Physical Dramaturgy: Ein (neuer) Trend?

Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen. more more

GoetheInstitute

29/04/2010

The Russians must reflect on the evildoings

The president of "Memorial" talks about the Russian-Polish culture of remembrance. An interview with Ulrich M. Schmid

Ulrich Schmid: Mr Roginski, do you think it's right to remember Katyn in Russia when so little progress has been made with regard to the culture of remembrance for the victims of Stalinist terror?

Mr Roginski: It is absolutely necessary, to remember the victims of Katyn; we cannot allow them simply to be forgotten. The party leadership under Stalin was responsible for this crime, just as it was responsible for the crimes against Soviet citizens. This is why the attention to Katyn is stirring memories about Soviet terror. This shared experience is helping both sides to move towards one another.

Does Polish remembering of Katyn have any influence on Russian cultural memory?


The Russians and the Poles have an entirely different cultural memory. There are two central tenets to Polish cultural memory. Firstly: we are always the victims – at least as far as the Russians or the Germans are concerned. Secondly: we always resisted heroically. An understanding of the victim role barely registers in Russian minds, and resistance even less so. We cannot adopt the Polish remembrance model. Russian remembrance is in a chaotic state. Unfortunately we have no shared cultural memory, let alone a shared memory of the terror. The Russian memory is fragmented – according to region and social grouping. The constant stream of propaganda under the Czars and particularly in the Soviet Union and under Putin has engraved in the Russian mind the conviction that we do nothing but good in the world. We saved Europe from fascism and we get only ingratitude in return. Working through the past, and this includes Katyn, destroys our constructed memories and compels us to account for not having only done good in the world at all times. The Russians need to be forced to reflect on evildoings. We have to take civic responsibility for the crimes of our rulers.

Should Russia apologise to Poland for the crime of Katyn?

You use the word "sich entschuldigen" which stems from the word "schuld" meaning guilt. I do not think that the German concept of collective guilt is applicable here. And individual penitence is a religious act that has no place here. We should not feel guilty; we should assume our civic responsibility – individually and as a nation. What does this mean with respect to Katyn? Quite simply – it means bringing to light the whole truth. This has not happened yet. We have to reopen the investigations into this crime, which were shut down in 2004. We have to provide access to all archive material on the subject, without exception. There must be a court ruling on the crimes in Katyn. We have to rehabilitate the victims. It is extremely important to define the events in legal terminology. We cannot simply name a set of names (as the military courts did) and say that these persons overstepped their competencies. This makes a mockery of the victims. We must adopt the norms of international law: Katyn is a crime against humanity or a war crime. We have to publicly name everyone involved, Stalin included. I am not insisting that we drag the names of every last executioner or henchman into the public eye, but all those pulling the wires behind the scenes must be named. At present "Memorial" is losing every case in Russian courts that involves the events in Katyn, the opening of the archives or the rehabilitation of the victims. But time is on our side.


Your assessment of Katyn differs very little from Putin's position, except that you are demanding a court ruling.


To define the events in judicial terms, to describe the criminals as criminals and to name them by their names and to rehabilitate the victims in the courts – this is a huge difference. The first step has already been taken: Putin called the events in Katyn a crime. I listened to his speech on April 7 in Katyn. It struck me as honest, emotional and full of horror at the crime. This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. The criminals of Katyn must be condemned in judicial terms and the country must be informed about it. Katyn has to go into the schoolbooks - it does not even get a mention there today. We must talk about it loudly and constantly, only then will consciousness change.

Do you believe that Lech Kaczynski's death has had an effect on the way Russian view Katyn?


I don't know. But it is hugely important that Andrzej Wajda's film "Katyn" was shown once again after the plane crash by Russia's second national TV channel Rossiya. On April 2 the film was aired on the specialist arts channel Kultura but attracted limited attention because that channel is watched only by a handful of intellectuals. On April 10, however, the film reached a much wider audience. People who had known very little about the events in Katyn were greatly taken aback. And people who perhaps lost their parents during the years of Stalinist terror were distressed to recognise that our own people had been killed – that they had all been shot in the same way. In this sense, "Katyn" is not only a Polish film anymore, it's also a Russian film. The flowers in front of the Polish embassy in Moscow, Putin kneeling before the graves of the Polish soldiers and then the film – all these events form a symbolic line. I think that the death of Lech Kaczynski will play a key role in the process of  working through the crime of Katyn for Russia. Perhaps some of the old phobias will reawaken in Polish minds. On the other hand, all my Polish friends tell me that they have been so touched by the scale of Russian sympathy that it might be time to move beyond the toxic residue of the past.

Do you see a difference between Medvedev and Putin when it comes to politics of memory?


I don't know. Even before the events in Katyn, Medvedev said some very important things in his video blog on October 30: no modernisation can be justified by such appalling numbers of victims. I found it very courageous of him to talk this way about Stalinist terror. It might be true that he went on to reiterate clichees about Russia's rise to world power, but he also rose above them at the same time. The same goes for Putin. At the memorial in Katyn he was overtaken by spontaneous, sincere emotions but he later lapsed back into bureaucratic jargon. The government is making tiny steps, and we should support them in this. Of course we can always criticise details. I, for one, am happy that Putin used the word "totalitarian". This is quite considerable! This, in itself, is a step in the right direction! Perhaps there will be more to follow. And in another context, words like this can take on a huge importance. The allies have been invited to take part in the celebrations on Red Square for the 65th anniversary of WWII victory, for example. So something is happening and we must feed and foster this “something”.  


