Immortal verdict: why the results of the Nuremberg trials are still important today

The norms and principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal still help to resist attempts to distort history and find worthy answers to modern global challenges and threats. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an address to the participants of the international forum "Without a statute of limitations. Nuremberg. 80 years old". Russia condemns any attempts to whitewash the Nazis and firmly stands by the immutability of the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Sergei Naryshkin, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society and director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, said in his speech. According to experts, the entire world politics of the last 80 years is based on the results of the tribunal, they do not allow supporters of Nazism to begin its rehabilitation in the public consciousness. At the same time, attempts are being made in the West to forget the outcome of the process.

International Forum on the Nuremberg Tribunal

This year, humanity celebrates the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the main trial in history, the Nuremberg trials. Then the leaders of the defeated Nazi Germany appeared before the International Military Tribunal of eight judges representing the USSR, Great Britain, the USA and France. Within 316 days, numerous crimes committed by figures of the Third Reich were exposed, and the evidence presented to the world community left no doubt in anyone's mind about their guilt.

The opening of the international scientific and practical forum in Moscow "Without a statute of limitations. Nuremberg. 80 years old" attracted the attention of politicians and experts not only from Russia, but also from other countries. The forum's plenary session is taking place in the partially recreated interior of Hall No. 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where the trial took place in 1945-1946.

An exhibition has been launched at the forum site in the capital's Manege, which includes archival photographs and documents. A large-scale exhibition of works by the legendary cartoonist Boris Yefimov, organized by Izvestia together with the Russian Academy of Arts, which opened the day before, is also partially dedicated to the tribunal. The exhibition features both archival issues of the newspaper and authentic drawings from the courtroom, including the famous cycle "The Fascist Menagerie", where each of the leaders of the Third Reich is turned into some kind of animal or reptile.

The Nuremberg principles are still relevant today, as they serve to find worthy answers to modern global threats and challenges, President Vladimir Putin said in his greeting to the forum participants.

— This year's International Scientific and Practical Forum "Without a statute of limitations. Nuremberg. 80 years" brought together representatives of government authorities, youth and volunteer organizations, scientific and expert circles, employees of archives and museums — those who devoted themselves to preserving the truth about the dramatic, tragic events of the Great Patriotic War, who sincerely strive to restore historical and human justice," the President emphasized.

Russia condemns any attempts to whitewash the Nazis and firmly stands by the immutability of the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Sergei Naryshkin, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society and director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, said in his speech.

— The resolute struggle against the manifestations of fascism and Nazism is fixed as the most important direction of the state policy of the Russian Federation. The evidence of consistent commitment to this course is the conduct of a special military operation, a liberation operation," he said.

The results of the Nuremberg trials are of fundamental importance, since the entire modern world politics of the last 80 years has been based on the presumption of Nazi guilt. An important precedent has been set for the whole world and international law, Vladimir Shapovalov, Deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State University, told Izvestia.

— If there had been no Nuremberg trials, the rehabilitation of Nazism in the West would have taken place quickly enough. Now, with all the desire to forget about the crimes of the Nazis, and therefore about the feat of the Soviet people, the West cannot do this, because there is a verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal," the expert noted.

Alexander Asafov, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, emphasized in an interview with Izvestia: The Nuremberg Tribunal is an important date in world history, since it was at it that the destructive misanthropic ideology of Nazism was condemned. It was given a fair assessment, and its participants and ideologues were justly punished.

Attempts to revise the results of the Nuremberg trials

While the West prefers to forget about the lessons of the Nuremberg trials and World War II, Russia's priority remains to promote historical truth, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an address to the forum participants.

—Cynical attempts are being made to rewrite history, belittle the decisive role of the peoples of the Soviet Union and the Red Army in defeating Nazi Germany, justify the Nazis and their henchmen, and equate the occupiers and liberators," the Russian Foreign Minister said.

This is most clearly evident in Ukraine, where, as a result of the 2014 coup d'etat supported by NATO countries, forces "obsessed with hatred of everything related to Russia" seized power, Lavrov stressed. It has been known for a long time that Nazi formations are operating in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and they do not hide — they openly wear the stripes of SS units. In addition, the Ukrainian authorities consistently ban the Russian language in all spheres of life, and violate the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Russia has repeatedly informed the international community about this, including the leadership of Western countries. For example, in July, Sergey Lavrov announced that he had given US Secretary of State Marco Rubio a selection of quotes from Vladimir Zelensky and other representatives of the Kiev regime about the need to destroy Russians. However, there is now a policy in the West of covering up the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities. Vladimir Shapovalov emphasizes that the Soviet Union played a key role in Nuremberg.

— It was the USSR that advocated maximum punishment for Nazi criminals. In particular, we advocated recognizing the Wehrmacht as a criminal organization. The Western allies, for various reasons, sought to torpedo the proposals of the Soviet Union, to downplay their importance," said the political scientist.

Alexander Asafov recalls that without the careful work of the team of Soviet prosecutor Roman Rudenko, the tribunal would not have taken place, because only the evidence of atrocities and mass killings presented by the Soviet side moved the process from a dead end.

Another alarming trend is growing — the rise to power in Europe of the descendants of the Nazis, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

— It came to the unthinkable: Germany pushed one such granddaughter of the defender of the Reich to the post of President of the UN General Assembly in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany. He is currently sitting there (we are talking about the former German Foreign Minister Annalene Burbock. — Ed.)," Zakharova said during a speech at an event on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

Maria Zakharova noted that over the past decades, it has been seen how the topic of the Nuremberg Tribunal has been erased from the agenda, while the West could not cancel this process, but did everything not to attract the attention of young people to this topic. There are also examples of blatant blasphemy against the memory of the victims of the genocide. For example, a private auction house in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia put up for auction the personal belongings of Holocaust victims and documents about executions and medical experiments in Nazi prisons.

Today, Nuremberg is becoming a household name for our determination to defend historical truth in the media, to combat falsifications, fakes, and distortion of the history of the Second World War and its outcome, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, Zakharova concluded.