Interview with Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Zapiski Sledovatelya, No. 2/2025, published by the Investigative Committee of Russia

The Legal Front of Memory

Question: Ms Zakharova, what is the current situation on the world stage with attempts to distort the historical truth about World War II?

Maria Zakharova: Combating manifestations of racism, xenophobia, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism, and countering attempts to rewrite history and distort the outcomes of World War II are among Russia’s priorities on the human rights track, including on multilateral international platforms.

Unfortunately, today we see increasingly frequent attempts to rewrite the history and results of that war, to erase the memory of heroic anti-fascist fighters, to destroy monuments built in their honour, and to ban the wearing of military decorations that are strongly associated with Victory. We unequivocally condemn such manifestations.

In addition, there is more and more speculation towards the alleged equal responsibility of communism and Nazism for the outbreak of World War II, as well as attempts to reduce the tragedy caused by that war to the Holocaust, thereby downplaying the fascist genocide against other ethnic groups. They are also trying to exclude Russia from the group of victorious countries and belittle the USSR’s role in defeating fascism.

To achieve this, history is being falsified in an openly hostile manner, which includes glorifying Nazi collaborators and disrespecting the memory of Soviet soldiers and civilians who died in the fight against fascism, questioning the Red Army’s liberation mission in Eastern Europe, propagating the “Soviet occupation” myth in the Baltic States and post-war Eastern Europe, and inciting revanchist and neo-fascist sentiments. The decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences and the Nuremberg Tribunal verdicts are also being questioned.

This tendency to rewrite history and glorify Nazi henchmen has become part of the Kiev regime’s state ideology and policy. The neo-Nazi elites are trying to cement Ukraine’s independence by denying its Soviet past, praising the Waffen-SS Galicia Division veterans, and making statements that suggest the “equivalence” of Nazism and communism and put the Holocaust on a par with “forced collectivisation” and the “Holodomor.” Extensive efforts are being made to erase from the memory of the younger generation the names of true patriots and victors, those who fought in the ranks of the Red Army and partisan units during the Great Patriotic War – a war that was truly Patriotic for all ethnic groups in the Soviet Union. Condemning to oblivion the heroic deeds of all people who fought for the future, including Ukrainians, amounts to betraying their own grandfathers, mothers and fathers, and depriving modern day people of their roots.

The importance of historical memory for public consciousness and civil unity can hardly be overestimated. History has long ceased to be a study of the past only. Falsifying history can be more dangerous than a military threat. Historical memory must be safeguarded to prevent the tragedy that befell our people during the Great Patriotic War from repeating.

Question: How can we counter the West?

Maria Zakharova: In line with efforts to combat the glorification of Nazism and the distortion of history, every year since 2005, Russia has submitted a resolution on combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, to the UN General Assembly.

On December 17, 2024, during the plenary session of the 79th UN General Assembly in New York, 119 countries voted in support of this document, 53 voted against, and 10 abstained. In addition to Russia, 39 countries from all regions of the world co-authored this resolution.

Despite the unprecedented pressure from Westerners on the other UN members, the vote clearly indicates that the latter oppose any attempts to dispute the outcome of World War II documented in the UN Charter, the Charter and Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal, and the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

The resolution reiterates that it is unacceptable to falsify history, justify the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Nazis, their allies, and collaborators. It expresses condemnation of the marches and processions glorifying those who fought alongside or collaborated with Nazis. The document further voices concern over the systematic and comprehensive campaign by Western states against memorials honouring those who liberated the world from the brown plague. Additionally, it denounces the recent escalation of tendencies glorifying Nazism, rehabilitating the Nazi movement, and elevating collaborators to the status of national heroes.

As part of efforts to preserve the historical memory and secure the significance of the outcome of World War II for the purpose of building a modern system of international relations, Russia and a group of like-minded countries submitted a draft resolution on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II to the ongoing 79th UN General Assembly, which was adopted on March 4. The main purpose of the document is to hold, during the second week of May 2025, a special commemorative session of the UN General Assembly honouring all victims of the war.

