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30THE USE OF MILITARY-HISTORICAL ISSUES IN RUSSIAN ANTI-UKRAINIAN PROPAGANDA
Ivanenko S.,
lieutenant colonel, PhD Student of a scientific-experience center of military history, National Defense University of Ukraine named after Ivan Cherniakhovskyi (Kyiv, Ukraine) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000 - 0001-6382-040x
Bidnyi V.
colonel, Armed Forces of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine) ORCID: https://orcid. org/0000-0002-583 7-5046
ABSTRACT
The peculiarities of the Kremlin propaganda's use of the narrative "Great Patriotic War" to create an "image of the enemy" from Ukraine, demonization of the state leadership, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies, as well as legitimizing Russian aggression against our state.
Keywords: anti-Ukrainian propaganda, discourse, World War II, narrative, Nazis, image of the enemy, memorable dates, victory, fascists, fake.
Problem statement: to generalize the peculiarities of the Kremlin propaganda's use of the "Great Patriotic War" construct in order to create an "image of the enemy" from Ukraine, demonize the state leadership, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies, and legitimize Russian aggression against our state.
Analysis of recent research and publications: The achievements of modern Ukrainian scientists on the subject of the study allows us to assess the degree of elaboration of the problem. Peculiarities of the use of myths about the World War II by Russian propaganda were studied by V. Viatrovych, L. Hudkov, T. Zhurzhenko, D. Zolotukhin, S. Lewis, G. Pocheptsov, and Yu. Fihurnyi.
The purpose of the proposed study is to highlight the peculiarities of the operation of the memory of World War II by the Russian Federation among the local population of the so-called DPR / LPR and Russian citizens, in order to form the basis for further escalation of the conflict with Ukraine.
Presentation of the main material. Celebrating the anniversary of the victory over Hitler's Germany, showing respect and gratitude to all those who fought against Nazi aggression, resisted crimes against humanity has become a good tradition in all countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition. Recently, however, in modern Russia, this event has become an occasion for militaristic propaganda, a way to further form the "image of the enemy" from Ukraine. Its effectiveness lies in the fact that it is based on social ideas, stereotypes and myths that were formed and maintained by the Soviet regime for decades and live today [1]. This is done to restore Russian influence in the post-Soviet space. A significant place is given to "common history", the central points of which are the concepts of the "Great Patriotic War". Thus, the myths of the past war became a weapon in the modern war.
This discourse occupies an important place in the anti-Ukrainian propaganda of the Russian Federation or, more precisely, with that segment of it, which, according to the established Soviet tradition, is called the "Great Patriotic War" [7]. Russian politicians do not tire of talking about "Nazi" and "fascist" Ukraine. Thus,
the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Serhii Lavrov, used the words "Nazis" and "Nazi state" in Ukraine only four times in one interview [13]. Moscow thus justifies its aggression, dehumanizes the enemy, which Ukraine has recently become for the Russians. A similar situation took place in the late 1990s in the Baltic States and later in Georgia in 2008. Through attempts to build their states without dictation from Moscow, these countries became "Nazi" for the Russians. It is noted that if the country has nothing to be proud of, the presence of the enemy becomes a very powerful factor in internal consolidation and injection of the atmosphere [5]. This is exactly what has happened in Russia in recent years.
The ideological justification of Russian aggression against independent Ukraine was based on the requirements of the memory of the past, and the war in Ukraine was usually interpreted as a continuation of World War II [6]. Saying that fascists and Nazis came to power in Kyiv, Putin raised layers related to the traumas of World War II and the struggle against fascism, which are very sensitive things for the collective consciousness of Russians.
Initially, Ukrainian servicemen were deliberately called "punishers." Creating fakes about the so-called "crimes" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteers, these words began to be systematically spread through the Russian media [7, p.64]. In contrast to the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other law enforcement agencies, and volunteer battalions, which in the news the propagandists presented mainly as "punishers" and "fascists", drawing parallels with World War II, the term "militia" was used to refer to separatists and the Russian military. The analogy between the heroic struggle of the Soviet people against German aggression showed that ordinary miners, metallurgists, and tractor drivers rebelled against the Nazis and the Banderas.
Symbolic is the use in Donetsk on August 24, 2014 on the Independence Day of Ukraine, the so-called "parade of shame", in which Ukrainian prisoners were forced to pass in front of an angry crowd of locals who threw rotten food and spat at prisoners, and immediately behind the car cleaned the road. This parade was organized as a repetition of the famous Stalinist "Parade
of the Defeated" in 1944, when German prisoners of war marched through Moscow accompanied by sweepers. It was this parallel that directed the explosion of collective emotions here. Pro-Russian organizations used her sacralized narrative to legitimize a ritual act of humiliation arranged as a memorial act.
