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Editor,
The Defense Ministry posted an article on its web site by Colonel Sergei Kovalyov of the ministry's Institute of Military History. He argued that Hitler's demands to Poland to hand over Danzig (Gdansk) and to allow a corridor to be built to connect East Prussia with the main part of Germany were reasonable. Is this part of the Kremlin's campaign to recast Russia's 20th-century history in a more favorable light? Russia can't simply rewrite history by relying on primitive, KGB-like propaganda stunts.
In addition, it is clear that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was as much an agreement to divide up Poland as it was a treaty of nonaggression. It was in some ways similar to the Yalta Conference where the Western allies sold Poland down the Russian river, thus allowing several generations of my relatives to live in Soviet captivity.
Russia should never again allow one of its ministries to publish outlandish and blasphemous statements under the cynical, Orwellian pretext of protecting against "fabricating and falsifying" Russian and Soviet history.
Joe Bialek
Cleveland, Ohio
Mistrust in Propaganda
In response to "The Kremlin's Pseudo Science," a column by Vladimir Ryzhkov on June 23.
Editor,
Russians have little faith that democracy can work in their country. Since elections are predetermined and manipulated in Russia, the institute of democracy has been besmirched.
The level of mistrust is horrifying, and this is the real result of the massive government propaganda that the author describes in his article.
Joanna Misiewicz
Moscow
Vote Rigging and Violence
In response to "A Poor Man's Democracy," a column by Yulia Latynina on June 17.
Editor,
As Latynina suggests, free, democratic elections do not necessarily provide the best leaders. The main benefit of free elections is that the people have a means to peacefully change their government when they become discontent. When elections are falsified, violent protest is often the only alternative for changing leaders, as we now see in Iran.
Virginia Fitzpatrick
Norristown, Pennsylvania
