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Let us ask ourselves: is the refusal of truth and justice for the crimes committed by Communist dictatorships and satellite satrapies in Europe only a matter of several new regimes, at least, of one very big regime in the territory, when they continue to praise the achievements of their criminal ancestors? Does it matter nothing to the others, say, those from the democratic community?

No, it matters. The war and similar crimes committed somewhere in Europe by the Europeans is our common European heritage. Their denial is our common European fault. The same with the lack of knowledge or sincere will to be acknowledged (to know?). With the lack of such will, we enjoy resurrection of comrade Stalin and are turning into his inheritors. I will quote you a little later some prophetic insight about it.  

Remember, how the Poles were infuriated by a single remark of one Western newspaper that Auschwitz was built and run in Poland! They were right by protesting, because Auschwitz was and remains to act in Europe. Similarly as Buchenwald, which served for the annihilation purposes of both tyrannies – the Nazis and the Soviets.

That heritage does affect us everywhere, not only in the venues extremely spotted with blood, which Nazi and Communist perpetrators used to shed so eagerly. Either they still walk around or lie in grounds free from any charge (?) or proper valuation – if there should be any for their deeds, – the moral situation is the same for the whole Europe, like that degenerate kicking of humiliated corpses, which we saw in Lithuania under the Soviet occupation.  

We are trying to follow the concept of European Parliament’s Resolution of 12 May 2005 about the necessity for Europe, after the two tyrannies so severely destroyed its past, to seek for reconciliation in truth and remembrance. Four years passed, and one of the inheritors of this gross criminal past, namely Russia, is even beyond the greater gap to the compliance with what we still call the universal values of being of humans together.  

While talking about the crimes committed by Communist regimes in Europe (seeking reconciliation in a framework of Europe first), there is worthy to understand that the roots of the evil are gaining new grounds in more sophisticated ways. We should see not only the Communist regimes formally in the past, but also those of mutant post-Communism as inheritors of some fundamental faults of their ancestors. These faults should be recognised as, i.e., negligence of the state of law, which is normally based on law established by real representatives of a nation. Essentially different is the regime based on "law" established by an authoritarian ruler, while a non-representative assembly of appointed persons serves only as a fake cover of that authoritarianism. Not to search far, Belarus and Russia are the examples just besides us. As Russia is disproportionally influential in European politics and is against any apology for its bad past and against reconciliation first with itself, - here is the main obstacle in our idealistic efforts to get a common humanistic progress. Even worse, our Europe goes appeasing to that neo-Stalinism, which praises its bloodiest person in line with Hitler, both never condemned for initiating World War II. In this way the EU is also turning, certainly, unconsciously, into an indirect inheritor of the moral legacy of Stalin.  

Let me remind you one remarkable poem by the famous Soviet poet Yevgenyi Yevtushenko under the title "Inheritors of Stalin". It was written and published in 1962.

                                   "Stalin did not die.

                                  He counts, everything yet may be corrected.

                                  We brought him out from the Mausoleum,

                                  but how to bring Stalin out from his inheritors?"

That was a problem, which remains acute until now. The poet went on warning:

                                   "He has something in mind.

                                  He went for a short rest only.

                                  I do address our government with a request:

                                  to double,

                                  to triple the guard at the tomb stone

                                  preserving that Stalin could not stand up

                                  and the past back with him".

45-47 years after that terrible prophecy, the past is back in Russia, the textbooks are rewritten on a personal order of President Putin to praise Joseph Stalin, and public opinion polls show him sometimes the first on the list and sometimes almost at the top in Russia's history.

This is a result of moral weakness not only of the Russian society, but also of the Europeans. By appeasing that unfortunate trend of the unfortunate Russia, which appeared to be unable to cope with its past consistently and to the end, we are approaching for ourselves the status of secondary, indirect inheritors of Stalin. Remember, Hitler and Ribbentrop were not condemned in Nuremberg for their initiative to launch the big war against their sovereign neighbours in between, and thus – against all the damned (doomed?) European democracies. How could it happen, that they were acquitted for such a crime? It happened thanks to the huge shadow of great Soviet homolog behind their backs.

The shadow is still there, now behind our backs.