DenaZification and DemilitariZation of Russia

Russia is an empire, the heir to the USSR, and Mr. Putin dreams to restore its greatness to the borders of the former Soviet Union. This is impossible without Ukraine, so Russia attacked Ukraine in late February 2022 under the far-fetched pretexts of "preventing NATO expansion," "threats from Ukrainian neo-Nazis," and "genocide of the Russian-speaking population of Donbas”. The main goals of the war declared by Mr. Putin on early morning of February 24th were "demilitarization" and "denazification" of Ukraine.

Prior to that, in 2004, the Ukrainians did not let Putin's protégé, a former criminal V. Yanukovych, to become the president of Ukraine. As a matter of fact, Ukraine began to really move away from Russia after the Orange Revolution and Mr. Putin did not like that at all. One study argues that “ … In one statement on Sept. 11, 2008, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs alleged Ukrainian attempts “to heroize the accomplices of fascism,” violate “the rights of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population” and “oust the Russian language from the public life of the country, science, education, culture and the mass media.” Thus, the narrative about "Banderites”, the need to fight Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” and expanding NATO, alleged genocide of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine has been consistently promoted by Mr. Putin for about 14 years.

Anyway, V. Yanukovych became the president of Ukraine in 2010 and Putin could breathe a sigh of relief, but the Ukrainians kicked Yanukovych out of Ukraine that time during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. Mr. Putin took great offense, annexed Crimea and created Donetsk and Luhansk People's quasi-Republics on Ukrainian territory (Donbas) in 2014.

Now Mr. Putin wants to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine in a full-scale war, but it is obvious that Putin's modern Russia brings the ideas of neo-Nazism to the world and the threat of "liberation" to all its neighbors.


Mr. Putin needed this long-standing lie about “Banderites”, etc, in order to 1) create an image of Ukraine as an enemy to justify future aggression, 2) enlist the moral support of the Russian people, and for this purpose 3) give the Russians some kind of unifying idea despite it is based on hatred. Thus, Putin has regularly issued ideological clichés since 2008 - "all Ukrainians are Banderites" (means “traitors”), "USSR defeated Nazi Germany without Ukraine”, «Ukraine is a failed state”, «NATO threatens Russia and is getting closer, using Ukraine”, etc. Mr. Putin and the Russians are not at all confused by the fact that "neo-Nazis" and "Banderites" have elected native Russian-speaking Jew V. Zelenskyy as their president in 2019 and the far-right Ukrainian party “Svoboda” has got only one seat in Ukrainian Parliament so far.

The Ukrainians, by the way, can't decide by themselves whether they are “Banderites” or not. About half of Ukrainians consider Stepan Bandera a national hero and the rest believes he was a war criminal.

It's easier for Russians - the notion of "Banderites" has been instilled in their consciousness by Stalin’s propaganda since World War II and was perceived simply as "bad people and traitors". Russia had their own traitors like General A. Vlasov, who defected to Hitler in 1942 and his Russian Liberation Army of more than 100,000 Russians, but Ukrainian traitors were “the worst”.


It turns out that questions like nationalism or internationalism, socialism or capitalism, democracy or autocracy, neutrality or expansionism, republic or empire, national heroes or national traitors are very important and ambiguous ones for every nation. The worst thing is that all the above concepts are blurred and often there is no unambiguous answer to a seemingly simple question.
For example, why North Korea is named the «Democratic People's Republic of Korea», when everything there is ruled by Kim Jong-un? What does "democracy" (“rule of the people” in Greek) and «republic» ("public affair" in Latin) have to do with the current name of the country?

Ukrainian authorities inform that 403 people of remaining civilians in Bucha were shot dead in recent massacre made by Russian troops in that Kyiv suburb. 1,126 Ukrainian civilians altogether, including 40 children, have been found killed by Russian forces across Kyiv region. Around 500,000 refugees have been deported for unknown reason from south-east of Ukraine to camps in occupied territory of Donbas and then to Russia within last months. This is how Adolf Hitler's Nazis acted during World War II.

Russia is now formally a “Federal semi-presidential republic under a centralized authoritarian state”. Nazi Germany was a “Unitary Nazi one-party fascist state under a totalitarian dictatorship”. Such different names and such a similar essence...

Indeed, “wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them”.


So what are “Nazism” and "neo-Nazism" as concepts? People have invented many different words and often understand them in different ways.

Nazism (National Socialism or Hitlerism) is the ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party in Nazi Germany of 1930-1945. The later term "neo-Nazism" is applied to any far-right groups with similar ideas which have been formed in different countries after the collapse of the Nazi regime.

