The Battle Continues! Western Historical Revisionism and Preparations for a New War

From a conversation between Russian and German short-term observers from the OSCE/ODIHR mission during elections in a Central Asian country:
Sergey: Gunda, did your grandfather fight in World War II?
Gunda (irritated): Yes, your people killed him near Vitebsk.
Sergey: Gunda, I’ve long wanted to ask you: Why did you attack us?

On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the end of World War II in Europe, it is with sadness that we must acknowledge that the “war of memory”¹ initiated several decades ago by European and American revanchists has achieved the objective clearly pursued by our enemies. Drawing on a deeply distorted historical perception and the ignorance of a significant portion of the European population, modern Western elites have done what would have been unthinkable just 10 or 20 years ago: By branding the victim as the aggressor in public consciousness, they have created the political conditions necessary to once again send their troops eastward.

The descendants of European Nazis, with an obsession quite comparable to that of their forebears, are revving up the war machine. Between 2022 and 2024, European countries increased their defense spending by more than 30%.² But this is not enough. The US intends to push NATO member states to raise military spending to 5% of GDP.³ Given that they previously managed, despite significant European resistance, to force 23 of the alliance’s 32 members to reach or exceed the current target of 2% of GDP, there is little reason to doubt that this new threshold will eventually be met.

Meanwhile, for the first time since World War II, Germany has abandoned its decades-long self-imposed restriction on the permanent deployment of national military contingents abroad. This move is being openly presented as the implementation of plans to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank in order to counter Russia.⁴

In this context, the tactical withdrawal of American troops from Europe should not mislead us. The Americans currently need these forces more in other regions. Moreover, there is a clear intent to more forcefully prod the Europeans toward independent action against Russia.

How did it come to pass that European society – particularly in Germany, which experienced the tragedy of World War II and spent many decades cultivating a rejection of military force – is now ready not only to turn a blind eye to the accelerated militarization of all aspects of life, but also to believe that Russia is planning to attack EU countries?⁵

This is largely the work of Western political strategists who skillfully employed the “Overton Window”⁶ – i.e., a strategy for introducing certain concepts into society in such a way that previously unacceptable, taboo ideas become normalized, and vice versa.

That was how the campaign to discredit the USSR’s role in the Great Victory over German fascism evolved. Its symbolic starting point was August 23, 1986. On that day, demonstrations were held in several dozen cities around the world – Washington, London, Ottawa, Seattle, Stockholm, and others – with the stated aim of drawing attention to “Soviet war crimes and human rights violations.” The choice of date – the signing of the Non- Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 – was no coincidence: The goal was to tarnish this clear success of prewar Soviet foreign policy, to which our opponents firmly attached the label of the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.”

Then, through a series of resolutions by PACE, the OSCE PA, the European Parliament, and conclusions of the EU Council,⁷ a unified European vision of the history of World War II in Europe was cemented, in which responsibility for its outbreak was equally attributed to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and the crimes committed by the “two totalitarian regimes” were equated.

A new step in transforming the European public’s perception of events from 80 years ago was the resolution “on Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine,” adopted by the European Parliament on January 23, 2025. Unlike previous documents, which on the whole did not conceal the crimes of German Nazism, here European politicians direct their attack solely at the USSR and Russia as its “successor state.” It is we, they claim, who “instrumentalized history and created a cult of ‘victory’ around World War II” to mobilize our citizens in support of a “war of aggression.” At the same time, the “aggression in Ukraine” is seen by contemporary anti-Russian European politicians not as an isolated incident, but a “continuation of [Russia’s] imperialistic policy, which has included a war against Chechnya and military aggression against Georgia in 2008, and the occupation of Crimea and the start of a war in the Donbas in 2014.” The document’s main message is extremely simple: Modern Russia, which has not repented for the “crimes committed in territories occupied by the Soviet Union,” poses a direct threat to Poland and the Baltic states. To put it bluntly – prepare for war, everyone!

Confirmation of the complete reversal in the historical consciousness of modern Europeans is seen in the refusal by the administrations of museums at former German concentration camps – death factories – to invite representatives of Russia, the victorious power, to commemorative events (the children of former guards, too, no longer wish to mention in their speeches the Red Army’s role in liberation), and the refusal of European governments to hold joint commemorative ceremonies with Russia.

