An Armenian-Style Victory Parade, or the Revival of Fascism in the Post-Soviet Space

 

Alik Bakhshi

  

An Armenian-Style Victory Parade, or the Revival

of Fascism in the Post-Soviet Space

 

 

 

   Every nation has its own outstanding personalities and national heroes, and monuments are erected to the most significant, who are usually consigned to history. Monuments serve as a people's historical memory, evoking a sense of national pride and veneration, such as the monument to Christopher Columbus in Barcelona or the monument to Admiral Nelson in London. Among the Russian people, judging by the number of monuments, Lenin is the most revered. However, the number of monuments does not always equate to their veneration. For example, in the former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries, monuments to Lenin and other symbols of Russian influence were torn down as a legacy of colonialism and communism. Interestingly, in Russia itself, where attitudes toward monuments are highly idiosyncratic and directly dependent on the opportunistic considerations of the authorities, the removal of monuments is not uncommon and can take on a mass character. In Russia, where history is constantly rewritten behind the Kremlin walls to suit the views of its ruler, the people neither know nor value their history. Therefore, the demolition or erection of monuments occurs with their tacit, or, as they say, complete unanimous, consent. Thus, monuments in Russia, as well as in countries once under Moscow's control, carry no historical value and instead reflect the political agendas of the authorities.

 

   This explains why Putin is so zealous about the demolition of monuments erected by the Soviet regime in the Baltics and Ukraine. And the erection of monuments to heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of the Motherland from Russian occupiers is perceived as an insult to the national sensibilities of the Russian people. Moreover, Putin, for example, defines the erection of monuments to Stepan Bandera and the commander of the Lithuanian Forest Brothers, Adolfas Ramanauskas, as aiding fascism and Nazism, deliberately ignoring the fact that Bandera was imprisoned in a German prison precisely for his fight against the fascist occupiers (1). He also forgets the most important fact directly connected with the outbreak of World War II: the Non-Aggression Pact and the German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany (http://www.oldgazette.ru/lib/propagit/21/01.html), which essentially gave the green light to a mutual attack by Germany and the USSR on Poland and the establishment of a common border on its territory. So the question of who is the greater accomplice of fascism, Bandera or Stalin, is beyond doubt. And the fact that these two predators clashed in mortal combat, refusing to yield to each other in negotiations on the final division of Europe (2), is certainly not the fault of either Bandera or the "Forest Brothers." It would take extraordinary audacity to accuse these heroes of fascism today, and if we scrupulously approach the question of the revival of fascism, it is Putin who is to blame for its revival and is a follower of Hitler in his revanchist aspirations to restore the Russian Empire within the borders of the Soviet Union (3). Like Hitler, lies and treachery have become Putin's calling card.

 

   In this regard, Russia's ally Armenia is not far behind, with the Dashnaktsutyun party, a harbinger of fascist ideology, now in power, setting the chimerical goal of ecologically cleansing the space from sea to sea for a "Greater Armenia" (4). While such an attempt, with the help of Russia itself, was made in 1915 and ended in disaster, it seems Dashnak ideology has once again taken hold of Armenia's leaders. This is evidenced by the erection of a monument in central Yerevan to Dashnak Geregin Nzhdeh (Ter-Harutyunyan), who proposed to Hitler that the German army create an Armenian state as a province of the Third Reich. The Wehrmacht formed an Armenian Legion, which carried out punitive raids against partisans. For collaborating with the Nazis, Ter-Harutyunyan was sentenced to life imprisonment. And today, on Victory Day, the "Immortal Regiment" will march in front of the monument to Nazi Geregin Nzhdeh, mocking the memory of the soldiers who fought the Nazis. The circle is closed: fascist ideology is immortal! Never before could such a thing have happened. The Armenian Dashnaks have sensed the spirit of fascism emanating from the Kremlin. Putin's silence confirms this.

 

1. Was Bandera a fascist?

   https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2026/10/was-bandera-fascist.html

2. Stalin's fatal mistake that saved the world.

   https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2026/06/stalins-fatal-mistake-that-saved-world.html 

3. Hitler's ghost wanders through Europe

   https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2026/09/hitlers-ghost-haunts-europe.html

4. The hole in the portrait, or from the Great Lie to "Greater Armenia".

   https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-hole-in-portrait-or-to-great-lie-of.html

 

   May 9, 2019