This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Hitler and Stalin to split parts of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between them, but it is also 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Opening a conference commemorating the pact, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek focused on how far Europe has come. He said to those present that “we live in a different Europe today of which the essence has to be solidarity”.
European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot told the conference that the pact had created “a terrible conjunction of two totalitarian regimes - Nazism and Communism”. The event was organised by the National Parliaments of the Baltic States in the European Parliament on 14 October.
A common historical narrative
The conference focused on the need to unite Europe's histories and consolidate understanding of the past. “More than ever we need to speak with one voice when we talk as the EU to the outside world,” Mr Buzek said.
Aivars Stranga, a historian from the University of Latvia, said that the lack of shared memory causes problems of understanding and can even be an obstacle in creating a common future. “The European Union should have a common historical narrative” he said.
Speakers called for international cooperation to come up with ways to increase knowledge about history and Estonian MEP Mart Laar called for a new history manual for schools.
Destruction of the Wall - destruction of a prison
The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, but some speakers wondered whether the West really understands what happened in the countries behind the wall during the previous 50 years.
Lithuanian MP Vytautas Landsbergis said that “the build-up of two Europes – that of democracy and that Soviet one – was finalised with the appearance of the grim and bloody Berlin Wall.”
He said that the countries which joined the EU five years ago were “in an enormous prison that extended over Central and Eastern Europe and contained hundreds of millions of captive people”. He went on to say: “The destruction of the Wall was also a destruction of a prison and a denouncement of the political-cultural division of Europe.”
West and East - a meeting of minds?
Many speakers said that Western Europe doesn't understand the consequences of the dark period of Communist rule for millions of people on the other side of Iron Curtain and the crimes committed under that regime.
The problem arises when trying to compare two totalitarian regimes, said Kazimierz Woycicki of Warsaw University. “We can't allow any comparison between the Holocaust and Stalin's regime” he said.
Camilla Andersson from the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism in Sweden said there is knowledge gap in the West, with many people thinking that the Berlin Wall was built by the Nazis.
Conference members said that it is important to share experiences and opinions in the EU.