V-E DAY: Europe's Separate Fates

A quarter of a century ago, the exhausted and half-leveled Continent of Europe declared an end to World War II. It was V-E day, the moment of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied forces of the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union. In retrospect, May 8, 1945, was not the joyous release from conflict that it seemed to anyone who still remembers that bright spring day. Within a few short years, a cold war would descend on the Continent, turning it into a zone of seem ingly permanent confrontation. Last week the nations that battled for the soil of Europe were marking the anniversary in very different ways. The following stones from three European capitals examine their separate observances and separate fates:

MOSCOW Modest Comeback

He appeared as a contemplative, grandfatherly figure, sucking gently on an ever-present pipe and nodding attentively to the generals who surrounded him. When his picture first flashed onto the screen, perhaps a fourth of the audience, gathered in Moscow last week for the first public showing of the 3 1/2-hour feature film Osvobozhdeniye (Liberation), broke into spontaneous applause. Others remained coldly silent. At least one recalled aloud the suffering that had been caused by losif Vissarionovich Stalin.

Brutal Fist. Gradually, but ever more noticeably, the image of the dictator who ruled the Soviet Union for nearly 40 years is enjoying a public refurbishing. Russia's public celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany accentuated the trend. Stalin's name has appeared frequently and admiringly in a torrent of war memoirs and newspaper articles. The first bust of him to be seen in Moscow since 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev launched the destalinization spring day. Within a few short years, a cold war would descend on the Continent, turning it into a zone of seemingly permanent confrontation. Last week the nations that battled for the soil of Europe were marking the anniversary in very different ways. The following stones from three European capitals examine their separate observances and separate fates: drive, showed up last week in an exhibition hall filled with World War II displays.

What does the rehabilitation mean?

Few believe that the present Soviet leaders, despite their problems with economic shortcomings and political dissent, plan to reinstate Stalin's brutal fist as well as his statues. Official Soviet histories continue to condemn his political "excesses" during the Great Purges of the 1930s. The more likely explanation for his current limited elevation is that the regime's major military figures want to build up their roles in World War II--and they can hardly avoid upgrading their wartime leader in the process.

Decisive Front. At the same time, the Soviets are seeking to emphasize what they see as the pre-eminent role of the Red Army in winning the war. Convinced that U.S. Historian Hanson Baldwin gave insufficient credit to the Soviet Union in his Battles Lost and Won in the second World War, the current issue of the humor magazine Krokodil shows a caricature of him standing before a map of Europe from which the eastern half has been ripped away. In the caption, Baldwin tells a cigar-smoking capitalist: "At last, sir, I have managed to restore a full map of the war's events." (In fact, Baldwin's book devotes a large chapter to the Battle of Stalingrad.)

In a similar vein, Soviet Defense Minister Andrei Grechko told a gathering of top party and military officials last week in the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses: "This is the historic truth: throughout World War II, the Soviet-German front was the main, decisive front." In an hour-long speech, Grechko's only acknowledgement of the U.S. and British role in winning the war was the grudging line: "The contribution of the peoples and armed forces of our Allies in the anti-Nazi coalition is also known."

To an extent, Stalin's legend is getting little more than a coattail ride from the Soviet emphasis on the glories and sacrifices of World War II. It is a more balanced view than he was accorded under Khrushchev, who overemphasized Stalin's failure to prepare Russia for war and underplayed his leadership role. But the smiling father figure pictured on the screen, as many Russians know all too well, was also responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people and a reign of cruelty rarely surpassed. What eventual effect his modest comeback will have on the Soviet Union, and whether it can be limited to a partial rehabilitation, are unsettling questions.

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