Comments on: Thoughts on Victory Day http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/thoughts-on-victory-day/ Serpentine Percipience Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:22:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: More thoughts on Victory Day | All About Latvia http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/thoughts-on-victory-day/comment-page-1/#comment-1228 More thoughts on Victory Day | All About Latvia Sun, 11 May 2008 07:35:22 +0000 http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/629/#comment-1228 [...] Comments Jens_Olaf on Thoughts on Victory DayMichael Zubitis on Thoughts on Victory Dayamber on Thoughts on Victory Dayamber on Thoughts on [...] [...] Comments Jens_Olaf on Thoughts on Victory DayMichael Zubitis on Thoughts on Victory Dayamber on Thoughts on Victory Dayamber on Thoughts on [...]

]]> By: Jens_Olaf http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/thoughts-on-victory-day/comment-page-1/#comment-1227 Jens_Olaf Sun, 11 May 2008 03:27:09 +0000 http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/629/#comment-1227 Aleks, we have this same discussion about Estonia and 1945 occuring every year. The thing is, like Giustino (Itching for Eestimaa) emphazises on this occasion that in 1944 a Estonian government tried to reestablish the state. The Estonian tricolore was pulled down in autumn 1994 replaced by the Soviet flag. There was no Nazi flag at that short time period. I have to agrree much with Peteris here. And since I am living in Korea it is more obvious that after May 1945, the Soviet troops did not act as an liberator either. Even Koreans , though victimns of the Japanase occupation were not safe. I still try to get some numbers from the Soviet liberation of Korea. Beside this there was already the total deportation of Koreans from the Far East Soviet Union in 1937/1938 already. Nothing to celebrate from that view. Aleks, we have this same discussion about Estonia and 1945 occuring every year. The thing is, like Giustino (Itching for Eestimaa) emphazises on this occasion that in 1944 a Estonian government tried to reestablish the state. The Estonian tricolore was pulled down in autumn 1994 replaced by the Soviet flag. There was no Nazi flag at that short time period. I have to agrree much with Peteris here. And since I am living in Korea it is more obvious that after May 1945, the Soviet troops did not act as an liberator either. Even Koreans , though victimns of the Japanase occupation were not safe. I still try to get some numbers from the Soviet liberation of Korea. Beside this there was already the total deportation of Koreans from the Far East Soviet Union in 1937/1938 already. Nothing to celebrate from that view.

]]> By: Michael Zubitis http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/thoughts-on-victory-day/comment-page-1/#comment-1225 Michael Zubitis Sun, 11 May 2008 00:51:33 +0000 http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/629/#comment-1225 Just a 'brain-storm' idea : Perhaps Latvians, on future May 9ths, should wear sack-cloth and cover their hair with ashes (as in Biblical times). With weeping and wailing, singing of mournful hymns, beseech God to forgive those, who in the name of the Soviet Union, killed, raped, robbed, their way across eastern Europe (and do this in the presence of all the Russophones who gather at the so-called Victory Memorial). The Russians should be educated and reminded time after time, what happened. What's wrong? Seems like the whole lot has 'Stockholm Syndrome'. If the Latvians are so horrible, if life is so intolerable in Latvia----I'm sure mother Russia would welcome her Russian-speaking children with open arms (or not?). If Russians (under the auspices of the Soviet Union) had help to defeat Germany then, returned their soldiers to within the pre-1939 borders of the USSR. If they had respected the rights and self-determination of the countries they had previously overrun, I think us Balts would have looked upon them in a much kinder light. Also so many Americans (and other 'westerners') seem to forget that Stalin certainly helped Hitler out in the beginning in 1939. Who helped to divide Poland a couple of weeks after the Germans invaded that country? The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was what help to start the war and the whole bloody mess! On the other hand, to be fair, Latvians should condemn and repent for those fellow countrymen who collaborated with the Nazis, killing our Jewish brothers and sisters. But I do clearly understand why many Latvians had to or were willing to fight with the Germans, though I have no delusions of what a German victory would have meant to us and our Baltic Cousins, it would have been a disaster as would it have been to the rest of Europe, if not the whole world! I'm sorry to be rambling here....my thoughts are probably not very coherent. It's very easy to condemn people and what they did 60+ years ago......we should ask ourselves, "What would I have done?". I pray God that this should never happen again, but I have my fears looking at the state of the world. May God grant that those who feel strongly for Latvia, love her and want to see her survive and prosper, rise up to do all that they can to help our 'skaista dzimtene'! Just a ‘brain-storm’ idea :

Perhaps Latvians, on future May 9ths, should wear sack-cloth and cover their hair with ashes (as in Biblical times). With weeping and wailing, singing of mournful hymns, beseech God to forgive those, who in the name of the Soviet Union, killed, raped, robbed, their way across eastern Europe (and do this in the presence of all the Russophones who gather at the so-called Victory Memorial). The Russians should be educated and reminded time after time, what happened. What’s wrong? Seems like the whole lot has ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. If the Latvians are so horrible, if life is so intolerable in Latvia—-I’m sure mother Russia would welcome her Russian-speaking children with open arms (or not?).

If Russians (under the auspices of the Soviet Union) had help to defeat Germany then, returned their soldiers to within the pre-1939 borders of the USSR. If they had respected the rights and self-determination of the countries they had previously overrun, I think us Balts would have looked upon them in a much kinder light.

Also so many Americans (and other ‘westerners’) seem to forget that Stalin certainly helped Hitler out in the beginning in 1939. Who helped to divide Poland a couple of weeks after the Germans invaded that country? The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was what help to start the war and the whole bloody mess!

On the other hand, to be fair, Latvians should condemn and repent for those fellow countrymen who collaborated with the Nazis, killing our Jewish brothers and sisters. But I do clearly understand why many Latvians had to or were willing to fight with the Germans, though I have no delusions of what a German victory would have meant to us and our Baltic Cousins, it would have been a disaster as would it have been to the rest of Europe, if not the whole world!

I’m sorry to be rambling here….my thoughts are probably not very coherent. It’s very easy to condemn people and what they did 60+ years ago……we should ask ourselves, “What would I have done?”. I pray God that this should never happen again, but I have my fears looking at the state of the world.

May God grant that those who feel strongly for Latvia, love her and want to see her survive and prosper, rise up to do all that they can to help our ‘skaista dzimtene’!

]]> By: amber http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/thoughts-on-victory-day/comment-page-1/#comment-1215 amber Sat, 10 May 2008 18:06:31 +0000 http://allaboutlatvia.com/article/629/629/#comment-1215 "We didn't liberate anyone, we weren't even able to liberate ourselves..." Yelena Bonner (Russian human rights activist and wife of Andrei Sakharov)May 9, 2007 “We didn’t liberate anyone, we weren’t even able to liberate ourselves…”

Yelena Bonner (Russian human rights activist and wife of Andrei Sakharov)May 9, 2007

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