R 080700Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1156
INFO MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK

UNCLAS VLADIVOSTOK 000065 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV RS
SUBJECT: CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CHILD VICTIMS OF FASCISM, BLASTS 
REVISIONISM 
 
¶1.  The international conference "The Second World War in the 
Eyes of Children: Former Prisoners of Fascist Concentration 
Camps" was held in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on April 3. The event was 
attended by about two hundred participants, including former 
concentration camp prisoners and visitors from the U.S., Israel, 
and Estonia.  The stated goal of the conference was to "ensure 
that fascist crimes are never forgotten." Presenters also spoke 
about the threat of neo-Nazis within Russia and about "historic 
revisionism" abroad that downplays the Soviet Union's 
contributions to defeating fascism. 
 
¶2.  A historian at the conference reported that of the 26 
million Soviet victims of World War Two, 13 million were 
civilians.  The detailed statistics are 7,420,379 civilians 
executed, 2,164,313 deaths at labor camps and 4,100,000 deaths 
from disease.  German Ambassador Walter Yurgen Shmidt said the 
"measureless sufferings" of the Holocaust still evoke "fury, 
despair, and shame." 
 
¶3.  The Association of Former Juvenile Prisoners of Fascist 
Concentration Camps (Pamyat) reports that there are 238 former 
juvenile inmates from concentration camps in their organization. 
 The of the president of the organization in the US, Mark 
Borisovich Goldovskiy described his personal experiences and his 
personal struggle to overcome the nightmares he still has from 
the war. 
 
¶4.  Yuriy Ivanovich Nedorez, the head of geopolitics at the 
Russian Geographical Society in Sakhalin, lamented that most 
Americans still do not recognize the depth of the sacrifice of 
the USSR in World War Two and the "crucial role" the country 
played in defeating fascism.  He also said that the 
Perestroika-era re-examining of Soviet actions during the war 
led to the de-glorification of Red Army and its leadership, and 
has tainted Soviet wartime achievements in the eyes of the youth. 
 
¶5.  Psychologist Elena Gennadievna Vlasenkovk from Sakhalin 
State University discussed World War Two as a "nation forming" 
epic that will be the source of stories and inspiration for 
"hundreds and thousands" of years.  She said the people who 
overcame the suffering of the camps help psychiatrists and 
psychologists find ways to help other people even today to find 
meaning in their lives and to overcome tremendous difficulties. 
 
¶6.  Comment:  The resolution of the conference states that the 
passing of generations has led to a "weakening of the historical 
memory" of people which must be reversed.  Though the tone of 
some of the speakers seemed nationalistic, critical of 
neighboring countries, and eager to preserve the Soviet 
"legacy," most of the presenters had simple and moving personal 
stories to tell that brought home the main point of the 
conference -- that the inhumanity of war should never be 
forgotten. 
 
ARMBRUSTER