War and myth

Yunarmiya members in the Moscow region stormed what in Germany itself is considered a symbol not of Nazism, but of resistance to it

In the Patriot park near Moscow in Kubinka, a large-scale performance was held, previously announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense as "a military-historical reconstruction of the final part of the Berlin offensive operation in May 1945 - the storming of the Reichstag." The event, according to reports from the Ministry of Defense, was attended by more than 100 stuntmen and over 30 samples of various equipment, including T-34, KV-1, IS-2 and Panther tanks. As the military department reported, the original goal - the training of Yunarmiya members - has been achieved. Overboard, however, remained a reaction to the "training" in Germany. And she is very revealing.

the Reichstag building was never a nest of Nazism and a symbol of the Third Reich, as it was withdrawn from political circulation before the Reich itself was proclaimed

Even at the planning stage, the German government declared that the idea of ​​the assault was “amazing”, seemed “strange” and it itself would not start something like this to educate German youth. For Julius von Freitag-Loringhoven, a representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the idea of ​​storming the "Reichstag" in the Moscow region generally caused "frost on the skin." Some of the experts spoke about the “defensive mentality”, someone about the growing importance of “military-historical topics for the self-identification of Russian youth”, someone about the reproduction of “old stereotypes”, behind which the ideologeme is clearly visible: “We beat you and we will beat. And even political scientist Alexander Rahr, who is sympathetic to the Kremlin, called the idea “inappropriate.”

Responding to a request from the DW (Deutsche Welle) radio station, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, said that “apparently, in Germany, someone forgot that it was from the Reichstag that Hitler and his builders of the Third Reich began their fiery and bloody path in to the world".

And here the Ministry of Defense embarked on the unsteady path of mythology, but not facts.

The fact is that the Reichstag building was never a nest of Nazism and a symbol of the Third Reich, as it was withdrawn from political circulation before the Reich itself was proclaimed. The building was built from 1884 to 1894 for the united German parliament - the imperial assembly, which in German is called the "Reichstag". From its balcony on November 9, 1918, the German Republic was proclaimed, which later became known as the Weimar Republic.

Less than a month after Hitler came to power, on February 27, 1933, someone set fire to the Reichstag. Did it the Nazis or the Communists, is still not clear. They seized the half-mad and half-blind Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe, who admitted his guilt at the trial in Leipzig (how he alone could carry so many cans of gasoline into the building is a mystery). Van der Lubbe's head was cut off. The guilt of the other participants in the process, including Cominternist Georgy Dimitrov, could not be proved.

After the fire, the Reichstag moved to the building opposite - to the Krol Opera.

The Nazis, meanwhile, used arson to defeat political parties, adopting a law "on eliminating the disasters of the people and the state." As a result, by July 1933, only one party remained in the country - the Nazis. Back in March, Hitler received emergency powers and could rule by decree.

Today, in memory of the 96 members of the Reichstag who fell victim to the Nazis, memorial plaques have been erected right in front of the current, rebuilt building where the German Bundestag meets. Thus, the Reichstag can rather be considered a symbol of resistance, but not of Nazism. And the bloody Nazi campaign did not begin from there.

In May 1945, the Reichstag was a well-fortified point of defense on the way to the Imperial Chancellery, which, in fact, was the heart of the Third Reich. The Reichstag was defended mainly by units from the French SS division "Charlemagne"; there were also Germans, Belgians, Latvians - only about a thousand people.

The logic “let them hate, if only they are afraid” has repeatedly proved its historical unproductiveness. The reproduction of myths is not a guarantee of a peaceful existence. The militarization of the consciousness of young people is not a synonym for patriotism. The army is an important, but not the main part of society.

Photo: Sergey Bobylev/Press Service of the RF Ministry of Defense/TASS, Sergey Savostyanov/TASS, universal history archive/uigart and history/east news , imago stock and people/east news