- deliberate distortion of historical events, or historical myth-making. The goals and motives of falsifications can be very diverse: ideological, political, creating public or commercial interest in a particular problem, event or scientist, etc. Examples of historical falsifications have been known since ancient Egypt.
Methods of falsification
The methods of falsifying history are varied, but in general they can be summarized as follows:
- direct composition of facts and forgery of documents; destruction of documents and historical research; hiding existing documents.
- one-sided selection and arbitrary interpretation of facts, as a result of which connections are built between facts, are absent in reality, and conclusions are drawn that cannot be drawn on the basis of the full picture.
The first group of methods refers to the falsification of information sources. The sources of certain “factual” judgments may not be indicated at all, indicated with reference to fictitious publications, or are clearly not related to the primary sources of the work (usually journalistic ones) in which these “facts” were first voiced. In this case, it is more correct to speak not so much about falsification (fake of the known), but about myth-making (additions of the fictitious). The most subtle means of falsification is the falsification of primary sources (“sensational” archaeological discoveries, previously “unknown” and “not yet printed” chronicle sources, memoirs, diaries, etc. In this case, a special examination is required to refute incorrect data, which is either not carried out, or carried out with a predetermined result, that is, it is also falsified.
In the second case, all the facts used separately can correspond to reality, but the conclusions are made with a gross and purposeful violation of the methodological foundations. Non-traditional methods can be used to process primary information, leading to "sensational" conclusions, the truth or falsity of primary sources can be confirmed depending on the goal, incomplete citation can be used, extrapolation of certain trends, etc.
This process reaches a special scope in countries with totalitarian regimes, where the apparatus of propaganda is controlled only by the authorities, and not by the public, and alternative information is blocked. As a result, the authorities get the opportunity to create completely arbitrary pictures of the past and then change them at their discretion. This was reflected in the well-known joke: "The USSR is a country with an unpredictable past."
Historical examples
Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egyptian documents, the activities of the pharaohs were, of course, depicted in an exaggerated and exaggerated form. For example, it was pointed out that Ramses II made a decisive personal contribution to the victory at the Battle of Kadesh, independently destroying hordes of enemies. In fact, Ramses II personally participated in the battle when he broke through with a small detachment from the encirclement, and the battle itself ended in a draw. The Hittites retreated to Kadesh, the Egyptian troops remained on the field, and each side presented itself as the winner. But, undoubtedly, the result of this battle was the strengthening of the influence of Egypt.
After the death of Pharaoh Akhenaten, he carried out a religious reform and tried to introduce monotheism, the new cult was declared a heresy. Images and sculptures of Akhenaten were destroyed, and his name was removed from documents.
Ivan IV the Terrible
One of the first documented cases of falsification of history for political reasons in Russia refers to the reign of Ivan the Terrible. At the direction of the king, the "Face Chronicle" was written - a holistic record of history from ancient times to that time. In the last volume (the so-called "synodal list"), which already talked about the reign of Grozny himself, who made the corrections, in which the governors and boyars, who fell out of favor with the tsar, were accused of various unseemly acts. According to some assumptions, the boyar rebellion of 1533, which was described only in the synodal list, but was not mentioned in any other written sources, was also completely invented.
In connection with the monopoly position of the Communist Party, throughout the entire period of the existence of Soviet Russia and the USSR, history was interpreted according to its ideological guidelines and goals under the control of the relevant party structures - departments of the Central Committee of the CPSU and republican party organizations (departments of propaganda and agitation, department of science, etc.). etc.), - and the main body of state censorship in the USSR, Glavlit, subordinate to the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Total control over the media allowed the leadership of the party to falsify any information and any events.
So, already at the beginning of 1918, the head of the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia, V. Ulyanov, in his speeches for propaganda purposes, cited false information. Shaumyan", although at that time he was not even arrested; On April 23, he also said that "the first courageous counter-revolutionary Kornilov was killed by his own, indignant soldiers," although L. Kornilov was killed in the battle near Ekaterinodar.
Historians Dyakov Yu.L. and Bushueva T.S. noted that "the Stalinist regime created its own history in order to falsify the past by historical means." As a result, historical science in the USSR "lost one of its main functions - the study of the lessons of the past in the name of the present and the future."
