The children of Severomorsk are told that neighbouring Nordic countries support Nazism
In a heinous case of history falsification and propaganda, an exhibition for school kids compares Ukraine with Nazi Germany and describes the EU and Nordic countries as supporters of Nazism.
Russia is preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War and the number of patriotic and nationalistic events across the country surges. In the Kola Peninsula, one of the most flagrant cases might be the exhibition that now is on display in local schools in Severomorsk, the north Russian Navy city. The exhibition is called “I am against Nazism” and has previously been on display in several other Russian regions. Its showing in Severomorsk is organised by a local church congregation in cooperation with the regional Ministry of Interior in Murmansk. The Orthodox Church in Murmansk has actively advertised for the exhibition, including on its social media pages.
The exhibition is part of a so-called ‘education project’ that was started in the region of Voronezh. The purpose is to bridge the 2WW with the special military operation, the organisers say. Among the 24 rollups that now are on display in a local school in Severomorsk is one that describes the nearby neighbouring states of Norway, Finland and Sweden as ‘supporters of Nazism.’ “They support Nazism,” the poster reads and lists a total of 30 countries that “provide military and financial support to the Nazi regime in Ukraine.” All the Nordic countries are on the list. On another poster are photos of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky together with Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler’s main accomplices and key architect behind the Holocaust. A third shows Josef Goebbels together with a current-day graveyard in Donbas.
“Here are buried people killed by the Nazis in Donbas since 2014,” the poster reads. The exhibition also includes video materials, including a film that combines images of Hitler’s atrocities with outrageous fakes about Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Among them is a narrative about the theatre in Mariupol that allegedly was blown up by the Ukrainians themselves. It also blatantly claims that the Ukrainian Armed Forces executed everyone that tried to evacuate from the city. Several hundred people, many of them children, had sought refuge in the Mariupol theatre when Russian forces in the most savage way bombed the building.
According to some estimates, up to 600 people were killed. The video calls on children’s support for the war of aggression. “Today, there is a war ongoing in our immediate vicinity and many underestimate the danger. What do you think, how much time will the enemy need to move to the gates of our homes, unless our fathers and elder brothers stand in their way? What do you think, will they have sufficient power, determination and spirit to win unless we support them as a united nation?” The city of Severomorsk houses the headquarters of Russia’s powerful Northern Fleet.
It used to be a so-called friendship municipality with Kirkenes, the Norwegian border town. Since 1994, the two municipalities had a cooperation agreement that included cultural projects, sport events and school visits. Over a period of three decades, representatives of the two towns visited each other and toasted for friendship and so-called people-to-people cooperation. The agreement was scrapped by the Norwegians in April 2023. “We neither need, nor want, such an agreement with a closed military town,” local politician Harald Sunde said to the Barents Observer.
“Severomorsk is the home base and headquarter city of the Northern Fleet, and has responsibility for naval, air force and army capacities that take part in the illegal war against Ukraine.”
