The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 12)

br> Re: Shawn Macomber's Another Red Square Bites the Dust : /p>

Thank you for printing "Another Red Square Bites the Dust." The history that was swept under the carpet after the Allied Victory is a vital part of knowledge that is required to make Europe a peaceful place. The vigilance of the Wiesenthal Institute in promoting the teaching of the Holocaust in all the history texts of countries around the world is needed in promoting the inclusion in text-books of the virtual holocaust millions suffered in the empire-building of Russia's various rulers, most notoriously those of Soviet Russia. Were young Russians as aware of their own history as Germans are of their past, the percentage of Putin-supporters would no doubt be considerably smaller. Their eyes would also be open to how Putin is destroying their own liberties.

p>Most Russians who are willing to wage attacks against post-Soviet countries who mourn the loss of innocent citizens are doing so under the ignorant belief that these countries are not countries at all . For them, the Soviet Union was a country, synonymous with Russia. (And until the nineties, many North American journalists in their early reports on the "breakaway" republics implied something similar.) For them small countries like Estonia and big countries like the Ukraine are simply separatist elements or rogue ethnic groups bent on destroying Russia and its great-empire heritage. There are progressive Russians who know their history and who would want the rest of their country to know it as well and base their future on a decent respect for neighboring countries. Many such Russians in Estonia today are as distressed as the indigenous population. They just want the hooliganism to go away. br> -- Mare Britton /p>

I want to congratulate you on your well-researched and comprehensive special report in The American Spectator entitled, "Another Red Square Bites the Dust." I wish some of the other people writing articles about the recent Russian riots in Tallinn and the siege of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow would have taken the time, like you, to place the story into a solid historical context.

I'm one of those fortunate Estonian refugees who escaped from my city of birth, Tallinn, on September 19th, 1944. Unfortunately, my mother and sister were not so lucky. I never saw my mother again (she died of thyroid cancer in Tallinn in 1952) and I saw my sister, Mainu, for the first time in the summer of 1982. She still lives in Tallinn today. I've told the story in Aftermath. The Introduction and Chapter 1 are on my website.

p>I want to personally thank you on behalf of the people of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland for putting the situation into a very balanced and accurate historical framework. The world needs more people like you who can, "tell it like it is!" br> -- Charles (Kalev) Ehin, Ph.D. br> Emeritus Professor of Management

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