One example of the falsification of history in the USSR is the falsification of the history of the CPSU, certified by scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, members of the Scientific Council "History of the Great October Socialist Revolution", scientists from the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Central Party Archive of the CPSU.
Back in 1932, Leon Trotsky showed examples of Stalin's falsification of the history of the October Revolution in Russia and later events at a time when their direct participants and witnesses were still alive.
Indications of the falsification of the history of the October Revolution, the history of the USSR and earlier periods in the history of the Russian Empire are contained in many scientific studies and encyclopedic publications, especially those published during the periods of the next debunking of the previous government: in the 1920s - in relation to the period before 1917, for example, "Small Soviet Encyclopedia"; after the 20th Congress of the CPSU - in relation to the period of Stalin's dictatorship, such as, for example, the studies of A. Solzhenitsyn; after 1991 - in relation to various periods of history, both the Russian Empire and the lands seized by it at different times, and the history of the USSR, such as, for example, the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine in 10 volumes; A short encyclopedic dictionary published in Moscow and many, many others. The biographies of the leaders - V. Ulyanov, I. Dzhugashvili, many other party and state leaders L. Bronstein, V. M. Skryabin, L. M. Kaganovich were falsified. and etc.
The history of such important events in the state as the Holodomor in Ukraine 1932-1933, the Holodomor in Ukraine 1921-1923, the Holodomor in Ukraine 1946-1947, the mass deportations of the population by nationality, the signing of the Non-Aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany and related documents, was falsified and hushed up, the formation of the USSR, the creation and activities of the GULAG, the CPSU, the destruction of Polish prisoners, the execution of peaceful demonstrations (from January 1918 until the 60s, as, for example, in Novocherkassk) and many others.
A member of the London "Committee on Non-Intervention" during the Spanish Civil War, Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain Ivan Maisky, at a meeting of the Committee on November 4, 1936 (and then, in his memoirs), refuted the assertion of the representative of Italy, Dino Grandi (ital. Dino Grandi about the participation at that time of tanks, planes and Soviet troops in the battles in Spain. But in the notes to the edition of "Spanish Diaries" by M. Koltsov 1987, the participation of tankers of the Red Army under the command of brigade commander S.M. Krivoshein in the defense of Madrid already on October 27, 1936. Brigade commander Ya.V. Smushkevich fought in Spain "since October 1936." The first victims among the Soviet pilots were already at the end of October, as Dino Grandi informed the Non-Intervention Committee.
As an example of falsification by the method of arbitrary selection of historical facts, historians S. Volkov and Yu. Emelyanov cite the brochure "Falsifiers of History (historical reference)", produced by the "Sovinformburo" in 1948 in response to the publication by the US State Department, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain and France, collection of documents "Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941". Pointing to a significant list of real events of that time, at the same time, the anonymous authors of the brochure do not mention the secret Soviet-German agreement of 1922, which allowed Germany to make a significant breakthrough in the preparation of the armed forces, bypassing the Treaty of Versailles. And this agreement was signed on August 11, 1922
Lenin portends at a rally on Sverdlov Square in Moscow May 5, 1920 Trotsky and Kamenev stand on the steps of the platform.
Photo falsified: Trotsky and Kamenev are no more.
Nikolai Yezhov next to Stalin.
Falsified photo: Yezhov is no more.
Ulyanov and A. Bogdanov play chess in Capri (1908). Standing: V. Bazarov, M. Gorky, his son Z. Peshkov, Bogdanov's wife
the same photo, but seized by V. Bazarov and Zinovy Peshkov
Modern Ukraine
In Ukraine, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of Ukrainian pseudo-historians also appeared who tried, on the basis of false evidence, to exalt the role of the Ukrainian people in history. In particular, it has been argued that the original Indo-Europeans were Ukrainian or prominent historical figures, like Jesus Christ and Buddha, were from Ukraine. The official Ukrainian historical science is fighting against such falsification of history.
Modern Russia
In Russia there are also a number of historians who seek to raise the greatness of Russia on the basis of many falsifications or the suppression of some historical circumstances. Thus, the school textbook by N. Zagladin “History of Russia and the World in the 20th Century”, which, on the instructions of V. Putin, was supposed to teach “more patriotic” history, deliberately keeps silent or one-sidedly interprets many dark pages of Russian history - Stalinist repressions and famines, Chechen wars the like.
