14.09.2025 Aleksandrovskoye.
After Stalin’s death, the people who came to power were not capable of solving the problems facing the country. They perceived ideology very formally. And when nationalist ideas began to gain strength in the Soviet republics, they did not take this process seriously.
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. At the same time as celebrating this victory, our soldiers are fighting in Ukraine, a land soaked with the blood of millions of Soviet soldiers. And we are fighting the same enemy in literally the same territories. How did it happen that our enemy has survived and grown so strong over these 80 years?
We discussed this with Valery Konstantinovich Kulichkov, PhD in History, who has been working as the head of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum in Moscow for more than two years.
Rossa Primavera News Agency: How do you assess the role of museums in modern society?
V. K. Kulichkov: Museums have existed in our country since the time of Peter the Great, including for the purpose of carrying out enlightenment, scientific research, educational activities, and storing museum items.
And for me, as the head of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum, the main thing is to convey historical truth and counteract the falsification of history. Any museum should influence national cultural policy in the country and, of course, people’s worldview. It is a struggle for the truth in the face of hostile propaganda on various fronts, if you will.
And given the ongoing informatization of the museum industry, these “battles,” or exchanges of opinions, which are sometimes very heated, now take place not only in the halls of museums, but also in cyberspace, messengers, and social networks.
Rossa Primavera News Agency: How do you think museums work in Ukraine?
V. K. Kulichkov: You could say that all means are good in war. Speaking of Ukraine, they came to the conclusion that museums should be involved in spreading lies. Radicalization on a nationalist basis has been going on for more than a decade. Unhealthy processes began there even before the collapse of the USSR, and this was not unexpected. It had been smoldering for a long time… More precisely, it continued to smolder after the fierce battles of the Great Patriotic War… There were serious battles after 1945 as well. Few people know that during the war and in the post-war period, our troops and law enforcement agencies lost 15,000 people in western Ukraine to attacks by UPA militants (organization banned in Russia).
Just like in Afghanistan in 1979-1989!
Not counting the victims among the local civilian population, which number more than 100,000…
Now many Ukrainians are fighting on the side of hostile forces. Let us remember that during the Great Patriotic War, there were about 250,000 Bandera supporters and traitors among Ukrainians, while almost 4 million representatives of the Ukrainian people (second in number after the Russians) fought in the ranks of the Red Army and partisan detachments.
By the way, Zelensky’s grandfather fought in the Red Army… There is something to ponder…
The Soviet government did not want to see the threat of a resurgence of nationalism in Ukraine, neither under Khrushchev, nor under Brezhnev, nor under Gorbachev. Many figures who were members of the UPA (organization banned in Russia) took up important positions.
There is a joke on this subject. Two brothers. One joined the Red Army, the other joined the UPA (organization banned in Russia). The first is a decorated worker, but with no prospects, while the second is climbing higher and higher up the career ladder. The one who served in the Red Army asks his brother, “Why it turned out this way?” And the other replies, “What do you write in the questionnaire? That you have a brother in the UPA (organization banned in Russia), and I write that I have a brother who is a Hero of the Soviet Union!”
Rossa Primavera News Agency: Do you think a new denazification is possible?
V. K. Kulichkov: Denazification is a very difficult task. But we had very serious experience working in East Germany (in our occupation zone). Denazification was also carried out in the USSR. And not only in Germany. It had satellites!
Denazification is also possible now. But for this, in addition to implementing the necessary policies in the army, we need a modern version of the NKVD, since the main thing is to restore order and control the territory and population of the Ukrainian regions and new subjects of the Russian Federation. Of course, these must be non-corrupt authorities. Otherwise, no one will believe in our sincerity.
In a sense, it was easier with the Germans: they are a different people, strangers to us. But Ukrainians are our brothers, genetically and culturally very close to us. Many people have relatives there… Recall the civil war!
Rossa Primavera News Agency: Does this affect the way the special operations is conducted?
V. K. Kulichkov: Of course it does. Russians cannot behave as they would on foreign soil. That is why we are fighting this way.
No one here could believe that in eight years, from 2014 to 2022, it would be possible to create a strange entity in Ukraine with pro-Nazi armed groups. Although Hitler managed to do something similar in six years, from 1933 to 1939. And to start World War II…
Rossa Primavera News Agency: What do you think about the current negotiations with the Ukrainians in Istanbul?
V. K. Kulichkov: The negotiations in Istanbul are a closed process. Have you read the minutes? I haven’t. When historians gain access to the documents, then they will draw conclusions. It is impossible to do so having only fragmentary information from the media.
If we talk about the negotiations during the Great Patriotic War, there was only one approach: unconditional surrender. I like this approach. There is no other way with the Nazis. There is nothing to talk about. It is possible and necessary to reason with those who have lost their way… There are such people in Ukraine. And there are many of them.
There are situations that cannot be reconciled, and it is necessary to defend one’s territory. It is impossible to imagine anyone negotiating with Hitler in 1941. So there are things that cannot be allowed.
Rossa Primavera News Agency: How did Ukrainian nationalists, the heirs of Bandera, manage to preserve their ideology? Why was this possible?
V. K. Kulichkov: The roots of the processes taking place in Ukraine lie deeper than the events of 2014 and even 1991. We must admit that nationalism in certain regions of Ukraine was not eradicated either during the Great Patriotic War or afterwards. Many people wanted to forget everything as quickly as possible and forgive those who could not be forgiven. Perhaps they did not understand that an untreated disease is as dangerous as cancer with metastases. Somewhere, the enemy worked skillfully. Now we are dealing with the consequences…
After Stalin’s death, the people who came to power were not the ones who could solve the problems facing the country. They perceived ideology very formally. And when nationalist ideas began to gain strength in the territories of the Soviet republics, they did not take this process seriously. They did not see them as a threat.
People were already of a completely different caliber. During the Great Patriotic War, commanders lived by the principle of “do as I do,” but in the Brezhnev-Gorbachev era, everything was different: it was no longer “do as I do,” but “do as I say.” Words and deeds began to diverge. Therefore, hostile ideologies were fought formally. Those in power had no time to fight for people’s minds. The redistribution of Soviet property began. That’s where the real money was. Why set people who had been fooled by hostile propaganda on the right path? It’s not inspiring…
Rossa Primavera News Agency: And what role do you think Ukraine’s ideology plays?
V. K. Kulichkov: I myself would be interested to learn about ideology in Ukraine. To understand how, in turbulent times, Parubiy and Turchynov, Poroshenko (included in the list of terrorists and extremists on the territory of the Russian Federation) and Tyagnibok, Zelensky and Yarosh found common interests there…
Ideology in Ukraine is very specific…
Yes, that’s an interesting point. Many of them are nowhere to be seen on the front lines. They stirred up trouble and… disappeared with their ideology. It would be very interesting to read their interrogations…
As for the situation in Ukraine in general, we have begun to forget the well-known truth: “History is not a teacher; it teaches nothing. It is a supervisor and punishes those who do not learn its lessons!”
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
