Scientific research by British authors on the Second World War as an element of information and psychological confrontation with Russia

Il'ichev Aleksei Vladimirovich Postgraduate student, Department of Political Sciences and Philosophy, Sevastopol State University 299053, Russia, Sevastopol, Universitetskaya str., 33 alexeiilyichev@yandex.ru

In 2020, the Constitution of the Russian Federation was amended, one of which was the appearance of Part 3 of Article 67 according to which: "The Russian Federation honors the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland, ensures the protection of historical truth. Belittling the significance of the feat of the people in the defense of the Fatherland is not allowed" ^[1]. In the context of the widespread development of electronic technologies and mass media, history and historical truth have become one of the main components and tools in the information wars of the world's leading states. The main task of actors using the historical component as a means in information and psychological confrontation is to impose on the population both a potential enemy and their own ideological image, the most favorable for the implementation of their socio-economic policy. These processes have manifested themselves most vividly in the territory of the post-Soviet space, where ideas of xenophobia and national superiority are actively promoted both in school and academic scientific discourse. The creation of nationalist history on the territory of many post-Soviet states was inevitably accompanied by de-russification, when the period of the state's entry into the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union was interpreted as a period of "occupation". Modern Ukraine has become one of these states. The Russian researcher V.G. Kiknadze in his work "How the ideas of nationalism and neo-fascism take hold of the masses" noted that the promotion of ideas of neo-fascism and anti-Russian rhetoric in Ukraine since the 1980s, including in historical discourse, became "the ideological justification for the transformation of the Ukrainian regime into an anti-Russian weapon of the United States and the West" ^{[2, pp.93-94]}.  The director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), S.E. Naryshkin, at the solemn ceremony of awarding the All-Russian prize "For Fidelity to Science", not by chance stated that "The protection of historical truth is a very important state task of Russia, on the fulfillment of which the future of Russia largely depends" ^[3].

The use of history and historical memory in informational and psychological confrontation and countering the falsification of history leads to the following theoretical problem: "what is history and historical fact". Definitions of these concepts continue to be the subject of scientific debate. One of the most popular points of view on this question was presented by the British researcher, specialist in the history of Russia E.Carr in the work "What is history?". He interpreted history "as a process of constant interaction of the historian with facts, an incessant dialogue between the past and the present" ^{[4, p.30]}, and historical truth, in his opinion, lies in the plane between objective historical facts and the subjective interpretation of the researcher ^{[4, p.29]}. Despite the fact that the facts themselves are objective, their selection and representation is based on the subjectivity of the researcher himself, based on certain ideological attitudes.  A direct consequence of these theses is that an objective interpretation of historical facts cannot exist, since the researcher himself selects a set of facts, filling it with a certain meaning. In addition, the researcher, like other members of society, is influenced by propaganda. However, professional researchers are distinguished by the use of scientific tools designed to provide a more impartial assessment of the processes under study. At the same time, in the historical component of the informational and psychological confrontation, a pretension to the objectivity of the narration is created. Researcher Yu. Nikiforov noted that for a forger the main thing is: "the suggestion of ideological or political ideas to the reader, the propaganda of a certain attitude to past events or the destruction of historical memory in general, and not the search for truth and objectivity" ^[5]. Candidate of Law A.N. Lushin in the study "Falsification of history: a theoretical approach to the problem (on the example of Russia) pointed out that the methods of falsification of history are aimed at deliberate distortion of facts or one-sided selection, with arbitrary representation, where false arguments are used as connecting elements ^{[6, p.23]}. 

In 2009, during the presidency of D.A. Medvedev, the "Commission for Countering Attempts to falsify history to the Detriment of Russia's interests" was established, which included the most famous experts in the field of national history. The main activity of the commission was the study, declassification and subsequent publication of documents previously inaccessible to the general public, in order to counteract the falsification of history based on authentic historical facts ^{[6, p.22]}. The Commission existed until 2012, but had a huge impact on the consolidation of the forces of researchers within the country.  

            Since the 1990s, Russian history has been under intense pressure from falsifiers of history, both inside and outside the country. The history of the Great Patriotic War and the events of the Russian history of the XX century are under special attack. Countering the falsification of history is one of the most important tasks of state policy today. The serious importance of this direction was also confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech to the participants of the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS: "We are aimed at continuing the closest cooperation on preserving the memory of our common past, combating attempts to falsify history and glorify Nazism" ^[7]. At a meeting of the Pobeda organizing committee in November 2022, the president identified the goals of falsifying history - "creating false prerequisites for new aggressive actions against Russia" ^[8]. 

            The subjects of falsification of history and historical memory, as well as manipulation of collective memory, are not only politicians, political technologists, journalists, cinematographers and artists, but also professional researchers. The purpose of this publication is to study the works of British authors as a tool of information and psychological warfare aimed at promoting a certain ideological agenda in Russian society. In the course of the study, some recommendations will be formulated that can contribute to strengthening state policy in the field of preserving historical memory.

            Research objectives:

1)      To identify and analyze political and ideological narratives in 8 of the most authoritative studies by British authors translated into Russian. For this purpose, the works of such authors as: E. Beevor, M. Hastings, T. Ripley, K. Aylesby, S. Crawford, N. Cornish, S. Hart, R. Hart and M. Hughes were selected.

