Talking about history and fishing are quite similar. In both cases, the subject tends to grow larger over time.

The best country to study how history is distorted is, of course, Russia — often described as a nation with an unpredictable past. There, history shifts quickly to meet the propaganda needs of whoever holds political power at the time. Yet, some stories persist.

April 5 marks 783 years since the 1242 Battle on the Ice. Soviet-era history textbooks, both Russian and Estonian, taught that this was a pivotal battle. The young prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, defeated the Livonian Order's forces on Lake Peipus.

The fact that no one knows exactly where the battle took place, how large it was or what its actual impact might have been doesn't seem to matter. The further away the battle recedes into the past, the larger Nevsky becomes. In 1547, he was canonized as a saint, and from then on, the glorification and commemorations never ceased.

No one really knows how many churches are dedicated to him. Even in small Estonia, there are several — most notably the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Toompea, which was built to eternally enshrine the image of Russian supremacy on Estonian soil. In a 2008 poll in Russia, the people even voted Nevsky the most outstanding figure in history — placing him ahead of both Stalin and Putin.

The cherry on top of this admiration came most recently with the unveiling of a grand 15-meter-high monument to Nevsky on September 11, 2021, near the village of Samolva in Russia's Pskov Oblast, Oudova District. Naturally, Vladimir Putin and the entire Russian elite were present. Interestingly, the monument was inaugurated on the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York. Samolva — known in Estonia as Samblaküla — now also hosts a private Battle on the Ice museum, which reportedly draws tourists.

So what do we actually know? We can say with certainty that the most significant role in the Nevsky legend belongs to Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film Alexander Nevsky. Its patriotic impact still resonates today. Phrases attributed to Nevsky, like "Whoever comes to us with a sword shall perish by the sword," remain key ideological slogans. But the truth is, no one knows what Nevsky actually said or even what he looked like. It's a fun fact that the highly prestigious Russian Order of Alexander Nevsky actually bears the face of actor Nikolai Cherkasov, who played him in the film.

The most dramatic scenes — armored knights crashing through the ice and drowning — tend to amuse locals who live by the lake. Under typical ice conditions for that time of year, you could probably drive a light tank across it. The most likely scenario is that the battle didn't happen on the ice at all, but rather somewhere along the shore.

Since the monument went up, several video versions of the battle have been produced. One example is the docudrama "Great Battles of Russia: The Battle on the Ice," commissioned five years ago by Russia's Ministry of Culture. It has since garnered 1.6 million views on YouTube. Viewers can learn, for instance, that Derpt — today's Tartu — was an ancient Russian city, though overall, the film does try to keep its feet on the ground. Notably, the number of knights reportedly involved in the battle has been scaled down considerably — no longer hundreds or thousands, but closer to thirty.

A large portion of the knights' forces were Estonians, which actually makes the Battle on the Ice the most Estonian-populated of all historically renowned battles. Still, it's clear that the battle's significance was largely local and its monumental meaning — especially in Russia — has been inflated for ideological and propagandistic reasons.

So, the modern story of Alexander Nevsky is primarily a Russian internal national myth. The same applies to tales like that of the 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, where historical truth plays only a minor role. These myths serve a purpose: preparing citizens — especially the youth — for any potential war. As the war in Ukraine has shown, the strategy works.

We would do well to recognize that we have no good reason to revere or glorify the over-mythologized heroes of other nations. Most of them are like the fish tale I mentioned at the beginning — the kind that gets bigger on the way home. All those Suvorovs, Michurins, Matrosovs, Lomonosovs, Nevskys, Bronze Soldiers and Yeltsins are not our concern. If they are important to the Russian people, no one in Russia is stopping them from worshipping these figures or erecting monuments. Just don't expect us to do the same.

Martin Luther King put it beautifully when he said, "We are not makers of history. We are made by history." So let us be shaped by our own history — not by someone else's tactical version of the truth.

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