What are Russians complaining about?

Perhaps Russia reacted so defensively to U.S. President George Bush's July 18 proclamation equating the fascist Nazi regime with Soviet communism because the former Soviet Union and modern-day Russia are inextricably linked, and not because Moscow simply rejects the comparison out of hand. Russia's foreign ministry said Saturday that Bush had insulted World War II veterans and was trying to rewrite history with the proclamation, according to the Reuters international news service. More than 20 million Soviets died repelling an invasion by the Nazis and battling the brutal Nazi forces across Eastern Europe, after the Soviets joined with the Allies. Russians call the defeat of Nazi Germany the Great Patriotic War and Moscow said Bush's proclamation, which marked the annual Captive Nations Week, was an "insult" to veterans who sacrificed their lives in the war. Bush called Nazi fascism and Soviet communism "a single evil," Reuters said. But let's be serious here. It is Russia that is trying to rewrite history by ignoring its alliance with the Nazis at the start of World War II. The two stayed in their alliance for years until Germany turned on the Soviet Union in 1941 and launched a surprise attack, prompted the Soviets to join with the Allies. Russians surely have not already forgotten that the Soviet regime itself was brutally repressive, discriminating against minorities, sending millions of citizens to prison camps and dominating Eastern Europe for decades.