Where Empires Break, From Napoleon to Putin: Ukraine Has Resisted Russia Longer Than It Ever Fought Beside It Against Nazism
By: Giorgio Provinciali
Live from Ukraine ????????
Izium At dawn on the 1,422nd day since the start of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it can be said thatKyiv resisted the rashist advance stopping Moscow longer than it did fighting alongside it against nazism. The Second World War on the Eastern Front was not, in fact, fought solely in Russiaas a narrative widely circulated in Italy (sometimes even bythosein institutional positions) would have itbut primarily in Ukraine and Belarus.
That version of events, which (self)attributes the entire burden of the Great Patriotic War to Moscow, holds up only as long as the maps are ignored.
In terms of the size of the battlefield, the rear areas, the occupied territories, and the space for destruction,it was clearly and unequivocally Ukraine that bore that burden, while Russia itself remained largely in a relatively protected hinterland, the seat of decision-making centers and the beneficiary of a strategic depth that others paid for.
The geographic continuity is striking: as in Napoleons 1812 invasion, from 1941 to 1944 the maneuvers took place primarily in Ukraine and Belarus (i.e., the western fringe of the empire and the USSR), thereby wearing down the adversary there. This is whythe rashist ideologypropagatedby Alexander DuginconsidersUkraine to be Russias living space: historically, Moscow has always been backward, ceding territory and wearing down the adversary just enough to fight the decisive battle outside its own ethnic heartland. As in 1812 and 1941, Ukraine and Belarus were sites of friction on the imperial peripheries, home to immense human and agricultural reservoirs. Paradoxically, as early as 2014 and on a large scale in 2022,Russia itself attempted to apply an inverse imperial logic in Ukraine: no longer retreat to wear down, but advance to annihilate. And it found itself trapped in the very same terrain that had swallowed up those other conquest projects for centuries.
The Russian narrative holds that Napoleon and Hitler fought and lost in Russia.
From where I am writing this article, maps show instead that the former disintegrated his army even before actually fighting in Russia, and that the Wehrmacht was progressively destroyed in Ukraine and Belarus.
By the time they reached Stalingrad as part of Operation Blue, the Nazi troops were already worn out in material, logistical, and operational terms.Stalingrad was not the beginning of the German collapse on the Eastern Front, but the point at which an already cooked army ceased to hold. Exhausted troops failed there only after enormous losses in Ukraine, along the Dnipro, and in the Ukrainian Donbas, without ever having truly rebuilt their men and equipment.
The Wehrmacht ran aground here in Izium as early as July 7, 1942. In the Sumy area, from which Alla Perdei and Idocumentedits attempt to open an operational corridor, consuming men, resources, and initiative, there are now towns like Trostianets, which the Russians also transformed in 2022 into areas of continuous and attritional fighting from which they were ultimately repelled.
Not to mention the Battle of Kursk (formerly a Ukrainian oblast), which marked the definitive collapse of German offensive capacity. Where todays battered Kupiansk stands, Nazi units were shattered and suffered devastating losses. In the same area, the Nazis were repelled a few weeks ago. Hitlers soldiers ended up stranded along the Donets River, precisely in the areas where Moscow attempted to advance in 2022 and was ultimately repelled. History is consistent. The places from which I write speak of past and recent events in a disconcerting overlap.
Finally, there remainsthe external burden, then American and now European. Although the USSR would likely have resisted anyway, without Lend-Lease it would never have been able to mount a large-scale offensive. Georgy Tsukov himselfacknowledgedthat, without American supplies, the Red Army could not have advanced. Materially supported by American industry, that war, which was fought largely in Ukraine not in Russia ended with a Soviet victory on the battlefield.
The iconic image of the first tank of American manufacture entering Auschwitz with a Ukrainian soldier aboard captures, in a single stroke, three truths that too many today would like to separate: the Ukrainian contribution, Western support, and the propagandistic appropriation of memory.
Today, the European Union is providing financial support to Ukraine, which is fighting as a sovereign state to stop a Russian invasion that has now equaled and surpassed the entire invasion of Nazi Germany, from the launch of Operation Barbarossa to the German surrender.
This temporal symmetry and total political asymmetry historically supports the Ukrainian resistance.
Which, once again, is deciding the fate of Europe.
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帝國的潰裂：從拿破侖到普京，烏克蘭抵抗俄羅斯的時間長於曾與其共同對抗納粹的時間
作者：Giorgio Provinciali
翻譯：旺財球球
烏克蘭前線報道????????
