Lots of people have their knickers in a twist over this Ukraine vs. Russia story. But it reminds me of a very similar situation from June, 1941. People had their knickers in a twist then, too.
Germany had already dominated or captured the Rhineland, Austria, the Sudetenland, Poland, France and the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Adolf Hitler had been in power since 1933. He had become the absolute ruler of a reborn Germany, crushing political opponents, religions, and ethnic groups he didn’t like. His campaign to eliminate all Jews in Germany and other conquered territories began in earnest in 1941. Nobody liked him, but most everyone feared him
In 1991, in the turmoil following the Soviet collapse, the countries of eastern Europe declared their independence
The Soviet Union had been the enemy of Western Civilization and of Christianity since its founding in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. It controlled most of the old Tsarist empire. Josef Stalin had been in power in the Soviet Union since 1924. He had consolidated power by crushing his political opponents and by destroying all resistance to the collectivization of the farm sector. In the Ukraine region in 1932-33 he deliberately starved the farmers (kulaks) and their families who opposed collectivization of their land. The Holodomor, or terror famine, took more lives than all the warring countries of the Great War combined. When the Soviet Union joined with Germany in 1939 to invade and divide Poland, the Soviet Union took the eastern third, while Germany took the western two-thirds of Poland. Shortly afterward, the Soviets took 10,000 captured officers of the Polish army to the area of the Katyn Forest where they were systematically murdered and buried in mass graves. This was first blamed on the Germans, but it was the Russians who did it. Stalin became the absolute ruler of a reconstituted, but much more brutal, Russian empire. Nobody liked him, but most everyone feared him.
On June 22, 1941, Germany turned on her ally the Soviet Union, invading along a 500-mile front. Stunned and staggered by the attack, the Soviet armies crumbled and fell back. German forces plunged deep into Russia, going as far as the edges of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg again), Moscow, and Stalingrad (now called Volgograd). The Germans conquered what is now the Ukraine area. Many Ukrainians joined with the Germans to fight the Soviet army which had imposed the terror famine on the people of Ukraine. For nearly four years vicious and brutal fighting raged across Russia. The Germans moved east, were stopped, moved east again, and again were stopped. The Germans sought out and eliminated many civilians and communist officials in the areas they conquered. The Soviet Red Army slowly pushed the German forces back across Russia, across Ukraine, across the countries of eastern Europe the Germans had seized, then back across eastern Germany itself. The Soviet Army captured Berlin after a brutal assault against the determined German defenders. Just before the Russians completed capture of the city, Adolf Hitler shot himself in the bunker of the Chancellery on April 30, 1945. The Germans surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945.
The Russians set up puppet communist governments in all the countries they captured in the course of the war. Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union again. From the end of World War II until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, most of eastern Europe was Soviet controlled communist puppet countries. Before the collapse, in 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl melted down, spewing a radioactive cloud across much of eastern Europe. In 1991, in the turmoil following the Soviet collapse, the countries of eastern Europe declared their independence. At the same time, several parts of the old Soviet union, including Ukraine, Belarus, and several of the Muslim southern republics, became independent countries. The Russian government was too weak to stop it. Ukraine has been independent since 1991.
Putin manipulated elections and institutions to hold on to power for far longer than he was supposed to. Zelensky has done the same thing, it appears. It’s a total mess
The Soviets had an abundance of nuclear weapons positioned in Ukraine, and the US and other Western countries insisted that those weapons go back to the Russians. Ukraine was promised aid and protection in exchange.
Ukraine has experienced contentious political turmoil ever since becoming independent. There have been elections. There have been political upheavals and upsets. Pro-Russian and anti-Russian factions have battled for political supremacy. Corruption has been widespread in Ukraine as it has in Russia. Many world leaders and their family members have been linked to corrupt business practices and payoffs from Ukrainian companies. Even top US officials have been brought under suspicion. In the eastern Russian-speaking Donbas region, pro-Russian factions have gained a tenuous influence, with the public often siding with Russia. Ukrainian officials, including the president, have very iffy backgrounds and many connections to shady and manipulative people on the world scene. It’s a fair bet that most people would want neither Putin or Zelensky to their homes as dinner guests.
