By HUGO DIONÍSIO*

With each commemoration, Russia reminds the entire West that it not only knows who committed the crimes, but also demonstrates all its strength and resolve to ensure that such crimes are never perpetrated again.

1.

It is not just ingratitude… If only it were so! The real causes of contempt, incomprehension, rejection and repugnance expressed by the political elites of the USA and the European Union regarding the celebrations of Victory Day, the day on which the USSR put an end to one of the most heinous regimes to emerge from the depths of human history and, certainly, a testament to the maximum exponent of Western brutality, fueled by the founding economic and social roots of capitalism and imperialism, are much deeper.

Hence, Victory Day should also be called “Shame Day”, the day on which an anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist state, attacked in its deepest essence with the most aggressive weapon that Western capitalism is capable of producing – Nazi-fascist terror – lost 27 million of its best sons and daughters, in order to save us all from a problem to which it did not contribute in the slightest. Western shame does not end with the crimes it has committed against humanity; Russia forces the West to live and relive every year the recognition that it too was saved from itself by the victim of its aggressions.

This duality explains much of the resentment that has been publicly demonstrated, the hidden shame of some and the anguish of others, regarding the history of the Second World War. How is it that the regime that is most hated, demonized and vilified by the most advanced form of capitalism, Western capitalism – as we can see – was also the one that contributed most to the fight against an oppressive force produced within the Western regimes that presented themselves as “moderate, democratic and civilized”?

It is certainly an irony of history that humanity felt so threatened by one of the most emblematic products of Western fanaticism and that, at the same time, this humanity was saved by a regime that, this same West, claimed to want to destroy it. It is the story of the diabolical criminal who, in the end, becomes the most selfless and altruistic of saviors. It is the perfect epitome of the saying that “the truth is like oil, it always rises to the surface”.

How was it that the greatest criminal of all – the most reviled of regimes – capable of such enormous altruism, not limiting itself to expelling the aggressor from its home, but going to the limit of its strength to definitively defeat him? And how was it that the kindest and most humane of regimes was capable of producing, supporting and nurturing such a hideous being, showing itself not only incapable of destroying him alone, but having to watch his destruction by those from whom it said nothing good was possible?

2.

How can today's Germany, governed by the descendants of those who were in the clutches of the Nazi monster, live with traumas like the ones we are forced to watch, when we are faced with terrifying images of human bones piled up, desiccated and stripped of all dignity? Images that we now see on our TVs, set in Gaza, and which the West, the entire West, sweeps under the carpet that hides its countless and historic crimes?

How would those who support the second iteration of the Third Reich, revived from the historical remains of the 3th Galician Division and preserved in some of the most privileged and “civilized” metropolises of the great liberal civilization, like to erase from history the vivid portraits that should arouse anything other than their immense shame and constriction, as they do in relation to the dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria or the live and color reproduction of Nazi terror in the 14st century, this time perpetrated by someone known to be the victim of the first?

Accustomed to choosing its heroes and hiding, when not under the light of the recovery provided by the infamous historical revisionism, its own demons, Western Europe, the fertile womb of fascism in the first half of the 20th century, created and grown under the auspices of the most prominent Anglo-Saxon elite and fed by the proudest American offspring, is forced to live with those who do not let it hide its crimes, its immense guilt.

After all, when considering only the demographic weight of Soviet deaths in World War II, it is estimated that this country lost around 26,6 to 27 million people during the war, which represented approximately 13,7% of its population in 1940. Such losses encompassed both military and civilians, with around 8,7 million being soldiers killed in combat, while the remainder were due to massacres, famine, disease, forced labor and other direct consequences of the conflict, that is, mostly innocent civilians, like those who die today in Gaza, at the hands of those who are fiercely defended by the grandchildren of those who practiced such vile terror against the USSR.

Perhaps that is indeed the way it is. With 13,7% of the population lost, it should not be difficult for anyone to imagine that there was not a single Soviet citizen, a single ex-Soviet citizen and, even more certainly, not a single Russian or Belarusian, who did not have engraved in their mental, family, social and physical structure the weight of the drama that reached its end on May 9, 1945. Not one. And if anyone has difficulty visualizing what such destruction and death meant, they do not need to go very far back in time.

Once again, today, each of us has had the dark privilege of experiencing and watching, this time live and in color, in a small territorial sample, what must have been the damage inflicted by Nazi terror on the then USSR. With almost 100.000 deaths and many more missing, around 10% to 15% of the population of Gaza has already been decimated by the Zionist army. Can anyone ask a citizen of Gaza not to feel such a great tragedy? For those who have difficulty understanding what Nazi terror cost the Russian and Soviet people, just turn on the TV!

3.

