Russian lies examples, part 2. Who are Nazi?
People who only recently started watching, reading or listening Russian propaganda may be surprised by how the facts are presented there. They often make sense, but in some bizarre way. Facts stop feeling real. After some time one starts questioning not only Russian propaganda, but even some reliable sources. And actually that’s the point. One of the purposes of Russian propaganda is to make people question and doubt everything. I call it Russian postmodernism.
This is the second article in my Russian postmodernist lies inquiry series. (first is about who are Russians). This time the question is…
Who are Nazi?
Russians claim that Ukraine is a Nazi state, which should be denazified. But what is Nazi? There are several definitions and none of them make sense in current situation. Let’s quickly go through them.
Historically Nazis are members of a National Socialist German Workers’ Party in Germany in 1930–40s. Obviously Ukraine is not Germany, 20th century is long gone and there is no such party in Ukraine.
Then there is such thing as neo-Nazis: Hitler is their idol, they read Mein Kampf, make swastika tattoos, they hate Jews, are aggressive towards foreigners and all that stuff. While these people exist in Ukraine but they are an absolute minority.
Maybe Nazis are people who do not use all the Nazi symbolics, but share the same ideas? For example — that the state should be ruled by a single party under a strong leadership. And that members of other nations, especially Jews should be expelled, exterminated or oppressed. But Ukrainian president is a Jew, and a former prime-minister (Groisman) was Jew as well. Parties and presidents change, so definition is not applicable to Ukraine (what about Russia?).
None of the previous definitions work well with Ukraine. Maybe Nazi does not have to be about symbolics and Jews? Maybe Russians mean that Nazis are everyone who hates other nations, deny their existence and want to destroy them? According to this definition, Russia is a Nazi state — because they attacked Ukraine and deny Ukraine existence. Actually by this definition Mongols in 13th century were Nazis as well — they attacked Europe. Something is wrong with this definition. And it still does not apply to Ukraine [1].
Maybe Nazis are the ones who look like Nazis even if they are not? They don’t have to hate Jews or have swastikas, but they need some strong military-like hierarchy, know how to shoot guns and should look scary? Maybe when they gather they should stay in one row, do some common hand gestures and shout something loudly? Guess what — by this definition every military structure in the world will considered to be Nazi. And yes — Azov also counts. They were created as a military structure. Yes, I know, some of them were real neo-Nazis, that does not make the whole unit be neo-Nazi. Military units are like that — they look scary, they are not afraid of war, they know how to fight and shoot and they obey orders. That’s their job!
Correct definition of Nazi
So we have already at least five definitions of Nazi: historical German, neo-Nazis, people hating Jews, people hating other nations, military-like people. But what Russia tells us about their definitions of Nazi? In their article “What should Russia do with Ukraine” they describe what is Ukrainian Nazism. They say that it’s not really visible (“formless and ambivalent”) and is disguised into a wish to be an independent and pro-European country. And USA and Europe are architects of Ukrainian Nazism — since they are Nazi themselves.
If you don’t believe me — read the article yourself, but if the Russians claim that Europe and USA are Nazi states and Ukraine is Nazi because it wants to be independent and pro-European, then what is Nazi exactly?
While not an official source, pro-Russian Telegram channel Rosich [2] describes Ukranian Nazis as not true Nazis, because they do not behave like true Nazis (including having Jewish president and getting help from Indians and blacks).
Ukrainian say that they are not Nazis, Russian say that Ukrainian even don’t look like Nazis. What can be the simple conclusion?
Conclusion
Ukraine is not a Nazi state. When Russians claim that Ukraine is Nazi, they have some very special definition of Nazi, which is “everyone who does not like Russia even if Russia invades”. But the whole world uses other definition of Nazis. There is a definition mismatch, and as soon as you try to figure out what Nazi means for both sides you start understanding that definitions simply don’t work.
One of the features of postmodernism is to question everything. But after Russian propaganda plays with definitions as it likes, people start questioning even Nazism. Questioning Nazism is dangerous, because if real Nazism appears we may miss it. But then — what is Nazi exactly? Are you sure you know now?
As a final note, it seems that “Nazi rule Ukraine” is akin to Masonic conspiracy theories. According to this conspiracy theory there are some invisible Nazis in Ukraine, which rule everything, but they disguise themselves so well, that no one can find them. And the Jewish president is, apparently, part of their evil plan. I will leave a reader with this observation.
[1] https://medium.com/@navpil/genocide-of-russians-in-ukraine-is-it-real-no-d0a44e842fe2
[2] Росич, 168K subscribers, ultra-right (probably neo-Nazi) channel, message from 22 October 2022, English translation tweeted by Christo Grozev: https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1591153819265945600
What Russia should do with Ukraine translated: https://medium.com/@kravchenko_mm/what-should-russia-do-with-ukraine-translation-of-a-propaganda-article-by-a-russian-journalist-a3e92e3cb64
Ukrainians greet soldiers in liberated Kherson. Will Russians find neo-Nazi salute here? Credit: Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times Image of Ukrainians greet military in Kherson is from NYTimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/europe/russia-kherson-ukraine.html
Image of scary military men is a screenshot of a video “Молитва українського націоналіста” (The prayer of a Ukrainian nationalist): https://youtu.be/qX0H_VNF3Wo