РУССКИЙ
9:28 09.05.2025 •
Vassily Nebenzia
Photo: The Permanent Mission of Russia to the United Nations
Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia a UNGA Special Solemn Event in Commemoration of the Victims of WWII.
Mr. President,
Distinguished Colleagues,
Today we have gathered for a special solemn meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate all the victims of the Second World War.
On May 9, the final Act of Unconditional Surrender was signed in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst. Nazism was vanquished in its lair – in Berlin, which was taken by the Red Army. On May 1, the red banner of Victory was raised over the Reichstag, and on that day Soviet General Chuikov was approached by the Chief of the General Staff of the German ground troops who informed him that Hitler had committed suicide in his bunker.
The most tragic page of history was turned, and the world was kept from plunging into the abyss of racial superiority theory, according to which the value of human life was determined through measuring the skull with the Mollison craniophor.
We mustn’t forget that this horrific theory was not a figment of Hitler's imagination - it was born among European intellectuals. Suffice it to recall, for instance, “An Essay on the Inequality of Human Races” by the French writer Arthur de Gobineau. This colonial racism, which was embraced by Europeans, was supplemented by the Nazis with radical anti-Semitism and anti-Slavism. One can only imagine a world where such European “values” would have prevailed. But in fact, this is precisely what happened then. Champions of Nazism and fascism became popular and took power in many European countries. This is why Hitler's march was almost triumphant until it encountered the heroic resistance of the peoples of the Soviet Union.
Let us recall that Hitler enjoyed the sympathy and support from a number of members of the British royal family; and Italy, Finland and Romania fought on Hitler's side, providing him with 700,000 soldiers. Nor should we forget about the French Volunteer Legion; Spanish volunteers; the Norwegian SS Legion; the Dutch SS Legion; the Latvian SS Legion, which was particularly brutal; the Estonian SS Volunteer Legion; the Belgian Volunteer Division; and the SS Denmark Volunteer Corps, which became part of the German SS Death’s Head Division (SS-Totenkopf). Ukrainian nationalists also fought on Hitler's side.
In 1941, all anti-fascist forces managed to unite. Despite having a record of armed confrontation, the ideological opponents – the USSR, the USA and the UK – demonstrated wisdom and stood up shoulder to shoulder. At that time, no one even thought of playing ideological games, nor did anyone attempt to equate fascism with communism. It was clear to everyone what was good and what was evil. Any other solution would have been fatal for the whole world. We thank all participants in the anti-Hitler coalition and honor the Allies' contribution to the victory. In Asia, it was China that spearheaded the fight against Japanese militarism.
Evil was defeated. But the victory came at the cost of millions of people. China lost 35 million people in the war. The USA – about half a million. Serbia organized the largest partisan movement in Europe. The struggle for the freedom of peoples was also fought by heroes from Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The cost for the Soviet Union was 27 million lives, with irrecoverable military losses alone amounting to 12 million. Many millions of civilian casualties were the result of the policy of genocide pursued by the Nazis against the peoples of the Soviet Union.
The goals in the war against the USSR differed from that in Europe. Thus, on June 12, 1941 Himmler stated that “the purpose of the march on Russia is to reduce the number of Slavs by 30 million people”. Another laconic and ingenuous statement belongs to Hermann Göring, the Führer's successor, head of the Economic Executive Staff, East (Wi Stab Ost). In a mundane conversation with the foreign minister of fascist Italy in November 194, when commenting on 20-30 million Soviet citizens starving to death, he casually remarked: “Some peoples may need to be decimated.”
Those holding power in the Axis countries construed the need for the genocide against the peoples of the USSR with their inherent pragmatic cynicism. They sought to get food supplies from the black earth regions, including Ukraine, and send them from the so-called “forested areas” – Moscow and St. Petersburg – to Europe. In addition, there were plans to populate Soviet territories with Germans, which required getting rid of the “aboriginal population.”
The genocidal plan was documented in a product by Wi Stab Ost, which is the “Directives for the Operation of the Economy,” which were premised on the research of Nazi economist Herbert Backe.
At the Nuremberg Trials, these “Directives” were presented by the American side. US prosecutor Whitney Harris characterized them as follows: “This document discloses, on its face, a studied plan to murder millions of innocent people through starvation. It reveals a program of premeditated murder of millions of innocent people through starvation; It reveals a program of premeditated murder on a scale so vast as to stagger the human imagination.”
Thus, the terrible tragedy of the Siege of Leningrad, which claimed about one million lives, was not an accident nor the result of the siege of the city. It was part of a deliberate policy of starvation.
However, starvation was not the only “weapon” of genocide. As Hitler said, “It is a war of annihilation ... this war will differ sharply from the war in the West. In the East, cruelty is too mild for the future.” Guided by this message, Hitlerites showed unheard-of cruelty towards the civilian population of the USSR: carpet bombing destroyed 1740 cities and more than 70,000 villages and hamlets; more than 6 million buildings were burnt or destroyed and about 25 million people were deprived of shelter. The population of entire settlements was exterminated. We cannot but recall the Belarusian village of Khatyn, where 149 inhabitants were burned alive, including 75 children.
This crime involved 200 Ukrainian nationalists from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army established by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN – UPA) led by Stepan Bandera. They also became notorious for their participation in particularly brutal acts of the Holocaust, including pogroms of July 1941 in Bender and the executions of Jews, for example, in Babi Yar near Kiev and in Sosenki near the Ukrainian city of Rovno, where 23,000 people were killed. Nor can we forget the horrific Volhynian massacre perpetrated by UPA members. As a result of this crime, between 50,000 and 60,000 Polish civilians were murdered.