Artifacts on which evidence of existing historiography is based are falsified copies of "disappeared" ancient manuscripts from ancient libraries that burned down at the same time. These copies were created in the 15th century and later, and even in our time with the help of modern computer programs.
Fig.1 Examples of copies of "ancient" artifacts of the XV century from the site of the Vatican Library, confirming the existing historical paradigm.
Today, the founders of Russian history are the great "Russian historians" Gottlieb Bayer, Gerard Miller, August Schlozer, who "made happy" us with the "Norman theory" of the origin of the Rus. Through this “theory”, the idea of savagery, primitiveness of the Russian and other indigenous peoples of Russia, which has been driven in over the centuries, dominates in all spheres of culture and science.
It is known that many artifacts found by archaeologists do not fit into the official concept of history, since the interpretation is always given from the standpoint of those in power. A huge number of "cultures" have appeared, so called by the location of the artifacts, which are squeezed into the Procrustean bed of the existing historical paradigm. According to official history, Russia has only 1150 years of history, everything is borrowed from the "enlightened" West and the complete "inability" of the Russian people to self-govern.
Most of the authors who write about the falsification of history in their works give one or two arguments, on the basis of which they draw a conclusion and give their vision of this historical event. At the same time, different authors on the same historical event sometimes have completely opposite opinions. But an event that has taken place in human society cannot be interpreted and interpreted as one wishes.
Any historical event is the result of the interaction of many root causes. It requires a multifaceted and complex consideration of these causes taken together. This approach in the study allows you to see the relationship in existing historical artifacts and gain an understanding of the studied processes of the past, their influence and connection with the present.
Rice. 2. Map of 1717 Muscovy, the Russian Empire during the time of Peter I, is highlighted in color.
The falsification of history began with the seizure of the throne of Moscow Tartaria by the Romanov dynasty (see map Fig. 2.), Who were proteges of certain forces in Western Europe. Further, this process actively continued during the reign of Peter the Great.
The map of 1717 shows Muscovy from the time of Peter I. The possessions of the Romanovs were not the Russian Empire, the history of which is presented to us by "Russian" historians. In the east, the border of the Empire of Peter I runs along the western spurs of the Ural Mountains and nothing more! His "great empire" was the territory of Muscovy or Moscow Tartaria. This suggests that relatively recently it was a province of the Slavic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartaria), the separation of which occurred during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy, who seized absolute power in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
Before Dmitry Donskoy, there was no absolute monarchical power in this principality-province of the Slavic-Aryan Empire, and the position of the Grand Duke was not hereditary. The Grand Duke was appointed from among the most worthy people of the princely family.
This map shows two cities of Novgorod, Novogrod- Novgorod on Ladoga and Novogorod - Novgorod on the Volga and another area within the Golden Ring, a group of cities, which on the map is called NOVOGROD with a capital letter. This confirms the assumption of A.T. Fomenko that the Lord of Veliky Novgorod in Russia was called the metropolis of the Golden Ring, and not a small city on Ladoga. Even the capital Moscow is not highlighted on the map in the same way as Lord Veliky Novgorod is highlighted - a group of cities that form the commercial and cultural center of Muscovy. This map is just one of many confirmations of the falsification of Russian history.
Then, at the end of the 18th century, the troops of the new Romanov dynasty, supported by the entire Western world, won the civil war with the old, Horde Russian dynasty of Great Tartary, this happened in 1772-1775. This fact in history is falsified and presented as the suppression of the uprising under the leadership of Yemelyan Pugachev. And only after this victory was the modern "history" fabricated in its final form.
The main goal of the falsifiers was to hide the real role of the Russian Vedic civilization, which had hundreds of thousands of years of its past, and which was the mother of all the other "great" civilizations of the ancient world!
For many centuries, falsifiers have been slowly but surely replacing the Vedic worldview with their own pseudo-variant, which destroys the integrity of perception among the people, deliberately creating a conflict between the genetic memory of the people and its consciousness.
