My daughter and I took a walk in downtown Cleveland yesterday. Our plan was to park on the street and then walk to the lake front to watch the sunset. On the way we saw a large group of people, many with large Ukrainian flags, gathered in front of City Hall in a show of support for Ukraine as they fight off the invasion from Vladimir Putin’s Russian military forces. This large gathering eventually left City Hall and then marched through downtown. As they passed us I saw one man carrying a hand made sign with a two words, “Stop Putler.” The obvious suggestion was that Vladimir Putin had become just like Adolph Hitler.
Comparing someone we don’t like to Adolph Hitler is certainly not uncommon and sometimes the comparisons don’t go much deeper than the person compared to Hitler is “evil.” Sometimes the comparisons can be downright silly though. I remember years ago, when Jesse Jackson was running for President, someone comparing him to Hitler because of the fiery way he gave a campaign speech. That is an example of comparing someone to Hitler that is, in my opinion, not historically accurate in the least or very enlightening.
The comparison of Putin with Hitler, though, I think may prove to have some historical validity, and in a relatively narrow way but very positive way.
To explain another person’s actions with certainty is always fraught with danger, but I think its fair to say that Hitler’s burning desire for vengeance upon the world was born in the German defeat at the end of World War I. The German military at the end of World War I was not defeated on the battlefield in the same way it was at the end of World War II. Likewise, German cities were not leveled and their civilian populations were not laid to waste. Germany, to end World War I, sought peace before a complete military defeat. For Hitler, this was a betrayal of the German peoples, and he placed much of the blame on European Jewry.
After the end of World War I, the Armistice demanded heavy reparations from Germany and former soldiers, like Hitler, felt humiliated and an overwhelming desire for revenge. This desire for vengeance fueled Hitler, and those Germans like him, to plan their revenge upon the world, particularly France, England, Russia and the other Slavic peoples, and of course, the Jewish peoples of Europe. Hitler saw himself as the great righter of historical wrongs, the one man who was destined to put the German peoples at the forefront of the world’s most powerful, and feared, nations.
Vladimir Putin’s burning desire for vengeance upon the world, and particularly the NATO countries and the former Warsaw Pact countries and Soviet Republics that would join NATO, was born in the collapse of the Soviet Union. For Putin, the relatively peaceful dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the independence of so many of the former Soviet Republics, such as Ukraine, was a historical wrong that he needs to right. In Putin’s mind, the Soviet Union was not defeated militarily, but through foolish and cowardly leadership at home. Putin sees himself as the one Russian leader who has been chosen to keep Russia at the forefront of the world’s most powerful, and feared, nations.
As we all know, Hitler and his Nazi Germany was defeated in their quest for vengeance upon the world and the German nation was, unlike at the end of World War I, utterly defeated and laid to waste. Since that time, the German peoples have been at peace with their neighbors and in many ways model citizens. The chain of intermittent wars that had plagued Europe for centuries, between Germany, France, England, Spain, Italy, and the other European nations, had largely been broken in the last 70 plus years. Europe has been at relative peace.
Except now for Putin’s Russia invading Ukraine. Putin wants his vengeance. Putin wants his place in history. Putin wants to restore Russian hegemony and Empire. All evidence seems to be that the rest of the world does not share in his vision, including most Russians. I do believe that the majority of Russians do not really support Putin’s war and only want to take their rightly place in the community of lawful nations, not as an overlord but as brothers and sisters. Very, very telling in this regard is that even the ethnic Russians living in Ukraine seem to be overwhelmingly supporting and fighting for Ukraine against Putin’s invading Russian military.
Perhaps with Putin’s defeat, which I believe is likely, the Russian people will be free from leaders intent on vengeance and conquest and instead governance intent on bettering the lives of the Russian peoples. China’s Emperor Xi is also very carefully watching the heroic Ukrainians defending against Putin’s invasion. Should Ukrainians come under the heel of Putin, it will be in Xi’s mind an invitation to force Taiwan to “reunite” under the heel of Xi and the Chinese Communist Party. Putin’s defeat will send a very different message, to future leaders of Russia and the current leaders of China, a message of hope for the whole world.