“While the prospects for the completion of the Russian-Ukrainian war remain vague, May and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe are approaching. And at the same time – the propaganda speculation of the Kremlin, related to this historical anniversary.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
At the beginning of the year, the Global Ukraine group published an appeal “to the 80th anniversary of Victory over Nazism”, under which very different people signed: from Yaroslav Gritsak to Vladimir Vyatrovich. The authors of this text were reminiscent of Russian manipulations around the war of 1939-1945. Moscow’s desire to monopolize victory in the Second World War. About attempts to submit Ukraine as a “Nazi servant”. And the fact that the radical domestic narrative, which ignores the exploits of Ukrainians in the Red Army, excludes Kiev from the winners over Hitler and thus plays on the hand of the Russian Federation.
The less time it remains until the May anniversary, the more relevant this problem becomes. That is why it is worth talking to the modern Ukrainian perception of World War II frankly.
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Hitler and Stalin are officially considered in Ukraine as two equally violent dictators; like two equivalent sources of evil. But in fact, a slightly different approach begins to practice in our society. The Stalin USSR is often seen as the main evil of the twentieth century, against which the Hitler Third Reich looks a secondary evil.
The reasons that contributed to the spread of this approach after 24.02.2022 are obvious. Ukraine has undergone barbaric military aggression, and our enemy is Russia. However, with the third Reich, modern Russia can only be compared, drawing parallels between Hitler and Putin. But the Soviet Union is considered a direct precursor to modern Russia; The earlier embodiment of the same empire of evil. Moreover, this continuity is emphasized by the Russians themselves, who actively exploit Soviet symbols and rhetoric of the Second World War. And in this case, much of Ukrainian society agrees with hostile logic.
In other words, the Third Reich for our contemporary is an abstract evil that remains only on book pages and films about a distant war. And the Soviet Union, which has gained the appearance of the Russian Federation, is an evil that came out of the grave, continues to kill Ukrainians and is therefore stronger, more dangerous and terrible.
The identification of the USSR and Russia as a historical evil # 1 and the retreat of Hitler’s Germany are rotated by the inevitable audit of the past.
In the new coordinate system, the Alliance with the Third Reich for the fight against the Soviets is an attempt to use a minor evil to resist the main evil. This tactic seems justified and does not compromise people who once fought with Moscow. Therefore, in today’s Ukraine, glorification of the Halychyna division soldiers and national activists who cooperated with Germany in the 1940s is possible.
However, the confrontation of the Reich in the ranks of the Soviet Army begins to look like the fight against minor evil in favor of the main evil. The Kremlin’s service depreciates any merit associated with the victory over Hitler. That is why the Soviet heroes of the war are subject to government. Monuments erected in their honor are consistently dismantled; And the urbanomy dedicated to them are renamed.
Many of our fellow citizens of the Stalin army are discredited more than German combatants. Therefore, it is quite natural that the legendary pilot-fighter and hero of Ukraine Vadim Voroshilov took the call sign Karaya-in honor of ASA Luftwaff Erich Hartmann. But it is difficult to imagine a modern Ukrainian pilot who would choose a call sign “Kozhedub”: although, unlike Hartmann, the Soviet hero was an ethnic Ukrainian.
A characteristic episode took place in March 2025. At the age of 101, Vinnitsa Olga Tverdohlebova died – a participant of the Second World War and the Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs retired. Vinnytsia police posted a touching obituary on social networks. But in this text it was not mentioned at all, in the ranks of whose army in the 1940s fought Tverdohlebov. And the nature of such shyness was understood: the authors of the obituary were afraid that any mention of the USSR, the Soviet special services, or the Leningrad reconnaissance would throw a shadow on the deceased.
The idea of the main and secondary evil is easy to trace in a new domestic toponymics. For example, the disappearance of Marshal Malinowski and Marshal Rybalka – and the appearance of Andrei Melnik Street – the disappearance of the Marshal Marshal Rynovka – and Marshal Rynovka streets. According to the new historical paradigm, Odessa Malinowski and a native of Kharkiv region were fought against a minor evil on the side of the main evil – and this offsets their contribution to the victory over Hitler’s Germany. And the OUN (M) leader fought the main evil, trying to rely on a minor evil: and so he remains an undeniable hero.
The idea of the main and secondary evil is traced in the symbolic space. Even the virtual use of Soviet symbolism associated with our current enemy is a crime that is not looking for excuses in Ukraine. It causes real criminal cases and court sentences.
And the capture of the aesthetics of the Third Reich, of course, is not approved; But it still looks like a less serious sin that you can sometimes close your eyes. Especially if the totenopfis, black suns or stylizations under the German coat of arms of the 1930s-1940s are admired by the right activists who protect our country with weapons in their hands.
Consequently, the perception of the USSR as a major historical evil, and national-socialist Germany-as an evil number two; Slowly becomes a new domestic mainstream. And this gives rise to problems of the two kind: internal and external.
First, the new historical paradigm disagrees with the personal experience of millions of Ukrainians who lived in the 1940s. For much of our ancestors, the main evil was Hitler’s Germany. Many inhabitants of Central and Eastern Ukraine were perceived as “their” state: and if it was considered evil, much less than German invaders. By reducing the Soviet Union into the rank of the main evil, we de facto crossing the personal stories of these people; their true moods and motivations.
However, almost all participants of the war of 1939-1945 passed. And in the eyes of their descendants, the Second World Grace is a full -scale Russian aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the gap between the real family stories of the 1940s and the new historical Mainestrim is not too serious.
It is much more important that the new historical paradigm disagrees with global narratives about the Second World War. The perception of German national socialism as the main evil of the twentieth century is not a post-Soviet, not European or even Western consensus. This is a global consensus. And, building our own gradation of historical evils, Ukraine is not opposed to Russia: we contrast ourselves and everything.
A non -standard idea of the main and secondary evil does not bring any strategic benefits to Ukraine. It cannot have a positive impact on our image. It will not give us sympathizers abroad: which clearly demonstrated a scandal in the Canadian Parliament in the fall of 2023. On the contrary, we can only hope that foreign partners will not cling to a special Ukrainian view of the history of the twentieth century, given the heroism of Ukraine in the 21st century.
For some countries, the memory of World War II has become a powerful instrument of influencing the international arena. Russia attaches itself to the laurels of Hitler – and positions itself as the winner of the main evil of the twentieth century. Israel is reminiscent of the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust – and positions itself as the main victim of the main evil of the twentieth century. Poland emphasizes at the beginning of the war in 1939 and in the Warsaw uprising of 1944-and positions itself as the first and most desperate fighter with the main evil of the twentieth century. But Ukraine, which gives the role of the main evil of the Soviet Union and pushes the third Reich to the background, is actually overboard.
Within the framework of the new historical paradigm, it is difficult to use the memory of the Second World War as a full tool of Ukrainian influence. Now it is rather a burdensome load that our country has to pull in the midst of a new war. And on the 80th anniversary of victory over the Third Reich it will be especially difficult to bear it.
Mikhail Dubinyansky
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