A "Special Military Operation" to "De-militarize and De-Nazify Ukraine."
This is the spin the once-cunningly-believable propagandists of the Kremlin chose to use as the pretext for their invasion of Ukraine. This invasion has sought to avoid the risks of facing the Ukrainian military head-on and focus on terrorizing Ukraine into submission by killing helpless civilians instead, as is evident by the death toll of at least 21,000 civilians in the city of Mariupol alone (Reuters) with no word on total casualties nationwide, while only 1,300 Ukrainian troops appear to have been killed (Herb).
...And considering the Russians have had 24,500 troops killed (LB Staff) and lost the flagship of their Black Sea Fleet to a nation that doesn't even have a navy, perhaps one can see why the terrified Russian troops have chosen easier, defenseless civilian targets instead (it doesn't help morale much for a major world power to be decimated by a nation that isn't even considered a major regional player), but I digress.
The narrative that Ukraine is a "Nazi State" and that Russia is "liberating" it from Nazis has been picked up, predictably, by Russia's Chinese masters (including Foreign Ministry Official Li Yang), though not with very convincing results.
The question is, what made Russia think that this "we're entering Ukraine to fight Nazis" fish-story would fly? Well, the answer is "because it always has before."
National Identity Is a Bourgeoise Notion!! ...Unless It's Ours
So, hyper-abridged Russo-Ukrainian history lesson. Ukraine was under domination by Tsarist Russia for a few centuries. After the Tsar's Empire collapsed, Ukraine gained its independence for a brief time in 1919, then was promptly re-colonized by the Russian Empire's reincarnation, the USSR. The MURA movement (Make Ukraine Russian Again) included steps ordered by Moscow, such as making it illegal to teach the Ukrainian language or own a book of Ukrainian poetry (Applebaum, p. 145). When this failed to eradicate Ukraine's national identity, they launched the Holodomor to try and eradicate the population instead. This failed. The Nazis occupied the country on their way to Moscow. The Soviets broke the occupation and one dictator was replaced by another, again, and THAT was when Stalin began a tradition that has become a time-honored ritual in any political debate, today in the social-media era: he invented the "compare whoever you don't like to the Nazis" card.
The end of the Second World War did not quite bring a return to the status quo. Inside Ukraine, the war altered the language of the regime. Critics of the USSR were no longer mere enemies but 'fascists' or 'Nazis.'
-Applebaum, p. 344
This formed the basis of the entire Soviet (and later, Russian Federal) narrative surrounding Ukraine: any attempt to claim there is such a thing as "Ukrainian Nationality" separate from Russia is immediately dismissed as "Nazism (Düben)."
Since It Worked So Well in the '40's...
In 1987, as the USSR's grip on the former Russian Empire's territories loosened while death tightened a grip of its own around the throat of the Empire-turned-Union, a book appeared on Western bookshelves. This book, allegedly by a Canadian "Labor activist" (read 'softcore Socialist') named Douglas Tottle, was called Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard (Applebaum, p. 344). This book, widely believed to have been ghost-written by Kremlin operatives (the language used in it is almost cut-and-pasted from internal Soviet dogma, right down to the buzzwords and phrasing), dismisses the Holodomor as a myth. While this claim is rather easily shredded by even the most cursory examination of the records available in the Kremlin's own archives, the book had a secondary purpose which was far more useful to the Kremlin. By claiming the "myth" of the Holodomor was created by the Nazis, Tottle neatly resurrected the Stalinist "Ukrainian National Identity = Russophobic Western Interference = Nazis" claim.
Of course, it's little surprise to see that Tottle's few defenders in the West are essentially a 'Who's Who' of those who sadly cling to the belief that "Being a Communist makes me edgy and cool."
Tottle has been defended by the Stalin Society, author Jeff Coplon, and the Swedish Communist Party, who insist that his book is valid historical research that exposed the "myth of the famine-genocide ... once and for all".
-Peoplepill
Moscow has, of course, grasped onto this claim with both hands and never let go, as Applebaum pointed out...
In retrospect, Tottle's book is significant mostly as a harbinger of what was to come... Its central argument was built around the supposed link between Ukrainian 'nationalism' -defined as any discussion of Soviet repression of Ukraine, or any discussion of independence or sovereignty - and fascism, as well as American and British intelligence.
-Applebaum, 345.
...as well as Agence France-Presse. This comes as no surprise. What DOES come as a surprise is how much support this idiotic idea has found from the American Left.
Ukraine's "Neo-Nazi Problem"
During the Trump Administration, the American Left was in panic mode. The entirety of America's academic, entertainment and media world (all long-time faithful lapdogs of the Democrat Party) were on a mission, nay, a Crusade, a Jihad, to find and demonize anyone whom they felt was a "Nazi," defined as "anyone who might not be rabidly anti-Trump." One of the victims of this witch-hunt for "Neo-Nazis" was the Ukraine-based Azov Battalion (now the Azov Regiment).
