The Return of History as Travesty

The ‘war against fascism’ constitutes one of the most eccentric tropes in today’s Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Russia is currently mirroring the battle against fascism and National Socialism during World War II in its own brutal invasion of Ukraine in a most extraordinary way. Yet, the ‘antifascism’ rhetoric provides the crucial link between the old Soviet historical narrative and contemporary Russia’s politics of memory. It serves as a concept ‘frozen in time’ and demonstrates how the current Russian leadership espouses an essentially cyclical world view that caters to its own policies of expansion and aggression.