Experts and observers criticize Putin’s “mythical use of history”
Putin’s claims contradict and distort important parts of 20th-century history while furthering his own agenda, the experts tell NPR.
They characterize it as an effort to hark back to the Soviet Union’s heroism in fighting fascism during WWII.
But Casanova notes that Ukraine “suffered more than Russia from Nazi tanks,” saying it lost more of its population during the war than any other country (without counting Europe’s 6 million Jewish victims as a nation).
He calls Putin’s tactics “simply a mythical use of history” to justify present-day crimes.
It’s true that many Ukrainian nationalists initially welcomed the German invaders as liberators during WWII and collaborated with the occupation, a fact that Ukraine’s small far-right movement is quick to emphasize. Putin’s claims seize on that kernel of truth but distort it — a classic Soviet propaganda tactic.
Lautman, who is Ukrainian and Russian, says Russia considers WWII its biggest victory and places a big emphasis on its defeat of the Nazis, celebrating WWII Soviet holidays many times a year.
Russian television channels played WWII movies on the day of Putin’s announcement about invading Ukraine, Lautman says, which she describes as an appeal to the older generation.
And Russian leaders have successfully rewritten parts of that history, she says. For example, Putin signed a ban on comparisons between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany last July. That means someone could be jailed for mentioning the collaboration between Hitler and Josef Stalin, Lautman explains.
Jockusch notes another gap in Russia’s retelling of its 20th-century history. “Stalin perpetrated a man-made famine that can be called a genocide in Ukraine 90 years ago, the ‘Holodomor’ which Russia still does not recognize and which claimed some 3 million Ukrainian lives,” she says.
So why would Putin use this particular language to justify an invasion now?
Lautman says Putin has long mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union and has “nothing to show” despite having been in power for two decades.
“If he’s able to reclaim some of this lost territory, on top of having a few satellite states, which he’s been attempting to do over the past decade ... then at least he would have a legacy to leave in the history books of Vladimir the Great,” she says.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech next to a menorah at The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv on Aug. 19, 2019.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech next to a menorah at The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv on Aug. 19, 2019. Image: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
What this distortion of history can teach us
While the West may not have been paying close attention before, many critics in Europe and beyond are now pushing back on Putin’s claims.
Lautman says Ukrainians are used to this kind of language, since it’s consistent with what Russia has been putting into the information sphere over the last eight years. And despite strict media censorship in Russia — where outlets aren’t even allowed to refer to the current incursion as a war — citizens are risking imprisonment by protesting in the streets.
Yale historian Timothy Snyder described the charge of denazification as a perversion of values, telling CNN that it is “meant to confound us and discourage us and confuse us, but the basic reality is that Putin has everything turned around.”
He said Putin’s goal appears to be to take Kyiv, arrest Ukraine’s political and civil leaders to get them out of power and then try them in some way. That’s where the language of genocide comes in, he added.
“I think it’s very likely, and he’s said as much, that he intends to use the genocide and denazification language to set up some kind of kangaroo court which would serve the purpose of condemning these people to death or ... prison or incarceration.”
Casanova and Lautman praise the strength and determination of Ukrainians, noting they are putting up a resistance. If Russia does succeed, Lautman says she is confident it would round up and execute political leaders and journalists there.
The experts point to the importance of learning from history and the present moment, something that the U.S. and other countries have not always done.
Casanova says the current moment proves that the world must create an equitable security system that is “not manipulated by the superpowers.”
And both he and Lautman call for the world to hold Russia accountable, including by trying it for war crimes in international court. (The top prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said on Monday that the body would open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes “as rapidly as possible.”)
“[We have to] understand that Ukraine today is the sacrificial lamb for all the unwillingness of the West to act united in defense of its own norms and values, in defense of the world security system that they tried to establish,” Casanova says. “And if they can’t fight for that, I don’t know for what they can fight.”
Elderly citizens in Mariupol are overwhelmed with emotion as the Russian flag is hoisted over a newly liberated military base. They break into tears, hug one another, and thank the Russian soldiers profusely as the national anthem plays:
“My Donbass is free!”
https://twitter.com/wyattreed13/status/1508235691586695174
“...If Russia does succeed, Lautman says she is confident it would round up and execute political leaders and journalists there...”
It is already happening in the occupied areas.
The arrests of dissidents in Moscow and the suppression of the remnants of free media have shocked many of Russia’s well-to-do and celebrities. Now we have prima ballerinas defecting just like the old Cold War days.