http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/15431_liberation.html
The question of terminology: Liberation and occupation
05/09/2005 21:35
On the 60th anniversary of victory over Fascism, western sources refer to
suffering under Soviet occupation
George Bush was, as usual, one of the first to try to spoil the party,
mentioning the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe after the Second World War
before he even stepped foot in Russia and this spoilsport attitude, hanging a
grey cloud over the anniversary celebrations, has been copied by western press
sources.
As usual, it is a question of terminology, for liberation and occupation
are two words which can be the same side of the same coin, or different sides
of the same coin, depending on which way you look at it. If the Americans like
to claim that they liberated western Europe, setting up their military bases,
colonizing the countries economically and flooding their markets with American
goods, then the Russians could claim that the Americans occupied western Europe
while they installed a hostile regime, drew a line from northern Germany to the
Balkans and set up an Iron Curtain behind which they adopted a belligerent
stance against the USSR and her allies.
At the same time, the USSR could claim that the liberation of eastern
Europe brought with it for the citizens of the nine countries (Estonia,
Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Democratic Republic of Germany) a guaranteed job, a guaranteed pension,
housing, safety in the streets, a secure state, excellent and free healthcare
and education and free or cheap public services. The American occupation of
western Europe brought with it on the other hand societies colonized by
perverse values, pornography, endemic unemployment, a situation in which it
was, and is, a drama to buy a house, and when it is bought, the buyer is
saddled with a massive debt which will be with him almost until he meets his
Maker, education systems which churn out generations of idiots and thugs every
year who cannot speak or write their own languages and whose weekend
entertainment is to destroy other people's property, healthcare systems with
massive waiting lists and an approach which squeezes the bottom line first and
provides a service second, expensive and badly planned public transportation,
drug abuse and so on and so forth.
Secondly, it should be remembered that the Soviet presence in these
countries was to provide a buffer zone to stop the West coming East (after the
loss of millions of lives in two world wars), the presence was there to help
build the societies in these countries (under the Soviet-backed Comecon system,
they developed in many cases from medieval societies into front-line
development in many areas, meaning that today a Pole or a Balt or a Hungarian
can compete for any job, against any other candidate anywhere in the world, on
at least an equal footing).
Thirdly, the governors of these countries were not Russians. Poland was
governed by Poles, Romania was governed by Romanians, Bulgaria by Bulgarians.
If there was Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe, so was there American
military presence in Western Europe.
Much is made of the absence of certain leaders at today's party. However,
Russia sent out the invitations. Those who wanted to come to the party came.
Those who preferred to stay outside did so. On one hand, a party and 50 heads
of state, of government and of international organizations. On the other, a
handful of sour-faced, bitter, complexed individuals with a chip of their
shoulders. Small men are often complicated - just look at Napoleon.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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