At the end of last year, at Russia's initiative, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution of combatting glorification of Nazism. It would seem like the right and correct step, especially in the context of “attempts to revise the results of the Second World War, the facts of plundering of monuments and growing activity of racist and xenophobic parties”, as pointed out in the document. Who can be against? Perhaps the USA and Ukraine, which motivated their decisions by caring about “free expression of views”.
As expected, such a position of Kyiv's was used by Moscow to organize another anti-Ukrainian information campaign to accuse Ukraine of “aggressive nationalism” and “supporting Nazism”. Well, Russia's arguments seem to be unanswerable. Although, as the folk wisdom goes, “God marks the crook” or “No one shouts “thief!” louder than thieves” in order to distract attention from themselves.
It is this method that Moscow uses to hide the true nature of the country's ruling regime, which is a real Nazism or Hitlerite National Socialism, adjusted to the current situation in the world. A comparative analysis of Nazism in Germany with similar political systems in other countries, in particular Mussolini's regime in Italy and Horty's in Hungary, Antonescu's in Romania, etc., has been repeatedly made by different experts. It has also been compared with the communist regime of the former Soviet Union, in particular, by Valeriy Shvets, an expert of “Borisfen Intel”, in his article “Origins and Inheritance of the Russian-Ukrainian Information Warfare”.
Similar conclusions are made regarding the Putin regime in Russia. Thus, according to former Prime Minister (2005–2006) and Defense Minister (2007–2009) Yuriy Yekhanurov in his interview to the NewsOne TV channel in December last year, “historians have to equate Nazism, Communism and the Russian world”. At this, convincing evidence of the similarity of the above-mentioned formations were called Russia's leadership's actions against Ukraine, which “go beyond any civilized society”. The correct and absolutely accurate definition. However, let's look at the problem through a broader lens.
According to universally accepted principles, the main features of Nazism or National Socialism are as follows: a totalitarian and one-party political system in the country; repressive internal politics; revenge-seeking and populism; greatpowerness and aggressive expansionist foreign policy; nationalism, chauvinism and intolerance towards other nations (xenophobia); the use of methods of state terrorism against the population of the occupied territories; militarization of the country, as well as the establishment of state control over its economy. All this was characteristic of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and it is quite characteristic of modern Putin's Russia. Let's turn to analogies to confirm this.
| Germany (1934) and Russia (2013) | |
In 1933, following the rise of protest moods in Germany after the defeat of the country in the First World War, which led to the loss of a number of territories and a sharp escalation of socio-economic problems, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) came to power. At this, in the course of the political struggle, Nazis used simple, accessible and popular slogans that were theoretically grounded by Hitler's close associate, ideologue of racism and Nazism A. Rosenberg.
First of all, such slogans included: revenge for the defeat in the war, restoration of Germany's imperial grandeur and the establishment of its domination in the world, expansion of the living space for Germans, as well as implementation of the idea of pan-Germanism or creation of a “German world” based on the ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity of the German nation. The objectives were supplemented by ideological narratives about the Aryans as “a master race”, “inferiority of other peoples” and “oppression” of German minorities in neighboring countries, which required their protection.
All this became the programmatic principles of the NSDAP, which were first proclaimed by Hitler on February 24, 1920 at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich and stated in his book “Mein Kampf” in 1925.
Similarly, in 2000, Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia and was elected President of the country on the wave of critical tightening of tension in the Russian society after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the failure of market reforms. First of all, in this regard, the politico-oligarchic forces that stood behind Putin relied on the desire of the Russians to take revenge for the USSR's defeat in the Cold War, which was considered a shame and tragedy of the Russian nation. Besides, were widely used clear and popular slogans with promises to restore stability in the country and to resolve its economic problems. All this ensured Putin's victory in the elections already in the first round of voting.
In the future, such approaches were used by Putin to increase his popularity and strengthen the power in the country. For example, on February 10, 2007, during an international security conference in Munich (quite an indicative coincidence!), he for the first time publicly announced the restoration of Russia's imperial course, namely — its transition to a tough confrontation with the West for the realization of Russian interests. At this, the post-Soviet territories were unilaterally defined as the “zone of exclusive interests” of the Russian Federation.
| Munich (Hitler) and Munich (Putin) | |
Like the ideas of pan-Germanism of Hitler's Germany, such Moscow's policy was supplemented by the ideology of building a “Russian world” on the same principles of the ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity of Russians, which were actually declared the so-called “titular” nation in the territories of the former USSR. Member of the Russian Academy of Military Science, former analyst of the KGB of the USSR I. Panarin and philosopher, Doctor of Sociological Sciences A. Dugin became the main theoreticians of the “Russian world” and, more broadly, of the Eurasian Union as the form of the new Russian Empire.