2) Give a brief description of foreign popular science journals on military history as one of the tools of information and psychological warfare and conduct a comparative analysis with the domestic market of popular science historical journals;

3)      To study the domestic market of printed products for the availability and accessibility of foreign works on the history of the Second World War;

4)      To analyze the publications of domestic publishers on the subject of "World War II" and "The Great Patriotic War";

5) To develop and formulate a number of recommendations aimed at improving state policy measures for the preservation of historical memory;

The research methodology was subordinated to the goals and objectives of the work, directly reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the subject under study. To identify the main narratives in the works of foreign authors, a qualitative content analysis was conducted aimed at reflecting the main plots, images and their political and ideological content. Content analysis was also used to study the domestic market of printed products on the topics of "World War II" and "Great Patriotic War".

The main part. Historical memory is an essential pillar in the formation and maintenance of the integrity of any modern nation. The "heroic epic" plays a key role in this process. The study refers to the narrative of military-historical victories that has developed in the state, where the chronology is clearly structured, the reference points of the narrative are highlighted, the "pantheon of heroes" is defined and the dates to be marked are set. This whole system is built at the state level, with an appropriate amount of resources and a wide social coverage. For the population, the heroic epic is served both through educational institutions and through various regional and national events. In some cases, the "heroic epic" becomes like a religion with its own set of symbols, rituals, a complex of value and ethical issues, as well as its "divine pantheon".    

In modern multinational states, there is a problem of finding suitable time periods for the formation of a "heroic epic". Conquests and any offensive campaigns do not contribute to the unity of the nation, but will cause rejection from one of the ethnic groups. Defensive wars are suitable for this purpose, as a rule, against a hostile coalition, in which the existence of the entire state and nation was at stake. In Russian history, such events include: the Patriotic War of 1812, the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The Second World War occupies a key place in the historical memory of many modern states. There are several reasons for this. The first is the remoteness of the event from our time, the older it is, the less response it finds among the modern man in the street. The second is its destructiveness. The Second World War is the most monstrous conflict of our time in terms of its scale and victims. In the USSR, the war affected every family. The third reason is the existential threat posed by this conflict. The victory of the AXIS powers meant not only the destruction of the state, but also the physical destruction of many peoples. The fourth reason is the narrative of unification, when not only the unification of the country took place, but also unification with its ideological opponent for the sake of defeating "Evil", in the classical understanding of this term for fiction.

The combination of all these factors led to the fact that the Second World War took a key place in the heroic epic of many modern nations and states. At the same time, historical memory today is a double-edged weapon used in information confrontations. The events of world history are not only distorted, but also their direct falsification and distortion of meanings in favor of the political conjuncture take place. Since the 17th century, science and its achievements have been actively used by governments as a tool of "soft power". The statement about the "apolitical nature" of science is a tool created by the Anglo-Saxon elites to fight the Russian state, which was clearly demonstrated by O. Wolf in the study "Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science» ^[9].

During the Soviet Union, there was a powerful barrier in the form of ideological censorship, both of the published domestic memoir and military historical literature, and even more stringent foreign ones. With the beginning of the Glasnost period and after the disintegration of the USSR, all barriers were destroyed. Soviet society, through new literature, learned about topics or events that were hushed up by the Soviet government. These include the losses of the first months of the Great Patriotic War or the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the conditions of the most powerful socio-economic and political crisis in the post-Soviet space, the flow of domestic and foreign "revelatory" publications about the Second World War found fertile ground.

The Soviet censorship policy in this situation contributed to the growth of public distrust of the "official history" and previous publications. In the post-Soviet space, interest began to grow in the works and research of foreign authors or domestic researchers who exposed the "criminal regime", memoirs of Nazi criminals began to be published en masse in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Foreign works on the history of the Second World War are often anti-Soviet and anti-Russian in nature, given that at that time, many authors were ardent opponents of the Soviet Union. However, in the conditions of the described crisis, such literature was perceived absolutely uncritically, which was further facilitated by the policy of private publishers.

The design (cover, print quality and illustrative material) and the abstract encourage the reader to buy the works of foreign authors. They are designed to convince consumers to pay attention to these studies. Most of the foreign works were published on high-quality offset paper and provided with a large amount of illustrative material. In the abstract itself, there is an appeal to the authority of the author and the significance of the presented work. To enhance the effect, blurbs (from the English Blurb – an advertising quote on the cover of a book) from major foreign publications are also used.   

Here are some examples of blurbs to foreign studies on World War II:

"Undoubtedly, this is the best one-volume book on the history of the war ever written" – The Sunday Times magazine about M. Hastings' work "World War II: Hell on Earth".

"... created a truly grandiose book based on careful research ... the author of many world bestsellers", "unsurpassed skill of presentation", "today, perhaps, the most complete and most modern story about the greatest tragedy of mankind ..." – blurbs to E. Beevor's study "World War II".

When approaching annotations of historical and military historical literature, the publisher relies on several key pillars - the authority of the researcher, the scope of the topic and reliance on "reliable" sources of information (documents from "foreign, secret and closed archives"), while in the text itself references to sources and literature may be completely absent.

