Second World War memory as an instrument of counter-revolution in Putin's Russia

Following the pro-Russian president of Ukraine Viktor Ianukovych's (Yanukovych's) removal from power at the end of the Euromaidan, the European Parliament endorsed Ukraine's right to apply for European Union membership provided it upheld the organization's principles of democracy, fundamental freedoms, and human rights. Shortly thereafter, the Putin regime launched a propaganda campaign in Western media that portrayed Ukraine as a fascist, antisemitic state, often referencing Soviet Second World War-era anti-fascism and Russia's ongoing commitment to postwar moral-political imperatives. This campaign escalated with Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Putin declared necessary to denazify the state. Drawing on recent Kremlin discourse concerning Ukraine, this paper argues that the Putin regime's memory politics constitute a tool of counter-revolution for their assault on the memory politics of the European Union. To this end, the study investigates Russia's invocation of transnational memories of the Second World War and the postwar period in its war against Ukraine since 2014, focusing in particular on Russian accusations of Ukrainian antisemitism and Holocaust denial and narratives of Russian victimhood, or Russophobia. Apres la destitution du president ukrainien pro-russe Viktor anukovi & ccaron; en 2014, le Parlement europeen a approuve le droit de l'Ukraine a demander son adhesion a l'Union europeenne a condition qu'elle respecte les principes de la democratie, les libertes fondamentales et les droits humains. Peu de temps apres, le regime de Putin a lance une campagne de propagande dans les medias occidentaux afin de presenter l'Ukraine comme un etat fasciste et antisemite, en reference a des aspects cles de la politique memorielle de la Russie, tels que l'antifascisme sovietique de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Cette campagne s'est intensifiee avec l'invasion de l'Ukraine par la Russie en 2022, que Putin a declaree necessaire pour << denazifier >> l'etat. Cette etude avance que la politique memorielle du regime de Poutine constitue un outil contre-revolutionnaire a l'encontre de la politique memorielle de l'Union europeenne. A cette fin, l'etude examine l'invocation par la Russie des memoires transnationales de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et de l'apres-guerre dans le contexte de sa lutte contre l'Ukraine depuis 2014, en se concentrant en particulier sur les accusations russes d'antisemitisme et de negationnisme en Ukraine, ainsi que de << russophobie >>.

Automated summary

This study examines how the Putin regime counteracts the memory politics of the European Union by invoking transnational memories of the Second World War and the postwar period. The regime portrays Ukraine as a fascist and antisemitic state through propaganda campaigns and justifies the invasion of Ukraine as necessary to eradicate Nazi forces.