Ukraine crisis: A Déjà Vu of the Second World War

Once again we are in grip of terror and fear with the double edged sword of Ukraine dangling over the head of humanity. Why I consider this issue as a danger for the whole of humanity is because of the parties involved in this tug of war regarding Ukraine. On one side there is the evil matrix of US, EU and NATO and on the other side is one stubborn and fearless man named Vladimir Putin of Russia. But what even scares me even more is the terrifying similarities between the current situation in Ukraine and the incidents that lead to the Second World War. Offcourse in 1935 the stubborn and fearless man was Adolf Hitler of Germany. You would be shocked to know how identical were the issues that further escalated into a global conflict of Second World War to the current happenings in Ukraine especially in Crimea and Kiev.

Russia and Crimea's dispute with Ukraine

Now before we go into details about the incidents that lead to Second World War, first let us get a birds eye perspective about the current crisis in Ukraine and the reasons behind this long expected civilian unrest. What is the history of Ukraine? Well Ukraine has long been heralded as the breadbasket of Europe because of its highly fertile land. But despite of this Ukrainians suffered greatly under the Stalin regime during the 1921 droughts. 

The collectivization policy of Bolshevik dictator Joseph Stalin combined with the drought of 1921 claimed nearly 8 million lives in Ukraine and over 50 million all over Russia. In post world war 2 era, Stalin laid emphasis on the developement of Ukrainian region of Russia. After the collapse of Russian Federation in 1989, Ukraine also declared its independence in 1990.  

A referendum and the first presidential elections took place on 1 December 1991. That day, more than 90% of the electorate expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament, Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first President of the country.  

Although Ukraine became an independent sovereign nation, but the connection of Ukrainians to Russia remained a core belief in hearts of Ukranian people. 

Despite the complains and allegations of European Union, US and NATO, Ukrainan people never abandoned the idea of unification with Russia especially the people of Crimea. So in December 2013 when president Viktor Yanukovych started to show more inclinations towards Russia rather than EU, the EU US and NATO really went to disaster mode.The main worry of EU, US and NATO was that if Ukraine merged with Russia that would mean loss of a key location for missile installation close to Russia. The people of Crimea. So in December 2013 when president Viktor Yanukovych started to show more inclinations towards Russia rather than EU, the EU US and NATO really went to disaster mode.  

So fearing the worse, western intelligence agencies financed the pro Euro factions to create civil unrest in Ukraine. 

Although there is little doubt that Anti-Russian protests that created civil unrest in Kiev was funded and controlled by western agencies, but it is also a fact that most of the Ukrainians in western region of the country were supportive of an European alliance. 

And the Ukrainians to the regions bordering Russia like Crimea were more supportive of a Russian merger. 

A series of violent protests and clashes with Army and Police lead to the death of 90 civilians and nearly a thousand with injuries. 

After the escalation in civil unrest in Kiev, the Ukrainian parliament under the influence of Western nations declared the President Yanukovych incapable of tackling the situation and removed him of his position as President of Ukraine. They also declared that a general election will be held in May to elect the new leader. Pro-Russian groups alleged that this election in May is just a pretext to place a western puppet as President of Ukraine to ensure a merger with European Union. Pro-Russia groups were already being persecuted by Ukrainian army. Rumors of Army's plan to silence ethnic Russian communities in Crimea also started to surface. 

Situation in the Crimean region was really getting worse by the day. Heading the pleas of Crimean Russians, president of Russia Vladimir Putin asked the Russian parliament for permission to use of force in Crimea to solve the crisis. On 1 March 2014, Russian President received authorization from the Russian Parliament to deploy Russian troops to Ukraine in response to the Crimean crisis Russian troops accordingly mobilized throughout Crimea and the southeast of Ukraine. By 2 March, Russian troops had complete control over Crimea.

On 6 March 2014 the Crimean Parliament voted to "enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation" and announced that a referendum on the topic would be held on 16 March. On 15 March 2014 the whore of United States, UN Security Council considered a resolution which would have urged member states not to recognize the results of the referendum, but that resolution was rightly vetoed by Russia and did not pass.

The referendum was held on 16 March 2014. The referendum asked the people of these regions whether they wanted to join Russia as a federal subject, or if they wanted to restore the 1992 Crimean constitution and Crimea's status as a part of Ukraine. 

The proceedings of the referendum was attended by observers from more than 21 countries. Election officials in Crimea announced 97% of voters had voted in favor of joining the Russian Federation. The United States and the European Union stated they considered the referendum to be illegal, and warned that there may be repercussions for the Crimea ballot. 

Loss of Crimea was a big blow to NATO's plan to encircle Russia with missile systems so quite understandably the NATO nations along with European Union cried about the illegitimacy of the referendum, its illegalities regarding to Ukrainian constitution and lastly barked a lot of threats to Russia if they acted upon this referendum result. Vladimir Putin ignoring all these threats and allegations welcomed the annexation of Crimea into the Russia. This is the current situation in Crimea with both sides refusing to backdown from a glare contest.

Germany's land disputes that lead to Second World War

Now let's review the situation in 1930s that lead to the Second World War. Due to the unfair treaty of Versailles, the whole responsibility of First World War was laid solely on Germany even though Germany was not the one who initiated the war. 

Germany was already in a poor state because of the financial expenditures incurred and the destruction caused by the war. 