Given the Western countries’ explicit policy of distorting the outcomes of World War II, our partners’ unified position on this matter constitutes a substantive contribution to countering the rewriting of history.

In cooperation with competent agencies, including the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, we are undertaking systematic measures to achieve formal recognition of the crimes committed by Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War as genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union. Amidst the profound confrontation with the West, this endeavour requires substantial efforts, yet we must persist in upholding the truth. In this work, we are supported by like-minded nations in the CSTO and the CIS. Despite the political, economic, national and ethnic differences, the Great Victory remains one of the biggest factors uniting the Commonwealth nations.

In 2023, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation adopted a statement on the genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union by Germany and its abettors during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Question: Russia’s Investigative Committee is working tirelessly to collect proof of the Nazi invaders’ military crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. These crimes have been defined as the genocide of the Soviet people in 34 verdicts. What is the role of this work in the preservation of historical truth on the international stage?

Maria Zakharova: The proof of mass murders of Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, tortures, slave labour and other manifestations of the inhuman Nazi ideology, which has been collected during the investigation of the war crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and their accomplices in the occupied Soviet territories since 2020, serve as confirmation of deliberate, systematic and unprecedented genocide. This work is of fundamental significance for proving and formalising the facts of Nazis’ genocide of the Soviet peoples during the Great Patriotic War. It will provide grounds for calling the culprits to account and help preserve the historical memory of those events.

The Great Patriotic War brought infinite pain and suffering to the peoples of the Soviet Union, Europe and the rest of the world. Hardly a single family in our country was left untouched by the consequences of the hostilities and occupation. We paid a huge price for Victory over Nazism. That war claimed the lives of over 27 million Soviet citizens and caused colossal material damage and destruction to our country.

Since the Nuremberg Trials, which unequivocally condemned Nazism as a criminal ideology, the volume of accessible sources confirming facts of the numerous crimes perpetrated by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices in the Soviet Union, has increased many times over. The new materials and witness testimony have provided irrefutable evidence that the war launched by Hitler Germany was aimed at exterminating Soviet people. According to the materials of the Russian law enforcement authorities, civilian deaths in the Soviet Union during the Nazi occupation amounted to more than 13.6 million.

To date, the search movement and the organisers of the No Statute of Limitations project have discovered over a hundred of previously unknown sites with the mass graves of innocent women, children and senior citizens who were shot or tortured to death. A careful maintenance of the memorial complexes that preserve the memory of the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War is a priority for both the current and future generations of Russian citizens. The publication of information about the results of investigations and evidence collected within this project will help enhance the awareness of people in Russia and other countries about the historical truth and the crimes perpetrated by Nazi invaders.

We hold sacred the memory of the victims which our people made for victory over Nazism. As President Vladimir Putin has pointed out, the preservation of historical memory is not only a sign of respect for the past but also a guarantee of the unity of the people and the sovereignty of the state in the future.

It is a matter of principle for us that the international community recognise the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War as the genocide of the Soviet people. We are working towards this goal together with our CIS partners on international platforms. The CIS leaders have adopted an address to the people of the CIS and the international community on the 80th anniversary of Victory by the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. “Facts demonstrating that Nazis and their accomplices expelled and exterminated civilians, as set forth in the verdict of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, must be viewed as an act of genocide against the people of the Soviet Union,” it reads.  This message found its way into a CSTO declaration as well.

All the facts discovered and unearthed by Russia’s Investigative Committee and recognised by the Russian courts must be made known to the international community in order to defend the historical truth and perpetuate the memory of millions of innocent Soviet people who fell victim to Nazism and its human-hating ideology.

Question: Russia has submitted materials to the UN International Court of Justice. They provide evidence of the acts of genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime against the people in Donbass. What served as a basis for these claims? And is there a chance that these materials will be reviewed in an impartial and unbiased manner?

