MOSCOW — As the Kremlin presses a campaign to recast Russia’s 20th century history in a more favorable light, a research paper published Thursday on the Defense Ministry’s website blamed Poland for starting World War II.
The unorthodox reading of history appears to be the latest effort by Russian historians to defend the Soviet Union and its leaders, especially their role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War. Poland condemned the research paper.
The generally accepted view is that Poland was a victim rather than the aggressor in the conflict. Many Western historians believe Hitler was encouraged to invade Poland by the treaty of nonaggression signed by Moscow and Berlin, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which secretly divided eastern and western Europe into spheres of influence.
