Victory Day & the Politics of Historical Revisionism
Dmitry Polyanskiy & Glenn Diesen
Dmitry Polyanskiy is the First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. Polyanskiy outlines why Russia believes the West is engaging in historical revisionism of the Second World War. Russia is blamed for starting the war, and also gradually being edited out of the victory.
Historical revisionism to suit a narrative seems a rather weak explanation for what we are witnessing particularly in Europe, given the violent events of both World Wars that had engulfed the populace with extreme hatred and self righteousness. I would suggest “historical fabrication to obfuscate the truth and deceive” as an alternate. But even that phrase doesn’t quite reveal the level of irrationality, insanity, and fealty to financial power that apparently has gripped the current European leadership.
Do they really believe they can prevail against the new superpowers of the East by ignoring reality and issuing ultimatums? Or is this the last desperate gasp of a superfluous imperial political order that inexorably must fall due to its malevolence and its inadequacy to serve the great masses, especially those within the European sphere who are now being deprived of their means of livelihood? Apparently, the Eastern and Global South leaders – and many of us in the West – clearly are aware of the latter, which broadly elicits both fear of violent reprisals and hope for the prospect of a new world order that respects different cultures and values human resources, fairness and honesty.
The ‘mask is slipping,’ so the biased artificial interpretations of recent upheavals (e.g. “unprovoked Russian aggression”) cannot stand against serious scrutiny as a majority of people insist “never again.” Such scrutiny must be harnessed through media in order to contradict the false narratives. We can be grateful for Glenn Diesen’s efforts and those of Russia’s leaders that present such articulate analysis.
I wrote and posted this essay on SubStack on May 8th, 2025:
"VICTORY DAY?"
"Eighty years ago, on May 8th, 1945, Nazi Germany was finally crushed.
I salute all who fought, suffered, and died in that victory—regardless of nation. But let’s stop pretending everyone bore the same burden.
The truth is simple:
The war in Europe was won on the Eastern Front, and the Russian people paid the highest price, by far. That is not an opinion—that is a historical fact. Denying this is propaganda and revisionist history, plain and simple.
The United States didn’t win the war in Europe alone. Neither did Britain, France, or any other Western ally. Without the Soviet Union, there would have been no victory in Europe. Period.
The Red Army bled Nazi Germany dry. While American and British forces were still preparing for D-Day, the Russians were locked in brutal combat across a thousand-mile front—at Stalingrad, Kursk, and countless other blood-soaked battlefields. Without that front, Hitler’s armies wouldn’t have stopped at the English Channel—they would’ve kept going. And without the Russians, Allied casualties would have been unimaginably higher.
Here’s the hard reality:
The Russians did 80% of the fighting and dying in the European Theater. They engaged and destroyed the best of the German military machine. Their sacrifice gave the U.S. the space to become the Arsenal of Democracy, to focus on the Pacific, and to obliterate Imperial Japan.
And yes—27 million Russians died in that war. That was 14% of their entire population. Not just soldiers—civilians as well, entire cities, towns, and villages erased. Entire generations wiped out. For perspective: a proportional loss in the U.S. would mean 19.5 million American dead. That’s the price the Russians paid—fighting and dying for every inch of land, all the way to Berlin.
Let that sink in.
Yes, the U.S. was a major supplier of weapons, food, and fuel—but supplies mean nothing without someone to use them in battle. Without the Russians fighting tooth and nail on the Eastern Front, all that aid would’ve been irrelevant. America substituted war material for American blood. Russians died in American-built tanks and planes so that American boys didn’t have to. And yet, decades later, smug politicians and armchair patriots still whine that the Soviets didn’t “repay” their Lend-Lease loans.
As if 27 million lives weren’t payment enough?
Reducing that kind of sacrifice to a balance sheet isn’t just ignorance—it’s obscene. It’s an insult to the dead. It’s historical amnesia parading as patriotism, and it exposes the moral rot of every Western leader or pundit still clinging to that lie.
If you deny this, you’re not engaging in debate—you’re whitewashing history to fit your politics. And I don’t care what title you hold, what office you sit in, or how many flags you wrap yourself in—you are lying.
The record stands.
The dead demand the truth.
And the truth doesn’t need anyone's permission to exist."
Politicos in the West have been lying to themselves and their constituents for so long, they are no longer even able to recognize the truth. These constituents are either Woefully or Willfully Ignorant of the Historic accounts of WW2. The Politicos absolutely LOVE that fact above all else.