Posted on 04/29/2025 1:45:37 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
From Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, Russian schoolchildren are preparing for the most important holiday of the year: Victory Day. Commemorated with a grand military parade on Moscow’s Red Square every May 9, the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany has long been used by authorities to rally support for the state. And it starts in school.
In September 2016, three history textbooks were sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, all of which gloss over Stalin’s crimes and his initial alliance with Nazi Germany. “My main issue with the textbooks is that they do not reveal the whole truth,” says historian and teacher Leonid Katsva.
What is still unclear is who decides which book should be used in the classroom. “Is it the teacher, the school director or the city? I asked this question to the Moscow city government many times and received no answer,” says Abalov.
Most schools across the country have sided with one of them, published by Prosveshenie, whose retelling of the war focuses almost exclusively on the heroic aspects of the Soviet war effort.
The pact was defensive!
For Russians, World War II began—not in 1939 as it did for the rest of the world—but in 1941. What happened before, and the Soviet Union’s role in it, has stirred emotions and denial in Russia. The most controversial moment, which the Kremlin traditionally does not emphasize, is the Molotov–Ribbentrop “non-aggression” pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany.
Putin has made contradictory statements about the pact. He struck a conciliatory tone in 2009 when he spoke in Gdansk in Poland, saying the Russian parliament had condemned the pact. Six years later, in a meeting with Germany’s Angela Merkel, Putin said the pact “made sense for ensuring the security of the Soviet Union.”
(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...
It is sometimes hard to tell when you have hit ROCK BOTTOM. Ukraine early 30’s? Weimer Republic late 20’s,
Poland didn’t exist before WWI... Germany bumped right up against the Russian Empire.
Just like American textbooks.
The monuments are curated to a fault and narratives remain distorted enough to maintain historical pride at the expense of pursuing genuine national reckoning and repentance. The traumas continue to seethe through every aspect and layer of Russian society. But this is not to say that the West has “learned” the needed lessons either, from the Holocaust or otherwise. Simply apologizing is not learning or getting to the heart of things. The spiritual ramifications remain and the impulses just take on new outlets.
Like abortion. (Also extremely prevalent in Russia.)
The bottom line is, each side thought they would be the one who benefitted from the Non-Aggression Pact, when the inevitable war came between them.
Hitler thought Britain and France would back down, and Stalin thought that the Western Powers would get bogged down in a war of attrition.
In the end neither got what they wanted from the Non-Aggression Pact, since France fell so quickly.
We’re lucky if people can even name Stalin.
The ignorance of course compounded by our WWII allyship with USSR pre Cold War, plus the heavily Left leaning imprint of Hollywood on the culture.
Japan is worse. Most Japanese don’t even know that the war happened. Atrocities are false claims. Japan had to fight because of the unjustified American oil embargo. Etc etc.
Germany after WWII is one of the few that openly beat home the bad things Germany had done, and that was probably caused by pressure from the west.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
You want to talk about whitewashing history. Do they even teach about Tiananmen Square 1989 in schools?
While the Banderites are in the minority in Ukraine, they certainly punch above their weight and enjoy an oversized share of power.
Stalin is not widely revered in Russia AT ALL — only by a tiny, tiny fringe kookoobird minority.
BTW, The Moscow Times is based in Amsterdam, and these days it’s run by entities who dislike Putin’s Russia.
Japan began their war earlier than that. Korea was colonized before the first Lincoln cent went into circulation.
Yeah it’s a shame that anything anti-Putin is equated with being woke, or pro-Zelensky, and worst of all: pro-Soros.
But that’s false.
America went from being allies with USSR to rivals pretty quickly for a reason.
Stalin is more widely revered now than at any time since the fall of the Soviet Union.
How much dues Ukraine pay for you spreading such VS.
The historical bitterness remains.
Japan was an ally during WWI, they felt they were denied the spoils from being on the winning side.
And you know all this how? Have you lived in Russia? In Ukraine? What makes you such an expert?
Japan glosses it over way more...
This is flatout untrue. Ukraine was not a prosperous place. It was a backyards and corrupt country not any better than Russia.
or China
I believe that another point overlooked or not considered at all is that early Americans were often more European. English, German, French, Spanish…..both politically and culturally. A true American culture was still evolving.
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