Then and now.
One year on from the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, the courage, bravery and self-sacrifice of the Ukrainian people in defending their country continues to be exemplary and outstanding.
A comparison of the invasion of Ukraine on the 24th February 2022 and the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia in September 1939 reveals striking parallels. History does indeed repeat itself. Some of the similarities can be seen in ‘What in Life Were Wings,’ completed before the invasion of Ukraine.
Firstly, there are parallels between what was said over eighty years ago, from the 17th September 1939 by Stalin’s forces during their five-month occupation of eastern Poland and what was said in Ukraine in 2022 by Putin.
‘We’ve come to protect you. It’s not an invasion.’ (1939, 2022)
* Text in italics indicates extracts from ‘What in Life Were Wings’
‘Posters were going up everywhere, stating that they had come to ‘extend the hand of brotherly assistance to bring the Polish peoples out of the misery into which they had been plunged.’ Above the words on the poster, a large picture of a man smiled out. His name was Stalin.’
What were they protecting them from?
‘…the misery into which they had been plunged,’ was reference to the Nazi invasion of Poland. The Russians claimed that they were trying to protect the Polish peoples against the Nazis. This was, despite, what very few knew at the time, that the Russians and Germans had signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, a non-aggression Pact in August 1939, in which they agreed to invade Poland, and divide it between themselves along a pre-agreed line: the Curzon Line.
In 2022 Putin called Ukraine a neo-Nazi regime.
The aim of denazification also served as a pretext for the ‘special military operation’ of Ukraine in 2022 (The Times 18/2/2023)
There are also similarities between what they did in 1939 and in 2022-3.
In 1939 ‘The Russians were taking over in the east of the country, claiming to be helping minorities and protecting the Poles, but they were destroying buildings and enforcing curfews.’
Zofia had seen the desecrated churches and ‘the ravished tombstones of the once beautiful graveyard.’
Many things had changed at Zofia’s school.
‘When she asked Adam about why the changes were happening, he had frowned.
‘Because they want to wipe out our culture, our heritage, and most of all, of course, our religion.… They want us to become citizens of the Soviet Union.’ He paused for a moment, as if he were wondering whether he should say anymore.
‘I think what they’d really like to do is to remove all of us… from here and make it part of the USSR, but that must never happen.’
The removal or forced deportation of citizens from eastern Poland to Siberia and other parts of the Soviet Union from 1940 onwards is historical fact. Tragically, in 2022 citizens of Ukraine were deported to Russia.
Remarkably, all this happened in the exact same place over eighty years ago, in 1939 and in 2022-3. The area was sometimes known as the ‘Bloodlands’ or the ‘Borderlands.’ It consisted of the eastern side of Poland, including Lwów and the area around it, which had been part of Poland before WWII, and which later became Lviv in western Ukraine after the war.
Remarkable too, that in 2022 and 2023, Putin is still trying to ‘make it part of Russia.’
What can be learned from these parallels? What conclusions can be made apart from, ‘History repeating itself?’
Perhaps one question that could be asked is: ‘Why did Russia change sides in WWII and join the Allies?’
The answer: Because its hitherto ally, Nazi Germany, betrayed Russia and attacked it. On its own Russia was not strong enough to defend itself against the mighty Nazi army. It stepped back.
‘It is high time to step back from the brink.’
‘War is not the solution. War is the problem. … Ukrainians, Russians and people far beyond need peace.’
António Guterres, 22nd February, 2023
Secretary-General of the United Nations
* Text in italics indicates extracts from ‘What in Life Were Wings’
BI 2/2023