“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.” Winston Churchill
The Russian weaponization of history is a threat to Ukraine and her allies. (History of Ukraine, part III)
When both Stalin and Hitler were in power, more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else in the Bloodlands, or in Europe, or in the world. Snyder, Bloodlands
First, we will discuss the radical far-right nationalist Stepan Bandera.
Bandera was part of the militant wing of the “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists” (OUN-B). He was born in Austria-Hungary and he was fascinated by Italian fascism, Stalinism, Nazism and other extreme ideologies.
Bandera’s goal was an independent Ukraine, free of Poles, Russians, Jews and other minorities.
Bandera was an ultranationalist. Tragically, such men often think that terrorism is the only way to independence. In 1934, Bandera organized the assassination of the Polish interior minister Bronisław Pierack. Bandera was first sentenced to death and ultimately to a life in prison.
Putin, Hitler, or Stalin are dictators, and they don’t fear heretics. Dictators need them.
Stephen Spender called the dictator’s need for violence a “kind of arithmetic progression of horror”. After the joint invasion of Poland by the Nazis and Stalinist troops, Bandera was freed from prison in 1939. When operation “Barbarossa” was launched on the 22nd of June 1941, Bandera formed the National Ukrainian Committee.
“The atrocities that Lenin and Trotski had ordered and carried out go far beyond anything that even the German Kaiser had ever commanded.” Winston S. Churchill, 1919
Many Ukrainian elites naively believed that the hated Soviets would disappear and the new German masters would be better.
At first, the Germans were cheered by Ukraine as liberators. Sadly, the Ukrainians had a wrong image of the “civilized West.” The Germans of 1941 were anything but civilized. Bandera thought by serving the “Third Reich” he could get rid of the Soviets. Only days after the occupation of Lviv, the OUN and locals participated in pogroms.
“It was easier to triumph in violence that it was to make a new order.” Snyder, Bloodlands
Malcolm Muggeridge once explained, “a government based on terrorism requires constantly to demonstrate its might and resolution.”
Yaroslav Semenovych Stetsko, the head of the Committee, announced the creation of a Ukrainian state in German occupied Lviv and the cooperation with Nazi Germany. The Nazis disapproved. Bandera was interned by the GESTAPO as a privileged prisoner until 1944.
Once the Nazis became desperate, he was allowed to form the Ukrainian National Army. After the war, Nazi collaborators soon became the perpetrated.
“The object of torture is torture, the object of persecution is persecution and the object of power, is power.” Lynskey
Bandera continued his partisan war from Munich. He was killed by the KGB in 1959. Bandera is a highly controversial historical figure.
Some Ukrainians see him as a hero and a martyred liberation fighter. Others think he was a Nazi collaborator and condemned him. Bandera and his followers called “Banderites” committed massacres against Poles and Jews.
“Bandera’s assassination becomes a symbol for everything that goes wrong in Ukraine. He became a symbol for the Soviets for everything that goes wrong with Ukraine and its ultranationalism” Snyder
“In total, the two regimes killed an estimated 14 million non combatants in the “Bloodlands” extending from Poland to western Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic States.” Snyder
The Ukrainians had every reason to hate the Soviet occupiers as much as the Nazis. The Poles in 1944 said the “Black death” (Nazis) was leaving, but the Red Scourge returned.
Ukraine has suffered tremendously under both Stalin’s hunger genocide, deportations and the Great Terror.
Stalinism killed most of its civilian victims in peace time. The Nazis killed only a couple of thousand before 1939. Most of their mass murder happened during the war.
“The number of people killed in the kulak operation was about the same as the number sent to the Gulag (378,326 and 389,070, respectively).” Snyder, Bloodlands
In the summer and fall of 1941, Nazi tanks rolled deeper and deeper into Ukraine.
Hitler and his ideologues saw the world as a competition of different races, Germany was to assume her rightful place in history. Stalin and Hitler aimed at imperial autarky to rival and ultimately challenge the United States.
Hitler needed Ukraine’s fertile lands to build a continental empire based on exterminatory slave labor and colonialism.
