We often hear, that the World War lll is coming. And its battlefield is our consciousness, memory and future, which are constantly bombarded with slander and manipulations. Territories in modern world are not that important, whatcitizens think and in which direction they are ready to move is more important.
On 23rd of January leaders of forty countries of the world willgather at World Holocaust Forum in „Yad Vashem“ MemorialComplex in order to call to memory the victims and discusshow to avoid tragedy to happen again. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the President of Germany, will present make aspeech of regrets, Emmanuel Macron, leader of France, willtell about the contribution of his country into the victory overnazism. But Volodymyr Putin as leader of RF will feel like a main guest on this event. He strives to dictate his own ruleseverywhere.
We have to mention, that Putin tried to transform theevaluation and prerequisites of World War II at the end of2019, when devoted few public speeches to politics ofEngland and France before the beginning of the largest war inhistory of mankind and tried to show Poland almost as an allyof Hitler in the case of preparation for it. The ambassador ofPoland in Germany of that time Józef Lipski was named “a bastard and anti-semitic pig”. The host of Kremlin isdefinitely aware that similar epithets cause powerfulresonance not only in Russian society.
Mateusz Morawiecki, as the prime minister of Poland,responded to Putin, who mentioned that Russian presidentwas consistent in trying to distort Polish history. I want toadmit that Morawiecki has recently said that the return ofCrimea to Ukraine is a requisition of stabilization ofrelationships between Russia and Europe, which didn’t causeexaltation in the Kremlin. It’s worth mentioning that it was a head of the Polish government, who demanded to clarify theinformation at serial “The devil next door”, which is devotedto the destiny of Ivan Demianiuk, a former Soviet prisoner ofwar, blamed to be involved in the Holocaust. Also, the head ofPolish government reasonably protested against the phrase“Polish death camps”.
Nazis have really created the death camps at occupiedterritories in order to increase the degree of secrecy of theirfunctioning. It’s a historical and logical mistake to call them“polish”, the leaders of Nazi Germany are responsible for thedestruction of millions of civilians, prisoners of war, doinggenocide. Nobody of prudent people won’t deny the fact andthe scope of the Holocaust, but speculations are possible onthis tragic topic. In fact, it complies with the rules of creatingfakes: to use a resonant event and maximize the spread ofyour own interpretation of it.
Putin tried to move to another logical topic with own historical implications – involvement of the occupiedterritories in the Holocaust. Such cases were not isolated at”bloody lands”, unfortunately. The tragedy of Jedwabne,Polish town, is well-known for historians, where in July 1941 local citizens killed over thousand of their Jewish neighbors, and Russia tries to use it as an excuse to touch the dark pagesof World War II. President of RF attempts to present thehybrid version of the Holocaust, which is all about the shift of responsibility towards the population of European countries, Poland, first of all, and authourities of that time, in particular, in order to redefine the status of USSR as a situative Nazicomrade, which was accepted in appropriate resolution by European parliament in September 2019.
What does Putin aim at in order to dissect the history of WorldWar ll in terms of the current hybrid confrontation? He doesnot accidentally shape the Kremlin’s New Historical Policy,but does so with strategic vision. Firstly, to achieve thedecline of Poland’s authority as the member of EU and the US strategic ally in region. Official position of Warsaw willdefend itself against the fallout, but Kremlin propagandamachine will do its best to spread the own version. Secondly,to discredit other Baltic countries and post-Soviet states that passed through the tragedy of World War II in order to exposethem as not ones who don’t meet the world-accepted standards of democracy Thirdly, to make it clear for Emanuel Macron, first of all, and other leader of Western Europe thatRF has ambiguous materials covering pratically every state which happened to be occupied with Nazi regime. Fourthly, touse an updated version of Comrade Stalin’s thesis covering such issues as “the Russian people – the winner of Nazism”inside the country and abroad. This argument won’t be the redundant one for Kremlin trying to influence the worldpolitics.
The 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism in Moscowwill be tried to be used in their own geopolitical interests. Andthe action of the “Immortal Regiment” on May 9 to bebrought to the planetary level. Kremlin has figured it out: manipulating the history, it’s possible to influence the future. And how do we, the supporters of democratic values, respondto this challenge?
