Russian Disinformation – Germany Accused of Publishing USSR Flag Made to Resemble Nazi Swastika
The Russian Ria Novosti news agency on Tuesday published an article in which it claimed Germany’s embassy to Russia had published a map of the post-war division of Germany into occupation zones on its Telegram channel.
The map illustrates the four zones into which Germany was divided between 1945 and 1949, with the flags of the occupying powers – American, British, French and Soviet.
The publication took exception to the fact that the flag of the USSR was depicted as a black hammer and sickle in a central white circle on a red background – it said the symbols should have been gold on a red background and positioned in the upper corner. It pointed out that the other three flags “had not undergone any changes.”
It then implied the modification to the Soviet flag was recent and drew a link between this “insult” and statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country faced continuing attempts to revise the history of World War II and to diminish the role of the USSR in the Victory over Nazism to “suit selfish political interests.”
However, the map, the image of which was posted on the Ria Novosti website, was actually published 80 years ago. The same issue of the map was sold by the US company “Boston Rare Maps” which provides a full account of when the map was printed and by whom – showing that the image posted on the Russian news site had not been altered since it was first published.
The company website also showed images of other versions of the map from 1946 and later that used a Soviet flag consisting of a black hammer and sickle on a red background positioned in the top corner – more similar to its actual design of the USSR’s flag.
Ria Novosti also showed a purported link to the embassy’s Telegram channel where it had allegedly posted the map but when checked by Kyiv Post the link no longer exists – if it ever did. If it had been posted by the German embassy it seems more likely that it was done so to illustrate an historical curio rather than a political statement aimed at the Soviet Union, their leadership or that of their successors.
Source: Kyiv Post