The key elements for this independence were raw materials, oil, and food production. The chief quality of any dictator is being infallible. Wanting to make their predictions come true will overrule any utilitarian considerations.
The Nazi “race theories” were rife with anti-Semitism. The Nazis thought that the Soviet Union and Poland were “made up Jewish states.”
The Nazis believed that the Soviet Union would simply collapse weeks after the invasion. Hitler’s genocidal “Generalplan Ost.” Ideology and economics often go hand in hand. The barbaric plan of the Nazis was to kill the entire elite of the Soviet Union and to turn its peasants into slaves.
“The only victories that leave no regrets are the ones won over ignorance.” Napoleon Bonaparte
The grandmother of the Ukrainian writer Oksana Sabuschko said that “the Germans were worse because they were good and diligent workers, workers of evil.” Snyder says the good people died first. In 1933, the journalist Gareth Jones observed the “pure primitive worship of Hitler” which turned ordinary men into mass murderers.
“The Nazi hun is always either at your throat or at your feet.” Churchill in 1943 on defeating Germany in North Africa
The Germans took Kyiv in September of 1941, and the city had a population of 800.000 back then, 250.000 of them were Jewish, and that is every 4th inhabitant
The Nazis shot 33.771 people on the 29th and 30th of September in the massacre of Babi Yar. Children under three were not registered on the list of victims. Today, this ravine a metro station with a park in Kyiv. A Russian missile hit Babi Yar early in the war. Russia thinks they fight Nazis. In reality, Russian missiles target the graves of Nazi victims.
“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” Winston Churchill
In February of 1943, after the battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army launched a massive counteroffensive. The Soviets pushed the German army back in several stages
In November of 1943, Soviet forces retook Kyiv. In Summer 1944, the Soviets retook Lviv. In May 1945, the Soviets occupied parts of Berlin. In my opinion, calling this a liberation paints a false picture. Unfree men cannot liberate anyone.
“The communists were bound to their leader by faith and fear. It took a special kind of mind to truly believe that the worse things appeared, the better they actually were. The communists adjusted their own perceptions to the changing expressions of Stalin’s will.” Snyder, Bloodlands, page 65
Stalin’s troops raped, pillaged and murdered on their way to Berlin.
The Soviet troops behaved like occupiers, not liberators. One dictatorial evil was replaced with another. Stalin lied when he promised the allies to allow free and fair elections in Poland, the Baltics, and on the Balkans.
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.” Churchill at the Tehran conference to Stalin
In the Soviet song “sacred war” one line says “Rise up vast land, rise against the dark fascist power.”
The Soviets and the current fascist regime in Moscow twist the history of WW2. This twisted propaganda narrative focuses on heroism and the regime. It does not focus on the victims or the people of Ukraine, Belarus, and other peoples of the Soviet empire who bled for this victory over the Nazis.
The Gulags from Stalin’s times and the propaganda are still operational.
The worst of two worlds comes together in Putin’s Russia. An unenlightened capitalism without checks and balances paired with Soviet imperialism. The system is inhumane, nihilistic and murderous.
“The Nazi regime is a monstrous abortion of hatred and defeat” Winston Churchill
Repeating what? The tens of millions of victims? The Great Terror? Holodomor?
Russia interprets the 1654 Pereyaslav Agreement as an alliance of Russian masters with unequal Ukrainian subjects. Nikita Khrushchev revived this historical myth in 1954.
The fictional “royal gift” of Crimea to Ukraine was born.
In reality, the electricity and water infrastructure of Crimea should be developed. One of those projects was the Kakhovka dam, which Russia destroyed in 2023. Crimea lacks a land connection to Russia, therefore Ukraine can develop the peninsula better.
Khruschev’s reasons were boring economic and political reasons
Ukraine was supposed to become the second nation in the Soviet Union, subservient to Moscow. Under Krushchev, the Cold War between communism and capitalism was in full swing.
After Krushchev, Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. During his reign, Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector was rapidly expanding.
The first half of his reign was marked by steady economic growth, industrialization and modernization.
From 1975 onwards, though, the economy stagnated and then declined. Ukraine had large factories for strategic nuclear missiles. In 1977, the nuclear plant Chornobyl went operational. Brezhnev’s regime ordered the Russification of books, films, universities, and other areas.