The problem is that Nazi terror, the beloved son of fascism, the brother of Zionism, as Cinthya Chung and Mathew Heret have so well proven in their profound works on the subject, versions of an oppression engendered in the select clubs of London and in the dark cellars of English Sirs, was just one chapter – the most horrendous – of the suffering with which the Western imperialist bloc wanted to punish a people who had the audacity to produce something as grand as the Russian Revolution and not be content with it, but to carry forward the most profound social transformations the world has seen, in such a short space of time.

Having dared to challenge Western imperialism, which was gagging and shackling pre-revolutionary Russia, the Russian and Soviet peoples were forced to live with successive invasions of their territory by 14 imperialist powers (1917-1922). Having survived this mortal threat and all those that followed, disguised in many forms, the Nazi-fascist threat was the one that had been most carefully prepared for them.

The hatred, rage, arbitrariness, discretion and violent voluptuousness with which the Nazi army “rewarded” the Soviet population can only be understood in light of the frustration and humiliation with which the West was forced to feed the Nazi monster, and then unleash it on the young Soviet homeland. The threat of losing a coveted prize was transformed into a hatred as deep as that which today seeks to isolate the Russian Federation and classify its leader – Vladimir Putin – as the most bloodthirsty tyrant in human history. Nazism, like Banderaism, are both children of this greed, both children of this hatred.

Hence, the furious fury with which the West, through the eyes of mindless figures, looks at the solemn celebrations of Victory Day is both insulting and justified. Year after year, the Russian Federation prevents the West from forgetting the harm it has done to it, the harm it has done to the world and to humanity. With this reminder, the Russian Federation, the current anchor of this ancient struggle against imperialist tyranny, however much it may be classified as such, also reminds the West of its eminently criminal nature.

When historical repetition is a feature of Western crimes (plunder, slavery, world wars, sanctions, embargoes, proxy wars, color revolutions, destruction of countries), it means that crime is not an accident in the history of the Anglo-Saxon-dominated West. It is an inherent feature of the West that must be remembered.

4.

When we observe Volodymyr Zelensky’s threats to those who participate in the Victory Day celebrations, and Kaja Kallas’s threats to punish the leaders of candidate countries who participate in the celebrations in Moscow, we see that this Europe wants to forget its crimes, it wants to erase the facts, the history, that causes it such great embarrassment. It is interesting to feel that Ursula Von Der Leyen and company, when faced with such a significant date, behave like someone who, reminded of their shameful roots, instead of showing themselves humble and deserving of forgiveness, tries to free themselves from them in the worst possible way: by forgetting others and attacking the victims!

But how can we do so when the one reminding us of this is, of all the European countries, not only the largest, richest and most powerful, but also the one that suffered the most from the offence? How can we resist – and combat – an opponent that repeatedly insists not only on dignifying its martyrs and their descendants, but also on showing everyone, to the four winds and on the five continents, the shameful conduct to which the oligarchic, capitalist, neoliberal West is capable of when it comes to defending its illegitimate interests?

And how could Russia forget such an insult? The Soviet Union alone was responsible for more than half of all deaths in World War II, which totaled about 50 million worldwide. Russia alone is said to have taken more than a third of the toll. How could Belarus not participate in Victory Day when it lost about 1% of its population?

An example of the infamous oblivion that the European Union and the USA want to impose on the past is that of Ukraine. Having lost around 16,3% of its population, this country, which would not exist without the USSR, is now used in two ways. On the one hand, the target of betrayal by its oligarchic elites, it is once again being armed and fanaticalised, just as Nazi Germany had been, in order to be thrown at the Russian Federation. Taking the historical remnants of Nazi collaborationism, the same that fuels the Nazi-fascist madness that is reemerging in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia and Germany itself, the USA, aided by the ever-helpful European Union, has not only recreated the flag-waving atmosphere of the Second World War, but has also transmitted the virus to a significant part of the Ukrainian population and, even more seriously, to the entire European Union.

In today's Ukraine, we are witnessing everything that the European Union would like to do to Russia, if it had its way: banning its patriotic parties, as the "Flag-ist" did in Ukraine, closing its media outlets and persecuting its language, religion and culture, as the Flag-ist Ukraine and Von Der Leyen's European Union did.

Ukraine is also today a living laboratory for the process of revisionism and historical rewriting. Victims have become aggressors and aggressors have become heroes. Statues of war criminals and genocidal perpetrators, including Ukrainians and Jews, have been erected throughout the country. Nazi symbols have been engraved in gold letters for all to see, in the face of total Western uncriticism. Germany, which criminally punishes the use of Nazi symbols, forgets its shameful past when it goes to Kiev. In Kiev, instead of being held accountable and reminded of the crimes committed, so that they will never be committed again, it is instead idolized and its history is recovered.

The mechanism is simple and has been used repeatedly. First, Nazi-fascism is compared to communism and, by demonizing the latter, the former is normalized; then, the USSR is compared to Nazi Germany and, by demonizing the former, the latter is recovered. From then on, the way is open for the rewriting of history and the collective forgetting of the past.