Based on such theories, Moscow was justified in its claims to control the post-Soviet space, as well as the “right” to protect “Russian compatriots” on its territory, including with the use of military force. Later, these approaches were enshrined in the Concept of Russia's Foreign Policy, Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation and other conceptual documents that became the guide for action.
Hitler's first step in practical implementation of his plans was the establishment of a political, ideological and economic dictatorship in Germany. That became possible due to the law “On Extraordinary Powers”, which was adopted after the incident with the arson of the German Reichstag on February 27, 1933, which gave Hitler and his government full legislative rights in the country. On the basis of the above-mentioned law, the activity of all political parties, except for the NSDAP, was banned, and Nazis got control of the German economy in the form of state -monopoly capitalism.
At the same time, Hitler and NSDAP took under their control the country's media space, which was used for the mass brainwashing of the German population with ideas of fascism and national socialism. The main directions of such work included propaganda of the following: racial superiority of the German nation over all other peoples; a need to clear Germany from non-natives, first and foremost Jews; hostile nature of France and Britain as Jewish and anti-German plutocracies; Germans' “right” to invade other countries and enslave their peoples.
The establishment of totalitarianism in Germany was supported by force to suppress any dissent among the population of the country, and was accompanied by the closure of the media, educational institutions, cultural centers and libraries and the destruction of books that did not correspond to the ideas of national socialism. The main attack was inflicted on Jews, who were called by Hitler the main enemies of the German nation and were proscribed.
| The congresses of the NSDAP (1935) and the “United Russia” (2011) | |
Exactly the same steps, but adjusted to the current situation, were taken by Putin. Having become President of the country, he immediately announced a course to “strengthen the vertical of power”. The need for this was justified by the “threat of the collapse of Russia” as a result of “regional separatism”. In order to struggle against such a threat, but in fact — for the sake of strengthening Putin's personal power, the procedure for the formation of the Federation Council of Russia was changed. For example, while earlier it consisted of governors and members of legislative bodies of Russian regions elected by the people, according to the new rules they were appointed by the Kremlin. In addition, Putin made a legislative initiative to grant him the right of sole removal from the posts of heads of regions, territories and other subjects of the country.
To implement the above-mentioned changes, the State Duma of the Russian Federation formed a coalition of supporters of Putin and related political forces of national-chauvinistic orientation. Despite the resistance of the Federation Council of the Russia, the coalition managed to implement all President's initiatives. At this, widely were used methods of pressure on deputies, as well as bribing them.
At the same time, due to all sorts of political manipulation, the pro-Putin party “United Russia”'s constitutional majority was ensured in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. In turn, the role of all other parliamentary parties was reduced to exclusively decorative functions, including the so-called “systemic” opposition controlled by the Kremlin.
All this greatly strengthened Putin's positions and allowed him to move on to the next stage of building a single power system in the country, namely — to establish control over the Russian economy. In order to achieve this goal, Russian oligarchs who did not supported the line of the President of the Russian Federation were arrested or deported from the country under various presumptions. In exchange for freedom, they were forced to transfer their property to Putin's environment, who became his base of power in the country.
Besides, like the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, the leader of the Russian Federation relied on the special services of the country, which rigidly suppressed all the protests against him. In particular, in this regard, the most illustrative were the actions to disperse protests in Moscow in early 2012 against the falsification of the presidential election in Russia. Activists of those protests are still in prisons. Like the Nazi SS, in 2016 a new power structure was created in Russia — the Federal Service of the National Guard troops (the so-called Rosgvardia), which is under Putin's personal control and intended to counteract anti-government actions in the country. For this end, Rosgvardia has been granted the right to use force against protesters, including firearms. There was also increased legal responsibility for organizing unauthorized rallies and demonstrations, as well as participating in them.
| Germany (1938) and Russia (2017) | |
Putin's efforts to strengthen his power are accompanied by a massive information campaign to “zombiyfy” the Russian population by incitement of nationalist and chauvinistic moods among citizens based on the ideology of building a “Russian world”. The main directions of such a campaign are quite similar to the ideology of Hitler's Nazism and include ideas of the special role (“God's choice”) of the Russian nation and its superiority over other peoples, negative character of Western values and the traditionally anti-Russian essence of the USA and Europe's politics.
