Russia condemns rewriting of World War Two history

By Denis Dyomkin

BREST, Belarus (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev condemned on Sunday what he described as attempts to rewrite wartime history -- an attack the Kremlin said was aimed at Ukraine and the three Baltic states.

In a joint declaration marking the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Medvedev and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko denounced a "politicized approach to history".

Their countries "strongly condemn any attempt at rewriting history and revision of the results of World War Two," they said.

Ukraine and the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have challenged Moscow's view of history, saying their nationals suffered from Soviet as well as Nazi oppression, and a Kremlin spokesman said later the criticism was aimed at them.

Meeting in the Belarussian town of Brest, where Nazi forces first crossed the Soviet border on June 22, 1941, the two leaders said that "a selective, politicized approach to history should be set against honest, scientific debate."

"Only on this basis can Europe draw the lessons of history and avoid a tragic repetition of the errors of the past."

"This declaration is indeed a reaction to the actions of the countries in the Baltic and Ukraine, in which recently there has been the rehabilitation of the SS Halychyna division," the Kremlin spokesman told Reuters. "In other countries, Britain for example, Nazi criminals are arrested, not justified."

WARTIME GUERRILLAS