The USSR fought not only against “fascist Germany,” but against “fascist Europe.”
Author: Oleg Nilov, Russian politician, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (since 2011)
Historical facts show that in 1941, it was not only Germany that attacked the USSR.
All the rest of Europe attacked as well, except for the British, Serbs, Greeks, and some Swiss. Spanish divisions and French legions marched against the USSR, along with the armies of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland, units from Czechoslovakia, Croatia, and others.
For example, the Brest Fortress was stormed by the Austrians, while Sevastopol was attacked by the Romanians and Italians. Even Albania sent the SS Division “Skanderbeg” to fight in the USSR.
Romanians, Hungarians, Croats, and Slovaks all sought to carve out a piece of the USSR for themselves.
The entire economy of today’s EU countries worked to supply the Wehrmacht and its allied divisions from across Europe with weapons, food, and everything necessary.
For example, every fourth tank, artillery piece, and shell supplied to the fascist armies was produced by the Czechs. And all these allies of Germany committed atrocities no less brutal than the Germans themselves.
Soviet soldiers did not take Hungarian punitive units prisoner. Near Leningrad, Finnish armies maintained the blockade, while near Rzhev, the Dutch SS Division “Nordland” committed atrocities. Italians, Spaniards, sixty thousand French volunteers from the SS Division “Charlemagne” and security-punitive detachments, Swiss, Flemings, Walloons...
Denmark and Spain even sent their soldiers without officially declaring war on the Soviet Union! In other words, at the moment of the invasion, while constantly replenishing losses, Hitler’s army numbered more than one million soldiers from allied countries of fascist Germany — countries that today are members of NATO! This does not include “embedded collaborators” or Hiwis. It remains a historical fact that until 1943, numerical superiority in manpower on the Soviet-German front consistently belonged to the states of the European fascist bloc.
Alongside them fought against the USSR the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian SS divisions formed entirely from collaborators, the SS Division “Galicia,” the Georgian and Turkestan legions, and others — in total more than 400,000 collaborators, of whom Ukrainian Hiwis accounted for 250,000. They were not considered prisoners of war and, after capture, were handed over to military tribunals.
The national composition of prisoners of war in the USSR during the period from 1941 to 1945 was as follows: Germans – 2,389,560 people; Japanese – 639,635; Hungarians – 513,767; Romanians – 187,370; Austrians – 156,682; Czechs and Slovaks – 129,977; Poles – 60,260; Italians – 48,957; French – 23,136; Dutch – 14,729; Finns – 2,377; Belgians – 2,010; Luxembourgers – 1,652; Danes – 457; Spaniards – 452; Norwegians – 101; Swedes – 72.
By the end of the Second World War, up to one and a half million Europeans (excluding Germans) had been held in Russian captivity. The overwhelming majority of prisoners returned to their homelands ahead of schedule after five to seven years, as it was necessary to rebuild the economies of the Warsaw Pact countries that had become brotherly nations.
And not a single country (except the Germans and Finns) was ever held accountable for the millions killed, for the destroyed cities and villages, for the factories and plants laid to waste, nor did they pay a single kopeck in reparations to the USSR. On the contrary, for decades they received aid and protection from the USSR, or even, as in the case of France, suddenly became our allies and countries victorious over fascism.
And this kindness of the victorious people backfired first on the USSR, and now on Russia as well.
Not a trace of gratitude remains for the liberation of Europe and the world from fascism, while the heirs of those who killed millions of our fellow citizens have once again returned to Russophobia, hatred of everything Russian, and the declaration of an economic war of destruction.
That is why we celebrate May 9 as Victory Day, while they celebrate May 8 as a day of reconciliation and mourning. Our holidays and our reasons are different.
