MOSCOW, May 22 (Itar-Tass) - The Federation of Russia’s Jewish Communities has slammed as provocative a statement by politician Leonid Gozman, who compared the Soviet Union’s World War II counter-intelligence service SMERSH (Death to Spies) and Germany’s Nazi SS. Also, it expressed extreme concern over a new spiral of confrontation in the public discussion over the results of World War II, as follows from a statement received by Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
“The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia regards as utterly unacceptable attempts to put an equation mark between any Red Army units and the world’s most horrible ever militarized state institution - SS. Provocative speculations to the effect Nazi Germany’s hypothetical victory over the USSR would have been preferable are blasphemous denial of historical truth,” the statement runs.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia favors an impartial approach to studying the history of World War II clear of propaganda and ideology, but at the same time it urges society to retain “eternal memory and gratitude to the heroic accomplishment of the Soviet people, who together with the allies defeated the most monstrous evil in the history of humanity.”
The Jewish federation’s angry reaction followed shortly after Leonid Gozman, a politician and humanitarian projects director at the OJSC Rosnano, said first in his blog, and then in a televised talk show that he regarded SMERSH as criminal as Nazi SS.