The Russians have so long extolled their role in the victory over Nazi Germany that they did not notice how they became Nazis.
Russia is perhaps the only country in the world that lives on the past and tries to realize this past in the present and destroy the future. For years, Russian propaganda transformed reality in the country, creating “Nazis”, enemies of the people and ignoring the modern world.
The reason for this is that the modern Russian Federation has a generation of people who remembered the USSR as a powerful state. The disintegration of this country due to technological backwardness and defeat in the “Cold War” became for some a chance for self-realization and new opportunities, a collapse of illusions and a catastrophe for others.
The Russian elites were not able to correct the situation and therefore decided to play on nostalgia – the strongest feeling among others. Therefore, Putin and his team did not build a new Russian Federation, but created the illusion of a powerful Russian Federation by transferring their society to the past.
Having created enemies from almost the entire world, the entire Russian society became infected with resentment – a feeling of hostility towards everyone on whom the Kremlin has shifted responsibility for its failures. Problems in the economy are due to the West, and people are dying in the war due to Ukraine.
At the same time, Moscow uses the past to justify its right to commit crimes. It is the victory over Nazism that the Russians explain their right to interfere in the affairs of their neighbors.
Also, the Russians turned the cultural and scientific heritage of their people into a weapon, trying to identify the figures of the past with the present Russian Federation. Therefore, the Kremlin uses the achievements of the past as a “soft weapon” and a shield.
That is why the issue of “cancellation” of Russian culture is now a necessary part of protecting the country, so that the Russian Federation does not have leverage to put pressure on public opinion in Ukraine and the world. Modern Russians have the right to deserve to be identified with the composers and artists of the past, and for now they will be identified with Nazism.
Because the modern regime of the Kremlin, like Hitler at one time, similarly built the country on feeling and hatred for enemies, using the defeat in the middle war (for Hitler it was the first world war).
The modern Russian Federation, similarly to Nazi Germany, does not recognize the right of nations to the state and puts its nation above others. Thus, the Russian propagandist Sakhar Prilepin in his post about the importance of Russian culture actually justified the Russians as a superior nation over their neighbors.
In particular, he wrote:
“Russians are the authors of the most important world military victory and one of the five most important world revolutions. Russians are the largest white nation in the world, the largest number of Europeans live in Russia, ironically.
Russians are one of the main creators of humanity as we know it today. Russians in space. Russians have Christ.”
What is this, if not Nazism? Theses, which should convince his readers of the peculiarities of the Russian people, and emphasize the importance of Russians in history with the help of false facts, such as Christ’s belonging to the Russian nation, and evaluative and controversial judgments.
Having defeated Nazi Germany, Moscow imported many things to the USSR, including scientific achievements and cultural values. However, the main thing that was taken from Berlin to Moscow was the ideology of hatred and the uniqueness of one’s people.
But this war was what brought the Russian Federation and its society back to reality. The Kremlin’s myth about the greatness of the Russian Federation was destroyed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, partisans and allies, who once again united against Nazism. Russia remains on the path to isolation, where Russians will continue to live alone with their past.
