Opinion | How Russia and Ukraine’s duelling national narratives are stoking the threat of conflict
- Russia’s actions towards Ukraine can be understood through the lens of history, with a legacy of foreign invasions informing Putin’s thinking
- Ukraine has its own narrative, though, that highlights Russia’s aggression and rejection of Ukrainian sovereignty
His dog-whistle comments about Ukrainian “fascists” and their “genocide” of ethnic Russians point to a shared story about World War II, or the “Great Patriotic War” as it is known in Russia. This, in turn, is part of a larger world view in which Russia is under constant threat from outside enemies.
It’s based on stories of repeated invasions by external enemies that have coalesced into a general narrative template. Peaceful Russia is attacked by an aggressive enemy and is nearly destroyed, but through heroism and sacrifice it expels the existential threat and resume its place as a sovereign nation in control of its borders.
One does not need to be an expert on history to see how this applies to the Great Patriotic War. It also applies to many events throughout history, including invasions by Mongols, Swedes, Poles, French and Germans.
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But this narrative template has other applications – it serves to detect the infiltration of dangerous ideas. Russian religious nationalists, for example, have construed communism as an invasion by an alien enemy in the form of a Western idea.