MOSCOW, July 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to create a special military unit to work with archives and monitor the "falsification of history," a senior military official said on Wednesday.
Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov told reporters that in addition to a pilot project to draft research units of science students, the ministry plans to create other units to work in fields such as “sociology, psychology and history.”
One of the units will be attached to the Defense Ministry’s central archive, studying “aspects of the falsification of history that is becoming widespread in Russia and abroad,” Pankov said. He added that the unit’s research would focus on World War II, and that the soldiers would have access to classified data needed for their projects.
Back in 2009, the Kremlin created a commission against the “falsification of history,” which was disbanded last year with no visible results. But recently the authorities have renewed their enthusiasm for history by ordering the creation of a unified series of school history textbooks that some experts fear might be used to promote patriotic sentiment.
Last month, a Russian lawmaker submitted a bill to the lower house of parliament that would outlaw criticism of the Red Army's actions during World War II.
Pankov said that the ministry plans at least four military research units of draft-age students by the yearend, two of which, made up of science students, took up their posts this week.
The time spent by students on the military research projects will count toward their mandatory one-year military service, officials said earlier.
