Part of the reason conflict exists in the Donbas relates to the migration, resettlement by Russian citizens in the region post Holodomor. Amazingly Americans arrived as well building factories. Typical farmer vs industrial worker conflicts were minimal with most people tolerant of each other. A fraction disliked the cultural changes of t…
Part of the reason conflict exists in the Donbas relates to the migration, resettlement by Russian citizens in the region post Holodomor. Amazingly Americans arrived as well building factories. Typical farmer vs industrial worker conflicts were minimal with most people tolerant of each other. A fraction disliked the cultural changes of the resettled Russians and joined with the German invaders to fight Russians in WW2. They were not Nazis but adopted the symbols as they attacked Russians. So the Ukrainian "Nazi" was born.
The region has a complicated history even dating to the effort of the White Army vs the Red Army and the betrayal of the West abandoning the White Army as the Reds created the Soviet Union. The repression of the Cossacks ( Turkic kazak, free man) by the Bolsheviks laid the groundwork for conflict. Some of the Holodomor relates to that repression. Russian propaganda suggests the existence of Ukrainian Nazis. Labels, you see. Reality is more complex.
This was also a (much larger) issue in Crimea, when basically the entire Tartar population was deported for collaboration towards the end of WWII.
In that case, they genuinely did go over to the Nazis - there were relatively few Crimean Tartars on the Soviet side - but they also probably weren't actual Nazis. Mind you, every now and again in my first novel research I came across a photo of an oriental looking bloke in a German uniform and would always have a giant WTF moment.
Part of the reason conflict exists in the Donbas relates to the migration, resettlement by Russian citizens in the region post Holodomor. Amazingly Americans arrived as well building factories. Typical farmer vs industrial worker conflicts were minimal with most people tolerant of each other. A fraction disliked the cultural changes of the resettled Russians and joined with the German invaders to fight Russians in WW2. They were not Nazis but adopted the symbols as they attacked Russians. So the Ukrainian "Nazi" was born.
The region has a complicated history even dating to the effort of the White Army vs the Red Army and the betrayal of the West abandoning the White Army as the Reds created the Soviet Union. The repression of the Cossacks ( Turkic kazak, free man) by the Bolsheviks laid the groundwork for conflict. Some of the Holodomor relates to that repression. Russian propaganda suggests the existence of Ukrainian Nazis. Labels, you see. Reality is more complex.
This was also a (much larger) issue in Crimea, when basically the entire Tartar population was deported for collaboration towards the end of WWII.
In that case, they genuinely did go over to the Nazis - there were relatively few Crimean Tartars on the Soviet side - but they also probably weren't actual Nazis. Mind you, every now and again in my first novel research I came across a photo of an oriental looking bloke in a German uniform and would always have a giant WTF moment.