RUSSIA, BE KIND TO YOUR HISTORY OR IT WON'T BE KIND TO YOU

This earthlife is to live and learn, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, not obliterate those mistake as though they never happened! If one fails to learn from the past, he is doomed to repeat it's errors!
 
 

I sincerely hope and pray that this finds its way over to Russia and in the hands of the Russian people. I write this not out of a malicious desire to condemn or belittle, but out of an honest and sincere desire to help my brothers and sisters living in the far off land of Russia to cherish, hold dear and learn from their entire history, not selectively eradicate, purge and expunge that which some wish to forget. The fact is, every nation, every country and all people have things in their history some would like it forget, but expunging it from history doesn't erase the hurt, the torture, the injustice. Only making sure that it will never happen again, makes the indefensible, slightly more tolerable for some.

Since 1991, some of the Russian people people have sought to eradicate from their consciousness, any reminder of Lenin, Stalin and others of that communist era, tearing down statues, removing bodies from graveyards and pulverizing any public reminder. Still, others have nostalgically longed for the opulence of being freed from having a care or worry and being taken care of by the state from birth till death, as long as one did what the state said.

While I understand and sympathize with Russians who are repulsed by their former leaders, for the hell and havoc they wrecked in the lives of the Russian people. The Russian people made a bad mistake. You've paid for it. Live and learn. Every nation has made its share of mistakes. Your Communists leaders thought they were doing the best for the Russian people. The problem is, they believed they were right so strongly, they jailed and killed anyone who told them otherwise. With no reminders of what to watch out for, what to be on the alert for and what to avoid if at all possible, I fear the Russian people may be laying the groundwork for repeating the errors of their fathers!

Currently in Germany, promulgated by the subsequent generation and the revisionists of history of the past generation seeking not to be reminded of the evils they have and can wrought, many people are beginning to deny that the holocaust ever took place and still others are attempting to eradicate any mention of the evils of the holocaust from their public education. In like manner, if the Russian people have no idea of where they've come from, how will they ever know where they are going? Have nothing to remind them of the pain of their past errors, it will be increasingly easier for subsequent generations to nostalgically pine for the days when the state, supposedly, relieved its citizens of the need to think or have any concern about their life as long as they were compliant citizens.

While I have no personal knowledge of the holocaust, I have talked to people who were at Auschwitz and Buchenwald and can empathize with all the survivors of any concentration camp. I can also empathize also with all the Russian people as well as, for that matter, some American people during some very disturbing times here in our own country. For that reason, it is my modest opinion that man must record history, accurately as it happens and seek not to glorify if, tear it down or revise it in any way but learn from it.

I do not deny that Stalin was in some of many if not most respects, to many people, ruthless of his pursuit of a Communist utopian society. While not being man of God but rather denying His very existence and doing everything they can to stamp out man's of faith in God, it is very easy for me to understand, now, how absolute power corrupted absolutely.

I hope, however, you can also understand and appreciate that beneath the hard, ruthless exterior, existed very proud, fiercely loyal, nationalistic and dedicated Russians with their minds solidly fixed on the eradication of what to them was the [pariah] of the masses, the czar or Russia. History is also replete with examples of how some leaders who, while they sought the betterment of some of their people, others also paid a very heavy and stiff penalty.

John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States said, "Those who fail to learn from their past are doomed to repeat it errors."

It is axiomatic that a person can't know where he is going unless he knows where he has been.

While it is true the former leaders of the Russian people and their people did a lot of evil as some contend the czar and/or some of his people. they also did a lot of good, at least for some. It is the duty of each generation to accurately portray the accomplishments as well as the evils and short comings of their fathers generation, learn from them and endeavor not to repeat the same mistakes. In this way, hopefully each succeeding generation will inherit a better world than did the generation before it.

One should zealously protect factual history in all its wonder, glory and splendor as well its evils, faults and problems. Learn from history, don't try to eradicate or expunge it!
 
 

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