The Myth of the Good World war

The myth of Russia as the liberator in World War II is used as the basis for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This is a myth we in the West also have strengthened, not least as we sacrificed half of Europe to Russian despotism to ensure our own freedom. Originally published in the Norwegian newspaper VG, 25 March 2022. By Dag Øistein Endsjø, Professor of Study of Religion at the University of Oslo.

Vladimir Putin portrays the invasion of Ukraine as a heroic continuation of the Great Patriotic War - Russia's name of World War II. His claim is based, among other things, on two facts: The war against Nazi Germany would probably never have been won without Soviet Russia. And in no country did more people suffer, than within the 1945 Soviet borders, with an estimate of more than 15 million dead by murder, forced labour and starvation, and about 10 million dying in combat.

Russia’s support of Nazi Germany
What Putin, however, wants us to forget is illegal to refer to in Russia. Like the fact that World War II began in 1939 with the formal Nonaggression Pact and Friendship Treaty between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, in which they divided Eastern Europe between them. In accordance with this agreement, Russia quickly occupied Eastern Poland, the Baltics and Moldova and tried to conquer Finland in the Winter War. In the wake of the occupation, Russia deported hundreds of thousands, many to slave labour, while murdering over 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in Katyń –later blaming the Germans for it.

Putin also does not want us to remember either that until 1941 the Russians supported the Nazi war of aggression against Norway and other Western European countries, by exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of oil, iron ore and grain to Nazi Germany - all invaluable for the Nazi warfare.

Putin probably also wants us to forget Russia’s official reaction to the Nazi invasion of Norway and Denmark on April 9, 1940: Foreign Minister Molotov sent congratulations to Nazi Germany with wishes for “complete success in her defensive measures.”

No liberation
Russia first changed sides in the World War, as they themselves suddenly were attacked by Nazi Germany on 22 June 1941. While this led to civilian suffering beyond comprehension, it must also be remembered that the proportion of civilians killed was even higher among Jews, Ukrainians and Belarusians than among Russians.

When Soviet Russia then helped to win the war, it was not about liberation, but first and foremost about one occupation being replaced by another. Once again they subjugated the Baltic states, Moldova, half of Poland and parts of Finland, with subsequent deportations of even more hundreds of thousands. In addition, they deployed quisling regimes in all the countries from Poland to Bulgaria. Until the collapse of Soviet power, all these territories were forced to celebrate the Russian occupation as liberation.

Norway, which is so fond of marking its friendship with Russia in the north, is generally unaware of that one of the motivations for the Soviet invasion of northern Norway in 1944 was plans for Svalbard, Bear Island and Finnmark east of the Tana River to become Russian.

Not even in the Soviet Union itself, was there any real liberation after the war. The genocidal regime of the Nazis was once again replaced by another form of despotism. The Stalinist regime, which before the war had systematically starved to death at least 3.9 million Ukrainians in the Holodomor, executed at least 750,000 in political purges and killed further millions through forced labour and deportations, continued its totalitarian oppression of both Russians and others. Hundreds of thousands of returned Soviet prisoners of war were sent to gulag camps, where millions of others were also prisoners. Entire peoples, such as the Crimean Tatars, Ingush and Chechens, were deported to desolate areas in the east.

Our co-responsibility
We in the West did nothing to prevent the Russian occupation of half of Europe. On the contrary, as early as 1941, Winston Churchill accepted that the Russians should retain the Baltic states, Moldova, and half of Poland, which they occupied under the 1939 Friendship Agreement with the Nazis. This was soon not even a matter of discussion.

After the war, the Western powers accepted the Soviet imposed regimes in the formally independent countries of Eastern Europe. Then followed almost half a century of brutal repression.

A war-weary West may not have had the possibility to prevent this in the face of Russia’s enormous military power. Maybe this was the only way to liberate Western Europe.

It is, consequently, all the more important that we never forget what an infinite tragedy this was for the countries we sacrificed for our own freedom.

All the more important is that we stop seeing Russia’s conquest of half of Europe as a liberation.

It is all the more important to remember that from Estonia in the north to Bulgaria in the south, the occupation of World War II did not end until the end of the Soviet Union.

It is all the more important now to support Ukraine in absolutely every way we can, in today’s fight against the Russian despotism.

1939, not 1941
But Putin is, however, still right that the war against Ukraine may actually be understood as a continuation of World War II - namely the Russian desire to recapture the possessions they subjugated with the Nazi blessing in 1939-1940 and later lost by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The methods employed also seem pretty much the same. War completely without regard to civilians. Introduction of direct occupation or quisling regimes. Repression and deportations. Lies and more lies.

The most important parallel, however, is this: the invasion of Ukraine is not a repetition of 1941, when a despotic Russia fought with an even more despotic Nazi regime. This is a repetition of 1939, when a despotic Russia invaded free countries without any provocation. At that time Poland, the Baltic states, Moldova and Finland. Today Ukraine.