Today is the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and its European allies (Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia) and various supposedly neutral countries which were occupied by Nazi Germany and contributed to the Nazi war effort (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway…). Essentially, the USSR was attacked by all of Europe (which is now the European Union) and prevailed. In that war, the people of the USSR faced an existential threat: Hitler’s official plan was to reduce the population of the USSR, once conquered, from 200 million to 30 million through genocide.

That plan did not come to fruition. But now, 8 decades later, a similar sort of genocide is being perpetuated on a significant part of the former USSR — the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. At the time the USSR dissolved, the Ukraine’s economy was technologically advanced, highly diversified and as large as that of Germany and its population numbered 52 million. Now its economy is smaller than that of Moldova — Europe’s poorest nation — and its population is down by 32,5% (according to the IMF). It now has the highest death rate and the lowest birth rate in the world.

The reason for this colossal failure is that ever since its independence the Ukraine has been run by criminals who endlessly looted it. And now these same criminals are looting the European Union, as the miasma of corruption and criminality has oozed throughout it. To justify this looting, the leadership of the EU is using what remains of the Ukraine to fight a hopeless proxy war against Russia. While this conflict by no means poses an existential threat to Russia, the Russian Federation, as the inheritor of the USSR, is once again being militarily opposed by virtually all of Europe. The European Union is being pushed toward war with Russia by a resurgent Nazi regime that practices contrived anti-Russian racism while openly lionizing World War II Nazi collaborators. The tragedy of World War II is being repeated as a farce, but the parallels are too blatantly obvious to ignore.

Russian political speech is rather precise and small shifts in the language of official speeches often signal major shifts in policy. In Vladimir Putin’s speech, which he gave today at the 81st annual May 9th victory parade on the Red Square in Moscow , there were certain lines that were never spoken quite this way before:

“We will always remember the feat of the Soviet people — that it was they who… returned sovereignty to those states that capitulated to Nazi Germany and became submissive accomplices to its crimes.”

There is an implication in these word of the modern-day Europeans’ complicity in the numerous (and painstakingly documented) war crimes of the “new Nazis” of the Ukrainian regime. Speaking of that conflict…

“The great feat of the victorious generation inspires the soldiers carrying out the Special Military Operation of today. They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward.”

“The key to success is our moral strength, courage and valor…” whereas all that the other side has is criminality, corruption and idiotic irredentist Nazi fantasies based on a shameless concoction: a completely fake Ukrainian racial identity.

“We bow our heads in memory of our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends. A moment of silence is observed…” Why such an extended enumeration? Because it defines the extended family of every Russian. The Russian state is the protector and guarantor of every Russian’s extended family, holding its memory sacred and, just one more conceptual step in the same direction, the Russian state is every Russian’s extended family.

The idealized image being reinforced here is of Russia as an extended family bound together by blood ties, possessed of moral strength, courage and valor and holding its shared memory sacred. But what can be said of Russia’s foes on the other side of the rusty old iron curtain which Winston Churchill hastily erected as soon as the hostilities of World War II were over? Do the words Putin used have the same meanings on the other side of it and, if not, what does that say about the possibility of finding a common understanding that would be needed to avoid a wider armed conflict?

To answer this question, I turn it over to Vlad Khan, a prolific Russian blogger (in my translation).

Language is more than just a tool for conveying information. It is a map of reality, enshrining the laws of existence accumulated over millennia of human experience, conscience, and spiritual vision. When this map is accurate, words serve as conduits for truth. But when language loses its connection to objective reality, it ceases to reflect the world, becoming a weapon of mass illusion.

When words are destroyed, the very reality they once signified vanishes. Concepts like “sin,” “humility,” “chastity,” or “delusion” are not archaic markers of the past. They are precise, time-tested terms that describe invisible yet inexorable spiritual laws: how certain behaviors lead to the destruction of the individual or to his healing. When these words are banished from public discourse, labeled as “toxic” or “outdated,” people lose the ability to see the reality they describe. A person who does not know the true meaning of the word “delusion” (spiritual self-deception) cannot recognize it in himself — and becomes easy prey for the very lie that this word once mercilessly exposed.

However, meanings aren’t simply erased—they undergo a semantic revolution. Words don’t vanish without a trace; they are reinterpreted to their exact opposite. “Freedom” is transformed into slavery to one’s passions and lusts. “Love” is reduced to unconditional approval of any choice, losing its essence—a willingness to sacrifice. “Tolerance” mutates into an aggressive compulsion to conform, destroying respect for dissent. This isn’t the evolution of language; this is its deliberate falsification. The logical connections that have held the human psyche in balance for centuries—”sin leads to the death of the soul,” “humility leads to exaltation”—are mercilessly torn apart. Sweet and destructive maxims take their place: “if you want it, then it’s all right,” “if you feel it, then it’s true.”

The destruction of language inevitably entails the destruction of the psyche. The human mind is designed to require a stable hierarchy: good and evil, cause and effect, truth and falsehood. When language ceases to support this structure, the psyche falls into severe cognitive dissonance. Conscience whispers one thing, while society aggressively imposes the opposite. The result of this internal schism is an epidemic of anxiety, depression, loss of meaning, and mass psychosis. The rise in mental illness is not a medical mystery, but a direct symptom of a linguistic catastrophe. When words cease to be guides, a person loses their inner compass and begins to wander in the labyrinths of their own devastated consciousness.

The destruction of language leads to the atomization of society. Socialization is only possible where there is a common field of meaning. The family, as the primary unit, is built on sacred concepts that are now devoid of objective content. The answers to the questions “Who is a mother?” and “Who is a father?” are no longer obvious. If these are merely “social constructs,” then the family turns from a sacred object into a temporary social arrangement that can be dissolved at will. The nation ceases to be a unified organism, disintegrating into a mass of isolated individuals, each locked in their own virtual “reality.” Trust disappears, giving way to total control. Legal codes, surveillance systems, and coercive “ethical” codes are not tools of progress, but crutches replacing the lost organic connection between people.

When language ceases to be a map of reality, it becomes a tool of control. Newspeak is not the language of liberation, but the language of subjugation. It doesn’t teach us to discern the truth; it teaches us to meekly accept whatever is called truth at any given moment. It doesn’t ask for repentance; it demands an admission of guilt for “privilege.” It doesn’t lead to the healing of the soul; it turns people into consumers of illusions. This isn’t culture; it’s a technology of dehumanization. Deprived of the language of reality, people become controlled, dependent, and defenseless. They don’t fight [for what they need]; they consume [whatever is on offer]. They don’t think; they react to stimuli.

And then comes the final act. When symbolic warfare, information attacks, and economic sanctions fail, conflict descends on the earth. Not because someone wants war, but because there is no longer a common language for peace. Treaties become works of fiction, diplomacy turns into a theater of the absurd. When words have completely lost their meaning, there remains only one way to determine whose worldview is true: direct physical confrontation.

War is not a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of language, its conceptual component. When one civilization lives in an ontological reality, and the other in an inverted simulation of it, they cannot agree. They are unable to even hear each other. And then Reality itself intervenes. It does not ask about intentions or consider political circumstances. It simply tests relative strength. Who will withstand the blow? Who is ready to die for what they believe to be true? Who leans on the crutches of simulacra, and who stands on the solid ground of existence?

An illusion built on lies cannot withstand a confrontation with Reality. It can manipulate, deceive, and intimidate, but it is incapable of sacrifice. A people whose language retains the core of truth retains the knowledge that love is not approval, but sacrifice; freedom is not arbitrariness, but liberation from slavery to passions; and humility is not humiliation, but incredible inner strength.

These words are not invented and cannot be corrected. They are a reflection of reality. And as long as they live in language, the language lives. And as long it lives, a people cannot die. Reality is not cancelled by a majority vote. It simply bides its time. And when that time comes, it speaks its universal language, which requires no translators—the language of fortitude, power, and truth.