MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Speaker of Russia’s State Duma (parliament’s lower house) Vyacheslav Volodin has proposed to share historic materials about the Yalta Conference with parliaments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Poland and Ukraine.
"If there is such an opportunity, I would like that we translate these priceless materials from those times that are today published by the Istorik journal into different languages and send them to politicians of those countries who are forgetting history to remind them about it one more time," Volodin said at an exhibition opening at the State Duma dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Yalta Conference.
Touch the history
According to the politician, such a step is necessary so that foreign politicians "touch the history and looked at what is happening through the eyes of national leaders from those times." "It would be right to remind those who possibly forgot how to read or lost their conscience once again about what was happening in the world 75 years ago, when it was on the verge of a terrible tragedy. This victory would have been impossible without the Soviet Union, without the self-sacrifice of a colossal number of our citizens," he stressed. The speaker also emphasized that both US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as well as other national leaders "clearly understood that."
"But as the time goes, they are trying to forget all this, sweep it under the carpet, while today they are also attempting to rewrite it. We cannot let this happen," he underscored.
Gather for the world
Volodin also recalled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to hold a summit of founders of the United States.
"Our president was perfectly right, saying <…> that contempt for the past and dividedness when facing threats can bring about terrible consequences and proposed that UN founding members gather again to protect the world and to discuss and resolve issues of security which is under threat now because many particularly forgot history, forgot about what Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin were saying, addressing the issues of the post-world’s order and creating an architecture that resolved all issues for more than 70 years," the speaker pointed out.
Volodin is convinced that Putin’s proposal "should be supported by everyone because there are so many challenges and problems [in the world] that definitely should be discussed at the roundtable. "Otherwise, we might face a greater tragedy [than the one] that happened back in the say, when one state decided the fate of all others. A repeat of that is simply inadmissible," he warned.
In late January, the Russian Defense Ministry published declassified documents about the Yalta Conference held by the World War II allies (Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom) in February 1945. The materials can be accessed in the special section of the ministry’s website.
On February 4-11, 1945, Crimea’s Yalta hosted a meeting of the anti-Hitler coalition country leaders which made decisive decisions on post-war cooperation between states as well as the decision to establish the United Nations.