Design, annotations and blurbs are all marketing tools aimed at attracting readers' attention to the presented literature. The style of the research itself also plays a role in attracting a wider audience. Many Western works on World War II are written in simple language, without being overloaded with specialized definitions or scientific terminology. Thus, it is possible to attract as potential readers not only the category of those interested in the chosen topic, but also people studying history / political science at an amateur (philistine) level.

The key task for Western technologists is to "downplay" the role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism in the national consciousness of our people. Thanks to the long-term work of foreign authors, they managed to achieve a similar result in the European national consciousness. Several manipulation mechanisms are used for this purpose. One of them is the shift in emphasis in the causes of Germany's defeat. According to E. Beevor, a well-known specialist in Russian history in the West, they should include neither the skillful strategic command and professionalism of Soviet soldiers, nor the operational organization of production in the rear, but the weather factor (Germany's unpreparedness for the winter campaign) and "superior numbers of opponents" ^{[10, p.267,311]}. This is followed by the following manipulation mechanism, which seeks to turn the "aggressor" into a "victim".

In the study by M. Hastings "The Second World War. Hell on Earth" The Wehrmacht is mentioned in the work 142 times, the Allies 135, and the Red Army only 49 times. At the same time, the context and content itself are interesting. In the case of the Wehrmacht, during the entire study, he receives the following characteristics and ratings of military personnel and officers: "invincible" ^{[11, p.166,525]}, "skill" ^{[11, p.507,633,638,640]}, "professionalism" ^{[11, p.68.175]}, "energy and will" ^{[11, p.68.79.507]}. At the same time, the Red Army receives purely negative characteristics and assessments. Thus, the author writes: "she has never been distinguished by tactical skill", "suicidal attacks" ^{[11, p.523]}, "Stalin believed that robbery and violence would become a legitimate reward for his soldiers" ^{[11, p.579]}. M. Hastings calls the leader of the Soviet Union and the regime a tyrant and tyrannical, respectively, thereby drawing the line of equality between the two "totalitarian regimes". A total of 18 such mentions were found (*According to Article 6.1, added from July 12, 2021 to Federal Law No. 80-FZ of May 19, 1995 "On Perpetuating the Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", it is forbidden to publicly identify the USSR and Nazi Germany ^[12]).

Similar connotations towards the Wehrmacht can be traced in T. Ripley's work "The Wehrmacht. The German Army in World War II." The researcher notes "skill" ^{[13, p.26,160,244]}, "professionalism" ^{[13, p.17,24,69,138,192,210,265]}, "bravery" and "heroism" of the Wehrmacht soldiers and its officers ^{[13, p.116,132,138,185,192,228]}. A positive assessment of the Wehrmacht as a military organization is not fundamentally manipulation or distortion of historical memory. Taking into account the experience and analyzing the events that took place, the USSR and the allies faced a professional military machine that managed to capture half of Europe. At the same time, British and American authors often exaggerate their assessments, which thereby creates a picture of the "glorification" and some kind of "sacralization" of this military machine. In order to deepen this image, the researchers separately focus on the "hardships and hardships" of the German military, thereby expecting to evoke feelings of empathy among readers. However, the "heroization" of the Wehrmacht is accompanied by an extremely harsh and negative assessment of the Red Army.  The British researcher, an expert on the Third Reich, K. Aylesby, gives the following description of the Red Army: "The rank and file of the Red Army in June 1941 consisted of peasant recruits with poor military training. Fighting against the well-trained German army, the Red Army suffered a number of catastrophic defeats" ^{[14, p.16]}.

In the work of the British researcher S. Crawford "The Eastern Front day by day. The German Wehrmacht against the Red Army 1941-1945" the cornerstone of the narrative is the narrative about the equivalence of the regimes in the USSR and Nazi Germany. In the "Key figure. Joseph Stalin" on page 27, you can find the following description of the Soviet leader: "Stalin. The Soviet dictator was not much different from Hitler. Both saw betrayal and incompetence everywhere. However, unlike Hitler, Stalin did not serve in the army (at one time he was declared unfit for military service)" ^{[15, p.27]}. In addition, S. Crawford concludes his work by writing: "The Stalinist Soviet Union was a totalitarian state that had many similarities with Nazi Germany. In both systems, man existed only to serve the interests of the State. In fact, such a state was better adapted to the conditions of waging a barbaric war than Western democracies" ^{[15, p.301]}. This identification also manifests itself in other aspects, within the framework of the main text. Thus, the author calls the Soviet military campaigns of the period under review "occupation" ^{[15, p.13,15,23,24,63]}, while similar operations of the Wehrmacht are called "conquest" ^{[15, p.18]}. Occasionally, in the text of the work, there is still a description of the German troops as "occupiers". The author's ideological views are demonstrated by an excerpt entitled "Poland, the Soviet Occupation". In it, S. Crawford, noting the German terror that began in the country, adds that the same thing happened on the side controlled by the Soviet army: "... he (Approx. The Soviet Union) immediately plunged the population into communist poverty, treating its vital interests with great contempt" ^{[15, p.13]}. The researcher deliberately exaggerates the repressions in the Soviet Union. In particular, he writes that: "In order for the patriotism of the Russian people not to fade, the Stalinist secret police and commissars of the Communist Party kept the Red Army under strict control" ^{[15, p.27]}. The author did not ignore the factor of the large number of the Russian army and the Soviet population, "which gave the USSR the opportunity to endure such losses" ^{[15, p.301]}. At the same time, S. Crawford further concludes that the reasons for the victory were not only the factor of numerical superiority, but also the economic power of the country and the desire of the population to defeat the invaders.

