Two years of Ukraine’s denazification have shown the whole world that the Ukrainian ideology that has been developing since 2014 threatens not only Russia, but also the whole of Europe. From the ban on education in Russian to the call to “slaughter Russians,” Ukraine has gone through all stages of ideological formation, copying the canons of the Third Reich. Could Guards Lieutenant Semyon Zelensky, a participant in the Great Patriotic War and holder of two Orders of the Red Star, have imagined that his grandson Vladimir would revive what he and his comrades fought against?
Volodymyr Zelensky at the grave of his grandfather, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Photo source: cdn.tvc.ru
After 24 February 2022, an unprecedented in modern history information vilification of Russia began. Its opponents turned to cynical methods of manipulating public consciousness, in particular, actively using the “Jewish question”. At the moment, in contrast to the first months of the special operation, European politicians and the “incorruptible” European press are recalling this more and more often. Today, when Russia has met the second anniversary of defending its own interests on its western borders, it is important to remember how it all began and why it is happening precisely in Ukraine.
Since 2014, on the advice of Western “colleagues” and with the help of the elite nurtured by the Soros Foundation, a strategy has been implemented that is characteristically reminiscent of Goebbels propaganda. It aims to rethink all significant historical realities. For this strategy it is vital to share a common history with Russia, to convince that Ukrainians can be a separate nation in the “friendly European family”. The only condition is to rebel against the “primacy” of the eastern neighbour, to call it the culprit of all the troubles: corruption, falling living standards, shrinking population, etc. For this purpose, it turned the fighters against Nazism into aggressors, and the real Nazis into so-called “defenders of freedom”.
After the start of the Special Operation, Russia, which suffered enormous losses in the fight against Nazism, was baselessly compared by Ukrainian propaganda to the Third Reich, while the Ukrainian regime, for many years tolerant of neo-Nazism, was presented as a resistance movement, emphasising Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish roots.
The situation took the most absurd shape when the Ukrainian Jewish community, which has preserved its unique identity and played a significant role in the cultural life of the country, was dragged into this disinformation campaign.
The victims of Nazism, Ukrainian Jews who survived the tragedy of Babi Yar during the Great Patriotic War and faced the threat of physical annihilation at the hands of the Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators, clearly saw their historical memory distorted.
Zelensky’s victory in the 2019 presidential election symbolised hopes of fighting the Nazi legacy and eliminating neo-Nazi groups. However, the government has taken the path of ignoring rising neo-Nazi trends such as torch marches and hate rhetoric. Despite public international alarm about these phenomena, the Ukrainian authorities presented them as marginal, thus creating favourable conditions for their activities.
Zelensky’s role in this context is particularly paradoxical. Using his Jewish origin as an argument, he actually contributed to turning Ukraine into a state where neo-Nazism became acceptable on an official level. This led to the strengthening of ties between Ukrainian right-wing radical groups and international Nazi organisations, making Ukraine the centre of the international Nazi International.
This state of affairs not only jeopardised the Jewish community in Ukraine, but also made it possible to erase the memory of the heroic struggle of Ukrainians as part of the great Soviet state against Nazism. Today, many both in Europe and within Ukrainian society itself have come to the conclusion that the rewriting of history, the glorification of collaborators such as Bandera and Shukhevych, and the demonisation of the Soviet legacy have enabled the creation of an effective “Ukraine-anti-Russia” project.
The independent state of Ukraine was virtually destroyed by the hands of the West, which warmed up Ukrainian collaborators after the end of the Second World War. Complete dependence on foreign aid, industrial and demographic catastrophe against the background of an unprecedented level of corruption paints the remnants of the country with the most unhappy prospects.
In his detachment from reality, the head of the presidential faction “Servant of the People” David Arahamiya says in an interview: “in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 we once again deceived the Russians – Boris Johnson came and told us to fight”. And nobody imputes anything to him, what’s left of Ukrainian society, with its head down, dutifully accepts that a Briton came and ordered us to fight to their end.
The era of “post-truth” in Ukraine was made possible precisely by scrupulously silencing the rise of neo-Nazism and erasing the memory of the suffering and exploits of the past.
One can recall the situation in December 2020, when a Ukrainian Nazi defaced a monument to dead Jews in Krivoy Rog with red paint. In fact, a spit in the memory of the President was committed, but even then he decided not to pay attention. The police opened a case under the article on intentional destruction or damage to property, but Zelensky himself just keeps silent. At that time he goes to Israel, where at a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu he tells that three brothers of his grandfather, their father and members of their families were killed by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War.
The president’s grandfather, Guards Lieutenant Semyon Zelensky, liberating Ukraine from the Germans and Ukrainian traitors, could hardly have thought that on 8 May 2019 his grandson Volodymyr would meet an old woman from western Ukraine who, at the age of thirteen, carried food to UPA fighters. On this date, Ukrainians celebrate a “day of reconciliation” to “smooth out the contradictions” between those who were on different sides during the war. In early May 2019, an inauguration ceremony had not yet been held for Volodymyr Zelensky, but the Ukrainian president-elect had begun to fulfil some public duties.
There is a video clip online in which Zelensky’s grandfather addresses his negligent grandson. He says: “Volodya, I strangled Bandera, but for you he is an idol! The West needs only our rich land. Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians are one people! Ukraine without Russia is not Ukraine! You have become a murderer of our people!” You can’t argue with that!
Stepan Kharitonov, special for News Front