A striking example of historical post-truth was presented in early April by the editorial office of France’s leading newspaper, Le Figaro. Here’s how they commented⁸ in Paris on the news that the German Foreign Ministry is planning to exclude Russia and Belarus from events marking the 80th anniversary of Victory over Nazi Germany: “The rationale is obvious: It should be expected that Russia (along with Belarus) will use the memory of World War II and wrongfully link it to the aggressive war against Ukraine.… Having arrogantly concluded a pact with Germany, the Soviet Union was invaded and forced to defend itself, losing several million soldiers in the process. This belated participation in the fight against Germany allowed the Soviet Union to take a seat at the winners’ table and occupy a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe.” It is telling that such historical distortion is taking place in France – a country that only secured its place among the victorious powers thanks to Joseph Stalin.⁹

In this context, it is no longer surprising to see numerous cases in which European politicians turn a blind eye to the activities of Ukrainian or Baltic Nazis, and even express support for them. For example, the Italian Foreign Minister (note the “coincidence” – Italy!) Antonio Tajani, in an interview with the Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero on April 24, 2024 – Italy’s Liberation Day from fascism – dared to equate neo-Nazis from [Ukraine’s] Azov Battalion with Italian partisans and soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition.¹⁰

And of course, one cannot overlook the intensity of anti-Russian hysteria in Western mass media (the European public is almost completely cut off from alternative sources, especially Russian ones). This is undoubtedly also part of preparing the population for the idea that a strike against Russia is morally justified and practically necessary.¹¹ The very date of the war’s beginning – 2030 – is already openly cited in various European sources.¹²

In this context, Germany’s nomination of Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock¹³ – who openly advocates uniting the entire Western world against Russia under the German flag¹⁴ – as president of the anniversary 80th session of the UN General Assembly is not merely a mockery of the memory of the millions who perished in World War II. It is a serious step toward the further legitimization of revanchism, a key element of a large-scale, offensive political campaign aimed at achieving specific goals of today and tomorrow.

But why do they hate us so much? Why do they alternately seek to suffocate us with embraces, as in the 1990s, crush us economically (with sanctions since 2014), or inflict a strategic defeat, including through direct military operations? The answer can be found both in the works of historical philosophers and in contemporary geopolitics and economics.

As far back as 1871, the great Russian thinker Nikolai Danilevsky wrote: “Europe does not recognize us as its own. It sees in Russia and in the Slavs in general something alien to it, and at the same time something that cannot serve it simply as material from which to extract profit, as it does from China, India, Africa, most of the Americas, etc. – material that can be molded and shaped in its own image and likeness.… Therefore, Europe sees in Russia and Slavdom not only something alien, but also a hostile force. However loose and soft the top layer has become – weathered and turned to clay – Europe still understands, or rather instinctively feels, that beneath this surface lies a solid, hard core that cannot be crushed, ground down, or dissolved; which, therefore, cannot be assimilated, cannot be turned into its own blood and flesh; which possesses both the strength and the will to live its own independent, original life. For a Europe proud – and justly proud – of its accomplishments, this is difficult, if not impossible, to tolerate. Therefore, by any means necessary – if not with the cross, then with the pestle; if not by hook, then by crook – it must not allow this core to grow stronger and expand, to send roots and branches deep and wide.”¹⁵

Two hundred years later, another great Russian philosopher, Alexander Zinoviev, said: “Russia will never become part of the West, no matter how much we crawl on our knees or grovel before the West, no matter how much we imitate everything Western.”¹⁶

And in 2003, at a ceremonial event in the Konstantinovsky Palace during the Russia-EU summit commemorating the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, a staff member of the European Commission, while chasing down a shot of vodka with a black caviar sandwich, confessed to my colleague: “You know why we hate you? Because we can’t control you like we do all of them,” – and he disdainfully gestured toward the representatives of the East European countries present.

That said, before 1917, the West did not aim to achieve the full subjugation of our country by military means or to carry out genocide against the peoples of Russia. It regarded Russia as a historical and political actor foreign to Western civilization, but believed it could “grind it down” primarily thanks to the pro-Western orientation of the Russian Empire’s elite. For the Western powers, the main goal was to have Russia close at hand as a tool of their policy and to have access to its resources on favorable terms.

The situation changed significantly after the Great October Socialist Revolution and the subsequent formation of the USSR. At that point, the West realized the full extent of the threat posed by Russia/USSR: the threat of establishing an independent and fundamentally different model of global development, as well as a concrete example of a political and economic system designed in the interests of working people (rather than specific social strata, the so-called elite). This is precisely why, during the 1941-1944 policy of mass extermination of the civilian population in the occupied territories of the USSR, the Nazis regarded communists as their main enemies.

