title: The Myth of the Great Patriotic War and Russia's Foreign Policy
abstract: This chapter deals with the mythologisation of World War II in Russian state propaganda and information operations. First, it characterises the domestic determinants of Russia’s foreign policy; then, it identifies the objectives of the politics of memory from the Kremlin’s perspective. Finally, it points to the connection between the narrative of the Great Patriotic War and Russia’s pursuit of its foreign policy goals. The sacralised myth of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), focused on the Sovi