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He insists on a revisionist article on World War II, written by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Therefore, an email written by V. Putin, translated into German, was attached to the email received that day. word length text.
However, Mr. Obertreis was more puzzled by the direct appeal, which concluded the letter sent by the embassy, according to Radio Free Europe portal.
“The article by the President of Russia will undoubtedly interest his audience. In anticipation of this, we suggest using this article by Putin in preparation for future conferences on history,” is written at the end of the letter to the professor at the University of Friedrich and Alexander.
Obertreis felt defeated by cancer. She sat down on Twitter and tried to write about what was bothering her, that is, about the inopportune attempt by her head to influence the content of her teaching. It soon became apparent that a large number of German historians had received exactly the same email, which had also made it very clear what they thought about it on social media platforms.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” wrote historian Anke Hilbrenner, who teaches Eastern European history at the University of Gottingen.
“Putin is playing the historian again,” said Martin Aust of the University of Bonn.
Revisionist views
In the American magazine The National Interest on June 18. Putin’s article “The True Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II” immediately sparked heated debate in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of World War II. Cite archival documents as seriously as possible, but the text flickers with grammatical errors and surprises with the strangest linguistic constructs. A Russian historian’s observation that the publication cited Adolf Hitler’s words as imaginary was rejected by the Kremlin without curtains.
The lengthy monologue on the subject of history recalls the particularly active revisionist views of Moscow in recent years. The article criticizes so-called attempts by the West to distort the history of World War II and recalls the role of the Soviets in defeating Nazi Germany, earning nearly 27 million. A victory that cost people lives.
The text, which can be boldly called the latest Russian fight on Putin’s lips, was particularly outrageous to the Baltic governments, who claim they voluntarily renounced sovereignty by surrendering to the will of the Soviet occupying forces.
In Warsaw, the article was condemned (and this is not surprising) because it states that Poland must take responsibility for the double invasion of itself committed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 under the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and , according to V Putin, who played the role of advocate.
Memory war
In an email to Radio Free Europe, Mr. Aust from the University of Bonn admitted that he was very surprised by the letter from the Russian embassy. He also noted that Putin attributed the article to the manifestations of the memory war between Eastern Europe and Russia in recent years, and tended to agree with some of the conclusions reached, such as the condemnation of the concessions of Great Britain and France. to Hitler in 1939. and attention to the tremendous suffering inflicted on the citizens of the Soviet Union by the German invasion of 1941. Still, the rest of the article, according to M. Austo, is only a distortion of the facts.
“No German historian will sign after World War II accusations against Poland. This makes no sense, he argues.” I suppose quite a few colleagues will certainly use Putin’s text, unless at least it is a source for a better understanding. the politics of history in general, and the control mechanisms of the antagonistic memory culture in particular. “
However, in Russia, Putin’s views have garnered broad support, as many Russians are outraged that their country is sometimes ignored in the debate over the Allied victory over fascism. Moscow regards the commemorations in the West, which do not mention the Soviet contribution, as examples of a deliberate campaign to rewrite the history of World War II, with Russia as its target.
An extraordinary event
Be that as it may, several people were impressed by the email distributed by the Russian embassy.
“History is generally understood as non-judgmental speech,” said historian Martin Schulze Wessel on the leading German news program Tagesschau, “but the president’s decision to write an article and send it to historians with a request to refer to it during history conferences it should be considered an extraordinary event. “
In written comments to Radio Free Europe, Ilya Rozhkov, a spokeswoman for the Russian embassy in Berlin, tried to defend the email. According to I. Rozhkov, his sole purpose was to inform and help form an objective approach to the material presented.
Responding directly to Obertreis, a history professor who was the first to voice his outrage at the email he received, the Russian embassy said Putin’s article sparked debate among the Germans and was therefore sent to German specialists. .
The embassy allegedly tried to get people to draw personal conclusions after reading the article, rather than relying on evaluations flowing from abroad.
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