On May 8 we marked the 77th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. We paid tribute to all those who gave their lives or made other sacrifices for freedom to prevail over fascism.
But almost 80 years later, when we believed that fascism would never be able to raise its obscene head again in Europe, let alone start a murderous war on the continent, we are forced to acknowledge that many were blindsided by what the Kremlin represented and are only now facing up to the consequences.
Today, May 9, as before, but even more than previously, Putin’s Russia wants to underscore that it considers itself different and separate from its former allies with whom it jointly won victory over Nazi Germany. It is emphasizing that it’s celebrating the Soviet Union’s – read Russia’s, as per Stalin’s subsequent exclusionist interpretation – victory over Nazi Germany.
By once again repeating inflated figures for the ignorant and gullible about “Russia’s” 20 plus million war dead. By deliberately neglecting to emphasize the huge contribution and sacrifices of the Ukrainians and other non-Russians, and the role of the Western allies in all senses. By neglecting to mention what Stalin’s “victory” and “liberation” brought not only for the subject peoples of the USSR but for the countries of eastern and central Europe.
Yes, the Soviet Union did differ from its Western allies then, as autocratic and imperialist Russia still does today from the democratic Western world. Then, like Nazi Germany, the USSR was a totalitarian state and was to remain one for many more decades. The Kremlin’s perverse notion of “liberation” was resisted by Ukraine’s post-World War II freedom fighters, the East Germans in 1953, Hungarians in 1956, Czechs and Slovaks in 1968 and Poles in the 1980s.
Russia is still in denial about its past. Its continued delusion and manipulation of the truth, especially Putin’s historical revisionism and promotion of the notion of Russia “uber alles!” provide the basis for its resurgent belligerent chauvinism.
Horrifyingly for all of us, Putin has recently launched a new war in Europe against his Ukrainian neighbor. It smacks of the ideological justification and tactics employed by Hitler and the Nazis way back when Berlin and Moscow were kindred ideological partners and allies. Brown and red fascists in league!
The tone of the hateful rhetoric and barbaric methods employed by today’s Kremlin in pursuit of its despotic imperialistic aims throw us back not to 1945 but the cynical days of the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 and the desire of Hitler and Stalin to divide and rule over Europe together. Nazi Fuhrer and Soviet communist tsar united in their convenient “unholy,” but nevertheless real, alliance.
Today’s Kremlin is outdoing even the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in faking history, news and motives. But after Putin’s failed blitzkrieg in Ukraine, which is becoming his “Stalingrad,” Ukrainians have every reason to consider his Russia a fascist state that has to be defeated.
Fortunately, even the skeptics, fellow travelers and useful idiots in the West have largely realized by now how naïve or mercenary they were and have rallied to the defense of Ukraine in its struggle not only to defend itself but also the cause of freedom generally. Better late than never!
Victory in Ukraine will mean genuine victory in Europe and the free world!
