The Soviet Union’s immense sacrifice and victory over Nazi Germany not only turned the tide of World War II in Europe but also disrupted Western imperialist ambitions and inspired anti-colonial struggles across the Global South.
Allies’ Victory in Europe on Soviet Sacrifice
Compatibility between Western Imperialism and Nazism
Wide sections of Western societies supported Nazism and colonization, such that the defeat of Nazism weakened colonialism. By the start of WWII, the USSR had been in the crosshairs of some in Western imperial powers, especially Britain and France, due to 1917th, October Revolution which made the newly formed socialist state to renounce imperialism. This renouncement greatly complicated British and French plans to colonize the Middle East and Persia, as their previous strategies had counted on the participation of the Russian Empire. US politicians, including former president Joe Biden have recognized that the US had healthy relations with Nazi Germany until it invaded Western Europe. Michael Hattem, a leading historian at Yale, reported that American corporations including Coca-Cola and IBM had hefty financial investments in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, even while the Congress ostensibly maintained a policy of non-intervention in Europe.
Also, US Senator Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George Bush, was a director in firms that traded in Germany and helped Hitler’s rise to power, which shows how forces in the West helped or abetted the growth of the Nazi scourge. American firms under this senator continued trading with the architect of Nazism until 1942, well after WWII had begun. In addition to the US corporations and politicians, a Times article from October 2018 revealed that a wider section of American society supported Nazism, a reality that has been craftily scrubbed from history. Some religious figures and prominent media openly extolled Nazism and Fascism in addition to the leaders of these ideologies, Hitler and Mussolini. Therefore, a wider section of American society supported Nazism and hence a hierarchical world in which not only Slavs but also Africans would have continued experiencing genocide, colonization, and dispossession, had the USSR not paid the huge price it did. Some in the West supported Nazism, as a system that legitimized other forms of imperialism, especially colonization.
Soviets and Africans on the Receiving End of Murderous Hate
The brutality meted out by German forces on Jews, Roma, Poles, and Russians was also meted out by European colonialists in Africa, meaning the West could have easily joined its like-minded Germany had the Soviets not displayed resolve and ability to repulse Nazis. For instance, the British colonial government in Kenya conducted mass murder and incarceration, and ran concentration camps, and torture just like Germany, while France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal had also conducted similar atrocities. The possibility of the West aligning with Germany can also be noted in how some, including Winston Churchill, wanted to repurpose and use the Nazi Military to fight the USSR shortly after WWII. To Westerners, soviet exposure and stoppage of mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and torture may have been unfortunate because they halted what Hitler and Churchill would describe as the natural expansion of superior races accompanied by the eradication of inferior ones.
Therefore, The West might have abetted Germany’s crime in Europe so that it could continue performing its atrocities in Africa, which might have led to a different outcome for WWII. Without the Soviets’ sacrifices, Germany may have won for among other reasons that some in the West did not want it defeated. The USSR destroyed around 80% of Nazi Germany’s military, despite it joining the war one and a half years after France and the UK had declared war on Germany. It lost over 8 million troops and about 20 million civilians, while the collective west lost about 1.5 million troops.
Without the USSR, Nazism and Fascism would have won and continued to coexist with Western colonialism in advancing racially hierarchical global order. Such an order might have appeared like JD Vance’s view of globalization, which was supposed to keep The West at the top of value chains, making the most profits from global resources and labor while doing nothing apart from pretending to design. The French and British empires had created a similar system that took all resources to their countries, while the soviet model threatened this hierarchy. Therefore, both empires might have preferred Nazism and Fascism in Germany or other countries over socialism, which would deny them colonial control of resources in foreign countries. Therefore, some in these empires would tolerate Nazi Germany for long enough until it could overrun Eastern European countries.
For instance, despite the UK and France declaring war on Germany in September 1939 after the latter invaded Poland, they refrained from conducting any meaningful operation until April 1940; they engaged in a phony war. Also, the West’s operations against Germany were delayed, and Stalin’s request to the UK and US to open a second front was first ignored before being given a slow response, showing low urgency to defeat Nazism. This slow response ensured that The West did not relieve significant pressure from the eastern front. Lastly, the US would even organize a rescue of Nazi scientists in Operation Paperclip. Also, some Nazi military leaders ended up occupying senior positions in the US institutions and NATO, which was formed later. The West has also remained a haven for Nazi SS operatives, the most famous case relating to a Ukrainian Yaroslavl Hunker who received a standing ovation in the Canadian parliament in 2023, for his role in fighting against Russia during WWII, showing continuous support of Nazism from the 1940s to date.
Direct Assistance Against Colonialism
The Soviet defeat of Nazism in Germany upended hierarchy based on perceived Aryan supremacy and provided bases for the fight against colonialism. In addition to the USSR inspiring Africa’s freedom struggle, the country continued to uphold its stand in the post-WWII period by supporting black liberation movements. During the Cold War, the USSR’s existence continued to provide an ideological alternative to capitalism, which remained as rebranded Western imperialism. The Soviets supported Africans by providing education opportunities, which not only assisted Africans in fighting for independence, but also in cultivating and maintaining intellectual autonomy.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