Russians Russian translation of another work by a well-known British specialist on the Third Reich was K. Aylesby's study "Images of Barbarossa" (translated into Russian as "The Barbarossa Plan". The invasion of fascist troops on the territory of the USSR. 1941"). The author's ideological preferences and views can be traced already on page 8 of the work, where the image of I.V. Stalin is signed as "the Soviet dictator" ^{[14, p.8]}. Such clarifications are found further in the text of the study. Counterattacks by Soviet troops are interpreted by K. Aylesby as "suicidal attacks by large masses ...". According to the author, the main reason that prompted Soviet soldiers to such attacks was the "fear of being shot" ^{[14, pp.56-57]}. To describe the partisan movement, K. Aylesby cites the opinion of another British researcher A. Clark, according to which the partisans consisted mainly of deserters engaged in robbery and looting ^{[14, pp.176-177]}. This description is followed by the author's own comment that the growth of the partisan movement forced the Nazis to allocate more forces to protect the rear areas, and also encouraged the Germans "to respond to the cruelty of the partisans with no less brutal mass repressions" ^{[14, p.177]}. Based on this interpretation, the reader has a stable perception that the "German terror" was only a consequence of the Soviet resistance.

Considering the research of British authors on the Second World War, one cannot ignore the work of E. Beevor "Stalingrad". In Western science and the scientific school, the author is considered one of the main experts on the history of the Russian and Soviet states. At the same time, analyzing his works, one can find the absence of references to many odious theses. The study "Stalingrad" is completely devoid of references, and it also lacks a list of references. The abstract of the work indicates that the work is based on memoirs, sources of personal origin, as well as "archival documents and materials obtained during personal meetings with participants of the great battle." The last clarification completely negates the scientific significance of the work, since there is no possibility of familiarization with these materials and their verification.

On the first pages of the work, the author's position towards the Soviet Union is already evident. On page 12, E. Beevor calls I.V. Stalin a "Soviet dictator" ^{[16, p.12]}. The same characteristic will be found several more times in the text ^{[16, p.42,50]}. According to the researcher, the Red Army on the eve of the war was achieved, as E.Beevor writes, only with the help of "five-fold numerical superiority" ^{[16, p.34]}. The researcher also does not ignore the topic of penal companies "performing suicidal tasks", significantly exaggerating the scale, as well as dehumanizing the Soviet government ^{[16, p.107]}. The text of the work repeatedly emphasizes "the indifference of the Soviet government to the value of human life" ^{[16, p.180,237,437]}. The author gives the same assessment to Soviet doctors: "the doctors treated the people they were called to treat worse than cattle" ^{[16, p.418]}.

A number of Western authors, in order to arouse sympathy and empathy for the Wehrmacht, dwell in detail on the description of the problems of supplying German servicemen with warm clothes, as well as fuel. This narrative block can be described as a description of the "hardships and hardships of the Wehrmacht in a foreign land." At the same time, the authors not only do not take into account that the Soviet troops had similar problems, but also directly ignore it. N. Kornish is a representative of this trend. In his research "The Battle of Kursk. The greatest tank battle in history" contains a photo with the bodies of dead German soldiers with the following annotation: "The terrible harvest at Stalingrad: a field strewn with the corpses of soldiers of the Axis states.... Local residents took off clothes from many corpses in order to use them for their needs" ^{[17, p.7]}. N. Kornish's work "The Battle of Kursk ..." is certainly not a scientific study, but is a collection of photographs with brief author's comments. However, the series in which it is published is very popular among the younger generation, which prompted the inclusion of the work in this block.

British researchers S.Hart, R. Hart, M. Hughes in the study "Privates of the Wehrmacht and the SS. The German soldier of World War II" in the block about the Eastern Front described the experience of German soldiers as follows: "the weather....turned the life of a German soldier into a terrible existence" ^{[18, p.124]}, "In addition to suffering from cold and frostbite, many soldiers fell ill with dysentery…Meanwhile, those who could still eat watched as the butter was sawed off with a saw, and the butcher's axe bounced off the frozen horse meat as if from a stone. It became impossible to do everyday routine work" ^{[18, pp.125-125]}. At the same time, ignoring the fact that the Soviet troops were in similar conditions, the authors did not ignore the topic of "war crimes of the Red Army". Thus, researchers write about numerous facts of murders of civilians and rapes of German women by Soviet soldiers ^{[18, p.97]}. At the same time, the authors do not provide any references or weighty evidence confirming these "crimes". The study as a whole is characterized by the absence of references and a list of references. At the same time, it is indicated on the cover that the work was written on the basis of numerous memoirs.

