered why the Russians haven't been able, as for example, the Germans and also to some degree the Church have, to settle accounts with their dark past. Why, far away from moral considerations and the imperative of historical truth, didn’t Putin - a pragmatic and skillful player – just unload it all on Stalin and close this reckoning of wrongs? Why? Perhaps because he doesn't consider Stalin a criminal, and can’t see any wrong?

(tr. by Marius, my minor editing)