DISINFO: The European Parliament tries to distort the historical truth about the outbreak of WWII
SUMMARY
Russia had repeatedly criticised other countries for their attempts to rewrite history. In December 2019, for example, Russia accused the European Parliament of trying to distort the historical truth in connection with the adoption of the resolution on "Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe". Russia expressed outrage that the resolution made the Soviet Union virtually jointly responsible with Nazi Germany for the unleashing of the Second World War.
RESPONSE
This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and an attempt to obfuscate the disastrous historical role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and to reject the historical fact of the attack of the USSR on Poland in September 1939.
On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the USSR signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Secret Supplementary Protocol, which divided Poland and other Eastern European countries between these two totalitarian powers. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland while the Soviet Union's attack on Poland started on September 17 – in this way, Nazi Germany and the USSR started the implementation of the Secret Supplementary Protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
On 18 September, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, describing the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 23 August 1939 as a key element, causing World War II. The text of the resolution can be found here. In a statement, the Press Office of the European Parliament elaborated on the resolution:
MEPs voice concern at the efforts of the current Russian leadership to whitewash crimes committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime and see them as a “dangerous component of the information war waged against democratic Europe”.
Read similar examples of the Russian historical revisionism concerning this issue - Signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact thwarted the UK’s expansionist plans in Europe, The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact did not violate the rights of the Polish state, The shift of all blame for WWII outbreak at the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact the best example of manipulation of history.