Eastern European leaders ask EU to condemn Soviets crimes againsthumanity

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The formerly communist countries of Poland , Romania , Estonia , Latvia  and Lithuania  issued a joint letter calling on the EU  to better inform its citizens of Soviet crimes against humanity. 

The much needed innitiative comes as the Soviets weren't deafeted in a world word and didn't have a public international trial exposing their crimes. So despite causing more deaths and inflicting unimaginable damage to people living in the URSS and beyond, communist leaders such as Stalin have a much milder reputation compared to Hitler. This is partly because many Europeans are generally uninformed about URSS' history.

[Magui 2,656]

Well done, honestly i think most Europeans from from the western side don't know much about this. We know about our stuff our wrongdoings, etc..but speaking from myself i don't know much about the east side...in fact I think many things in Russia simply don't get to us, and i don't know much about how such an empire was built cause honestly the Soviet Union was an empire like others empires we know. 

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5 hours ago, Magui said:

Well done, honestly i think most Europeans from from the western side don't know much about this. We know about our stuff our wrongdoings, etc..but speaking from myself i don't know much about the east side...in fact I think many things in Russia simply don't get to us, and i don't know much about how such an empire was built cause honestly the Soviet Union was an empire like others empires we know. 

Oversimplified there are three reasons of the immense size of the URSS:

1) The Russians are basically Europe's easternmost group of people. To the east of the ancestral lands of the Russians lies a sparsely populated steppe and tundra with little to no mountains (the Russians are not mountain people, but steppe people - this is crucial for the way they were able to settle in the vast and mostly flat landscape of northern Eurasia). Over the course of centuries Russians pushed more and more to the east with little to no resistance. They took Siberia little by little until they reached the other shore of the Atlantic. Then they moved into Alaska and even established a colony in California - however, the size was simply too much to handle, they had to sell it. Even so, the Soviets inherited a very huge amount of land from imperial Russia which itself expanded over a long period of time.

2) The Soviets ended up in the winning camp of URSS (even though in 1939 they collaborated with the Nazi in the partitioning of countries such as Finland, Poland, Romania). After the defeat of the Nazi, the entire Eastern Europe was under military occupation by the Soviets. The US, UK knew they won't leave but risking a new world war after just defeating Hitler was also not an option. Austria was close to falling in the Soviet sphere but both sides decided to make the country permanently neutral instead (which to this day still is). URSS was also looking for ways to import communism in border countries like Turkey, Greece and even Japan, Italy and France. This didn't happen but this shows the URSS could have been even bigger.

3) The local populations were subjected to ethnic assimilation, genocide and opression. Many were forced to learn Russian or at least adjust their native and adopt Russians words. Many peoples (Estonian, Romanians, Germans) were deported to gulags in Siberia and Kazahstan as Russian colonists were moved in newly annexed territories. This homogenized the population across the entire federation and increased Russians' hegemony over the other nations.

Then even the way Statin drew the borders was meant to divide and create animosities between the occupied peoples. Many of the conflicts today can in fact be traced back to the way the Soviets drew borders, including the Transnistria war in 1992 and the Nagorno-Karabah clashes in 2020, as well as border disputes in Fergana Valley in Central Asia. Creating the Moldavian Soviet Republic, URSS merged Bessarabia which was annexed from Romania and Transnistria, a strip of land that had virtually no history of integration with the rest of the country. In exchange, they annexed northern Bessarabia and Bukowina, Herza (where 9 of every 10 people are of Romanian descent) and Budjak to Soviet Ukraine, even though historically they belonged with Moldova. When people from these regions tried to get back into Romania, after the Soviets themselves spread the rumor that the URSS-Romania border opened, around 2000-3000 Romanians were killed in the Fântâna Albă Massacre (1941). It's possible up to 300k Romanians were persecuted or deported into Siberia in the URSS.

In southern Caucasus they instigated hostilies betwen Armenians and Azerbaijani for Nagorbo-Karabah (Armenian territory which wasn't annexed to Soviet Armenia but Azerbaijan) - one of the many instances in which Russia used the Divide et impera principle to keep at bay its minorities and strenghted the power of the central authorities.

Even this doesn't paint the whole picture though, one can write an entire book. I am sure many Estonians, Poles etc would be able to tell you other ways in which they suffered under the Soviets...

