The end of August is a time of historic anniversaries, admittedly somewhat overshadowed by the drama and tragedy surrounding the collapse of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul, normally its a time of often ignored or perhaps selectively not remembered anniversaries and interlinked missed opportunities.
The last few days have seen anniversaries for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (in August 1968) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (in August 1991) pass largely unremembered.
On Saturday 21st August 2021 it was the 53rd anniversary of the Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia, it’s an anniversary that these days increasingly passes largely unnoticed save perhaps by some people in Prague. Now that the Soviet Union is history, although Russia on the rise in the east, people have lots of other things to be concerned about. It’s been 53 years since Soviet troops and most but not all of their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21st 1968.
The Soviet-led invasion effectively established the Brezhnev Doctrine, which Moscow said allowed the U.S.S.R. to intervene in any country where a Communist government was under threat. The Soviet backed occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted until the velvet revolution brought an end to the Communist dictatorship in November 1991 as the Cold War ended. It was always contested - the reformist communists were finally defeated in the mid 1970's just as detente created the Helsinki accords which inspired Charter 77. Russia’s attitude to the invasion still touches raw emotions, evens in the Czech and Slovak republics.
The thirtieth anniversary of the collapse of the USSR largely passed unremembered, in both the West and more importantly in Russia, the reasons for Russia’s desire to forget the past are understandable. The Brits lost their Empire fifty years ago, and some of them have not got over the losing of it. The Russians lost their Empire in a fortnight, which must still sting a bit, even thirty years down the line.
The West was strangely silent when it came to remembering the anniversary of the collapse of the USSR. Perhaps considering the hubris displayed at the time and the wilful glee the came with the dismemberment of the old Soviet state industries and assets, the rise of the oligarchs (some of whom were very close and comfortable with New Labour and still comfortable with he Conservatives and the rise of President Putins new Russia, the silence is understandable.
The it comes to anniversaries August may be the month that keeps on giving on the Monday 23rd August 2021 was the 82nd anniversary of the 1939 the signing of Nazi Germany’s and the Soviet Union’s pact which effectively guaranteed the start of the second world war. The event is remembered the Baltic republic and Poland but very rarely anywhere else, especially in the Russian Federation, where history is both important and selectively remembered.
When the Poles held a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, world leaders gathered, but the Brits did not go, obviously other important things to do and remember.
Human history is understandably complex, and remembrance is important, forgetting is very human and is part of life, but, remembrance should be balanced rather than selective. Selectively forgetting the past and erasing our collective history is a more dubious practice ( especially in these islands, Hungary, Russia and the Peoples Republic of China, etc ) but also within these islands, especially when it comes to ‘Brit washing’ the perceptions of and the grim realities of Empire, etc.
Even in the West, the elite can be very selective about the anniversaries and the history they wish us to remember. Creating a rose tinted view of the past, is neither history nor remembrance, its manufactured / peddled nostalgia - and that too is both dubious, dishonest and potentially dangerous.
Hence the urge to remember the first day of the Somme, Passchendaele, the Dunkirk spirit, the Battle of Britain (all absolutely important to remember, in their correct historical context) - to reimagine these islands past simply to distract people from the mess the Westminster elite have got us into since Suez, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the financial collapse of 2008, etc is unacceptable but nothing is quite as unacceptable as blatantly lying and manipulating evidence to justify a war.
Other less reputable awkward embarrassing anniversaries are ignored or effectively selectively airbrushed from history e.g. the Sykes-Picot-Sazanov agreement, the anniversary of Amritsar, bloody Sunday, etc.
For most of the last 20 years successive Westminster governments worked hard to ensure that our service personnel have had a much higher profile, making use of various important anniversaries of previous conflicts, sporting occasions and regularly promoting armed forces day. That emphasis had effectively ceased as the direct involvement of UK service personnel in the cycle of Blair’s wars has finally wound down save for covering the evacuation.
It is important to remember how we ended up in this mess and who made those decisions. It is equally important that we remember that Westminster (with the honourable exception of the 1945 Labour Government) has often neglected our war veterans after previous war’s ended and faded into memory. We all still need to work to ensure that never again does a Westminster Government makes the decision that dead heroes are cheaper and less trouble to remember than live ones.