伊久姆在俄羅斯對烏克蘭全麵入侵的第1,422天的黎明時分，可以說基輔抵禦俄式侵略、阻止莫斯科的時長，已經比與其共同對抗納粹的時間更長。第二次世界大戰東部戰線並非僅在俄羅斯進行這是意大利廣泛傳播的敘事，有時甚至被一些官方人士提及而主要是在烏克蘭和白俄羅斯進行的。
（圖：照片來源：二戰空間）
這個把 偉大的衛國戰爭的榮耀自說自話全部歸功於莫斯科的事件版本，隻有在忽視地圖的情況下才能成立。
就戰場的規模、後方地區、被占領土和破壞空間而言，顯然和毫無疑問地是烏克蘭承擔了戰爭的重擔，而俄羅斯本身大部分時間仍處於相對安全的腹地、決策中心所在地，是其他國家所付出的戰略縱深的受益者。
（圖：地圖來源：大屠殺百科全書）
地理的連續性令人吃驚：正如拿破侖1812年的入侵一樣，從1941年到1944年的軍事行動主要發生在烏克蘭和白俄羅斯（即帝國和蘇聯的西部邊緣），從而在那裏削弱了對手。這就是亞曆山大杜金傳播的俄式意識形態將烏克蘭視為俄羅斯生存空間的原因：從曆史上看，莫斯科一直處於落後狀態，不斷割讓領土，僅僅消耗敵人以便能在其自身民族的核心領土外進行決定性戰鬥。正如在1812年和1941年，烏克蘭和白俄羅斯是帝國邊緣的摩擦點，擁有巨大的人員和農業儲備。
具有諷刺意味的是，早在2014年，以及在2022年大規模地入侵時，俄羅斯便試圖在烏克蘭施行一種反向的帝國邏輯：不再是退後以消耗敵人，而是進攻以消滅敵人。結果，它發現自己陷入了那個數百年來吞噬其他征服項目的同一片領土。
（圖：地圖來源：2022年俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭.svg，最初由Viewsridge Itself創作，衍生自Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-present).svg，作者：Rr016戰鬥詳細地圖）
俄羅斯的敘事聲稱拿破侖和希特勒在俄羅斯作戰並失敗。
然而，從我寫這篇文章的所在地看，地圖卻顯示，前者（拿破侖）實際上在俄羅斯作戰之前就已經解散了自己的軍隊，而德意誌國防軍則在烏克蘭和白俄羅斯逐步被摧毀的。
作為藍色行動的一部分抵達斯大林格勒時，納粹部隊在物資、後勤和作戰方麵已經疲憊不堪。斯大林格勒並不是德國在東線崩潰的開始，而是一個已經消耗殆盡的軍隊停止抵抗的節點。在疲憊的部隊在此處失敗之前，經曆了烏克蘭沿頓尼泊河及烏克蘭頓巴斯地區的巨大損失後，卻始終未能真正重建他們的士兵和裝備。
德意誌國防軍早在1942年7月7日就陷在了伊久姆。在蘇梅地區，阿拉記錄了他們試圖開辟一條作戰通道的嚐試，消耗了人員、資源和主動權，現在那裏有像特羅斯季亞內茨這樣的城鎮，而俄羅斯人在2022年也把這些地方轉變為持續的消耗戰區域，最終被迫撤退。
（圖：圖片來源：維基媒體共享）
（圖：地圖來源：世界曆史）
（圖：拿破侖戰爭地圖。照片來源：西點軍校）
（圖：拿破侖戰爭進程地圖來源：革命時代）
更不用提庫爾斯克戰役（原為烏克蘭的一個州），它標誌著德軍進攻能力的徹底崩潰。在今天飽受摧殘的庫皮揚斯克所在的位置，曾是納粹部隊遭到重創並遭受慘重損失的地方。在同一地區，就在幾周前納粹被擊退。希特勒的士兵最後被困在頓涅茨河沿岸，恰好是在莫斯科在2022年試圖推進，並最終被迫撤退的地區。曆史是一致的。我要所在的地方訴說著昔日和近期事件，它們令人不安地重複著。
（圖：照片來源：戰爭曆史網）
（視頻：我在烏克蘭莫什欽拍攝了防衛基輔戰鬥的戰壕中的錄像。除了這些戰壕，還有第二次世界大戰時的戰壕版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
（圖：照片攝於我和阿拉在蘇梅的遊擊隊員所建的抵抗俄羅斯的戰壕內時。戰壕所在的森林也是二戰時的戰場版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
當然，還存在外部力量，當時來自美國，現在是來自歐洲。盡管蘇聯可能無論如何都會抵抗，但如果沒有租借法案，它根本無法發動大規模進攻。喬治楚科夫本人承認，如果沒有美國的補給，紅軍將無法前進。在美國工業的物質支持下，那場主要在烏克蘭而非俄羅斯進行的戰爭，最終以蘇聯在戰場上的勝利結束。
那幅第一輛美國製造坦克載著一名烏克蘭士兵進入奧斯維辛的標誌性畫麵，一下子捕捉到了今天許多人希望分開卻無法忽視的三個真相：烏克蘭的貢獻、西方的支持，以及對記憶的宣傳性占有。
如今，歐盟正在向烏克蘭提供財政支持，烏克蘭作為一個主權國家在抗擊俄羅斯的入侵，而這場入侵的規模已經等同於並超越了納粹德國的整個入侵，從巴巴羅薩行動的發動到德國投降。
這一時間上的對稱性以及完全的政治不對稱在曆史上支持了烏克蘭的抵抗。
而這一次，再次決定著歐洲的命運。
（圖：我在莫什欽，烏克蘭在這裏建造的戰壕正是在二戰時期其它戰壕所在的地方版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
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????????致所有相信我們工作並願意支持它的人????????????
在過去三年裏，作為自由撰稿人，我們一直在烏克蘭戰爭的所有前線進行報道，自從大規模
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