The main directions of distortion of falsification of national military history. About the falsification of history. Attempts to falsify Russian history
The Soviet Union collapsed almost a quarter of a century ago. Soviet history in the media and in textbooks has long and habitually been painted in the gloomy colors of communist terror, which was supposedly the meaning of the Soviet political system.
It seems that the authorities are waiting for the last witnesses of the Soviet past to die out, and the new generations of Russia to lose all interest in the heroic image of the great country, which for seventy years gave hope to the whole world for the triumph of justice. In the meantime, other values are promoted and other heroes are famous.
However, a movement for the revival of the historical dignity of Russia has arisen and is growing in Russian society. This happens after the strengthening of its political positions in the world. So far, these are public organizations of a club format. Their main task is to fight the falsification of history, opportunistic disinformation and the forgery of documents aimed at destroying the unity of peoples and social groups in our vast country. In fact, in response to the informational aggression of the falsifiers of the past, a search is being made for a consolidating national Russian idea or ideology, contrary to the vague definition of political diversity in Article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
"Forget your kind, and you are nobody"
As you know, history is a policy directed to the past. The writing of history, the factual interpretation, is an exclusively ideological work. There is no future without the past. In the ideological basis of self-identification of the individual and patriotism lies, first of all, historical memory, around which the culture and language of communication in its diversity is formed. Everything together unites people into a society inhabiting a historical territory, and with the development of the economy, a nation is formed from a historical community. If this algorithm for the formation of a nation is destroyed, if its identification historical basis is distorted, then society will begin to disintegrate and the nation will not take place.
The main sign of the distortion of historical facts is manifested in the direction of the description of the fact itself, its interpretation. If the orientation is anti-Russian or anti-Russian, anti-Soviet, then this is probably a propaganda goal and disinformation, informational intervention in the historical consciousness of Russian society with the aim of its decomposition, the formation of an inferiority complex. This is the direct goal of the so-called information war of the West against the Russian Federation and the former Soviet republics.
The goal is neither new nor exclusive. Information sabotage against Russia has been actively used in politics by Western governments for hundreds of years. In this case, parrying the intervention systematically, new historians and journalists who study history need to be able to perceive the factual series of events, tying them to the political situation of the time in which the events took place, abstracting from modern ideological clichés and not mentally introducing them into the social relations of the past. . Only then, based on the analysis and modeling of events, such an interpretation of facts or processes, alternative to Western propaganda, can appear, which will serve to comprehend the past and consolidate society.
Without a worthy comprehension of the past, it is impossible to build the future without destroying oneself. Moreover, the Russian state, losing the historical continuity of generations, condemning its history and renouncing the choice of previous generations, runs the risk of blindly following the ideological guidelines of Western competitors, losing its sovereignty. We have no reason to be ashamed of our past. It was worthy, historically predetermined within the framework of the laws of evolution.
Below are several examples of distortions in the interpretation of historical events adopted in Western historiography, and a real alternative to them, based on the cause-and-effect relationships of social processes and facts. This is a purely subjective opinion of the author.
1. There is a persistent message that the Red Army and Stalin forcibly imposed communism on Eastern Europe. That is, the fear of the USSR and the Bolsheviks paralyzed the democratic forces in the countries of Eastern Europe, which were allegedly against communism and socialism.
In fact, everything was the opposite. By the beginning of World War II, almost all European countries were affected by fascism to varying degrees. The fascisization of Europe was due to the response of the bourgeoisie, primarily financial, to the growing popularity in Europe of left-wing movements and parties, the authority of the Comintern after the First World War.
Fascist bourgeois political regimes in European countries were the norm. Moreover, many of them covered themselves with ultra-left slogans of nationalist socialism. So it was in Italy - the birthplace of fascism - led by Mussolini. Hitler's party was called the National Socialist, the national flag of Germany was red with a swastika in a white circle, symbolizing the absolute vitality of the National Socialist idea. It was a prudent propaganda trick of the Nazis in the conditions of the crisis depression of the 30s.
World War II was unleashed as an anti-communist war, in which Germany was the striking force in the intrigue of financial cartels against the USSR and the core of the anti-Soviet European or Western coalition. Fascist Europe concluded peace treaties with fascist Germany. It was the quintessence of political strategy in the next campaign of Europe to the East, as a continuation of the First World War. For this, Germany was armed by the financiers of the United States and Europe.
The allies of the USSR, really the Anglo-Saxons, were hypocritical in this war and were looking for an advantageous middle ground in playing off the two major powers and at the same time their historical competitors - Germany and the USSR.
At the same time, one cannot fail to say that the birthplace of the communist project Marx-Engels was France and England, and the project itself, as conceived by the British Prime Minister Palmerston, a skilled political intriguer who tacitly supported Marx, was intended for rival Germany in order to undermine its economy and state.
Marxov "Communist Manifesto" was developed and freely published in London in 1848 as a program document of the Communist League, and in Germany the manifesto appeared only in 1872. The First International, as an international organization of workers, was founded in 1864, also in London.
At that time, a complete translation of Marx's Capital was first printed in St. Petersburg, and Marxism was a little-known philosophical movement. The CP Manifesto was published in Russia only in 1882, and before that there were attempts to translate it into Russian abroad, in particular in Geneva.
In Germany, in 1918, a communist political party appeared and, if not for the Nazi pogroms of the communists, it would have had a chance to come to power. The communist idea in Eastern Europe also appeared earlier than in Tsarist Russia. In 1919, a Soviet republic was proclaimed in Hungary and a red army was formed to defend it, while a civil war was in full swing in the RSFSR, in which European internationalists also participated. So Europe was ready for communism long before World War II and Stalin.
Rather, Russia followed the European left and allowed a grand experiment to take place. There was no diktat to Europe on its part, just as there has never been a forcible planting of Russian Orthodoxy. It is no coincidence that after the war in the 70s of the last century, Eurocommunism was cultivated in Europe, different from the Soviet version. What does the USSR and Stalin have to do with it?
After the victory in 1945, the authority of the USSR and the ideas of socialism were in themselves very high, and the USSR was perceived in the world by the broad masses of the people as a role model in solving such acute political problems as social justice and the prosperity of peoples, their independence.
Therefore, the influence of the left-wing parties in European countries increased sharply as a result of the war, while the right-wing bourgeois parties, who collaborated with the Germans in governments during the war, collapsed. This is the main reason for the political parties in Europe, as well as Asia, South America, and Africa to the left. The process also affected the United States. This is how the International Socialist System arose, which was represented by socialist countries and countries with a socialist orientation. And then there were the associations of Eastern European countries in CMEA and Warsaw Pact.
No one forced them into these organizations. Albania voluntarily withdrew from these organizations. Socialist Yugoslavia and Austria did not participate in them, on the territory of which Soviet troops were located until 1954, and the hammer and sickle flaunted on the Austrian coat of arms from 1919 to 1934.
In order to prevent left-wing revolutions in their countries, in America and France, for example, in the post-war period, pro-fascist measures were taken and communist parties were banned there. This is anti-communist policy de Gaulle in France, and McCarthyism in the USA. In Spain and Portugal, the fascist dictatorship was established earlier, but was not overthrown immediately after the war, but only decades later ceased due to the death of the dictators. Franco and Salazar. It is noteworthy that in Portugal, the constitution of 1974 (the so-called Carnation Revolution) proclaimed a course towards the construction of socialism. Later this article was removed from the text of the constitution.
One may ask, how can we regard the events in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, if we do not consider them dictated by the USSR? Very simple. The Warsaw Pact provided for mutual military assistance in crisis situations. The putsch in Hungary and Czechoslovakia was inspired from outside, as it was much later in Yugoslavia. So in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, troops were introduced not only from the USSR, but also from Poland, the GDR, and Bulgaria. The operation was collective, not exclusively Soviet. At the same time, modern Russia bears no historical responsibility for these events.
Moreover, the Warsaw Pact provided for a self-dissolution procedure if a pan-European system of collective security was created. The treaty was open to accession by other countries, regardless of their political system of power, on the basis of equal sovereign rights.
2. Western propaganda and opposition in Russia fan the myth of the notorious Iron Curtain between the USSR and the West, allegedly lowered by the Soviet dictatorship. This is a complete perversion of the essence of the isolation of the USSR. The Iron Curtain was lowered by the West, that is, the economic and political isolation of the USSR was declared, the blockade of its entry into the world market immediately after the establishment of Soviet power after the revolution.
World War II did not change the position of Western governments. Churchill's Fulton speech in 1946 Truman Doctrine and other policy statements by American presidents confirm this fact. The strategy of the "Iron Curtain", i.e. isolation in the post-war period, was implemented in the form of the Cold War. All this continues now in the form of sanctions and trade restrictions, but already against Russia.
Nevertheless, the Soviet Union managed to conduct successful foreign trade. In addition to raw materials, timber and oil, products of mechanical engineering, energy and chemical industries, aircraft industry, etc. were exported. gold ruble, which protected the domestic market and the CMEA from the influence of the US dollar and ensured market stability. However, this created a shortage of foreign currency in the state treasury, which was necessary for industrial development and foreign policy activities.
There was a widespread opinion among the intelligentsia that the state was deliberately forbidding travel abroad for ideological reasons. In fact, the reason for the restrictions was the shortage of foreign currency, since the government had to provide foreign currency for citizens traveling abroad in rubles according to international standards. For the same reason of the currency shortage, trade in foreign consumer goods was organized through the Vneshtorg store system for checks of the VPT, which were paid instead of currency to Soviet citizens for work on foreign business trips, and the earned currency itself went to the state treasury.
As for ideological obstacles, then for this reason the dissident emigration of the 60s and 70s would hardly have taken place. Compared to the emigrants of the first wave, Soviet dissidents did not play any significant role in the ideological confrontation between the West and the USSR, they were dangerous at home, and not abroad, where they sent dissidents out of harm's way. The very ideological background of the travel restrictions has become a kind of cover story for the real cause of the problem - saving foreign exchange reserves.
The exchange of tourists and students was also normalized due to the foreign exchange deficit, but it existed on the basis of quotas for the exchange of tourists and students. There were also visa restrictions on both sides. In the USSR, by law, citizens who had access to secret documents were also limited in traveling abroad.