The study of the British historian M. Gilbert "The Second World War is devoid of such reverence towards the Wehrmacht, as well as a derogatory description of the Red Army. The full story." In this work, the author, using scientific methodology, while maintaining the accessibility of the presentation, managed to maintain "research neutrality". At the same time, M. Gilbert's research contains one of the classic Western narratives about the Second World War, as about the confrontation of democracy with a tyrannical regime. This plot connects all the elements of the narrative with a through line. It is noteworthy that the "tyrannical" rating in this work is awarded exclusively to the Nazi regime.

Today, the narratives of British research on World War II described above can be found in the studies of domestic authors. In 2020, the publishing house "UFO" (New Literary Review) published the work of N.V. Apple "An inconvenient past. The memory of state crimes in Russia and other countries." The study has a wide list of literature used, but it is written in a language accessible to the general reader. N.V. Apple in his work deals with deliberate discrediting of the domestic state and its policies, which is manifested in the nature of the topic he consecrates. It should be noted at once that this study refers to persons recognized as foreign agents in the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as those accused of spreading fakes about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and promoting non-traditional family values.  This approach is not only questionable from a scientific point of view, but also directly testifies to the ideological position of the author and his bias. N.V. Apple's main task, based on the context of the information he provides, is to demonstrate that Russia is the successor of the "criminal Soviet regime", in his opinion. This is directly manifested in the selection of formulations, phrases and phrases used by the author to describe the Soviet Union and its policies. To characterize the policy of the Soviet state, the following phrases are used: "Soviet terror / Great Terror/ state terror." In total, more than 80 such references were found in the text. N.V. Apple uses the terminology "dictatorship" to address the regime. Separately, it is worth noting the proposed list of theses on the Soviet political system as a whole, where the first paragraph states: "The Soviet dictatorship was an inhuman state structure, an integral part of which was state terror against its own population; Soviet terror was a consistent and thoughtful state policy, and not an emergency measure or the result of accidental abuses" ^{[19, p.293]}. And the memory of the events of the Soviet period is interpreted by the author as a "criminal past" ^{[19, p.12,40,61]}.

The period of the late 1930s continues to be extremely controversial in Russian science. There are different assessments of this historical period and approaches to understanding these pages of the historical past, however, the author N.V. Apple is engaged in one-sided coverage, while engaging in open manipulation and distortion of facts. Statements often either do not contain references or refer to foreign works, data from which need additional verification. At the same time, taking into account the subject of "terror" covered by the author in the text, there is not a single reference to the state archives. The author directly accuses the domestic state of using a repressive apparatus: "The state, whose repressive bodies are devoid of ideological motives and faith in the rightness of their cause, but are driven only by greed and fear, is playing a strong hand… It is in this logic that the sharp increase in the number of cases for "extremism" and "treason", and campaigns against "foreign agents" and the "fifth column" become clear (work and are read by the majority) ^{[19, p.20]}.

The narrative presented through the scientific research of British authors is part of the global informational and psychological confrontation between Russia and the West. In the context of a Special Military Operation (SVO), this aspect is as relevant as ever, since images and plots of the Second World War are actively used by Western analysts, experts and politicians to describe the confrontation taking place on the fields of Ukraine in order to dehumanize the modern domestic state. 

M. Kramer, head of the Cold War research project at the Davis Center, published an article in May 2022 "Russia is Repeating Its Brutal History in Ukraine", where he drew parallels between the actions of the Red Army during World War II and the modern Russian army in Ukraine ^[20]. According to the researcher, the beginning of the current confrontation is similar to the "invasion of Russian troops in Poland in 1939." M. Kramer writes that the Ukrainian army is providing "the same fierce resistance to the invaders as the Polish army in 1939." At the same time, the author accuses both the Red Army and the modern Russian army of numerous crimes, especially focusing on mass rapes, robberies and murders. At the same time, the researcher relies exclusively on Ukrainian sources of information, completely ignoring the data of investigations by the Russian side on the fabrication of charges and confirmed mass cases of war crimes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

The parallels between the events of the Second World War and the events in Ukraine are also drawn by the historian, press secretary of the Institute of National Memory R.Leskevich. In an interview with PolskieRadio (Approx. The site was blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation for spreading fakes and disinformation about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) he gave the following comment: ".....The Soviet Union committed an act of aggression against the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and on September 17, the USSR attacked Poland, killing, raping, destroying the lives of civilians, bringing with it terror and repression. The troops of the Russian Federation behave in exactly the same way, which also massively kill civilians, which can be qualified as genocide, rape, destroy infrastructure, rob private and public property. In this aspect, we can talk about a very similar pattern of actions in the past of the Soviet Union, and today of the authorities of the Russian Federation" ^[21]. 