Having thus created a conflict between the pseudo-worldview imposed by them and the genetic memory of the people, they managed to break the last stronghold - the Great Tartaria in the Summer of 7283 from the SMZH (1775 AD), moreover, with the hands of those Rus, whom they also endowed pseudo worldview! Even in this case, they were able to win only at the hands of their own opponents, some of whom were turned into "Ivans who do not remember kinship"!
Historians concealed the fact of the absorption of the Vedic Russian Empire by Moscow Tartaria after the latter's victory in the fratricidal civil war of 1772-1775. There is no exact data on the number of those killed in this war, especially from the side of the Vedic Russian Empire.
After the victory of the new Romanov dynasty over the old Horde dynasty, the punitive troops of Catherine II thoroughly destroyed its population, especially the Cossack settlements. A.S. Pushkin in his novel The Captain's Daughter tried to lift the veil over this, but the second volume of this book never saw the light of day, apparently he did not dare to reveal to people the whole truth about what he managed to learn during his trips around Siberia.
Having removed from history information about the largest state in the world of the Vedic Russian Empire, the falsifiers began to exalt other civilizations, countries and peoples. As a result of the falsification of history, the “great” ancient civilizations of China and India, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the ancient Roman Empire appeared, and the Russians and Slavs were “allowed” to appear on the “historical arena” only in the 9th century.
It is necessary to point out the hypertrophied role of the personality of many historical characters and their influence on the processes taking place in society that exists in history.
Yes, there is a role of personality in history, and a brutal personality can either slow down or speed up this historical process. But without understanding the process and a fundamental change in the foundation this process cannot be changed. Since the processes take place in time and often last much longer than the life of a particular historical figure.
In order for the process to become crystal clear from ancient times to the present, everything must be considered as a whole, including genetics, human physiology and psychology, the development of society, the psychology and geopsychology of the social economy.
Any historical event is the result of a complex interaction of all these root causes taken together, and this event is inevitable result one process or another. Truth is one, and does not lie somewhere in the middle, as it is customary to assert in modern society when looking for an answer to a question.
- World and our national history is completely falsified!
- Falsification of history is one of the ways to form an erroneous worldview.
- Traditional history is a pseudoscience based on the art of lying and manipulating people's minds.
History has become the most important instrument of politics. From the end of the 18th century to the present day created a system of myths that replaced the real story.
The scale of the falsification of the past of Russia and civilization stunning in their size.
Existing falsified history is established in the minds of people a total falsification in scientific and fiction literature, architecture and art.
The falsification of history continues in our time with the use of modern scientific achievements, for example, with the help of modern computer technology.
At the end of the 20th century, thanks to the development of microelectronics, computer technology and other industries, the World Wide Web was created - the Internet and the so-called information computer technologies appeared. New technical possibilities have appeared for creating information databases in the field of culture, computer technologies have come to libraries and museums.
Now in many countries and in Russia, the process of digitizing artifacts and documents (scanning, photographing) is widely going on - converting an image or text into digital data for storage and use. All major museums and libraries in the world have their own websites on the Internet.
Forgers use this process to correct their old “evidence” in the form of primitive “copies of the 15th century” and create new “old” engravings, texts, drawings, “copies” of disappeared old books. And in this "case" the Vatican Library is the leader and coordinator of actions.
To do this, in the ongoing information war, websites such as “freecopedia” are specially created, trolls on the payroll and “ideological” ones are used on forums and social networks, and the production of “revealing” videos has been put on stream.
But the coin has two sides, and alien-lovers have not yet invented a way to control the entire Internet. Knowledge and understanding of the technology and methods of falsification allow modern researchers to build a logically consistent system of processes and events that have been taking place on our planet for many millennia.
It is our task to reconstruct (reconstruct) the "dark" pages of the past, using old and emerging new archaeological and other scientific facts and data, such as the new scientific discipline of DNA genealogy, for example.
Leonid Mikhailov
Plan
Introduction
1 Techniques and methods
2 Historical examples
2.1 Ancient Egypt
2.2 Ivan the Terrible
2.3 Nazi Germany
2.4 I. V. Stalin
2.5 N. S. Khrushchev
2.6 Denial of genocides
3 Nationalist falsifications of history
3.1 Azerbaijan
3.2 Baltics
3.3 Russia and the USSR
3.4 Ukraine
3.5 Kazakhstan
4 Falsification of history in literature and art
5 Sayings
Bibliography
Introduction
Falsification or rewriting of history is a deliberate distortion of historical events.
