Studio ČT24: Historians Jindřich Marek and Petr Koura (source: ČT24)
On Wednesday, the Czech Republic commemorates 79 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. Although the Soviets were part of the anti-Hitler coalition, according to the historian of the Military Historical Institute Jindřich Marko, people must not forget the monstrosity of Stalin’s regime, which reigned in the Soviet Union at the time. If people don’t associate this, a situation arises when part of the public “blindly adores the Soviet Union”, the historian pointed out. Petr Koura, head of the Department of History and History Didactics of the Faculty of Education of the UK, agrees with this. According to him, the Soviets in 1945 did not see the situation as liberating Czechoslovakia, but as expanding their territory.
Parallels between the Second World War and the current Russian invasion of Ukraine resonated in the speeches of politicians in Prague’s Vítkov. For example, Petr Fiala (ODS) said that peace does not happen by waiting for it, but must strive for it. “The conflict can only end when the aggressor is defeated. Security must be ensured in cooperation with our allies,” the prime minister said.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine stands and falls on Putin’s Russia, noted historian Marek. Likewise, according to him, the only solution to the Second World War was the defeat and unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. “The behind-the-scenes attempts at negotiations, whether it was a separate peace for Germany or its capitulation, were only in front of the Western allies,” the historian recalled.
“Probably (the prime minister) didn’t mean a complete military defeat, that would probably be very naive. But a diplomatic, political, economic defeat that would lead to the parties sitting down to negotiate peace,” added Marek.
Those who do not learn from their own history are doomed to relive it, Koura declared. “I acknowledge with gratitude that our politicians are willing to learn from history. (…) Now it’s just a matter of making sure it doesn’t become just a phrase,” he pointed out, adding that the statements should be taken seriously.
We must understand the Soviets as part of the anti-Hitler coalition, but we must not forget the political system, Stalinism, which reigned there then, Marek pointed out. “Paradoxically, a former ally of Hitler got into that coalition. When we refer to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The Soviets were forced to do so by Hitler. There was a period when Europe really had little, when, for example, in April 1941, when Yugoslavia fell, Great Britain was the last opponent of the Nazis,” he explained.
“We should separate and remember the ordinary ordinary soldiers who died – be they Russians, Tajiks, Ukrainians, Belarusians and the like – fighting the Nazis. But we still need to remember the monstrosity of the regime that drove them into that war,” emphasized Marek. If people don’t associate this, a situation arises when part of the public “blindly adores the Soviet Union”, the historian pointed out.
Koura also agrees with this. According to him, the Soviets in 1945 did not see the situation as liberating Czechoslovakia, but as expanding their territory. “We can see it, for example, on the famous monument to the Smíchov tank, where there are the names of the soldiers, (…) but it says that they fell for the Soviet homeland — not for Czechoslovakia,” he gave as an example. According to him, the Soviets thus showed Czechoslovakia that it was part of their territory and that they would not give it up easily.
“In 1945, many democratic politicians overlooked it, did not pay attention to it,” stated Koura. Liberation by the Red Army therefore played a big role in the subsequent transformation of the then state into a communist regime, Koura believes. However, the elections in 1946 decided it definitively, as he recalled.