A historian, an expert on Nazi Germany and Poland during World War II, R. Moorhouse, in his article dated October 7, 2022, quotes a quote that, in his opinion, describes both the reaction of local residents to the invasion of Soviet troops in Poland and Ukrainians to the events of February 2022: "This was an army of "beggars" As one eyewitness wrote, there were a lot of soldiers who were interested in looting as well as in battles."^[22] The researcher points out that for both the Red and the modern Russian army, soldiers are presented as "expendable material that can be used and thrown away." The following comment by the author is noteworthy: "The invasion of Ukraine shows us that little has changed in this regard. Poorly trained and poorly equipped, with long–range missiles that interfere with their auxiliary infrastructure, as well as weapons and fuel depots, Russian soldiers in the field find themselves abandoned to their fate." R. Moorhouse accuses the Russian army of the same crimes, in his opinion, that Soviet soldiers committed - mass rapes, murders, robberies, deportation of peoples (in this case Ukrainians to the interior of Russia).

Analysts from the RAND Center in an article dated July 18, 2023, analyzing the fighting in Ukraine, also drew parallels with the Second World War. At the same time, this analysis is exclusively a military-tactical and strategic assessment, without vivid ideological statements ^[23].

Western politicians also draw parallels between the Second World War and the events in Ukraine. In particular, US President John Biden has repeatedly stressed this in his speeches. During his speech in Poland on February 21, 2023, the American president noted: "You know, it was almost a year ago when I spoke here in Warsaw at the Royal Castle, just a few weeks after Vladimir Putin unleashed his attack on Ukraine. The largest land war in Europe since World War II has begun. The principles that have been the cornerstone of peace, prosperity, and stability on this planet for more than 75 years are in danger of being destroyed."^[24] In an address dated October 19, 2023, in the context of providing military assistance to Ukraine and Israel, J. Biden stated: "You know, as during World War II, patriotic American workers create an arsenal of democracy and serve the cause of freedom."^[25]

Thus, the analysts and experts described above, not based on a broad scientific base, ignoring scientific methods and approaches, are engaged in direct dehumanization of Russia, as well as the spread of fakes and disinformation about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in order to justify for the domestic consumer the provision of military assistance by Western countries for Ukraine. By claiming the crimes of the Russian side (without solid evidence), Western countries completely ignore the attacks of the Ukrainian side on civilian infrastructure facilities and the population in Russia, including with the help of Western-supplied weapons and missiles. 

Analysis of the domestic market.

The promotion of the Western narrative about the Second World War, in addition to the elements described above (design, style, way of presenting information), is also facilitated by the policy of domestic publishing houses. So, in the series "Behind the Front Line" of the publishing house "Tsentrpoligraf" more than 300 works were released, most of which are memoirs of the German military. There are many similar memoir series, including "The War and them", "A Trace in history", "Military memoirs", in which such memoirs and studies as "Tank Knight of the Reich" or "I am a sniper of the Reich" were published. He has 257 lives of Soviet soldiers on his account." The works of German military leaders E. Manstein and H. Guderian have received many reprints. E. Manstein's memoirs "Lost Victories" have been republished six times, if we take into account the publication of collections, then eight times. Only Marshal G.K. Zhukov's "Memoirs and Reflections" received the same number of reprints.

Memoirs of Soviet veterans are also actively published and republished. In the series "On the front line. However, about the war" more than 60 books were published, memoirs of participants of the Great Patriotic War. However, the number of German memoirs published and republished is many times higher than the domestic ones. The problems of publishing memoirs of Soviet veterans are also related to the shortcomings of the sample. In the 1990s, mass publication of veterans' memoirs about the war began in Russia, written many years after the events that took place. In these works, the author's emotions, his personal, emotional experiences were superimposed on the socio-political agenda of the crisis that arose as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Red Army and the fatherland state appear in these memoirs in the most repulsive light.  

Even now, after the beginning of the War and during the period of active struggle for historical memory, domestic publishing houses prefer to publish and republish German memoirs and works, rather than domestic ones. In the above-mentioned series "Behind the front line. Memoirs" of the publishing house "Tsentrpoligraf" for 2023, G. Scheufler's memoirs "Tank aces of the Wehrmacht. Memoirs of officers of the 35th Tank Regiment 1939-1945", F.V. Mellentina "Tank troops in World War II. The Great Battles of Stalingrad and the Kursk Bulge." In 2023, Yauza Publishing House launched the series "Lost Victories. Memoirs of the generals of the Wehrmacht", in which two books have already been published in September 2023 – F. Halder "Leningrad Blitzkrieg 1941-1942" and F. Boka "I stood at the gates of Moscow. The front-line diary of the commander of Army Group Center."

In the period from 2014 to 2023 in the series "Behind the front line. Memoirs" 37 memoirs of German officers and soldiers were published. And in the series "The Battle of Stalingrad. By the 80th anniversary of the main battle, the Yauza Publishing house published the memoirs of A. Wilhelm, H. Edelbert, V. Vigant and M. Jones. At the same time, the memoirs of V.I. Chuikov, commander of the 62nd Army in Stalingrad, were not republished.

Many works by Western researchers with anti-Russian content can be freely purchased on marketplaces or found on library shelves, including school and university ones. When searching for relevance on the large book marketplace Labyrinth for the query "World War II", you are shown 60 works, of which 43 are domestic studies or memories, 17 are foreign studies and memories. However, despite the predominant number of works by domestic authors, their cost is noticeably higher than that of foreign ones. Thus, the work of A.V. Isaev and A.V. Drabkin "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" can be purchased, taking into account discounts, at a price of 2,705 rubles, while M. Gilbert's study "World War II" for only 1,461 rubles. When searching on another site – "Read the City", the following results were revealed: with 48 works shown, 22 domestic and 26 foreign.