Maria Zakharova: Ukraine initiated proceedings in the UN International Court of Justice in February 2022, right after the start of the special military operation, as per the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. However, it turned to the Kiev regime’s disadvantage.

The International Court of Justice issued its preliminary objections under this case on February 2, 2024. In this document, it rejected all the claims made by Ukraine alleging that Russia violated the Convention. The court went on to rule that further proceedings will focus on whether Ukraine committed acts of genocide in Donbass. Therefore, the Kiev regime filed the lawsuit only to become a defendant in this case.

On November 18, 2024, Russia submitted its main pleading document, the so-called Counter Memorandum, as part of these proceedings. In fact, this is the first time since the Nuremberg Trials that Russia de facto assumed the role of the prosecution in an international tribunal. But there are even more parallels with the Nuremberg Trials. Just as during these trials, we are dealing with a Nazi regime which was targeting civilians with mass atrocities on racial, ethnic and national grounds.

In fact, Russia’s Counter Memorandum can be viewed as an indictment containing evidence of the Kiev regime’s involvement in genocidal practices, including acts of genocide, as well as failing to prevent genocide, encouraging it, and refusing to hold others accountable for perpetrating these crimes.

The document’s main part is 522 pages long. It also includes over 10,000 pages in annexes setting forth evidence regarding over 140 instances of targeted efforts to kill civilians in Donbass, as confirmed by official testimonies from about 300 witnesses and victims, expert probes and other materials from the corresponding criminal files investigated by the Investigative Committee of Russia.

There are elements of genocidal intent in what the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Nazi armed groups did. They wanted to eliminate Russians and Russian speakers in Donbass, citizens of the DPR and the LPR, adepts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and people in this region in general as an ethnic, religious and national entity. The Kiev regime’s neo-Nazi nature and the fact that it relied on a criminal ideology of the bloody Ukrainian nationalist movements and the Third Reich were exposed. The paper also sets forth evidence of far-reaching ethnic and linguistic discrimination against Russians and Russian speakers, as well as Kiev’s commitment to erase the Russian language and Russian culture, while also destroying the historical memory regarding the victory over fascism, glorifying Nazis and their accomplices who were guilty of committing so many acts of genocide, from Petlyura’s pogroms to the Holocaust.

I do not think that anyone expected streets and squares in a land which had suffered from Nazism to be called after Adolf Hitler’s associates, or that people would march there holding portraits of Nazi criminals, build monuments celebrating them, and use Nazi symbols in their armed forces. These slogans and flags guide them in their systemic and targeted efforts to destroy everything Russian. These are facts. Our goal as far as international law is concerned is to hold the perpetrators accountable. We must attract as much publicity as possible and ensure that the entire international community pays attention. At this point all the materials pertaining to these proceedings, including Russia’s Counter Memorandum, are confidential as per the ICJ rules, but we will make sure to release them to the public once the oral arguments on the merits of the case begin.

Question: The Russian Foreign Ministry is rapidly upgrading its digital diplomacy tool. Its outreach grows, with audiences getting truthful information about our country. At the same time, digital technologies enable others to spread fakes on a huge scale. How do you fight them?

Maria Zakharova: The Foreign Ministry has been promoting its digital diplomacy tool in a planned and consistent manner since 2011. During these fifteen years, what was just a useful additional tool has evolved into a powerful means for delivering objective information, which enables us to explain our positions  directly to foreign audiences on a global scale and speak about the Russian foreign policy in its entirety.

Today, the opportunities provided by digital diplomacy can hardly be overestimated, given the hybrid war being waged against our country by the collective West, the blocking of the Russian media, and the unprecedented level of censorship. The Foreign Ministry has at its disposal over 20 official resources on the social media and an extensive ministerial digital network that includes more than 1,200 accounts of Russian missions abroad and the Ministry’s subdivisions as well as a number of professional blogs kept by diplomats.  This network broadcasts in a 7/24 mode in two dozen languages.