To be fair, it was an easy mistake to make. While the unit itself denies having any official ideology other than dedication to the defense of Ukrainian sovereignty, their first commanding officer was known for speeches riddled with Nazi rhetoric (Karabelnicoff). It seems Ukraine though, unlike the soft-and-thin-skinned West, does not fire effective officers for offensive statements, which might explain why Ukraine has a better combat record against Russia than the West does. Yet one must ask if a Neo-Nazi organization would be as eager to fight for a cause -Ukrainian sovereignty- whose champion is a Jewish president (Likhachev).
In an article for New Statesman, Michael Colborne even admitted he was feeding Russia's propaganda by condemning them (as well as admitting that a number of their initial members were Russian nationals). Well, no problem. The western Left has never had any problem feeding the propaganda of West's enemies, especially when doing so helped the Great Anti-Trump Witch Hunt. Representative Max Rose (D-NY) was so eager to prove his dedication to the "Sacred Cause" of searching for (and demonizing) anyone who could be accused of having pro-Republican leanings Nazi connections that he threw the Kremlin the biggest bone they'd caught in their teeth since Tottle's book in '87. In 2019, he authored a bill designating the Azov Battalion as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (Colborne (2)).
The narrative of "anyone fighting to avoid seeing Ukraine wiped off the map is a Nazi" was written right into a proposed piece of US legislation. And it was all done by the same party who espouses so much of the Statist-Collectivist rhetoric of Josef Stalin, the man who first invented the narrative.
So Here We Are
So, let's recap. In order to keep Ukraine under Soviet domination, Josef Stalin invented a story that all claims of Ukrainian nationalism in the face of Russian imperialism, were "Nazism." This claim was resurrected in 1987 by the North American Far-Left (well-known Soviet apologists). The same claim was later parroted by America's Democrat Party as a way of discrediting Donald Trump (a known supporter of the Azov Regiment). And finally, it is used by Vladimir Putin as an excuse for genocide.
The next time someone tries to say "supporting Ukraine against Russia = supporting Nazism," smack them in the face with a history book. It's clear it'll be the first contact they've ever had with one.
Works Cited
Agence France-Presse Staff. "Prominent Ukrainian Jews rebuff Putin’s anti-Semitism claims." Agence France-Presse. 7 Mar, 2014. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://www.france24.com/en/20140307-prominent-ukrainian-jews-rebuff-putin-anti-semitism-claims
Applebaum, Anne. Red Famine - Stalin's War on Ukraine. London, 2017. Penguin Books.
ISBN 978-0-141-97828-4
Colborne, Michael. "Silence won’t make the Ukrainian far right go away." New Statesman. 22 Feb, 2022. Web. 4 May, 2022.https://www.newstatesman.com/international-content/2022/02/silence-wont-make-the-ukrainian-far-right-go-away
Colborne (2), Michael. "U.S. Congress Accidentally Boosted Ukraine’s Far-Right." Foreign Policy. 1 Nov, 2019. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/01/congress-max-rose-ukraine-azov-terrorism/
Düben, Björn Alexander. "'There is no Ukraine': Fact-Checking the Kremlin’s Version of Ukrainian History." LSE International History. 1 July, 2020. Web. 4 May, 2020.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2020/07/01/there-is-no-ukraine-fact-checking-the-kremlins-version-of-ukrainian-history/
Herb, Jeremy. "Exclusive: Zelensky says world should be prepared for possibility Putin could use nuclear weapons." CNN. 16 Apr, 2022. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/15/politics/tapper-zelensky-interview-cnntv/index.html
Karabelnicoff, Shaked. "The Azov Movement: Let’s talk about Ukraine’s “Nazi problem”." Jewish Unpacked. 1 Mar, 2022. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://jewishunpacked.com/the-azov-movement-lets-talk-about-ukraines-nazi-problem/
LB Staff. "During the day, the occupiers lost another 300 soldiers." LB.ua. 4 May, 2022. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://en.lb.ua/news/2022/05/04/14233_during_day_occupiers_lost.html
Likhachev, Vyacheslav. "What is Azov Regiment? Honest answers to the most common questions." Euromaidan Press. 7 Apr, 2022. We. 4 May, 2022. https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/04/07/what-is-azov-regiment-honest-answers-to-the-most-common-questions/
Peoplepill Staff. Douglas Tottle. Peoplepill. 27 Dec, 2019. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://peoplepill.com/people/douglas-tottle
Reuters. "21K Mariupol civilians dead since start of Russian invasion, mayor says." Global News. 12 Apr, 2022. Web. 4 May, 2022. https://globalnews.ca/news/8755081/mariupol-civilian-death-toll-21000-ukraine-war/