Rewriting Memory: the Holocaust and Genocide Discourse in Contemporary Russian Foreign Policy

Abstract This article explores how the Russian leadership has reshaped historical memory – particularly narratives of the Holocaust – to serve contemporary foreign policy goals, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. It examines the emergence and strategic use of the concept of the genocide of the Soviet people . The authors trace the roots of this discourse to Soviet-era “soft Holocaust denial”, demonstrating its use as an instrument of international propaganda and “memory wars”. The article further explores how the marginalization of Jewish historical memory is intertwined with the construction of a narrative of Russian historical victimhood to legitimize the war in Ukraine, particularly through comparisons between Nazi collaborators and contemporary Ukrainians. The article also explores the ambivalent stance of the Russian government, which continues to affirm Holocaust memory in certain contexts, while simultaneously diluting it through broader narratives of Soviet suffering in the other contexts.