Each year on May 9th, Vladimir Putin presides over a lavish military pageant in Moscow’s Red Square — a theatrical show of tanks, missiles, and goose-stepping troops marking “Victory Day,” the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945.
Drenched in triumphalism and draped in Soviet nostalgia, the event has become the cornerstone of Putin’s nationalist mythology, presenting Russia as the heroic liberator of Europe and vanquisher of fascism.
Yet behind the fanfare lies a history Putin would rather you forget — a history that renders the spectacle not just dishonest, but grotesque.
For the uncomfortable truth is this: when the Second World War began in September 1939, the Soviet Union was not the enemy of Nazi Germany, but its accomplice. Just days before Hitler invaded Poland from the west, Stalin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — a secret deal with the Führer to carve up Eastern Europe. On September 17th, the Red Army marched in from the east, seizing half the country while Hitler took the rest. Stalin toasted the Nazis, coordinated occupation policies, and even supplied Hitler’s war machine with oil and grain.
This cynical alliance laid the groundwork for the bloodiest war in history.
That Putin now uses the Soviet victory over Nazism as a moral cudgel — while invading neighbours, erasing history, and whitewashing Stalin’s crimes — is the height of hypocrisy. His regime bans discussion of Soviet complicity in 1939, jails historians who dig too deeply, and glorifies an empire built as much on terror as triumph.
Victory Day should honour the victims, not vindicate their tormentors. Until Russia reckons with its own role in enabling Hitler, its parades are not celebrations of peace — they are exercises in propaganda.
The Devils’ Pact
Eighty-five years ago this August, two of the twentieth century’s most ruthless tyrants — Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin — struck a deal that plunged Europe into war and condemned millions to death. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed in Moscow on August 23rd, 1939, was no mere non-aggression treaty. It was a backroom bargain between two totalitarian states to divide and conquer Eastern Europe — and it worked.
The agreement’s secret protocol carved up Poland and the Baltics between the two powers. Hitler attacked from the west on September 1st; Stalin followed from the east on September 17th. They met in the middle and shook hands over the ruins of a sovereign nation.
Western democracies were horrified, but slow to react. For nearly two years, the two tyrannies collaborated in war, trade, and repression. Stalin fed Hitler’s war machine with vital resources. Hitler trained Soviet officers and shared technical expertise. Both regimes used the chaos of war as cover for mass murder.
Tyrants Cut from the Same Cloth
We are often told Nazism and Communism were mortal enemies, however in practice, Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR were ideological cousins. Both were one-party police states, run by cults of personality. Both sought to remake the world through blood and iron. And both targeted entire populations for extinction or enslavement.
The Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Gulag system were not accidents of war. They were integral features of totalitarian governance. Both systems deployed slave labour. Both starved prisoners. Both executed millions. The only difference lay in the slogans on the banners and the uniforms of the guards.
When Poland was occupied, the horror intensified. Stalin deported entire families to Siberia. His NKVD executed over 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. Meanwhile, Hitler’s SS slaughtered Jews, clergy, and academics. The brutality was coordinated — and deliberate.
Antisemitism Without Borders
If there is one ideology both regimes shared without contradiction, it was antisemitism.
For the Nazis, it was a pillar of their worldview — a mania that culminated in the Holocaust. For Stalin, it was more opportunistic, but no less lethal. Jewish intellectuals and doctors were purged. Jewish culture was suppressed. The “Doctors’ Plot” in 1953, accusing Jewish medics of conspiracy, was merely the latest in a long line of scapegoating.
Under Nazi-Soviet occupation, Jewish communities were subject to twin persecutions. The Soviets silenced Jewish organisations and deported leaders. The Nazis rounded up entire populations for slaughter. No sanctuary could be found on either side of the border.
The Betrayal That Came Late
The alliance unravelled in June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. Stalin, blindsided despite ample warning, was forced into alliance with the Western Allies. But by then, the damage was done. The pact had enabled Hitler’s rise, Stalin’s expansion, and the deaths of millions.
That Stalin ended up on the winning side does not absolve him. Nor does it justify the current Russian regime’s glorification of Soviet history while burying its crimes. Victory over Hitler does not erase the fact that the USSR helped him begin the war.
The Reckoning Russia Avoids
Russia today treats Victory Day not as commemoration, but as vindication. It bans discussion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It labels historians who expose Soviet complicity as traitors. The past has been weaponised for nationalist propaganda.
This whitewashing is dangerous. Without reckoning, there can be no genuine remembrance. And without truth, there is only theatre — like the tanks rolling through Red Square while Putin proclaims his fight against “Nazism” in Ukraine.
But the record is clear: in 1939, the Soviet Union was not a bulwark against fascism. It was its enabler.
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Read Also: Putin’s Empty Words Can’t Hide His War Of Terror.
As Russian missiles once again rain down on Kyiv, killing children and destroying homes, the West must drop all illusions about President Vladimir Putin’s intentions.
“President Zelenskyy has shown his commitment to peace by agreeing in principle to a full and unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine wants peace; Russia does not.”
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