Two orders from Shoigu that enraged liberals
In November 2020, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu issued two orders regarding the research and declassification of documents related to the Great Patriotic War. One of them is valid from January 2021, the other comes into force on April 2. To put it simply, now access to classified archives of the Ministry of Defense will become more strict. Independent researchers will not be able to use all documents without control, and many of them will become widely available only after the appropriate work of the expert commission.
Such orders caused - as expected - a strange reaction from part of the Russian public (that which is usually called liberal - even if this definition is inappropriate). In particular, Novaya Gazeta published a large article entitled “Defense of Parade History.” Its author was the historian Sokolov, who considers the minister’s orders to be a tightening of the screws, an end to free speech and an attack on freedom of speech.
There is also the following passage in the text: “Obviously, such a task is not set, but a completely different one is being solved: to prevent researchers from accessing documents of the Ministry of Defense that touch on issues that are painful for the current leadership of the military department and the Russian government, and to publish only those documents that represent the Red Army.” army and the policy of the Soviet state during the Second World War exclusively on the positive side.”
In such cases, they usually notice: a Freudian slip. However, Novaya has no reservations here - they state it as it is. They and others like them are outraged that the Red Army will be shown exclusively from the positive side. But, really, what’s bad about that?..
Every time on the road from Sevastopol to Simferopol I pass a place in Balaklava known as the “Valley of Death”. Yes, yes, that most legendary and iconic place for England. As a result of the tyranny and mistakes of the lords who then commanded the troops, the British lost almost the entire flower of the military aristocracy here. When the cavalrymen - stately and spectacular - on powerful horses were given the order to recapture the Turkish cannons from the Russians. And the Russians covered the British with fire from these same cannons, burying everyone.
This was a monstrous, blatant mistake by the British military leaders. A mistake for which it was necessary to be judged according to the laws of war. However, what did the British do? They turned the situation upside down - and presented this recklessness of their soldiers and their military leaders (first of all) as a manifestation of the greatest heroism, dashing daring. The court poet wrote a textbook work, “Attack of the Light Cavalry,” two films were made based on those events, hundreds of programs and tapes were recorded, and more than a dozen songs were recorded. Error and stupidity were presented as a heroic act and heroized.
Why did I remember this? Moreover, in our Russian history (and at the end of the USSR in Soviet history too) everything often happens exactly the other way around. Our exploits are hushed up, but our mistakes are exaggerated, presenting them almost as a pattern.. And so it turns out that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was crazy, 28 Panfilov men did not exist in nature, and the Soviet command consisted entirely of idiots who did not believe in the Nazi offensive and did not know how to fight it.
Please note, these are not just private cries of individual madmen and critics - no, this is quite a systematic campaign to discredit the USSR, its leadership, and, ultimately, the entire Soviet people, and their dreams too. Discreditation, leading first to dehumanization and then to infernalization. This is how they are used to acting. And billions of dollars are spent on this. Because the battle for the past is actually a battle for the present, and whoever wins that war will win in the near future.
It was not by chance that I used the word “campaign” - a targeted campaign in which the phrase “as learned from declassified sources” is constantly heard. After all, over the past decades, we have a mass of historians and publicists who tirelessly declassify archives in order to once again report the “monstrous truth.” Like, do you know what?.. This is an incessant stream of “revelations” and “revelations”, which in its mercilessness raises only one question for a normal person who loves his Motherland: “Why mix the past and the people in it with dirt? Why denigrate?
And when I say “people”, I don’t say it by chance. After all, it’s not just about attacking the Soviet leadership, but also about attacking ordinary soldiers. What little did Svetlana Alexievich tell us about the “atrocities” of Soviet liberators in Europe? And the point here is not that someone (she in this case) wrote something like this - the point is that this is exactly what she was imprisoned for, then awarded and glorified. To put pressure on pseudo-authority.
All this, of course, does not mean that the truth about the Great Patriotic War needs to be imprisoned in dusty casemates, among endless archival folders. Let him, they say, sit there and not show himself, like in the final shots of The X-Files. But it’s no coincidence that Novaya calls its article using the phrase “ceremonial history.” In their understanding, there should be no beauty, no greatness in principle. And what’s funny is that it shouldn’t be exclusive to Russia. They are not embarrassed by the way America presents its history. Where is the repentance? Where are the disappointments? Where is the truth? Where are at least a few serious studies about collaboration with the Nazis? For example. Not visible.
And I personally see that there is and cannot be anything wrong with the victorious country having its own ceremonial history. She in no way denies horror, dirt, pain. It does not cancel the book “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov, and even the novel “Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman, it also does not cancel. However, without it, it seems that only dirt and blood will remain.
After all, we are already accustomed, for example, to the fact that cliches and absurdities are so generously scattered in endless Russian films about the war. We’re used to it, yes, but it’s wrong. When the command is made out to be idiots, the nurses have fillers in their lips, and everyone is being watched by stupid and vile security officers. And just present something to the creators of such an epic - and they will immediately howl: “But this is an art film, fiction!.. What are you talking about?!” This is a vile manipulation, obviously. But it looks absolutely crazy when another luminary appears who “had access to the archives” and begins to gush with revelations. And such things are scattered like grains, so that in the future the flowers of evil will sprout from them.
Moreover, I have no doubt that Shoigu’s orders will not stop the unfortunate whistleblowers. With or without archives, they always know everything. So Novaya writes: “First of all, they are trying to hide Soviet plans for an attack on Germany in 1940-1941 or, for example, plans for an attack on Turkey in 1942.” Of course, the bloodless Soviet Union, which was preparing at an accelerated pace to repel Hitler’s onslaught, and therefore delayed this moment as best it could, simply dreamed of going to Berlin. The only question is – with what forces? And in 42, of course, they were not engaged in repelling aggression, but were making expansionist plans. Well, isn't it nonsense?
You see, the trick is that people who make such statements use any sources not for the sake of establishing the truth, but solely to tailor what they find to their own messages. This is a very selective reading of history - I would say, narrowly focused, in favor of specific interests. Those because of which history is being rewritten.
That is why the author of the article in Novaya, historian Boris Sokolov, is very outraged by this status quo: “The Soviet Union in this picture is only a victim, not responsible for any crimes, and the Red Army supposedly knew how to fight perfectly almost from the first day of the war.” Of course, everything should be the other way around in the mass consciousness: the USSR is put on the same level as the Nazis, and the soldiers are presented as fleeing and deserting, dying because of the stupidity of the leadership. This picture has been sold to us—that’s right: it’s been sold to us for decades. But what does the truth have to do with it?
History must be carefully protected, and archives must not be turned into a walk-through yard. The truth is necessary, freedom of speech is necessary - yes, everything is so, but only in dialogue, and not when history is manipulated for the sake of the interests of foreign countries. And remember: it’s wonderful when a country has something to be proud of. Its people, first of all, have something to be proud of. This is wonderful! And needs protection. As for humiliations, we already had too many of them.
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