But the problem is not so much whether Russia’s version of history is a lie (although it often is). Rather, it is that their narrative is being used to sell further lies. It is a lie that Ukrainians’ desire to be independent of Russia and forge their own national identity is the result of Nazism wielded to destroy the country’s true Russian identity. Kremlin propagandists point to the far-right origins of the Azov Battalion or the use of neo-Nazi symbols in other units. But if this is all it takes for a country to be fascist, as opposed to its style of government, then the same would apply to Russia. There are openly neo-Nazi units, such as Rusich, among Russia’s forces fighting in Ukraine.

In fact, Nazism has little relevance to either country. It is merely a distraction from the evils being committed right now. These are evils that can be prevented, albeit not by relitigating which side had more collaborators during World War II. Such debates are important, especially if they promote the expansion of historical knowledge. Alas, they rarely do. And they are irrelevant in relation to Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

World War II doesn’t mean anything for the Putin regime beyond acting as a cypher for its right to be a great power Stripped of anti-fascism, the Putinist memory of the Great Patriotic War has become little more than a demand that Russia should be able to occupy and kill its neighbors. It is a way to recast Russia as the good guy, when it is so plainly the aggressor. Moscow perverts pastSoviet sacrifices to claim the world owes a debt of gratitude to Russia alone, disregarding the blood shed by so many other nations.  

The Russian government and army do not care about respecting the memory of World War II. If they did, then why did they shoot the memorial to Ukrainian Red Army soldiers in the  eastern Ukrainian village of Topolske  they were occupying? Why did they bomb the Great Patriotic War memorial complex in Izium, now a city of ruins and mass graves? The answer to these questions is that, in Russia today, the memory of the Great Patriotic War is a loud, outrageous propaganda vehicle to distract from the reality of the war they are currently waging. 

When we discuss who did what in 1942, we forget what we should really be talking about. Namely, what is happening in Ukraine now, and what might happen if Moscow gains the upper hand. Russians’ mass murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, and ethnic cleansing of Ukraine are the worst to have taken place on European soil for almost 80 years, since World War II itself. Anyone working to dismiss and twist this reality might wish to consider whether they will be deemed collaborators 80 years from now.