MIM Notes 224   December 15, 2000

Baltic neo-Nazism simmers

On November 5, Latvia unveiled a monument "near Tukums in western 
Latvia" for 140,000 Latvian soldiers called legionnaires who 
served in the Nazi army. Government officials attended the 
unveiling. As an excuse for this act, the Baltic press cited the 
United States Government, which said in 1950 that non-German Nazi 
troops should be distinguished from German ones and not regarded 
as a threat to U.$. security.(1) Some Latvian politicians had the 
gall to ask Russia for war reparations on behalf of the Nazi side 
of World War II.

MIM has said all along that the U.S. Government has whitewashed 
fascism, especially in Eastern Europe. Now we see the chickens 
come home to roost. In pure geopolitical opportunism, the United 
$tates has provided backup vocals to every nationalist noise that 
comes out of Eastern Europe -- including fascist noise -- for the 
purpose of attacking the Soviet Union and now capitalist Russia. 
The Baltic Times spends its time calling for the example of Kosovo 
to be universal so that the military might of the United $tates 
will be used against Russia and Russian-leaning states of Eastern 
Europe to maintain mythical Latvian independence.

Aside from the U.$. imperialists integrating the Nazis into their 
empire, the ex-Soviet Union's phony communist leaders also share 
blame. By failing to keep society progressing as it had under 
Stalin, the phony communist leadership of the Soviet Union 
guaranteed that places like Latvia would break way and "do their 
own" thing as new republics.

MIM has no sympathy with the nationalism of the Baltic and Eastern 
European peoples that is not aimed at imperialism. There was never 
any objectively existing possibility of Latvia going a third road 
between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin. The 
Latvians had to choose their sides in World War II and to say 
otherwise is either a nationalist or pacifist myth -- idealism.

140,000 Latvian members of the Nazi army is a large number 
relative to the total population of Latvia now at 2.37 million. 
Reporter Tim Sebastien pointed out to the president of Latvia that 
per capita -- proportionately speaking that is -- Latvia had as 
big a role in World War II Nazism as the Germans. With such a 
large influence in the society of Nazism in the past, we are not 
surprised that thousands showed up to see the unveiling of the 
monument, and to live in denial about these World War II veterans 
of the Nazi army and their descendants, a denial not unlike that 
of some descendants of Confederate soldiers in the U.$ South. Such 
reactionaries prefer to believe sentimentally in the rightness of 
their own cause rather than endure criticism and self-criticism. 
They gained extraordinary aid from their president who has also 
put forward the line that Nazism was a German matter.

Internally, repression in Latvia has gone too far even for members 
of the ruling class involved. 25% of juvenile inmates in Latvia 
have been waiting for trial between 6 and 12 months and 6 percent 
for over two years.(2) AIDS and teenage suicide are growing in 
prison, and even the national prosecutor and prison administration 
are complaining things have gone too far in Latvia. 42% of all 
prisoners in Latvia are simply awaiting trial.

On the question of the Jews, we will note that Latvia has made 
some progress in public admission of the Holocaust. Work ranges 
from new museums to book introductions by the Latvian president.

Nonetheless, despite admissions in this matter, Latvians continue 
to defend pro-Nazi sympathies as preferable to or no worse than 
leaning toward the Soviet Union under Stalin. A BBC reporter named 
Tim Sebastien working for the show "HARDtalk" recently upbraided 
the Latvian president for making a clumsy comparison of Jews and 
cows. Sebastien was asking about murder and the Latvian president 
-- a womyn named Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga -- was trying to be 
"even-handed" in her approach to "crimes" by the communists and 
crimes by the fascists. It seemed even to the Western reporter 
that communist re-distribution of property (such as cows) ranked 
with murder of Jews in the Latvian president's mind. When asked 
about 41 World War II war criminals pardoned since Latvian 
independence in 1991, the Latvian president kept saying there was 
no evidence to prosecute the war criminals while there was 
evidence to prosecute the supposed crimes of communists or the 
fake communists that recently ruled Latvia.(3)

Meanwhile, in neighboring Lithuania, a Fulbright Scholar from the 
United $tates wrote to the Baltic Times to report sighting an 
entertainment skit in October by people dressed as Nazi SS. When 
the actors chased a concentration camp victim who died in the 
skit, the audience laughed and applauded. Mark Lenzi did not feel 
this was a parody, as the audience cheered for the beating and 
kicking of the victim.(4) Of course, MIM did not see the skit or 
audience reaction, but in the overall context that it is 
occurring, we share Lenzi's concerns.

Notes: 
1. Baltic Times, 16-22Nov2000, p. 3. 
2. Baltic Times, 16-22Nov2000, p. 1. 
3. Baltic Times, 9-15Nov2000, p. 3. 
4. Baltic Times, 9-15Nov2000, p. 19.