*

Arseni Roginski was born in Northern Russian as the son of a exiled Leningrad family. In 1968 he completed his degree in history at the University of Tartu, which, being on the periphery of the Soviet Unionm was not subjected to same level of ideological restrictions as the big cities. He went on to work as a bibliographer, teacher, historian. In 1981 he was sentenced to four years in prison for publishing documents abroad about the history of the Gulag. In 1989, Roginski helped to found the human rights organisation Memorial. He has been its president since 1996.

This article originally appeared in the Neuer Zürcher Zeitung on 22 April, 2010.

Ulrich M. Schmid is a professor for Russian culture and society at St. Gallen University in Switzerland and a freelance journalist for the NZZ Feuilleton.


Translation: lp

Get the signandsight newsletter for regular updates on feature articles.
signandsight.com - let's talk european.

 
More articles

Poison envy

Tuesday 22 November, 2011

Read the first English excerpt from historian Goetz Aly's new book "Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Equality, Envy and Racial Hatred 1800 - 1933". In response to this question that has been hanging in the air since the end of WWII, Goetz Aly points to the lack of education and fear of progress in so many German Christians at the turn of the century - and to the contrasting readiness of the Jewish population to embrace the new opportunities and education as the ticket to social mobility. Shamed by their shortcomings, the Germans soon turned to racial theory to conceal their envy and resentment.
read more

Pas teutonique du tout!

Tuesday 11 July, 2011

TeaserPicAn exhibition in Naumburg celebrates the greatest sculptor and master builder of Medieval Germany, famed for the creation of Uta, the ideal German woman. But patriots be warned! By Sven Behrisch

read more

Rocking remembrance

Thursday 15 June, 2011

Berlin is rich in authentic places where history can be experienced in a tangible and personal manner. We don't need simulation, we should just listen more closely to the genius loci. The planned Memorial to Freedom and Unity is a case in point. By Karl Schlögel
read more

Mass murderers of conviction

Monday 18 April, 2011

TeaserPicThe trial of SS officer Adolf Eichmann began fifty years ago. Research continues to show that many of the perpetrators were not just bureaucrats and cretins but educated men who acted out of intellectual conviction - Eichmann, contrary to what Hannah Arendt said, included. An interview with Holocaust historian Ulrich Herbert by Stefan Reinecke and Christian Semler. (Photo: Adolf Eichmann during his trial in Jerusalem)
read more

A visit to the house of dreams

Monday 21 March, 2011

TeaserPicSir Sassoon Eskell was a Jewish Iraqi and the country's first minister of finance. His magnificent house, once home to the largest private library in Iraq, sits between Baghdad's Al Rashid Street and the River Tigris. After a close brush with death, author Najem Wali revisited the building, which young Iraqi filmmakers and the army both dream of making their own.
read more

A very different sort of banker

Monday 4 October, 2010

An exhibition in the Amsterdam Verzetsmuseum celebrates Wally van Hall, the banker who used his financial connections to fund the Dutch Resistance movement during WWII. By Dragan Klaic
read more

Musicology and mass execution

Wednesday 6 January, 2010

Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht was one of Germany's most influential musicologists. His magnum opus "Music in the Occident" sits on the shelves of many a music lover. Ten years after his death, historian Boris von Haken has now revealed that Eggebrecht was involved in mass shootings of Jews during the Second World War.
read more

The element of madness

Monday 7 December, 2009

The history of German terrorism was also the story of the amour fou between Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader. But this affair caused the breakup of Ensslin's relationship with Bernward Vesper, who was also the father of her child. Their letters, dating from 1968/69, while Ensslin was in Stammheim, offer profound insights into the political pathology of the time. By Gerd Koenen.
read more

The starting gun for a student movement

Monday 8 June, 2009

The death of student Benno Ohnesorg saw the birth of the West German '68 movement. Now evidence has emerged that Karl-Heinz Kurras, the West German police officer who shot him during a demonstration against the Shah, was a Stasi spy. Wolfgang Kraushaar, an acclaimed chronicler of '68, asks whether the killing was an unofficial East German act of state.
read more

The black marketeers of Bahnhof Zoo

Tuesday 24 March 2009

TeaserPicThe idea that 1989 came out of thin air speaks volumes about historical insensitivities and limited horizons. The fall of the Berlin Wall was preceded by years of erosion and attrition. Historian Karl Schlögel looks at the molecular movements on the margins of history that are much more powerful than any deeds of "great men".
read more

Beyond the war hero

Tuesday 17 February, 2009

TeaserPicBernard-Henri Levy looks at some of the problems posed by the film "Valkyrie" which are too complex and delicate to be resolved within Hollywood logic. First on the list: the Scientology question.
read more

Unmasking the July 20 plot

Friday 13 February, 2009

To deny Stauffenberg and the other conspirators any moral and cultural relevance is blinkered and consitutes intellectual bigotry. Even if their ideas seem politically anachronistic today, these men showed the sort of noblesse and strength of character of which today’s politicians and other bureaucratic elites can only dream. Karl Heinz Bohrer responds to the thesis of British historian Richard J. Evans.
read more

Why did Stauffenberg plant the bomb?

Tuesday 10 February, 2009

TeaserPicWas it because Hitler was losing the war? Was it to put an end to the mass murder of the Jews. Or was it to save Germany's honour? Whatever his motives, he was no role model for future generations, says British historian Richard Evans. (Photo: Deutsches Historisches Museum)
read more

Evil and the upright citizen

Monday 4 February, 2008

A large-scale and long-overdue project has begun. German historians are documenting the persecution and extermination of the Jews in 16 volumes of primary source texts where metal merchants and budgie lovers all have their say - with no recourse to hindsight. By Eckhard Fuhr
read more