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During the first years of communism in Romania it's possible up to 2 Million people were persecuted or senteced to prison for political reasons. Between 1942 and 1952 some of them were subjected to intense physical and psychological torture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitești_Prison https://www.uncover-romania.com/attractions/history-culture/museums/sighet-memorial/

[Magui 2,656]

1 hour ago, FfFfFfFF said:

Oversimplified there are three reasons of the immense size of the URSS:

1) The Russians are basically Europe's easternmost group of people. To the east of the ancestral lands of the Russians lies a sparsely populated steppe and tundra with little to no mountains (the Russians are not mountain people, but steppe people - this is crucial for the way they were able to settle in the vast and mostly flat landscape of northern Eurasia). Over the course of centuries Russians pushed more and more to the east with little to no resistance. They took Siberia little by little until they reached the other shore of the Atlantic. Then they moved into Alaska and even established a colony in California - however, the size was simply too much to handle, they had to sell it. Even so, the Soviets inherited a very huge amount of land from imperial Russia which itself expanded over a long period of time.

2) The Soviets ended up in the winning camp of URSS (even though in 1939 they collaborated with the Nazi in the partitioning of countries such as Finland, Poland, Romania). After the defeat of the Nazi, the entire Eastern Europe was under military occupation by the Soviets. The US, UK knew they won't leave but risking a new world war after just defeating Hitler was also not an option. Austria was close to falling in the Soviet sphere but both sides decided to make the country permanently neutral instead (which to this day still is). URSS was also looking for ways to import communism in border countries like Turkey, Greece and even Japan, Italy and France. This didn't happen but this shows the URSS could have been even bigger.

3) The local populations were subjected to ethnic assimilation, genocide and opression. Many were forced to learn Russian or at least adjust their native and adopt Russians words. Many peoples (Estonian, Romanians, Germans) were deported to gulags in Siberia and Kazahstan as Russian colonists were moved in newly annexed territories. This homogenized the population across the entire federation and increased Russians' hegemony over the other nations.

Then even the way Statin drew the borders was meant to divide and create animosities between the occupied peoples. Many of the conflicts today can in fact be traced back to the way the Soviets drew borders, including the Transnistria war in 1992 and the Nagorno-Karabah clashes in 2020, as well as border disputes in Fergana Valley in Central Asia. Creating the Moldavian Soviet Republic, URSS merged Bessarabia which was annexed from Romania and Transnistria, a strip of land that had virtually no history of integration with the rest of the country. In exchange, they annexed northern Bessarabia and Bukowina, Herza (where 9 of every 10 people are of Romanian descent) and Budjak to Soviet Ukraine, even though historically they belonged with Moldova. When people from these regions tried to get back into Romania, after the Soviets themselves spread the rumor that the URSS-Romania border opened, around 2000-3000 Romanians were killed in the Fântâna Albă Massacre (1941). It's possible up to 300k Romanians were persecuted or deported into Siberia in the URSS.

In southern Caucasus they instigated hostilies betwen Armenians and Azerbaijani for Nagorbo-Karabah (Armenian territory which wasn't annexed to Soviet Armenia but Azerbaijan) - one of the many instances in which Russia used the Divide et impera principle to keep at bay its minorities and strenghted the power of the central authorities.

Even this doesn't paint the whole picture though, one can write an entire book. I am sure many Estonians, Poles etc would be able to tell you other ways in which they suffered under the Soviets...

 

1 hour ago, FfFfFfFF said:

During the first years of communism in Romania it's possible up to 2 Million people were persecuted or senteced to prison for political reasons. Between 1942 and 1952 some of them were subjected to intense physical and psychological torture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitești_Prison https://www.uncover-romania.com/attractions/history-culture/museums/sighet-memorial/

Thanks. While reading your summary i end up remembering some parts regarding the WWII from history classes. Soviet Union only had a problem with Hitler when, he started to "want to much" (with the operation Barbarossa)  cause if recall correctly they had pact of non aggression and divide territory amongst themselves.

Anyways it's completely obvious that a lot of oppression, killing, etc happened to invade and control such territories, and probably that still happens to this day. I vaguely remember the war in 90s regarding Grosny.

My understanding of what kind of oppression the countries near to URSS that were annexated, etc it's very limited, i imagine that people from those countries of course know every details and facts. 

Funny thing is how they always liked to talk about the other empires wrongdoings, etc, but they are exactly the same. Keeping everything under the rug behind the power of dictatorship.

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7 hours ago, Magui said:

Anyways it's completely obvious that a lot of oppression, killing, etc happened to invade and control such territories, and probably that still happens to this day. I vaguely remember the war in 90s regarding Grosny.

Truth be told, Russia doesn't have many legit secesionist movements today except for Checknya in South Caucasus. The indigenous peoples of Siberia aren't really looking to create their own states and actually are ok with Moscow's rule. 

7 hours ago, Magui said:

Funny thing is how they always liked to talk about the other empires wrongdoings, etc, but they are exactly the same. Keeping everything under the rug behind the power of dictatorship.

It's also unfortunate that this lack of information about URSS' history of colonialism and genocide makes many leaders and regular people in places like Latin America not see a problem in Russia's actions. They think imperialism only happenes when someone speaking Spanish/Portugese/English comes from a boat and lands somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.