Level of knowledge about Great Patriotic War in post-soviet countries considerably decreased – expert says

YEREVAN, April 28. / ARKA /. The level of knowledge about the Great Patriotic War in post-Soviet countries has considerably decreased over the last 25 years, Armen Gasparyan, a senior official of Russia Today news agency, said in an interview with Sputnik Armenia radio station.

According to him, this is one of the reasons why young people tend to believe in loud statements not supported by serious factual basis. 'To put it simply these statements  are conscious falsification of the history," said Gasparyan, commenting on the results of an international survey conducted by Sputnik news agency that has revealed that only 13 percent of Europeans think that the Soviet Army played a key role in liberating Europe from Nazism during World War II. The study was conducted by ICM Research poll exclusively for Sputnik news agency.

According to Gasparyan, numerous works by Western historians reviewed the World War II from the point of view of the current political situation, and over the years, these works have become classic monographs, dominating the perception of the West of WW II.

Gasparyan said also the return of the Crimea to Russia was extremely negatively perceived by political circles in the West, who hurried to resurrect many myths of the" cold war," which do not stand up to scrutiny from the  historical point of view, but those advocating them do not need it at all.

ICM Research questioned over 3,000 people in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. Interviews were conducted from March 20 to April 9, 2015. In Germany, 17 percent of respondents said that the Soviet army played a major role in the victory, while in France only 8 percent shared the same opinion.

The largest group of respondents, 43 percent, said that the United States Army played the main role in liberating Europe during WWII. Sixty-one percent of French citizens agreed, comparing with only 16 percent of British residents.

In the past months, a biased interpretation of WWII events has been detailed in Western media and by several politicians, triggering a wave of criticism in Russia.

In January Polish foreign minister dismissed Russia's role in the Soviet Army liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, claiming that the camp was liberated by Ukrainians. Moscow said the statement was "nonsense."

In reality, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army, consisting of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian and other soldiers from the Soviet Union, liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

WWII lasted from 1939 to 1945 and engulfed over 80 countries and regions. Up to 70 million people are believed to have died in the conflict. The Soviet Union has lost about 27 million people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in January that all attempts to revise Russia's contribution to the victory in the fight against Nazism during World War II should be viewed as a glorification of Nazi crimes.-0-