The legacy of WWII, which saw the Soviet Red Army drive out Nazi troops from Eastern Europe before shattering the Third Reich, risks being hijacked by those looking to exonerate Hitler’s crimes or erase the contribution of the USSR, Moscow’s ambassador to the US has claimed.
Writing in an op-ed published Thursday in conservative American newspaper The Washington Times, Anatoly Antonov argued that former Eastern Bloc countries tolerate the celebration of Nazism and refuse to recognize the USSR’s key role in defeating the Axis powers during the Second World War.
“We are currently witnessing a cynical policy of distorting the historical truth,” the diplomat wrote. “The memorials to victors of fascism are demolished in Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland. There is a self-evident desire to erase the memory of the deed of the Soviet soldier-liberator, whom they try to put on equal footing with Hitler’s executioners.”
He claimed that “some Eastern European countries regularly host marches to honor the punitive SS divisions,” celebrating the Nazi paramilitary organization responsible for the murders of millions of Jews, Roma, and other victims during the Holocaust.