DISINFO: The SS reflects the modern ideology of the Latvian authorities
SUMMARY
The 16 March [editor note: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaire], we call it SS Man’s Day, it also reflects quite well the modern ideology of the Latvian authorities. Since today’s government is imposing radical nationalist policies, it must of course be based on something similar in history.
RESPONSE
Prominent pro-Kremlin narrative about the armed anti-Soviet resistance in Latvia, aimed at discrediting the independence struggle of the Baltic States and whitewashing the history of Soviet occupation and Stalin's crimes; a growing trend of historical revisionism. For background on earlier disinformation attempts see our article here.
The 16 March celebrates the Latvian Legion, part of the Waffen-SS, who fought against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation during and after World War II. Pro-Kremlin media aim to portray the partisans as Nazi collaborators who actively participated in the extermination of the Jewish population and to depict the entire partisan movement as criminal, as a justification for the 1940 and the 1944 Soviet occupations. As the logic goes, if the resistance is proven to be criminal, the occupation would seem justified.
For more information about the March 16 events in Latvia read here.
See other examples of Russian disinformation narratives on WWII in our database, such as bogus claims that Western countries revise history to avoid responsibility for allowing Hitler to attack the USSR; that the Soviet Union tried to create an anti-Nazi alliance but the West didn’t respond; that the USSR had no role in the outbreak of the war; that Western democracies are primarily responsible for this conflict; or that by defeating Nazism, Stalin atoned for crimes against his own people.