In early 2021, Lev Golinkin, neither historian nor sociologist, published a piece in the Forward on monuments to Nazi collaborators, listing all the monuments to the Latvian Legion in Latvia, as well as the Latvian Beehive erected to the memory of the 11,700-12,000 Legionnaires held in British-administered Zedelgem POW Camp, in Belgium.
A firestorm erupted as the piece went viral, with so-called “investigations” discovering the Latvian Legion was linked to “Nazi shock troops” and giving credence to Kremlin propaganda attacking the Legion. Unsurprisingly, a committee determined the monument could not stay put as is. Research indicates that of the 11,700-12,000 Latvians held in Zedelgem, 69 can be confirmed to be Holocaust collaborators.
Apparently, Legionnaires cannot be honored in any public space. By the identical logic, there should not be any U.S. memorials to Vietnam War veterans because that would be honoring the criminals who participated in the Mỹ Lai massacre.
We were deeply saddened to hear of the the passing yesterday of Latvian Holocaust scholar Andrew (Andrievs) Ezergailis.
Andrievs Ezergailis (1930–2022) — Historian, Doctor of Humanities, foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, awarded the Order of the Three Stars 4th Class. Born in Viesīte Municipality, Latvia. As the Soviet army reinvaded Latvia, his family fled to Germany — the only other option being the dangerous attempt to cross the Baltic Sea to Sweden. In 1949, the family emigrated to the United States. After completing his doctoral studies, Ezergailis was appointed to a professorship at Ithaca College (New York state) where he lectured on Russian and contemporary European history. Ezergailis subsequently concentrated on the Holocaust in German Nazi-occupied Latvia, devoting countless articles and numerous books to the topic, including his seminal Holocaust in Latvia, 1941–1944 (1996).
Ezergailis’s passion for following documents and documented facts wherever they led inspired discussion and provoked both champions and critics of his unyielding quest to strip away propaganda and hearsay to arrive at historical truth.
After the death of his wife Inta, he edited and published a four-volume anthology of her poetry.
Peters curates Andrievs Ezergailis’ official Holocaust scholarship web site, atholocaustinlatvia.org.
Mācītāja viedoklis: Kā Krievijas specdienesti izmanto reliģiju, lai šķeltu Latvijas sabiedrību
Autors: Mārcis Jencītis, Evaņģēlisko kristiešu draudzes “Kristus Pasaulei” vecākais mācītājs. 2014. gada 3. maijs 09:50
Pastor’s opinion: How the Russian special services are using religion to split Latvian society
By Marcis Mārcis Jencītis, senior pastor, Evangelical Christian Church “Christ for the World,” 2014 May 3rd, 09:50
For numerous centuries the Russian Empire [1] has been implementing a very clearly defined policy—one faith, one language, one tsar. In the Russian Federation itself, being reborn today as an empire, the foundation of that policy has been successfully implemented: a single faith—Orthodox Christianity with Patriarch Kirill at its head, language—Russian, emperor—Vladimir Putin. To understand Russia’s policies in Latvia at this moment, one must search out the common denominators in precisely these three underpinnings of empire.
In order to expand and maintain its empire, Russia exploits Russophones in the territory of the former USSR and even beyond that territory as a fifth column. It wasn’t that long ago that Russian special forces fought for this, to keep Latvia’s Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians under one faith. After Latvia regained its independence, many Russians turned to the Christian faith, actively attending Protestant, including evangelical Christian, churches. To pursue consolidation of Russians under a single flag of faith, a “campaign to combat sectarianism” was launched in Latvia. The “Latvian committee on the struggle against totalitarian sects” was established with Professor Alexander Dvorkin at the helm. This committee employed KGB propaganda techniques and soon flooded our country’s mass media with materials slandering and defaming Protestant, and particularly independent, congregations. The chekists [2] did their job to perfection, and, if you ask some Russian in Latvia, where today nearly all are Orthodox Christian, about Protestant churches, their answer will be unanimous—they are sects! This artificially created concept exists even among Latvians, and Latvian churches themselves declare undesirable competition “sects,” thus bolstering Russian policy.
It’s interesting, then, that Russian special operations carried out a similar operation on the territory of Ukraine. Protestants, evangelical Christians, were strong supporters of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, which in no way meshed with Russia’s interests. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dvorkin busied himself there as well [3], with obvious consequences.
The next step is to actualize the idea of one language, and that is now being worked on actively. Recently, political and societal organizations backed by Russian interests even achieved holding a referendum, for our second state language to be Russian. Today these same organizations, under the cover of the Kremlin, fight and creates the false notion among Latvian Russians, Latvians, and the world, that Russians and their language are discriminated against, oppressed, and that fascism is being reborn in our country. As a result of this propaganda, even the United Nations has directed Latvia’s government to observe Russian rights. The truth, in fact, is completely the opposite—fascism is being reborn in Russia, and it threatens not just Latvia but all the rest of the democratic world.
First, Russia’s special forces successfully waged a war for a single religion, now is the war for one language, and, indeed, the conclusion will be the war for one king. That means that part, or all of Latvia, will come under Putin’s control.
Latvia’s politicians underestimate Russian forces which now employ Soviet Cold War tactics. Many believe, that such unrefined methods can no longer be effective today and that people won’t be taken in by them. Yet history demonstrates just the opposite, and even my own observations today yield a completely different picture. “The bigger the lies, the more people believe them.” So said Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, in his time.
Many talk about NATO as a guarantor of security, in reality NATO is likelier an invitation to military invasion. NATO will not be able to protect us if, in our own land, we can’t maintain order and stand up for our national interests, not spinelessly indulge world powers for the the sake of beloved peace. If we ourselves relinquish our freedom and land to the aggressor in the east, not the United States, not the the European Union will be able to help us—and won’t help. If we do nothing to counter the Kremlin’s ideology, then we will wind up in the unenviable situation, which in fact is already at our door.
One propaganda channel of Russian lies has been shut down, but four continue to operate freely, and in its place, to contain this agitation, TV 3 also disappeared from the Lattelecom cable television lineup.
We, the Latvian people, must stand up for a free, sovereign and democratic Latvian state one language—Latvian, with freedom of religion and a popularly elected government. Let Russia never rule here with their language, their religion and their tsar. God created us for freedom!
Although the Cheka name as an organization ceased to exist after the establishment of its successor, the KGB, “chekist” remains the preferred nomenclature for Soviet, now Russian, state security.
