“The aim is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide in the last eight years. And for that we will fight for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”. In his speech delivered on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin justified in these terms the beginning of the invasions of Ukraine.
“They say we are Nazis. But could a people who lost more than 8 million lives in the battle against Nazism support Nazism?” questioned, in Russian, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “How can I be a Nazi? Explain this to my grandfather, who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army and died as a colonel in an independent Ukraine.”
It so happens that the accusation of the presence of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine is not just another invocation of “Godwin’s law” – according to which “as an online discussion grows, the probability of a comparison with Nazism approaching 100%” – but it is anchored in real problems. And, in order to understand the real dimension of the presence and influence of these movements in the Eastern European country, it is necessary to take a few steps back: more precisely, to the 1920s, when Josef Stalin came to power.
“When Stalin came to power, the regions where the Ukrainians inhabited suffered from extremely high taxes. Dissatisfied, they revolted, to which the dictator responded by increasing taxes even more and confiscating agricultural production, which ended up causing the Holodomor”, he explains. the political scientist Késsio Lemos, researcher at INCT-INEU, in reference to the genocide that would claim the lives of about 3.3 million Ukrainians (but in some predictions it reaches 12 million people).
All this meant that, in 1941, German troops took control of Kiev greeted by “Heil Hitler” banners, a reception that would soon culminate in the first “rehearsal” for the Holocaust: the Babi Yar. As Ukraine’s vast Jewish population was exterminated by the Nazis, part of the people joined the new invaders, driven by a desire to be freed from the Soviet yoke.
It was at this time that prominent figures of Ukrainian nationalism emerged, such as the leader Stepan Bandera, one of the first to act to facilitate the domination of the Germans and who would later turn against them, being sent to a concentration camp before being murdered by a KGB agent.
With the end of the war, in 1945, Ukraine was reintegrated into the Soviet Union. And, in 1991, with the dissolution of the bloc, it was handed over to the leaders themselves – and to a new generation of conflicts.
Anti-Semitism Law and Repudiation of Nazism and Communism
The rejection of communism would lead the Ukrainian parliament to, in 2015, pass a law that equates communism with Nazism, banning the dissemination of their symbols. “The communist regime, like the Nazi regime, inflicted irreparable damage to human rights because during its existence it exercised total control over society and politically motivated persecution and repression, it violated its international obligations and its own constitutions and laws,” the court said. whom the two systems “implemented repressive state policies”. The decision was ratified in 2019.
Additionally, a 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that Ukraine is the most Jewish-friendly country among all Central and Eastern European countries. Last year, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law criminalizing anti-Semitism, following the definition proposed by the International Alliance for the Remembrance of the Holocaust (IHRA) – a model that Jewish entities want to mirror in Brazil.
The IHRA defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which can be expressed as hatred towards them. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed against Jewish and non-Jewish individuals and/or against their property, against community institutions and Jewish religious facilities”. It also includes the denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination to statements that invalidate the existence of the State of Israel, or deem it intrinsically racist.
The Battalion of Azov
It should be remembered, however, that in mid-2014, Ukraine was grappling with the Russian war for the annexation of Crimea. And it was at this time that the Azov Battalion emerged, founded by an avowed white supremacist who claimed that Ukraine’s national goal was to rid the country of Jews and other inferior races.
Although they don’t explicitly use the swastika, the Azov’s Nazi inspirations are anything but subtle: their emblems feature a “Wolfsangel”, a symbol used by SS infantry volunteers, and a “Black Sun”, designed by none other than Heinrich Himmler. one of the main leaders of the German Nazi Party.
In 2010, Andriy Biletsky, the battalion’s first commander and former Ukrainian parliamentarian, stated that Ukraine’s national purpose should be “to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade against the Untermenschen.” [subumanos] led by the Semites”. The movement even has its own political party, the National Corps, which won 2.2% of the votes, electing only one representative in the Ukrainian parliament.
The problem is that, in the war for Crimea, the Azov Battalion played an important role against Russian forces, as in the Battle of Mariupol, back in 2014. Since then, they were incorporated into the Ukrainian Guard – and never left.
“The Azov battalion is a very specific issue, especially if we take into account the location of these forces in the Donbass and Mariupol region, where there is a very incisive siege”, explains researcher Larleciane Piccolli, PhD in international strategic studies and director of Isape research.
“In addition, although the war of narratives makes it difficult to determine the problem, there are numerous reports of torture, war crimes and heinous crimes committed by soldiers of this battalion in the regions where they dominate”.
“When there was the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol, the Russian government declared that it was a structure used by Azov, who would be using civilians as a study. It is also known that it is a group that brings together many foreigners – a few years ago, the PF dismantled a battalion cell in Brazil”, explains the specialist.
In the 2013 and 2014 Ukrainian protests, flags and protesters with T-shirts emblazoned with the face of nationalist Stepan Bandera were also seen. “There is a very strong anti-communist culture in Ukraine, which has as a response the emergence of a nationalist ideology that has these elements of Nazi-fascism. Russia uses this argument and transfers it to the entire Ukrainian context. There is a narrative war – or, as they say in international relations, an infowar. It is clear that Ukraine is a conservative state in which these parties operate, but we cannot take the risk of generalization”, says Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel, professor of International Relations at ESPM Porto Alegre.
Connivance with this type of paramilitary formation, however, can come at a high price. “Right now, it is convenient for the Ukrainian government to have strong ultranationalist fighters at its disposal, who nurture a common feeling against a common enemy. A dangerous calculation, which can give weapons, resources and prestige to a group with such repugnant and prejudiced interests. The arrival of volunteers, weapons and supplies from the West further enhances this reality”, says Késsio Lemos.
“Still, Putin’s war is unjustified. Nazism is not the political/ideological model that governs Ukraine. However, the policy of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ can bear very worrying fruit for Ukraine and to the West”.
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