crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Mikhail Narinski *
Crimes of totalitarian regimes: in the search for
reconciliation with the past
I would like to point out that I can only welcome and support the intention of the European
Commission to again condemn the crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. There
is no excuse for those crimes, and it is desirable that necessary assurances are provided so that similar
actions would be prevented now and in the future. The Russian nations fully experienced the cruelty
of totalitarian regimes: Stalinism, which carried out mass repression on citizens of its own country;
German Nazism and Italian Fascism, which carried out policies of aggression and total expansion,
genocide and enslavement of the inhabitants in occupied territories.
First, I would like to point out some methodological remarks.
The very term “totalitarianism” was coined during the Cold War period and causes disputes among
sociologists, politologists and historians. Therefore, the formulation “crime of the totalitarian regime”
also raises certain doubts. From the scientific point of view, it is not entirely correct and narrows the
subject of our discussion too much. It does not include the crimes under the “Vichy” regime in France,
“the Salo Republic” in Italy, Pavelić’s Ustasha regime in Croatia, the Szalasi regime in Hungary and
several others. That is why we can more precisely talk about crimes of the “totalitarian and authoritarian”
regimes, or, as some participants in the discussion proposed, “non-democratic regimes”.
My second remark is associated with the fact that some participants in the discussion, it seems to
me, do not always talk about “communism” and “communist crimes” without blame. Communism is a
complex historical phenomenon, which includes also learning, ideology, communist parties with their
followers, and political regimes, which committed serious crimes under communist slogans. Does this
give us the basis to condemn German communists who died in Nazi torture chambers? Does it give
us the basis to condemn communists – participants of the resistance during the Second World War? It
seems not.
What will it take to overcome the totalitarian past and reach “reconciliation with the past”?
It seems to me that the first necessary condition for this is a firm conviction of the crimes of
totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. In relation to this, I would like to point out that democratic Russia
condemned the crimes of Stalinism from the viewpoint of politics, ideology and law. An example of
a firm conviction of the crimes of Stalinism became the statement by the State Duma of the Russian
Federation on 2 April 2008 to “the memory of the victims of the 1930’s in the territory of USSR”.
Rejecting those crimes associated with hunger of people according to the ethnic principle, the
State Duma stated: “By remembering the hunger victims of the 1930’s in the territory of USSR, the
deputies of the State Duma firmly condemn the regime that neglected human lives to achieve economic
and political objectives, and state that any and all attempts to repeat the totalitarian regimes, which
neglected the rights and lives of their citizens, in the countries, which became part of the Soviet State,
were unacceptable. The Russian nations independently brought down and cast off totalitarian and
authoritarian social systems and took the path of building a democratic country governed by the rule of
law. It is no coincidence that the following is emphasised in the Constitution of the Russian Federation:
‘A human being, his or her rights and obligations are the highest value. Recognition, observation and
protection of rights and freedoms of a human being and a citizen – is an obligation of the state.’” 1
We have to take into account that totalitarianism is not just a particular state and political regime
but also a society with its apparatus and collective psychology. To achieve “reconciliation with the past”,
it is absolutely necessary to change not just the political system but also the psychology of masses, to
affect the entire society. It is necessary to clearly present before society the issue of modernisation cost,
which is implemented with totalitarian regimes. We have to show the inappropriateness of statements
like “but roads were built under Hitler, or but there was order under Stalin”.
* Mikhail Narinski, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation
(MID RF).
1
The Constitution of the Russian Federation. Article 2, Moscow 1993, p. 4.
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