THE PAST AS PROPAGANDA
History ls littered with national myths, uncomfortable
realities glossed over, and exceptions presented as the norm. From Joan of Arc
to Britain alone in 1940. We were not, unless you exclude Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, India, and the rest of a still extensive empire. The
myths, often tinged with the strong elements of truth can be extraordinarily
resilient and fact proof.
This is particularly true of the Nazi Soviet war of 1941 to 1945.
Within Russia the myths of this period are particularity poignant, The Great
Patriotic War, excludes the fighting in the west prior to June 22nd,
1941, and, obviously, the Nazi Soviet pact. It excludes the vast amount of war
material, especially petroleum supplied to the Germans, material without which
it is unlikely that the Wehrmacht could have defeated France.
The war narrative,
understandably, begins with the German invasion. Though Stalin’s disastrous
decisions are glossed over.
It is First and foremost
a Russian war. A war won by the sheer guts, stamina, sacrifice, and
tenacity of the Russian people. Of lend lease and British and American support
both materially and militarily there can be little or no mention. Of the
contribution to the defeat of the Nazi’s of Belarusians and Ukrainians and
other nationalities these are subsumed into the triumph of Russian arms.
The courage of the Russian people and the suffering they
endured cannot be sufficiently emphasised, though it was hardly an exclusively a
Russian war, Russian suffering, or Russian courage. Ukraine was overrun, the Germans
exacting a terrible price on the Ukrainian people during this occupation, eliminating
the Jewish population. And it was Ukrainians and Russians who
liberated Ukraine from German occupation. For most Russians this is a
distinction without a difference, not so for Ukrainians, particularly those who
Remembered the tortures inflicted upon Ukraine during the Holodomor.
As already stated, the Ukrainians were not the only ones fighting
alongside the Russians, citizens from all the constituent republics fought.
Though the bulk of the fighting took place on Ukrainian soil both in the early
and later stages of the war, as land conquered had to be recaptured. And it was
Ukrainian soldiers who developed a particularly fearsome reputation for courage
and resilience as they fought for their families and homeland, much more than
for the Soviet Union and much less for Mother Russia.
Lend lease and the West’s contribution to eventual victory in
the war have been completely erased from the historical record in Russia. That
the war could not have been won without the colossal sacrifices of the Soviet
Union is undisputed, however that the Soviet Union could not have survived
without lend lease and the immense industrial power of the United States is
not. This should by now be part of the historical mainstream, that it is not is
testimony to the power of the Russian myth.
The importance of western material aid has also been
underplayed in Western accounts of the eastern front, the reasons for this are,
I believe, a legacy of the lionising of the Soviet contribution rooted to a degree
in the mythology of Soviet socialism. For a full account of the role played by
Churchill, Roosevelt and the West in the victory of the Soviet state see Stalin’s
War by Sean McMeekin.
Does any of this matter? Or in this country do the myths of
Britain alone in 194O matter? Should they concern us? I think they should. The
myth of Britain alone fed Brexit and the continued delusional views of Britain,
in truth England, Scotland or Northern Ireland barely featured. People, a
significant minority. Brought into this fantasy. We live with the consequences
and the damage continues to be wreaked.
In Russia, the legacy of the myths of the last world war are
having grotesque and monstrous consequences for the innocent civilians of
Ukraine. For Putin and a great many Russians, Ukrainians and Russians are the
same.[1]
From this perspective the activities of the government in Kyiv in turning away
from Moscow and looking toward the West feels nothing short of traitorous.
Worse, Ukraine was ‘created’ by Russia, and rescued by her in 1943/44, thus this
rejection of their Russianness is an act of profound ingratitude.
This mythical narrative buries reason, history, and the
interest of the Russian people. Its potent victimology has done more to destroy
the natural historical affinity and ties between the Russian and Ukrainian
people more than seven decades of Soviet repression. The Ukrainians will surely
never forget the violence now inflicted upon them. What remained of fraternity
after the events of 2014 now cut. All in the service of a big lie and the
historical myth of Russian exceptionalism.
Lying about history, and knowingly peddling myths is theft,
it deprives people of the clarity of seeing the world as it is and the ability
to respond to that reality based on accurate information. It cannot also result in mass murder.
Stan Moorcroft March 2022
[1] This,
of course, is a double-edged sword. It is one thing to send troops to fight in
far away countries of which they know little, quite another to fight their
fellow Slavs.
