As most who have been following events know now, as America went to bed last night, in Europe Russian forces invaded the Ukraine. See: Russia invades Ukraine - Daily Kos, Russia attacks Ukraine - Yahoo News. It is the first war on European soil since the Balkan Wars in the 1990s as Yugoslavia broke up, but this one has far larger stakes and has the real potential to be the first major war on European soil since the Second World War, when Nazi Germany sought to gain living space and was willing to conquer and murder anyone who didn’t want to be Hitler’s slaves. That war ultimately went from 1939 to 1945 and cost millions of lives, including some six million Jews, who’s only “crime” was their religion. At present, the full cost of the present conflict is unknown, and it is uncertain as to how or even when it will end.
However, the cause of the present conflict is one that mirrors the ultimate cause for World War 2. The grievances of a tyrant in power over a major power driving him for more. Now, Putin’s personal grievances may be different from those Hitler repeated as he began attacking the Versailles Treaty from 1936 to 1939 when World War 2 finally began, but the present conflict DOES come back to Putin’s grievances. And Putin is the one in the position of power to act on them for good or for evil. Thus, his grievances over the fall of the Soviet Union are the driving factor as he finds that many of the peoples that the Soviets once ruled over didn’t WANT the Soviets to rule over them. To settle this, Putin has decided to act in a way that mirrors the actions of Hitler.
And I would hope that MOST people see this. If not, I would add an article by Paul Gavrilyuk on the subject of the present tensions from Public Orthodoxy, see: Hitler and Putin - by Paul Gavrilyuk - Public Orthodoxy and note where the comparisons are made and how eerily similar the attacks that Putin makes against the Ukraine matches those that Hitler makes against Czechoslovakia on the way to what would become the Second World War when Hitler gets on to Poland. The two dictators are playing the exact same tune, just with different words and years in mind. And this will then make things difficult going into the future, particularly if these similarities continue and given what we know the cost of putting down Hitler was in Europe.
And yet, Putin has defended his actions and his invasion and has Americans more than willing to take Putin’s side in the entire present tensions that have been rising in Europe since 2014 when Putin’s advance of aggression began. See: Tucker Carlson defends Putin - Newsweek, and then there’s to say nothing of the idiocy that Trump has given on this. Now, Carlson can argue his defense of a Russian tyrant willing to risk World War 3 as “just asking questions because Russia hasn’t attacked the US,” but it should be fair to recognize that the world is not some gigantic thing where the actions in one country do not ultimately effect another. That’s in fact a big part of the history of the world as the whole proverbial global economy is not something that just appeared in the recent past. Something that shows how events in one country can lead to other events in other countries.
The Great Depression also played a role in the emergence of Adolf Hitler as a viable political leader in Germany. Deteriorating economic conditions in Germany in the 1930s created an angry, frightened, and financially struggling populace open to more extreme political systems, including fascism and communism.
Hitler had an audience for his antisemitic and anticommunist rhetoric that depicted Jews as causing the Depression. Fear and uncertainty about Germany’s future also led many Germans in search of the kind of stability that Hitler offered. — The Great Depression - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Now, I would disagree with the USHMM’s conclusion to the article on the Great Depression that it wasn’t the sole reason for the rise of Hitler, as before the depression, the Nazis had very little representation in the German government, and they only began to gain seats in the Reichstag AFTER the Great Depression began. However, the base point made is still the same. An economic crash in the US effected the rest of the world and allowed a despot to rise in Germany who would later attack his neighbors to address the grievances he had. And this presents a historical lesson that folks like Carlson seem to be missing. Just because there aren’t immediate effects on the US from this or because Putin hasn’t attacked the United States, that doesn’t mean that Putin’s war in the Ukraine won’t have negative effects on the US down the road.
And Putin’s own defense of his actions… to “de-Nazify the Ukraine” is ultimately weaker. The Yahoo article discussing the invasion makes the statement that President Zelenskyy is Jewish and had family that were among Hitler’s victims in the Holocaust (1941-1944 within the Ukraine) but I cannot confirm this. The official biography for the Ukrainian President that is online, President Zelenskyy - biography - official does not present any information on his religion or family history, but if true, Putin’s claim is false. Zelenskyy is not a Nazi. Putin may point to actions taken by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II as proof, but it should be noted that many of these groups only sided with Hitler from 1941-1944 because they didn’t want to be part of the Soviet Union and thus saw the arrival of the Wehrmacht as something that would grant them independence, which they’d also failed to achieve in the Russian Civil War earlier. Many of these Ukrainian nationalists ended up fighting both the Nazis and the Communists when the Nazis showed they had no intentions freeing the Ukraine.
In this, based on the line of actions taken, if anyone is the “Nazi” in the present conflict… it’s Putin. He is the one who had rattled his saber. He is the one that has made threats over petty grievances. And ultimately, he is the one who invaded another country without provocation. Regardless of what one may think of the Ukraine and its affairs, they did not invade Russia. They were invaded BY Russia. That is the sign of who the “Nazi” is, not the ranting of a man with grievances in Moscow. And based on his own defense of his invasion, it is quite clear that Putin has learned nothing from history, or at least has only selectively applied the parts he likes. And I’d argue that his defenders in the US, from Carlson to Trump likely haven’t learned the lessons of history either.
Which will then make it imperative that the rest of the world, from Biden and NATO’s leaders to our allies in Asia and other parts of the world to understand the lessons of history and where they may lead. For Putin is Europe’s modern Hitler. He has brought war back to Europe and if we are not prepared… what has begun in the Ukraine may escalate to where the millions of dead from WW2, see: WW2 casualties - WW2 Facts, are considered small by comparison.