This is a weird one. A bunch of Ukrainians actually crossed over to the Nazi side at one point. I don’t fully understand the history.
Think of the French Vichy.
I think the pro-Nazi Ukrainians were hoping to be liberated from Stalin’s Soviet Russia. Unfortunately for them, the cure was at least as bad as the disease....
The soviets were so brutal to the Ukrainians that siding with the Nazis seemed the lesser of two evils.
They were correct, but it was still siding with evil.
When Germany started operation Barbarossa, The Ukrainians saw them as a Christian crusaders freeing them from atheistic Communism. These peasants naively saw the Maltese cross on German Vehicles as religious symbols. They would soon be awakened from that misconception.
> A bunch of Ukrainians actually crossed over to the Nazi side at one point. I don’t fully understand the history. <
Don’t forget that Stalin deliberately starved millions of Ukrainians back in the 1930s. So I’m guessing that at least some of those Ukrainians were fighting against Stalin, as opposed to fighting for Hitler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
The Holodomor in the Ukraine was courtesy of the communists to the east. Maybe these Ukrainians celebrated the nazis coming in from the west to get revenge against the commies to the east.
Yeah, and Koreans strangely helped the Japs.
What of it?
A bunch of Ukrainians actually crossed over to the Nazi side at one point. I don’t fully understand the history. ............... Maybe Stalin’s treatment of them in the 20’s and 30’s may have something to do with it? It seems there were many like them in all the eastern countries that were part of the Empire taken over by the communists. They were dealing with 2 Devils, and went with the enemy of my enemy is my friend, until he becomes my sole enemy. Ukraine was mostly farm land, and they were forced to become collective via extreme brutal punishment that resulted in many deaths via starvation, deportation to a much cooler climate and strait out murder. When the Germans arrived, they were considered liberators, anything was better than the communists. After Stalingrad the tide turned and the Russians conscripted the Ukrainians into the Soviet forces. I don’t think the Ukrainians considered themselves as Nazis, they were just anti Communists and considered themselves as freedom fighters. I never taught that block of instruction, but I have spoken to many Ukranians who were survivors, as a kid we lived near a Kulak neighborhood. There were many stories out there.
Some of those who remained welcomed the German invasion in 1941 and collaborated closely with them for the next three years or so.
The history on this can be followed by the motivations. Don’t forget that Stalin was buddies with Hilter, before Hitler invaded Russian- then Stalin begged to be an Allie- and our Commie types in State pushed this idea, and we supported the bastard— so there is a lot of propaganda still being turned out by State Dept to this day.
See: Stalin’s and Lenin’s Holodomor prior to WWII, destroying the entire food production in the Ukraine, seizing the grain and seed stocks (by NKVD secret police) and deliberate starving to death of 20 million Ukrainians.
When the Nazi forces cleared out the Soviets in the Ukraine, the survivors of the Holodomor (who were all being forced to work on Stalin’s failing huge Communist “cooperative” slave labor farms) were happy to be liberated by the Germans, who returned the system to individual farms/production (which put food on their own tables). Welcomed them.There were German Army units created from these people— including White Russian (anti-Soviet) Don Cossacks and their leaders.
Those Cossacks and Russians were described by the Communist Soviets as fascists- those who had fought the Allies (ie. the Soviets) partnered to the Axis powers. However, the repatriations included non-combatant civilians as well. The Cossacks who fought the Allies did not see their war service as treason to the Russian motherland, but a continuation of the fight against the Russian Revolution of 1917 — their continuing fight against the Communist Government in Moscow and against Bolshevism in general.
When the Allies “liberated” the Ukraine (Stalins troops were on the Soviet side of the border, and let Brit/US do the work clearing out the German Army)-—Churchill and FDR gave up the Ukrainians to Stalin— US troops put them on trains to the border in Lienz, Austria where they watched the Soviets hang them and shoot them the minute they got off the trains- lots of eye witnesses who were horrified.
The German Nazis came into Ukraine and murdered 100s of thousands of these survivors, and they targeted the jews that remained, and any Bolsheviks pro-Stalin (the ones who were running the huge farm labor camps)- again the Stalin survivors were all for getting rid of the Stalinist thugs.
In the “repatriation” agreed to by Churchill and FDR:
Two White Russian Don Cossack leaders were murdered by NKVD under Stalin’s orders: Ataman (the Hetman) Pavlov, and General Peter Krasnov— Soviets had been waiting since 1918 to get these Cossacks.
Here is the story of the sellout written by the current titular head of the Tolstoy family, Nikolai Tolstoy.
FDR was on his way out of the world, having mini-strokes when at Yalta and went along with Churchill (advised by Stalin’s agents in his cabinet- Alger Hiss & Harry Hopkins, proven):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_Yalta
I'll explain. After Stalin killed off 3.9 MILLION Ukrainians in the process of imposing Communist rule, the Nazis were welcomed as liberators.
They understood that Stalin was worse.
Germans were seen by some as preferable to commies
And lots of ethnic Germanic ties all over northern Eastern Europe
It’s that simple
Yet complicated
Uke today is I think around 30-40% somewhat ethnic or leans Russian
The eastern third is highly Russian
Many people speak both...
Which are related
I think Ukes can understand Russian better than vice versa
The highly ethnic part of Ukraine should be given some autonomy ...they are no question Russian favoring...