History has become a weapon in Russia's battle with the West over Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin looks increasingly to the past to whip up patriotism and rally support.
Last month's lavish commemorations of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, several declarations by Putin and new history textbooks have all presented what some independent historians say are slanted or rewritten versions of the past.
The Nazi-Soviet pact that divided Poland in 1939 — which saw Moscow seize much of what is now Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States — is now seen in a positive light. A new justification has been found for the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and some of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's worst crimes have been played down.