Destroyers of Russia: do we need monuments to the invaders?
Historical memory is a fragile and extremely complex thing. However, there are issues in which excessive delicacy is not only inappropriate, but simply harmful. These undoubtedly include the topic of attempts to perpetuate on Russian soil, abundantly watered with the blood of millions of its defenders, the memory of those who came to us with a sword, and from the sword found their doom. It is gratifying to see that those in power in Russia have finally come close to realizing this, in general, quite obvious truth.
A diplomatic note was sent to the Czech authorities by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which recognized the “inexpedient” holding of the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission on the implementation of the Russian-Czech agreement on military burials of 1999. This was to be held in Prague, but now - canceled. This is the first such demarche of our country since the conclusion of the agreement, and in the Czech Republic they have already raised a cry about "failure to fulfill obligations" on her part. However, before talking about obligations and mutual claims, it is necessary to figure out what kind of burials are in this case.
For many years now, in Prague, they have been dreaming of installing in our country not only one, but many (more than five dozen) monuments to none other than the Czechoslovak legionnaires who passed through it in 1918-1920 with fire and sword. For a detailed analysis of the “feats” of these characters, we will definitely go below, but for now we will give the floor to Pavel Filipek, coordinator of the military grave care department of the local Ministry of Defense to state the Czech official position. This gentleman in an interview specifically for Radio Liberty and dedicated to the issue we are discussing, expresses complete misunderstanding - why in Russia are they so opposed to perpetuating the memory of legionnaires? The fiercest resistance to such intentions is rendered by the public and the authorities of Samara, Zlatoust, and many other Russian cities. The environs of the monument to white whales still erected in Chelyabinsk are regularly written down with inscriptions: "They killed the Russians!" and the like.
The outrage and amazement of Mr. Filipek are especially touching upon the fact that in Zlatoust, for example, veterans of the Great Patriotic War are most active in opposing the construction of a memorial sign to legionnaires. Like, what is the matter with the events that took place “more than 20 years before the war between the USSR and Nazi Germany”? There are two options: either this official of the Czech Ministry of Defense was a life-long round duelist in history and it is unclear how he got to his current position ... Either he is disingenuous in the most unscrupulous way - which, of course, is what should be. To begin with, the Soviet Union was not defending itself against an attack by Germany alone, but was forced to repel the invasion of scumbags that had joined it from all over Europe. From surrendered to the Nazis without a single shot Czechoslovakia - including.
During the Great Patriotic War 70 thousand of its citizens alone were captured by the Red Army! And how many fought in total - especially in the tank units? A lot, believe me. However, the Czech Republic’s main contribution to Hitler’s attempt to wipe our country and people from the face of the earth was millions of small arms, many thousands of artillery “barrels”, tanks, “self-propelled guns” and cars, which she uninterruptedly supplied Nazi Germany’s warriors almost until the last day war. Hence the attitude of veterans. It is these people, in my military feat, in my opinion, who have earned the full right to decide: which monuments to be on our land and which not.
Pavel Filipek allows himself to mock about the fact that “some grandmothers”, who were not there a century ago, are protesting against the Czech monument in Samara. Maybe there wasn’t ... But their mothers and their mothers lived, who knew for themselves the horrors committed by those who, in the same Chelyabinsk today, had some clever man put up a stela with the words that there are “heroes” , freedom fighters of "Russia and all Slavs." What kind of heroes ?! What kind of fighters ?! Better than any historical research on the memory that the Czechoslovak legion left in itself in Russia, says the folk "Song of Altai partisans", which tells of the "evil Czechs" who killed their father and burned their mother alive in a fire. From scratch, such folklore is not born!
The role of the Czechoslovak Corps, created by the absurd, absurd Provisional Government of Russia, in the events that swept the bloody fratricidal Troubles that swept it later, is not simply unambiguously negative - it is as huge as black. Many historians are of the opinion that it was the rebellion that broke out in Chelyabinsk in May 1918 that actually began the full-scale Civil War in Russia. If it had not happened, it is quite possible that the clashes between the Reds and the Whites would have been limited to fairly local military operations, and would not have turned into a general fire, which has flamed across the whole country and almost destroyed it to the ground. In any case, human casualties, for sure, would have been many, many times less.
