Moscow completely restores and promotes Stalinist conception of WW2, Pavlova says

Hitler and Stalin united forces for invading Europe in the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

2017/05/08 - 10:22 • Opinion, Russia

Edited by: A. N.

Irina Pavlova

The Putin regime not only has completely restored the Stalinist conception of World War II but is promoting it in the media and the schools in ways that will make it ever more difficult for Russians to break out of that ideological straightjacket, according to Irina Pavlova.

The US-based Russian historian points to a recent article in Komsomolskaya Pravda as evidence. Entitled “The Americans Prepared Hitler for War with the USSR but Stalin Outplayed Them,” it was written by Yevgeny Spitsyn, an expert consultant to the Duma’s security committee and the author of history textbooks for Russian schools.

According to Pavlova, Spitsyn’s article is “a symbol of present-day Russian historiography of World War II and a symbol of the return to the Stalinist interpretation” in the most extreme way. In it, the writer repeats “all the myths about Stalin as the main peacemaker and supporter of collective security in the 1930s.”

He treats the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as “a victory of Stalinist diplomacy.” He repeats the Stalinist claim about “the liberating advance of the Red Army into Poland on September 17, 1939.” And like Stalinist historians earlier, he overstates the size of the German armies which attacked Russia and understates the number of Soviet soldiers who were taken prisoner.

: Stalin supervising the signing of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact dividing Poland between Hitler’s regime and his own, Aug 23, 1939. From left to right: Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Minister of Foreign Affairs; Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (sitting); Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator; Vladimir Pavlov, First Secretary of the Soviet embassy in Germany (Image: TASS)

: Two German soldiers near the ditch with bodies of executed Poles, Sept.-Oct. 1939 (Image: nationaalarchief.nl)

: The Royal Palace in Warsaw on fire after German artillery shelling during the siege of the city, Sept. 17, 1939

: The execution of Polish citizens by German army during the occupation of Poland. 56 people were executed near Bochnia on Dec. 18, 1939

: T-26 tanks of the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade enter Brest. On the left – German motorcyclists and Wehrmacht officers next to Opel Olympia car, Sept. 22, 1939 (Image: Bundesarchiv)

: Soviet Union started WW2 on Hitler’s side. The meeting of Soviet and German patrols in near Lublin in occupied Poland

: German and Soviet commanders meet at the Nazi-Soviet demarcation line in Poland, after a successful invasion, September 1939

: Soviet Union started WW2 on Hitler’s side. The meeting of Soviet and German invading armies in Stryj (now in Lviv oblast of Ukraine), Sept. 1939 (reibert.info)

: Soviet Union started WW2 on Hitler’s side. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact map signed by Stalin and Ribbentrop and dated Sept. 28, 1939

: Soviet soldiers inspect some of the Polish weapons the Red Army captured during the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September-October 1939, as was agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939. The military operations ended with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Germany and the Soviet Union.

: Soviet troops at the German-Soviet parade in occupied Brest, Sept. 22, 1939

: Soviet colonel and German officers discuss the Soviet-Nazi demarcation on a map of Poland. German troops advanced farther than was agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

: German (L) and Soviet (R) commanders in Poland discuss the Soviet-Nazi demarcation on a map of the conquered country in September 1939. At the time, German troops advanced farther than was agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and had to cede the extra territory to the Soviets.

: Soviet and German troops in a friendly discussion after suppressing Polish resistance in Brest, Sept. 18, 1939

: Soviet and German troops in a friendly discussion after suppressing Polish resistance in Brest, next to armored vehicle БА-20 of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade, 1939 (nationaalarchief.nl)

: Soldier of the invading Soviet army guarding a Polish fighter airplane downed by the German air force, Sept. 17, 1939

: Russian and German commanders in discussion over a map of Poland, 1939 (imgur.com)

: Political officers of the Soviet Red Army ready for the joint Soviet-German parade in occupied Polish city of Brest, Sept. 23, 1939

: Polish women reading public orders of the German occupation force, September 1939

: Polish tanks destroyed and abandoned near Lviv, Sept. 1939

: Polish prisoners of war, defenders of Westerplatte who held out for seven days in the face of heavy Nazi attacks that included dive bombings, September 1939

: Polish cavalry in Sochaczev, part of the Battle of Bzura counterattack, Sept. 9-14, 1939

: Polish capital city Warsaw after German bombings, Sept. 28, 1939

: Parade of German occupation troops in Stryj (now in Lviv oblast, Ukraine), September 1939

: Ordynacka Street in Warsaw destroyed by German bombings. Massive bombardment of Warsaw was conducted on Sept. 25, 1939 with 1150 sorties and 550 tons of bombs

