Parallelism in History : Finland & Ukraine
“History repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce.” — Karl Marx
Despite the purposeful amnesia of current media, one can draw direct comparisons between the situation today concerning Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and the Winter War, where the USSR went to Finland to oppose fascism, lest it be at their door. This was just a few years before Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. Back then, the same news media that held a non-interventionist stance when Germany and Italy ganged up to invade Spain, or when Japan attacked China, were suddenly quite concerned about poor little Finland.
We can see the same hypocrisy on full display today in the wall to wall coverage of corporate news media, with the US and other Western nations falling over each other to voice support for Ukraine and drawing on tired fables of David and Goliath to elicit consent in the public for escalation. So much is left out of the conversation in the press, and the US welcomes the distraction. Distraction from 8 years of inaction as over 14,000 people died in the war in Donbass, distraction from their role in the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine, and distraction from their inaction as Ukraine became more and more rightist and reactionary in the years that followed.
Back in 1939, stories abound of the ‘barbarity’ of the Soviets, blaming civilian casualties on the Reds without a base in reality.
Today, we see false flags committed by the Ukrainian government to increase tensions and paint the Russian army as committers of senseless violence, painting them with the same brush as the Nazis or US when it invaded and leveled Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, or take-your-pick other nation. This flies in the face of evidence put forth by military strategists that show Russia has proceeded with caution into Ukraine. However, the fog of war is a real thing, and either side rushing to conclusions feels definitively wrong.
Back again to Finland, the news spoke quite fondly and in an alarmist tone of ‘Finnish democracy’ and the threat it was under.
So what was the Finnish democracy actually like? Well, Communist parties were completely outlawed. Despite this, leftists were elected in October 1922, only to be arrested the next year and suppressed. After several years of being forced to change their names and try again, the Reds in Finland gained overwhelming leadership in the General Federation of Trade Unions. Shortly after, the state was weaponized against this group, leaders were assassinated or jailed, and membership was diminished significantly due to the fear of repercussion. The administration at the time of the Winter War was described as having a “wide discrepancy still between the popular feeling and the executive powers”. The influence which the IKL (a fascist party) and the Conservative Party had vastly outweighed their manpower in official positions. When you hold a country in permanent fear of a coup, your control is outsized. The businessmen and military that controlled the Finnish administration from the sidelines allowed progressive parties to act as a smokescreen to the outside world, masking the rot underneath.
How does this compare to Ukraine? Quite straightforwardly actually. Since the 2014 coup, the Svoboda and Right Sector parties have actually receded in number from parliament, holding less seats today than prior to 2014. But what does this actually mean? The West would like you to believe that it means fascism had been suppressed and defeated. However, when you have a president who spotlights a Neo-Nazi to Greek parliament, or who claims the country will use Zionist Israel as a model of ‘democracy’ moving forward, suspension of disbelief becomes a difficult ask.
Back in 1939, columnists in the West were left befuddled by the Soviet decision to take the fight to Ukraine. Why now? Hadn’t the Soviet-Finnish Pact of non-aggression in 1932 calmed any potential concerns?
Today, we hear similar questions. Why now? Why didn’t Putin simply rely on the Minsk agreements to take care of things?
In 1939, Stalin was concerned about the potential that imperialist attacks would come from Britain or France, especially if they managed to beat Hitler and weaponize a Germany-France-Britain alliance against the USSR, something very possible considering the capitalist base that gave rise to German fascism in the first place.
Today, Putin’s main concern lies with NATO. The NATO that grew out of the ashes of Nazism and spread like a plague over Europe since 1991 and the destruction of the USSR, destroying Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, and others in the process. NATO symbolizes an alliance of capitalist powers that can be weaponized against any US ally, even Russia in its current capitalist form. As for the Minsk agreements, the Ukrainian neo-fascists have shown zero interest in honoring these, and Zelensky hasn’t moved them forward in any meaningful way since 2014.
Finland repeatedly called for aid and weapons, something we’ve seen Zelensky go on about repeatedly. But how on earth is this considered a peace position? How are US citizens rationalizing our tax dollars going to elongate and provoke further violence in this war? The most productive thing to do is to push for peace between the countries, mutual concessions and security guarantees. Ukraine deserves sovereignty, and not to be wielded as a pawn against Russia. Russia deserves to have a neutral Ukraine, and for NATO expansion to end. In fact, abolishing NATO would be one of the most productive moments for the peace movement in decades.
As you can see, the parallels to WWII history are quite stark. If we want to avoid the deja vu of a third world war, pushing for immediate peace talks overseen by a third party such as China or a coalition of third parties makes the most sense. A de-Nazification and demilitarization (stripping Ukraine of its foreign supplied weapons) is also appropriate. Any source that attempts to downplay these elements in Ukraine is lying to you. Cool heads must prevail, as a conflict between two nuclear powers is nothing to joke about.
Book Source: Finland, the Facts