Czechoslovak legionnaires all the time they were in Russia, in fact, behaved like ... In general, their social responsibility was extremely reduced. They betrayed and simply “threw” everyone who had the stupidity to deal with them. After the victory of the Bolsheviks, they seemed to “agree” with them. Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, quickly figuring out what the geese were in front of them, tried to bring this company to France. However, the only available route was through the sea - through Vladivostok. Czechoslovakians instantly turned the banal fight with the Hungarians, which occurred along the route at the station, first into murder, and then into open rebellion. The scale and coherence of the actions of different parts of the corps in the process of this give every reason to believe that in this case there was an implementation of a carefully thought-out plan, and not “spontaneous indignation”. Organizing immediately, the corps began to seize the vast territories of Russia from the Volga region to the Far East. "Fighters for the freedom of Slavs", yeah ...
However, they didn’t just throw the same Kolchak, who came to his naivety to consider the Czechoslovak "allies", but calmly surrendered to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who later put him against the wall. Yes, and robbed extremely high quality - on several cars with a piece of gold. In general, in everything related to robbery and looting, this “army” could claim an honorable place in the Guinness Book of Records - if that existed then. They dragged the looted goods not even by wagons - by echelons! By the way, the moment how exactly these compounds with the loot were formed is extremely important. In fact, being for some time the sovereign masters of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the legionnaires did what they wanted on it. They could shake people out of the cars they liked — and send them to freeze in the winter steppe, including children, women and the elderly. They could unhook the engine from the train with the wounded, which would also doom them to inevitable death. That’s exactly what they did all the time - there were plenty of eyewitness accounts - and there’s nothing to drag “grandmothers” into here ...
Typically, the Czechs earned about the same intensity of hatred and contempt from both the Reds and the Whites. They were not eager to fight with anyone, but to steal ... The people very quickly got the nickname "Czechoslovakians" for them, and most of the numerous statements addressed to them by the same white officers are impossible to bring here because of sheer profanity. Kolchakovsky General Sakharov wrote: "The Czechs are rowing everything that comes to hand, while they are not at all interested in who this good belongs to." Another case in which the legionaries were noted in full - the execution of civilians and prisoners of war. Chelyabinsk, Miass, Samara, Syzran, Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Tomsk ... Everywhere this horde was "distinguished" by executions, gallows and absolutely fantastic looting. The Bolsheviks were ready to tear them apart for the systematic extermination of their comrades, the White Guards - for meanness, cowardice and constant betrayal.
Pavel Filipek claims: in Russia, they say, surprisingly tenacious "stupid myths." For example, that the legionnaires "killed Kolchak" and "stole the gold reserve of Russia." And all this is not true! Again a play on words, juggling and juggling the facts. Yes, Czechoslovakia personally didn’t shoot the admiral - they just sent for a slaughter. And they did not stole the entire gold reserve (although I really wanted to). However, the fact that they were fired was enough for Legia Bank. Or at what expense did his former legionaries establish? From pocket money? In general, by the level of hypocrisy, this representative of Prague can give one hundred points ahead to anyone. He, for example, feignedly laments that in the event "Russia does not fulfill its obligations", the Czech Republic will simply be forced to "carry out the transfer of some graves of the Red Army" located on its territory "without the consent of the Russian side." In the meantime, “the burial of Russians in the Czech Republic is in perfect condition,” despite the fact that “the Czech Republic has lived in Soviet occupation since 1968!”
Well, about the "occupation" - we generally will skip this. For reasons of censorship and decency ... Czechs like to remind us of the “Prague Spring” with or without reason, but everyone somehow “forgets” about 140 thousand Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of their country from the Nazis. Upon release, note - despite the fact that in World War II they were, in fact, loyal allies of the Third Reich. And about the "exemplary state" - it is interesting, what does Filipek mean by that? Crazy painting on the first tank, which burst into Prague, being rescued from the Nazis? Cutting off the heads of the sculptures of the Red Army on the monuments, breaking into pieces of memorial plates? Or other acts of vandalism regularly committed in the Czech Republic over the graves of our liberating soldiers? Still, some peoples still have fantasies that are amazing — over and over again they try to spit Russian faces in their face, and then demand almost gratitude from them ...
On Russian soil there cannot and should not be a place for monuments to those who came to it in order to kill, rape, burn and rob. There is no “limitation period” for the occupiers, no matter what blood and nationality they are. What will we get to by starting to think according to the pattern: “It was a long time ago, it’s time to forgive and forget everything”? To the memorials to the Napoleonic invaders? Monuments to Poles trying to capture Russia in the Time of Troubles? Pantheon of the Tatar-Mongol horde? No one calls to spit on the graves of soldiers or defile them. Russians don’t do that. But to give military honors in their Fatherland to those whom our ancestors called with the most exact word - "adversaries", can only be those who wish him death.