“History never repeats itself. Man always does.” Voltaire
The Soviet Union still tried to create the Soviet Human. This “Homo Sovieticus” speaks Russian
Breznev’s policies were about Russification and control. The KGB called people carrying Ukrainian books extremists. These people were often sentenced to seven years of Gulag, and 5 years of exile. (7+5)
In 1986, under the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, reactor four in Chornobyl, Ukraine, suffered a catastrophic explosion and a meltdown.
More than 3 million people and 2300 settlements were affected by the fallout. As always, Moscow tried to keep the Super GAU a secret. This accident and its aftermath eroded the trust into the Soviet regime, and it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union only five years later.
The lies in the face of such a disaster marked the beginning of the end of Soviet power
The Ukrainians were infuriated with the central government. Broad parts of the Ukrainian population protested against Moscow. There were always protests in 1991 in Kyiv. Miners of environmentalists, artists, and oppositionists joined the protests.
“Dictatorships can only function if the masses go along with it, either through malice, apathy, or fear.” Lynskey, The Ministry of Truth
Ukraine’s independence was announced on the 24th of August 1991. In December 1991, 90 percent of Ukrainians voted for independence. Leonid Kravchuk became the first president of Ukraine in late 1991.
Putin’s reign 2000 to 2024
Putin revived the ideas of heroism with the 9th of May victory parade
Defeating the Nazis, likely the most evil empires in modern times, was used to build an identity. The slogan of 2014 “We can repeat it” and claims of “de-Nazification” and “de-militarization” are threats towards Ukraine and the West. The phrase “we can do it again” means “we can come to Berlin with tanks.”
These wishes are an expression of a fascist and cannibalistic regime.
Quo vadis Russia? The Soviet political system remained in place after 1991. Putin’s policies will precipitate the next collapse of Russia. We must prevent that Ukraine is dragged down into the abyss with them.
The last winner in the Russian narrative was Stalin. The Russian regime will use more lies and terror to suppress the masses.
More “heretics” and “traitors” will be trialed. Putin rules by spreading fear, but his power rests on brittle historical and socio-economic foundations. The monopoly of organized violence is gradually slipping from his hands. He will end as all tyrants end.
Summary and Conclusion
The oppressed Russian masses were primed to accept Putin by the chaos of the 90s and by centuries of being ruled from above.
The masses in Russia, much like in Hitler Germany, believe everything and nothing at the same time. In a totalitarian system, everything is possible, and anything the regime says is a lie anyhow. This audience will believe absurdities and commit atrocities. A majority in Russia does not object to being deceived.
Historians must search for the puzzle pieces of the truth.
The West has the legal and moral obligation to restore the full sovereignty of Ukraine. No one is more deserving, paid a higher price or has fought harder to join the EU. When all is said and done, the EU flag will fly proudly next to the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.
“There are other forces at work in this world, besides the will of evil.” Mithrandir
We must close our ranks behind Ukraine. Ultimately, love will triumph over hate, liberty over tyranny, and democracy over despotism. In unity, there is always victory.
“Help is coming. Mighty forces are arming on your behalf. Have faith, have hope, and your deliverance is sure.
Do not despair. your land shall be cleansed. Keep your souls clean from all contact with the Nazis. Even in their fleeting hour of brutish triumph, they are the moral outcasts of mankind.” Winston S. Churchill, 1943
I wish us all the will to do, and the soul to dare. Walter Scott
Ukraine and her allies must refuse all collaboration with the fascist Russian regime. Ultimately, their evil cause will perish.
I hope that Russia suffers a terrible defeat and that Putin is overthrown. Then Russia can reinvent itself from within. In its current state, Russia is not compatible with the 21st century. Sergei Medvedev, Russian historian
Thanks for reading my story.
Consider clapping, highlighting, commenting, buying me a coffee, or following me on Medium.
Take care and be well.
Ceterum censo Russiae Imperium esse delendum. Chris Snow
Part I:
Part II:
Sources:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/13/peace-ukraine-crimea-putin-00077746