Reducing memory of the Second World War to accusations against Germany

What it claims

The Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazism is portrayed as having been systematically pushed out of Western memory, while Germany’s authorities are cast as ignoring their historical responsibility towards the peoples of the former Soviet Union. Allied coverage of the Nuremberg trials is reduced to claiming credit and concealing Soviet involvement. From there, current debates on Germany’s defence and military policy are stretched into signs of revanchism and an image of a “Russian threat”.

Target audience

Examples (paraphrased)

We paraphrase rather than quote: propaganda's exact wording is built to spread, so we carry the claim and not the craft. Each example cites the post it came from.

• The Allies claimed credit for the Nuremberg trials while pushing the Soviet Union’s role out of memory.

  Russian Embassy in Berlin (Telegram), 1 Oct 2026 · Archived copy

• Germany is returning to militarism while using an invented “Russian threat” as cover.

  Russian Embassy in Berlin (Telegram), 1 Oct 2026 · Archived copy

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Goal

To reinforce among Germans with low trust in institutions the idea that contemporary German policy supposedly reproduces dangerous historical tendencies and conceals responsibility towards the peoples of the former Soviet Union.

Techniques used

• Causal OversimplificationCurrent debates on German defence are linked to an alleged forgetting of the lessons of the Second World War and to revanchism.
• Loaded LanguageDefence debates are labelled “revanchist aspirations”, while assessments of a threat from Russia are presented as invented stories.

The real grievance it exploits

The messaging exploits anxiety about war and Germany’s rearmament, as well as historical responsibility for Nazi crimes and questions about how victims and different countries’ contributions to the defeat of Nazism are remembered.

How to counter

• Fact-check: The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was established by four victorious powers: the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Recognising the Soviet contribution does not require turning present-day German defence debates into a historical verdict.
• Technique exposure: Watch for a switch of subject: references to historical responsibility or war crimes can be used to ascribe “revanchism” to present-day Germany without evidence. Historical memory should be kept separate from political labels.

Sources (all time)

• Russian Embassy in Berlin (Telegram)Tier 220,838 subscribers
  4 posts · 1–2 Oct 2026

  • 2 Oct · t.me/RusBotschaft/18690
  • 2 Oct · t.me/RusBotschaft/18688
  • 1 Oct · Archived copy
  • 1 Oct · Archived copy