How Propaganda Rewrites History: Who Really Controls the Past?

History isn't always objective. Discover how propaganda shapes textbooks, museums, films, and politics—and learn how to spot historical manipulation.

By Silke Hermanns

7 min read

History is never truly neutral, and pretending it is may be one of the easiest ways propaganda survives. The danger isn't only that governments lie about the past. Schools, museums, films, and even social media can make those lies feel normal.

Think about it: whenever you open a history textbook or read an article like this one, you're not just getting "the facts." You're also reading a carefully shaped interpretation of those facts. That doesn't mean every textbook is fake. But it does mean we should stop pretending that history education is completely impartial. What we're taught to remember is political—and what we're taught to forget is often even more political.

Let's slow down for a moment. What exactly is propaganda?

Propaganda is a tool used to persuade people to adopt or support a particular ideology. It often spreads through the media: movies, posters, TikTok videos, radio broadcasts—you name it.

Most people associate propaganda with fake news or wartime posters, and that's partly true. But propaganda is much more subtle than that. It also appears in the quiet ways history gets rewritten: by leaving important facts out, emphasizing certain events over others, or even distorting the truth to support a specific narrative.

And here's the scariest part: we don't always realize it's happening. The most dangerous propaganda isn't the obvious kind. It's the version that looks like education or national pride.

In this article, we'll explore how history becomes propaganda. We'll look at real examples, examine how the past is used as a tool of power, and—most importantly—learn how to spot these tactics for ourselves.

Wait... What Counts as Propaganda?

Calling history "a lesson from the past" sounds harmless, right? But that's exactly why it's so easy to manipulate. For centuries, those in power have understood this. Kings, governments, and entire nations have turned history into a story that justifies their rule, silences their opponents, or transforms failures into victories.

Let's look at two examples.

When History Becomes a Political Weapon

THE SOVIET UNION

The Soviet Union is a classic example of propaganda's power. After the Second World War, the government attempted to rewrite history. It minimized the role of its non-Soviet allies, downplayed the suffering of ordinary citizens, and turned figures like Joseph Stalin into mythical heroes.

The reality—that Stalin made disastrous military decisions early in the war and that millions of Soviet citizens died under his rule—was largely buried. Instead, the official narrative celebrated the heroism of the Red Army. By presenting the war as proof of the Communist system's success, the Soviet government strengthened its own legitimacy. Anyone who questioned the regime could be accused of disrespecting the sacrifices of the past.

The poster I selected perfectly illustrates this strategy. Its slogan reads: "Long live the All-Russia (Bolshevik) Communist Party! The Party of Lenin-Stalin, the vanguard of the Soviet people, tempered in battle. The inspirer and organizer of our victories!"

This is what makes historical propaganda so powerful: it doesn't just praise the state—it makes criticism feel morally unacceptable.

NAZI GERMANY

Nazi Germany relied on similar tactics to manipulate public opinion.

The regime took genuine historical figures, such as the medieval Teutonic Knights, and twisted their legacy to support Nazi ideology. It promoted the myth of a pure "Aryan" race while ignoring centuries of cultural exchange and intermarriage. It also rewrote Germany's defeat in the First World War as a "stab in the back" carried out by Jews and other supposed enemies.

This false narrative helped fuel Hitler's rise to power.

That's the danger of an oversimplified version of history. Once people believe they have been humiliated or betrayed, propaganda can easily transform resentment into political loyalty.

If a government wants to shape the future, it doesn't necessarily need soldiers. It can start with classrooms. What students are taught to admire, ignore, or feel ashamed of becomes the foundation for how they understand their country.Many history textbooks are not written by a single independent historian. They're produced by committees following national curricula, often influenced by political pressures.

In Japan, for example, conservative groups have long pushed to downplay or deny wartime atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre. In Turkey, school textbooks have traditionally ignored or minimized the Armenian Genocide, treating it as little more than a historical footnote. Sometimes, leaving something out is the most effective form of propaganda because it doesn't look like lying—it simply erases certain people from the story.And honestly, that's sometimes even more frightening than an obvious lie, because students may never realize another version of history exists.

Just think about how many stories involving women or minority groups were excluded simply because those in positions of power didn't consider them worth telling.Museums can also feel objective because they're quiet spaces filled with carefully displayed artifacts. But museums tell stories too.Every object placed on display—and every object left in storage—is part of a larger narrative. It reflects what a country chooses to remember and what it would rather forget.