: Soviet troops walk freely in Brest by then already occupied by the German Wehrmacht. The Nazis will leave it to the Communists, just as it was agreed in the secret part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, September 1939

: Invading German troops marching past a road sign near Lviv, 1939

: German troops enter Warsaw on Oct. 1, 1939

: German troops crowding around Adolf Hitler traveling in Poland, 1939 (geheugenvannederland.nl)

: German soldiers having a friendly conversation with commander of Soviet armored vehicle БА-20 from the 29th Tank Brigade in Brest, Sept. 20, 1939 (Max Ehlert, bundesarchiv.de)

: German soldiers destroying border signs on the border with Poland on Sept. 1, 1939

: German soldiers boarding trucks to leave the Polish town they destroyed, September 1939

: German soldier talking to commanders of the Red Army’s 29th Tank Brigade near Dobuczin (now Pruzhany, Belarus), Sept. 20, 1939 (Max Ehlert, bundesarchiv.de)

: German officers visiting the Soviet military in Brest, Sept. 22, 1939 and hosted by brigade commander Semion Krivosheyin (center). Next to him his deputy major Semion Maltsev

: German generals headed by Heinz Guderian talking with battalion political commissar of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade Vladimir Borovitsky in occupied Brest

: German generals headed by Heinz Guderian meeting with battalion political commissar of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade Vladimir Borovitsky in occupied Brest

: German generals headed by Heinz Guderian discussing with battalion political commissar of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade Vladimir Borovitsky in occupied Brest

: German generals headed by Heinz Guderian conversing with battalion political commissar of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade Vladimir Borovitsky in occupied Brest

: German general Heinz Guderian and Soviet brigade commander Semion Krivosheyin during the transfer of Brest to Red Army troops. General Mauritz von Wiktorin on left, Sept. 22, 1939

: German general Heinz Guderian and Soviet brigade commande Semion Krivosheyin during the transfer of Brest to Red Army troops. Front – Horch 901 Typ 40, Sept. 22, 1939 (Image: Bundesarchiv.de)

: German dive bombers Junkers Ju.87 in the sky over Poland, September 1939 (Heinrich Hoffman)

: Commanding officers of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade near armored vehicle БА-20 in Brest. Front – battalion political commissar Vladimir Borovitsky, Sept. 1939 (Corbisimages)

: Armored vehicle БА-20 of the 29th Soviet Tank Brigade in occupied Brest during talks between Soviet and German invaders (nationaalarchief.nl)

: Adolf Hitler hosting the parade in occupied Warsaw after the fall of Poland to German and Soviet military invaders, Oct-5-1939 (Image – Hugo Jager)

: Adolf Hitler hosting the parade in occupied Warsaw after the fall of Poland to German and Soviet military invaders, Oct-5-1939 (Image – Hugo Jager)

: 10-year old Kazimiera Mika crying for her sister killed by gun fire from a German plane near Warsaw, Sept. 1939 (Image: Julien Bryan)

: In Germany’s Federal Military Archive, among documents of the top command of the 2nd Tank Group there’s a document called “Vereinbarung mit sowjetischen Offizieren über die Überlassung von Brest-Litowsk” (translated as “Agreement with Soviet Officers about the Transfer of Brest-Litovsk”) dated September 21, 1939. Here’s an excerpt from it: “14:00 (2:00 PM) — Start of the ceremonial march (Vorbeimarsch) by the Russian and German troops in front of the commanders of both sides with concluding with a change of flags. During the flag change ceremony, the orchestra plays the national anthems.” (Image: bild.bundesarchiv.de)

And Spitsyn does all this in best or really worst Stalinist style. He dismisses the work of historians in the 1990s who sought to treat these issues more honestly as “garbage,” for example; and the textbook author calls suggestions that Stalin played a role in opening the way to war slanderous.

Indeed, Pavlova says, his approach is “symbolic” of a larger problem: Russians are celebrating a victory in the war without being allowed to understand how and why it began, something that violates all moral principles and “betrays the memory of the millions who died in this war.”

Nearly a decade ago, Pavlova continues, she wrote an essay in Grani in which she suggested that the more the Putin regime tried to conceal the truth about World War II and Stalin’s role in it, “the more people will be drawn to the truth” and insist on historical accuracy about their country’s past.

Today, she says, she is “much less optimistic” about that than she was nine years ago.

Edited by: A. N.

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Tags: Crimes against humanity, Crimes of the Soviet communist regime, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Nazi occupation, Nazi-Soviet Pact, pobedobesie, Poland, Putin, Putin regime, Russia-Germany relations, Russia-Poland relations, Soviet Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Soviet history, World War II / WW2 / Second World War (1939-1945)