Many who oppose the war in Ukraine don’t understand that America has a vital stake in the outcome: Putin’s Russia is the ideological and practical descendent of the worst of the Soviet Union and is, therefore, very dangerous. To see that, one must understand the balance of power after WWII; what was happening within the USSR before, during, and after WWII; what happened when the USSR ended; and what Putin’s Russia is today.

WWII was a war against fascism, a subset of socialism. Without the USA’s industrial/military power, WWII’s outcome could have been different. I know because I lived through it. Born in the USSR, I survived grade II dystrophy during the 1941-1942 Ural winter thanks only to American egg powder and corned beef. Until I was 20, I wore a hand-crafted coat made from an American bed cover. And I won’t even mention Sherman tanks, Aerocobra fighters, ammunition, explosives, machine tools, etc.

Within the USSR, Stalin had been what’s called a Great Leader—Velikij Vožd´—just like Führer Hitler and Duce Mussolini. (The word vožd´ designates the chief of a tribe, not the leader of a civilized society.) Among other depredations, his policies starved between 6 and 7 million people to death, mostly in Ukraine and Kazakhstan (1932-1933), oversaw about 2 million concentration camp deaths (1930-1953), shot over 1 million (only in 1937-1938!), used 27 million Russian soldiers’ bodies to absorb Nazi bullets because his socialist infrastructure couldn’t produce enough guns, and began—in agreement with Hitler—an attack on Poland (1939). 

Until 1974, Soviet peasants were worse off than Imperial Russian serfs had been. They had no internal passports, a prerequisite for a normal life. A Stalin-era peasant could not leave the collective farm under penalty of prison. Likewise, Stalin-era industrial workers were forbidden to leave their jobs also under penalty of prison. No other country had such severe anti-labor laws. 

The Soviet state ferociously persecuted the best Soviet people. It’s enough to mention eight giant figures the Soviets killed: the physicist Bronstein; the poets Oleynikov, Charents, and Tabidzé; the biologist Vavilov; the world-renowned poet Mandelstam; the writer Yuvachov, a.k.a. Kharms; and the famous actor-director Michoels, assassinated on Stalin’s direct orders in 1948. 

Image: Putin and Xi (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Soviets, like Nazis, enthusiastically reengineered the population, summarily executing tens of thousands of people of different ethnicities, according to “national quotas” per region, and deporting whole peoples (Chechens, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans, etc.). Stalin had even planned 1953’s the Great Deportation of Jews, which would complete Hitler’s Holocaust. The plan failed only because Stalin was eliminated by his own secret service in March 1953.

After the war, the USSR used its share in the victory to hide its brutal totalitarianism and advance its international agenda. And because America worked with the USSR to defeat Germany and the Soviet army was occupying half of Europe, the West chose to close its eyes to the USSR’s total fascism. 

It is utterly naïve to believe that modern Russia is distinct from its brutal communist past, whether in practice or goals. For 73 years, the Soviet regime was able to re-make the Soviet population through genocide, relocation, and state terrorism, leaving behind Russians with a low spiritual and moral level who feel safe under a totalitarian state. The USSR never saw a real de-Stalinization. Stalin’s values continued, even as the USSR polished its image. Putin’s advent, along with his gang, marked a clear-cut return to Stalinism in its worst forms.

There are hundreds of political prisoners in today’s Russia, and Putin’s government has carried out dozens of assassinations against political opponents since 2000. True, this looks innocuous compared to Stalin’s terror, but Putin doesn’t need to engage in mass repression. He has already ensured that he’ll have the people’s unconditional support. This mafia don managed to give Russians, suffering from miserable life conditions and an inferiority complex, an important quasi-religious social and geopolitical goal: The Russian World (something like the Holy Land during the medieval crusades). Under Putin’s aegis, a new term has gained currency in the media to denote Putinism: Rashizm in Russian, short for “Russian fascism.”

Russia’s territory, its unlimited natural resources, and its intimidated population under the orders of a fascist government create a danger for the world, one more serious than Hitler’s threat in 1939. And Russian aggression in Ukraine repeats what Hitler did once he went beyond his borders: e.g., bombing cities, destroying crucial infrastructure, killing civilians, and kidnapping thousands of children.

Those who say that the Ukraine war is the start of WWIII are correct. The fascists are on the march again, and those who think that march stops with Russia are fooling themselves. We’re already seeing a Fascist International: Russia, China, and Iran, plus minor players (Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea), are coming together. 

Only America has the economic and military power to stop this dangerous alliance from reaching fruition.

If the world’s fascist forces are allowed to form a real Axis of Evil, we will face the Mother of All Wars. The fascists must be stopped right away—or else victory’s final price will be monstrous—and victory, of course, is not guaranteed. History is replete with examples of barbarians destroying civilizations.

Because conservatives dislike Biden and his reasons for joining the fight, that doesn’t mean the war is wrong. Indeed, what too many ignore is that, in 1994, the U.S. promised to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression because Ukraine had abandoned its nuclear weapons. Given that obligation, one can argue that the U.S. isn’t doing enough to support the Ukrainian military and the country as a whole. Biden is doling out weapons, never staunching Ukraine’s slow bleed, instead of giving Ukraine the ability to win.

Trump, of course, saw this coming when he told NATO leaders in 2018 that they needed to increase their defense spending and preparedness and decrease their dependence on Russian energy. They just laughed at him. Currently, Russia is moving hard against Ukraine and, if Ukraine falls, more of Europe is opened to the latest European dictator to say that he just needs Lebensraum.

That is what I mean by saying that fighting the Russian aggression against Ukraine is America’s war.