"But telling the truth makes you a tankie!"
That's literally the level of debate in western mainstream right now.
In Polish high schools they seriously teach that Soviets were in the alliance with III Reich and that Stalin supposedly admired Hitler (if I recall correctly skimming through my sister's book).
It goes deeper - they basically accuse the USSR of co-starting the World War II and other disgusting lies making communists look as bad or even worse than Nazis. It is formally approved as a school material and many if not most people unironically believe that the USSR was genocidal red-fascists empire.
Since propagating communism is illegal here, bookstores don't print almost any good literature that would counter the state propaganda and the country exists in a capitalist fantasy bubble.
I was lucky enough to never trust educational system, but people who did are basically brain damaged now.
Sorry for chaotic style but I'm sleep deprived and I wanted to share this atrocity while I remember, I may share some more information tomorrow.
That is just so incredibly sinister.
Right? Funding media is one thing and using state/academic authority to alter history is a whole another level of crime. I borrowed the book from my sister to transcribe the chapter about USSR, I might share it as a curiosity later this week.
There are few fragments straight from the official history textbook for secondary school in Poland:
After Lenin's death and against his will, [Stalin] became General Secretary of the party. During his reign he eliminated all his political opponents and implemented in the country industrialization and collectivization. These measures, together with widespread terror policy caused millions victims in the USSR. In 1939 Stalin collaborated with Hitler's Germany, which resulted in assault on Poland and division of it's terrotiry.
(I bolded selected text by myself)
"Even so Stalin continuosly tried to rebuild close relations with [nazi] Germany, because both countries still had the same political interests. Soviet dictator was impressed by panache and efficiency of Nazi regime. Special impression supposedly made on him "Night of the Long Knives", when Hitler murdered his opposition inside the party [...]. Even during bitter competition, both totalitarian powers tried to create a common border, but main obstacle was existence of independent Poland.
Later on they write that both countries finally got to an agreement and launched a common assault on Poland, but Hitler supposedly betrayed Stalin and the alliance ended in 1941.
Source: Their HOI4 game.
🤣
I was waiting for this. More surprised it took them this long
honestly yeah
What the fuck.
right!
Lel, 1939… aside from serving Eurocentrism, it’s an irresistible opportunity for antisocialists to put the Soviets and the German Fascists on the same level and make communists out to be ‘the bad guys’ again. Those are the only justifications. If I remember The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich correctly, the British government at the time implied that WWII still hadn’t begun yet (which they also said in 1931).
There are numerous proposals better than 1939 for WWII’s first year. I’d go so far as to say that 1939 is the worst candidate of the bunch. There’s a reason that the period immediately afterward is called ‘the Phoney War’.
indeed
