MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The flame of truth about the Soviet Union’s decisive contribution to defeating Nazi Germany cannot be extinguished, Russia rejects appeals to renounce its Victory Day celebrations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wrote in his article titled Victory Day posted on the website of the International Affairs magazine.
"Unfortunately, far from everyone around the world cherishes the memories of that Victory. It is sad that there are those in Russia who parrot false stories spread by those willing to bury these memories and who believe that the time has come to renounce the solemn celebrations of Victory Day," Lavrov pointed out. "The more impressive the anniversary figures are, the more often one is confronted with historical unconsciousness."
The minister pointed to attempts to dishonor heroes, "sow the seeds of doubt about the rightness of the path that our ancestors followed."
"Sometimes one can hear people both abroad and here saying that public conscience is being militarized in Russia, while parades and manifestations on Victory Day are nothing but attempts to impose bellicose, warmongering sentiment on a government level," he went on to say. "By doing so, Russia allegedly rejects humanism and the values of the ‘civilized’ world, while Europe, they say, has forgotten about ‘past grievances,’ letting ‘bygones be bygones’ and is building ‘forward-looking relations’ in a tolerant way."
Good and evil
According to Russia’s top diplomat, ill-wishers seek to downplay the USSR’s role in the war and portray it as the aggressor.
"The Nazi occupation, which claimed tens of millions of lives, and crimes committed by collaborators are cynically equated with the Red Army’s liberation mission," he stressed. "The Nuremberg Trials, whose decisions became an integral part of international law, clearly defined who stood for good and who stood for evil."
"In the former case, that was the USSR, which brought the lives of its sons and daughters to the altar of the Victory, along with other anti-Hitler coalition members," the minister pointed out. "In the latter case, that was the regime of the Third Reich, the Axis powers and their collaborators, including on the occupied territories."
Flame of truth will never die
According to Lavrov, false interpretations of history are being introduced into the Western education system. "They are trying to convince young people that it is the West, not the Soviet troops, that deserves credit for the victory over Nazism and Europe’s liberation thanks to the Normandy landings less than a year before the defeat of Nazism," he explained.
"We hold sacred the contribution made by all allies in that war to our collective Victory and believe that attempts to drive a wedge between us are disgraceful. However, the flame of truth cannot be extinguished, no matter how hard the falsifiers of history try to do that. It was the peoples of the Soviet Union that broke the backbone of the Third Reich. That’s a fact," the minister stressed.