MANUFACTURED REMEMORIES
Even if World War II thoughts are created, it is difficult but not impossible. When their defense ministers unveiled an Allies Of Myanmar Warriors monument in Moscow’s Patriot Park in August to commemorate the Battle of Mandalay in early 1945, Myanmar and Russia did exactly that.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defense Minister, stated at the opening ceremony that it was crucial to” preserve and protect the reality of true history” and that Burma and the Soviet Union had worked together to put an end to fascism( a term that is already popular in the Kremlin because it has accused the Russian leadership of being Nazis ). One of the men in the statue is shown holding a rifle from the Soviet Union.
In actuality, Moscow did not offer Burma any defense support during the conflict.
The Cold War is a more fertile ground for Moscow’s memory delicacy in Southeast Asia because it was during the time of superpower conflict that the Soviet Union supported republican movements in the area.
The Kremlin’s enormous military and financial contributions to Vietnam and Laos during the Cold War continue to be the cornerstone of both nations’ relations with Russia.
Senior Asian leaders always mention Moscow’s” heartfelt help” for Vietnam in its” fight for national independence and reconciliation ,” as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh just did.
A statue honoring Russian aircraft who killed Burmese pilot training in the 1970s was unveiled in Vientiane in 2022. The storage of the heroic deed performed by the Russian pilots will be in the minds of both peoples, according to the Russian ambassador to Laos.
Earlier in the 1960s, weapons payments from the Soviet Union to Indonesia helped the Sukarno government defeat the Dutch and annex Papua.
The construction of the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh is one example of how Russia frequently uses the meager support it currently provides to Southeast Asia to preserve the memory of Communist support.
Moscow’s remembrance of politics in the case of Thailand, which sided with America during the Cold War, dates back to the late 19th centuries, when the royal households of Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Siam developed near personal relationships. Tsar Nicholas II is credited with preventing Siam from being colonized by Britain and France in both Russian and Vietnamese tales. The Russians are often eager to embellish this historical fact.