The stereotypes were not designed to inspire hatred against all Ukrainians, only against those who resisted the identity that Russians assigned to them.Īfter February 24, 2022, Russian state-aligned media once again embraced the Great Patriotic War analogies. While the use of the Great Patriotic War analogy rose and fell with the intensity of the conflict in east Ukraine between 20, it was always present in popular culture, particularly the glut of World War II films in which Ukrainians were typecast as good ( cheeky yokels fighting alongside their Russian big brothers ) or bad ( traitors and Nazis in traditional Ukrainian dress ). In this demented vision, Russia was forced to intervene to save Crimeans from genocide and to help the brave “pro-Russian Ukrainians” who were reliving their ancestors’ struggle against fascism. Euromaidan supporters were classed as banderovtsy (followers of the World War II fascist Ukrainian nationalist, Stepan Bandera) and attributed genocidal russophobic intent. However, it was during Euromaidan and Russian aggression in Crimea and Donbas that this historical framework really hit the mainstream. This is not a new analogy for the Russian media: it was used in 1991 to undermine Ukrainian independence and in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. The 2023 Victory Day speeches and coverage will be no exception. ![]() While the Kremlin quietly dropped the term “denazification” as a justification for the invasion after it failed to take hold, Russian officials continue to frame the fight against Ukrainian-ness as a way to defend the memory and legacy of the Great Patriotic War. Pro-war Russians conflate Ukrainian identity with treachery, extreme nationalism and Nazi collaborationism - and present themselves as reliving the feats of their Red Army ancestors by liberating Ukrainians from Nazi tyranny.Īccording to this narrative, Russia is fighting for the legacy of World War II by defeating fascism once more. But the Great Patriotic War is not just a constitutive part of Russian identity - it is also a constitutive part of mainstream Russian depictions of its nine-year war on Ukraine. To the unacquainted, such paradoxes undermine the Kremlin’s constant conflation of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War and its current “special military operation” in Ukraine. Recruitment ads calling men to sign up to fight in Ukraine may be headed “For the Motherland, for Stalingrad,” but the small print explains it is also for the money. For this is the way war is remembered, and fought, in Russia today. And we will prevail! It will be the Day of our victory.One of the many jarring aspects of the pobedobesie (victory-mania) as Russia marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany every year is the commercialization - in particular, street vendors hawking tat to make a profit off the sacrifice of Soviet soldiers and civilians. And just as then we relied on the joint strength of free nations, so now we fight against evil together with the free world, together with free Europe. Although now it is another aggressor, the goal is the same - enslavement or destruction. ![]() As then we destroyed evil together, so now we are destroying a similar evil together," Zelenskyy said. “We will not allow lies as if the victory in that war could have taken place without the participation of any country or nation. The Ukrainian president also compared the current war to the allied efforts to defeat the Nazis. He signed and submitted a draft law to the Ukrainian Parliament that moves the holiday to May 8, which is the date when the rest of the Western allies mark the World War II victory over the Nazis. On Monday, Zelenskyy announced that he was moving the date of Ukraine's own Victory Day celebration and renaming it Europe Day. ![]() Dmitry Astakhov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
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