“Denazification” of Russian propaganda: are there Nazis in Ukraine?

It is not necessarily coincidental, despite a continuing lack of clarity concerning certain terms. Russian propaganda has been directing inflammatory rhetoric toward the citizens of Ukraine, branding them as either Nazis or nationalists. To tackle this issue, this article will provide a distinction between the terms "Nazi" and "nationalist," as well as identify the tactics utilized by Russia to manipulate nationalist movements.

An analysis of a dataset from Semantic Visions, a defense analytics company, compiled of nearly 8,000,000 articles from over 8,000 Russian websites since 2014, revealed an unprecedented spike in references to Nazism on 24th February, the same day Russia enacted an invasion of Ukraine. This spike has remained prominent since then. Aside from major media outlets, the data also procured information from various smaller Russian websites and blogs. This discovery serves as evidence of Russia's attempts to utilize falsehoods to sustain both the justification of its attack on Ukraine and the backing from those within the homeland through spreading the image of Ukraine becoming overrun by far-right extremists.

Understanding Nazism vs. Nationalism and Denazification

The nation is an essential part of both ideologies, but their approaches and goals differ markedly – despite the consonance of their names.

David Miller's Encyclopedia of Political Thought provides an immediate delineation between Nazism and nationalism – two concepts that can be easily misunderstood. Nazism, or National Socialism, is a totalitarian political ideology introduced by Hitler, which is rooted in the belief in the racial superiority of the Aryan race, and encourages aggressive expansionism, subjugation of other races, and even their destruction.

However, one of the tenets of the ideology of National Socialism is nationalism. Supporters take it as a component, but only partially. Because it is through nationalism that they justify their solidarity with those who belong to the same race as the ideologues. Nationalism is an ideology and policy direction that focuses attention on the role of the nation in the formation of the state and puts national interests at the highest level of values. The main goal for nationalists is the formation or preservation of the sovereignty of their state.

The differences between Nazism and Nationalism:

1. Nazism puts on a pedestal its leader, while nationalism believes that the people are the only legitimate source of power. 
2. Nazism follows a race-first mentality, while nationalism values the preservation of national identity. 
3. Nazism seeks to expand their living space through long-forgotten history and maps, while nationalism aims to gain and maintain the sovereignty of one's homeland. 
4. Nazism has an Aryan supremacy mentality, while nationalism does not make its nation the highest in the world.

Since 2015, the EUvsDisinfo flagship project of the European Service for Foreign Policy Activities has identified 500 pieces of pro-Kremlin propaganda linking Ukrainian nationalists to the Nazis. These materials, produced by various pro-Kremlin publications, focus on the idea that Ukrainian nationalism has been directed by outside forces and not independence-driven.

The term "denazification" is of significant importance to the matter.

The Allied powers' policy of denazification after World War II sought to rid Nazi Germany of all traces of the hateful ideology and those connected to it. This was so that a safer and more peaceful Germany could be established.

Furthermore, Russian propagandists have the audacity to discourse that Ukrainian patriotism is equal to Nazism and pursue to undo Ukrainian culture's values. The odious "denazification" is seen as a declaration of war towards Ukraine by the Russian Federation and a means to undermine the Ukrainian civilization. Disgraceful and disturbing comments from the State Duma of the Russian Federation deputy, Alexei Zhuravlyov, expose the devastating reality of the attempts to make millions of Ukrainians who didn't consent to be brainwashed into a mankurtic existence invisible.

Why do Russians call Ukrainians Nazis?

Experts have highlighted the use of racist propaganda to explain the Russian attack on Ukraine, spreading the false narrative of "Ukrainian Nazism." This has resulted in high levels of support for the war amongst the Russian public and serves to justify the immense suffering of the Ukrainian civilian population at the hands of Russian forces, including the shocking atrocities committed in Bucha, Mariupol, Izium, and other cities of Ukraine. This has constructed an unrealistic black-and-white world in the view of the Russians, assuming they are on the side of morality, and have the right to inflict unimaginable violence on those they perceive to be "evil."

Are there real Nazis in Ukraine?

Andreas Umland, an analyst with the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies, stated in February in an interview with Deutsche Welle that the president of Ukraine, a Russian-speaking Jew who won the last presidential election with a large majority against a non-Jewish Ukrainian candidate, thereby refuting claims of Nazism in Ukraine.

Questions remain regarding the Azov Battalion, which consists of right-wing militia members who were fighting against the separatists in the east of Ukraine earlier this year. Umland identified that a right-wing extremist group founded the Azov Battalion. However, the organization was integrated into the Interior Ministry and National Guard forces in the fall of 2014. Furthermore, Umland elaborated that upon the integration, the movement and regiment separated; the regiment still employed symbols of the former but was no longer classified as a right-wing extremist group. 

It is a fact that there is no influential or recognizable Neo-Nazi force or organization present in Ukraine. Additionally, it is essential to highlight that nationalism and Nazism are two distinct entities; in fact, most European countries record a substantially higher percentage of nationalist-minded citizens than Ukraine, at 2-2.5%. This makes the Ukrainian populace more culturally diverse and tolerant than the majority of other countries in Europe. Despite this, certain reactionary European states with far higher levels of nationalism tend to be presented as legitimate. In contrast, Ukrainian nationalism, expressed by a considerably smaller population, is dangerously manipulated and even equated with Nazism due to xenophobic connotations.

As we can see, if Nazism exists in modern Ukraine, it exists exclusively in the theses of Russian propaganda. It undividedly dominates the internal Russian information space, partially managed to throw its ugly tentacles to Europe, and suffered an almost complete defeat in Ukraine.

Any manifestation of European-style Ukrainian nationalism cannot be legitimately labeled as Nazism. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that since February 24, 2022, there has been a noticeable surge in Nazism in Ukraine. However, such avowals of Nazism must be attributed to the Russian occupants, whose anti-Ukrainian ideologies blend fascism, Nazism, and even ruscism.