What Soviet POWs endured was no less horrible: they were starved, often kept in the open, and subjected to medical experiments. In the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Soviet POWs were the first victims of the gas chambers.
Nor can we forget the millions of “Ostarbeiters”, citizens of the Soviet Union, who were forcibly brought to Germany. Their slave labor was used by such well-known companies as Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Volkswagen, BMW, Bayer and Hugo Boss. Ordinary Germans had no scruples about using slave labor either. They applied for these people and came to the distribution centers, which, in fact, were slave markets – and this was in Germany in the 20th century.
However, all this did not break the Soviet people. Not only did they go to the frontline, but also joined partisan units. Prisoners of war demonstrated unprecedented courage raising revolts in the death camps.
Mr. President,
The terrible Nazi atrocities did not require any proof, everybody knew what Nazis did as an axiom. However, today we see the sacred memory of the heroes and victims of Nazism being attacked by champions of historical revisionism and revanchism. The perverted Nazi idea of dehumanizing representatives of “inferior races” is now being whitewashed with the proponents of this idea being glorified not only by marginal radicals, but also at the level of public policy.
Thus, the Baltic States are holding marches glorifying Hitler's henchmen. And other Eastern European countries are demolishing monuments to the heroes who gave their lives for the victory over Nazism.
And in neighboring brotherly Ukraine, after the Maidan anti-constitutional coup and several years of brainwashing, we here the motto “Ukraine is above all else”, which is the exact same as the Nazi slogan “Deutschland uber alles”. Unfortunately, the parallels with the Third Reich do not end there.
Thus, we are witnessing the demolition of monuments to those who fought fascism, as well as the recognition as national heroes of such people as Roman Shukhevich (commanding officer of the Nachtigall Battalion subordinate to the Abwehr), or Stepan Bandera (a Nazi collaborator). We are also witnessing torchlight marches on commemorative occasions for neo-Nazis, and the banning of the Russian language. Thus, in Kiev, the General Vatutin avenue (he was a Soviet general, a hero of World War II and liberator of Ukraine from the Nazis) was renamed into Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich Avenue.
Mr. President,
We will not let the international community forget that Hitler's ideas are not just a thing of the past which was left behind in 1945, Nazism is re-emerging and rapidly gaining momentum. The number of right-wing movements and their backers is constantly growing in Europe. They use modern methods and technologies to attract new supporters, especially among young people – they use social networks and messengers for this purpose. They even manage to hold rock concerts, organize sport events or lectures. All this is not one-off initiatives, but systemic activities. We are closely monitoring the situation and publishing relevant reports.
There are attempts to convince us that honoring Hitler, his followers and his ideology is an exercise of the right to freedom of expression. But at the same time, last year and this year on May 8 and 9, Berlin not only prohibited demonstrating the Victory Banner and St. George's ribbons along with singing war songs near Soviet war memorials, but it also forbade displaying orders, medals and uniforms of victorious soldiers, including photographs of veterans. Moreover, high-ranking EU officials are threatening with sanctions for participation in the Victory Parade in Moscow and urging people to go to Kiev instead. It begs the question: who will be honored in Kiev? Millions of Ukrainians who heroically fought in the ranks of the Red Army and gave their lives in the fight against fascism or the Nazi henchmen Bandera and Shukhevich? There is a need for clarity on this issue, as the victims and their executioners cannot be treated equally.
It is noteworthy that those who are refusing to commemorate Victory Day are precisely the States that for a number of years have been obstructing the adoption by the General Assembly of the resolution “Combating the glorification of Nazism” proposed by Russia. How is it possible to even consider voting against such a resolution at the United Nations, which is an international organization that owes its very name to the self-designation of the member States of the anti-Hitler coalition?
Mr. President,
We must not forget that the Victory not only saved people from suffering and brought freedom, but it also set up a new world order, with the UN playing a central role therein. This world order is supposed to be built on the principles of cooperation, sovereign equality and non-discrimination.
I would not be surprised if there will be attempts today to tell us an alternative history of the Second World War, in which the feats of Soviet soldiers will be replaced by tales of “occupiers” and communist atrocities. But whatever fakes we will hear, the only thing that matters is that on May 9, at 00:43, Hitler's Germany definitively surrendered; and the world will always remember this. We won the victory over Nazism, which you will never be able cancel.
Russia's commitment to preserving historical truth will remain unwavering. Contrary to what our enemies assert, we do not monopolize this Victory. We consider it as a shared accomplishment, and we pay tribute to all peoples of the former Soviet Union who made a significant contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. All peoples of the Soviet Union contributed to the victory – Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Baltic peoples, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Jews as well as dozens of other nationalities of our huge country. This year, we, together with our allies – Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, China, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – initiated the adoption of a General Assembly resolution on “The Eightieth Anniversary of the End of the Second World War”, according to which the Victory will be commemorated in this Hall every five years.
I will conclude my statement with the words of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, who is also known as the Marshal of Victory. He is precisely the person who in 1945 accepted the capitulation of Nazi Germany.
“With each passing year, we are moving further and further away from the war era. A new generation has come to age. For them, the war is what we remember about it. And there are fewer and fewer of us – participants of these historic events. But I am convinced: time has no power over the greatness of what we experienced during the war. It was an exceedingly difficult time, but it was also a very glorious time. A person who once survived great trials and won will draw strength from this victory for all his life.
This is true for the whole nation. Our victory in the war against fascism, speaking eloquently, is the Finest Hour for the Soviet people. In those years we became stronger and much more resilient. Looking back, we will always remember those who did not spare themselves to vanquish the enemy of our Motherland.”
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