In addition, bilateral agreements on the free crossing of borders were then concluded between the states. The USSR did not have such agreements with foreign countries. But this was determined not by ideology, but by the migration policy of each country. It was possible to leave for a socialist country at the invitation of an organization or relatives. The procedure for obtaining an exit visa to a capitalist country for the same reasons was more complicated. But it depended on the rules of the other side. In our time, when almost all restrictions on leaving the Russian Federation have been lifted, restrictive conditions for entry into some countries remain.
What was the currency spent on in the USSR? First of all, for foreign policy goals to ensure the balance of power and world influence of the two systems in the conditions of the blockade and the Cold War, to put it briefly. Peaceful coexistence cost money. Therefore, the USSR supported materially friendly states in their development and ensuring sovereignty. The maintenance of foreign state institutions, the provision of maritime navigation, international communications also required foreign exchange costs.
The task of world revolution, for which the USSR is reproached, was never set by the Soviet leadership after Trotsky's departure and the collapse of the Comintern. But the myth of the "world revolution of the Soviets" remained, thanks to the slogan of the Comintern era "Proletarians of all countries, unite!". This tradition did not reflect real Soviet foreign policy, but was used tendentiously in Western anti-Soviet propaganda, now the soviet threat is replaced by the russian one.
3. Russophobes and opposition shout about the technological backwardness of the USSR and Russia. But the USSR was not technologically backward. On the contrary, most of the advanced technologies in the world were developed by Soviet scientists, but they were implemented in other countries. For example, laser, television, mobile phone, space exploration and nuclear power.
In military technologies, we were ahead of the developed capitalist countries, and we are ahead of them now, however, in the production of consumer goods, the state did not allow excess consumer qualities, focusing on domestic demand in the absence of competition. Many high dual-purpose technologies were unnecessarily classified.
Soviet goods were simple, cheap, and in terms of quality they were quite satisfied with the demand of the bulk of the population, and the state saved on this. Although the industry could also produce more sophisticated household appliances, if they did not save on costs in the light and food industries in order to carry out grandiose space programs - the basis of the country's security. At a time when the West was switching to plastic and food surrogates at the whim of speculators, the USSR preferred natural products and fabrics, building materials. Today it is proved that the shortage of goods in the USSR was deliberate, a form of political pressure in the struggle for power.
In reality, according to the results of participation in international exhibitions, our goods, including cars, enjoyed a fairly wide potential demand abroad among the population because of their cheapness and utility. This was one of the reasons for the market isolation of the USSR in favor of Western concerns that produced products, for example, the same cars, with inflated consumer properties at a higher price and a relatively short service life even with a well-organized technical service.
Overproduction, an excess of goods in relation to demand, leads to overexpenditure of resources and their depletion, an increase in industrial waste and garbage. But a competitive market cannot exist without this commodity glut and intensive financial turnover. Today we see it firsthand.
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia entered the world market, but limited in the implementation of its capabilities by the obligations of membership in the WTO. The ruble has become freely convertible and unprotected from the influence of stock market conditions. As a result, the economy of the Russian Federation, like other former Soviet republics, turned out to be controlled by Western financial cartels. Russia imports consumer goods that it could produce itself with better quality. Gradually, consumption develops into pathological consumerism, which ensures the growth of capital of financial speculators-usurers, morally corrupting society.
What is the benefit to the population of Russia from participation in the WTO and is there any? The benefits of speculators do not improve the standard of living of the population and the quality of goods.
4. The West constantly accused the USSR and accuses Russia of aggressiveness, naming far-fetched aggressiveness in the first place among other threats. However, in world history there is no other state with many peace-loving initiatives, such as the USSR and the Russian Federation.
Even at the Genoa Conference in 1922, the Soviet delegation, on behalf of the head of state, proposed general disarmament. The USSR offered peace and the fulfillment of the obligations of the former government (tsarist and bourgeois-republican) for debts and compensation for the losses of foreign companies from the revolution in exchange for the official recognition of the Soviet government as legitimate and full in international relations. The West rejected both proposals. The Soviet state remained in a trade blockade and political isolation. The West is now pursuing the same policy towards Russia.
5. The outright lie is circulating in the media and the Internet that the West was forced to create NATO and expand it because of the threat of a communist invasion from the East. Few people know that initially, at the end of the war, the UN was planned like the pre-war League of Nations, from which the USSR was expelled in 1940. The League of Nations itself collapsed due to insurmountable political differences between its members on the eve of the World War and was formally dissolved in 1946, but after the establishment of the UN in 1945.
The membership of the USSR in the UN was also not supposed, and the new international organization was conceived by the Western powers as a consolidated tool in the fight against communism, by analogy with the League of Nations.
However, this could not be done, thanks to the authority of the then leadership of the Soviet Union, which became one of the founders of the modern UN. Obviously, in opposition to the anti-communist UN, the Comintern could be revived with the Soviet Union at the head, which before the war caused a lot of anxiety to world capital. This was a weighty argument in favor of the USSR's membership in the UN, which did not seek confrontation. The inclusion in the UN of the USSR and two union republics - the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR - as independent members of the organization was a victory for Soviet diplomacy.
Soviet lawyers, experts in international law, actively participated in the development of the UN Charter. At their suggestion, the UN Security Council was formed with the right of veto for each of the five countries members of the Security Council: the winners of WWII and China. The inclusion of China in the UN Security Council was proposed by the Soviet leadership. Thus, the plans of the leading Western powers to aggravate the confrontation in the Cold War were frustrated, which was fraught with the Third World War with the use of nuclear weapons.
As a result, the UN was established in 1945 in the status of a universal subject of international law to develop international cooperation, ensure security and maintain peace on Earth with the authority to form and use peacekeeping armed forces.
Having failed in the UN project, the Western states united with the same anti-Soviet and anti-communist goal, creating the NATO North Atlantic Alliance in 1949. This organization was originally not only commercial and political, but also military, which included the combined armed forces of NATO member countries. In response, in Eastern Europe, six years later, in 1955, the military organization of the Warsaw Pact appeared., and before that there was already an intergovernmental consultative economic body of the socialist countries of the CMEA (1949). Both organizations were dissolved in 1991.
This is the reason and sequence for the emergence of these international organizations. To this must be added the perfidious eastward expansion of NATO after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. So who is the real aggressor here?
6. A special place in Western propaganda is given to the shortage of goods in the USSR and low wages, the infringement of agricultural workers' rights. This issue is very difficult to discuss, since there are no unambiguous methods and comparable statistical data to compare two different systems of government and distribution of national income related to the solution of specific domestic economic and social problems.
Of course, the USSR was "catching up with America." But by what criteria? The Soviet economy was built on the basis of its own resources and labor, and America, which did not fight on its own territory, dominated the world market through dollar speculation and military force.
Nevertheless, today we can quite compare life in the USSR under socialism with life in the Russian Federation under capitalism in many ways: in terms of income, self-realization of the individual and spiritual life.
In Soviet times, the real incomes of the population were much higher than wages. They consisted of earnings and government subsidies. The state subsidized expenses for the maintenance of housing and communal services, kindergartens and nurseries, provided free education at all levels from primary to higher specialized, maintained at the expense of the budget an extensive network of institutions for out-of-school education and rehabilitation of children and youth, sports clubs and sections, sports schools and houses of pioneers. Today in Russia this is practically non-existent. You have to pay for everything. For many families, comprehensive childrearing is out of reach due to low incomes. Thus, from generation to generation, the marginal part of society is growing as a social base for extremism and criminality.
Speculation on historical events
In addition to the ideological falsification of historical facts, the distortion of the essence of the events of the Soviet past, Western political technologists are looking for episodes in our past that could become an ideological ground for dividing peoples and regions. That is, they are looking for ideological cracks along which Russia could be split.
Among such events, for example, the episode of the capture of Kazan in 1552 by the tsar was chosen. Ivan IV the Terrible, the main city of the former Kazan ulus of the Golden Horde. This was the fifth campaign against Kazan, the previous ones were unsuccessful, which speaks of the power of the Kazan Khanate, comparable to Moscow.
This event is presented by Western and many Soviet historians as the conquest, the conquest by the Russians of the Kazan sovereign Khanate of the Volga Tatars in order to expand Moscow's possessions. Thus, an aggressive image of the Russian Moscow state is sticking out, which should encourage modern Tatars to historical revenge, stimulate separatist sentiments in Tatarstan.
In fact, Kazan was taken by the troops of the Russian Tsar, which included squads of Kazan Tatars, Mari, Chuvash, Mordovians with their khans and princes. Free Don Cossacks came to the rescue.
Together, a protege of the Crimean Khan and the Ottoman Empire was expelled from Kazan, blocking the Volga trade route and raiding Russian lands to rob and capture slaves. The slave trade was one of the industries of the Crimean Khanate. After the capture of Kazan, the tsar, according to the custom of that time, himself became the khan of the Volga Tatars, the Volga trade route became free, and the peoples of the Volga region joined the Russian state, with which they repeatedly turned to the tsar. Neither the way of life, nor the faith, nor the customs of the annexed peoples, including the Tatars, were changed or violated by force. Nevertheless, the capture of Kazan is presented as a war of conquest.
Turkey for several years tried to restore its influence in the Kazan Khanate and put its khan on the throne, organizing rebellion after rebellion against Russia with the help of the Nogais, but was never able to do this. This period is taught as the national liberation war of the Kazan Tatars against the Russians.
In the same manner, the settlement of the provinces of the North Caucasus in the 18th century and later is played up. The fact is that most of the settlers were from the regions of Little Russia, the Kuban and Terek Cossacks were mainly formed from Zaporozhye Cossacks, and therefore, up to our time, an original Ukrainian dialect was spread in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, and Ukrainian culture was also introduced. Modern Ukrainian Nazis took this episode of Russian history as the basis for territorial claims against the Russian Federation, threatening to spread their ideology to the Kuban and even annex the Kuban lands to Ukraine. They talk about this openly, blurting out in the context of Western scenarios of stimulating the collapse of Russia.
It is no coincidence that scholars — historians, ethnographers, sociologists and political scientists from European and American universities are quite actively conducting research work in the North Caucasus, reports on which become the property of specialists of a different kind. Probably, as a result of such scientific contacts with representatives of the local intelligentsia in Stavropol, the opinion suddenly began to spread that "Russians have lost their culture." What will follow?