But despite the collapsing economy of Germany, the victors of the First World War stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was supposed to pay huge sums of money as reimbursements to the victors for the damage incurred during the war.

Furthermore Germany was stripped of large portion of its land in order to create new sovereign nations which had never existed ever in the history. Millions of ethnic Germainic people were separated all of a sudden from their homeland. The treaty of Versailles in total stripped Germany of more than. 65,000 km² and in excess of 7 million of its people. In west, Germany was required to recognize Belgian sovereignty over Moresnet and Eupen-Melmedy area. Within six months of the transfer, Belgium was required conduct a referendum on whether the citizens of the region wanted to remain under Belgian sovereignty or return to German control. 

To compensate for the destruction of French coal-mines, Germany was to cede the output of the Saar coalmines to France and control of the Saar to the League of Nations for fifteen years after which people of Saar were to presented a referendum to decide whether they wanted to remain under French control or dis they wished a reunification with Germany. In the eastern regions, Germany was to recognize the independence of Czechoslovakia and to cede parts of the province of Upper Silesia. Germany had to recognize the independence of Poland and renounce "all rights and title over the territory". Portions of Upper Silesia were to be ceded to Poland, with the future of the rest of the province to be decided by a referendum at a later date.  

The province of Posen was also to be ceded to Poland. Region of Pomerania on historical and ethnic grounds, was transferred to Poland so that the new state could have access to the sea and became known as the Polish corridor. 

The sovereignty of part of southern Eastern Prussia was to be decided via referendum while the East Prussian Soldau area which was astride the rail line between Warsaw and Danzig, was transferred to Poland outright with no provision of any referendum. An area of 51,800 square kilometres (20,000 square miles) was granted to Poland at the expense of Germany and Memel was ceded to the Allied and Associated powers, for disposal according to their wishes. Germany was to cede the city of Danzig and its hinterland, including the delta of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea for the League of Nations to establish the Free city of Danzig. But due to weak economic and military status of Germany most of the nations by help of Allied nations intimidated Germany and denied the right to referendum of the Germainic people in the regions cited in treaty of Versailles. 

After Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933, he concentrated all his efforts towards economic and social developement of Germany. Once he achieved that, then he turned his attention towards several German disputed territories courtesy of the Treaty of Versailles. First in 1935 he insisted French government to present the people of Saar a referendum about unification with third Reich. More than 90% of the Saar inhabitants wanted a reunification with Germany. France ceded its control over Saar to Germany in 1935. This annexation of Saar into the Third Reich motivated many other ethnic Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia to demand reunification with Germany. As per treaty of Versailles people had ever right to a referendum but aided by Allied nations both Poland and Czechoslovakia refused to present any referendum and started to persecute people of Germanic descent. 

In many of these regions the ethnic Germans were considerably outnumbered by by multiple ethnic groups that had settled in these regions after the formation of new countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Ethnic Polish Jews were the first ethnic groups who started targeting ethnic German people in Poland. Polish Jews were single handedly responsible for the massacre of over 50,000 ethnic German men, women and children in the regions bordering Germany. Worst of this massacre occured in the Port city of Danzig where nearly all of town's German population that is about 10,000 people were massacred. Yet no where in history are these facts are cited like incidents of Holocaust are. Similar to the Polish Germans, the Czech Germans were also being murdered and massacred for their demand of reunification with Germany.

Witnessing the ever worsening situation of Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Adolf Hitler urged the governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia along with France and Britain to find a peaceful resolution to these issues as decided in the Treaty of Versailles. But Poland under the influence of Britain and France refused to present any referendum to the people. Adolf Hitler's all attempts to reach a peaceful solution to this issue were thwarted by Britain. Hence unable to standby and watch the massacre of Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia anymore, Hitler invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia to free the oppressed German population. And this is where the conflict took a global shape and became known as The Second World War.

Similarities between the German and the Russia-Crimean situation. 

In 1930s ethnic Germans were demanding a reunification with Germany at the expense of being persecuted by Polish and Czech people. Similarly in 2014, Crimean people majority of whome are ethnic Russians were also demanding a reunification with Russia despite being targeted and assaulted by Pro-EU groups and Ukrainian army. In 1930s the cry for help of ethnic Germans was headed by Adolf Hitler who after making several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue peacefully, invaded Poland and Czechslovakia and freed the ethnic Germans. Similarly in 2014 heading the demand of Crimean people for reunification with Russia, Vladimir Putin the President of Russia sent his armed forces into Crimea to aid in peaceful annexation of Crimea into the Russia.

In 1930s the forces opposing and thwarting all attempts of peaceful resolution of the issue were the allied nations i.e. Britain, France and United States. And similarly now too, the people who were and have been opposing free choice of Crimeans to join Russia are USA, EU and NATO nations. Same old culprits are upto their same old tricks.

What will happen next?

In my view all this issue regarding Ukraine, Crimea and Russia is really about creating a tense atmosphere in Russia. What US, EU and NATO are hoping for is just that like Hitler was forced to invade Poland, quite similarly Vladimir Putin will also make a similar move which will provide the US, EU and NATO a pretext to launch an attack against Russia. So in my view this is for sure an attempt to force a critical move by Russia which can then provide a pretext for the western nations to start the Third World War and attack Russia and Iran. 

So I consider these 5-6 months a very critical time that will decide the fate of humanity. That will decide whether there will be peace or war, whether there will be life or death. Everything hangs in balance........