I thought long and hard about whether to write this provocative post. Will it make anyone think, or will it traditionally only generate outrage and a spike of hype. But a doctor's mission is to make the correct diagnosis. Regardless of how the patient reacts to it. And the diagnosis is currently disappointing...
The cult of Stepan Bandera and Ukrainian integral nationalism of the 1930s played a cruel joke on us. It raised a generation of heroic fighters for Ukraine's independence, whose volitional qualities significantly exceed their cognitive ones. This is not surprising, because any nationalism in 1930s Europe was oriented toward German nationalism as its model.
It's no coincidence that one of Leni Riefenstahl's greatest cinematic masterpieces glorifying the NSDAP was called Triumph des Willens – "Triumph of the Will." On the day World War II began, Hitler, speaking in the Reichstag, declared: "If our will is so strong that no difficulties and suffering can break it, then our will and our Germany will be above all!"
"Україна понад усе!" is a literal translation of Deutschland über alles, in which "Germany" was replaced with "Ukraine." Therefore, it's not surprising that Ukrainian rightists (to whom we owe much for Ukraine's survival in the hardest times) inadvertently continue a tradition in which will is far more important than reason. The first commandment of the Ukrainian nationalist "You will achieve the Ukrainian State, or perish in the struggle for It" provides for no mental reflections – only faith in the sanctity of one's struggle.
That's why the right liked Zelensky so much with his unwillingness to make any compromises with the Kremlin aggressor. I believe (however seditious this may sound) they would have liked Hitler's attitude toward Stalin even more. No compromises with "Bolshevik evil." The Germans must either defeat the Soviets or perish as a nation unworthy of existing (and having its own state). Hitler never even considered the possibility of peace with Stalin's USSR: neither in the times of his greatest triumph, when Guderian's tanks stood near Moscow, nor in the times of his greatest fiasco, when Zhukov's tanks stood near Berlin. "Victory or death" – Hitler adhered to this maxim personally and literally. When he realized he had definitively lost, he didn't flee but ended his life by suicide (I don't believe in conspiracy theories)...
But fortunately for the world, the Führer's irrational will lost to the rational arithmetic of the Allies. As soon as the blitzkrieg failed, it became clear that the fall of the Third Reich was only a matter of time and the price that would have to be paid for it. The price turned out to be horrific, and the time – long. But this did not change the outcome of World War II...
At the same time in Europe there was an example of a different – rational-strategic approach to ending the war. It was embodied by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, the father and savior of Finnish statehood. Knowing all the ruthlessness, barbarism and brutality of the Soviets, he always remained an advocate of compromise with Moscow. Unjust, difficult, humiliating, but compromise. Because as a sober and rational person he understood that limited sovereignty is better than Soviet occupation. I have written many times about how Finland masterfully emerged from World War II, having lost much but preserved a chance for the future. Today it is one of the wealthiest, happiest and most educated nations in the world. Precisely because it chose Mannerheim's path, not Hitler's...
Ukraine today stands at a crossroads. Pride and the pain of losses urge us to fight to a victorious end. "Victory or death!". "Better to die standing than to live on your knees!". "No compromises with the aggressor!" It sounds noble, but short-sighted. Especially from the mouths of those who don't fight themselves. Whose children don't fight. Whose friends and loved ones sit at home, not in wet cold trenches...
Wisdom and reason urge us to find a way to end this war as soon as possible. Because to win it we would have to mobilize all resources, fairly distribute the burden of war among all citizens, introduce the death penalty (not NSDC sanctions) for looters, and put at the head of the army a commander-in-chief who doesn't have Zhukov's DNA in his head, treating people as an inexhaustible resource.
Under this government such reforms are a priori impossible. Because if they were possible, what prevented carrying them out during almost 4 years of "existential war"? Therefore, we must sacrifice lands and pride to preserve a chance for the future.
Because perhaps the Ukrainian people, having paid such a terrible price for preserving the state, will finally suspect that democracy is first and foremost responsibility for one's country, not the search for another "messiah" or voting "for the lulz." Perhaps the mortally ill nation will finally elect to the main position an experienced doctor, not another Kashpirovsky. Perhaps Ukrainians will finally want to be not only heroes ready to die and kill (Muscovites), but also happy, prosperous people? Like the Finns, for example...
But for this, we will first have to slightly adjust our historical pantheon. And understand that the real hero of the 1930s was Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, not Stepan Bandera. Because the triumph of will led Germany to defeat, ruins and poverty. And the triumph of reason – to prosperity, wealth and respect...
You can read the Russian version of this text here
You can read the Polish version of this text here