It is also no coincidence that publications about the peasant war under the leadership of Emeliana Pugacheva or about the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775. This topic has always aroused great interest in Russia. Too many mysteries remain for posterity about that distant event. But what is the intrigue of the current popularity? It is covered in just a few lines. The peasant war is interpreted as a war between two states - tsarist Russia and the Cossack Yaik (Urals). Pugachev allegedly had a full-fledged government with its own orders and ministers, and the army was regular.
If we compare these curious statements with the activity of the American embassy in the Urals, then we can judge the possible preparation of some kind of ideological basis for an anti-Russian American project in this region. It is quite possible that the authors of historical studies are unaware of such intentions of the customer. But this does not mean that there are no such intentions at all.
In the same series of historical speculations is the problem of the revival of the monarchy in Russia, candidates for the royal throne have already been prepared from imaginary Bagrationi-Romanovs.
The society was shocked by the news of a certain scientific dissertation justifying the betrayal of the commander of the 2nd shock army, General Vlasov. They say that in modern anti-communist Russia, Vlasov cannot be considered a traitor, since he did what higher leaders repeated in the Cold War in the 80-90s of the last century. In addition, the remains of a white general Denikin and his wife were reburied at the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow as a sign of reconciliation of the past. But everyone knows that Anton Ivanovich Denikin refused to cooperate with the Germans against Soviet Russia, although he was an implacable enemy of the Soviet government and the Bolsheviks.
As the old Russian proverb says, you can’t throw a scarf over every mouth. Bans on provocative topics will not improve things here. It is necessary to adequately respond to such challenges with counterinformation, new historiography with a clear ideology of statehood.
Who curses his former
he is already ours (among the demons. - V.K.)
F. M. Dostoevsky
History is politics
thrown into the past
M. N. Pokrovsky
The problem of falsification and distortion of history to the detriment of Russia's interests has recently acquired a pronounced importance on an international scale.However, this is not the first time: similar processes have taken place in the past. The reason for them lies in the following - the desire to redistribute property on a global scale, when forceful methods no longer bring the desired results, and the necessary condition for achieving goals is the incitement of national and religious intolerance, rejection of the way of life of other people. And here history comes to the aid of political technologists, and for the most part - military history.
And this is no coincidence. Military history is not only a reference point for military thinking, but also one of the components of the formation of a worldview and historical memory. It is military history that helps society to get answers to the questions posed by the modern era, in particular, to determine who is the aggressor and who is the victim; assess the nature and consequences of military conflicts.
The information campaigns of falsifiers of history achieve the greatest effect in an environment where the historical memory of the nation is formed on the momentary benefits of political groups and business elites, where there are no clearly established assessments of the key problems and events of history - after all, they are interpreted to the detriment of the security of the state. This is especially true for the national security of modern Russia, which has a rich military history.
This page is intended to counteract attempts to falsify and distort history to the detriment of Russia's interests. We hope that its content will enable modern Russian society to know and understand its history better, to develop a stable immunity to any attempts to falsify the past.
"A story told by the people": book four
“Thousands of books have been written about the Great Patriotic War, but the book you are holding in your hands is special,” the chairman of the Russian Historical Society (RIO) says in an address to readers. Sergei Naryshkin. - From its pages, the living voices of people who forged the Great Victory at the front and in the rear can be heard. [...] We have no right to abandon this memory, to simplify and generalize the very image of the war. [...] The value of our Great Victory lies in its historical concreteness, unvarnishedness and absolute authenticity. Behind it are not myths, but millions of human destinies. And our moral duty, our common task is to remember these soldiers by name.”
Partisan mimicry in Western Belarus
The concept of "mimicry" has long crossed the line of natural science knowledge. In such a complex living organism as society, the laws of nature are applicable, allowing a person to survive in conditions of prolonged threat. War often acts as an extreme situation for the manifestation of such qualities, exposing the animal instincts of people. Guerrilla methods of struggle, in which there are often no clear boundaries of identification, allow you to hide your true essence and your intentions, including behind the mask of a potential enemy. The concept of "partisan mimicry" is introduced by the author for the first time, it is a kind of product of the convergence of natural sciences and humanitarian knowledge.
The concept of "mimicry", introduced in biology by the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates back in the 19th century, today is not limited to the classical formula: the imitator imitates a stronger model in order to protect itself from a predator. Mimicry has a broad classification. Given the complex structure of human society and the behavioral characteristics of the individual, the examples of mimicry described by biologists of the world are not only applicable to society, especially in a partisan environment, they can give rise to more complex forms of it. In this particular case, we are talking not so much about the external features borrowed by military units for survival, but about the attempts of some partisan formations to portray actions characteristic of their opponents for a variety of purposes. This article will focus on a fairly large unit of the Home Army - the Stolbtsy battalion, which for a while pretended to be pro-Soviet and was practically integrated into the Soviet partisan movement.
What are the official history books teaching our children?
Europe and Asia were liberated by Russian "outright bandits, drunkards and rapists"?
One of my friends accompanied his congratulations on Victory Day with a sign that gave the answers of modern inhabitants of Western European countries to the question of who played a decisive role in the victory over Nazi Germany and its allies.
To see the blasphemous figures given in the table published here, I would say, was not only unpleasant, but also insulting. It is insulting to the 27 million of our compatriots who gave their lives, including for those Western Europeans who have forgotten or who were originally brought up by propaganda did not know their saviors.
However, there are honest, objectively thinking people in the West, including the USA. I remember my acquaintance two years ago on Sakhalin during the International Scientific Conference "Lessons of the Second World War and the Present" with the director of the Institute for Atomic Research at the American University, Professor Peter Kuznik, who devotes a significant part of his activity to upholding the truth about the world tragedy of the twentieth century. He is known to the Russian audience as a co-producer of the 12-episode documentary The Untold History of the United States. The first three hour-long episodes of the film are dedicated to World War II.
Zinaida Portnova
The stamina and courage of a 17-year-old girl infuriated the Nazis
At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, during the period of the debunking of Soviet heroes, compromising evidence was sought for each of those who was recognized and glorified by the Soviet authorities.
It turned out to be difficult to find anything compromising the underground worker Zina Portnova. And therefore, the main claim to her was that she, glorified among the "pioneer heroes", was not a pioneer!
Resistance to the Nazis on the territory of Belarus was especially fierce. From the first days of the war, partisan detachments and underground groups were created here.
In the Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region, an underground youth organization "Young Avengers" was created, the history of which is similar to the history of the "Young Guard". The leader of the "Young Avengers" was Fruza (Efrosinya) Zenkova, who rallied around herself the local youth, ready to resist the Nazis.
Bandera: facts and myths
There is no need to talk about what is happening in Ukraine now. The Nazism that is now rising in Ukraine has Bandera roots, uses its rhetoric, uses its methods. And we, knowing their history, their tricks, can resist them.
Myth #1 -Bandera did not fight from the very beginning with Russia and, moreover, Russians, as they are credited with
Bandera from the very beginning of their appearance waged a fierce war against the Poles (who were occupiers) and Russians (who were also considered "Muscovite" occupiers). And they were preparing for this war much ahead of time.
Testimony of Colonel Stolze at the Nuremberg Trials on December 25, 1945:
"Lahousen gave me an order for review ... The order stated that in order to deliver a lightning strike on the Soviet Union, Abwehr-2, when carrying out subversive work against the USSR, should use its agents to incite national enmity between the peoples of the Soviet Union. In particular, I personally was instructions were given to the leaders of Ukrainian nationalists, German agents Melnik (nicknamed "Consul-1") and Bandera, to organize provocative speeches in Ukraine immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union in order to undermine the nearest rear of the Soviet troops, as well as in order to convince the international community that that the decomposition of the Soviet rear seems to be taking place.
Cryptomnesia. Kill the past
Falsification, to put it simply - rewriting history - is nothing but a factor in international politics. Changed history - brought up a new generation - got a new people - changed the situation in the world.
Film “Cryptomnesia. Kill the Past” was filmed as part of the “Roads of Memory” campaign. Such an unusual name for the film was given for a reason. "Cryptomnesia" in psychiatry means a memory disorder in which the patient loses the ability to distinguish between real events and events that the patient heard about from others, from the media, and even from dreams. The tape is intended to draw public attention to the problems of falsification of history and, in particular, the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers in the Republic of Poland.
The producer and author of the idea of the film is the chairman of the Regional Branch in the Kaliningrad Region of the Great Fatherland Party (PVO) Andrey Viktorovich Omelchenko. The air defense leader Nikolai Starikov and Anatoly Wasserman took part in the filming.
Aggression against Russia, 75 years later: to protect history - to secure the future
The most famous among the works of the post-Soviet revisionist direction (the authors of which seek to prove the thesis about the “preventive”, “defensive” nature of the war on the part of Germany, the “need to protect” from a potentially strong adversary in the person of the Soviet Union, which allegedly prepared an attack on Germany) is still in The 1990s received a trilogy (“Icebreaker”, “M Day”, “The Last Republic”) by Viktor Suvorov (V.B. Rezun). According to its author, “Stalin helped Hitler start a war against a coalition of Western powers (England, France and their allies) in order for the outbreak of a war of extermination to devastate Europe, through the ashes of which Stalin’s armies had to march in triumph. In June 1941, preparations for this march were interrupted by an unexpected ... Wehrmacht invasion.
In the future, according to Mark Solonin, V. Suvorov's hypothesis “demonstrated the main sign of a true scientific theory ... P. Bobylev, T. Bushueva, V. Danilov, V. Kisilev, M. Meltyukhov, V. Nevezhin, I. Pavlova, Yu. Felshtinsky is a far from complete list of Russian historians, whose works contain hundreds of documents and facts confirming the hypothesis of V. Suvorov and actually transferring it from the category of “hypothesis” to the rank of scientifically established truth.”<...>
The “preventive” nature of the German attack on the USSR as an attempt to justify aggression and falsify the history of the Great Patriotic War
2016 marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the war unleashed by the Third Reich against the Soviet Union. At the same time, from the first days of the Great Victory, attempts by the opponents of Russia (USSR), through first bourgeois falsifiers of history, now authors of “alternative history”, have not stopped trying to give the German war against the Soviet Union a “preventive” character. By doing so, they seek to remove the responsibility for unleashing a war in Europe from Great Britain, France and the United States, placing it on the USSR.