Examples of historical falsifications have been known since ancient Egypt.
1. Techniques and methods
The authors of historical falsifications may not indicate the sources of certain “factual” judgments at all or refer to non-existent publications or obviously not related to the primary sources of the work (usually journalistic ones), in which these “facts” were first voiced. In this case, it is more correct to speak not so much about falsification (forgery of the known), but about myth-making (adding on the unknown). The most subtle way of falsification is the falsification of primary sources (“sensational” archaeological discoveries, previously “unknown” and “unpublished” chronicle materials, memoirs, diaries, etc.). In this case, to refute false data, a special examination is required, which is either not carried out by the authors themselves and / or their supporters at all, or is also falsified.
2. Historical examples
2.1. Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egyptian documents, the activities of the pharaohs were usually depicted in a hypertrophied and exaggerated form. For example, it was pointed out that Ramses II made a decisive personal contribution to the victory at the Battle of Kadesh, having independently destroyed the hordes of enemies. In fact, Ramses II personally participated in the battle when he broke through with a small detachment from the encirclement, and the battle itself ended in a draw. The Hittites retreated to Kadesh, the Egyptian troops remained on the field, and each side portrayed itself as a winner. But, undoubtedly, the result of this battle was the strengthening of the influence of Egypt.
After the death of pharaoh Akhenaten, who carried out a religious reform and tried to introduce monotheism, the new cult was declared a heresy. Images and sculptures of Akhenaten were destroyed, and his name was removed from documents.
2.2. Ivan the Terrible
One of the first documented cases of falsification of history for political reasons in Russia refers to the reign of Ivan the Terrible. At the direction of the king, the "Facial Vault" was written - a complete record of history from ancient times to the present day. In the last volume (the so-called “synodal list”), which already talked about the reign of Grozny himself, someone made changes in which the governors and boyars, who fell out of favor with the tsar, were accused of various unseemly acts. According to some assumptions, the boyar rebellion of 1533, described only in the synodal list, but not mentioned in any other written source, was also completely invented.
2.3. Nazi Germany
With the advent of Hitler to power, the entire history of mankind was brought by Nazi scientists into line with racial theory, that is, completely and completely falsified. The "fundamental" work that served as the starting point for further falsifications was Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the 20th Century (1929).
In Nazi Germany, the myth of the "stab in the back" (Germ. Dolchstoßlegende). Its essence was that by November 1918 Germany could still continue the war, and if it were not for the revolution organized by the "traitors" of the Social Democrats, the war could have ended in its favor. In fact, by that time Germany was in a hopeless situation: all the allies capitulated, there were no reserves, and the Entente intensified after the US entered the war. It was clear that Germany was doomed. However, it was stated that she could still resist.
In 1939, Hitler assembled a group of Protestant theologians and founded a theological institute for "de-Jewishization". Theologians interpreted religious texts in an effort to change data about Jews. In particular, in 1940 it was officially proclaimed that Jesus Christ was not a Jew. It was also claimed that he arrived in Bethlehem from the Caucasus.
2.4. I. V. Stalin
In Stalin's times, along with the physical destruction of party, army and cultural figures, their names were also erased from historical sources (books, textbooks, encyclopedias, photographs). At the same time, the role of Stalin in historical events was falsified, in particular, in 1917, the thesis was promoted that Stalin was one of the leaders of the entire revolutionary movement in Russia until 1917, etc.
A fundamental role in creating a mythological picture of Soviet history was played by the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks” created, partly personally by Stalin, partly under his editorship. Among the myths created by the “Short Course”, the absolutely unfounded myth of the “decisive repulse” near Pskov and Narva, allegedly given to the German invaders by the “young Red Army” on February 23, 1918, turned out to be especially tenacious (see Defender of the Fatherland Day).
