The forum titled “The Great Victory Achieved through Unity” has been held once a year since 2010. The first forums were held in Russian cities of military valor – Tuapse, Vladikavkaz and Kursk and then in the hero-city Volgograd. In 2015, the year marking the 70th anniversary of victory, the hero-city Moscow welcomed the forum participants.
The forum gathered scholars, political scientists, public figures and veterans of the Great Patriotic war from 16 countries of the near abroad – from all of the forum republics of the USSR and Abkhazia. In total there were approximately 500 participants, including 51 veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The youngest was 88 years old while the eldest – Nazyrkul Abdyldaev of Kyrgyzstan – was 96.
“I thought I wouldn’t come,” admitted Nazyrkul Abdyldaev, “but since I came, I will say this. Over the past 20 years I have heard such much rubbish about the war of 1941-1945. That it was a ‘foreign’ war for Central Asia and that it was a war to liberate the USSR from Soviet power and that there should be no more celebrating of ‘dictator Stalin’s holiday’. Here’s what I want to say: enough already. Those who we liberated Europe of – the fascists and their toadies – are telling us that they are the liberators and we are barbarians. We stomped on Europe with Stalin’s boot. Who is guilt of the fact that people are listening to this lie? Only we are. And that’s very insulting.”
The veteran’s speech set a very high benchmark for the polemics between the scholars and political commentators. The focus was on whether or not a unified or basic history textbook needs to be created for countries of the CIS which would not distort the historical truth. And could this be done without exaggerating the contribution of each country to the common victory.
“For now for various reasons, objective and subjective, we have not been able to reach an agreement on the publication of a common textbook,” says Leila Akhmetova, Director of the UNESCO Center at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. “However, there is an essential understanding: victory in the Great Patriotic War has become one of the core elements of cultural and historical commonality of the peoples of the Commonwealth of Independent States. This is a framework which is capable of strengthening our relations – economic, trade and simply neighborly relations.”
At the same time, Akhmetova noted that there remain different approaches to the war within the CIS. Uzbekistan, Moldova and Ukraine call it World War II while the Baltic states place an emphasis on the national liberation movements for independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as participants of the forum cautiously noted, the trend toward “privatization of Victory” has been overcome, however the subsequent attempts by certain elements of the national elite to call the war a “foreign” war continue. The participants of the forum were particularly disconcerted by the continuation of the dismantling of monuments related to the Great Patriotic War in Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
All of the participants of the forum said that the “war of monuments” can only be addressed though civilized means – instilling in the young generation a historical memory and historical worldview through meticulous awareness efforts.
For the sake of bringing positions closer together, the forum included four thematic sessions – “The Great Victory in the History of the Peoples of the CIS”, “Historical Memory: Mechanisms for Preserving and Imparting”, “The Great Victory: A Legacy of Generations” and “Media on the War: Mission and Responsibilities”. One of the important events of the forum and an element of awareness efforts was the opening of an international exhibition in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War titled “We Were Together in the Fight Against Nazism”. Many items of the exhibition, including unique archive documents from 16 countries in the region, personal affects of those who fought on the frontlines, were presented to the public for the first time.
“There are facts which by their very existence prove the truth,” said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at the opening of the exhibition. “Every exhibit item here bears witness to the truth. One cannot disbelieve them or deny them. This is why they have such great value. They also help in the fight against the distortion of history and do not allow for the falsification of the results of the Great Patriotic War.”
Upon conclusion of the forum’s work, the participants came to a general conclusion that the common victory represents a chance to live in peace and foster good neighborly relations. However, for this to happen it is necessary for the youth of CIS countries to develop an objective and credible picture of the Great Patriotic War.
“It is very important not only to call things by their names – the destruction of a monument is the destruction of a monument, a lie is a lie – but also to speak with youth in their own language – the language of gadgets, audio files and the internet,” said Kazakh writer Olzhas Suleimenov. “Otherwise the war will gradually fade from the cultural realm of the young generation. It is already fading from part of the countries of Central Asia where the last participants of the Great Patriotic War are dying out. We have families now, and quite a few, where there are no grandfathers or great grandfathers who fought in the war. They have died. There is no one left to tell about the real war. And it is being replaced by war games in films and on the internet.
Pyotr Tolochko, an academician of the National Academy of Ukraine, agreed: “The internet generation has emerged which has studied the war online and by ‘textbooks’ sent by the diaspora. These young people joined the Maidan protests and then the entire world finds out what happens to a people which allows its history to be forgotten. In my native village there are 319 graves of participants of the Great Patriotic War. For the first time the official authorities have forbidden that these graves be cared for under the pretext that they are the “graves of occupiers”.
In order to prevent the revision of history the participants of the forum agreed to continue their work on a basic history textbook for universities of the CIS and to strengthen multilateral academic ties for the sake of preserving a common historical and cultural space.
Anna Loshchikhina
