The op-ed below is dead on. Without the "Great Patriotic War" to redeem it, the Soviet Union would be viewed in Russia today as it actually was: a sick, self-deluded murder machine. Putin knows this. He also knows that without a redeemable Soviet Union to link Russia's present with its Imperial past, Russia would be a state decoupled from history.
Soviet glory in WW II provides the unifying mythos that Russia needs to maintain a positive self-image in these trying, often humiliating, times. Minus the comforting delusion that "the Soviet Union saved the world from Fascism," Russia today would be nothing but the orphan of a serial killer. (The Soviet Union was itself a fascist state, with all the fascist hallmarks: a single political party; a cult of the Great Leader; secret police and prisons; expansionist military policies and state identification with the military; state-controlled media and propaganda; concentration camps for dissidents and undesirables; even pogroms against Jews).
May 9 (Victory Day) is coming soon, when Russian pride about WW II victory is at its peak. Maybe all this pride serves a positive purpose, but… at the cost of self-delusion?
Every nation has its unifying myths, and these myths aren't all bad. I would argue, however, that the younger the nation, the more important these myths are. (The United States, by comparison, has more than its fair share of founding myths; and its tender age is probably the reason why.) Without a long, storied history with which to define itself, a nation struggles to find its "national idea," its place in the world of other nations beyond its geography, customs, etc.
Russia today is a young nation, a nation reincarnated. So the unifying myth of the "Great Patriotic War," (a term coined by Stalin), is vitally important to maintaining Russia's fragile young ego. It's very comforting to believe that in a past life you accomplished magnificent things.
The only problem arises when someone, or some nation, "insults" that myth. This is what Estonia has done to Russia, and it's paying the price.
By Risto Penttila
May 4, 2007 | International Herald Tribune
Russia is the largest country in the world by area and has 150 million. Estonia is one of the smallest states in Europe with a population of 1.5 million. Yet Russia's politicians and media are spending an awful lot of time, band-width and ink these days bashing the Estonians.
Why is the elephant so concerned with of the mouse? And why are the Russian comments so emotionally charged?
The questions are particularly pertinent in the wake of the removal of an old Soviet statue, the so-called "Bronze Soldier," from the center of Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
Part of the answer is that the statue symbolizes different things for different people: For the Estonians it is a reminder of Soviet occupation; for the Russians the statue is a tribute to the role of the Red Army in defeating Nazi Germany.
Yet something more fundamental is at play here. We are dealing with a great power that is failing to come to terms with its diminished stature.
For many Russians, Estonia today is Finland in the 1930s - a former pearl of the empire whose independent existence is a painful reminder of a glorious past.
Finland became independent in 1917 at a time when Imperial Russia was in the process of becoming the Soviet Union. Estonia became independent (for the second time) in 1991, when the Soviet Union was in the process of becoming Russia.
In the 19th century Finland had been the most modern part of the Russian empire; in the 20th century Estonia had had the same distinction in the Soviet Union.
Being a runaway child is not easy. In the 1930s, the Soviet Union accused Finland of all sorts of bad things - it was a Nazi stooge, a fascist sympathizer, an unreliable neighbor.
In the spring of 2007 similar accusations are being made against Estonia: It mistreats Russians, glorifies fascists and, of course, is an unreliable neighbor.
One can understand why Stalin's Russia was so hostile to a capitalist Finland in the 1930s. But why is Putin's Russia so hostile to a democratic Estonia? After all, the Bronze Soldier has to do with the Soviet Union, not with the Russian Federation.
The answer is simple: The present Russian regime sees itself as an heir to the Soviet Union.
The contrast to the Yeltsin years is radical - Boris Yeltsin turned against the Soviet Union and declared Russia independent of the Soviet empire. Intellectually he was in the same camp with the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians - all wanted to make a clean break with the past.
A clean break with the past is the last thing President Vladimir Putin wants. For him, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical mistake of the 20th century. For him, there is no distinction between Russia of today, the Soviet Union of yesterday and the Imperial Russia of yore. The history of these three is a continuing history of Russian greatness.
The Kremlin wants to salvage the last moral justification for the existence of the Soviet Union - that its brave people played a crucial role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Without this justification, the whole Soviet era appears a sorry experiment, an absurd period of history.
By attacking Estonians for their lack of respect for an old Soviet statue, the Russian are sending a strong warning to anyone who seeks to equate the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany.
The stakes are high. For Finland it took two wars and 50 years of diplomatic tip-toeing to reach a relaxed relationship with Russia.
Nobody is talking about war now, but it is quite clear that the animosity between Russia and Estonia is not going to go away any time soon.
Risto Penttila is director of EVA, a Finnish business and policy forum.
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