Courageous journalist disputes Russian interpretation of history

The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita comments on Russian journalist Oleg Khlebnikov's new interpretation of the role the Soviet Union played in the outbreak of World War II: "In today's Russia it takes a lot of courage to write that the Soviet Union went to war on 17 September 1939 [the day of the Soviet invasion of Poland]. This is what Oleg Khlebnikov wrote in the daily Novaya Gazeta, thus entering into a direct confrontation with the official state version of history which talks of the 22 June 1941, the day on which Hitler's troops attacked the Soviet Union. The article in Novaya Gazeta incites both surprise and admiration. This consolation, however, is small compared with the Kremlin's swelling wave of propaganda aimed at denying at any cost that the Soviet Union bore any responsibility for the events in Europe 70 years ago. The Moscow historians portray the Poland of 1939 as an ally of Nazi Germany. This thesis is utterly false and it hurts. It is so outrageous that it's not even worth the trouble of polemicising against it."

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » Remembrance culture, » Poland
All available articles from » Marek Magierowski

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, August 25, 2009