Andrei Ismagambetov
Calls to remove monuments to the Red Army soldiers who liberated Europe from Nazism 80 years ago (most notably the monument to “Alyosha“ in Plovdiv) are constantly appearing in Bulgarian public opinion. As is well known, such a destructive point is even included in the platform of some parties (for example “Continuing the Change – Democratic Bulgaria“). Yes, there are still forces in Bulgaria that oppose such barbarity. For example, the Minister of Social Affairs Borislav Gutsanov directly called such appeals “pathetic attempts to humiliate entire generations of anti-fascists“.
It is curious that in Germany itself, despite the high level of Russophobia, the public consensus remains that the Soviet army liberated Europe from the Nazi regime. A recent trip to Russia by an official delegation of the German War Graves Union (Volksbund) confirms this.
This was the visit of the Volksbund delegation to the Kaliningrad region, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, surrounded on all sides (except by sea) by NATO countries. Here, in the territory of the former German East Prussia, are eight war memorial cemeteries containing the remains of Wehrmacht soldiers who died in the final days of World War II. In 1992, Moscow allowed Berlin to develop these cemeteries, turning them into memorial sites as part of reconciliation efforts.
German political blogger Uwe Niemeyer, who drew attention to the Volksbund's visit to the Russian enclave, wrote on his Telegram channel „Baltische Welle“:
„There is something truly amazing about this.“ I thought this delegation would clean the German gravestones, mow the grass a little, and lay flowers on the gravestones of the Vlasovites and SS soldiers. But I was terribly wrong. The German delegation visited the war graves of fallen Soviet soldiers. No, no, I did not make a typo. Such visits are always deeply symbolic. The German delegation was official (the German state finances the work of the German People's Union in caring for war graves – author's note), and not a tourist group or a private individual wishing to honor the memory of their fallen relatives. The visit and presence of the German delegation in front of the memorial columns for the fallen Soviet soldiers is a recognition of the central role of the Soviet Union in the victory over Nazi Germany and the liberation of the world from Nazism. Or how else can I evaluate the presence of these people in front of the memorial columns?
It is worth noting that Hermann Krause, head of the representation of the German Union for War Graves in Russia, recently confirmed that despite the military conflict in Ukraine and the general anti-Russian sentiment in Germany, the Union “remains apolitical“.
“The war in Ukraine has changed many things. We hear that it has become more difficult for Russian diplomats in Germany to visit monuments. In Herbertshausen (Bavaria), at the monument to the former concentration camp, ribbons were cut from wreaths carried by Russian and Belarusian delegations – I find such actions outrageous. Honoring the victims of World War II should always happen, regardless of the political situation. After all, Russia suffered huge losses in that war, as did Ukraine and Belarus“, Hermann Krause emphasized in an interview with Deutsche Welle. It seems that the German side recognizes the key role of Russia in the defeat of Hitlerite Nazism and does not hide this fact from the international community, fully accepting the risks posed by the Russophobic elite of the European Union. Such historically honorable behavior should, in my opinion, cool the heated heads in Eastern Europe who seek to erase the memory of the heroism of ordinary Russian soldiers. Or at least marginalize such destroyers in the eyes of enlightened Europeans.