Here there are couple definitions of Nazism, which often is considered to be a form of fascism:
- Wikipedia: “Nazism is a form of fascism with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed.”

- Merriam-Webster dictionary: “The body of political and economic doctrines held and put into effect by the Nazis in Germany from 1933 to 1945 including the totalitarian principle of government, predominance of especially Germanic groups assumed to be racially superior, and supremacy of the führer.”

- Britannica encyclopedia adds: “In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and dictatorial rule, Nazism shared many elements with Italian fascism. However, Nazism was far more extreme both in its ideas and in its practice. In almost every respect it was an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement, emphasizing the will of the charismatic dictator as the sole source of inspiration of a people and a nation, as well as a vision of annihilation of all enemies of the Aryan Volk as the one and only goal of Nazi policy.”

Fascism, in turn is “a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy that rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.” More exactly, in Italy.


Russian nation does not seek understanding in life or establishing the truth, that is why Russians equates nationalism, Nazism, and Fascism. The Russians are inculcated with the formula that all these people are simply "bad”. Also, many Russians think that the fascists were tried in Nuremberg in 1945-46. No, the Nazis were tried there, and the Italian fascists lived quietly into their old age except for B. Mussolini.


Mr. Putin has awarded the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade — the Russian army unit Ukraine accused of war crimes for the killings of hundreds of citizens in Bucha — the honorary title of “guards” for defending the “motherland and state interests.” “State interests" are apparently "demilitarization" (the civilians in Bucha already had no weapons) and the "denazification" of Ukraine. This is how Mr. Putin understands the "denazification" of Ukraine: all Ukrainian-speaking people, who live according to Ukrainian laws, and, perhaps the most important, do not want to switch to Russian cultural values are "Nazis”. Those citizens of Ukraine who speak Russian (Kharkiv, Mariupol) are the Nazis, too. Almost all Ukrainians from Putin's point of view are "neo-Nazis" and therefore they must be killed. And I know exactly how Russian soldiers - the enforcers of Putin's will - distinguish Ukrainian "Nazis”. They pay attention to all those who do not greet Russian tanks with flowers and show no desire to cooperate. Right now it is probably 95% of Ukrainians. They must be “denazified” in special camps according to Mr. Putin and a certain Timofey Sergeytsev which has published in Russian state-owned news agency "RIA Novosti" an article “ What Russia should do with Ukraine “ recently. The article basically calls for the full destruction of the state of Ukraine as well as Ukrainian national identity. This is what Adolf Hitler tried to do to all "non-Aryans”. Thus, Mr. Putin and 81% of Russians who more or less support the war in Ukraine are true followers of Adolf Hitler and modern Nazis.


Now Russia came across an unexpected situation. Russian propaganda has lied so actively and for so long about "Nazism" in Ukraine that now Russian people who sincerely believed in "Banderites," would demand victory in the war at all costs, but the problem is Mr. Putin cannot win. Several high-ranking military officials have already been removed from their positions and got under investigation. If Mr. Putin keeps failing in Ukraine (and the probability of that is increasing every day), he will have to flee and Russia will fall apart.


Putin's rating has reached 83% in March 2022. This means that many Russian people are infected by Putin's nazism, fascism, imperialism, and militarism. Now he is trying to infect the younger generation of Russians with all that stuff apparently with the goal of having full "Generation Z" in Russia within a dozen of years. Many children and teenagers are wearing a “Z”- sign on their clothes and study in schools a remade history of the country, where Stalin and current Russian aggression are whitewashed and Ukraine is presented as a "Nazi" and "anti-Russian" country.


The world must defeat Russia by force of arms and sanctions, find Putin (which will be hard), try him (which will be long), take nuclear weapons away from his heirs, ban Russia from having armed forces, force the Russian elite to pay reparations to Ukraine, and force all (!) Russian people to repent (which is the hardest part).

The collective West dreams of ending the war as quickly as possible and I think the humane West will forgive the Russians without waiting for the repentance. This will be a mistake. If the current Russian "generation Z" is not made to pay for their crimes in Ukraine - both with money and sincere repentance - they are guaranteed to repeat themselves under a new Führer as soon as they will be able to.

Russia's Maj. Gen. Minnekayev already told on April 23rd, 2022 that Kremlin’s goal was to control Ukraine's East (Donbas region) and South to make a corridor to Transnistria (the unrecognized breakaway state which is a part of Moldova) where the Russian-speaking population was also oppressed.
The "liberation" goes on.


P.S. Dear Reader! I am very much interested in your opinion on the subject of this article. Please, write a comment or ask a question if you want to clarify something.
Yours,
Igor Chykalov