Historical Policy in the Post-Soviet Space (on the Example of the Memory of the Great Patriotic War) in the Context of Modern Geopolitical Transformations

Abstract

Modern historical revisionism in the post-Soviet space has become a direct consequence of the geopolitical changes and the accompanying historical revisionism and revanchism which are typical to the unfriendly states of the collective West. As the economic and military-political balance in the world changed, and a new group of dynamically developing countries took the leading positions, the transformation of the Western-centric world order established after the end of the Cold War became inevitable. Against the background of growing geopolitical competition between Russia on the one hand and the United States and its allies in NATO and the European Union on the other the latter actively supported attempts to split the historical memory of the peoples of the former Soviet Union, the cementing element of which was the common Victory in the Great Patriotic War. This trend became more and more evident as NATO and the EU expanded eastward. An analysis of the causes and nature, as well as the tools of Western influence on historical politics in the post-Soviet space, proves a direct link between the memory wars and the international situation and the geopolitical goals of external players. All Western educational and scientific projects related to historical, cultural and other humanitarian issues are based in one way or another on the narratives of decommunization and the so-called decolonization of the post-Soviet space, ultimately demonizing the images of the USSR and modern Russia and the historical role of Russian civilization, including the period of the World War II. The rewriting of history through the promotion of historical falsifications plays into the hands of aggressive revanchist circles of unfriendly Western states seeking to maintain their dominance and sever the cultural and civilizational unity of the space of Russian civilization and its closest neighbours.