in the campaign “Ideological Preparation for the Full-Scale Invasion (2020–2021)”
The publication of the manifesto "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" (July 2021), constructing a pseudo-historical myth: "Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a single whole," while modern borders are declared the result of the fact that "the Bolsheviks' actions in severing from Russia its historical territories are not considered a criminal act"[1]. The same article describes how Lenin personally "persuaded" the leaders of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih republic "to act within Soviet Ukraine," and how the Central Committee resolved "to create at the congress 'one government for all of Ukraine'"[1]. On the eve of the invasion the thesis was taken to its limit: in his address of February 21, 2022 Putin declared that "modern Ukraine was entirely and wholly created by Russia, or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, communist Russia," and called the country "Ukraine named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" - "He is its author and architect"[2].