And not only the Nazis. Operation “Unthinkable,” developed in deepest secrecy by the British Joint Planning Staff at the direction of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, envisioned a military campaign against the USSR immediately following the end of World War II. The operation’s plans included the destruction of Soviet forces on the territory of the former Nazi Reich and a renewed invasion of the Soviet Union, as well as the total aerial destruction of Soviet cities using nuclear weapons. The forces designated for this blitzkrieg, modeled after the German example, were to include Anglo-American troops, as well as German, Polish, and Hungarian divisions. It was only thanks to our intelligence, the rapid advance of Soviet troops – including the capture of Berlin – and, building on this foundation, the skillful political and diplomatic efforts of the country’s top leadership, that a third world war was averted at that time.¹⁷

However, even after that, the campaign to destroy the USSR continued. From the 1940s to the 1960s, our country successfully countered this campaign on an equal footing, implementing a project to expand the global anti-Western political space (camp). As a result, the goal of the USSR’s total physical destruction never left the Western agenda. In the 1970s, as awareness grew in the West that pro-Western sentiments were gaining ground among the top tier of the Soviet elite and segments of the intelligentsia, the West adopted a strategy of disarmament, détente, and internal destabilization of the USSR.

What about now? Why is the West once again intensifying its malice and hatred toward us – emotions it seemed to have somewhat tempered in the late 1980s and 1990s? Clearly, this is due both to our clearly stated refusal to accept the aggressive, destructive foreign policy of NATO countries (from the destruction of Yugoslavia to the hostile use of Ukraine against Russia) and to our careful but firm avoidance of the globalists’ “embrace.”

Above all, it is because the West once again senses in us the potential to return to an independent historical-cultural (civilizational) project – potential that, as in the Soviet era, could see us become the leader of an anti-Western coalition of countries and peoples exploited by the West. As the Russian historian Andrey Fursov puts it, “what lies behind all the phony accusations from the Western elites against Russia, once you strip away the pretense, is fear of the only non-Western country that not only refused to bow to the capitalist West as a colony or semi-colony, and not only successfully resisted it, but over the course of four centuries repeatedly defeated it – and in the 20th century created a global system alternative to capitalism: systemic anti-capitalism.”¹⁸

To them, we remain Scythians and Asians “with narrow and greedy eyes,”¹⁹ and we are extremely irritating to the Atlanticist elites precisely because we are so spiritually and culturally different – yet outwardly resemble representatives of the Romano-Germanic and Anglo-Saxon civilizations. In this context, I would like to quote a striking metaphor by Zakhar Prilepin, which he voiced during an interview with Ksenia Sobchak on November 19, 2023: “Russians are white only by mistake. In fact, we are red-skinned, yellow-skinned, black-skinned – we just happened to be born white by accident. Russians are white by mistake; Russians are colored. And the whole non-white world looks at us and says: What a joy that there are white people who are white but are actually just like us – they are not colonizers, not backstabbers, they will not humiliate us. They will translate for us, transport us, hand us the new world ‘Oscar’; they will rejoice with us … bring doctors, build power plants, universities, and so on.”

What should we do? First and foremost, we must follow the popular wisdom: “If you want peace – prepare for war!” And here, cynical as it may sound, the Special Military Operation is making us stronger, more experienced, more prepared; it prevents the advance of NATO military infrastructure to our borders and eliminates security threats emanating from the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR. Some historians and political scientists reasonably compare the SMO to the Soviet-Finnish war,²⁰ including in terms of its impact on the modernization of the armed forces and the principles of warfare.

Second, we must, of course, continue the fight for historical truth. By this I mean, first of all, systematic efforts to declassify documents from Soviet archives – including those of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – on the role of Western countries in starting World War II, their actions aimed at weakening the USSR, and our active resistance to Western plans to dismantle international law and the system of international institutions established following World War II (the Yalta- Potsdam system of international security) and to “forget” the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal.²¹ However, declassification alone is not enough – these documents must be accompanied by meaningful commentary. The circle of those capable of doing this in a modern form, aimed at a broad audience in Russia and abroad, must be expanded.

