"It is time to look for common approaches to historical events, to pass from accusations to unifying opinion, to seek compromise," said Alexander Chubaryan, the director of the World History Institute, when appearing Friday at a Moscow conference dedicated to the crisis-stricken period before the Second World War.
The views divided chiefly on the point of the Baltic republics' admission to the USSR in 1939-1940.
Latvian historian Inesis Feldmanis believes the USSR, like Germany, was an aggressor.
As to Russian experts, they find it groundless to talk about equal responsibility by Germany and the USSR for the escalation of the pre-war crisis and, the more so, for the outbreak of WWII.
"Events connected with the signing of the Soviet-German treaty of August 23, 1939 (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) ought to be analyzed not only from political, ideological and legal angles but with regard to historical realities of the time," said Chubaryan.
"Stalin's moves to annex the Baltic republics were forced by the mounting threat from Germany which routed France in 1940," said Alexander Orlov of the defense ministry's institute of military history. "We had to prevent by all means the establishment a German bridgehead in the vicinity of the Soviet borders. This is an advanced outpost strategy," explained Alexander Orlov.
Russian historians reminded their Latvian colleagues of a global conflict Hitler and his Nazi entourage conceived and of the aims they pursued. The ultimate purpose was not to win a victory over the USSR but to exterminate people," said Mikhail Magkov of the World History Institute.
He pointed to the necessity of showing a scientific rather than political approach when studying new documents pertaining to the theme. "Past events should be traced by historians, not exploited by politicians," he concluded.