By the end of the Stalin era, almost all the figures who really played prominent roles (except Lenin) disappeared from the history of the revolution and the Civil War; their actions were attributed to Stalin, a narrow circle of his associates (who usually played secondary and tertiary roles in reality) and several prominent Bolsheviks who died before the start of the Great Terror: Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky, Frunze, Kirov and others. The Bolshevik Party was presented as the only revolutionary force; the revolutionary role of the other parties was denied; the real leaders of the revolution were credited with "treacherous" and "counter-revolutionary" actions, and so on. In general, the picture created in this way was not even distorted, but simply mythological in nature. Also under Stalin, especially in the last decade of his reign, more distant history was actively rewritten, for example, the history of the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.
2.5. N. S. Khrushchev
During Khrushchev's "thaw" ideological fetters loosened and greater freedom of scientific thought became possible. However, the “thaw” was not accompanied by a renunciation of attempts to rewrite history, only the specific topics of falsifications and attitudes towards individual historical figures changed.
· The perpetrators of the repressions were called personally Stalin and a narrow circle of his associates (Yezhov and Beria), then somewhat expanded by members of the "anti-party group". However, the involvement in the terror of Khrushchev and a number of other persons (Anastas Mikoyan, Serov), as well as persons who had died earlier and were canonized (Mikhail Kalinin, Zhdanov) was hushed up.
Major events in the USSR, including the development of heavy industry in the 30s, the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the restoration of the destroyed economy, the creation of nuclear weapons, were presented as committed without the participation of Stalin and a number of his closest associates (such as Beria). It came to curiosities: for example, due to the censorship ban on the positive and simply neutral mention of the name of Stalin, which arose after the XXII Congress of the CPSU, it turned out to be impossible to publish a book about Soviet diplomacy during World War II.
· Repressions and related phenomena, referred to by the euphemistic term "personality cult", were declared the product of some personal "mistakes" of Stalin; the question of the objective prerequisites for the "cult of personality" and its connection with the essence of the Soviet socio-political system was not raised; moreover, such a position could become the basis for criminal prosecution. On the whole, the Stalinist political line was not called into question either: the beneficence of Stalinist industrialization, collectivization, the struggle against the "right" and "left" opposition, etc., was emphasized; Stalin's actions in foreign policy, including the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, were also viewed entirely in line with the Stalinist tradition. Only after the 22nd Congress did these acts begin to be attributed not to Stalin personally, but to the “party” and the “Soviet government” (in foreign policy). In connection with the need to preserve the Stalinist version of history and thereby legitimize the existing system, Khrushchev also refused to rehabilitate prominent oppositionists - Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, and others. The traditional Stalinist version of such events as the Katyn massacre, etc., was still preserved.
· The extent of Stalinist repressions and such events as the Famine in the USSR (1932-1933), “dispossession of kulaks”, etc. were still concealed. In some cases, published data on the number of repressed were greatly inflated. For example, it was indicated that in the period 1937-1940, up to 40 thousand commanders of the Red Army were destroyed. In fact, this is the number of commanders, retired from service during the specified period, and this includes those dismissed for seniority, and the sick, and those dismissed for disciplinary offenses. In reality, 15,557 people were repressed - in general, every tenth commander, while the repressions had little effect on the junior command staff, and the main burden hit the highest.
2.6. Denial of genocides
Despite the presence of many testimonies, such historical facts as the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide are sometimes questioned. Unable to completely disprove the reality of these events, the authors of "alternative theories" question or falsify minor historical evidence, such as individual documents, figures or photographs. In view of the impossibility of a complete refutation of these events, the purpose of such falsifications is to relativize the perception of these facts, an attempt to plant a seed of doubt in their veracity.
3. Nationalist falsifications of history
This type of falsification in the post-Soviet territory is the most common at the present time, although it was also practiced in Soviet times. Such a falsification is not of the events themselves, but only of their interpretation, more subtle and cunning. It comes down, as a rule, to “ennobling” the history of your people as much as possible - to attribute to it the most ancient origin, the greatest possible cultural merits, various glorious deeds (so that in the nationalist picture of history, for example, an insignificant skirmish and even an obvious defeat can be presented as a great victory); connected with this is the striving in every possible way to belittle the significance of other ethnic groups in the history of one's country, to ascribe to oneself or hush up their culture and their contribution. At the same time, as a rule, their own ethnic group is endowed with all the virtues, while neighboring ones look insidious and aggressive. In this case, often genuine sources are used, the memories of individuals, individual phrases taken out of the general context, but giving a deliberately certain assessment of events.
