Constantine Yatsenko, deputy head of the subdepartment for history at the Kursk State University, said at the 4th “Great Victory Achieved by Unity” International Forum that the Great Patriotic War was a target of an unprecedented number of falsification attempts, as part of ideological struggles and political conjuncture. The historian mentioned some of the most important aspects of such processes.
Yatsenko clarified that some authors were trying to depict the war as a fight between two totalitarian antihuman systems, similar to the way it was described in the PACE resolution on identity of the Nazi and the communist regime. In the historian’s view, it makes the fight on any side an equally malicious act.
Further, the expert goes on, some historians say that there was never the Great Patriotic War in the first place, following the logic. According to Yatsenko, there was a book published by over 40 authors in 2009 saying that the 1941-1945 war could not be described as the Great Patriotic War and should be named the Soviet-Nazi War instead. The “falsifiers,” he believes, consider the USSR an aggressor and occupant. This brings the idea that the Soviet Union was somewhat responsible for the war to a certain extent, Yatsenko goes on.
The 4th “Great Victory Achieved by Unity” International Forum of veterans, historians, politicians, public figures, journalists, experts, young activists and scouts has started in Kursk today. 21 delegations have arrived from the CIS, Georgia, Baltic states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the Forum.
The Forum was organized by the Institute for Eurasian Studies, North-South Center for Political Analysis and the CIS Interstate Foundation for Humanitarian Cooperation. Vestnik Kavkaza provides information support for the Forum.
