Revising Russian History

This is a small portion of the whitewashing of Russian History that portrays the Soviet Union's innumerable crimes as rational acts. And even when the crimes are acknowledged, major political figures in Russia are quick to compare Russia's actions to those of the west. Point out the horrible treatment of Russian Jews (which was so bad many of them fled westward to Nazi Germany), and they'll point out the American government's treatment of Blacks. Ask about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Nazi Germany (which led Germany and Russia dividing Eastern Europe), and they'll bring up Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy where Britain abandoned their ally Czechslovakia to the Nazi power. Ask about the invasion of Estonia, and they'll point out America's involvement in numerous Central and South American revolutions.

What bothers me is that this is not irrational. The Russians have a point, they have no more atrocities in their history than any other modern country. And yes, Russia is whitewashing their past to erase any feelings of guilt, but they're doing this to establish a greater national identity to be proud in. And the above-linked textbook isn't used for college classes, because the national government isn't involved in textbook regulation for college classes. So at worse it's being used to teach high school students. And I remember a lot of fallacies in my high school history books, like the idea that the civil war was fought over slavery. You want to talk about whitewashing history? That's just fucking absurd. At least Stalin did modernize his country, even if not all of his actions were rational.

The part about the textbooks I first read in The New Cold War. I can't recommend the book highly enough if you want to learn more about Russia's political climate. It's a damn fine primer that assumes you have no prior knowledge of the subject. I have one major complaint with the book so far: It's Russophobic. Rather than trying to understand why Putin and Russia would do the things they do, it far too often condemns them. The Russian mindset is neither eastern nor western, and it would do the author some good to examine it. But other than that, read this book.

EDIT: I found this link, which establishes further relevance for Russia's importance in the modern world. They're making a power play, people.
PS) I'm on a Russia kick today.