Europe the Divisive

By Robert T. Zintl

Forty years after their victory over Germany, aging veterans of the Soviet Union's struggle in World War II paraded past the Lenin Mausoleum in Red Square last week, their chests bedecked with medals, the flag that Soviet soldiers had hoisted over the ruins of Berlin in 1945 leading the way. Young soldiers wearing World War II Red Army uniforms followed, carrying vintage rifles and submachine guns. Behind them, enveloped in clouds of white diesel smoke, rumbled armor and artillery from the '40s: T-34 tanks, SU-100 assault guns and truck-mounted Katyusha rockets once known as "Stalin organs."

The nostalgic showpieces were more than balanced by ranks of modern battle gear and the precision drill of troops from all branches of the Soviet forces. The 45-minute spectacle was the largest display of military might in the Soviet capital since a similar anniversary in 1965, and included military equipment never seen before in a Moscow parade: squat T-64 tanks, short-range (75 miles) SS-21 missiles and M1976 field guns. Marshal Sergei Sokolov, the Defense Minister, gave the keynote speech. "Capitalist propaganda is making strenuous efforts to falsify history . . . to belittle the role of the U.S.S.R. in the rout of the fascist invaders," he declared. "But the truth cannot be overturned. The whole world knows that it was the Soviet Union that made the decisive contribution. Victory cost us 20 million lives, and we will never forget it."

The Red Square parade was a rousingly patriotic finale to a yearlong pageant of World War II commemorations across Europe, including the D-day ceremonies on France's Normandy beaches last June, a reunion of U.S. and Soviet veterans on the banks of the Elbe River late last month and President Reagan's visit to the German war cemetery at Bitburg. But the Soviet ceremony stood in sharp contrast to the muted V-E day commemorations a day earlier* in Western Europe --and once again highlighted the antipathy that has grown among erstwhile allies. Said a senior Western diplomat in Moscow: "It has been very difficult for us to take the rewriting of history."

For the Soviets, the "Great Patriotic War" remains a focus for patriotism and loyalty to the socialist system. For the past year movies, newspapers, radio and TV programs have been filled with tales of World War II sorrow and glory. Even passengers flying into Moscow aboard Aeroflot have been told about the defense of the capital in 1941-42 against the German army, and official news conferences on issues such as foreign trade and Moscow's international youth festival have begun with statements concerning the anniversary. A commemorative ruble was minted for the occasion; Soviet horticulturists even developed a red tulip hybrid named Parade in honor of the celebration.

The anniversary has also been used as a propaganda tool against the West. Soviet victory speeches have minimized the U.S. Lend-Lease program, which provided Moscow with more than $10 billion in food and war materiel between 1941 and 1945. At the same time, the Soviets have portrayed West Germany and the U.S. as Hitler's successors. Soviet commentators have accused the West Germans of "revanchism," or wanting to retake German territories lost in the war, and have condemned Reagan's Bitburg visit as paying homage to the Nazis. The Soviets gloss over Moscow's nonaggression pact with Hitler, which lasted for 22 months before the Nazi dictator broke the agreement by invading the U.S.S.R. in June 1941.

The U.S. State Department reacted to the Soviet hostility by instructing ambassadors and other heads of mission not to attend Soviet V-E day celebrations but instead to send lower-ranking diplomats. Arthur Hartman, the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, boycotted the Red Square parade in specific protest against the killing of U.S. Army Major Arthur Nicholson in March by a Soviet sentry in East Germany. But Hartman did lay a wreath at Moscow's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "This is our tribute to those who gave their lives," he said. "It is the most significant ceremony."

. In Eastern Europe, most V-E celebrations honored the victorious Red Army while acknowledging a lesser contribution from Western forces. Czechoslovakia emulated the Soviets with a large military parade. In Poland, traffic was halted briefly in Warsaw for a memorial ceremony at the

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In a torchlight ceremony at the Soviet war memorial in East Berlin, ranks of blue-shirted youngsters from the Communist Free German Youth saluted the 5,000 Soviet soldiers buried there.

The ceremonies in Britain, France and West Germany were solemn commemorations that played down military pomp. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was reluctant to celebrate a military victory over a now important ally, but agreed to an official service in Westminster Abbey after the Royal British Legion and other patriotic groups insisted on marking the anniversary. Before Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and other members of the royal family, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, reminded the congregation that the war had a noble purpose: "The victory which closed down Belsen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz is, itself, sufficient cause for thanksgiving."

In France, V-E day was a holiday, but in many respects it seemed business as usual. President Francois Mitterrand, a former Resistance fighter, reviewed troops in a brief ceremony and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe. He also sent a message to the Soviet Union in which he said that "the French have not forgotten the sacrifices of the Soviet people" in the battle against fascism.

Many West Germans welcomed V-E day as the end of a sometimes uncomfortable period of re-examining the Nazi past. The mood was perhaps most appropriately reflected in an ecumenical service in Cologne Cathedral attended by West German government leaders and clergymen from throughout Europe. Referring to the four decades since the cease-fire, Joseph Cardinal Hoffner, the Archbishop of Cologne, pointed out that in Scripture, "forty signifies a time of trial, of testing, of toil, of endurance and of reflection."

A few hours before the service, West German President Richard von Weizsacker had challenged his countrymen not to flinch from their responsibility for the Holocaust. "Every German was able to experience what his Jewish compatriots had to suffer, ranging from plain apathy and hidden intolerance to outright hatred," he declared in a speech in parliament. "But too many people (attempted) not to take notice of what was happening. When the unspeakable truth . . . became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it, or even suspected anything."

Above all, von Weizsacker said, "there is truly no reason for us today to participate in victory celebrations. But there is every reason for us to perceive May 8, 1945, as the end of an aberration in German history." This, said the President, bore the seeds of hope for a better future.

FOOTNOTE: *Western capitals observed V-E day on May 8, the date of the official announcement by the Western Allies of the German surrender at Reims. The Soviets marked their ratification of the surrender in Berlin May 9.

With reporting by John Kohan/Bonn and Nancy Traver/Moscow, with other bureaus