Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 7 – In these days 70
years ago, British forces forcibly returned to Soviet control more than 30,000 Cossacks
and other Russians at the Austrian city of Lienz. Many but far from all fought
on the German side during the war. At Yalta, Stalin demanded their return, and
the Western allies agreed fearful he might not return Allied personnel in his
hands.
Many of those handed over had
nothing to do with German forces, and not a few of those the British herded
into the Soviet hands committed suicide or tried to, very much aware of what
their fate would be if they were handed over. And the fate of those who were
confirmed their fears: some were executed, and most of the rest were sent to
the GULAG and an early death.
Not surprisingly, this is not an
event either Western leaders or Russian ones want to talk about, the former
because they are ashamed of what they did but find it hard to talk about the
complexities of the fate of Russians and Cossacks; and the latter because
Moscow can’t attack the West without admitting its responsibility for a massive
violation of international law.
That is all the more so in both
bases because the Lienz Tragedy was only part of a much larger horror: The
Western allies handed over to Stalin approximately two million people, many of
whom had not fought for the Germans and were sent back against their will,
again in most cases to suffer and die at Soviet hands.
But for the Cossacks, the Lienz
Tragedy is a singular event, one that defines in large measure how they view
the world, and consequently, it is not surprising that this year, on the round
anniversary, the horrors of what happened on the River Drau 70 years ago have
been the occasion for recollections and actions.
Cossack communities outside of
Russia, along with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, took the lead in marking
this sad anniversary by erecting a chapel at the site of the Lienz Tragedy (pravmir.ru/v-lientse-vspominayut-70-letie-krovavoy-vyidachi-kazakov/)
and thus giving new impetus to the maintenance and revival of the Cossacks
around the world.
Not surprisingly, Western
governments said little about what for them is a long ago event they would
prefer to forget. But for the Russian government of Vladimir Putin, the events
of 1945 are not ancient history but rather a touchstone for Moscow’s actions,
including preventing Cossacks from going to Lienz and raiding a Cossack museum
in Podolsk.
Border control troops at Domodedovo
defaced the passport of Cossack activist Vladimir Melikhova and then after they
had done so declared that his passport was not in order and that he could not
travel abroad. Other Russian siloviki then raided his museum devoted to the Don
Cossack struggle with the Bolsheviks after 1917 (svoboda.org/content/article/27055422.html).
It might be
comforting to some to think that these two actions are random, but tragically,
they aren’t: they are part of a new Moscow campaign to subordinate all Cossacks
within Russia and abroad to Moscow’s command and to declare any who do not
submit “enemies of the people.”
To that end,
Russian officials have played up divisions within the Cossack and neo-Cossack
communities of Russia (kavpolit.com/articles/shest_atamanov_na_odin_gorod-16723/), played
games with the laws on Cossacks (kavpolit.com/articles/kazaki_est_sluzhby_net-16814/), demanded that
all Cossacks become Orthodox even though many are Buddhist or Muslim (nazaccent.ru/content/16092-chlen-soveta-po-delam-kazachestva-zayavil.html),
and sought to disorder Cossacks abroad by appointing its own people as their
representatives rather than allowing these Cossack groups to represent themselves
(kazaksusa.com/node/667).
That
list can be easily extended, but it proves what Melikhov says: Once again,
Moscow is viewing genuine as opposed to totally controlled ones as its enemies just
as Soviet forces did in the 1920s and thereafter. Given the image of the Cossacks cultivated in
the West, many people there are likely to view this Kremlin action as somehow
appropriate or justified.
But
the anniversary of the tragedy of Lienz, which highlights the complexities of
Cossack and Russian life in the 20th century, should be an occasion not
for new repression or its tolerance but for reflection that what is happening
to Cossacks in Russia now is but the latest turn in a Soviet-style wheel that
crushed so many Cossacks and others over
the last 100 years.
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