Foreword by M.V.Dimurin
Moscow, Europe Publishing House, 2006, pp156
Under the slogans of fighting Russian «occupation», the regimes that have established themselves in Latvia and Estonia are not only rewriting textbooks. In fact, they are waging an all-out war against historical memory of the majority of their own population. With a pedantry colored with passion, the new authorities are trying to make people forget the kind of lives and careers they had in Soviet times. With a particular zest, they are striving to convince each and everyone that all their nations were concerned about was resistance against the Soviets. Yes, there really were some national Baltic units in Hitler’s army, and their veterans openly wear Nazi awards. However, there were also other military units and different kinds of awards that are now forbidden to display. In the face of such vigorous propaganda war, an ingenuous chronicle of the formation and fighting of the Latvian and Estonian divisions within the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War gains a special importance.