And third – and perhaps most importantly – we need to continue strengthening our sovereignty, developing healthy domestic foundations in the national economy, public life, culture, and politics. Russia, the Russian civilization, has always been strong – and it held attraction for our friends and allies because it offered its own unique view of global development, an alternative to Anglo-Saxon and Romano-Germanic perspectives, a universalist project. At one time, these were the projects “Moscow as the Third Rome,” then Soviet Russia as the Third International, and later – the USSR as the bulwark of peace, socialism, and anti-colonial struggle. Whatever motto they went by, they were always based on the principles of human equality and justice, the need to develop culture and science, respect for one’s own and other peoples’ traditions, and fidelity to one’s civilizational roots.

Today, more than ever before, we understand the West’s goals in its new Drang nach Osten, and the methods it intends to use to achieve them. We – at least the majority of our citizens – also understand the historical and cultural foundations, above all those that formed the basis of the Victory of 1945, upon which Russia’s domestic and foreign policy must now be built. It is important to restore, reinforce, and firmly uphold them – thus continuing to attract the support of nations around the world that resist Western domination.

NOTES

¹ Demurin D. “Et tu, Emmanuel? Or Why the West Rewrites History,” International Affairs, Vol. 66, No. 3 (2020), pp. 43-50.

² Report by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), April 2025, “The Political Test of European Defence”: “Between 2022 and 2024, EU member states increased defense spending by over 30% overall…. This effort has been critical in supporting Ukraine, but it has not led to a more self-reliant Europe in terms of defense. To achieve this, it is essential that Europeans invest jointly to a further extent, and direct a much larger share of that investment to deliver capabilities through the European defense technology and industrial base. Incentives to ‘buy European,’ such as via the loans proposed by the Commission through the SAFE regulation, will be critical.” For more details, see: https://iwmes.hse.ru/news/1032357344.html; https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/the-political-test-of-european-defence-203797

³ The US will insist that NATO allies spend 5% of GDP on defense. This statement was made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to him, no one expects alliance members to achieve this goal within one or two years. However, he emphasized that progress toward this goal must be real. Currently, only 23 out of 32 alliance members have reached or exceeded the current target of 2% of GDP; https://russian.rt.com/world/article/1458604-nato-voennye-rashody-ssha-rubio

⁴ Rossiyskaya gazeta. April 2, 2025. The matter concerns the 45th Tank Brigade under the command of General Christoph Huber, part of the Bundeswehr’s 10th Panzer Division, consisting of 4,800 military personnel and another 200 civilian employees. It includes 44 Puma infantry fighting vehicles from the 122nd Tank Grenadier Battalion, 44 Leopard tanks from the 203rd Tank Battalion, the 455th Self-Propelled Artillery Division, and several other units. Full deployment is planned by 2027, for which Germany will build a new 170-hectare combat complex at the Rudninkai military site, located near the Belarusian border. Until construction is completed, German troops – some of whom have already arrived in Lithuania – will be stationed at local military facilities. For more details, see: https://eadaily.com/en/news/2025/04/05/nato-at-the-borders-of-the-union-state-a-colossus-with-feet-of-clay

⁵ The German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, recently received approval for a significant increase in spending – after parliament voted to ease the strict “debt brake” rule for defense expenditures. Bundeswehr Commander-in-Chief General Carsten Breuer told the BBC that this increase is absolutely necessary for his department, as he believes that Russian aggression will not be limited to Ukraine. “Russia threatens us. Putin threatens us. We must do everything possible to prevent this,” stated General Carsten Breuer. He warns that NATO should be ready for a potential attack, which, in his view, could happen in just four years.

⁶ In the 1990s, Joseph Overton, Vice President of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, proposed the theory of the acceptability of different political opinions. According to Overton, each idea or issue in society falls within a so-called window of possibilities. Within this window, an idea may or may not be widely discussed, openly supported, promoted, or legally enacted. The window shifts, thereby altering the range of possibilities – from the “unthinkable” stage, i.e., entirely alien to social mores and wholly rejected, to the “current policy” stage, i.e., widely discussed, accepted by the public, and legally codified. For more details, see: https://nstarikov.ru/tehnologiya-unichtozheniya-okno-overton-36349

⁷ Resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe No. 1096 “On Measures to Dismantle the Heritage of Former Communist Totalitarian Regimes” (1996), No. 1481 “Need for International Condemnation of Crimes of Totalitarian Communist Regimes” (2006); of the European Parliament “On European Conscience and Totalitarianism” (2009); of the OSCE PA “Divided Europe Reunited: Promoting Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the OSCE Region in the 21st Century” (2009); conclusions of the EU Council “On European Conscience and Totalitarianism” (2009), “On the Memory of the Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes in Europe” (2011); and of the European Parliament “On the Importance of European Remembrance for the Future of Europe” (2019).