The trend of modern international politics has become a comparison of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin with the Chancellor of Germany A. Hitler, and modern Russia with Nazi Germany (Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany W. Schäuble, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic K. Schwarzenberg, adviser to US President J. Carter in 1977–1981. Brzezinski, etc.).
Taking into account the military-political situation, in order to counteract the policy of revisionism on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, the article by Vladimir Kiknadze identifies, summarizes and presents the main areas of activity of Soviet historical science in solving this scientific problem, which has an important political, socio-economic and cultural significance.
"In general, the work is very neglected"
Meeting of the working group on preventing the distortion of history, 2016
On January 15, 2016, a meeting of the working group of the Russian Organizing Committee "Victory" was held in Moscow to coordinate work with government agencies, public associations and creative unions on objective, scientifically based coverage of the military history of the Fatherland and the prevention of its distortion.
The working group is headed by the President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General of the Army Gareev Makhmut Akhmetovich, and his deputy, Head of the Research Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Ivan Ivanovich Basik.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Civil Service and Personnel Valery Viktorovich Vishnevsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Franz Adamovich Klintsevich, Chairman of the Military Scientific Committee of the RF Armed Forces - Deputy Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Makushev Igor Yuryevich, Head of the Main Directorate for Work with Personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Major General Smyslov Mikhail Vyacheslavovich, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Zakharova Maria Vladimirovna, members of the Working Group, representatives of the Government, the Federal Assembly, the Federal Security Service of Russia, the executive authorities of Moscow and Moscow region, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Military Historical Society, public organizations of veterans, editors-in-chief of the media, employees of the Institute of Military History.
Auschwitz-Auschwitz: facts, versions, distortions of history
Publications in Komsomolskaya Pravda and Rossiyskaya Gazeta
History of World War II and the Great Patriotic War is still the object of distortion and falsification attempts to the detriment of Russia's interests.
Events in Ukraine in 2014 - 2015 provoked a surge of "alternative" history, political speculation and provocation.
Before our eyes, in an atmosphere of intense information confrontation at the international level, in fact, information aggression against Russia, events are taking place related to the 70th anniversary of the liberation by Soviet troops of the prisoners of the largest complex of concentration camps, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, organized by the Germans in southern Poland in the Auschwitz region - Brzezinka.
Meeting of the working group to prevent the facts of distortion of history
On January 15, 2015, a meeting of the working group of the Russian Organizing Committee "Victory" was held in Moscow to coordinate work with government agencies, public associations and creative unions on objective, scientifically based coverage of the military history of the Fatherland and the prevention of its distortion.
The meeting was attended by the executive secretary of the ROC Pobeda, head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for public service and personnel Fedorov Anton Yuryevich, deputy head of the Main Directorate for work with personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Major General Tsygankov Alexei Mikhailovich, members of the Working Group of the Russian Organizing Committee " Pobeda”, representatives of the Government, the Ministry of Defense of Russia, executive authorities of Moscow and the Moscow Region, heads of public organizations of veterans, editors-in-chief of printed publications.
Responsibility for encroachments on the historical memory of Russians
On May 5, 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 128-FZ "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation".
Federal z The law was adopted by the State Duma on April 23, 2014, approved by the Federation Council on April 29, 2014, published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on May 7 of this year.
The federal law is aimed at countering attempts to falsify military history, encroachment on the historical memory of Russians in relation to military historical events.
The federal law introduces criminal liability for denying the facts established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the trial and punishment of the main war criminals of the European Axis countries, approving the crimes established by the said verdict, as well as for disseminating knowingly false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second World War.
Increased criminal liability is provided for these acts, if they are committed by a person using his official position, using the media, or with the artificial creation of evidence of the charge.
In addition, the Federal Law establishes criminal liability for the dissemination of information expressing clear disrespect for society about the days of military glory and memorable dates of Russia associated with the defense of the Fatherland, and for publicly desecrating the symbols of Russia's military glory. In accordance with the Federal Law, legal entities will bear administrative responsibility for the commission of these acts.
Book cover
The appearance of the monograph of the Crimean local historian, candidate of historical sciences V.E. Polyakova could not help but attract attention. Here it should be noted that this author is not the first time refers to the history of the partisan movement in the Crimea. Over the past five years, he has published more than two dozen articles and one popular science book, which deal with various aspects of this topic. For a number of reasons, the scientific work of V.E. Polyakova receives negative feedback from colleagues, which, however, does not prevent him from considering himself an expert on the history of the Crimean peninsula during the period of Nazi occupation.
V.E. Polyakov likes to respond to criticism that his previous publications were popular, so it is unethical to approach them with generally accepted standards in the scientific community. But this time his research is strictly academic in form, he has a scientific editor, three reviewers with the rank of doctor of historical sciences. Finally, this monograph was recommended for publication by the Academic Council of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University, where V.E. Polyakov. That is, quite a lot of people are already responsible for the facts and conclusions contained in it with their scientific authority.
"Leningrad to be wiped off the face of the earth": the plans of the leadership of Germany
Fragment of the diorama "Siege of Leningrad"
It is well known that the German troops failed to take Leningrad, but on September 8, 1941, on the 79th day of the war, they captured Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost) on Lake Ladoga and blockaded the city. An almost 900-day blockade began. Leningrad and its inhabitants were destined for a terrible fate.
On July 8, 1941, a meeting of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW) was held. Colonel General F. Halder noted in his diary after the meeting: “The Fuhrer’s decision to raze Moscow and Leningrad to the ground is unshakable in order to completely get rid of the population of these cities, which otherwise we will feed during the winter. The task of destroying cities must be carried out by aviation. Tanks should not be used for this." On the same day, a similar entry appeared in the military diary of the OKW General Staff. As H. Polman notes, according to the will of Hitler, "the city founded by Peter the Great had to disappear from the face of the earth."
On July 16, M. Bormann writes down similar instructions from Hitler, made during the “conference with the Fuhrer”, which was attended by A. Rosenberg, H. Lammers, Field Marshal W. Keitel and other high ranks of the Reich: “The Finns claim the area around Leningrad, the Fuhrer I would like to raze Leningrad to the ground and then hand it over to the Finns.” The German historian P. Jan emphasizes that the goal - to destroy Leningrad - is based, in any case, not on one economic strategy - to seize Soviet grain to supply Germany. And not only for military purposes, we note. Hitler's decision, pronounced on 8 July, further stated that the destruction of Moscow and Leningrad would mean "a national calamity which will deprive not only Bolshevism but all Muscovy of centers." The destruction of Leningrad pursued the infliction of political and moral-psychological damage to the Soviet people.
Everything is perfectly clear. However, both in the West and in Russia there are authors who reject such an obvious intention of the military-political authorities of Germany in relation to Leningrad.
A list full of distortions of history
At the end of 2009, the Sevastopol publishing house "Weber" published a reference book of the captain of the 1st rank in the reserve of V.P. Makhno entitled "A complete list of associations and formations of the Third Reich from citizens of the USSR and emigrants, as well as from residents of the Baltic states, Western Belarus and Ukraine." As can be understood from the title of this book, it is devoted to one of the most difficult problems of the Second World War - the collaborationism of Soviet citizens with the military-political structures of Nazi Germany.
The problem of collaborationism itself has scientific relevance. For obvious reasons, for a long time it was one of the taboo topics of Russian historiography. But even now, twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many plots in the history of collaborationism remain insufficiently studied. On the other hand, over the same period, this problem has grown in breadth, it has a significant specialized literature in different languages, and the number of facts introduced into scientific circulation has increased by orders of magnitude. All this puts on the agenda the appearance of general, reference works, from which one could easily extract the necessary information. But, and here it should be objectively recognized, there are negligibly few reference books on such an important problem.
Stalingrad cannot be returned Volgograd: history at the epicenter of politics
This week, Russian society has become more active in deciding where to put the missing comma in the amphibole "Stalingrad cannot be returned, Volgograd cannot be left." Moreover, one of his polls, in which more than 150 thousand people took part by February 6, showed the following. To the question " Do you want Volgograd to be renamed Stalingrad?"answered:
- Yes, everyone knows the city exactly as Stalingrad - 55%
- Yes, but only during celebrations of historical events - 12%
- No, I am categorically against - 21%
- Difficult to answer, this should be decided by the residents of the city - 12%
As can be seen, the vast majority of Russians support the idea and decision of the Volgograd City Duma to rename the city on memorable days into the "hero city of Stalingrad." Moreover, it is precisely this decision of the local authorities that is quite moderate and should suit the sane majority of Russians.
However, someone, obviously, is not satisfied with such a reasonable compromise. And therefore, once again, the history of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union and its supreme power finds itself at the epicenter of modern politics. It is mercilessly and uncompromisingly used to gain political weight, and in most cases, at the expense of unjustified criticism of others. Among the latter (criticized) is the current Russian government, which confirms the target setting of the activities of falsifiers of history - undermining the stability and unity of modern Russian society.
#falsification #history #lie
Any self-respecting people must have their own shrines. For the peoples of the country that once bore the proud name of the USSR, such a shrine is the memory of the Great Patriotic War. Here is grief for the dead, and pride in the victory, and an understanding of the justice of the cause for which our soldiers fought.
- the main theme in modern information warfare. On the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, a rabid lie again gained momentum, the purpose of which was to nullify the unprecedented feat of our soldiers. Attempts to revise the results of World War II are carried out at the highest level. There is only one goal: to fill the heads of ill-informed people with ersatz - dust about how Stalin was preparing an attack on Germany, but nothing worked out for him, that’s why he didn’t ride a dashing horse across Red Square, and at that time the Americans successfully solved in Europe their geopolitical goals.
In recent years, new theories have been more and more noticeably and brazenly thrown into the information field, supposedly evidence that in the Great Patriotic War everything was not as it seemed in the era of the Soviet Union. It comes to things beyond their cynicism, when, for example, the Latvian authorities persecute the former partisan Vasily Kononov and welcome the Latvian legionnaires from the SS. When a monument to a Soviet soldier is demolished in Estonia, they move it and desecrate it. And in Ukraine, at the state level, national heroes are made from Banderites. Moreover, a memorial is being built in their memory.
