Tolerance

Memorial Day for the victims of Stalinism and Fascism introduced in Latvia

The Latvian Saeima approved the 23^rd of August as Memorial Day for victims of Stalinism and Nazism as ves.lv reports.

The new Memorial Day was approved on the proposal of the right party “Civil Union” whose representatives worked out a respective bill. At the beginning of the week, reminds the agency, members of the governing coalition discussed the proposal of the introduction of a Memorial Day for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism, supported by the initiative of the “Civil Union”.

The date was selected due to the fact that namely on the 23^rd of August 1939 the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression which is also called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (after the Foreign Ministers of the two countries). Enclosed to the document is a secret protocol according to which Germany and the Soviet Union as a matter of fact divide up the territory of Eastern Europe between themselves.

Thus, Latvia is the second country within the former Soviet Republics which equates the gravity of the crimes of the Soviet Union and Germany through the founding of the Memorial Day. In May 2009 a Memorial Day for the victims of Nazism and Stalinism was introduced in Estonia.

It should be noted that on the 3^rd of July 2009 the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE adopted a resolution that equates the Soviet Union with Nazi-Germany. The document among other things proposes to make the 23^rd of August Memorial Day for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

Source: www.rosbalt.ru