⁸ A document obtained by the editorial staff of the Berliner Zeitung states: “If representatives of Russia or Belarus appear unannounced at national events, institutions may exercise their right to expel them at their discretion and with prudence,” https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/guerre-en-ukraine-un-missile-balistique-fait-18-morts-a-kryvyi-rig-la-ville-d-origine-de-zelensky-20250405#05-04-2025-09-38-36

⁹ See: “Kak Stalin sozdaval osnovy novogo mira,” Voyennoye obozreniye, February 4, 2020, https://topwar.ru/167442-kak-stalin-sozdaval-osnovy-novogo-mira.html; “Naryshkin napominal o vklade SSSR v priznaniye Frantsii pobeditelnitsey natsizma,” https://ria.ru/20240408/frantsiya-1938567829.html

¹⁰ See: Statement by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Italy, posted on the embassy’s VK page on April 26, 2024.

¹¹ “The current situation is somewhat reminiscent of the 1830s-1840s. After the British realized that Russia was their main adversary, they began forming a European coalition. It was in the 1820s that Russophobia emerged in Britain as a phenomenon – hostility toward Russia. By the 1830s-1840s, the British had shaped European public opinion. Note the current intensity of anti-Russian hysteria. It surpasses even that of the Cold War, because back then the Soviet Union was strong, and no one was planning to go to war with it. That doesn’t mean they will definitely go to war now. Everything will depend on how strong, resilient, and united we are. But the hysteria in the West is undoubtedly about preparing the population to see a strike against Russia as morally justified and practically necessary. Hatred of Russia is gripping entire segments of the population; it’s becoming utterly irrational. This is what we will have to live with for the foreseeable future.” Fursov A.I. “Na Zapade nenavist k Rossii zakhvatyvayet tselyye sloi naseleniya,” April 5, 2018, https://izborsk-club.ru/15031

¹² Filatov S. Yevropa razvorachivayetsya na voynu s Rossiyey. Plan YES ‘Gotovnost’-2030,’” Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn, April 10 2025; “Park otvlecheniy: zachem v Yevrope aktivno prodvigayut ideyu budushchey ‘voyny s Rossiyey,’ ” Izvestia, April 9, 2025.

¹³ https://www.un.org/pga/79/pga80election

14 “Not only is there a sea change in how my country perceives the threats to its own security, but also in how we understand our responsibility in today’s world: as a leader our partners can rely on…. We know that for the foreseeable future, President Putin’s Russia will remain a threat to peace and security on our continent and that we have to organize our security against Putin’s Russia, not with it.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2023/jul/06/russia-war-ukraine-germany-foreign-policy

¹⁵ Quoted from: Danilevsky N.Ya. Rossiya i Yevropa. Vzglyad na kulturnyye i politicheskiye otnosheniya slavyanskogo mira k germano-romanskomu. Moscow: Izvestiya, 2003, pp. 71-72.

¹⁶ Quoted from: Telegram channel “Rubezh i Zа Rubezh”: “Nasushchnoye chteniye: kniga A.A.Zinov'yeva ‘Zapad. Fenomen zapadnizma,’ ” October 29, 2023, https://t.me/rubezhizarubezh/5654

¹⁷ “Operatsiya ‘Nemyslimoye,’ ili Nesostoyavshiysya blitskrig Uinstona Cherchillya,” Voyennoye obozreniye, July 8, 2015, https://topwar.ru/78439-operaciya-nemyslimoe-ili-nesostoyavshiysya-blickrig-uinstona-cherchillya.html

¹⁸ Fursov A. “Kost v gorle mirovoy elity. Na chem osnovan strakh Zapada pered Rossiyey,” August 10, 2023, https://dzen.ru/a/ZNJEVeQZIirOucGz

¹⁹ Blok A. Skify [The Scythians].

²⁰ “Voyennyy istorik sravnil sobytiya na Ukraine s sovetsko-finskim konfliktom,” https://www.mk.ru/politics/2022/03/20/voennyy-istorik-sravnil-sobytiya-na-ukraine-s-sovetskofinskim-konfliktom.html

²¹ This refers both to the effort to expand support for the annual resolution submitted by Russia to the UN General Assembly titled “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo- Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,” and to efforts for international recognition of the expulsion and extermination of Soviet civilians by Nazi invaders and their collaborators – facts established by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg – as genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union.

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