In the West, there is a whole range of popular science magazines covering a variety of historical subjects and epochs from different angles (historical, political, cultural). The main advantage of such publications, in addition to the price that is publicly available to the consumer, is the simplicity of presentation of the material, when the text is not overloaded with specialized terminology and is understandable even to people with not very high knowledge of English. This allows you to significantly expand the audience coverage of the publication. Colorful design is attractive for young people or people studying the events of the past at an amateur level, which is achieved by actively using a wide variety of illustrative material, as well as competent selection of text fonts. A small amount of materials allows you to convey the necessary information to the consumer without losing his attention. A typical example of this kind of publication is the British popular science magazine "History of war". Each issue of the journal contains publications covering events or processes that are diverse in time and subject matter. They may include analysis and analysis of famous battles, the history of individual personalities, interviews with famous historians, etc. In almost every issue there is a block where the authors present the latest exhibitions and events in the museum world (here the authors give brief information about the object, what it is dedicated to, the significance of the event, provide comments from the heads of employees on future plans, give a link to the official website of the institution), publish photographs from the Second World War, give a brief review on movies or books that have recently been released. The latter should include both Western and domestic works. Issue 91 featured a review of the film "The Final Stand" directed by V. Shmelev. Separately, we note in this section the heading "artifacts of war", where the authors talk about various museum objects and actually advertise the museum where they are exhibited.  There is also a special edition within which materials covering one specific event, phenomenon or process are published. For example, you can bring a special issue dedicated to D-Day. A number of other successful military and historical magazines are also published in Britain, which include Military History and Military History Monthly.

When you search in the search bar for "domestic popular science magazines on history", one of the first sites you will be given is the sites that bring the Dilettante magazine in the first place. It was created in 2012 by publicist V. Dymarsky (recognized in August 2023 as a foreign agent). The magazine is actively associated with the Echo of Moscow radio station and its editor-in-chief A. Venediktov (recognized as a foreign agent in the territory of the Russian Federation). The materials of the publication are characterized by the active promotion of liberal ideas, as well as the interpretation, analysis and assessment of the events of the Russian past from the point of view of liberal ideology. A huge team of authors, professional researchers in the field of history and political science are working on the journal. The publication itself is written in simple language and is provided with a huge amount of illustrative materials. Old editions of the publication can be found on the corresponding website. It is worth noting the wide coverage of the publication aimed at the average consumer (not an expert in the matter), as well as the availability of not only a print edition, but also its own website and channel on Yandex Zen, where materials are also published. Any user can write materials on the site. In addition to publishing their magazine, maintaining a website and a channel on Yandex Zen, the authors also cooperate with a number of museums and educational institutions, holding meetings called "Amateur Readings".

In 2015, in contrast to popular scientific publications of a liberal nature, the magazine "Historian" was created. At the official presentation of the publication, held on November 5, 2015, D. Badovsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (ISEPI) Foundation, stated that the task of the authors was: "to set such a tone for the publication and at the same time not to fall into the unbearable lightness of being." Editor-in-chief V. Rudakov noted that the target audience are politicians, journalists, and teachers ^[26].  Initially, the position of the authors, in our opinion, is not entirely correct, according to several criteria. First of all, it is necessary to expand the target audience, focusing not on professional circles, but on the general public. Today, there is a high interest among young people in history, which was recorded by the VTSIOM survey of March 11, 2023 ^[27]. At the same time, the level of knowledge of the younger generation, according to surveys conducted on television during the days of memorable events and research in recent years, is not high enough. So, associate professor of Sociological Sciences L.A. Lesina in her work "Formation of a stable interest in history as the basis for patriotic education of youth" noted that more than half of the students (from studying the results of a survey conducted in Yekaterinburg among students of UrFU and RGPPU) rate their knowledge of history low. Among the reasons were contradictions of information, fragmentary information in the educational reference literature, as well as the form of presentation of the subject in higher educational institutions ^{[28, pp.140-141]}.

In this regard, the presentation of materials, as it appears in foreign magazines, as "History of war" is more preferable to influence the younger generation and youth. We note the advantages of the magazine "Historian", such as a beautiful design with a wide range of illustrations, a rich set of themes, as well as an affordable price. You can buy issues of the publication on marketplaces at a price of 300-400 rubles. At the same time, the lack of older numbers in free access, as by analogy with the "Dilettante" is one of the disadvantages. In 2022, according to the authors' statements from their official electronic page of the publication, the circulation amounted to 25 thousand copies ^[29].  

            A positive example of the influence on the younger generation is the Rodina magazine, which continued the traditions of the pre-revolutionary magazine of the same name with a wide range of educational topics. The focus of the publication in recent years has been on modernity. On the pages of the publication, you can find materials of various directions, ranging from exclusively historical topics, ending with pedagogical, gastronomic and a number of other topics. The authors, well-known researchers in Russia, write in an accessible and understandable language, providing the text with a rich range of illustrations. The magazine is very popular. According to the research company Mediascope, the audience of one issue is over 1 million people, 52 percent of readers are people under the age of 34 ^[30]. 80 percent of the issues of Rodina are distributed by subscription to libraries. Old numbers can be accessed for free on the official website, and new ones can be purchased on trading platforms at a price of 300 rubles.

