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"The Night of the Long Knives" in Russia PDF Print E-mail
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Written by Omari Mikaberidze   
Thursday, 16 August 2007
By Omari Mikaberidze 
A few days ago, in Russia, two innocent young men were executed by the neo Nazis.  One victim was from Dagestan (a province of Russia), and the other from Kyrgyzstan (a neighboring state to Russia).  This gruesome act was depicted on film and was spread via Internet as propaganda to other like-minded extremists.  How ever despicable this act may be; one incident should not condemn a whole nation.  Or should it?  Before going any further, I would like to revisit not so distant history so we are able to draw the parallels.
In the 1932 Reichstag elections, the National Socialistic German Workers Party gained 230 seats; becoming the largest political representation in German legislation at that time.  This consummated its rapid rise to power through out the 1920's.  NSGW, or the Nazi Party, appealed to the veterans of the WWI, radical nationalists and most of all to the German youth through the organization known as "Hitler-Jugend".  In 1933, a weak president of Germany appointed the leader of the Nazi Party as a chancellor of Germany.  In 1934, in an act that later became known as "The night of the long knives", Hitler eliminated all his current or potential rivals and moved to totalitarian rule.  The horrors that followed do not need a reminder.
 
Now, let's look at current Russia, where the Neo Nazi movement is gaining momentum.  In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  The Russian Federation became an heir to the Soviet inheritance (Permanent member of the UN security counsel, all the arsenal of weapons, including nuclear, assets and etc.).  Many celebrated their newly granted freedoms others loathed them.  Over the next few years, with the help of the Western nations, Russia proclaimed her commitment of building an open society to the West, while committing atrocities in Georgia, Chechnya and Ingushetia, whose people were unfortunate enough to be left under "Russia's Stabilizing Influence".  Unlike the Baltic States, these people were deemed as "insignificant" by the west.  Over 120,000 Chechens, 20,000 Ingush and 22,000 Georgians died at the hands of the “Democratic” Russian government since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  3 ethnic cleansings, 1 out-right genocide and yet the West looked the other way; sacrificing thousands of "undeserving" to the altar of stability.  It's said, no "good" deed goes unpunished; in 1999 Yeltsin, the beacon of Russian democracy, resigned due to the internal turmoil of the country and his "presidential throne" was inherited by Vladimir Putin, previously the Prime Minister of RF.  In September of 1999 Moscow witnessed a terrorist bombing.  A country in heavy economic calamity faced a new threat, Islamic terrorism.  Putin took the control of the situation and by blaming the bombings on the Chechen rebels (who by this time enjoyed a peace agreement with RF signed after defeat of the Federal Forces in the 1st Chechen War) started the second Chechen war.  Putin’s objective was not to win but to exterminate the Chechens.  Villages were burned, cities were raised, tens of thousands were killed in this wholesale slaughter, yet the West clutched onto the promise of the precious stability offered by Putin.  Chechens were sold to the world by the state owned Russian media as a radical Muslims, bent on killing everyone and every thing.  Moscow’s tragedy was blamed on Shamil Basaev (one of the Chechen commanders), yet the fact that this person was an FSB (new name to a notorious KGB) agent was largely hidden from the world.  The fact that this Shamil Basaev was freed from a Georgian prison by a KGB general was not mentioned.  Following the bloody war in Chechnya, Putin arrested Xadarkovski, a wealthy Russian businessman, and nationalized his oil company.  The West stayed silent.  When Russia shelled Georgian villages while looking for Phantom insurgents, the West stayed silent, when Russia blackmailed its neighbors by radically raising natural gas prices, the West stayed silent.  When Russian politicians threatened a neighboring country’s president with an assassin’s bullet, the West stayed silent.  When Russia sold nuclear technology to the terrorist state of Iran, the West stayed silent.  All this was disregarded in the name of stability.
 
A great man once said "Evil flourishes when good men fail to act!”  Where are the Good Men of our time?  FDR once wrote "... argument has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power -- but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. From Berlin, Rome and Tokyo we have been described as a nation of weaklings -- "playboys" -- who would hire British soldiers, or Russian soldiers, or Chinese soldiers to do our fighting for us.  Let them repeat that now! ....Let them tell that to the sailors who today are hitting hard in the far waters of the Pacific.  Let them tell that to the boys in the Flying Fortresses.  Let them tell that to the Marines!"  He was a good man who stood up to evil and prevailed.  Today, these voices are not coming out of Berlin, Rome and Tokyo, but out of Moscow, Teheran and Caracas.  Where are the Good Men I ask again?  Have we not learned the lessons of History?  Or do 6 million more have to die in concentration camps before we say "Enough!”
 
Evil flourishes where good men fail to act!  Well!  Good men failed those 2 innocent young men viciously slaughtered by the hands of the neo Nazis'.  Good men failed when a reporter was gunned down in Moscow for disagreeing with the President.  Good men have failed when Russia deported its Citizens based on their ethnicity alone.  Good men have failed when Armenians, Chechens, emigrants from the central Asia, Chinese and African students are routinely killed and terrorized by Skinheads roaming the streets unchecked.  Good men failed when the Russian Government was allowed to create a youth organization named “Our own” one that strongly resembles Hitler-Jugend.  Good men are failing again and again.  All in the name of the Stability!!!  Well, I am a humble man, but I studied history diligently and it pains me to see us repeating our mistakes.  I will finish this article with the words from a German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller, a good man, who fought long and hard against the Nazi's:
 
"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
 
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