The similarities to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party festivals of devout jingoistic forced patriotism are outstanding. Every cultish demagogue needs a symbol to incite and rally the masses, and Putin’s is the Z. Not quite a swastika, but it plays the part very well and is immediately identifiable.
Putin is certainly not the expressive speaker that Adolf was, especially with his muted emotions, but he is still powerful nevertheless, conveying his message of Russian superiority to his controlled audience.
Nuremberg Rally
Along with the Sudetenland similarities and the Ukraine campaign, Putin is now holding rallies to invigorate the people to his vision of Volksgemeinschaft, a people’s community for Russians. Also, by invading the rest of Ukraine, Putin is creating Lebensraum for his people. The making of more space through conquest and colonialism. How much space do the Russians need? According to Putin, there are no Russian borders, every country is for the taking.
The Latin word fasces, means rods bundled together, representing magisterial or collective power, law, and governance and this is where the word fascism comes from. Putin may say he is fighting the ‘Neo-Nazis’ in Ukraine, but ironically, he and his people are now Nazis who have adopted fascism.
What about Russian state propaganda? Taken straight from the book of Goebbels where lies repeated enough eventually become truths, and the wool can be pulled over the hypnotised sheeple. Propaganda also means limiting real information, and this is why Putin has ordered the shutting off of foreign media sources. Not that the Western media is any better than Putin’s state run news services, but at least they show some semblance of the truth sometimes.
From viewing Hitler’s speeches and Putin’s, the main narrative is one of the underdog fighting against a world that has gone wrong. In this respect, Putin and Hitler are very similar, bringing forth a feeling of unjustness that sates the audiences hunger for action and ultimately revenge.
