MOSCOW – The Kremlin campaign against what they describe as falsifying history is in full force with the 70th anniversaries of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the start of World War II this month.
The Kremlin’s chief objective is to justify the signing of the 1939 Soviet-German nonaggression pact and to absolve Stalin’s role in Hitler’s decision to unleash WWII.
This campaign is nothing more than a brazen attempt to rewrite history. All the documents have been made public and specific facts are common knowledge.
Russia’s present-day leaders are unwilling to bear responsibility for the crimes against humanity that followed the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – massive annihilation and deportations of the populace in occupied Belarus, Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. Neither do the Russian authorities recognize the interpretation of WWII currently prevails in Eastern and Central Europe – that the Soviet Union’s victory over Hitler only replaced one tyranny with another.
In the past few days, federal television channels aired documentaries pushing the Kremlin line. The theme of their media campaign was to justify the Soviet policies in the run up to World War II and to place the responsibility for unleashing it on Western countries, especially the United States.
What underlies the Kremlin fears? Russian elites perceive criticisms of Stalin and Stalinism as a manifestation of an anti-Russian drive in Western policies and as attempts to besmirch the present-day Russia. The nation’s leadership has failed to resolutely sever ties with the legacy of the communist past. Moreover, they are continuing to defend it, which is bound to affect Russia’s relationship with its former allies and partners that have discarded and overcome this legacy.
The WWI history rewrite has a concrete policy angle too. The economic downturn is in full swing, with the people’s living standards falling. Even according to the official statistics, the past year saw a dramatic surge in the number of Russians living below the poverty line. Under the circumstances, a powerful propaganda campaign actually in Stalin’s defense is a convenient tool to side-track the people’s attention from the existing hardships and to reintroduce national self-assertion into the forefront of public discussion.
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3 commentsWe also dable in revisionist history. Look at what our students are subjected to, especially in colleges.
While our administration apologizes to the world for America's shortcomings, our "allies" do the opposite. Is there any naivete here? Whatever we have done pales in comparison to Uncle Joe and the Soviet Regime.
Good Old Uncle Joe was indeed a pleasant character. After murdering the Romanov family, the Bolsheviks (communists)led by Stalin in the 1920s "purge" the Jewish Bolshevik leadership who were instrumental in leading the October Revolution (as loyal Bolsheviks, the Jewish element certainly never saw this coming). The found out that Uncle Joe was a rabid anti-semite.
Then, before WWII, in the late 1930s, Good Old Joe kills or imprisons virtually the entire Soviet General Staff down to the rank of Colonel (no way to avoid a coup like taking out the leaders of the army). However, this crippled the Soviet response to the German Invasion (Operation Barbarosa)and resulted in the countless deaths of Soviet Civilians as well as the military.
Then, to top it off, Old Joe kills an estimated 20 MILLION of his own people. We won't even get into the unspeakable torture and atrocities committed in his Siberian labor/death camps. Uncle Joe sure knew how to stop dissent. NO ONE was safe.
Understandably, there was a collective sigh of relief when this criminal finally died in the early 50s.
This sounds like that Iranian Thug denying the Holocaust.
Stalin certainly was an odd one. It seems he was caught by Hitler's surprise invasion of Russia because Hitler was the only person Stalin apparently trusted. Stalin executed countless military and civilian leaders close to him, along with dozens of his personals staff including several personal physicians.. because of his intense paranoid beliefs that these people were plotting his demise. Sadly, the reality is that Stalin was a beloved larger than life icon to many Russians, who would, and did give thier lives up for him. Historians estimate Stalin killed more Russians durring the WW2 years than did Hitler … including a million or so Russian POWs that were sent to thier death in Siberian Gulags after thier release from Nazi POW camps. We should not so casually overlook how modern day Russian propaganda seems to be growing more and more like the Stalin era.
Good points Fredo.
It was also a matter of total control of media with great propaganda AND sheer terror on the millions who kept their mouths shut for fear of being turned in by a neighbor.
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