Zen blog post in Russian
https://dzen.ru/a/adNyfwQHxE8WrxWQ
Modern violence cannot be explained solely through historical analogies like Nazism; it must be analyzed through specific actions, decisions, and responsibilities of people here and now. And if we want to be serious, we need to discuss responsibility, not symbols.
The progressive Russian public likes to talk about Adolf Hitler. This is understandable: he has become a universal symbol of absolute evil, through which it is convenient to evaluate any events. Hitler is a convenient and very clear symbol of absolute evil. But in the case of Russia's war with Ukraine, such optics not only simplify reality, but also make it difficult to see its true source. People who talk about "fascism" and "Nazism", for the most part, do not live under the sounds of night shelling. They do not spend weeks without light, water and heat. They do not face daily threats to themselves and their loved ones. Therefore, their idea of evil remains abstract and historical. It is not Nazism in its classic historical form that destroys Ukrainian cities. Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mariupol and dozens of other cities are suffering from the war waged by a state that feeds not on Hitler, but on Soviet and post-Soviet political culture. At the heart of this culture is the cult of Victory, the sacralization of violence, militarism, and the habit of justifying crimes with a “higher historical mission.” There are specific solutions, specific structures, and specific perpetrators of today's destruction and loss of life.
Trying to explain what is happening solely through analogies with Nazi Germany is a simplification that makes it difficult to see the real nature of what is happening. It creates the illusion that evil must necessarily look the same as in the history textbooks. But modern violence does not have to copy the past in order to remain violence. Appeals to the "fight against Nazism" in this context turn not into an analytical tool, but into rhetoric that replaces the discussion of specific actions and responsibilities. Seriously speaking, the assessment of what is happening should be based not on symbols and historical analogies, but on facts.:
- who makes the decisions.
- who performs them.
- what are the consequences of this?
And it is in this plane — and not in comparison with the past — that the real understanding of what is happening lies.
That is why it is so hypocritical to talk about the “fight against fascism” on the part of those who themselves use the language of dehumanization, justify the destruction of cities and turn a blind eye to torture, deportation and murder of civilians. It was not Hitler's fans who acted in Ukrainian cities, but the bearers of the Soviet imperial consciousness — with St. George's ribbons, the rhetoric of “we can repeat” and the cult of war as a normal state of the state.
This is the main paradox: Russian propaganda is fighting fictional Nazism, hiding behind it a very real imperial aggression. And strictly speaking, the current Russian fascism does not look like Nazism outwardly, but reproduces it in essence — through the cult of violence, contempt for man and the right of the strong.
Completely uncensored publication:
Hitler as an alibi, Stalin as an instruction.
The progressive public loves to be horrified by Hitler — it is convenient, safe and does not commit to anything. Hitler is evil with a mustache, it's easy to fight him verbally and it's nice to be horrified at a safe distance. Meanwhile, Ukraine is being destroyed not by Nazism from a textbook, but by Soviet revanchism in a new package: with red flags, “we can repeat” and a cult of war instead of conscience. Ukraine is being trashed by Soviet people with St. George's ribbons, with “we can repeat” on their tongue and with a grave in their head instead of a conscience. It's not a swastika flying at Kiev today, but a red star smeared with lies and nostalgia for the empire.
It wasn't the Nazis who made the mess. Mariupol is not them either.
This was done by Stalin's heirs, people for whom man is expendable, lying is a virtue, and mass murder is a “supreme historical necessity.” Torture, deportations, attacks on residential buildings, night terror — all this is not from Berlin in the 30s, but from Moscow, which has not yet emerged from the Soviet mausoleum.
The dirtiest part of this war is its self—justification.
Those who shout the loudest about the “fight against fascism" have long been living according to the fascist method. It's just that they don't have a swastika, but a St. George ribbon. This is the dirtiest trick of this war, that it is being waged amid shouts of “anti-fascism.” Russian fascism does not wear a black uniform. He puts on a memory shirt, picks up a portrait of his grandfather and goes to kill “for the sake of victory.”
That's the whole secret. Hitler is their horror story. Stalin is their model.
Hitler is a convenient symbol of absolute evil, a universal moral master key that can be used to quickly explain the world. But the problem is that Kiev, Kharkov, Kherson and other Ukrainian cities are not being destroyed by the “Nazis.” In Bucha, people were shot not by swastika fans, but by the heirs of the Soviet Empire — the very ones who have “we can repeat” on their tongue, St. George ribbons on holidays, and the cult of Victory and holy war in their heads. Mariupol was not wiped off the face of the earth by the Nazis. The torture of prisoners, mass killings, attacks on residential areas, terror against civilians — all this is committed by people brought up on Soviet myths, on Stalin, Zhukov, the Red banner and the sacred memory of the Great Patriotic War. Hitler is not sitting in a Russian military car today. There's a Soviet man sitting there, reduced to the state of a moral beast.
And here's what's especially hypocritical: those who shout the most about “fascism” are the ones who produce it in reality. They call Ukrainians Nazis, and then they destroy cities, deport people, torture prisoners, and launch rockets at civilians.
So who looks more like a fascist here?
Isn't he the one who screams from morning to night about the fight against Nazism, and in the evening justifies terror against a neighboring country? Isn't he the one who covers up imperialism with Soviet rhetoric and crimes with an “anti—fascist” legend?
It's time to say it bluntly: the most terrible crimes of this war are not committed by the Nazis, but by Soviet people in post-Soviet packaging. Russian fascism today comes not in the form of a swastika, but in the form of a red banner, a St. George ribbon, and a cry for a “great victory.”
The cultural code of the USSR (the great war, space, grief for 27 million) has become a convenient screen for new crimes. This is not Nazism — this is Soviet fascism (or post-Soviet militarism), which uses Victory rituals to justify the defeat of Ukraine.
The pain and anger is that cultural symbols that were sacred to many (victory over fascism, Gagarin, the song "Belorussky Railway Station") are now working to justify the murders. It's monstrous. The anti—Hitler symbols "St. George's ribbons", portraits of Zhukov, films about "their own" are now tools to justify the murders.
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