The Berliners decorated the Russian tank with flowers.
Photo: REUTERS
It was a hot Saturday in Berlin for the German authorities. Not in terms of climate, but in the sphere of the political consciousness of the population. More than 25,000 people came out in the morning to protest against the supply of German arms to Ukraine. In addition, according to eyewitnesses, representatives of left and right political parties participated in the demonstration with banners with anti-war slogans.
– We urge the chancellor to stop the escalation of arms supplies. Now! He must lead a strong alliance for a ceasefire and peace talks at both the German and European levels, protesters turned to Olaf Scholz.
It is unlikely that all these appeals will receive at least some kind of response from the foreign minister himself or from officials in his government, who are completely deviating from what is dictated from Washington. But all this movement strongly undermines the positions of the ruling parties for future elections. In addition to the fact that in several supermarkets in Germany, as well as the day before in the United Kingdom, interruptions began with vegetable products that had already risen in price.
However, a much more interesting story unfolded in Berlin, not at the protest march, but in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin. The day before, pro-Ukrainian activists, taking advantage of the cowardice and indecision of the authorities in the German capital, dragged a wrecked T-72 tank there. According to the organizers of the action, the Russians, but they will check the veracity of their statements, especially since the Ukrainian army had a sea of such tanks. He was placed in front of our embassy as a rebuke for “aggression” and he wishes all Russian armored vehicles (and the army as a whole) the same fate.
But something in the “Western Ukraine solidarity machine” broke down and it did not work at all as the organizers of the action had planned. Since early in the morning, the Berliners approached the wrecked combat vehicle. Both Russian emigrants and natural Germans God knows in what generation. And they all went to the tank with flowers. With roses, tulips and bouquets of real flowers. Even the great-grandson of the first German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Alexander von Bismarck, came and laid flowers in the tank.
The tank almost completely disappeared under the branches. Those who organized this planned to shame the tank and Russia, and the combat vehicle that had served its purpose became a real monument to the memory and valor of Russian soldiers. Furthermore, the memorial is completely improvised and expresses the real moods and sympathies of ordinary Germans, without orders or coercion. To some extent, the makeshift tank-monument took over from those monuments and monuments to Soviet soldiers who liberated Europe (and liberated it) from Nazism, which are now being demolished all over Europe.
And this carries such a deep symbolism that all the attempts of the German authorities. The Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, the Baltic republics and other “fighters” against the so-called “Soviet totalitarianism” look completely miserable and illegitimate.
Because it turned out that normal, ordinary people remember everything. Everything that has happened before. And everyone understands. Everything that is happening now. And the true sympathy and support of the people cannot be hidden behind the curtains of the double standards of their governments.