A diplomatic note was sent to the Czech authorities by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which recognized the “inexpedient” holding of the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission on the implementation of the Russian-Czech agreement on military burials of 1999. This was to be held in Prague, but now - canceled. This is the first such demarche of our country since the conclusion of the agreement, and in the Czech Republic they have already raised a cry about "failure to fulfill obligations" on her part. However, before talking about obligations and mutual claims, it is necessary to figure out what kind of burials are in this case.
For many years now, in Prague, they have been dreaming of installing in our country not only one, but many (more than five dozen) monuments to none other than the Czechoslovak legionnaires who passed through it in 1918-1920 with fire and sword. For a detailed analysis of the “feats” of these characters, we will definitely go below, but for now we will give the floor to Pavel Filipek, coordinator of the military grave care department of the local Ministry of Defense to state the Czech official position. This gentleman in an interview specifically for Radio Liberty and dedicated to the issue we are discussing, expresses complete misunderstanding - why in Russia are they so opposed to perpetuating the memory of legionnaires? The fiercest resistance to such intentions is rendered by the public and the authorities of Samara, Zlatoust, and many other Russian cities. The environs of the monument to white whales still erected in Chelyabinsk are regularly written down with inscriptions: "They killed the Russians!" and the like.
The outrage and amazement of Mr. Filipek are especially touching upon the fact that in Zlatoust, for example, veterans of the Great Patriotic War are most active in opposing the construction of a memorial sign to legionnaires. Like, what is the matter with the events that took place “more than 20 years before the war between the USSR and Nazi Germany”? There are two options: either this official of the Czech Ministry of Defense was a life-long round duelist in history and it is unclear how he got to his current position ... Either he is disingenuous in the most unscrupulous way - which, of course, is what should be. To begin with, the Soviet Union was not defending itself against an attack by Germany alone, but was forced to repel the invasion of scumbags that had joined it from all over Europe. From surrendered to the Nazis without a single shot Czechoslovakia - including.
During the Great Patriotic War 70 thousand of its citizens alone were captured by the Red Army! And how many fought in total - especially in the tank units? A lot, believe me. However, the Czech Republic’s main contribution to Hitler’s attempt to wipe our country and people from the face of the earth was millions of small arms, many thousands of artillery “barrels”, tanks, “self-propelled guns” and cars, which she uninterruptedly supplied Nazi Germany’s warriors almost until the last day war. Hence the attitude of veterans. It is these people, in my military feat, in my opinion, who have earned the full right to decide: which monuments to be on our land and which not.
Pavel Filipek allows himself to mock about the fact that “some grandmothers”, who were not there a century ago, are protesting against the Czech monument in Samara. Maybe there wasn’t ... But their mothers and their mothers lived, who knew for themselves the horrors committed by those who, in the same Chelyabinsk today, had some clever man put up a stela with the words that there are “heroes” , freedom fighters of "Russia and all Slavs." What kind of heroes ?! What kind of fighters ?! Better than any historical research on the memory that the Czechoslovak legion left in itself in Russia, says the folk "Song of Altai partisans", which tells of the "evil Czechs" who killed their father and burned their mother alive in a fire. From scratch, such folklore is not born!
The role of the Czechoslovak Corps, created by the absurd, absurd Provisional Government of Russia, in the events that swept the bloody fratricidal Troubles that swept it later, is not simply unambiguously negative - it is as huge as black. Many historians are of the opinion that it was the rebellion that broke out in Chelyabinsk in May 1918 that actually began the full-scale Civil War in Russia. If it had not happened, it is quite possible that the clashes between the Reds and the Whites would have been limited to fairly local military operations, and would not have turned into a general fire, which has flamed across the whole country and almost destroyed it to the ground. In any case, human casualties, for sure, would have been many, many times less.
Czechoslovak legionnaires all the time they were in Russia, in fact, behaved like ... In general, their social responsibility was extremely reduced. They betrayed and simply “threw” everyone who had the stupidity to deal with them. After the victory of the Bolsheviks, they seemed to “agree” with them. Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, quickly figuring out what the geese were in front of them, tried to bring this company to France. However, the only available route was through the sea - through Vladivostok. Czechoslovakians instantly turned the banal fight with the Hungarians, which occurred along the route at the station, first into murder, and then into open rebellion. The scale and coherence of the actions of different parts of the corps in the process of this give every reason to believe that in this case there was an implementation of a carefully thought-out plan, and not “spontaneous indignation”. Organizing immediately, the corps began to seize the vast territories of Russia from the Volga region to the Far East. "Fighters for the freedom of Slavs", yeah ...
