Transcript The 70th anniversary of the German

The 70th anniversary of the GermanSoviet pact
in France and in Germany: a compared
study
Guillaume ORTOLAN
University of Bordeaux
Introduction
“These days we can note a remarkable political silence in Berlin and
Moscow about one of the most important commemorative facts in this
year of memory : no video message from the chancellor, no common
statement from both countries, no official message of regret - while on
August 23rd, 1939, the German and the Russian shared Europe and, with
the German-Soviet pact, set the bases of the war and of the iron curtain in
Central Europe”.
Sebastian Bickerich, « 70 Jahre Hitler-Stalin-Pakt », Tagesspiegel, August
22nd 2009
Seventy years after the signature of the German-Soviet pact, what differences
in the remembrance of this event can we observe in two countries such as
France and Germany which did not walk out of the Second World War
with the same perspectives?
I
The 70th anniversary of the
German-Soviet pact : one or
several anniversaries?
A) The pact is commemorated on the angle of the
release of entering war...
• “The 70th anniversary of the Second World War release
engendered a politico-ideological heated exchange
between Poland and Russia. For the Poles, it is obvious
that the non-aggression treaty, signed [...] between Nazi
Germany and the USSR and better known under the
name of “Soviet German pact”, which allowed the attack
of Poland on September 1st, 1939, was the release
mechanism of the Second World War. This thesis is
naturally rejected by Russia [...].”
Hassane Zerrouky , « Polémique autour du pacte germano-soviétique »,
L'Humanité, September 4th 2009
B)... but at the same time it was a real and lasting
turnover for Europe
- Planned displacement of more than a half-million
German from the Soviet sphere of influence
(Bessarabia, Bukovina, the Baltic) towards the
territories of the Reich.
- Human chain which gathered more than one and a
half million Estonians, Letts and Lithuanians on
678 km during 15 minutes on August 23rd 1989,
to denounce the pact Ribbentrop-Molotov and to
demand the independence of their countries.
II
Diversity of perceptions and
remembrance from one country
to another
A) On one hand a certain distance and fast
indifference for the event...
• Very weak cover of this pact in France : our study of every big
French daily paper near August 23rd, 2009 did not allow us to find a
single article dealing with this event.
• However, the pact is not ignored in France but having played a
decisive role in the baining of the Second World War although this
dimension is the only one that is taken into account.
• Actually just the weekly magazine Le Monde diplomatique
questioned this version in saying that France has « opened the way
to the destruction of Czechoslovakia » by the Munich Agreement,
and then eventually « the Soviet Union did exactly the same
thing ».
• François Fillon, the French Prime Minister didn't say a word during
his speech in Westerplatte about the German-Soviet pact or the
origin of the war and with a rather partial vision of history, he only
mentioned De Gaulle and the « France libre ».
B)... on the other hand consciousness of guilty
and duty of memory
• The length of the German articles also has to be underlined (on
average, two or three times longer than the French ones), as well as
their seriousness, since many of them are written by historicians, or
historicians' interviews.
• "In Germany this date is hardly known" but there stills a conscience
of its importance for Central and Eastern Europe and the German
responsability in this event.
• On the first of September, the Foreign Secretary Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, wrote an article with his Polish partner. On the same
day, chancellor Angela Merkel came to Westerplatte to apologize in
name of her country to all the victims of the war. But for the first
time a German Chancellor also declared that she considered the
exclusion of German population out of Poland after the Nazi defeat
as an "injustice".
III
German and French glances
concerning the Russian position
in this time
A) Scandal about the Russian statements:
Reason : the pact
•
“It is doubtless that we can rightly condemn the RibbentropMolotov pact which was signed in August, 1939 [...] but one year
earlier, did not France and Great Britain sign the famous treaty with
Hitler in Munich, ruining all the hopes to form a common front
against fascism?”.
Vladimir Putin, Gazeta Wyborcza (polnish newspaper), August 31st 2009
• Le Figaro accuses Russia to distil declassified “archival documents”
“tending to involve Poland in the preparation by Nazi Germany of
the invasion of Soviet Union” « in order to clear itself of
responsibility in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact». Der Spiegel evokes
an historical quarrel between Poland and Russia about the Soviet
Union’s responsibility in the beginning of the war.
B) Unanimous critics against Russian
nationalist revisionism
• Russian attempts to rehabilitate the pact and at the same time, some
Russian historicians say that Stalin's “brilliant blow” concerning the
entrance of the Soviet Union in the Second World War just two years
later”.
• To limit the divergent ways, the Russian Duma just voted (in May) a law
which forbides the evoke Stalinist crimes between 1939 and 1941 while
the Russian president has just created a commission in which he has “to
chase away the falsifications of history which could rewrite history (of the
Second World War) and damage the Russian interests”. That's the main
reason because Michael Ludwig entitled his article as : “A historical Picture
without awkward interrogation marks”
• Marie Jégo (Le Monde) binds this patriotism to the Russian-Georgian war
placed the last August and herself prepares a possible action in order to
be able to get back Crimea, this “intrinsically Russian” land for the
nationalists.
Conclusion
“To regret or to celebrate past events doesn't present
interest if we remain deaf to their teachings”.
Vaclev Havel, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, André Glucksmann, Bernard-Henri Lévy
et Adam Michnik, « Le test géorgien », Le Monde, September 21st 2009
“1939, the last dizzy spells before the war”
“Illusions. In summer 1939, France still enjoys itself.
Whereas in Berlin, between bluff and arm wrestling, Hitler
and the Allies lead a decisive diplomatic round. The war is
for tomorrow”.
François-Guillaume Lorrain, « 1939, derniers vertiges avant
la guerre », Le Point, August 27th 2009
•