Putin’s Abusive Language Reflects His Anger at Honoring Those who Fought Totalitarianism, Illarionov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 2 – Vladimir Putin’s abuse language about a Polish ambassador to Nazi Germany, language even Stalin and Molotov would not have employed, and his repeated attacks on the European Parliament’s resolution denouncing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a cause of World War II are so unprecedented they call for an explanation, Andrey Illarionov says.

            The Russian economist and commentator says he is convinced they reflect the Kremlin leader’s reaction to the single innovation of the September 2019 European Parliament resolution, the one calling for the establishment of May 25 as an International Day of Heroes of the Fight against Totalitarianism (echo.msk.ru/blog/aillar/2565213-echo/).

            That date, the anniversary of the execution of Auschwitz hero Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki, the resolution says, “will be an expression of respect and a tribute to all those who, by fighting tyranny, demonstrated their heroism and true love for humankind, and will also provide future generations with a clear example of the correct attitude to take in the face of the threat of totalitarian enslavement.”

            That was clearly too much for Putin, Illarionov says, because Pilecki was “one of the greatest heroes of World War II” not only because he exposed the crimes of the Nazis but because he fought against the twin totalitarianisms of Hitler and Stalin and was executed in 1948 by Soviet-controlled Polish government.

            Illarionov summarizes the complicated and remarkable career of this hero who infiltrated Auschwitz, warned the West, organized resistance to German and then Soviet occupiers and was tortured by both. For a fuller version of the life of this remarkable man, see Jack Fairweather’s The Volunteer (London, 2019).

            After his arrest, torture and conviction on trumped up charges by a Soviet-controlled Polish court, Pilecki told his judges that “I have tried to live so that in the hour of my death I could feel joy and not fear. He was executed shortly thereafter and rehabilitated and honored only in 1990 after communism fell.

            Pilecki has been recognized by Jewish leaders as a true fighter against the Holocaust and by Western historians and now Illarionov as a true fighter against the plague of totalitarianism.  Honoring someone like that is an action Putin cannot possibly tolerate given his defense of Stalin and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

            As a result, in abusive and repetitive language, the Kremlin leader has lashed out “not only against those who struggle against tyranny but also against the memory of the real heroes of this struggle.”  By his words, he has indicted himself not as a battler against tyranny of all kinds but as its defender.