Putin is using the same arguments to justify his war of aggression against Ukraine that Stalin used to justify the attack on Poland and the annexation of 1939.
Claudia Weber, Professor of modern European history at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, spoke of this in an interview with Ukrinform.
The historian, who studies, among other things, the Hitler-Stalin pact, sees parallels between Germany unleashing World War 2 and Russia starting a war against Ukraine.
“The way Stalin justified the invasion of Poland and then the annexation of western Ukrainian and western Belarusian territories are the same arguments that are being used now. Putin has learned very well to borrow these arguments from Stalin: ‘It’s about our brothers, we are liberating our brothers’… And this, without a doubt, is quite understandable for us, Eastern European historians, because we know these stories very well,” the professor said.
The fact that today’s Russian leaders actively employ words like “fascists” and “Nazis” in their vocabulary when talking about Ukrainians and the Ukrainian government, according to Weber, “has nothing to do with historical science,” but is propaganda.
Putin is trying to use the fact that some facts of collaboration with the enemy did took place. In particular, that’s when the National Socialists used the Ukrainian national movement for their own purposes.
“Of course, Putin exploits this historical complexity,” and thus, creating the image of the enemy, mobilizes his own population, the agency’s interlocutor noted.
At her university, Dr. Weber heads the “Landscapes of Time” project In particular, in 2019 she published a study on the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
As reported earlier, on May 8, Germany celebrates the 80th anniversary of its and all of Europe’s liberation from National Socialism.
Source: Putin adopts Stalin's arguments to justify aggression - German historian
