Putin And Hitler

Vladimir Putin has, in at least some quarters, been likened to Adolf Hitler, with the "Z" on military vehicles in Ukraine being compared to the swastika. But this is a really interesting example of how history repeats itself. Understanding history is important because we tend to repeat it, often without realizing it.

Napoleon didn't initiate the French Revolution, which opened the modern political era, but he was what ultimately emerged from it. Napoleon conquered much of Europe, bringing the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire to an end. It was Napoleon's conquests that brought the pyramids and ancient Egypt into the modern consciousness.

Napoleon also invaded Russia. He actually got further in Russia than Hitler later would, managing to capture Moscow. Although Napoleon's venture into Russia ultimately ended in disaster.

What Napoleon did accomplish was to spread the ideals of the French Revolution across Europe, it sought the overthrow of the monarchy and was very hostile to the established church. Napoleon could not possibly have dared to imagine that, more than a century after his failed attempt to conquer Russia, a repeat of the French Revolution would take place there. It would result in the overthrow of the monarchy that had successfully resisted his invasion. It would be the October Revolution of 1917.

Hitler would later invade Russia, now the central republic of Soviet Union. Like Napoleon before him, Hitler's forces would advance deep into Russia but would ultimately be unsuccessful in conquering it.

But history tends to repeat itself and if Napoleon brought the ideals of the French Revolution to Russia, which eventually resulted in a replay of the French Revolution that overthrew the Tsar, then shouldn't we expect that Hitler would bring something to Russia that would eventually emerge also?

Indeed just as Napoleon, although failing to bring down the Russian monarchy by military force, planted the revolutionary ideals that eventually brought it down, so the Soviet Union that Hitler failed to conquer would eventually break up and the leader that would emerge out of it would end up, at least in some quarters, being compared to Hitler.

This has been added to "How History Repeats Itself" November 2019.