A vivid example of the desire not only to change the interpretation, but also to radically reformat the Second World War, was the recent resolution of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on assigning equal responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. divided Europe." As a matter of fact, this resolution, by its very essence, is aimed at trampling upon historical truth, at revising the results of the war. An attempt has been made to put fascist Germany and the USSR on the same level, to lay equal responsibility for unleashing the war on the aggressor and its victim. In continuation of this course, it was proposed to declare August 23, 1939, the day of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, “a pan-European day of remembrance for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism. We cannot be indifferent to our national history, to such a great and tragic period in it. We have nothing to be ashamed of. For the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the people of our country strained all their strength, thousands and millions of heroic deeds, accomplishments, feats - all this was, and we need to protect it. Yes, like any story in such formidable moments, it also carries some negative aspects, they should also be spoken about, spoken directly and in a balanced way.
It is also important for us to learn from the mistakes of the past. But it is unacceptable to endure when there are not only individual attempts, but also the desire to talk about the results of the great war and the great Victory, to distort the truth. This is what we need to talk about today. In one of the newspapers, an article was published on the Battle of Kursk, from its text it turns out that in the famous Prokhorov battle, the Germans lost only 5 tanks, and the Red Army - 334. Then a legitimate question arises - why after that the Nazis instead of advancing , suddenly began to retreat, and our troops, pursuing them, went to the Dnieper, liberating the city of Kiev? About the Red Army, which crushed the Wehrmacht, they say that it fought badly and almost lost the war. And nearby are books that colorfully describe the exploits of fascist field marshals, are replicated with satisfaction, describe that, although the German Wehrmacht lost the Second World War, it won after 1945 in the struggle for a positive image of itself in the eyes of the German and international. And what about the Battle of Stalingrad?
This is a global phenomenon from the point of view of military science, technology, everything and politics in general - it turns out that Stalingrad simply defended itself and defended itself. And the fact that 22 divisions of Field Marshal F. Paulus were captured - this seemed to have never happened. And who is Field Marshal Paulus? It was he who developed the Barbarossa plan, it was he, the well-trained commander of the German army, who was defeated. And who defeated his army? Our generals - N.S. Shumilov, commander of the 64th Army and commander of the 62nd Army V.I. Chuikov. The English king presented Stalingrad with a large sword with the inscription: “Stalingraders - strong as steel. From King George VI, as a token of deep gratitude from the British people,” US President F. Roosevelt sent a letter in which, on behalf of the people, he expressed admiration for the courage and fortitude of the Stalingraders. Now in the West they are trying to consign these facts to oblivion, but you cannot erase words from a song.
Nevertheless, in recent times, cliches and stereotypes have been persistently introduced into the public consciousness, designed to “deheroize” that great war. What you just don’t learn today, looking at the TV screen or flipping through the pages of mass publications! It turns out that Goering and Guderian, along with hundreds of German pilots and tankers, studied in the Soviet Union. The entire officer corps of the Red Army perished during the purge of 1937-1939. Soviet intelligence officers reported the most valuable information about the upcoming Nazi attack, but Lieutenant General Golikov, obsequiously agreeing with Stalin, put their reports under the cloth. A communist German soldier who defected to our side on the night of June 22 was immediately shot as a provocateur.
After the outbreak of the war, Stalin, who did not expect an attack, fell into prostration for many days. The retreating units of the Red Army were machine-gunned by the NKVD barrage detachments. The list of such "sensations" can be continued for a very long time. Some of them were born in the bowels of the fascist propaganda machine, others during the notorious "thaw" of the 60s of the last century. Still others are the result of perestroika "revelations". However, as it turns out on closer inspection, they are all untrue. Today, our enemies are trying to belittle, slander the contribution of the Soviet Union to the Second World War, they are trying to falsify it and rewrite its results in their favor. Our answer to these spiteful critics and political opportunists is this: the main contribution to the defeat of fascist Germany belongs to the Soviet people, and the backbone of the German Wehrmacht was broken not in the deserts of North Africa and not in battles in the Pacific Ocean, but on the Soviet - German front.
The armed forces of our country for almost 3 years fought one on one with Nazi Germany, and the allies of the United States and Great Britain kept postponing the opening of the 2nd front and only at the beginning of June 1944 landed their troops in Normandy (Northern France), when the outcome of the war with Germany was a foregone conclusion thanks to our victories. The policy of some major US figures towards the USSR in the Second World War is striking in its ambiguity and outright cynicism. Congressman Truman (the future US president) said that let them (the USSR and Germany) kill each other more in the war, and when they run out of steam and become exhausted, then we will join the fight and dictate our conditions for the future order of the world. Other politicians have argued that it would be desirable for them to see Germany on its deathbed in this war and Russia on the operating table. However, our victory has confused all the cards for the Western strategists.
Despite heavy losses, huge material destruction, the Soviet Union not only defeated fascist Germany, but also freed the states of Southeast Europe from fascist enslavement. Modern falsifiers of the history of the Great Patriotic War often portray the Soviet soldier as cannon fodder, with which mediocre red generals made up for their professional failure. Based on this "logic", the most significant victories should have accompanied the Red Army at the very beginning of the war, when our losses were greatest. The facts say otherwise. It is impossible to win a high-tech war by numbers alone. Another thing is that the skill of Soviet military leaders, rapidly growing as they gained experience in conducting combat operations in new conditions, was reinforced by the X factor, which confuses rationally thinking German generals.
Mass heroism of the Soviet people. What are the hidden mechanisms behind this replicated concept? Fortunately, the participants, eyewitnesses, front-line soldiers of that war are still alive. The people who worked in the rear are still alive today, we wish them good health and many years to come. And today we have a luxurious opportunity for our generation to listen to the testimonies of real eyewitnesses, and not pseudo-historians, pseudo-journalists, pseudo-scientists, who sometimes try to pass themselves off as discoverers of some new, unknown truths and try to make their surname the subject of discussion, mention, etc. . Today, a logical question arises - how to respond to a lie? Is it possible to agree? And is it still necessary to oppose facts and historical documents, to fight for the truth?
I think that by joint efforts we will try to single out the main thing, what is truly of historical value. Victory in the Great Patriotic War is the property of Russia, it is the property of our people. The Russian, Russian soldier has always been characterized by feelings of high patriotism, valor and courage, inherited from his ancestors and great-grandfathers. These fighting qualities of our soldier were worthy of appraisal by the highest commanders of the German army. They noted in their post-war memoirs that “the Russian soldier remains an excellent soldier always and under all conditions ... He patiently and even with indifference endures cold and heat, the torments of cold and thirst. The Russian soldier loves his mother, Russia."
This assessment of the fighting qualities of a Russian soldier is worth a lot, because it was said by representatives of the generals of the defeated fascist army. Fortitude, courage, devotion to one's Motherland in the fight against fascist invaders were a characteristic feature of a soldier in the Soviet army. The greatness of spirit and selflessness were shown by the defenders of the Brest Fortress, the hero cities of Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, Stalingrad, Odessa, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Kerch, Smolensk and other cities. Before their unshakable stamina and courage, Russian people bow down and honor their greatest heroism. The unparalleled feats of the guardsmen - Panfilov, Komsomol members of the "Young Guard" Krasnodon, Alexander Matrosov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Viktor Talalikhin, Nikolai Gastello, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Liza Chaikina - will remain for centuries. Their names are well known and will remain forever in people's memory. The feat of A. Matrosov was repeated by more than 300 soldiers of the Red Army, over 300 pilots - Captain N. Gastello, more than 400 - made air rams.
For their valor and courage on the fronts of the Patriotic War, over 11 thousand received the high title - Hero of the Soviet Union, 13 million were awarded government awards - orders and medals, about 15 million were awarded the medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 ." The home front workers were also highly appreciated during the war years. Many of them were awarded orders and medals, 201 people received the title of "Hero of Socialist Labor", over 16 million workers, collective farmers and intellectuals were awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." A large role in our Victory belongs to women - soldiers and home front workers. More than 800 thousand women took part in the Patriotic War as medical workers, signalmen, fighters in the air defense forces, pilots, snipers. 150 thousand of them were awarded orders and medals for their feat and at the front, and 86 were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, four women are holders of the Order of Glory of three degrees. In the rear in factories and factories, in agriculture, women made up from 53 to 76 percent, together with teenagers they helped the front with their heroic work.
The titanic efforts of our country to defeat Nazi Germany and liberate the peoples of Europe from fascist enslavement cost us great sacrifices - 27 million people, of which 9.3 million were irretrievable losses among the soldiers and on the war fronts, the rest - almost 18 million - are civilians. They died in the occupied territory, in forced labor in Germany itself, in its concentration camps. In the Soviet republics and regions occupied by the German occupiers, a cannibal regime was introduced in relation to civilians: they were shot and killed, women, the elderly and children were subjected to bullying for failure to comply with the orders of the occupying authorities.
For communication with the partisans and helping them, people were burned alive, driving them into houses, warehouses and even in churches. In concentration camps and hundreds of their branches, 11 million civilians were physically destroyed. These were real "factories of death and". People died in them in gas chambers, in crematoria, starved, tortured and beaten. The most terrible of them were the camps of Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz and others. They killed mainly people of Slavic nationality and Jews. On the territory of the USSR, more than a hundred fascist "death camps" were created, in which people died of hunger, disease, and epidemics. This inhuman cruelty of the fascist invaders increased our losses in the Patriotic War many times over. Correspondent of the English newspaper The Sunday Times and the BBC radio Alexander Vert, who was in our country during the war years, honestly and objectively stated in his book “Russia in the War of 1941-1945”: “It was the Soviet people who endured the brunt of the Second World War, it was he who lost 20 million people in it.