Take the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, which for decades presented Russia's imperial past as a golden age of culture and progress while giving far less attention to the brutality of serfdom or the oppression of non-Russian ethnic groups.Or consider the Confederate monuments across the American South. Rather than presenting the Confederacy as a failed rebellion built around slavery, many of these monuments portrayed it as a noble fight for "states' rights." Movies, television shows, and even video games shape our understanding of history too. Braveheart, for example, portrays William Wallace as a heroic freedom fighter while overlooking his brutality and the civilians killed during his campaigns. Meanwhile, countless propaganda films produced in countries such as China don't simply entertain audiences—they encourage viewers to associate the state with strength, unity, and superiority.

Who Decides What We Learn?

You might be wondering: how does propaganda actually work?

THE ART OF LEAVING THINGS OUT

Every history book has to make decisions about what to include and what to leave out. The problem is that those decisions aren't always neutral.

For example, many Western history books rightly focus on the Holocaust as the systematic murder of Jewish people. But they often spend far less time discussing the millions of Romani people, disabled individuals, political prisoners, and LGBTQIA+ people who were also murdered by the Nazi regime.

I can speak from personal experience. I didn't learn about many of these victims until I visited a concentration camp myself.

PERSPECTIVE CHANGES EVERYTHING

The same historical event can look completely different depending on who's telling the story.

To many Americans, the American Revolution represents brave patriots fighting for freedom. To many British people, it was a rebellion against the Crown. For enslaved people, however, it was a conflict in which neither side was willing to grant them true freedom.

The Crusades offer another example. In much of Europe, they're often presented as religious wars between Christianity and Islam. In many parts of the Middle East, they're remembered primarily as violent invasions by foreign powers.

THE POWER OF SYMBOLS SLOGANS

Propaganda doesn't need a 500-page report. Sometimes a single phrase is enough.

Take the slogan "Make America Great Again." Beyond being a political campaign slogan, it presents the past as though America was once a perfect nation. It overlooks periods marked by slavery, segregation, and deep inequality.

Slogans work because they create nostalgia without requiring evidence. They offer a comforting version of history while avoiding difficult questions about who benefited—and who was excluded.

How Propaganda Tricks Your Brain?

At its core, propaganda is about power. Those who control the narrative don't just shape our understanding of the past—they influence the future. History is often used to make wars seem inevitable or morally justified.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, for example, was partly defended by comparing Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler. Such comparisons ignored the complexity of Iraqi history and politics. When leaders compare every enemy to a historical monster, they aren't teaching history—they're borrowing its emotional power to make violence appear unavoidable.

History can also silence criticism. In China, openly challenging the Communist Party's official narrative about events such as the Cultural Revolution or the Tiananmen Square protests remains heavily restricted.

Finally, history is often used to justify economic systems that benefit those already in power. The British Empire frequently described colonialism as a "civilizing mission," suggesting that colonized societies were somehow less advanced simply because they lived differently.

The phrase "civilizing mission" is propaganda at its most arrogant. It transforms conquest into charity, theft into progress, and violence into a supposed act of generosity.

Why History Is Really About Power

So, how do we protect ourselves from propaganda? The answer isn't to distrust everything. It's to ask better questions.

Who wrote the story? Who published it? What might their agenda be? Is the source connected to a government or an independent organization? Which perspectives are included—and which are missing? Always compare multiple sources. If only one version of a story exists, be skeptical. In fact, you should even be skeptical of this article. Have I focused on certain examples while leaving others out? Pay attention to the language as well. Propaganda often relies on emotionally charged words and phrases that sound noble while hiding uncomfortable truths. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably deserves another look. Finally, follow the money. Who funds the museum, the research project, or the publication? Trustworthy organizations are usually transparent about their funding and potential biases.

The goal isn't to distrust every history book or museum. It's to stop treating history as though it simply fell from the sky, untouched by politics. Someone always chooses the frame. Our job—especially as students and young people—is to ask who benefits from that frame.

We're not powerless. (Or maybe that sentence is propaganda too—but I'll let you decide.) By asking questions and exploring multiple perspectives, we become better at recognizing propaganda when we see it. Because history isn't only about the past. It's about the future—and who gets to decide what that future looks like.

How Propaganda Rewrites History: Who Really Controls the Past?

History is never truly neutral, and pretending it is may be one of the easiest ways propaganda survives. The danger isn't only that governments lie about the past. Schools, museums, films, and even social media can make those lies feel normal.