Why Does Putin Fear the Truth About Russian History? How the Kremlin Uses History to Legitimize War?

I show how the Kremlin deliberately erases the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the Katyn massacre, and the role of Western allies in order to maintain the image of the USSR as the sole vanquisher of Nazism. This is a conversation about why the West dismissed Putin's historical arguments for years and what price it paid for that mistake.

I make an argument that may surprise many: Putin does not lie about history in a cynical way. He genuinely believes in it. I show how the Kremlin consistently marginalizes inconvenient historical facts, including the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, and the role of the Western Allies, in order to preserve the image of the Soviet Union as the sole force responsible for defeating Nazism.

I also demonstrate how history has become a tool for legitimizing contemporary imperial policy and the war against Ukraine. Russian soldiers are portrayed as heirs to their ancestors’ struggle against “absolute evil,” allowing the state to rationalize present-day military aggression. In addition, I analyze how Russian political elites construct a narrative of imperial continuity linking the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and today’s Russian Federation.

I conclude that Russia’s politics of memory is not merely a symbolic debate about the past, but also a real ideological foundation for violence and military expansion. Any lasting transformation in Russia would require a profound reckoning with its own history and a rejection of the imperial foundations underlying the contemporary political system.