We need to remind the West of this - after all, many people there have a short memory. Hitler did not intend to comply with either the Geneva or any other international convention. Soviet prisoners of war were not people for the Nazis and were subject to total destruction with preliminary use for the benefit of the Reich. From the very beginning of the war, the Germans bombed hospital trains, shot the wounded, doctors and orderlies. The norms of international law were not respected for the inhabitants of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Contrary to the international rules of warfare prohibiting hostage taking, from fifty to one hundred hostages were destroyed for each German killed in Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic, the Germans forced the Poles to fight on the Eastern Front, although Poland, the Czech Republic, and
Yugoslavia at one time, like the USSR, signed all the necessary agreements. The sick idea of German Nazism was the physical destruction of the conquered peoples. A well-oiled machine for the destruction of people just because they did not belong to the "master race" worked without waste. It was not only the muscular strength of still living slaves that went into action. The Reich benefited from the skin, hair, bones, teeth of the dead, clothes and shoes of the tortured old people, women, children ... The surviving slaves of the Reich had to be demoralized and depressed by the awareness of their second-rate relative to the "Aryan" master. Those who seek to equate Stalin with Hitler, let them try to equate these two values: 58% of the soldiers of the Red Army who died in captivity and 13% of the soldiers of Germany and its allies who died in captivity. The purpose of falsifying the history of Russia is the desire to divide our people along far-fetched national and/or religious lines. The enemies of our country would like to see us repenting of non-existent sins, because it is so easy to make very specific territorial and material claims under this case. The purpose of the modern information war against Russia is to destroy the mentality of our people, destroy their values, turn them into a driven herd, obediently consuming low-grade goods of someone else's overproduction. Each individual fake is not worth a penny and is easily refuted by facts.
Penetrating into the cinema and in the media, the falsification of the history of the Great Patriotic War can cause irreparable harm to the younger generation, and this is its main danger to the future of the country. Systemic psychoanalysis shows that, in addition to specific historical facts that can be manipulated, ignored, or hushed up, there is a basic structure of the psychic that explains the impossibility of certain events in reality, no matter how beautifully and convincingly they are presented for the sake of someone's momentary benefits In conclusion let's sum up. The victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War cannot be belittled and falsified to please our enemies, pseudo-scientists and various political trends. This majestic and tragic country of the 20th century must be assessed and analyzed strictly objectively, honestly and without prejudice, because it does not accept other approaches and assessments. We positively assess the role of the Allied Powers (USA and Great Britain) in the 2nd World War. However, the main and decisive contribution to the defeat of fascist Germany belongs to our Russian people and its Armed Forces.
The Soviet-German front was the central and most important front of World War II. We owe our lunch to the powerful Soviet economy and the evacuation of thousands of plants and factories to the east of the country and their restructuring for the production of military products needed for the front. This ensured Soviet economic and military-technical superiority over the economy of Nazi Germany. Soviet military equipment - tanks, artillery, aircraft and other types of weapons surpassed German equipment in their tactical and technical qualities. The greatest factor in victory was the patriotism and morale of the Soviet army and the entire people, steadfastness and intransigence in the fight against the fascist invaders, which manifested itself in the mass heroism of Soviet soldiers on all fronts of the war. In ensuring victory, the most important role belongs to the Soviet military art, which surpassed the military art of the German high command. The greatest strategic battles near Moscow, in Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge, the Vistula, the Oder, Belarus, Berlin and many others ended in the complete victory of the Soviet armies and the defeat of the Nazi troops, which was of great military-political and moral significance, contributed to strengthening the confidence of the soldiers our army in the final victory over Nazi Germany. And, finally, the rear and the front were united, they rallied into a battle camp to defeat the mortal enemy.
In terms of its scale, our Victory is of great world-historical significance. It had a profound effect on the entire course of post-war world development: it contributed to a powerful rise in the national liberation movement, led to the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism, the emergence of states of a new socialist socio-economic formation - heralds of the transition of world history to the future higher progress of human society. If we honor a minute of silence for every one who died in the Second World War, then silence will reign on earth for a whole hundred years. Think about these numbers! Remember the fallen and those who are still alive! Only the bright memory of these people, only life following the example of their patriotism, sacrifice and morality can save us from repeating the mistakes of the past. It is in order for this memory to live in the hearts of many more generations, so that the numbers of the dead do not seem to our children and grandchildren as stories about something distant and almost mythical, we are obliged to talk about the Great Patriotic War.
Sinyakina L.I., teacher of history and social studies, MBOU "Adashevskaya secondary school"
In recent years, in our country, such a concept as “falsification of history” has become especially widespread. Of course, at first glance, this phrase seems incomprehensible. How can you distort the facts that have already taken place? But, nevertheless, the rewriting of history is a phenomenon that takes place in modern society and has its roots in the distant past. The very first examples of documents in which history was falsified have been known since the time of Ancient Egypt.
Methods and techniques
The authors whose works reflect the distortion and falsification of history, as a rule, do not indicate the sources of their "factual" judgments. Only occasionally in such works are references to various publications that either do not exist at all, or they clearly do not relate to the subject of the publication.
One can say about this method that it is not so much a forgery of the known as its addition. In other words, this is not a falsification of history, but ordinary myth-making.
A more subtle way of distorting the existing facts is the falsification of primary sources. Sometimes the falsification of world history becomes possible on the basis of "sensational" archaeological discoveries. Sometimes authors make references to previously unknown documents. These can be “unpublished” chronicle materials, diaries, memoirs, etc. In such cases, only a special examination can reveal a fake, which the interested party either does not conduct, or falsifies the results obtained by it.
One of the methods of distorting history is the one-sided selection of certain facts and their arbitrary interpretation. As a result of this, connections are being built that were absent in reality. It is simply impossible to call the conclusions made on the basis of the obtained picture true. With this method of falsifying history, certain events or documents described actually took place. However, researchers draw their conclusions with a purposeful and gross violation of all methodological foundations. The purpose of such publications may be to justify a certain historical character. Those sources that give negative information about him are simply ignored or their hostility is noted, and therefore falsity. At the same time, documents that indicate the presence of positive facts are used as a basis and are not criticized.
There is another special technique that, in essence, can be located between the methods described above. It lies in the fact that the author gives a real, but at the same time truncated quote. It omits places that are in clear contradiction with the conclusions necessary for the mythologist.
Goals and motives
Why falsify history? The goals and motives of the authors who publish publications that distort the events that have taken place can be very diverse. They relate to the ideological or political sphere, affect commercial interests, etc. But in general, the falsification of the history of the world pursues goals that can be combined in two groups. The first of these includes socio-political motives (gepolitical, political and ideological). Most of them are closely connected with anti-state propaganda.
The second group of goals includes commercial and personal-psychological motives. In their list: the desire to gain fame and assert themselves, as well as to become famous in a short time, giving the society a "sensation" that can turn over all existing ideas about the past. The dominant factor in this case is, as a rule, the material interests of the authors, who earn good money by publishing large editions of their works. Sometimes the motives that prompted the distortion of historical facts can be explained by the desire for revenge on individual opponents. Sometimes such publications are aimed at belittling the role of government representatives.
Historical heritage of Russia
A similar problem exists in our country. At the same time, the falsification of national history is considered as anti-Russian propaganda. Often, publications that distort the events that have taken place are born in states both near and far abroad. They are directly related to the current material and political interests of various forces and contribute to the justification of material and territorial claims against the Russian Federation.
The problem of falsification of history and opposition to such facts is very relevant. After all, it affects the state interests of Russia and damages the social memory of the country's citizens. And this fact has been repeatedly emphasized by the leadership of our state. In order to respond to such challenges in a timely manner, a special commission has even been created under the President of Russia, whose task is to counter any attempts to falsify history that damage state interests.
Main directions
Unfortunately, in modern times, the falsification of the history of Russia has begun to take on quite impressive proportions. At the same time, the authors who explore and describe the past boldly cross all ideological barriers in their publications, and also grossly break moral and ethical norms. The reader was literally flooded with a stream of disinformation, which is simply impossible for an ordinary person to understand. What are the main directions of falsification of history?
Classic
These historical falsifications have migrated to us from past centuries. The authors of such articles claim that the Russians are aggressors and that they are a constant threat to all civilized mankind. In addition, such publications characterize our people as dark barbarians, drunkards, savages, etc.
Russophobic
These falsifications are picked up by our intelligentsia and transplanted into our own soil. Such a distortion of history gives rise to a complex of self-abasement and national inferiority. After all, according to him, everything is fine in Russia, but people do not know how to live culturally. This supposedly forces one to repent for one's past. But before whom? Foreigners, that is, those ideological enemies who organized such sabotage, become judges.
These directions of distortion of historical facts at first glance seem antagonistic. However, both of them fit perfectly into the anti-Russian and anti-Russian channel. Anyone who tries to denigrate our history perfectly uses both tools at the same time, despite their apparent opposite. So, when relying on communist arguments, tsarist Russia is humiliated. At the same time, in order to denigrate the Soviet Union, the arguments of the most rabid critics of the idea of communism are used.
Distortion of the activities of key figures
Another direction in which the falsification of the history of Russia is carried out is criticism directed against various prominent personalities.
Thus, the distortion of facts can often be found in works about St. Vladimir the Baptist, St. Andrei Bogolyubsky, St. Alexander Nevsky, etc. There is even a certain pattern. The greater the contribution to the development of the country was made by this or that figure, the more persistently and aggressively they try to denigrate him.
Distortion of the events of national history
This is one of the favorite directions of mythologists who are trying to slander our country. And here special priority belongs to the events of the Great Patriotic War. It's pretty easy to explain. In order to belittle Russia, these authors are trying to cross out and obscure the most grandiose and brilliant feat of our state, which, without any doubt, saved the entire civilized world. The period from 1941 to 1945 provides a large field of activity for such mythologists.
Thus, the most distorted moments of the war are the assertions that:
- The USSR was preparing for an attack on Germany;
- the Soviet and Nazi systems are identical, and the victory of the people occurred against the wishes of Stalin;
- the role of the Soviet-German front is not so great, and Europe owes its liberation from the fascist yoke to the allies;
- Soviet soldiers who have accomplished feats are not heroes at all, while traitors, SS men, and others are praised;
- the losses of the two opposing sides are clearly exaggerated by politicians, and the number of victims of the peoples of the USSR and Germany is much less;
- the military art of the Soviet generals was not so high, and the country won only due to huge losses and victims.
What is the purpose of falsifying the history of the war? Thus, the "purifiers" of the facts that have already occurred are trying to ground and crush the war itself and nullify the feat of the Soviet people. However, the whole truth of this terrible tragedy of the 20th century lies in the great spirit of patriotism and the desire of ordinary people to come to victory at any cost. This was the most defining element in the life of the army and the people of that time.
Theories that go against Westernism
At present, many of the most amazing versions of the development of the social system in Russia have appeared. One of them is Eurasianism. It denies the existence of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, and these mythologists raise the Horde khans to the level of Russian tsars. A similar direction announces the symbiosis of the Asian peoples and Russia. On the one hand, these theories are friendly to our country.
