DISINFO: Historical memory is systematically destroyed in Ukraine and the Baltics
SUMMARY
It is particularly concerning that in a number of European countries, primarily in Ukraine and the Baltic states, historical memory is systematically destroyed, the lessons of WWII are being forgotten, and racist, neo-Nazi, and extremist ideas are openly promoted.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation about alleged Nazism in Ukraine and the Baltic states. This claim is part of a disinformation campaign aiming to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Pro-Kremlin disinformation media repeatedly talk about the “revival” of Nazism in the West and large-scale historical revisionism used for anti-Russian goals.
The myth of “Nazi Ukraine” has been widely used by Putin and pro-Kremlin outlets since Russia attacked Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. It is also being used to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nazi and Communist ideologies were banned by Ukrainian law in 2015.
Baselessly framing Ukrainians as “Nazis” - a pro-Kremlin disinformation tactic frequently deployed against its adversaries- has been one of the main disinformation narratives used by pro-Kremlin outlets and channels to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by framing it as a “de-Nazification operation”.
Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".
Notably, to mobilise domestic Russian audiences, the pro-Kremlin media repeatedly invokes WWII imagery and attempts to portray the West as anti-Semitic and neo-fascist. See our article Anti-Semitism and pro-Kremlin disinformation.
The Baltic states are not neo-Nazi or Russophobic. Rather these countries have clear security concerns linked to Russia. The source of concern is Russia’s aggression toward neighbouring countries and how it affected the security situation in the region in general. The position of the Baltic states on Russia is driven by the objective perception of aggressive Russian actions.
Pro-Kremlin media also often disregard the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. The Kremlin conducted a forced annexation of the Baltic states in June 1940 following Soviet military occupation and the forced installation of “people’s governments”. On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression (Molotov-Ribbentrop) Pact whose secret protocols divided the territories belonging to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into Soviet and Nazi spheres of influence. The Baltic States were not the beneficiaries of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Like other countries mentioned in the pact, they lost their independence and territories, while giving Stalin free hand in the Baltic states.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Anglo-Saxons turn Europe into the 4th Reich, that European Nazism is alive and it manifests itself in Russophobia, that Russophobia is on the rise in the Baltic States at the behest of the Anglo-Saxons, that Russophobia and neo-Nazism the norm in the Baltic states and Ukraine, that Direct Nazism is now the norm in Baltic states and Ukraine, that Polish and Baltics' Russophobia may lead to breaking diplomatic relations with Russia, or that US encourages anti-Russian aspirations of former Warsaw Pact members.