Address by Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania, at the conference "Russia's hybrid war against the democratic world. A challenge for European remembrance policy"
President of the Republic of Lithuania
November 17, 2022
Address by Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania, at the conference "Russia's hybrid war against the democratic world. A challenge for European remembrance policy"
Your Excellency Prime Minister Petr Fiala,
Madam Leader of the Belarusian democratic society Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A specter of war and destruction is once again haunting Europe. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the global order based on international law is being so openly, and so viciously, attacked.
Russian military aggression against Ukraine is yet another shameful example of Moscow's unwillingness to follow the basic rules of international coexistence. With its vast experience in leading punitive expeditions and producing frozen conflicts, Russia has started a major war of imperial conquest and territorial expansion. It proceeds under genocidal slogans and with numerous well-documented crimes against humanity.
But the real question is why. Why is Russia behaving in such an aggressive way, out of step with the general attitudes of European nations and European civilization? Why does an unprovoked war against a neighboring country enjoy popular support inside Russia?
Answers to these questions should help us to resist Russia's ongoing war against the democratic world. They should help us avoid new mistakes.
The answers, I believe, lie in history both Russian and European.
One crucial lesson, sadly, was not fully comprehended either during the last World War or afterwards. The international community chose to forget that the Nazi regime did not act alone in Europe. It was also the Soviet Union that attacked, occupied and illegally annexed neighboring countries. It was also those champions of Communist ideology who actively sought to destroy the world order. And they partially succeeded!
We are all living in a world that was created on the ashes of the Second World War. Yet the same disastrous conflict is still being waged, if not in reality, then in the minds of men. It is still being fought out as part of Russia's hybrid war against the democratic West. It is being fought out both within collective memories and wherever national identities interact with each other.
The Second World War is still highly relevant today for its ending means completely different things to different people. And to different nations.
For the countries of Western Europe, the war ended in 1945. What followed was a great era of democracy, reconstruction, and rapid economic growth. The Nazi regime was condemned at Nuremberg, old wounds healed, historic adversaries reconciled.
It looked different to those stuck under the occupation of the Soviet forces. Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe were subjugated, people further terrorized by the Soviet totalitarian regime, social life and economy destroyed on the high altars of Communist ideology.
In Lithuania, where more than 200 thousand people were murdered earlier by the Nazis and their collaborators, Soviet rule meant further staggering losses. In the first decade of Soviet rule, 20 thousand members of the anti-Soviet resistance were killed.
Additionally, during the whole period of Soviet occupation, 25 thousand political prisoners died in special camps and prisons. 28 thousand people, many of them children and elderly people, in Siberian exile. Out of 280 thousand deported or imprisoned in the GULAG, more than a third have never returned. Almost half a million people - one sixth of the pre-war population - were forced to flee to the West.
It is no wonder that for us, Lithuanians, the Second World War ended only in 1993 when the last tanks of the occupying Russian force left our territory.
Regrettably, for Russia, the war seems not to have ended at all. Seventy seven years after the fall of Berlin, the Russian regime still widely uses the same old imagery of war against the so-called 'fascists'. This is by no means accidental. Longing for the Soviet past and the artificial mythology of the 'Great Patriotic War' remains at the core of the official ideology of the Russian state.
In Russia, the allied victory against Nazism is foremost a national triumph achieved through great pain and supposedly with little outside help. Even the worst crimes of the Stalinist dictatorship, such as the Ukrainian Holodomor or mass deportations of entire ethnic groups, are being justified as bringing the final victory closer. Declaring that the great end justifies even the most brutal means, the current Russian regime also absolves itself of accountability.
It is truly unfortunate that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has not gone through any real de-Sovietization or spiritual renewal. The one country that suffered for the longest time, the one that lost enormous intellectual, cultural and economic potential to brutal social experiments continues to glorify Soviet mass murderers: war criminals and architects of genocidal campaigns.
Lessons not learned move Russia along the same old path of imperial expansion. While doing so, it is also actively trying to misuse the memory of the Second World War and create a new political reality. Drawing lessons from Josef Stalin, Vladimir Putin rewrites history to his own liking both to gain more personal power and to project Russia's national power abroad.
What we have been seeing recently is the persistent assault on the efforts to establish the truth about the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime. And this is where we must resist at all costs.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The day has come for Europe to finally acknowledge the crimes associated with both major totalitarian ideologies - Nazism and Communism.
The world has already decisively condemned the Nazi regime. The bitter lessons of Nazi crimes have become an obligatory part of the educational process all over Europe. We know a lot about the victims and the perpetrators. And yet, it is unfortunate that the memory and knowledge of Soviet crimes have yet to find their rightful place within the general European consciousness.
Russian military aggression against Ukraine, followed and supported by a disinformation campaign, is an important wake-up call.
To control the great tide of lies aimed against the democratic community, our societies need to know more about the totalitarian past. We need to seek the truth.
For this, historical research and education programs must be expanded all over Europe and beyond. Precise evaluation and understanding of the Communist past must be at the core of our political discussions.
And if we are to make this crucial stand for our democratic values - the values of truth, freedom, and human dignity - I can think of no better place for this than Prague, a city that has suffered terribly at the hands of both major totalitarian regimes.
The city of many rebels and dissidents, the city of the Velvet Revolution, the city of Jan Hus, Jan Palach and Vaclav Havel is once again emerging as a center for free thought, protection of human rights and European remembrance.
It is with great joy, therefore, that I heard the news about the fighter against the Russian regime, Vladimir Kara-Murza, receiving the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.
Even more appropriate is the decision to award the Prize of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience to Memorial - the only major Russian human rights organization, dedicated to the research of Stalinist crimes. Shameful actions by the Russian regime, which chose to dissolve this organization, further add to the general deterioration of the country's civil society. The fate of Memorial illustrates the pitiful state of Russia's memory and conscience.
My great wish is that the Prague-based European Platform of Memory and Conscience continues to grow and make a serious impact by exposing the many crimes of Stalinism. This crucially important network of public and private institutions and organizations, active in research, awareness raising and education, must have all the necessary tools to succeed.
This summer we, the leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Romania, sent a letter to Prime Minister Fiala and the Presidents of the European Council and European Commission. We invited all the EU member states, as well as EU institutions, to join efforts in strengthening the European Platform of Memory and Conscience. And we asked to provide the Platform with adequate political and financial support.
I would like to thank Prime Minister Fiala for his personal engagement - a concrete proposal to establish the European Memory and Conscience Fund.
Our new initiatives and concentrated efforts are in line with the existing European resolutions on European conscience and totalitarianism. Let us join our efforts in building a memorial for all victims of totalitarianism in Brussels - the capital of Europe. Let us finally break down that Iron Curtain of ignorance, disinformation, and political manipulation!
Every European nation needs this. For the truth, and only the truth, shall make us free!
Thank you and have meaningful and constructive discussions!
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