After all, they call on both peoples to work together to counter the common slanderers and enemies. However, upon closer examination, such versions are a clear analogue of Westernism, only vice versa. Indeed, in this case, the role of the great Russian people, which supposedly should be subordinate to the East, is belittled.
Neo-pagan falsification
This is a new direction of distortion of historical facts, which at first glance seems pro-Russian and patriotic. With its development, works are allegedly discovered that testify to the primordial wisdom of the Slavs, their ancient traditions and civilizations. However, they also contain the problem of falsifying the history of Russia. After all, such theories are in fact extremely dangerous and destructive. They are aimed at undermining true Russian and Orthodox traditions.
Historical terrorism
This rather new trend sets itself the goal of blowing up the very foundations of historical science. The most striking example of this is the theory that was created by a group led by a mathematician, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. Fomenko. This work considers questions about a radical revision of world history.
The scientific community has rejected this theory, explaining that it contradicts established facts. Opponents of the "New Chronology" were historians and archaeologists, mathematicians and linguists, astronomers and physicists, as well as scientists representing other sciences.
Introduction of historical forgeries
At the present stage, this process has its own characteristics. Thus, the impact is carried out in a massive way and has a clearly targeted character. The most dangerous fakes for the state have solid sources of funding and are published in huge circulation. These, in particular, include the work of Rezun, who wrote under the pseudonym "Suvorov", as well as Fomenko.
In addition, today the most important source of dissemination of articles about the falsification of history is the Internet. Almost every person has access to it, which contributes to the mass impact of fakes.
Unfortunately, the financing of fundamental historical science does not allow it to provide tangible opposition to the emerging works that are in conflict with the events that actually happened. Academic works are also published in small editions.
Sometimes some Russian historians are also captivated by falsifications. They accept Soviet, anti-Soviet or Western theories. To confirm this, one can recall one of the school history textbooks, in which statements were made that the turning point of World War II was the battle of the American army with the Japanese at Midway Atoll, and not the Battle of Stalingrad.
What are the attacks of counterfeiters? They are aimed at accustoming the Russian people to the thought that they do not have a glorious and great past, and the achievements of their ancestors should not be proud of. The younger generation is turning away from their native history. And such work has its depressing results. After all, the vast majority of today's youth are not interested in history. In this way, Russia is trying to destroy the past and erase the former power from memory. And therein lies a great danger to the country. Indeed, when a people is separated from its cultural and spiritual roots, it simply dies as a nation.
The lessons of the Second World War and the main directions of its falsification
The main lessons of the Second World War, their relevance today
The results of the Second World War led the peoples of the world to realize the danger posed by wars, especially world wars, to the understanding that they should be excluded from the life of society.
What are the main lessons of the Second World War and its constituent part - the Great Patriotic War?
The first and most important of them is that Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved only thanks to the spiritual strength and stamina of the Soviet people and army. The faith of the people in their Fatherland, in the just nature of the war was an important factor that made it possible to defeat fascism.
Deep patriotism has always been and remains a hallmark of the Russian people. It manifested itself especially brightly during the Great Patriotic War, became the basis of the spiritual and moral superiority of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany.
Patriotism was a powerful source of mass heroism, unprecedented stamina, courage and selflessness, selfless devotion to the Motherland of Soviet people at the front and in the rear, labor exploits of workers, peasants and intelligentsia.
Having lost patriotism as a fundamental, basic component in the system of spiritual values traditional for Russia and the national pride and dignity associated with it, we will lose the most powerful incentive to defend the Fatherland, we will lose the ability to achieve great things.
The second important lesson of the war is that successes at the front and in the rear were possible only thanks to the cohesion of society, the unity of the people and the army. The Great Patriotic War is rightfully called a truly national, Patriotic War.
The main thing that united and inspired people was the need to protect and save the Fatherland. Thanks to the policy of internationalism during the war years, all the peoples of the Soviet Union came out against the enemy as a united front. This allowed the country to withstand and defeat a strong and insidious aggressor.
Today, the relevance of this lesson is undeniable. He recalls that the friendship and mutual assistance of peoples is the source of their strength and well-being. For example, the current political situation in the world urgently requires, within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, to actively and effectively carry out deep integration of the participating countries in all areas, including defense. We are talking about looking for and finding worthy answers to common threats and challenges in close cooperation. This is the only way to achieve lasting collective security for the Commonwealth.
The third lesson of the war is that the issues of strengthening the country's defense, increasing the combat readiness and combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces must constantly be in the center of attention of the state leadership.
Turning back to the times of the Second World War is a good opportunity to remember that in order to repel any possible aggression and reliably ensure the country's security, a powerful and combat-ready army and navy are required.
With the end of the Cold War, the tense confrontation between the two most powerful military-political blocs, led by the USSR and the USA, ceased. However, this does not mean that the military danger, especially the danger of local military conflicts, has disappeared for Russia, the legal successor of the Soviet Union.
In order to resist it, it is necessary to carefully and deeply analyze the situation in the world and the changes taking place in it, to foresee the nature of a possible war, its possible scale and duration. To unravel the intentions of a potential adversary, a thorough analysis and evaluation of various options for his actions is necessary. The ability to draw correct conclusions from this will increase the combat readiness of the Armed Forces.
As is known, the underestimation of the role of strategic defense in the military theory of the USSR, the focus on defeating the enemy on its territory and "little bloodshed" in the pre-war period led to tragic consequences at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War.
Assessing him Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov noted: “During the reworking of operational plans in the spring of 1941, the features of conducting a modern war in its initial period were practically not fully taken into account. The People's Commissar of Defense and the General Staff believed that the war between such major powers as Germany and the Soviet Union should begin according to the previously existing scheme: the main forces enter the battle a few days after the border battles. Fascist Germany was placed on the same terms with us as regards the terms of concentration and deployment. In fact, both the forces and the conditions were far from being equal.
Only the high level of military art of the commanders of the Red Army, the good training of domestic military personnel made it possible, at the cost of the greatest losses in four years, to correct the miscalculations made in the first days and months of the war.
The conclusion from this experience is obvious: in matters of military construction, it is necessary to proceed from a real assessment of the military threats existing in the world. It depends on what kind of war the Armed Forces should be prepared for and what tasks they will have to solve.
The fourth lesson of the Second World War clearly speaks of the need to prevent the slightest manifestation of the ideology of fascism and its varieties in society.
The lessons of the past teach: when fascism acquires a state base for its existence, when a powerful military machine is in its hands, the fascist government and its leaders begin to pose a mortal threat to the existence of the rest of mankind.
Unfortunately, despite the complete defeat of fascism in World War II and the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal, half a century later, neo-fascist and extremist groups and organizations revived in a number of states, primarily in the Baltic states. And although their numbers are small, as a rule, they are associated with powerful circles in politics and economics, they are trying to actively introduce fascist ideology into the minds of people, especially young people. The manifestations of modern fascism should be counteracted primarily by criminal law measures, as well as measures aimed at identifying and eliminating the causes and conditions conducive to the implementation of extremist activity.
The fifth lesson from the experience of the Second World War is that only the collective efforts of states and peoples, the efforts of international organizations, can prevent an impending war. The disunity of the peace-loving forces in the West as a whole and in Germany itself in the mid-1930s allowed the Nazis to unleash a war.
In order to prevent this, the powers must be responsible for the choice of tactical and strategic allies in resolving issues of the military security of the country, region and the world as a whole.
The Second World War showed that the policy of states or their coalition can be successful only when it is based on the mutual trust of the allies, based on a combination of economic, socio-political, ideological and defense factors.
The sixth lesson of the Second World War: the victory over fascism was achieved thanks to the powerful economic base of the states - members of the anti-Hitler coalition.
For example, the Soviet economy, later strengthened by Lend-Lease supplies, successfully provided the Soviet-German front with everything necessary throughout the war.
The conclusion that victory in any war, ensuring national security and defense of the state is possible only with a powerful economy and a powerful military-industrial complex, is still relevant today.
The lessons of the Second World War not only have not lost their relevance decades after its end, but have also acquired great significance. Today they are guiding mankind towards the search for agreement in the name of common goals, towards achieving unity and cohesion, political and economic stability in the world.
Falsification of the history of the Great Patriotic War
Throughout the post-war period, the events and results of the Great Patriotic War were repeatedly subjected to various "revisions" and revisions by the political and military leaders of a number of foreign states, former German military leaders, etc. The theme of the results of World War II is still the subject of acute ideological, scientific, informational and psychological confrontation in domestic and world historiography. In this dispute, distortions, bias in the assessment of events, and sometimes lies are often allowed.
The main stumbling block was the following points: the history of the pre-war period in the world, the military art of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, the role and significance of the Soviet-German and other fronts of World War II, the losses in the war of various sides, and others.
Pseudo-scientific and pseudo-historical concepts, views on these and other issues throughout the entire post-war period were replicated in thousands of books, articles, were reflected in television programs and films. Now such interpretations of history, far from the truth, can be found in large numbers on the global information network Internet.
Their goal is obvious: to shield the true culprits of the war, to belittle the contribution of the USSR and its Armed Forces to the defeat of the fascist bloc, to denigrate the liberation mission of the Red Army, to cast doubt on the geopolitical results of World War II.
Unfortunately, a wave of "new interpretations" of the past has swept through public consciousness in Russia itself. Since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, a part of the Russian scientific, journalistic and writers' community has been involved in the process of rewriting history. At the same time, the main blow is dealt to the minds of young people, and distorted views on the events of the Great Patriotic War have penetrated, sadly, even into school history books.
What are the main areas of falsification of the history and results of the Great Patriotic War can be identified?
The first direction is a deliberate underestimation of the role and significance of the Soviet-German front in World War II and the contribution of the USSR to the Victory.
Adherents of this theory admit that the Soviet Union took on a heavy burden in the war and played a significant role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan. But at the same time, they argue that he was not the main "architect of the Victory" and the laurels of glory should go to the United States and England, who supposedly made the greatest contribution to achieving victory.
