The deputies looked for the past in the present - Picture of the day - Kommersant

The deputies looked for the past in the present - Picture of the day - Kommersant



The State Duma on Wednesday unanimously adopted a statement "On the genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union by Germany and its accomplices during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, emphasized that a crime similar to the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide in 1915 was committed against Soviet citizens, and Western countries should understand this. At the same time, the deputies argued about whether it is necessary to single out the Russian people in the text as the most oppressed by the Nazis. The list of countries guilty of war crimes against the peoples of the USSR also provoked a discussion.

The committees on international affairs and defense acted as initiators of the draft statement. The document says that the Duma considers it fundamentally important to give a judicial and legal assessment of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Great Patriotic War by the German authorities, "its armed forces, including the SS troops, their accomplices - armed units formed in the territories of Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and other states, individual volunteers from Austria, Latvia, Poland, France and the Czech Republic, as well as traitors from among the inhabitants of the occupied territories who swore allegiance to the Nazi regime. In the decisions of the Russian courts, these acts are qualified as "genocide of national, ethnic and racial groups that were the population of the USSR - the peoples of the Soviet Union," recalled in statement.

The total losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War are estimated at 25-27 million people, of which 13.7 million people account for the civilian population in the occupation zone.

At the same time, the deputies criticize the current German authorities for “attempts to promote a false thesis about the alleged joint responsibility and identity of Hitler’s Germany and the USSR” and the adoption in 2022 of an “anti-historical Russophobic act” - a resolution recognizing the mass famine on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR in 1932–1933 as “genocide Ukrainian people". The authors did not forget about the current events in Ukraine, blaming the deterioration of the military-political situation "in the conflict zone and on the Eurasian continent as a whole" not only on the "puppet Kiev regime", but also "on those who supply it with deadly weapons" , that is, "the collective West led by the United States."

Speaking with a report, the head of the committee on international affairs, Leonid Slutsky (LDPR), said that leading historians, who subsequently participated in the work on the document, had asked the deputies to accept such a statement.

And the chairman of the defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov (United Russia), attacked colleagues who were talking during Mr. Slutsky's speech on such an important issue: "There is parliamentary discipline, but there is also the discipline of conscience!" “If we take into account that case law is widespread in Western jurisprudence — here is the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide is the same — then the destruction of Soviet prisoners of war and the civilian population of the USSR, without a doubt, was an act of genocide,” he explained the meaning of the statement. As a matter of fact, the deputies had no objections to the document, but questions arose regarding some details.

So, Mikhail Delyagin from A Just Russia - For Truth did not like the fact that the accomplices of fascism in the text are called with a good word "volunteers". “Maybe we can find some synonym for the type of initiator or bastard?” suggested the deputy. He also called for mentioning Estonia, Ukraine and Poland among the countries whose military formations helped the Nazis. Leonid Slutsky agreed that the word "volunteers" in a negative connotation "hurts the eye", but explained that this is how they were called in historical books. He also reminded his colleague that Ukraine and Estonia were part of the USSR at that time, but agreed to add Poland to the accomplices.

Sergei Obukhov (KPRF) expressed the opinion that the statement should contain the phrase "the Russian people as the most affected by the genocide," and the genocide itself should be designated by the term "scaffold."

“They simply won’t understand the term ‘scaffold’ or ‘rack’,” Andrey Kartapolov disagreed. “We must beat them with their own weapons, they invented the word ‘genocide’.” Nikolai Kolomeytsev, the first deputy head of the Communist Party faction, immediately objected to this that "we must impose our own language."

Anatoly Greshnevikov (SRZP), in turn, proposed to list all the peoples against whom the genocide was carried out. Mr. Kartapolov retorted that this "practically removes the meaning of the document." “They were killed, cut, burned, raped as citizens of the Soviet Union, and not as Ukrainians, Belarusians, Dagestanis, Jews and Tatars, understand this!” - the head of the defense committee emotionally explained.

Finally, Konstantin Zatulin (ER) found a mistake in the title of the document: “They don’t say that - genocide by Germany. It is necessary to say "from the side of Germany".

At the same time, he supported the Communists in that the Russian people suffered the most. “It would be more logical to say: genocide of the Russian and other peoples of the Soviet Union,” suggested the deputy. Leonid Slutsky assured that he had consulted with linguists, and Andrey Kartapolov urged his colleagues to leave perfectionism so as not to “splash the child’s document with muddy water.” The head of the defense committee recalled the purpose of the statement: “We must force them to recognize the genocide. Now, if we create a precedent, we will force them to recognize the genocide even now.” He also explained why Japan was not mentioned in the statement: "Japan has not occupied a single meter of Soviet land, it has not been engaged in the killing of civilians."

As a result, the draft statement was unanimously supported by 410 deputies. They met the announcement of the voting results standing up and with applause.

Ksenia Veretennikova



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