Bruce, post-Soviet Russia did actually try to create memorials to the victims of communism. The problem was that most of the high-profile victims were communists themselves, as were many of the ordinary victims.

The Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian Holocaust, and the Rape of Nanking are all memorialized in the communities that suffered from them (though only the Jewish Holocaust has memorials in the West, which just doesn't care about Asians enough to give them the same treatment). It's entirely possible that had communism fallen in 1945 rather than in 1990, the Holodomor would've been memorialized the same way. But given that communism fell in 1990, and given that many of the worst of the communist criminals then succumbed to later generations' purges, one cannot blame the world for not building museums about communism.
Alon Levy | Homepage | 01.14.09 - 9:36 pm | #