5.

The system is so perfected that it is not only in Ukraine that people are forgetting the crimes it suffered at the hands of Western imperialism. It is also in Japan itself, a country that was the victim of two atomic bombs dropped by the US, using two different technologies, so that there would be no doubt as to which would best fulfill the warlike aims that were pursued from then on.

In this Japan that has forgotten its past, its history, its suffering, the Prime Minister is capable of talking for an hour about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, without ever mentioning who dropped those bombs and, in the end, only talking about those who did not drop them: Russia.

If there were any doubts about the effectiveness of such a method, let us see how the European Union is erasing Gaza from its memory today, when Von Der Leyen offers to help Israel put out fires that, according to reports, the settlers who are forcibly occupying Palestinian territory themselves started. See how a true German, who supports the most vile historical revival of Nazism in Ukraine, is so eager to “help” a people who were one of the main victims of the ideology that she now supports and tries to hide from the most attentive eyes.

And what about a West that supported the apartheid in South Africa, then appear to idolize Mandela, only to be able to once again support another apartheid in Israel? How good is it to be able to commit crimes and then, instead of being punished, punish and blame the victims and self-proclaim oneself as a hero and savior. How good is it to be able, time and again, to destroy entire nations, to sanction, embargo, and accuse others of doing so, while appearing as a savior.

How wonderful it is to be able to interfere in other people's electoral processes, in full view of everyone (as in Georgia, where high-ranking European Union officials marched in opposition demonstrations) and accuse others of doing what they say they did not do. How wonderful it is to have the power to annul elections and prevent candidates from running and, at the same time, without a shred of shame, call a dictator someone who is elected by his people and a liberator someone who perpetuates himself in power after his mandate has expired.

This West, which believes itself to be the owner of history, which does its own penance in one fell swoop, not so that it can learn anything from it, but only so that it can feel free to commit, over and over again, the acts that should make it ashamed, cannot, does not want to, and wants to avoid living with the repeated memory of its crimes. This is what the US and the European Union seek every time they show discomfort with the celebration of May 9th as Victory Day.

After all, with each commemoration, Russia reminds the entire West, the entire world, that it not only knows who committed the crimes, but also demonstrates all its strength and resolve to ensure that such crimes are never perpetrated again.

6.

Every Victory Day, it is as if the Russian people say to their tormentors: I know who you are, I know what you think of me, I know what you want, and I warn you that if you come here, you will receive the punishment you deserve. Look at this parade, look at this victorious army, look at this pride… Look at what awaits you if you ever try to make us your slaves again.

This is why the European Union is so permeated with hatred and so mired in titanic Ukrainian. The instrument that was created to silence this “misbehaved” Russian student, this insubordinate slave, this undisciplined apprentice of the glorious liberal civilization, is failing resoundingly. If Donald Trump’s USA tries to escape through its own emulation as “mediators” 2.0 (1.0 is in Palestine), the European Union has no choice but to win or lose. Just as the original had almost led Russia to defeat, so too is Ukrainian Yeltsin on the verge of achieving it.

And this is where these people become dangerous. Spoiled people, used to having everything their way, “educated” in the best schools and universities that money can buy, parading in the media that the oligarchy can control and benefiting from the manipulation that the best communication agencies can sell, have seen all their strategies for destabilizing their most coveted prize: Russia, dismantled.

But Russia did not just dismantle the trap that was set for it; it re-set the trap in reverse! And how! If it failed to dismantle it, its very existence was at risk. It was interesting to see the spell backfire. The European Union could be destroyed by the trap it had set to tear Russia to pieces.

But the affront does not stop there. When we see that Ibrahim Traoré – like a hero of a young Africa – is travelling to Moscow to take part in the Victory Day celebrations, we cannot help but think that, once again, the Russian homeland is putting a thorn in the side of those who thought they could do all the harm and not have to do any penance. By receiving the young and promising head of state of Burkina Faso, who has done more for his people in one year – such as nationalising gold and paying off the sovereign debt – than the puppets financed by France, Vladimir Putin is once again affronting the same elites who were responsible for the Nazi-fascist terror. In this case, the French national “hero”, Napoleon.

Not being the same country that the USSR was, this affront, accompanied by other resistance to imperialism and the most impunity and inhumane repression it is capable of, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea (which suffered at the hands of the USA levels of terror similar to those suffered by the USSR at the hands of Nazi-fascism), Iran and many others, Russia once again asserts itself as a bastion and refuge for peoples oppressed by neocolonial greed. Russia once again says to the West: as long as I exist, you will be forced to live and remember your shame!

And it is with this shame that the US and the European Union do not want to live. Victory Day for Russia is equivalent to a day of shame for the West!

*Hugo Dionísio is a lawyer, geopolitical analyst, researcher at the Studies Office of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP-IN).

Originally published on the portal Strategic Culture Foundation.