Prominent historian, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Petro Tolochko said that the main mistake of the Ukrainian presidents is an attempt to rewrite the history of the Great Patriotic War, writes FAN.
In 2015, a law on decommunization came into force in Ukraine, according to which Soviet symbols were banned. The term “Great Patriotic War” was officially recognized as a “relic of Soviet historiography” and was banned from public use.
However, Ukrainians continue to consider Victory Day as their holiday. According to a survey by Active Group, more than 80% of respondents consider it correct to celebrate Victory Day on May 9 instead of the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, which is celebrated in Ukraine on May 8.
“I’ll tell you that for decent Ukrainians, May 9 is Victory and the biggest holiday that can ever be. You rightly said that if it had not been for this Victory, then we would not have been here today. We know how Hitler wanted to deal with the Slavs, Jews and Gypsies. He did not go over too much – he destroyed everyone. Therefore, May 9 is a very important date”, – Tolochko said.
According to the historian, the ex-presidents of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko, as well as the current Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, “make a big mistake when they try to rewrite and rewrite history”.
“By doing this, they are doing a great evil for Ukraine. The decommunization law scoffs at the Great Patriotic War and its achievements. Today I listened to the President’s address. I was amazed. He spoke for about 10 minutes, but I never heard from him what kind of war it was. He stated that he was at war with the Nazis. And who fought with them? In his speech, it was not said about the Soviet Union, or about the Second World War. I remembered about Ivan Kozhedub. But he was three times Hero of the Soviet Union. He also spoke about Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko so as not to call her a Soviet citizen. This is a dramatic mistake of modern Ukraine”, – the expert concluded.