However, they didn’t just throw the same Kolchak, who came to his naivety to consider the Czechoslovak "allies", but calmly surrendered to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who later put him against the wall. Yes, and robbed extremely high quality - on several cars with a piece of gold. In general, in everything related to robbery and looting, this “army” could claim an honorable place in the Guinness Book of Records - if that existed then. They dragged the looted goods not even by wagons - by echelons! By the way, the moment how exactly these compounds with the loot were formed is extremely important. In fact, being for some time the sovereign masters of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the legionnaires did what they wanted on it. They could shake people out of the cars they liked — and send them to freeze in the winter steppe, including children, women and the elderly. They could unhook the engine from the train with the wounded, which would also doom them to inevitable death. That’s exactly what they did all the time - there were plenty of eyewitness accounts - and there’s nothing to drag “grandmothers” into here ...
Typically, the Czechs earned about the same intensity of hatred and contempt from both the Reds and the Whites. They were not eager to fight with anyone, but to steal ... The people very quickly got the nickname "Czechoslovakians" for them, and most of the numerous statements addressed to them by the same white officers are impossible to bring here because of sheer profanity. Kolchakovsky General Sakharov wrote: "The Czechs are rowing everything that comes to hand, while they are not at all interested in who this good belongs to." Another case in which the legionaries were noted in full - the execution of civilians and prisoners of war. Chelyabinsk, Miass, Samara, Syzran, Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Tomsk ... Everywhere this horde was "distinguished" by executions, gallows and absolutely fantastic looting. The Bolsheviks were ready to tear them apart for the systematic extermination of their comrades, the White Guards - for meanness, cowardice and constant betrayal.
Pavel Filipek claims: in Russia, they say, surprisingly tenacious "stupid myths." For example, that the legionnaires "killed Kolchak" and "stole the gold reserve of Russia." And all this is not true! Again a play on words, juggling and juggling the facts. Yes, Czechoslovakia personally didn’t shoot the admiral - they just sent for a slaughter. And they did not stole the entire gold reserve (although I really wanted to). However, the fact that they were fired was enough for Legia Bank. Or at what expense did his former legionaries establish? From pocket money? In general, by the level of hypocrisy, this representative of Prague can give one hundred points ahead to anyone. He, for example, feignedly laments that in the event "Russia does not fulfill its obligations", the Czech Republic will simply be forced to "carry out the transfer of some graves of the Red Army" located on its territory "without the consent of the Russian side." In the meantime, “the burial of Russians in the Czech Republic is in perfect condition,” despite the fact that “the Czech Republic has lived in Soviet occupation since 1968!”
Well, about the "occupation" - we generally will skip this. For reasons of censorship and decency ... Czechs like to remind us of the “Prague Spring” with or without reason, but everyone somehow “forgets” about 140 thousand Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of their country from the Nazis. Upon release, note - despite the fact that in World War II they were, in fact, loyal allies of the Third Reich. And about the "exemplary state" - it is interesting, what does Filipek mean by that? Crazy painting on the first tank, which burst into Prague, being rescued from the Nazis? Cutting off the heads of the sculptures of the Red Army on the monuments, breaking into pieces of memorial plates? Or other acts of vandalism regularly committed in the Czech Republic over the graves of our liberating soldiers? Still, some peoples still have fantasies that are amazing — over and over again they try to spit Russian faces in their face, and then demand almost gratitude from them ...
On Russian soil there cannot and should not be a place for monuments to those who came to it in order to kill, rape, burn and rob. There is no “limitation period” for the occupiers, no matter what blood and nationality they are. What will we get to by starting to think according to the pattern: “It was a long time ago, it’s time to forgive and forget everything”? To the memorials to the Napoleonic invaders? Monuments to Poles trying to capture Russia in the Time of Troubles? Pantheon of the Tatar-Mongol horde? No one calls to spit on the graves of soldiers or defile them. Russians don’t do that. But to give military honors in their Fatherland to those whom our ancestors called with the most exact word - "adversaries", can only be those who wish him death.
Information