Justifying this concept, some American historians insist that the war became a world war only from the moment the United States entered it, that is, from December 7, 1941, and this turned out to be a decisive factor that changed the course of World War II. The American military historian, Colonel E. Dupuy (Trevor Nevitt Dupuy, 1916 - 1995) begins his book on the war with the events at Pearl Harbor and does not hide the fact that his goal is for "the reader ... to appreciate the decisive role of the United States in victory of the free world over the forces of totalitarianism.
To prove the decisive role of the United States in the victory over the "axis" countries, the so-called "arsenal of democracy" theory was invented. According to her, such an arsenal was the American military economy, the industrial potential of the United States, which served as a supplier of a huge amount of weapons and military equipment for all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. However, the widespread version that the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany was largely determined by US lend-lease supplies is clearly exaggerated. Everyone knows that during the war years such supplies amounted to only about 4% of the military production of the USSR. In addition, deliveries were carried out irregularly, with long interruptions.
In addition, as the English historians D. Barber and M. Garrison rightly noted, Lend-Lease “... was never an act of charity ... While Germany controlled the continent from the English Channel to Central Russia, the Russians remained the only who fought directly against the German ground forces, and it was in the Western Allies' own interest to assist them."
Already during the war years and immediately after it, American historians considered the events on the Soviet-German front, without touching on the question of their influence on the overall course of hostilities. At the same time, the results of the combat operations of the American-British troops in various theaters of military operations (in the Pacific Ocean, North Africa, Italy, France) were exaggerated in every possible way.
For example, the American historian X. Baldwin believes that 11 battles (“great campaigns”) decided the outcome of World War II. He refers to them the battle in Poland in 1939, the battle for Britain in 1940, the landing on the island of Crete in 1941, the battle for the island of Corregidor in 1942, the battle for Tarawa in 1943, the landings in Sicily and Normandy in 1943-1944 years, the naval battle in Leyte Gulf in 1944, the Ardennes and Okinawa in 1945. Of the battles won by the Red Army, he names only the Battle of Stalingrad.
The developers of the "concept of decisive battles" do not mention Moscow, Kursk and other great battles of the Soviet troops at all.
A variation on the "decisive battle" theory is the "turning point" theory, which aims to prove the decisive role of the US military in bringing about a turning point in World War II.
For example, the American historian T. Carmichael believes that a radical turning point in the war occurred in late 1942 - early 1943, including El Alamein, Tunisia, Stalingrad and the naval battle in the Barents Sea among such "turning points". At the same time, the landing of a reinforced division of the American Marine Corps on the island of Guadalcanal in August 1942 is referred to as "the beginning of the counteroffensive in the Pacific", although in strategic terms it was of particular importance.
There are other options for the number and names of both "decisive battles" and "turning points", but the naval battle of Midway Island in June 1942 stands out as "one of the truly decisive events of the war", as a result of which the Japanese fleet was defeated, but its superiority in the Pacific was not eliminated. The battle itself also did not have a serious impact on the overall course of the Second World War.
In any case, and this is the essence of the theory, when the vast majority of "decisive battles" and "turning points" are attributed to those fronts where the fighting was conducted by the Anglo-American troops.
The distortion of the role of the Soviet Union in World War II is closely connected with the tendentious definition of the sources and preconditions for the victory of the Soviet Union over the fascist-militarist bloc. Their scientific analysis is often replaced by fictions that hide the true reasons for the success of the Red Army.
So, a number of German historians are trying to substantiate the version that the Soviet Union was completely unprepared to repel fascist aggression, and its victories over Germany are explained by “military happiness”. To explain the reasons for the defeat of the Wehrmacht, they even developed a special theory of "accidents". As a rule, they include among such accidents the unfavorable weather and climatic conditions of the Soviet Union for the Nazi troops, the large extent of its territory, the miscalculations and mistakes of Hitler as a political and military leader.
Attempts are also being made to belittle the level of Soviet military art and the spiritual and moral potential of the peoples of the USSR, mass heroism, exceptional stamina, courage and courage of Soviet soldiers in the fight against the enemy are denied.
All these false theories are baseless. The truth is that the main burden of the armed struggle in World War II fell on the Soviet Union, and the Soviet-German front was the main, decisive one in it. It was on this front that the main battles of the Great Patriotic War took place, it is this front that has no equal in terms of the number of forces involved, the duration and intensity of the armed struggle, its spatial scope and final results.
The number of losses of the Soviet Union in the war and the cost of victory are the second most important controversial point in the interpretation of the history of the Second World War.
So, due to the large human and material losses of the USSR, some historians generally question the significance of the Victory he achieved.
Under the pretext of establishing the truth, other authors name their unsubstantiated figures of human losses and try to present the losses of the aggressor as less than they actually were. In this way, they distort historical truth, they seek to deliberately belittle the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.
Meanwhile, the rechecking of statistical data, carried out in 1988 - 1993 by the commission of the USSR Ministry of Defense, headed by Colonel General G.F. Krivoshee, and data published in the latest unique reference publication “The Great Patriotic War without a secrecy stamp. The Book of Losses / G.F. Krivosheee, V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov. - M.: Veche, 2009., confirm the previously obtained research results.
The losses of both military personnel and the civilian population of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, determined by accounting, statistical and balance methods, ultimately amount to 26.6 million people. Irreversible demographic losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR (killed, died from wounds and diseases, died as a result of accidents, shot by military tribunals, did not return from captivity), recorded by the headquarters of all instances and military medical institutions during the years of the Great Patriotic War (including campaign in the Far East), amounted to 8 million 668 thousand 400 military personnel on the payroll.
These sacrifices were not in vain. This is a forced payment for the most precious thing - the freedom and independence of the Motherland, the salvation of many countries from enslavement, a sacrifice in the name of establishing peace on Earth.
The controversy surrounding the version of the "preventive" nature of Germany's war against the USSR does not subside.
The essence of this version lies in the fact that in 1941 the Soviet Union allegedly concentrated a powerful grouping of its troops on the western border and prepared the Red Army's invasion of Europe through Germany. Thus, he, they say, provoked a preemptive strike by Hitler, who, in order to "protect himself and other Western countries," was forced to start a preventive war against the USSR.
This version of the outbreak of war was first heard on June 22, 1941, in a statement by the German ambassador to the USSR, Count Friedrich-Werner von der Schullenburg, handed over to the Soviet government, and in a memorandum handed over by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop on the same day to Soviet Ambassador V.G. Dekanozov in Berlin after the invasion.
In addition, the version of the “preventive nature” of the war of Nazi Germany against the USSR was intensively promoted by many Nazi generals in their memoirs dedicated to World War II.
It should be emphasized that these statements are far from the truth and do not reflect the objective reality. The course of events of that time, historical facts and documents completely refute the judgments about the allegedly forced invasion of the Germans into the territory of the Soviet Union.
The myth of the "preemptive attack" was exposed at the Nuremberg Trials. The former head of the German press and broadcasting, Hans Fritsche, admitted that he organized a massive campaign of anti-Soviet propaganda, trying to convince the public that it was not Germany, but the USSR that was to blame for this war.
Preparing a campaign to the East, Hitler attached great importance not only to the creation of strategic offensive bridgeheads, not only to solving material, technical, resource and food problems at the expense of third countries, but also to favorable propaganda support for his actions. It was in the depths of the Hitlerite propaganda machine that myths arose about the “Soviet threat”, about “Soviet expansionism”, about the desire of the USSR to establish control over Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, about the “preventive” nature of the Barbarossa plan, about the “hostility” of the Soviet system to small peoples, about the "liberation mission" of the German Reich in the East, etc.
The legend of the "preventive war" is exposed by the analysis of the content of the plans "Barbarossa", "Ost" and other numerous Nazi documents extracted from the German archives. They reveal the Wehrmacht's secret preparations for an attack on the USSR and testify to the aggressive essence of fascism's plans against the USSR.
An analysis of the entire set of documents and the specific activities of the top Soviet leadership testifies to the absence of plans for a preventive war in the USSR. None of the more than 3 thousand orders of the people's commissars of defense (K. Voroshilov and S. Timoshenko) from 1937 to June 21, 1941, and none of the operational plans of the western border military districts of 1941 contain even a hint of preparation for an attack on Germany. Had it been carried out in reality, it would inevitably have had an effect on the assignment of missions to the troops and the planning of combat training.
Another persistent myth of the Second World War is about the "expansion" of the USSR to the West, its desire for territorial conquests during the liberation of the countries of Europe and Asia.
Attempts are being made to present the liberation mission of the Red Army in the countries of Europe and Asia as a communist expansion, as an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and peoples, to impose a social system that is objectionable to them. However, even at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet government emphasized that the goal of the struggle of the USSR against the fascist oppressors was not only to eliminate the danger hanging over the country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe, groaning under the yoke of German fascism.
When the Red Army entered the territory of other countries, the Government of the USSR was guided by the treaties and agreements that existed at that time, which corresponded to the norms of international law.
Knowledge of the main directions of falsification of history, showing their anti-science are the key to an effective struggle against the distortion of the true course of events of the Second World War.
Guidelines
In the introductory part, it is necessary to emphasize that today in a huge flow of information one often comes across facts of a biased interpretation of the history of the Second World War. The main goal of the parties interested in this is to revise its geopolitical results. In practice, this can be seen, for example, in Japan's unfounded territorial claims regarding the Kuril Islands, which were ceded to the Soviet Union following the war.
Opening the first question, it is important to note that the lessons of the Second World War are still important today for preventing wars and maintaining the Armed Forces in proper combat readiness.
When considering the second question, it should be emphasized that the approaches of today's falsifiers of the history of the Second World War date back to the developments of the propaganda apparatus of the Third Reich.
It should be added that an effective way to counter attempts to falsify history is the widespread introduction of new historical documents, including declassified ones, into scientific circulation.
In conclusion, it should be noted that in order to combat the facts of distorting history in our country, a Commission was created under the President of the Russian Federation to counter attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia's interests.
1. History of the Second World War 1939 - 1945. In 12 volumes. T. 12. - M., 1982.
2. Zakharin I., Strelnikov V. Lessons of the Second World War and the main directions of its falsification. // Reference point. - 2005. - No. 4.
3. Gareev M. Battles on the military-historical front. - M., 2008.
4. Kulkov E., Rzheshevsky O., Chelyshev I. Truth and lies about the Second World War. - M., 1988.
Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Samosvat.
Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Alexei Kurshev
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