Lubomyr Luciuk: We shouldn't forget that Russia began the Second World War as Hitler's ally
Credit to Author: Gordon Clark| Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 01:00:32 +0000
Not many remember what happened 80 years ago on Friday. Worse, we live in a world populated by scores of propagandists for Russian president Vladimir Putin who are doing their best to pretend nothing much did happen. These Moscow shills and their fellow travellers are more than duplicitous. They are dangerous. For they are trying to rewrite the history of the Second World War, to obfuscate not just the dates on which the war began, and ended, but to confound us about who the villains were. They are spreading fake news here, today, across Canada.
Eighty years ago, on Aug. 23, 1939, the Soviet Union allied itself with Nazi Germany under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Second World War began on Sept. 1, 1939, as Hitler and Stalin dismembered Poland.
This pact aided the German war effort, undercutting Britain’s blockade. A million tons of cereals, half a million tons of wheat, 900,000 tons of oil, 100,000 tons of cotton, 500,000 tons of phosphates, a million tons of soybeans, and other matériel, were shipped to the Nazis by the Soviets during the pact’s first year. And, after Nazi Germany signed a Tripartite Pact with Imperial Japan and Mussolini’s fascist Italy, in September 1940, the Soviets considered joining a “continental bloc” opposed to Britain and the U.S. The scheme collapsed only in November 1940 after it became clear in Berlin just how far Moscow hoped to extend Soviet influence in Europe. Hitler’s ensuing invasion of Stalin’s domains began on June 22, 1941.
That is the date the Soviets, and contemporary Russian apologists, want us to think of when they speak about a “Great Patriotic War.” Proponents of this bowdlerized version of history apparently hope we shall forget how, as of Sept. 10, 1939, Canada committed to securing vital supply lines for our embattled British ally. During what would become the war’s longest-running campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Germans countered Canadian efforts by deploying deadly submarine “wolf packs.”
To take one example: Convoy SC-7, comprised of 35 merchant ships and six escorts, set sail on Oct. 18, 1940, from Sydney, N.S., bound for Liverpool. Twenty of those merchant ships were sunk during a three-day battle, with some 140 sailors losing their lives. Overall, the Royal Canadian Navy lost nearly 2,000 sailors and 33 ships, the Royal Canadian Air Force more than 900 aircrew, and the Merchant Navy nearly 1,600 Canadians and Newfoundlanders and some 70 ships.
And when, in mid-summer 1940, the Battle of Britain raged, Canadian pilots rose up to fight the foe. Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s words, spoken in the House of Commons Aug. 20, 1940, still evoke their heroism:
“The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
By October 1940, 23 Canadians had been killed in the skies over England, including RCAF Squadron No. 501’s Pilot Officer D.A. Hewitt. From Saint John, N.B., he was Canada’s first casualty, just 20 years old when shot down over Dorseton on July 12, 1940, a lad with no known grave. And then there was 23-year-old Pilot Officer Robert Beley, from Rossland, killed in August, shot down over the Channel, orPilot Officer C.R. Bonseigneur from Gull Lake, Sask., who fell on Sept. 3, and Sub-Lieutenant J.C. Carpenter, of Toronto, killed in action on Sept. 8.
On Aug. 25, 1940, the Royal Air Force retaliated with its first bombing raid on Berlin. Two Canadians were among the crews serving on the 95 aircraft striking the Third Reich — Kingston’s own Flight Lieutenant D.L. England (No. 61 Squadron) and Flying Officer M.M. Fleming, from Ottawa, serving with No. 58 Squadron. As these men fought — and many would die — none of them spoke of a “Great Patriotic War.” Should we pretend otherwise? Or forget how, while France and the Low Countries were overrun by Hitler’s hordes, and the doors to hell opened at Auschwitz, that Stalin was helping Hitler?
No fair-minded person denies that the Soviet Union eventually played a major role in helping defeat the Nazis. Most Soviet civilian losses occurred in Ukraine and Belarus, giving the lie to claims about there being “27 million Russian war dead,” since most of them were not Russians. Certainly, all who suffered under Nazi oppression deserve to be hallowed. But we must not forget that the Soviet Union was not our ally when the Second World War began. On that date, Stalin stood with Hitler and that means, simply put, that the Soviets were ranked against us.
As Canadians, we honour those who stood in defence of liberty from the day the war began and those who fought to its end, on May 8, 1945. But, as we do so, we must never forget that Moscow’s men not only fuelled the Second World War but joined our side only after the holocaust they had stoked began to burn their empire down. Let us not forget that, at least not today.
Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor of political geography at The Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston.
Letters to the editor should be sent to sunletters@vancouversun.com. The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.