Latvia and neo-Nazism

Baltic neo-Nazism simmers

MIM Notes 224

On November 5, Latvia unveiled a monument "near Tukums in western Latvia" for 140,000 Latvian soldiers called legionnaires who served in the Nazi army. Government officials attended the unveiling. As an excuse for this act, the Baltic press cited the United States Government, which said in 1950 that non-German Nazi troops should be distinguished from German ones and not regarded as a threat to U.$. security.(1)
Some Latvian politicians had the gall to ask Russia for war reparations on behalf of the Nazi side of World War II. MIM has said all along that the U.S. Government has whitewashed fascism, especially in Eastern Europe. Now we see the chickens come home to roost.
In pure geopolitical opportunism, the United $tates has provided backup vocals to every nationalist noise that comes out of Eastern Europe -- including fascist noise -- for the purpose of attacking the Soviet Union and now capitalist Russia.
The Baltic Times spends its time calling for the example of Kosovo to be universal so that the military might of the United $tates will be used against Russia and Russian-leaning states of Eastern Europe to maintain mythical Latvian independence. Aside from the U.$. imperialists integrating the Nazis into their empire, the ex- Soviet Union's phony communist leaders also share blame. By failing to keep society progressing as it had under Stalin, the phony communist leadership of the Soviet Union guaranteed that places like Latvia would break way and "do their own" thing as new republics.
MIM has no sympathy with the nationalism of the Baltic and Eastern European peoples that is not aimed at imperialism. There was never any objectively existing possibility of Latvia going a third road between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin. The Latvians had to choose their sides in World War II and to say otherwise is either a nationalist or pacifist myth -- idealism.
140,000 Latvian members of the Nazi army is a large number relative to the total population of Latvia now at 2.37 million. Reporter Tim Sebastien pointed out to the president of Latvia that per capita -- proportionately speaking that is -- Latvia had as big a role in World War II Nazism as the Germans. With such a large influence in the society of Nazism in the past, we are not surprised that thousands showed up to see the unveiling of the monument, and to live in denial about these World War II veterans of the Nazi army and their descendants, a denial not unlike that of some descendants of Confederate soldiers in the U.$ South. Such reactionaries prefer to believe sentimentally in the rightness of their own cause rather than endure criticism and self-criticism. They gained extraordinary aid from their president who has also put forward the line that Nazism was a German matter.
Internally, repression in Latvia has gone too far even for members of the ruling class involved. 25% of juvenile inmates in Latvia have been waiting for trial between 6 and 12 months and 6 percent for over two years.(2) AIDS and teenage suicide are growing in prison, and even the national prosecutor and prison administration are complaining things have gone too far in Latvia. 42% of all prisoners in Latvia are simply awaiting trial.
On the question of the Jews, we will note that Latvia has made some progress in public admission of the Holocaust. Work ranges from new museums to book introductions by the Latvian president. Nonetheless, despite admissions in this matter, Latvians continue to defend pro-Nazi sympathies as preferable to or no worse than leaning toward the Soviet Union under Stalin. A BBC reporter named Tim Sebastien working for the show "HARDtalk" recently upbraided the Latvian president for making a clumsy comparison of Jews and cows. Sebastien was asking about murder and the Latvian president -- a womyn named Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga -- was trying to be "even-handed" in her approach to "crimes" by the communists and crimes by the fascists. It seemed even to the Western reporter that communist re- distribution of property (such as cows) ranked with murder of Jews in the Latvian president's mind. When asked about 41 World War II war criminals pardoned since Latvian independence in 1991, the Latvian president kept saying there was no evidence to prosecute the war criminals while there was evidence to prosecute the supposed crimes of communists or the fake communists that recently ruled Latvia.(3)
Meanwhile, in neighboring Lithuania, a Fulbright Scholar from the United $tates wrote to the Baltic Times to report sighting an entertainment skit in October by people dressed as Nazi SS. When the actors chased a concentration camp victim who died in the skit, the audience laughed and applauded. Mark Lenzi did not feel this was a parody, as the audience cheered for the beating and kicking of the victim.(4) Of course, MIM did not see the skit or audience reaction, but in the overall context that it is occurring, we share Lenzi's concerns.
Notes:
1. Baltic Times, 16-22Nov2000, p. 3.
2. Baltic Times, 16-22Nov2000, p. 1.
3. Baltic Times, 9-15Nov2000, p. 3.
4. Baltic Times, 9-15Nov2000, p. 19.