Coming to trips with history

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Project Syndicate

May 9th will be the mother of all celebrations in Moscow. The victory over Nazi-Germany 60 years ago will be commemorated and the human sacrifices to this end honored. So far, so good. But some nations will be missing from the party. Two Baltic presidents have decided to stay home, because their hosts are not willing to concede that there is more to the history of World War II's end than the victory over Hitler: Their peoples had to face half a century of occupation because of a deal struck before the war's onset by Hitler and Stalin, the so-called Molotov- Rippentrop Pact of 1939 that divided Eastern Europe between Nazi- Germany and the Soviet Union.

I have to admire the third Baltic president -- Vaira Vike- Freiberga from Latvia -- who decided to go to Moscow, honoring what should be honored, and speaking aloud about what should not be hidden. By doing so she demonstrates the strong position her country has obtained as a member of NATO and the EU, and she will be the one riding the high moral ground.

It is a pity that the Russian leadership of today has chosen not to condemn the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that damaged the development of the whole Baltic Sea region for so many years -- and still is a source of political pollution threatening to poison relations between neighbors around the Baltic Sea. I find it difficult to accept those who tend to describe the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact as only a measure to build up Soviet national security.

In the Baltic Sea Region we have a particularly difficult history to deal with, if we look at the last 90 years. After the end of World War I and the old order -- "Die Welt von Gestern" -- the Baltic region saw bloody revolutions, terrible civil wars, fascism, communism, genocide, occupations, oppression, terrorism, deportations -- you name it, in our part of the world we have indeed had our share of all the horrors of the modern history. When the Cold War ended, it seemed clever to say that this was "the end of History." But if we believe that -- if we put a lid on history and leave it behind us -- we run a risk that history will resurrect itself with all its horrors.

Therefore we must come to terms with history, particularly in the Baltic Sea region, where such a reckoning is a fundamental precondition for building mutual confidence and cooperation. If you want to open "new chapters" in relations between old adversaries, you cannot simply close "old chapters" by denying or suppressing history. Nothing good comes out of doing so -- and we have seen enough of that in the past.

For too many years the Baltic Sea was a blind alley on the political map of Europe -- divided by the Iron Curtain. It was not a "Sea of Peace" -- as the communist propaganda tried to describe it -- it was a Sea of Threats, a sea of insecurity and lost opportunities.

To my country -- Denmark -- World War II's end meant a return to freedom and democracy, and we could use the rest of the 20th century to strengthen our freedom, bolstering it with affluence. But to the three Baltic countries the end of World War II led to half a century of occupation and lost opportunities.

We know to day the cause: The secret protocol to the Treaty of Non-aggression between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, signed in 1939 -- the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -- defining the spheres of interest of the two dictatorships in eastern Europe which led to the war with Finland, the occupations of the Baltic countries, the assault on and division of Poland, and probably also the occupations of Norway and Denmark. In short, this pact with its excrescence had an enormous impact on the history of our region, right up to this day.

That it why it will continue to haunt us, continue to disturb normal relations between the countries in this region with so many unused potentials, as long as we do not deal with it in a forthright manner. Debating, recognizing, denouncing -- whatever... anything but suppressing! You cannot build lasting future relations between countries that have each in their own way suffered so much, without coming to terms with the past. It was not until 1989 that the existence of this protocol was officially admitted, thanks to the Glasnost-policy of Mikhail Gorbachev. But too many people still have difficulties with acknowledging this pact for what it really was.

Such denial is in no one's interest. Not in the kind of Europe we still have to build -- a Europe where big and small countries are assured that they share the same rights and obligations, where minorities feel safe, where basic human rights are accepted as an inextricable part of our political system, and where neighbors are regarded with respect and expectations, not fear and anxiety.

But it is no surprise that coming to terms with history can be damnably difficult. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put his finger on one of the more fundamental problems: "Life must be lived forwards -- but can only be understood backwards".

In order to look forward with confidence, you also have to look back -- and understand what went wrong. Every leader in Moscow May 9 should remember this.

The writer was Denmark's Foreign Minister for over a decade.