Three days ago all the peoples of Russia celebrated one of the most important holidays - Victory Day, paying tribute to Soviet soldiers who defended the world in the fight against fascism. Thousands of residents of the Latvian capital also celebrated this date, laying flowers to the monument to Soviet soldiers - liberators in Riga. In addition, the "Immortal Regiment" rally took place in Riga, this time a column of people with portraits of their family members who fought against Hitler's Germany included more than 15 thousand people. Every year, the number of those who decided to show that May 9 is an important holiday for Latvia, is increasing, analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza, Evgeny Nikolaychuk, said today during a live broadcast of the National Question program on Vesti.FM.
In this regard, the expert drew attention to the fact that the desire of Latvian citizens often runs counter to the official policy. "In 2012, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said that the monument, near which thousands of people gather every year on May 9, should be demolished, but expressed the fear that this will lead to tension in society.
The head of the Latvian Defense Ministry admitted that he also does not like the May 9 celebration, since "the goal of the majority of participants of this event is to keep us in that geopolitical sphere that ceased to exist 20 years ago," the expert said.
According to the analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza, the manifestations of Russophobia are a consequence of the legislative base on the basis of the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence which was adopted on May 4, 1990 by the radical part of the western Latvian emigration and became a state ideology. "Therefore, the division of Latvian citizens into citizens and non-citizens, the adoption of language and education laws discriminating against the Russian national minority, rewriting the history of Latvia for the sake of radicals and combating the monuments of the Soviet era is only the implementation of that concept," he said, noting that Russophobes and neo-Nazis among the Latvians are an absolute minority, but they are the loudest and most active group in the public space.
"In Riga they introduced a new tradition to celebrate on March 16 a Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires of two SS divisions. The march to the Freedom Monument is held in the heart of the city, and it does not bother many Latvian deputies and some ministers that these so-called "heroes" swore an oath to Hitler and participated in punitive operations near Pskov, in Belarus, the Ukraine, Poland. Legionnaires in their understanding fought for the freedom of Latvia, but the Soviet soldiers - didn't. That is probably why in 1997 the Latvian neo-Nazis tried to destroy the monument they hate, but could not do it.
Answering the question: "Why should the Latvian authorities rewrite history?", The expert said that this is necessary to justify the activities of Latvian police battalions, many of whom later joined the Waffen SS and were ordinary fascist criminals. "This is the current policy in Latvia and a historic scam - equate WWII veterans who fought against fascism, to the butchers, were burned alive in any innocent people.
"One thing is surprising: why do Western countries do nothing about the heroization of the Nazi accomplices in the country of the European Union? The only thing we can do is not to leave this heroization without rebuff," Eevgeny Nikolaychuk concluded.
