DISINFO: Western historical revisionism aimed at weakening and destroying Russia

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Western historical revisionism aimed at weakening and destroying Russia

SUMMARY

A number of Western institutions and persons tend to say dark is bright and to equalise WWII losers with winners. The end goal of such campaigns is to weaken and even destroy Russia. For Russians, their future is at stake in the struggle for historical truth about the victory over Nazism.

RESPONSE

This message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narrative about anti-Russian policies of aggressive West. It is also part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism which attempts to portray Russia's role in World War II as non-aggressive and to blame the West for the failure to create an anti-Nazi coalition with the Soviet Union. The article attempts to minimise and erode the disastrous historical role of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, saying: "In these circumstances, the Soviet Union signed the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany. It was practically the last among the European countries to do so. Besides, it was done in the face of a real threat of war on two fronts – with Germany in the west and with Japan in the east, where intense fighting on the Khalkhin Gol River was already underway." In the same context, see other examples of Russian disinformation narratives on World War II, such as claims that Western countries revise history to avoid responsibility for allowing Hitler to attack the USSR or that the Soviet Union tried to create an anti-Nazi alliance but the West didn’t respond or that the USSR had no role in the outbreak of the war.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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