In recent years, we notice that the number of fakes has increased by an order of magnitude.  There are a number of reasons behind this phenomenon, including the general intensification of information flows, the West and other wrongdoers’ malicious misinformation operations, and advances in applied AI technologies that make it possible to churn out audiovisual deep-fakes on an industrial scale. These have reached a level where it is hard to distinguish between the original and a fabrication with the unaided eye or ear. 

Therefore, there is much tension around the issue of checking and marking the content.  Regrettably, it is naïve to think that the West that uses misinformation campaigns and information plants to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia” will suddenly come to its senses. For this reason, we discuss this important topic with our opinion allies within BRICS, the SCO, the CSTO, the CIS, the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, and in the course of bilateral contacts with Global Majority countries.  

We provide maximally full information about our country and the Russian foreign policy, leaving no room for double interpretations or speculations. We maintain constructive cooperation with the Investigative Committee of Russia (IC). The Foreign Ministry’s resources highlight and support the IC’s publications, primarily those about crimes committed by armed units of Ukraine, including terrorist attacks and well-deserved sentences passed on Ukrainian neo-Nazis by Russian courts.

At the same time, we counteract fakes in a systemic way, record information plants and lies and promptly debunk them based on facts. We also publish and diffuse anti-fakes and country-wise reviews-cum-refutations. We see an active and positive public response to our exposures and therefore we are on the right track.  

Question: The Russian Foreign Ministry organises a series of events annually to mark Victory Day. What response do these initiatives receive from European citizens?

Maria Zakharova: We have long conducted such campaigns, collaborating effectively with various domestic organisations. These include the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Military Historical Society, the Alexander Pechersky Memorial Foundation, the Holocaust Research and Educational Centre, among others. In January of this year, an exhibition dedicated to one of the most tragic chapters of the Great Patriotic War – the siege of Leningrad – was unveiled at the United Nations headquarters. It was prepared by the National Centre for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation in collaboration with Russia’s Permanent Mission to the UN. This exhibition is now being showcased at the Russian Consulate-General in Cape Town. The in-person format is excellently complemented by virtual elements, allowing visitors to engage directly and emotionally grasp the significance of Victory for our people, as well as the grief over the losses endured.

In the West, there is an active effort to reshape historical memory – vilifying the Red Army, erasing its heroism and sacrifices, and equating the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany. One of the most egregious and recent examples of such sacrilegious manipulation and distortion of facts is the annual memorial events marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on January 27. Since 2005, this date has been observed by the UN as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an initiative proposed by Russia. At the time, Russia contributed one million US dollars to the Polish museum’s fund. The Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill prepared a permanent exhibition in Block 14 of the former camp, dedicated to Soviet prisoners. Now, the Polish authorities and museum administration have shut down the exhibition and no longer invite official Russian representatives. Moreover, instead of acknowledging the liberation of the camp, they refer to the “entry” of the Red Army onto its territory.

Yet nothing can distort historical truth. The peoples of the former Soviet Union, now united through the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, and the Eurasian Economic Union, remember their shared sacrifices and honour the heroes of the Red Army. The year 2025 has been declared the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in the Commonwealth – a year of peace and unity in the fight against Nazism. An increasing number of foreign leaders have expressed interest in celebrating Victory Day alongside us.

The role of our compatriots abroad in defending historical truth cannot be overlooked. Councils of Russian compatriots operate actively in approximately 120 foreign countries, organising a wide array of events, including film screenings, discussions, and meetings with political analysts. They plan their own initiatives under the banners of the Immortal Regiment, the St George’s Ribbon, the Candle of Memory, the Garden of Memory, and participate in the Victory Dictation and other remarkable projects aimed at passing down the memory of Victory and its heroes to future generations.

The importance of historical memory for public consciousness and civic unity cannot be overstated. History has long ceased to be merely a study of the past. Only an active and coordinated information campaign involving all stakeholders – compatriots, experts, Russian museums, academic institutions, and state and public organisations – can stem the tide of historical falsifications and promote an objective understanding of the Second World War and our country’s role in it.