I have returned from Moscow, from a city where Republika Srpska is recognized as a proud, dignified, firm, and sincere international actor. There, on Red Square, I stood shoulder to shoulder with those who know what it means to fight and die for freedom, emphasized the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik in a column for Glas Srpske.
We share the full column below:
Republika Srpska was welcomed as a friend, and I am proud that I stood there in its name—that Republika Srpska had its place among those who fought against fascism and who today stand on the side of truth.
The Soviet Union endured unimaginable losses. More than 27 million people perished during the Second World War. Yes, 27 million. That is more than the combined losses of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. It is a number that testifies to the price Russia paid for the world’s freedom. Watching the parade, I remembered those sacrifices. I remembered that without them, there might not be today’s Europe, nor the kind of freedom we take for granted.
And what about the Serbs? Where is the place of Serbs in the fight against fascism today? On the territory of the former Yugoslavia between 1941 and 1945, around 1,027,000 people died—most of them Serbs. In that bloody toll, the Serb struggle was unbreakable, and the sacrifices were vast. While there is much talk of the contributions of the great powers, of the courage of young men from the United States who died on the front lines, we must not forget that the Serb people bore a burden measured not just in hundreds of thousands of deaths but in destroyed families, burned villages, and erased roots. The United States lost 400,000 soldiers in the fight for freedom—a heroic contribution to be respected and remembered. But Serbia and the Serb people paid for that freedom in the blood and tears of millions of innocents. The Serbs, along with Jews and Roma, were the only people subjected to industrial and sadistic killing in the death camps of the NDH. That sacrifice must never be forgotten and is a foundation of today’s Europe.
And while I stood there, among those who know what it means to fight and die for freedom, I also felt the strength of the friendship Republika Srpska shares with those who remain faithful to truth. Two of the three most powerful world leaders—Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi—demonstrated that they are sincere friends of Republika Srpska. And in a time when the world is undergoing great changes, comparable only to those that followed the victory over Nazism, Republika Srpska has friends in high places. Friends who understand what it means to fight against hegemony, against the rewriting of history and truth.
Revisionism is not only a threat to history—it is a threat to the present and future. Because if we allow truth to be altered, what prevents us from becoming victims again? If history is rewritten, then victims become executioners, and liberators are turned into criminals. That is why today, with this experience from Moscow, I say: We will not forget. We will not allow them to steal the truth about our fight against fascism. We will not forget the 27 million Russians and the hundreds of thousands of Serbs who gave their lives for freedom.
I am proud that Republika Srpska today stands with Russia, side by side, in the fight against forgetfulness. I am proud that we, the descendants of those who defeated fascism, are here today to defend truth from lies and memory from oblivion.
Eternal glory to all heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. Eternal glory to the Russian and Serb fighters who brought freedom to the world.
For they gave their lives so the world could be free. And it is up to us to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain.
Source: RTRS
