There have been brave attempts by British political figures such as Dr Denis MacShane to protest against the “double genocide” movement. In Vilnius, several foreign ambassadors, led by the British ambassador, complained to the Lithuanian President in 2010 about “spurious attempts . . . to equate the uniquely evil genocide of the Jews with Soviet crimes against Lithuania. Which, though great in magnitude, cannot be regarded as equivalent in either their intention or result.”
The UK and the West have ample reason to be alarmed about the state of politics within Putin’s Russia and indeed about the serious turn of events in Ukraine, where there can be no reasonable doubt that the separatist forces are Russian or Russian-backed. The quest for reconciliation with Germany is justified, though in my view not yet nearly as complete as many wish to believe if only because of Germany’s refusal to accept that slave labour imposed by the Nazis was illegal. At the same time, Britain has good reason to avoid entanglement with the dark forces at work within several countries in Central and Eastern Europe where implied or overt anti-Semitic statements are becoming all too common. The government ought also to take care to avoid adjusting history to fit diplomatic needs.
In a utopian enthusiasm for a constantly widening European Union which will replace nation-states, too many of its intellectual advocates have identified Russia as the common enemy in face of which they can press for ever closer union. Certainly, much that has been going on under Putin deserves serious alarm. At the same time, the European Union expansionism explicitly favoured by Snyder and others has provided too great an incentive to reinterpret and skew the study of 20th-century historical tragedies. “History wars” are part of a process which is leading us back to the days of the Cold War and to an unpredictable conflict between a dangerous Russia and an expansive European Union influenced by Central and Eastern European member countries seeking vengeance for their sufferings as Soviet satellites.
Any attempt to “explain” the Holocaust which is motivated by the desire to justify this new Cold War risks becoming poor history and ill-considered politics.
The UK and the West have ample reason to be alarmed about the state of politics within Putin’s Russia and indeed about the serious turn of events in Ukraine, where there can be no reasonable doubt that the separatist forces are Russian or Russian-backed. The quest for reconciliation with Germany is justified, though in my view not yet nearly as complete as many wish to believe if only because of Germany’s refusal to accept that slave labour imposed by the Nazis was illegal. At the same time, Britain has good reason to avoid entanglement with the dark forces at work within several countries in Central and Eastern Europe where implied or overt anti-Semitic statements are becoming all too common. The government ought also to take care to avoid adjusting history to fit diplomatic needs.
In a utopian enthusiasm for a constantly widening European Union which will replace nation-states, too many of its intellectual advocates have identified Russia as the common enemy in face of which they can press for ever closer union. Certainly, much that has been going on under Putin deserves serious alarm. At the same time, the European Union expansionism explicitly favoured by Snyder and others has provided too great an incentive to reinterpret and skew the study of 20th-century historical tragedies. “History wars” are part of a process which is leading us back to the days of the Cold War and to an unpredictable conflict between a dangerous Russia and an expansive European Union influenced by Central and Eastern European member countries seeking vengeance for their sufferings as Soviet satellites.
Any attempt to “explain” the Holocaust which is motivated by the desire to justify this new Cold War risks becoming poor history and ill-considered politics.
9:09 AM