To draw an analogy between modern events and those that took place during the World War II, pseudo-witnesses of those terrible times are involved. Thus, on November 2, 2014, the First Channel of Russian television told the stories of alleged residents of the village of Stepanovka, Donetsk region, which compared the events of 1941 and autumn 2014. The information was presented in such a way that Ukrainian servicemen were equated with Nazi invaders. The pseudo-witness of those events is an elderly woman Lyudmila, who allegedly turned 80 in 2014. She seemed to have survived the famine of the 1930s and the war [7, p.65]. The lie is revealed instantly - you just have to count her age and the events she allegedly went through. It turns out that she was born in 1934 and remembers the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Or, in November 2014, on Russia 1's Sunday Evening with Vladimir Soloviov program, one of the guests told a story at a checkpoint near Kramatorsk, where eggs were taken from elderly people and once a 47-year-old woman was raped. The end of the story ended with the question: "Aren't they fascists?" [11].
Russian propagandists emphasize the brutality of the Ukrainian military with the people, talking about concentration camps for residents of Donbass (like the Nazis). The fake about the concentration camp in Mariupol lived for a long time. He appeared on the program "Special Correspondent" on "Russia 2" on March 1, 2016. Then the "official representative" of the so-called "DPR" stated that on the territory of the city airfield there is a concentration camp and a cemetery with at least 2.5 thousand bodies of people who went missing [7, p.67]. To enhance the effect, the material mentioned the anniversary of the liberation of the city from Nazi invaders. And there are many such examples that help to consolidate the "image of the enemy" among Ukrainians. The culmination was the appearance of the "crucified boy".
Russian propagandists often appeal to the narrative of the "single Soviet nation", which is used to influence those Ukrainians for whom this ideology is important [7, p.353] even today.
The image of the enemy is not canceled, but simply attached to the new object. Today it is no longer Germans, but "Ukrainian punishers", "Bandera" and so on. The presence of a dangerous enemy entails the need for constant readiness to counter it. Society is mobilized for a new struggle, and the old stamps are only applied to new objects and situations [2, p.295].
According to the head of the Analytical Center Yurii Levada (Levada Center) Lev Hudkov, the victory of the Soviet Union in 1945 - is not only the central semantic node of Soviet history, but in fact the only positive fulcrum of national identity of Russian society, the main symbol that can integrate the nation [ 3]. The narrative of the Great Patriotic War is essentially a political myth.
The key target audiences for the Russian secret services and the media that work with them in the context of coverage of this Kremlin narrative are, first of all, residents of the occupied districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as Crimea, Russians, citizens and political elites of Western Europe and America. For example, the Kremlin monopolized the memory of World War II in Germany. In this European country, Russians are spreading the myth that Ukrainians are "fascists." It is clear that not everyone believes in him, but even those who do not believe, with the help of the Russian media, focus on nationalist sentiment in Ukraine. At the same time, most sometimes do not understand what we are talking about. Indicative in this respect is the story of the greeting "Glory to Ukraine!", which Russian propagandists present abroad as a fascist greeting. Putin's propaganda masterfully uses such opportunities, [12] and for Germans, for example, if something resembles National Socialism, it is very bad.
People close to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych take an active part in anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the role of "exposers of the fascist essence of the Ukrainian regime." Thus, in a speech by ex-deputy V. Oliinyk on June 24, 2018 on Russia's First Channel, it was stated that "the country is under occupation by the grandchildren of Bandera and should be liberated immediately."
Citizens of other states are also involved in propaganda activities against Ukraine. Thus, a journalist of Russia Today TV channel, Graham Phillips, a British citizen, while in the occupied territory of Donbass, recorded a video interview about alleged foreign mercenaries fighting on the side of Ukraine, destroying the "Russian-speaking population of Donbass" for money [7, p.148]. He notes that they are part of the occupation contingent, as are the Ukrainian "fascists" and NATO troops. The Kremlin also engages foreign lobbyists in anti-Ukrainian propaganda, including former highranking officials in some European countries.
Russian propagandists and their satellites widely used such forms as staging videos, fake photos, postcards, and posters. The photos, which were initially distributed by Russian propagandists from Komsomols-kaia Pravda, Alexandr Kots and Vladislav Berdychev-skii from the so-called DPR, show an allegedly unexploded Ukrainian propaganda shell with leaflets inside. The leaflets depicted a Wehrmacht soldier with elements of Ukrainian symbols against the background of killed children and women. It was reported: "We do not need people! We need territory!... We will soon be slaughtering your women and children, and you will meet the new year on earth or in prison! " [10]. These leaflets were prepared by Russian propagandists to discredit Ukrainian soldiers.
Despite the fact that during the World War II our people bore on their shoulders all the horrors of the occupation, Vladimir Putin said that the war would have won without the Ukrainians, which caused the greatest insult to our people, who made a huge contribution to victory over German Nazism [8]. This statement distanced Ukrainians, including war veterans, from this victory. All this is used as a weapon against our state.
Conclusions. Thus, the construct "The Great Patriotic War" is the "basic plot" of the historical policy of
the Putin regime. However, only the strengthening of the unity of Ukrainian society on the basis of historical memory, in no way forgetting the contribution of the Ukrainian people to the victory over Nazism, will help debunk the myths of Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
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