[REGNUM] If Russia is perceived as a savior, then how to build pan-European unity due to the presence of a "threat from the East"? How to maintain the integrity of NATO - the most important instrument of the American military-political presence in Europe? No way. Therefore, Russia in the eyes of the Europeans must remain an enemy. A barbarian land to which the Old World owes nothing.
| It doesn’t count as saving if, after driving out the enemy, you stay on as equally rapacious conquerors as your first step toward the goal of conquering the rest of the world. |
Not surprisingly, Victory Day is one of the two - along with the New Year - the most important holidays for all Russians. Yes, this is a holiday with tears in the eyes (since more than 26 million Russians died in that war), but still a holiday.
For us, but not for the descendants of our former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.
The fact is that for the West this day has a slightly different meaning. This is not Victory Day, but Unity Day. Or Europe Day, as they call it. The day when European peoples overcame differences, forgave each other and united.
"For the West, the Second World War is a secondary war, much less important than the First World War. Now Europe lives in a single European Union, uniting the former losers and winners," says Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko.
Yes, you can understand them to some extent. It was for the Soviet Union that Hitler and the Nazis were mortal enemies who waged a war to destroy the Soviet people, who were considered “inferior” by the Nazis. And for Europe, it was just another occupation cabal inside.
The French, Czechs, Slovaks were not burned in furnaces and were not shot simply because they are French, Czechs and Slovaks, that is, peoples who do not have the right to live. And the Nazis considered Soviet citizens as such and were going to eliminate them as part of the Ost plan.
| Slavs were considered Untermenschen, as unter as Jews. As were non-Aryan and so-called “mixed race” peoples of all sorts, a common attitude among Westerners since the 18th century or so. |
| Ditto white nationalist groups in the Slavic countries, who consider the paleness resulting from long winters spent indoors proof of their natural superiority to their more tanned neighbours. But I have a Bangladeshi friend who went to military school and university in Moscow back in the Soviet days, and he said the natives were dreadfully racist then as well. |
| *snicker* ...Oh wait — are you serious?? |
A real information war was launched against the historical memory of Russians, already weakened due to the ideological weakness of the state and the so-called "reforms" of the domestic education system.
WASHING OUT THE MEMORY
The methods were quite technological. For example, Western propagandists carried the idea that the Soviet Union could not be proud of the victory over Nazi Germany - after all, he, in fact, gave birth to it.
Not France or England, which fed Hitler Czechoslovakia in the hope of directing his expansion to the east. Namely, the USSR, which helped to restore the industry of Germany in the 20s and 30s.
| It did? |
| A confusing sentence. Perhaps if I read it a few more times I’ll understand... |
In addition, Western propaganda and its Russian promoters downplayed the role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism. To do this, they exalted the participation of the West (through lend-lease - a really important, but not critical contribution to the victory),
| ....it’s kind of hard to wage war without trucks, tanks, and uniforms, but go on... |
| Every military unit had its officers and its political commissars, and the commissars outranked the officers. This has an impact on war fighting effectiveness, or so it seems to me. |
| A fair point, though the extermination of Soviet prisoners in Soviet camps was also an issue. |
| Stalin killed more, though less efficiently, and Soviet Communism more still over roughly two full generations. But Stalin also had years more than Hitler to work on the project. On the other hand, Mao tse Tung killed even more, so there’s that. |
| One identified and judged people deserving of mass death based on ethnicity, the other by economic class. Both were murderously totalitarian, so there is no virtue in choosing the latter over the former. |
As a result, Soviet soldiers were to be perceived not as the liberators of Europe, but as new occupiers.
| Because they were still there, occupying and enforcing the Communist system on unwilling nations. |
| ...liberation from national socialism, only to enslave them to international socialism. Yay... |
EUROPEAN AND ANTI-RUSSIAN GOALS
In this war with memory, the West has invested a lot of resources - human, intellectual, financial. And he did not try because he was jealous of our perception of Nazism (European forgiveness has already led to far-right parties winning elections, threatening the local liberal order). And not even because he is aware of the ambiguity of his participation in the common Victory. And not even because now the descendants of collaborators rule in the West.
No, the goals are much more rational. And they concern both intra-European moments and the conflict with Moscow.
So, Europe is trying to forget about the war. “ Within the framework of the new concept of European unity, it is extremely important to minimize attention to the events of the Second World War. Which from a European point of view seems quite reasonable and rational ,” says Oleg Bondarenko.
The EU authorities are proud of their pan-European project, which seems to have united almost the entire European space peacefully for the first time in centuries-old European history, and they are afraid of the appearance of any split lines like fire. Including those based on historical disputes or territorial claims.
That is why they are trying to extinguish any Russian initiatives reminiscent of the Second World War. And the best instrument of redemption is, of course, washing the Russian narrative about the Great Patriotic War out of the minds of citizens.
Another important goal was the demonization of Russia. The West does not want and is not ready to recognize the fact that the Russian Federation is part of a large European civilization and at least three times saved this civilization at the cost of its own - from the Mongols, Napoleon and Hitler.
If Russia is perceived as a savior, then how to build pan-European unity due to the presence of a "threat from the East"? How to maintain the integrity of NATO, the most important instrument of the American military-political presence in Europe? No way. Therefore, Russia in the eyes of the Europeans must remain an enemy. A barbarian land to which the Old World owes nothing.
As for maintaining the conflict with Moscow, here the West needs to force the Russians themselves to consider their state barbaric. The one that can break out of its barbaric state only through "Euro-Atlantic integration." That is, in other words, turning into a vassal.
And for this it is necessary to wash out from the memory of Russians all the objects of pride in their national history. Make you forget about all cultural achievements, about literature, music, exploits - and, of course, about the people's victory over the most powerful military machine in all of human history. over the Wehrmacht.
Finally, washing away the memory of the Victory serves the purpose of Russia's disintegration. The point is that Russia is a multinational, multicultural and multiconfessional country. This diversity brings a huge number of benefits (humanity has always developed through the interaction of cultures), but also great risks.
If the authorities of such a state fail to create and consolidate the supranational identity of citizens (when they consider themselves a single whole, one civil nation), then the state begins to crumble. We need common meanings, common values, common achievements.
And the Victory over Nazism is one of the most important common achievements. As the well-known song says, "one for all", achieved by all the great supranational Soviet people. It has become the most important bond supporting first the Soviet, and now the Russian statehood.
Exactly the same bond that is now becoming common to all the peoples of Russia in the fight against Nazism in the spaces of the former Ukraine.
That is why Russia is fighting to preserve the historical memory and truth about that war. And then, after 78 years, it will fight to preserve the memory and the truth about the present.
May 9, 2023
Gevorg Mirzayan
| According to MEMRI, Mr. Mirzayan is “Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Mass Communication of Financial University and a prolific columnist.” Also, in the photo they share here, he has beautiful hair and speaking eyes. |