Some days I wonder why Russia tries so hard. The hatred and lies slung at them from western leaders, lecturers, and business tycoons is a horrid reality. Take the May 9th Victory Day celebrations, as an example. No one casts even a sloppy salute toward heroes who saved the world from dastardly tyranny 75 years ago. Instead of brotherhood and gratitude, the Russian people have “wished” upon them, more coronavirus death so that Vladimir Putin will finally fall.
It won’t happen. Putin falling, I mean. However, reading the shameful wishes for catastrophe to hit Russia even harder, it makes me wonder what would have happened had the Soviets managed to have peace with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. The New York Times headline reads “Russia Was Ready to Celebrate a Glorious Past. The Present Intervened.” The story by Andrew Higgins paints a grim picture of Moscow under lockdown. But for me, I wonder what the difference between New York or London and Moscow is? I mean, besides the fact Vladimir Putin works in the Russian capital.
Bloomberg, characteristically, questions Moscow’s count of coronavirus cases. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is doing a COVID-19 rain dance wishing more pain and suffering on the Russians. And in frosty Germany, Deutsche Welle praises the “new Ukraine” for writing World War II history the way “the west” prefers to. How predictable is that?
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry has begun publication of a series of archive documents on major events of World War II on the website. And I wonder why the Russians should have to do this? What was once so clear, even though unappreciated from the Russian perspective, is now up for questioning? Is there any logic that does not have many of us speaking German and Japanese today, had so many Soviets not died fighting Hitler? Would 40,000 Nazi airplanes and hundreds of U-boats not have finally crushed Britain? With Russians safe in their beds at home, would France even be France at all? What if Hitler’s war machine truly did join with Tojo’s Kamikazes? Can you envision an alternative Battle of Midway? I can.
What if Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo had been pals? After all, as far as Putin and the Russians are concerned today, they may as well have been. Russophobia in America and Europe is a far cry greater than the SS storm troopers possessed. Hitler’s bunch professed anti-communism, but they wanted more land and riches – look up Lebensraum. Even BBC has a decent layout of this expansion of the fearsome Third Reich.
For those interested in fairness and objectivity, RFM spokeslady Maria Zacharova points out that Mr. Putin’s documentary project to preserve the truth about Russia’s role:
“This project provides open access to 4,000 archive documents of more than 370,000 pages. This resource is to become part of the presidential documentary project on the history of World War II. An unprecedented large-scale long-term project is being implemented at the Russian president’s instruction. The project provides for the compiling of a single collection of information resources about World War II.”
75 years after American and Soviet troops converged at the Elbe River in Germany to split Hitler’s forces in two, and the Cold War dinosaurs run by elites in the west want to revamp history, they are attempting to eradicate it along with any semblance of honor toward Russians. Every battle between the fascists and the Soviets is being combed over. And every time the media or archivists gain an inch propagandizing the western role, a dead Russian gets his or her tombstone bulldozed under. Putin’s Russia may as well launch fullscale invasions across the western front, for all the good detente has done Putin’s people. It’s savage, what the liberal order is up to.
At the center of the monumental rewrite is the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression signed by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart Vyacheslav Molotov. Vladimir Putin has been misquoted and lashed out at over his valid assertions the Poles played a role in the start of hostilities in 1939. The Russian president is being accused of creating myths about Russia’s role. But is he?
The reality is this. Vladimir Putin has gone on record condemning this pact as “immoral” while admitting it may have been a “necessary evil”. Putin also stated that the signing of the pact was no worse than the 1938 Munich agreement, which led to the partition of Czechoslovakia. The complexities of geopolitics in the 1930s, particularly in Europe, prevent a detailed analysis here. But Putin’s assertions about the Munich Agreement are correct.
It was Britain’s and France’s fear of Hitler and the dictator’s anti-Soviet rhetoric which led to the Soviet Union not even participate in the 1938 conference. This virtually assured the outcome for not only Czechoslovakia, but for the Soviets, Poles, and all other parties concerned. Had Stalin’s people played a role in Munich, Hitler’s hand would have been forced earlier, and history would have been rewritten organically, instead of at the whims of westerners. Another point the think tanks and propagandists in western capitals fail to mention is that Britain and France were busy courting the Soviets for their own “pact” at the same time Hitler’s diplomats were. My point being, Poland was sold out no matter what.
The reason Stalin was forced to side with Germany over Poland was simple. France and Britain failed to offer the Kremlin an ironclad alliance against Nazi aggression. With Poland ready to wield cavalry against panzer divisions, Stalin had no choice but to “get” the best deal he could from the Germans. The Brits and French made a horrible mistake in assuming the Soviet Union, weakened by the Great Purge, could not be a main military participant.
Of course, this proved to be the reverse when the Nazis fell back from Stalingrad. Had London and Paris begun with the Soviet Union as a meaningful ally, there’s a solid change World War 2 would either have never taken place, or the Germans would have been stopped much sooner. So now, you tell me if the history books should be rewritten? Almost 30 million people in the USSR died because of Nazi aggression which was, by and large, the fault of the British and the French kowtowing to Hitler. And the academicians’ heads swell, their grants grow, the think tanks jabber and the globalist Russia haters wring their hands at the possibility you will and I will forget. The May 9th parade this year may not be as big as last year, but no virus known to man can eradicate the truth.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
