Skip to main content

The power of symbols

I meant to comment earlier on the decision in Estonia to equate the symbolism of the Soviets with that of the Nazis and ban both.

The reaction from Russia- the usual offensive bluster- just reminds us that they still do not understand the scale of evil that these symbols represent.

All the Estonians I know- and I know many- had family members who were taken. Many never returned. Those that did were often broken in health and spirit. These were innocent victims of an inhuman ideology.

Of course the Estonians take it personally.

Russia still does not acknowledge that the occupation of the Baltic was a crime. It is not like the Balts intend to change borders or demand financial restitution. All they ask is an acknowledgment.

The silence from Putin's Russia is deafening- and it speaks in libraries of what the Kremlin still believes.
Labels:

Comments

James said…
In fairness to the Russians Cicero, I can see how that within Russia the 'equivalence' of swastika and hammer and sickle is immensely provocative even if largely true.
10:44 pm
Anonymous said…
Cicero,


Did you see the Economist piece on the new Highlander Poles. Was especially amusing to read that with thousands of scots having migrated to Poland in the 16th century where the names became polonised, eg Ramsay, Ramzy that if they stick around long enough the names may switch back. Would have thought with your interests you would have picked up on this excellent writing.


Lepidus,
11:39 am
Anonymous said…
I have no sympathy for Russians. The Russian Federation has willingly idendtified herself as the successor state to the USSR, at least when it comes to goodies like the UN Security Council seat or the nuclear arsenal. It's about time they admitted the wrongs done to the Baltic States.
12:14 pm
Anonymous said…
There may be another scary symbol coming up...look at Russia's new fascist movement, Nashi (www.nashi.su). They are scary and they are essentially turning into the "Putin Youth" -- and Estonia is their enemy number one. This could turn worse than the hammer and sickle...
9:45 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Liberal Democrats v Conservatives: the battle in the blogosphere

It is probably fair to say that the advent of Nick Clegg, the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, has not been greeted with unalloyed joy by our Conservative opponents. Indeed, it would hardly be wrong to say that the past few weeks has seen some "pretty robust" debate between Conservative and Liberal Democrat bloggers. Even the Queen Mum of blogging, the generally genial Iain Dale seems to have been featuring as many stories as he can to try to show Liberal Democrats in as poor a light as possible. Neither, to be fair, has the traffic been all one way: I have "fisked' Mr. Cameron's rather half-baked proposals on health, and attacked several of the Conservative positions that have emerged from the fog of their policy making process. Most Liberal Democrats have attacked the Conservatives probably with more vigour even than the distrusted, discredited Labour government. So what lies behind this sharper debate, this emerging war in the blogosphere? Partly- in my ...
20 comments
Read more

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are the Liberal Democrats Libertarian?

A few days ago Cicero met with one of the better known figures in the Libertarian Alliance, Brian Mickelthwait . Brian writes for various blogs that I enjoy reading- including Samizdata . Ahead of our meeting Brain expressed "scepticism" about the Libertarian credentials of the Liberal Democrats: "My charge was that when you meet a Liberal Democrat you never know what he will believe. The one who talks to you is likely to say what you want to hear. But the others will simultaneously be telling other people with quite different views what they want to hear. So don't vote for these lying creeps." Political parties- all of them- are coalitions of people who quite often disagree with each other. Apparently we are not supposed to "air our dirty linen in public", but actually one of the reasons that the Liberal Democrats appealed to me was that they were prepared to talk about issues and policies amongst themselves in public. The eclipse of the Liberal Party...
18 comments
Read more