Kyiv, or as we used to spell it, Kiev, lies further east than Moscow. Vladimir Putin, the Russian strongman and former KGB officer, pines for the old Soviet Union and considers its collapse in 1989 the greatest tragedy of his life. He would like to get the credit for restoring at least some of the former Soviet power and prestige. NATO has pushed efforts to persuade Ukraine to join the alliance, which is a serious provocation to Putin. The Donbas provinces would rather join with Russia or be autonomous. Ukraine won’t accept this. Putin manipulated elections and institutions to hold on to power for far longer than he was supposed to. Zelensky has done the same thing, it appears. It’s a total mess.
Apparently ignoring all historical precedent, Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, that is, in the Winter! The Russians were expected to make short work of the Ukrainian army. It’s now more than three months later. After some initial gains and after advancing on the capital of Kiev, Russian forces have now pulled back from Kiev and from many of the areas they had overrun. The Ukrainian defense has been ferocious while the Russian efforts appear to have been tepid at best. The Russians have destroyed civilian areas at will, and have paid a heavy price for it at the hands of the Ukrainian army. This observer thinks it looks like the Russians have struggled just to hang on to the Donbas area they already controlled at the start. US politicians and others regularly go to Kiev to have their pictures taken with Zelensky. Militarily, it’s a mess.
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Put a Ukraine flag on your car and some will assume you’re a Nazi sympathizer. Put a Russian flag on your car and some will assume you’re a tool of Putin
It doesn’t help matters that it’s very difficult to get reliable information untainted by propaganda from the many interests involved. Recent events seem to have divided everyone interested in the Ukraine war to take very strident positions on one side of the other. Those who support Ukraine have been called Nazi sympathizers and promoters of corruption. Those who support Russia argue that Ukraine is actually theirs and ought to go back to them. They are attacked as Putin sympathizers and people who favor the oppression of Ukraine. Others argue that we should not be involved on either side, that we should let them sort it out themselves.
Here’s my summary. Like in June, 1941, a nasty country has invaded another nasty country and they’re at it. In 1941 we didn’t like the Soviets and we didn’t like Germany, same as now. We are interested in the current conflict, but do not appear to have any vital interests there. Some elected officials, particularly in the administration and on the Democrat side in congress, however, have sided strongly with Ukraine. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Russia. There are plenty of reasons to dislike the Ukrainian leadership, at least. The US and many western countries have sent weapons and aid to Ukraine. Russia has plenty of weapons of its own. The Russians have threatened to use nuclear weapons or to invade other countries if they don’t manage to defeat Ukraine. One can argue that the Russians should not invade Ukraine just as Germany should not have invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. One can also argue that they should fight it out themselves. Whoever wins will not be the “good” side. Put a Ukraine flag on your car and some will assume you’re a Nazi sympathizer. Put a Russian flag on your car and some will assume you’re a tool of Putin. Many on both sides don’t think anyone should be allowed to disagree with them. This is a theme that’s being heard more and more from those in power these days. The threats to free speech and freedom of thought could well be considered the biggest dangers coming out of the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Few people seem to have considered the similarities to conflicts of the past. Looks to me like it’s very much like June, 1941. Just like back then, there are no really good guys to root for in this one.
Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II, may be ordered from Indiana University Press.
Lots of people have their knickers in a twist over this Ukraine vs. Russia story. But it reminds me of a very similar situation from June, 1941. People had their knickers in a twist then, too.
Germany had already dominated or captured the Rhineland, Austria, the Sudetenland, Poland, France and the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Adolf Hitler had been in power since 1933. He had become the absolute ruler of a reborn Germany, crushing political opponents, religions, and ethnic groups he didn’t like. His campaign to eliminate all Jews in Germany and other conquered territories began in earnest in 1941. Nobody liked him, but most everyone feared him
