Dmitry Medvedev"s visit to Slovakia and...
Over the past few years, Russia has been embroiled in disputes with countries in this region-disputes over the present and the past. It is symbolic that the Russian president chose to visit Slovakia first. Slovakia, along with the neighboring Czech Republic and Austria, were the first victims of Hitler"s aggression.
The formation of the nominally independent "first Slovak Republic" in 1939 (in reality, a Nazi puppet regime) didn"t fool anyone. Although its leaders called themselves Christians and boasted their newly acquired "sovereignty," there was nothing Christian or sovereign in their collaboration with the Nazis.
Soviet soldiers discovered the Slovaks" true feelings toward the Nazis in August 1944, when the Slovaks attempted to put an end to the German occupation at the same time as the Polish uprising in Warsaw. Sadly, the Slovaks failed. The surviving resistance fighters joined the Red Army as it approached Bratislava. They entered the city together 65 years ago.