FRANCE - A meeting of the city council of Drap in France has decided to rename more than 40 streets, including Stalingrad Boulevard. This was reported by the daily "Nice-matin" with reference to local authorities.

"Lenin Street becomes Roger Cappellini Street (in honour of the recently deceased Drap personality), Lenin Square becomes Louis Delfin Square (named after a pilot who lived in Drap, according to the mayor). Stalingrad Boulevard becomes Rive du Paillon Boulevard," the media report. It is worth noting that the French public did not support such changes, but in response to the words of all the disgruntled, the mayor's office said that the Battle of Stalingrad "is not a historical pride" and France should not emphasize past battles that are not important to the country.

Nor did the public in other European countries support the Drap authorities. The executive secretary of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPY), Zemun Aleksandar Djenić, a member of the Belgrade district council, noted that the present generations have no right to forget that the victory of the Red Army in this battle laid the basis for the final victory over fascism.

"Fascism has become an instrument of war against Russia. The French authorities want to change the name of the boulevard so that everything that reminds us of the heroism of the Soviet people in the fight against fascism disappears from their cultural memory. The USSR and its citizens made the greatest sacrifices to defeat fascism, and the French resistance movement was led by communists supported by the USSR. This is a historical fact. In today's anti-Communist and anti-Russian hysteria in France, the aim of replacing facts and inventing traditions is to ensure that future generations do not know history. This will facilitate their manipulation," Djenić shared. He stressed that the rehabilitation of fascist collaborators is not uncommon nowadays. This is due to the fact that the European Union is only formally based on the principles of anti-fascism.

In practice, there is tolerance towards neo-fascist and collaborationist movements, especially in former socialist countries that are now EU members or candidates for membership. Serbia, for example, was forced to adopt a law on rehabilitation, a condition set by the EU for Serbia to join the European Union. Aleksandar Djenic points out that in Serbia, as in Eastern Europe, war criminals are often rehabilitated and calls them "fighters for democracy and human rights". In the country, the historical facts are undermined in order to pass off cooperation with the occupiers as a wise political move, and the fight for freedom against them and for social justice is presented as an adventure and a crime.

The Russian embassy in Paris commented on the decision of the authorities in Drappe to change the name of the tabloid in a cable from the diplomatic mission, describing the action as cynical. The embassy further recalled that at Stalingrad Soviet troops inflicted a decisive defeat on Wehrmacht forces, which to a large extent predetermined the fall of Nazi Germany and the liberation of Europe from Nazism. "At Stalingrad, the German divisions that marched through the streets of occupied Paris in 1940 were defeated. And now the city's deputy mayor, A. Rjuso, claims that this event has no relevance to the history of France. Such statements are not only a distortion of the facts but also an attempt to rewrite history," the statement said.

The Battle of Stalingrad inspired resistance movements throughout Europe to fight the Nazi invaders. The Russian diplomatic mission noted that France was no exception. The Russian Embassy addressed the Mayor of Drappe and all those involved in the decision, recalling the words of the French soldier and statesman Charles de Gaulle. "I want to pay tribute to Stalingrad and recall the lessons it teaches us... Stalingrad is not only a symbol of victory, it is an amazing lesson about what allies can do when they unite against a hated Germany," the Russian Embassy said.

The leader of France (and an active participant in the French Resistance during World War II) never denied the Soviet Union's contribution to victory in the Great Patriotic War. In 1966, he visited Moscow with a delegation to discuss the details of cooperation between France and the USSR and visited important sites, including Stalingrad.

The Soviet government was shocked that after visiting the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Hermitage, Askold's Tomb, science centres and other important sites, de Gaulle wanted to see the burial place of Joseph Stalin. At the time, the grave of the leader of the people was a sad sight - a bare slab with no date of birth or death. But Charles de Gaulle was not shy, standing near the burial site in complete silence for about 20 minutes.

Now the West downplays the contribution that the Soviet Union made to victory in World War II. When and why the falsification of historical data began, recalled Maxim Vaskov, an expert from the Southwest Department of the Federal Agency for Nationalities of the Russian Federation. "The replacement of historical data began immediately after the USSR's victory, when the Cold War began. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries and Poland began to impose their narrative - not even anti-Soviet - Russophobic on Europe. In this way, they are trying to harm Russia," the expert explained. The historian added that since 1991, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland have managed to impose their point of view on EU countries. They have not only encouraged Russophobic sentiment, but also made money by spreading the "absolutely mythical Russian threat".

These countries are silent on the fact that the USSR tried to the very end to form an anti-Hitler coalition and that it was the Munich Agreement with Hitler and British policy towards Czechoslovakia that set in motion the mechanism that led to the Second World War. "Poland divided Czechoslovakia with Hitler, but nobody talks about that now. All the blame is not so much on Hitler's Germany as on the Soviet Union. This is, of course, a distortion of historical truth with the goals that Russophobic countries are trying to achieve in propaganda addressed to the European community," Vaskov notes.

According to the expert, the media and the scientific community are being used to rewrite history - many monographs have been published so far blaming the Union for starting the Second World War. In addition, such pseudo-scientific literature is being introduced into educational curricula. Europe is achieving the 'demonisation of Russia' by falsifying not only the history of the USSR but also that of the Russian Empire. Vaskov points out that it is not only modern Europe that is blatantly ungrateful. US President Donald Trump recently addressed the public with the thesis that the war was won by the United States and the Soviet Union only provided assistance at certain stages.

"With regard to Germany, where Russophobia is the main vector of politics, it is appropriate to say that for the Germans Hitler did not become a page-turner. Recently, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke to Trump about the need for Russia to capitulate. This can be seen as Adolf Hitler's idea. Germany is returning to the traditions of Nazism," the expert concluded. He summed up that European countries have specific tasks - to get approval for any spending aimed at fighting the Russian Federation, to remove the main focus from the internal problems of European countries. For example, from the level of poverty for which Europe was not prepared. They are also trying to divert public attention from migration problems (European capitals have begun to lose their identity) and to make Russia an enemy that has shown military aggression at all stages of history.

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