Historians on what Putin gets wrong about 'Denazification' in Ukraine

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://time.com/6154493/denazification-putin-ukraine-history-context/

In seven days of fighting, Russia has launched hundreds of missiles into Ukraine, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported Mar. 3 that about a million refugees have fled the country. The U.N. also reported there have been at least 752 civilian casualties in Ukraine and at least 227 fatalities, as of Mar. 2.

As the war in Ukraine rages, so does a war of words. In a TV address on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that the goal of invading Ukraine was “to protect the people that are subjected to abuse, genocide from the Kiev regime” and to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.”

But historians tell TIME that Putin is misusing the term “denazify,” pointing out that denazification refers to a particular moment in time in the post-war era, and that Putin’s use of the term is propaganda aimed at his fears about the current democratic government in the Ukraine, and is disconnected from the history around the Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s.

“There’s a very specific historical meaning [to denazification], which is the process undergone in Germany after the Second World War,” says Timothy Snyder, an expert on Ukraine and author of The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. “In West Germany, there was a certain amount of attention paid to high Nazi officials, by the Americans, the other occupying powers, and an attempt to remove them from public life…Using it, as Mr. Putin does, out of context, is an attempt to transform the country and the people he’s talking about, into Nazi Germany.”

*snip*

[sanatanadharma]

1. Nothing says "I am anti-nazi" quite like bringing your own...

Nothing says "I am anti-nazi" quite like bringing your own crematoriums to the neighbors.

[brush]

2. Putin knows "nazi" is a loaded word to millions of Russians...

as Russia lost 20-some million people to Hitler's nazi invasion in WWll. He uses it to stoke emotions and support for the Ukraine war from the descendants and relatives of those who died, many of whom depend on Putin's propaganda TV and radio for their news outlet.

Younger, tech-savvy Russians get their news from online sources like facebook, twitter, instagram, tic-toc and youtube but Putin is shutting them down to so soon there'll be total news blackout to anything but Putin's controlled media.

It's amazing that this dinosaur with a stuck-in-the-mid-20th-century mindset is still, and has been the singular decision maker in Russia in 2022.

IMHO opinion thought, this will be his last major decision as this invasion will be is downfall even if he takes over Ukraine. He will be an international pariah and will either be deposed, assassinated or die in disgrace.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Um no