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 ...
In China which now includes Hong Kong it’s illegal to even utter the name “Tianenmen Square”
Yes I know. Taylor Swift had to rename her album 1989 over there (her birth year) because it could be misconstrued as being about Tiananmen Square...
The Left LOVED them some Russia when it was the USSR.
WOW. Not sure what to make of that morally...from Taylor's end.
Practically.
“Back to WWII — Hitler was bad, Stalin was bad, the Versailles Treaty was bad, a lot of stuff went wrong for a lot of people.”
As were the WESTERN Industrialists who propped up Hitler to fight the Communist Soviets, as they didn’t want to get their hands dirty having to do the actual fighting. Not much different than today’s Neocons with their Proxy Wars.
One thing though...often these type of ‘cute schemes’ don’t go exactly as desired, as WW2 showed, and more recent wars are showing.
“What a shock! Arrogant Russians are the stars of their own story.”
I’d rather have that ‘arrogant’ authors telling me how great my country is than the PURE SHIT that is in Howard Zinn’s book, “A People’s History of the United States”...which is in universal use in our schools.
BobL, the difference is...
Okay well first off how Russians today learn AMERICAN history is very much like the Zinn version (he’s practically Soviet himself, let’s be real!)
Most importantly, America genuinely does have the moral high ground of history. Even in all its imperfection. Russia, can’t boast of that tier of national integrity. Sorry. It can’t.
bkmk
I’m British, should I still be pissed at the Normans, the Danes and the Romans?
I am sure you lap up that Russian crap like your grandma’s borscht.
“You realize there are gulags that have been preserved in Russia to remind the populace of the horrors that occurred under Stalin?”
Or that Putin REQUIRES Russian kids to learn what Gulag life was life by reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which details life in the Gulag.
Perhaps if the United States required that the horrors of Communism be taught in our schools to the level Putin requires it in Russian schools, we would not have HALF OF THE COUNTRY wanting to turn the US into a Soviet-style Hell Hole.
Funny how the Neocons and Zeepers never seem to have a problem with the crap that goes on here...only over there. I wonder why (just kidding, it’s obvious).
“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.”
And yet that may be the reason that Japan stays Japanese, but the beaten-down Germans appear happy to see their culture DESTROYED, probably by the next generation.
A Nation that doesn’t honor its heroes will eventually be ruled by one that does.
“Like abortion. (Also extremely prevalent in Russia.)”
Not really, no worse than the West, assuming you ignore the Zeepers insisting on using 1990 numbers, rather than recent numbers.
“This is flatout untrue. Ukraine was not a prosperous place. It was a backyards and corrupt country not any better than Russia.”
Agree, Ukraine was a TOTAL BASKET CASE before the war, whereas Putin’s Russia is virtually the only country in measurable economic growth.
“Most importantly, America genuinely does have the moral high ground of history.”
I lived in a small part of that history...but it sure as hell is NOT the case now, now when we have a Democrat Party that is hell-bent on turning this country into a Fascist state.
“I am sure you lap up that Russian crap like your grandma’s borscht.”
If you’re not familiar with Howard Zinn’s book, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM in this country.
“we have a Democrat Party that is hell-bent on turning this country into a Fascist state.”
The Soviet infiltrators in academia, culture, media — and all that published revisionism worked. This is the fruit!
Am I?
You havent said anything good about the US in years. You spend your day lubing yourself up with a portrait of Putin and spraying that crap all over this site.
I would suggest you go home to the Motherland…but my guess is you work out of there, so it would be a short trip for you.
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