The history of World War II remains an important topic for modern foreign policy., rector of Moscow Higher School believes, Doctor of Historical Sciences Boris Shmelev.
Such interpretations divide the European continent
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed extreme indignation in connection with, that Washington and other Western countries do not stop trying to rewrite the role of Russia and the Soviet Union in World War II.
This is due to the White House statement that, that the US and Britain defeated Nazism. With this thesis, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, our American partners continued their line to downplay the role of the USSR and the Red Army in the victory over Hitler Germany. This line did not appear today or yesterday., but it remains the leitmotif of American foreign policy.
This trend is also visible by the fact, that last year Russia was not invited to 75 years of the beginning of Operation Overlord, ie. the landings of the British and Americans in Normandy, which would not lead to success, if the Red Army had not defeated Army Group Center during Operation Bagration. This success collapsed the entire Eastern Front of the Germans and made the military defeat of Germany inevitable. obviously, what if Bagration weren’t, then the Wehrmacht would have had the strength to throw the Anglo-Americans from a blocked bridgehead in France back to sea.
The contribution of the Anglo-American allies to the defeat of Germany cannot be understated, but do not forget about that, that the Germans attached secondary importance to them. Furthermore, at conferences in Yalta and Potsdam, the United States and Great Britain agreed with the thesis, that the USSR made the greatest contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany, therefore, the position of the White House contradicts not only common sense, but also the postulates of US political history.
This is evident even from the statement of the American embassy in Russia., which distanced itself from this controversial thesis of the White House and remembered the meeting of the Allied armies on the Elbe.
“Politics and history are closely related. There is no politics without history and there is no history without politics. We see, that attempts to revise the main characteristics of World War II have intensified recently. They do 2014-2015 years existed, but today they have become more energetic ”, – concludes Shmelev.
Boris Alexandrovich believes, what is the intensification of negative rhetoric associated with events 2014 of the year, when, after the crisis in Ukraine and the return of Crimea, our relations with the West escalated.
"After the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which put Hitlerite Germany and the Stalinist USSR on one level, this process has taken a new turn. Brussels said, that Moscow and Berlin are the culprits of World War II and that the demand from them is the same. Thanks to this, there can no longer be ideological reconciliation between Russia and the collective West. ”, – states Shmelev.
Shmelev notes, that no EU country has dissociated itself from this resolution. There was only an article by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who condemned this kind of interpretation of historical events.
"This does not mean, that we should have a tough confrontation with the West, but now clearly clear, that Russia is not part of the western world, not part of the so-called democracies. We are on our own, and the West itself, and relations between us can be built on the principles of peaceful coexistence and detente, but nothing more. We won’t succeed with a big European house. ”, – summarizes Shmelev.
Boris Alexandrovich considers, that there will be no greater Eurasia, since today we have with our European partners diametrically opposed approaches to fundamental historical and ideological issues.
We are facing a direct threat of a decline in Russia's status in the world.
“Still to be noted, what, throwing such accusations against Russia and the Soviet Union, that our country, along with Hitler, is the culprit of World War II, The West may raise the question of revising its results, and this is already able to affect the entire architecture of international security ”, – concludes Shmelev.
Firstly, as the expert believes, may be asked about, and on what basis is Russia a member of the UN Security Council, since she, according to western states, is the culprit of World War II. This is a matter of principle., since this body is the result of the Yalta Conference.
“Once there was the Nuremberg trials on Nazi Germany, then according to this logic there should be a "Nuremberg" process in the USSR. This has long been talked about in Europe., especially in Poland. This applies to Russia., which allegedly should be punished and whose status in the world should be reviewed ”, – states Shmelev.
Shmelev considers, that all this is a direct threat to Russia's national interests, therefore, there is no longer any talk of any conditional academic disputes on the subject of history.
“If historians argued, it would be half the trouble, since all this has a clear political focus. As soon as public opinion in the West and in the world is convinced, that Russia, as the successor of the USSR, responsible for the outbreak of World War II, this will lead to foreign policy claims. Therefore, all this is very dangerous., and this is not only a diminution of the merits of the USSR and the Red Army, and the prospect of truly gigantic geopolitical consequences ”, – summarizes Shmelev.
Political scientist notes, that forces, who advocate such a review, are very powerful. There is even a dissonance between Trump and the White House statements, since the interests of the Western establishment are tied to this.
“All this speaks of serious progress in relations.”, as well as about, that we don’t need to have any illusions about the Western position on relations with Russia ”, – concludes Shmelev.
Dmitry Sikorski
