President Vladimir Putin has vowed to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. He means that Ukraine is somehow a “Nazi” country at present. To understand the Kremlin’s narrative we must go back to the Second World War and even earlier.
First, we must understand that the word “Nazi” or “fascist” and “Hitlerite” has been infinitely flexible in Moscow’s vocabulary. Initially, Lenin and his Komintern viewed Italian fascists as socially friendly, if confused, revolutionaries. They were to be wooed and co-opted by the Communists.