The 9th of May is celebrated in Russia as Victory Day symbolising the triumph of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union over Nazi Germany. In a broader context, it is the whole world that rejoices in remembrance of the regained peace.

Some of our elderly relatives were teenagers in 1945. This very fact should make us realise how recent the tragedy of World War II actually is if we look at it from some perspective.

Today, when we witness the atrocities of the war opposing Russia and Ukraine, it can seem that World War II got somehow closer to us than it ever was. 

As we hear the most shameless and cynical lies of Russian officials justifying the killing of innocent civilians, we can better understand the propaganda machine used by the USSR in the 20th century.

For years, many of us lived with pink glasses on our eyes, believing that the “old school” type of war with the use of tanks belonged to the past for good. 

The ongoing events in Russia force us to face the evidence: Europe’s security has not been so unstable since the mid-1940s and the end of the worldwide conflict. 

Are we heading towards World War III? Well, a person arguing that it is the case would have been perceived as paranoiac if she stated such a claim until the 24th of February 2022. 

Russia has been at war with Ukraine for nearly a decade. But the large-scale invasion initiated in late February completely redrew the geopolitical situation in Europe, possibly even in the whole world, making the threat of yet another global clash more imaginable. 

Image: Public Domain

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen