Russia interprets history with a free hand – even Astrid Lindgren’s books are stamped with Nazi, Hitler invented Jewish roots

According to Russian propaganda, a Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren was a Nazi. The founder of Ikea receives the same stamp Ingvar Kamprad and a film director Ingmar Bergman.

Posters have appeared at bus stops in Moscow, bluntly transferring Swedish celebrities and national heroes to supporters of Nazi ideology.

The Swedes have received a Russian propaganda blow, both amused and shocked. Oscar Jonsson marvels at the poster decorated with pictures of Lindgren, Kamprad and Bergman in his suite. It reads “we are against Nazism, but they are not.”

Earlier this week, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov infuriated Israel when he estimated that Hitler Jewish blood may have flowed in the veins.

From this his logic could well explain the fact that even the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi is Jewish, it is still quite possible that Ukraine will be ruled by the Nazis and fascists. The extermination of the Nazis from Ukraine is Russia’s main justification for attacking its neighbor.

Israel accuses Lavrov of shockingly distorting history when the perpetrator of the six million Jewish genocide is said to have a Jewish background.

So the accusations of Nazism in Russian state propaganda are now being thrown here and there. Why does Russia believe in the power of its accusations of Nazism?

Russia’s accelerated outpouring of Nazi accusations is a continuation of the president Vladimir Putin historical politics of the time. From the course of history, the material that provides the best support for the Russian hero myth has been sifted into use.

Russia’s geopolitical position has weakened considerably, so strength is being drawn from history.

The still life of the end of World War II is the basis of everything.

Docent in Russian History at the University of Eastern Finland Kati Parppein Russia takes full advantage of the story that the Soviet Red Army saved European fascism from the yoke of defeating Nazi Germany.

– Fascism and Nazism resonate in the people of Russia. An imaginary continuum of enmity and heroism is being created from the great patriotic war to the present day.

The myth of heroism is likely to be strongly present again next Monday as Russia celebrates Victory Day.

Parppei says the enemy in this story is the other one. He is inhuman and the opposite of himself.

In Russian speech, he now sees echoes really far from the past.

– The use of Nazism is already reminiscent of the narrative of medieval Moscow texts about a sacred and orthodox Russian country fighting a devil and his minions.

This is already a long way off.

– The humanity of the opponent is forbidden. This removes the bans on atrocities. In addition, the emphasis on second Nazism has disguised the policy of the Russian leadership, which is becoming increasingly fascist, says Kati Parppei, a docent in Russian history.

He points out that in the case of Ukraine, Russia’s message was initially that the country’s leadership is full of Nazis. Since then, the entire Ukrainian people have received the Nazi stamp.

– Russia has been moving these poles with regard to Nazism all the time.

Good examples of this include the recent stigmatization of Swedish figures as Nazis.

– Here are highlighted Swedish people who are generally known in Russia, Docent of General History at the University of Turku Pertti Grönholm says.

Grönholm, who specializes in history politics, says that individuals are associated with obscure connections to Nazism and then inflated and made a stick thing.

The fierce use of the Nazi card is part of modern Russia’s effort to rewrite history.

According to Grönholm, in the case of Finland, this has meant, for example, that when Boris Yeltsin It was in the history books that the Soviet Union started the Winter War, so now Finland is positioned as an ally of Germany even before the Second World War.

– At the same time, Mainila’s shots have returned to the Finns, Grönholm says.

Swedish veteran politician Carl Bildt advises in his tweet that the Russians should not fool around with Peppi Longstocking.

Grönholm, a docent in general history, thinks that now that Finland and Sweden are moving one foot towards NATO membership, some Finnish celebrities will receive the same treatment in Russian propaganda as Lindgren, Kamprad and Bergman in Sweden.

Kati Parppei, a docent in Russian history, estimates that direct campaigns targeting individual Finns may not be expected.

– Finns in Russia are presented more collectively as fascists than in Sweden, because we have a history of cooperation with Nazi Germany.

Changed at 7pm that Victory Day is next Monday, not Sunday.