In school I was taught that after the Battle of Berlin the Allied forces, represented by the Russian Red Army, valiantly walked into Berlin thus unshackling the Germans from the Nazi regime. However, as Lucy Ash exposed in her BBC article, the truth was not so simple. As Soviet forces took the city, it is estimated that 100,000 women were sexually assaulted by Red Army soldiers.
Treptower Park’s Soviet Memorial, in Berlin
This article was as insightful as it was disturbing. In Treptower Park, located in fringes of Berlin, there is a twelve meter (40ft) tall statue which portrays a Soviet soldier with a sword in one hand and a young German girl in the other as he stomps in the swastika. This statue acts a memorial to the fallen USSR’s soldiers in the Battle of Berlin (April-May, 1915). The sheer size of this monument gives it a sacrificial, martyr-like religious connotation. There is an inscription that states that the Soviets saved Europe from fascism. However, Ash states that “some call this memorial the Tomb of the Unknown Rapist”
The USSR’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany World War II is still seen as the nation’s most glorious moment. Thus, Russian media and government downplays or outright avoids commenting on the atrocities committed by the Russian soldiers against women in Berlin. This is many times referred to as a Western myth, however, one of the countless sources about this brutality was a young Soviet officer’s diary.
This article and Berlin at War evidence how World War II had no clear heroes or villains since atrocities were committed by both sides.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32529679
The Soviet war memorial in Berlin is truly impressive. Maybe we can fit in a visit.
It is interesting that the United States’ army is so often credited with defeating the Germans in World War II, even when the Russians had been fighting then for far longer, and liberated Berlin first. From conversations, I’ve heard that this is often a source of contempt for many Russians, and as you noted, the Battle of Berlin is considered a proud moment in Russian history.
However, it is also important to note that Russians also are reluctant to acknowledge that the Red Army committed atrocities such as rape and pillaging during the Soviet invasion of Berlin. Or, when acknowledged, it is often justified by referring to the German army, which was responsible for similar horrible acts in the East. Both countries committed their respective atrocities, but under somewhat different circumstances (i.e. comparing the Holocaust in Nazi Germany to Stalin’s own mass killings). The question then becomes: is it possible to compare these two instances? If so, who should be considered “worse?” Is that even determinable?
I am not sure what the answer is, but it is important to acknowledge the atrocities carried out by both sides, as your post clearly discusses.