Expert on fascism in Europe and importance of spreading the truth about WWII events
In modern conditions, when the ideas of fascism are sprouting in Europe, Belarus’ main task is to preserve the memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War and spread this information around the world – as stated by Aleksei Avdonin, an expert at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research, in his talk with Alfa Radio
The Khatyn tragedy was recently celebrated, and the Supreme Court of Belarus also sentenced one of the executioners of Khatyn, Vladimir Katryuk, who had been found guilty of committing genocide.
With this in view, Mr. Avdonin noted that – when talking about Khatyn – Belarusians recall thousands more villages burned down by the Nazi occupiers and their accomplices countrywide. “It is important to understand that there were no such concepts as collaborators or accomplices in the USSR Criminal Code. There were traitors, that’s what we should call them. These are traitors to the Motherland, the Soviet people, who acted in their personal selfish interests, indulging in the policy of violence, extermination, genocide that Nazi Germany carried out on our territories," the expert stressed.
According to Mr. Avdonin, the ideas of Nazism and fascism have sprouted in Europe. “They are actively being used by political corporate circles in order to suppress ordinary people in Europe. Extreme right-wing parties and movements are always used to instil fear among the disadvantaged and unemployed persons who, as a result of certain economic processes, have found themselves in a state of need. The same thing is happening now. We see how the West, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, actively cultivates Nazism and fascism, primarily in the countries bordering with Belarus: Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States," he added.
Mr. Avdonin emphasised that the West is guided solely by its mercantile goals aimed at escalating the situation and militarisation of the region, “We have discussed more than once that the ideas of militarisation allow defence corporations to make good money. The recognition of former SS men as heroes in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are just minor points in the global strategy that the Anglo-Saxon world is pursuing in Europe.”
In this regard, the expert added that the key point for Belarus in modern conditions is to preserve the memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War, conduct further investigations within the framework of the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people, identify criminals, impose appropriate sentences, spread this information ‘not only in Belarus, but all over the world, and to translate these materials into foreign languages – so that everyone anywhere in the world perfectly understands what fascists and Nazis did on our territory during the Great Patriotic War’.
