Ignorance is a Bliss?

The article by Lara Marlowe “Europe is a Beacon for Ukraine, but Ukraine is a Necessity for Europe”, (“The Irish Times”, May 11, 2024,) presents a mixture of ignorance and deliberate distortion of history, which lie at the core of propaganda on the Ukrainian conflict in the Western media, including Ireland. The center of this effort has been for years and remains an outright manipulation of nationalistic emotions to drive a wedge between Ukrainians and Russians. That is what Ms. Marlowe does in her piece.

It takes a lot of imagination to present the ancient history of Russia (Rus) as the history of Ukraine – there was no Ukrainian state or even a notion of it at that time. Prince Yaroslav was not in any way, shape or form a Ukrainian prince, on the contrary - he was a Russian prince of consequently Rostov, Novgorod and then Kiev. These towns, as well as the town of Vladimir, in different periods were the capitals of the Ancient Rus. Peter the Great did not take the name Russia from anyone, since it existed for centuries before him in the geographical and political area of the Byzantine Empire and greater Europe and it was officially sealed by the Tsar Ivan IV as identifying of all Russian lands, including Kiev.

The caricaturist, almost comic book view of history by Marlowe might seem detached from contemporary realities and thus harmless. But it is not. This type of “ukrainization” of history plays up to the worst ultranationalist and russophobic ideas of the Kiev regime, which have been the source and catalyst of Ukrainian crisis. This is a dangerous play and a real challenge for Europe.

As if that were not enough, Ms. Marlowe goes on to the more recent times, touching upon the theme of the Second World War. It is in this subject that her deliberations go from being simply ridiculous to completely unacceptable, even disgusting. An attempt to paint Ukraine as a unique example of suffering in the war is an insult to the collective memory of all nationalities of the Soviet Union – Ukrainians included – who fought and defeated German Nazism together, losing more than 27 million people in the Great Patriotic War. The perversion of that common legacy is exactly what neo-Nazis in Ukraine have been doing in recent decades with Zelensky and Co. eagerly continuing this narrative. The same is true with the issue of Hitler’s collaborators raised by Ms. Marlowe. Indeed, in many European countries, be it France, Netherlands, Czech Republic or Denmark, or even some Republics of the USSR there were collaborators. Yet, all those countries consider them as traitors and criminals and severely punished those who were on the side of Nazis. General Vlasov, who was conveniently mentioned by Ms. Marlowe, shared the same fate – he was executed and his name alongside the names of his accomplices will forever be associated with treachery.

Ukraine, as well as Baltic states, is a completely different story. In these countries, long before the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Nazi collaborators were exonerated and even praised as heroes. The Kiev regime, which illegally and violently came to power in 2014, has been promoting the idea that Bandera and Shukhevich, founders and leaders of the nationalist “Ukrainian Rebel Army” who served Hitler and were guilty of mass killings of Jews, Russians, Poles and others, were “freedom fighters”. The Ukrainian authorities are glorifying these people, naming streets after them and erecting monuments in their honor, permitting neo-Nazi marches under infamous SS and Wehrmacht regalia, which take place regularly in Kiev, Lvov and other cities of Ukraine.

         One has to wonder – is that kind of Ukraine a necessity for Europe, and if yes, what kind of Europe is that?