Conclusion.

Manipulation and distortion of historical memory in the works submitted for consideration in the framework of this study consists in a one-sided selection of facts in order to promote a certain ideological and political agenda. This is what researcher A.N. Lushin meant by falsifying history, which completely contradicts the principles of professional scientific research. There are several reasons for this arbitrary representation of the history of the Second World War. One of them is that the European and American scientific school for the study of World War II was formed on the basis of military analytical studies of German generals and officers commissioned by the United States and Great Britain. Having absorbed the narrative, expert assessments, as well as methodological approaches and principles, British and American researchers began to reproduce them in their works. The second important reason is the role of the Second World War in the national and cultural identity of Europeans. Since 1945, the US political elites have masterfully constructed a narrative about the events that took place as a symbol of the confrontation between "democracy and totalitarianism", promoting the ideas of transatlantic unity and the American "war myth", which formed the basis of the Western European world order of 1945 – 2022. More information about these processes can be found in the research of S. Edwards "Allies in Memory. World War II and the Politics of Transatlantic Commemoration, c.1941-2001" ^[31] and M. Dolsky "Portal of Liberation": D-Day Myth as American Self-Affirmation" ^[32].

A review of Western studies on the history of the Second World War in the context of the anti–Russian agenda inevitably encounters two diametrical counterarguments - the authority of the researcher under review or, conversely, the secondary nature of the author. They are used to refute accusations that these authors are promoting an anti-Russian agenda, positioning research on Russophobia as anti-scientific. At the same time, the Russian researcher N.G. Burmakina rightly pointed out that "The category of authority is not objective and depends, among other things, on conjunctural attitudes" ^{[33, p.366]}. The purpose of this study is not to accuse the entire Western science of forming a negative image of Russia, since there are a number of authors conducting a deep and serious analysis of Russian history. Professor N.P. Tanshina, during a report at the forum "Internal Russophobia as the main threat to Russian statehood", held on March 25, 2022, noted that the current situation with the negative representation of Russia is not much different from the XIX century and raised an important problem of internal Russophobia in the humanitarian research environment ^[34]. As the researcher notes, the liberal anti-state part of the scientific community accuses research on Russophobia of anti-science and journalism, simultaneously promoting Western anti-Russian myths and making anti-state statements.

It is especially worth paying attention to the fact that many Russian authors follow in the wake of the modern ideological struggle of two diametrically opposed projects of the future Russia – white or red. Within the framework of this struggle, the historical aspect is also touched upon. Within the framework of the presented work, we can turn to the narratives of the authors who adhere to the white project regarding the Great Patriotic War, when there is a separation of the people and the state, whose leader I.V. Stalin appears to be a bloody tyrant because of the whims and incompetence of which, as well as his entourage, the Soviet people (often the term is avoided) paid a monstrous price for winning the war. As Doctor of Political Sciences A.A. Irkhin absolutely rightly noted: "Both indirectly and directly, the white elite plays in favor of the liberal pro-Western project. After all, it was liberal politicians and historians who discredited the achievements of the Soviet period with all their might" ^{[35, p.65]}, since these narratives almost verbatim repeat Western ones down to verbatim formulations. Thus, researchers who adhere to the white project actually help Western authors from the inside, which leads to the need to develop a unified position on narratives that would not follow Western concepts and would not discredit important aspects of historical memory, because: "The historical experience of the confrontation between the West and Russia shows two methodological models when Moscow categorically won in this competition: the model of Empress Catherine II and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) I.V. Stalin" ^{[36, p.11]}. The truthfulness of this perception of these models is shown by historical surveys and an example

Today, Russian youth are being extremely strongly influenced not only by scientific research, but also by public opinion leaders, analysts and specialists on the Internet who promote anti-Russian and anti-scientific ideas. That is why today the direction of research dealing with the study and analysis of anti-Russian theses is more relevant than ever. 

The main mistake, in the current situation, would be a complete ban on foreign literature on World War II. Historical experience clearly demonstrates that the tactic of a complete ban not only does not bring proper results, but also leads to an increase in the interests of the masses towards the object of the ban, which is explained by the peculiarities of human psychology.

One of the solutions to the problem is to return the water article from the editor and editorial notes from specialists, as was the case in Soviet publications by foreign authors. Using links to documents and modern works, the editor, using a simple language that is not overloaded with terminology, will contribute to the formation of a critical approach among readers to the objectivity of information from the presented books.

The next decision should be the return of the publication of memoirs of Red Army soldiers. An overabundance of published German memoirs, which, due to their personal nature, evoke a strong response from the reader, leads to the fact that the anti-Russian images embedded in them become dominant in the minds of the layman. All this leads not only to discredit the Red Army and distort the history of the Second World War, but also creates a direct threat to the security of the domestic state. A number of former Soviet Union countries can serve as an example of this.