On the Struggle for Peace
MIHAJLOV, MIHAJLO
Perspectives ON THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE BY MIHAJLO MIHAJLOV The June 25 issue of the Moscow magazine Literaturnaya Gazeta features an article entitled, "On the Scales of History." It was written...
...That is why no one desires peace and tranquillity more than I and more than the German people...
...OnFebruary 1,1933, Adolf Hitler issued his first proclamation as head of state: " In f oreign policy...
...I shall not speak of those for whom war was a profitable event...
...Ido not believe that any manintheworldhasspokenof peace and fought and struggled for peace more than I have...
...But when someone in Washington begins...
...I was not in this position...
...Germany also wants peace out of a simple, primitive recognition that no war could remedy the essence of our general, European distress...
...But I believe that through my eyes more people have learned to see war than through the eyes of my political counterparts...
...Five months after that pronouncement, Germany quit the Geneva Conference on Disarmament...
...The idea of aggression against mankind was, for such a criminal, the direct expression of the 'national dignity' of Nazi Germany...
...that I have learned of war in a place far different from that of my international political counterparts...
...I speak only of those who saw it unfold from a privileged position, from an elevated point of view...
...Two years later, in May 1935, Hitler declared in the Reichstag: "National Socialist Germany wants peace, and wants it out of a profound, ideological conviction...
...All this, of course, was accompanied by repeated charges that other countries were seeking world domination—especially those "plutocrats," America and England...
...and May Day parades with red banners featuring a swastika in a white circle...
...While they were being delivered, however, the world witnessed the anschluss of Austria in 1938...
...In May 1933, speaking before the Reichstag about the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler said: "...Germany is ready at any time to take additional international security commitments upon itself, if all other nations are prepared to do the same...
...In Germany itself, the rise to power of the National Socialist Workers' Party, led by fighter for peace Adolf Hitler, culminated in the establishment of the complete monopoly of one party—according to the new Constitution, the "bearer of German statehood...
...a network of concentration camps...
...Since everywhere today one hears only speeches, slogans and demands for "peace between peoples," and everywhere the battle is being waged for "peace on earth," "the peaceful future of the planet" and the like, Henry's analogy piqued my curiosity: How, on the eve of the War, did Hitler stoke the inflamed atmosphere in the world...
...Denmark, Norway, Belgium and France in 1940...
...One can only guess at what a future war might bring...
...a "Four-Year Plan" of industrial development that soon catapulted Germany to first place in world production of aluminum, coal and much else required by its war machine...
...war would rather increase that distress...
...the introduction of mandatory labor conscription for German youth...
...Lest anyone have any doubts, though, let me make clear at the beginning that I have no intention of whitewashing Hitler...
...It was written by the pseudonymous Ernst Henry—a Soviet agent in the West from 1936-51 turned political commentator— and charges the Reagan Administration with conducting an aggressive foreign policy aimed at "the establishment in the world of an American hegemony...
...Thus must one comprehend my way of thinking...
...is filled with the loftiness of its task— with this people, free and enjoying equal rights, to promote the preservation and consolidation of peace, a peace which the world needs today more than ever before...
...My purpose, rather, is to show how the best words and slogans are sometimes employed...
...It further resulted in the destruction of the independent press...
...He writes: "When Hitler stoked the inflamed atmosphere in the world on the eve of the Second World War, it was also extremely dangerous, but understandable...
...to display a marked tendency toward worsening the international climate...
...I admit that as I began to read I was so incredibly amazed that I wrote down several relevant excerpts, presented below...
...Germany would also be prepared to completely abolish the whole of its military establishment and to destroy the small quantity of weapons it still possesses—if these nations would pursue the same goal...
...As I have already stressed at the outset, the government is convinced that, today, there can be only one great task: To secure peace in the world...
...Then, addressing the Reichstag on October 6, 1939, following the partition of Poland with the aid of the Soviet Union, Hitler announced: "A month ago, I explained before the Reichstag that the conclusion of a German-Russian nonaggression pact signified a turning point in German foreign policy...
...I want peace...
...See the kind of giants we will become—this is what the fascists had in mind...
...The Literaturnaya Gazeta is absolutely right, "Hitler the fascist acted like a fascist...
...The same year, Hitler introduced universal military conscription in Germany...
...There he said: "1 do not need to repeatedly assure you that wewantpeace...
...the government Mihajlo Mihajlov, a long-time NL contributor whose books include Moscow Summer, Russian Themes and Underground Notes, is currently a Special A nalyst for Radio Free Europe...
...In 1936, with German troops already occupying the demilitarized Rhineland, he made his most flamingly pad fist speech at a mass demonstration in Cologne...
...I was in the infantry and experienced war in all its terror and horror...
...In search of an answer, I turned to a respected academic collection of the Fiihrer's published in Wiirzburg in 1962, with a commentary by Max Dom-arus...
...And it is understandable that Ispeaksomuchof peace and am so devoted to peace, for it happens...
...Indeed, according to Henry, the situation is reminiscent of what happened 50 years ago...
...is such a policy in keeping with American national honor...
...Not long after those eloquent words left Hitler's lips, the occupation of Europe was begun...
...I advocate the rights and freedom of my people...
...the occupation of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939...
...Yugoslavia in 1941, etc., etc...
...Technologically, it may be reasonably argued, we are better equipped today to distinguish between the two...
...Words are words, and actions speak for themselves...
...We would in fact be happy if, through a [general] reduction of armaments, the world would make an increase in our weapons never again necessary.'' A few days later, Hitler told British and American journalists: "Each person, who, like myself, is familiar with war, knows what an utter depletion of energy it means...
...The new treaty of friendship and interests between Germany and Russia makes possible not only peace between the two states, but also a prosperous and lengthy period of cooperation...
...Hitler the fascist was acting in a fascist manner...
...Germany and Russia will strip the threatening character awayfromoneof Europe's most dangerous spots and, each in its own respective area, contribute to the welfare of the local inhabitants and, thereby, to peace in Europe.'" One could cite hundreds of additional passages from Hitler's speeches that are dedicated to the struggle for peace on earth...
...Still whenever I hear constant pronouncements in defense of peace on earth, I begin, somehow, to feel ill...
Vol. 69 • September 1986 • No. 13
