“Vladimir Putin rewrites history by saying that the Soviet Union was the only one to defeat Nazism”, according to a historian

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Commemorations, parades… This Sunday, May 8, all the Allied countries celebrate the armistice of the Second World War, 1939-1945.

>>Commemorations of May 8: follow the live

A victory that Russia will commemorate on Monday, May 9. “Vladimir Putin rewrites history by saying that the Soviet Union was the only one to defeat Nazism, when it was indeed 55 countries that united”explains Antoine Arjakovsky, historian, director of research at the Collège des Bernardins.

franceinfo: What are Russia’s plans to be able to celebrate this May 9, in Mariupol in particular, in memory of the victory against Nazi Germany? What victory will Vladimir Putin be able to claim?

Antoine Arjakovsky: That’s the difficulty, it’s been more than two months since the war resumed, it had started in 2014, and there is still no significant conquest. In addition, Russia is internationally isolated and harshly sanctioned. So what Vladimir Putin is going to want to do is show his military might with the parade, with over 11,000 soldiers, planes, tanks. He is going to want to show the support of the elites. This is the reason why, traditionally, he will show himself above the mausoleum with the generals and the government. And popular support is what is important to him. Simply, this popular support is where there is manipulation. In reality, people are going to want to celebrate the more than 25 million dead in World War II, they are not going to be there to celebrate the conquest of Ukraine. This is where Russian propaganda will want to act.

This May 9, is this the occasion for the Kremlin to say that Russia has taken Mariupol in Ukraine?

Russia has already sent its envoy, the vice-president of the presidential administration, to inaugurate a monument, the statue of a grandmother with a Soviet flag. It was counter-propaganda, everyone understood that the grandmother filmed by the televisions was in fact hostile to the Russian army and then, it’s ridiculous to want to celebrate a conquest in Mariupol in a completely destroyed city , where there are still the fighters of the Azov battalion who are resisting. Vladimir Putin wants more trophies, that’s why Odessa is bombed. On Saturday, they bombed one of the greatest Ukrainian symbols: the house of the Ukrainian philosopher Grigori Skovoroda [dans la région de Kharkiv]. That hurt, the heart of Ukrainian identity and culture was destroyed.

The May 9 victory celebrations in Russia, is it also partly a rewriting of history on the part of Vladimir Putin, since it is said “Russia has defeated the Nazis” while it is the victory of the Allies? These Allies who are more or less the same who today oppose the invasion of Ukraine.

Of course, Vladimir Putin rewrites history by saying that the Soviet Union was the only one to defeat Nazism, when it was indeed 55 countries that united. Moreover, the Americans strongly supported the Soviet Union during the Second World War by giving Stalin the benefit of the Lend-Lease law, which made it possible to finance several hundred million dollars of Soviet war efforts. . Something else that Vladimir Putin does not say is that the Soviet Union started the Second World War with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, which led to the partition of Poland between Hitler and Stalin. This is the beginning of the conflict for the West. In reality, Stalinism was a warmonger whereas they present themselves today, the heirs of Stalin, as the only victors of the war. It is a rewriting of history.


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