75th anniversary of the great victory

This being notice of an article by President Putin about the Second World War (reference 1), prompted by an article in the NYRB (reference 2), ostensibly a review of a book (reference 3).

It seems that Putin, having been in power for so long, has got a bit old for showing off his torso while doing manly things like spear hunting for bears and boars in the wilds of Siberia, and has taken to writing learned articles about Russian affairs, particularly Russian history. Or at least getting them written in his name and published on the presidential web site at reference 7.

This particular article is rather tiresome, not very even handed and rather clumsily written, even allowing for a possibly careless translation. I suppose he is raking up all this stuff as part of his drive to prop up Mother Russia with its glorious, thousand year history. A bit of diversion for ordinary Russians from the messy realities of their daily lives.

We are forcefully reminded that it was the Soviets who put the most into the war, not least their horrific casualties. We are not reminded of the extent to which these casualties were the result of Stalin’s mistakes and his brutal style. 

We are also reminded that the slice of eastern Poland taken by the Soviets in the course of the war contained a very mixed population, including plenty of people who were not Poles and plenty of people who might well have been more at home in what is now Belarus and the Ukraine.

And Putin does land some other punches. Some of which follow.

First, the Western powers made a very bad peace after the First World War.

Second, the Western powers – France and the UK – made a grave error in capitulating over Czechoslovakia. The Czechs and the Slovaks were well up for fighting and were well armed. Had we backed them, that might well have been the end of Hitler.

Third, the Western powers behaved very feebly at the time of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, which left his western frontier very weakly defended. Again, quick, decisive action by our greatly superior forces might well have been the end of Hitler. This one was new to me: I suppose I had not thought that it had been possible for us to do anything during the Polish campaign, which only lasted a few weeks. The amateur article at reference 5 suggests that we have at least a case to answer.

Then given our failure to engage with the Soviet Union, Stalin did not have much choice but to buy time by making a pact with Hitler, just before he invaded Poland, a pact which gave him a share of the spoils. His position at this point having been gravely weakened by the mistakes and brutal style already mentioned.

Fourth, the passing of the curious document at reference 6 by the European Parliament, with its very one sided, anti-Russian account of the causes of the Second World War, is not helpful. Not the way to build understanding, to build bridges.

And fifth, it is all to easy to interpret the actions of the Western Powers during the 1930’s as an attempt to dump dealing with Hitler on Stalin. Let them bleed each other to death while we get on with our lives.

So while a lot of what Putin and his cronies get up to is most unsavoury (to say the least of it), we should do better than blaming the Soviet Union for the Second World War. Not least by being clear, by coming clean about the mess that we made of 1938 and 1939. And all the unsavoury currents swirling around our own green and pleasant land at that time.

Perhaps while he is waiting, Putin will be penning an article about the importance of oral hygiene, which would make a change from all this grandiose history.

All very depressing.

PS 1: he does not miss a beat when it comes to having a pop at the pre-war Poles, but he is much more positive about Churchill, a man with rooted aversion to the Soviets, but who did what needed to be done at the time. Unlike some of his colleagues.

PS 2: another of Putin’s efforts is to be found at reference 4. Marking the heroism of the legendary, immortal 6th Paratroop Company, almost wiped out in a battle in the northern Caucasus. ‘On March 1, 2000, almost the entire personnel of the 6th Pskov airborne assault company died in the Argun Gorge. Of the 90 troops, only six survived’. I associate to the battle of Rorke’s Drift, another battle on the fringes of empire, celebrated in the film ‘Zulu’.

References

Reference 1a: The real lessons of the 75th anniversary of the World War II – Vladimir Putin – 2020.

Reference 1b: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/vladimir-putin-real-lessons-75th-anniversary-world-war-ii-162982. 

Reference 2: Stalin’s Lawyers at Nuremburg – Benjamin Nathans, NYRB – 2021. September 23rd, 2021. 

Reference 3: Soviet Judgement at Nuremburg: A New History of the Military Tribunal after World War II – Francine Hirsch – 2020.

Reference 4: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62890.

Reference 5: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/3042/why-didnt-france-and-the-uk-invade-germany-in-september-1939.

Reference 6: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2019-0021_EN.html.

Reference 7: http://en.kremlin.ru/. Supplementary to reference 1.

Reference 8: http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/files/en/VlMXXg4uCU1WOilGCMNzd8sPyIujZg3y.pdf. The official version of reference 1. With documentary annexes and without the tacky advertisements.

Reference 9: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181. The true story of the Ukraine. But unread by me.