The imperialist ideas contained in the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact are reincarnated and reformulated to be used in the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, believes doctor of history Ion Valer Xenofontov.

“We see this aggressive spirit reincarnated and adjusted to the new geopolitical realities", declared the historian during an IPN debate discussing the Soviet-Nazi pact that was signed on 23 August 1939.

Ion Valer Xenofontov believes that the most difficult thing in the history of a community is to change the collective and individual mentality. “It is easier to change a social and economic structure, but not a mental one”.

The doctor of history says the notion pushed by the propaganda about the Soviet Union being a welfare state was “all lies”. “The historic facts that were not in favor of the Soviet Union were erased from the collective memory with a sponge. Instead, the propaganda highlighted the facts that glorified the Soviet Union. In other words, we see that these ideas have been implanted at the level of collective mentality for the long haul. We should not be surprised by the fact that in Moldovan society there are fragmentations and there are pro-Soviet Union, pro-Putinist visions, that there is this spirit of revisionism and neo-colonialism, because it persists at the level of the cell and at the level of mentality”.

“And what happened to the Russian Federation? When the Soviet Union collapsed, the political class did not change. It builds on the foundation of the Soviet Union. Putin himself has a background made in the Soviet Union. The class did not change to a new class with a new vision, with a new approach. We see this aggressive spirit reincarnated and adjusted to the new geopolitical realities”, said Ion Valer Xenofontov.

This was the 41st installment of the Impact of History Series, run by IPN with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.