Putin in Ukraine deprived himself of “Great Victory”

Bombs in Kiev, Kharkiv and Odessa – aggression without declaration of war. When we heard these words earlier, it was clear that we were talking about Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, the “Great Patriotic War,” as World War II is called in Russia.

World War II divided time into “before” and “after” War. When it was said “after the war” everyone knew that we were talking about the period after 1945. But since February 2022, another war is separating the past from the present, but with the difference that Russia is now aggressive.

The last witnesses are being killed

Until February 2022, the memory of the victory in World War II was the basis of Russian identity. All the polls and studies since the late 1990s have shown how important this victory is in the Russian public consciousness. No wonder the Putin regime made the memory of that victory as the most important element with which Russian society had to be united. It became a kind of civil religion accepted by most Russians.

Victims of World War II commemorated with the “Immortal Regiment” campaign. The idea for this originally came from society, as an alternative to the pathos of state victory and slogans such as: “We can do it again”. But this social initiative was quickly adopted by state propaganda, such as the St. George ribbon, which was turned into a military decoration in the Russian Empire and later reintroduced into the Soviet Union under another name. In Russia today it is the main symbol of the memory of the victory against Nazi Germany. Here, too, Russian society pursued Kremlin propaganda. But in February 2022, Putin himself destroyed this pillar of Russian identity.

Russian troops in Ukraine are now not only bombing Kharkiv and Odessa, but are also attacking Mykolaiv and occupying Kherson. They drop bombs near the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Kiev and, out of fear, fire on tanks still standing on pedestals in Ukrainian cities commemorating World War II. It’s not just their “Great Victory” that targets not only the memory of World War II veterans, but also veterans themselves – the few surviving war witnesses who are unable to leave their homes during shelling are attacked. ruse.

New time

The aggressive war started by Vladimir Putin (if it does not end with a nuclear attack), will result in a new war where those who have resisted the aggression and others will be divided. For the younger generations this will now be “before” and “after” the War.

He, and not any other war like the one in 2008 against Georgia, or the annexation of Crimea in 2014, will mark the end of the post-Soviet historical period, but also the end of the “post-Soviet space” itself. Now there are those who commit to the “Russian Empire” and others who fight for freedom. Russia, which thanks to its 1991 victory over the Moscow coup managed to preserve the image of the “most important democracy” in the post-Soviet space, is now turning into a “prison of peoples”, as the Soviet Union was once called.

Not everyone will immediately feel the current changes. A “new era” began in Ukraine in February 2022, but many Russians are still keeping their heads in the sand like an ostrich. Even the Russians are on the verge of a “new era” that will inevitably hit them hard: With Western sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions, which will also hit their own people; with the inevitable rise in food prices due to lack of planting in southern Russia and Ukraine; with shortages of goods and rampant inflation due to isolation. And those Russians who do not like all this and take to the streets in protest, will face the Russian police and national guard.

Another Russia

The Russians have finally found “their new Russia of the future,” but that does not look good. As can be seen, Vladimir Putin has a clear vision for the future of the country. But he has been hiding this all these years because most people would definitely not have liked such an option and they could rebel against him.

Now most are found in a completely different place, which bears no resemblance to the previous one – with military censorship and detachment from the rest of the world. The basis of Russian national identity, the victory over fascism, has been destroyed by rockets fired at Kharkiv in Ukraine. Russia is heading towards social conflict and Putin has broken the final dam.

Now either there will be mass cleansing of those who think differently, or the conflict in society will turn into a civil war, if the opponents of the war and the pacifists can still resist at all. The situation in Ukraine is different. Ukraine has never been more united, as it has been since the beginning of the “New Patriotic War” – no matter how it ends.

Ivan Preobrazhensky is a Central and Eastern European expert and columnist for various media.

Translation from Russian : Markian Ostaptschuk

/DW