At this, special attention is paid to the crippling of Ukraine, which has chosen its own course, independent from Russia, and is an example for other countries of the former USSR. In addition, Russian propaganda creates a negative attitude to people from the Caucuses and Central Asia, who are presented as the “second class” nations and are purposefully opposed to the Slavic population of Russia.
As in Hitler's Germany, a separate component of the Kremlin's information policy is the elimination of the centers of other ideologies, which is carried out under the pretext of “fighting extremism”. Thus, since 2000, on such an excuse, in the Russian Federation, the activities of all media and non-governmental organizations that opposed Putin's policy has been stopped. According to the same accusations, in 2010 in Moscow was closed the only in Russia Library of the Ukrainian Literature.
Characteristically, Putin not only does not hide the frankly nationalist (and, in fact, Nazi) nature of his policy, he emphasizes it when the opportunity occurs. In particular, in Putin's words said during his meeting with the Federal Chancellor of Germany, A. Merkel, on March 8, 2008, “like Medvedev, he is a Russian nationalist”.
The above — mentioned steps allowed Germany in the 1930s and Russia in the first decade of the 2000s to move directly to the preparation of external expansion and attack on neighboring countries.
Thus, in March 1935, Hitler denounced the Versailles Peace Treaty, which consolidated the outcome of the First World War, including the territorial losses of Germany in favor of France, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Denmark, and severely limited the potential of the German armed forces. Based on the prevarication of the leading European countries and the assistance of the USSR, Germany regained its military power, including a significant increase in the number of ground forces, and created powerful armored forces, combat aviation and navy.
Already in 1936, Germany brought its troops into the demilitarized Rhine region, in 1938 annexed Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia, in 1939 captured most of Poland, in 1940 occupied Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, and began active military actions against Britain, and in 1941 invaded the Soviet Union.
| Poland (1939) and Georgia (2008) | |
In 2007 Russia launched a large-scale military reform, which at the first stage provided for the possibility of the RF Armed Forces' actions against the countries of the former USSR. First of all, such reforms included improving the command system and the organizational structure of troops, which had to increase the efficiency of their combat use in regional armed conflicts.
Already in August 2008, Russia attacked Georgia, and in early 2014 annexed the Ukrainian Crimea and occupied part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. At the same time, preparations for a full-scale war with the United States and NATO began in Russia as part of the concentration of troops in the Baltic and Black Sea areas, as well as large-scale military exercises, including missile and nuclear forces.
It is widely known what horrors were made by Germany in the occupied territories, especially in Poland and the Soviet Union. No less terrible things were done by Russia in Chechnya, where more than 180,000 civilians were killed by Russian troops in two wars (according to the investigation of a special commission of the State Duma of the Russian Federation). Tens of thousands of civilians were killed by Russia in Syria as a result of the massive bombing of peaceful settlements, where allegedly there were terrorists. Such Kremlin's actions have already been condemned by the international community and like the actions of the Nazis have been recognized as war crimes.
| Grozny/Chechnya (2000) and Aleppo/Syria (2016) | |
Fortunately for Ukraine, the attention of the world community to the Crimea and Donbas does not allow Russia to repeat such crimes in their territory. Although there are mass repressions against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians who are dissatisfied with Putin's regime. It has already been recognized by the international community in the UN General Assembly resolution “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)” and by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague F. Bensouda in her annual report on the results of the preliminary investigation of events in Ukraine of the time of the Revolution of Dignity, annexation of the Crimea and the beginning of Russia's aggression in the Donbas.
We know what was the result for Germany of the Nazi politics of its leadership. The total destruction of the country and the international Nuremberg tribunal for the leadership of the country (including for the ideologue of Nazism A. Rosenberg, who was recognized as a military criminal and executed). It is quite obvious how similar policy will end for Russia and its ruling regime. At least they are already under the influence of Western sanctions and in actual international isolation from the entire civilized world.
By the way, after Germany's defeat in the Second World War, Nazi ideology was banned not only in its territory but also throughout the world. In contrast, Moscow only declares condemnation of Nazism, although in reality it conducts an obviously Nazi course in the form of state nationalism and chauvinism.
| Putin (20??) |
In this regard, we may once again refer to Yuriy Yekhanurov's interview to the NewsOne TV channel. According to him, “Ukraine is an independent country that has paid for its independence with blood and will not have any association with Russia in the next hundred years. And in general, we should forget about such an association”. Well, Ukraine and Nazi Russia have different paths to follow.
