Revisionist future: Russia's assault on large language models, the distortion of collective memory, and the politics of eternity

This article explores how Russian disinformation networks exploit large language models (LLMs) to advance what Timothy Snyder, in his book The Road to Unfreedom , describes as ‘the politics of eternity’ – a worldview that replaces progress with cyclical narratives of national victimhood and mythologised pasts, thereby legitimising authoritarian permanence. Drawing parallels with Orwell's concept of manipulated social memory in 1984 , the article examines how the contamination of AI training data represents a new phase in information warfare. Unlike traditional propaganda, tainted datasets embed lasting distortions in digital memory, subtly reshaping how societies understand history and truth. By examining examples of LLM manipulation, the article shows how such systems are used to amplify the Kremlin's message and narrative, and to erode fact-based discourse. This technological evolution reveals how modern information infrastructures are being weaponised to fragment shared reality and thereby to weaken the potential for political resistance.