Chapter 119: Crimea

443     . . .demonstrations among Russian speakers . . .  Jeffrey Mankoff, “Russia’s War in Ukraine: Identity, History, and Conflict,” Center for Strategic & International Studies, April 22, 2022, https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-war-ukraine-identity-history-and-conflict; and Timothy Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” New Republic, March 17, 2014, newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea. 

443     supported pro-Russian Ukrainian President . . . forced out of office for violently . . .  Scott Neuman and L. Carol Ritchie, “Ukrainian President Voted Out; Opposition Leader Freed,” The Two-Way, NPR, February 22, 2014, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/22/281083380/unkrainian-protesters-uneasy-president-reportedly-leaves-kiev; and Mankoff, “Russia’s War in Ukraine,” https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-war-ukraine-identity-history-and-conflict.

443     were being persecuted. And Russia was obliged to protect them  In his speech on March 18, 2014, announcing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, “we expected Ukraine to remain our good neighbour, we hoped that Russian citizens and Russian speakers in Ukraine, especially its southeast and Crimea, would live in a friendly, democratic and civilised state that would protect their rights in line with the norms of international law. However, this is not how the situation developed. Time and time again attempts were made to deprive Russians of their historical memory, even of their language and to subject them to forced assimilation.” Putin framed the Ukrainian parliament’s vote to remove Viktor Yanukovych from office as a “coup," and alleged, “Those who opposed the coup were immediately threatened with repression. Naturally, the first in line here was Crimea, the Russian-speaking Crimea. In view of this, the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol turned to Russia for help in defending their rights and lives . . . Naturally, we could not leave this plea unheeded.” “Address by President of the Russian Federation,” President of Russia, Kremlin, March 18, 2014, en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603. See also Dominique Arel, “Language, Status, and State Loyalty in Ukraine,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 35, no. 1–4 (2017–2018), www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/language-status-and-state-loyalty-in-ukraine.

443     ordered the people of Crimea to vote. . . Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     with Russian guns in their streets, with Russian disinformation . . .  Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     with neo-Nazis sent in by Russia as “observers” Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     like Béla Kovács from Jobbik  Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     more extreme than Orbán’s Fidesz  For details on Jobbik’s great replacement history, as well as the party’s attempts to orchestrate distance and rebrand as a “modern conservative party” (in the words of then-Jobbik president Gabor Vona in 2016), see Nick Thorpe, “Is Hungary’s Jobbik Leader Really Ditching Far-Right Past?” BBC News, November 15, 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37976687. For a direct comparison with Orbán’s Fidesz, see Cas Mudde, “Is Hungary Run by the Radical Right?” Washington Post, August 10, 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/10/is-hungary-run-by-the-radical-right/. Mudde wrote, “Although Jobbik is campaigning with a more moderate image than Fidesz, there is no doubt that Jobbik would implement some fundamentally different policies in key areas. Jobbik would almost certainly make Hungary leave, rather than just criticize the European Union, and would align the country more openly with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It also would seriously undermine the rights of minorities in Hungary, most notably Jews and Roma.”

443     served as treasurer of the Alliance of European National Movements  Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     depicted . . . as a defense against Jewish world domination  Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

443     “more than 82 percent” . . .  “over 96 percent” . . . “Address by President of the Russian Federation,” President of Russia, March 18, 2014, en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603.

444     showed that an overwhelming majority . . . opposed Russia’s annexation . . .  Historian Timothy Snyder wrote in 2014 after the referendum, “We know from years of surveys that a majority of Crimeans did not favor incorporation by Russia. One large survey showed 33 percent support for this idea in 2011, down to 23 percent in 2013.” Snyder, “Far-Right Forces Are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea,” newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea.

444     stuck to Adolf Hitler’s playbook for . . .  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2021), 68. Find this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/1233267123.

444     weeks before Germany’s occupation of the Sudetenland region  In late September 1938, Britain, France, and Italy agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland in exchange for a German promise of peace. The agreement is known as the Munich Pact. “Czechoslovakia,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed April 11, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/czechoslovakia.

444     “the misery of the Sudeten Germans” as defying description  Adolf Hitler, Address to Nazi Party Congress, September 12, 1938, in Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Volume 2: The Years 1934 to 1938, ed. Max Domarus (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1992), 1154. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1110405952.

444     “If these tortured creatures can find neither justice nor help by themselves, then they will receive both from us”  Hitler, Address to Nazi Party Congress, 1155. Find Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/1110405952.

444     Nazi-controlled German newspapers ran fabricated stories . . . being oppressed See “The Invasion of Poland” in “1939–1945: Domestic Propaganda in Wartime,” State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed April 11, 2025, exhibitions.ushmm.org/propaganda/1939-1945-war/war-and-genocide.
 
444     “give a propagandistic cause for starting the war . . .”  Adolf Hitler, “Speech to the Military Commanders, on the Goal of the Invasion of Poland and the Attitude Required for Victory against Poland and the Western Powers,” August 22, 1939, Nuremberg Trials Project, Harvard Law School Library, nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/452263-speech-to-the-military.

444     “The victor shall not be asked, later on . . .”  Hitler, “Speech to the Military Commanders, on the Goal of the Invasion of Poland and the Attitude Required for Victory against Poland and the Western Powers,” nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/452263-speech-to-the-military.

444     “As in other German territories of the East . . .”  “British War Bluebook No. 106: Speech by Herr Hitler to the Reichstag on September 1, 1939,” The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/blbk106.asp.

444     “No great Power can with honour long stand by . . .”  “British War Bluebook No. 106: Speech by Herr Hitler to the Reichstag on September 1, 1939.” avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/blbk106.asp.