Rewriting history: the myth of Russia’s invincibility

As the world commemorates 80 years since the end of World War II, the most devastating global conflict the world had ever seen, the Kremlin is poised to go all-in to use the 9 May events to solidify Russia’s revised version of history.

Russia is good…

In the other articles in this series, we have already exposed how Russia has systematically sought to revise history to instil a deceptive misperception that only Russia fought against Hitler in World War II and draw manipulative parallels with Russia’s present-day aggression against Ukraine.

The Kremlin deliberately invokes the memory of fighting Nazis to recapture former glory, and more importantly, justified moral superiority, while monopolising the victory and dismissing the bravery of more than 6 million Ukrainians who fought across Eastern and Southern Europe to liberate the world from the scourge of Nazism. Incidentally, by standing up to Russia’s unprovoked aggression, this is exactly what Ukraine is doing today.

…and everyone else is a Nazi

On the other hand, the Kremlin has also sought to slander as a Nazi anyone who supports Ukraine or opposes Russia’s aggression. This is not just schoolyard name-calling or libel. Vilifying perceived adversaries as Nazis dehumanises them and paves the way toward acceptance of deliberate aggression against them. Hence, the Kremlin has sought to revise history to claim falsely that present-day Europe is reincarnated Nazism. Which, of course, is absurd but puts the Kremlin’s Orwellian newspeak on full display – war is peace and occupiers are liberators.

A show of Potemkin invincibility

For the Kremlin, 9 May is not just a highly visible spectacle to peddle historical revisionism and obscure the memory of WWII while cynically claiming to safeguard it. This is a moment to use that same historic revisionism to forge another insidious myth – the Kremlin’s oft-repeated claim that Russia is invincible.

Over the last three years, 9 May events and parades in Russia have increasingly become a spectacle to conjure the vision of Russian exceptionalism and spread deceitful propaganda, particularly targeting Ukraine and its supporters and seeking to legitimise Russia’s aggression. The element of a public spectacle is crucial to project an image of might – hence the Kremlin has also been pouncing at every opportunity to create such spectacles, such as the revival of Stalin-era sports parades or holding state-orchestrated pro-war rallies to show support for Putin and his regime.

Invincibility as a threat

The claim of Russia’s invincibility has been instrumental in the present-day aggression because it is simply another way of saying that any resistance against Russian aggression is futile because ‘Russia cannot be defeated’. There is an implicit threat in this perverse logic. If Russia cannot be defeated, anyone attempting to do so will suffer devastating consequences at the hand of Russia’s might.

Russia also needs to sustain the myth of invincibility to enable the Kremlin’s negotiating tactics of demanding the maximum, issuing ultimatums and never backing down. This is essentially blackmail because of the threat implied in the myth of invincibility.

Invincibility to claim superpower status

Beyond the practical application to use the myth of invincibility to issue veiled threats and sustain domestically targeted propaganda to support mobilisation, the Kremlin also seeks to deploy it to create an impression of Russia as a global superpower, on a par with the United States and China. Here, the conflation of Russia and the USSR is no accident. It is a purposeful blurring of history, using Russia and the USSR interchangeably.

It also betrays that Russia is very much stuck in the Cold War mentality, where the world is divided into spheres of interest and influence, and might makes right. This mentality becomes more than evident if we look at the neo-colonial, imperialism-laden ideas the Kremlin has been putting out in lieu of just and lasting peace in Ukraine.

More than a few defeats for the ‘undefeated’

A core element upon which the Kremlin likes to draw in order to feed the myth of invincibility is the claim that Russia, the true heir of the USSR, has never been defeated militarily. However, history seems to suggest otherwise.

If we were as obsessed with history as Putin claims to be, we could look at the Crimean War of 1853-1856 in which Russia was decisively defeated by an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the French, the British and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Or, we could recall the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, from which Japan unequivocally emerged victorious. Or, take the big one – World War I, which left the Russian Empire in tatters.

We could also fast-forward to see how the glorious, nuclear-armed Soviet Union did in Afghanistan in 1979-1989. You guessed it. The USSR waged a 10-year-long campaign and still failed to uproot the anti-Communist guerrillas. We could even look at present-day Russian Federation military adventures closer to home during the First Chechen War in 1994-1996. Once again, it would appear Russia’s claim of invincibility is on shaky ground.

Finally, if the 1990s still seem like too distant a past, Ukrainian heroic resistance to the initial onslaught of the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022 or the Ukrainian counter-operation in Russia’s Kursk region in 2024 certainly cast serious doubt on the myth of Russia’s invincibility much more recently.

If all else fails, play the nuclear card

While there are some pro-Kremlin claims that Russia fights for the betterment of humankind, most of the rhetoric about Russia’s alleged invincibility is securely anchored in the implicit threat of retaliation. It is a conscious push to exploit fear. Hence, it comes as no surprise that nuclear sabre-rattling plays a crucial role in maintaining the facade of invincibility, because nothing is quite as scary as nuclear annihilation.

Putting nuclear-capable missiles on full display during the 9 May parade is part and parcel of this project to reinforce the myth of invincibility. But the Kremlin has been using the same rhetorical tricks and verbal gymnastics throughout the war. Whether it is feigning concern about nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, or warning of the danger of ‘cornering a nuclear-armed Russia’, painting ‘red lines’ has been a deliberate act of manipulation for Moscow to use the threat of force to forge the myth of Russia’s supposed invincibility.

It is clear that the Kremlin plays the nuclear card often and without shame, as the ultimate rhetorical backstop to dismiss anyone challenging the myth of Russia’s invincibility.

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Article and pictures first time published on the EUvsDisinfo web page. Prepared for publication by volunteers from the Res Publica - The Center for Civil Resistance.