The history of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War has been silenced or even reformulated in Ukraine for the past ten years, having facts and events distorted. In an exclusive interview with the Official Website of the Donetsk People’s Republic, DPR Minister of Culture Mikhail Zheltyakov spoke about the reasons why this is happening and who benefits from these actions.
According to him, in most cases, altering history is a way for some people to clear their names, since in the Great Patriotic War they took sides with the enemy.
“Ukrainian Nazis and nationalists are justifying their actions in exactly the same way these days. Nowadays, a sane person will not contact with those who fought against their own people, therefore they begin to turn the history of the Great Victory upside down, as if the Soviet Union had attacked Germany.
It depends on us whether or not their attempts reach success, it depends on the way we raise our children, teaching them history and giving a lead. The information warfare through television and the Internet is of great importance now, therefore it is necessary to bring children to the Great Patriotic War museum, show them the Saur-Mogila Memorial and various monuments dedicated to the war, tell about those monuments and the atrocities committed by the Nazis,” Mikhail Zheltyakov emphasized.
He also said that the history is being distorted by a handful of people in power who have the opportunities and resources, thereby pursuing their own goals, bringing dissonance in a society.
“In fact, should this handful of people be removed, everything would be different. Many would wear the St. George ribbon with their heads held high (they are afraid to do this now), because they are attempted to be physically destroyed, as it happened in Odessa. People cannot be intimidated, it didn’t work then, it won’t work now, because the power is in truth, and we are on the side of truth,” the DPR Minister of Culture added.
As will be recalled, with a view to preserve historical memory and commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin declared the year 2020 the Year of the Great Victory in the Donetsk People’s Republic.