How the Kremlin weaponized Russian history — and has used it to justify the war in Ukraine

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Earlier this month, when Tucker Carlson asked Vladimir Putin about his reasons for invading Ukraine two years ago, Putin gave him a lecture on Russian history. The 71-year-old Russian leader spent more than 20 minutes showering a baffled Carlson with dates and names going back to the ninth century.

Putin even gave him a folder containing what he said were copies of historical documents proving his points: that Ukrainians and Russians historically have always been one people, and that Ukraine’s sovereignty is merely an illegitimate holdover from the Soviet era.

FILE - Russian soldiers march toward Red Square to attend a dress rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 7, 2023. In Russia, history has long become a propaganda tool used to advance the Kremlin's political goals. In an effort to rally people around the flag, the authorities have sought to magnify the country's past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters of its history. (AP Photo, File)
Russian soldiers march toward Red Square to attend a dress rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 7, 2023. (AP Photo, File)

Carlson said he was “shocked” at being on the receiving end of the history lesson. But for those familiar with Putin’s government, it was not surprising in the least: In Russia, history has long been a propaganda tool used to advance the Kremlin’s political goals. And the last two years have been entirely in keeping with that ethos.

In an effort to rally people around their world view, Russian authorities have tried to magnify the country’s past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters of its history. They have rewritten textbooks, funded sprawling historical exhibitions and suppressed — sometimes harshly — voices that contradict their narrative.

Russian officials have also regularly bristled at Ukraine and other European countries for pulling down Soviet monuments, widely seen there as an unwanted legacy of past oppression, and even put scores of European officials on a wanted list over that in a move that made headlines this month.

“In the hands of the authorities,” says Oleg Orlov, co-founder of Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent rights group, “history has become a hammer — or even an axe.”

THE GLORIFYING

From the early years of his quarter-century rule, Putin has repeatedly contended that studying their history should make Russians proud. Even controversial figures, such as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, contributed to Russia’s greatness, Putin argues. (Russian media have counted over 100 monuments to Stalin in Russia, most of which were installed during Putin’s rule.)

The Russian president has said that there should be one “fundamental state narrative” instead of different textbooks that contradict each other. And he has called for a “universal” history textbook that would convey that narrative. But that idea, criticized heavily by historians, didn’t gain much traction for quite a while — until Russia invaded Ukraine.

FILE - Communist party supporters with red flags and a portrait of Josef Stalin lineup to place flowers at his grave near the Kremlin Wall to mark the 70th anniversary of his death in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 5, 2023. Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. In Russia, history has long become a propaganda tool used to advance the Kremlin's political goals. In an effort to rally people around the flag, the authorities have sought to magnify the country's past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters of its history. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
Communist party supporters with red flags and a portrait of Josef Stalin lineup to place flowers at his grave near the Kremlin Wall to mark the 70th anniversary of his death in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 5, 2023.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
A view of a Russian history textbook for schools with a sign on the cover reads "Russian history. 1945 year - beginning of the 21st century. Grade 11. A basic level", in Tallinn, Estonia, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. In Russia, history has long become a propaganda tool used to advance the Kremlin's political goals. In an effort to rally people around the flag, the authorities have sought to magnify the country's past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters. A new history textbook released by authorities last year featured a chapter on Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine and described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century." (AP Photo)
A view of a Russian history textbook for schools with a sign on the cover reads “Russian history. 1945 year – beginning of the 21st century. Grade 11. A basic level”, in Tallinn, Estonia, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024.(AP Photo)

Last year, the government rolled out a series of four new “universal” history textbooks for 10th- and 11th-graders. One featured a chapter on Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, blamed the West for the Cold War and described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

Some historians derided it as blatant propaganda. “The Soviet Union, and later Russia, is (depicted in the textbook as) always a besieged fortress, which constantly lives surrounded by enemies. These hostile circles are trying to weaken Russia in every conceivable way and seize its resources,” says historian Nikita Sokolov.

The Kremlin-friendly vision of Russian history is also dominating a chain of sprawling, state-funded “history parks” – venues that host history-themed exhibitions in 24 cities across the country.