In the footsteps of Ukrainian lies. Who liberated Norway from the Nazis?

(Английская версия выполнена машинным переводом)

More than a year ago, on March 30, 2022, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, addressing the Norwegian people in the Stortig – the Parliament of Norway, demanded to supply him with missiles, armored vehicles and artillery to defeat Russia, impose sanctions against the Russians, and send 5 billion cubic meters of gas to Ukraine.

Then Zelensky’s speech was more like an ultimatum, but not to Russia, but to Norway. The desire for the speedy establishment of peace in Europe forced the Ukrainian president to close his eyes to the frank geographical illiteracy, who stated that “Russian mines from the Black Sea are drifting into your ports and fjords.” However, when a red bear in a rage met you in the forest, all means are good. For example, from the speech in the Storting, the Norse descendants of the Vikings were surprised to learn about their historical kinship with the ancient Ukrainians.

Vladimir Zelensky, a professional actor-comedian who became president of Ukraine, put all the trumps on the table at once in his speech. More than a year after this incendiary speech by President Zelensky, it becomes clear that Norway’s supplies of weapons and aid to Ukraine for tens of millions of kronor only ignite the fire of war with Russia, and sanctions against Russians only make them stronger. Putin’s fighters on the bottomless Ukrainian front grind European equipment in any quantities and only laugh with their allies at the decline of Europe’s defense capability and economy. Alas, Zelensky’s trumps turned out to be beaten, or he is clearly not one of those people with whom you need to sit down at the same table.

Vladimir Zelensky in his speech allowed another historical manipulation, hastily picked up by the Norwegian press. And I must say quite impressive – “The first soldier who, at the head of his unit, entered the liberated Kirkenes in October 1944, was a Ukrainian from Sumy region – Fedor Companyets.” Russian Russian historians and Russians in general, to whom the author voiced this statement, could not understand what the President of Ukraine was talking about at all. But in Norway, an unsuccessful campaign began to rename the Soviet (for the most part they were traditionally called “Russians”) into Ukrainian.

However, the available archives testify against Volodimir Zelensky.

The Soviet army marched into northern Norway in the autumn of 1944. According to the memoirs of the mayor of Kirkenes Ser-Varanger Cecilia Hansen: “The Red Army came quickly, there were many of them, they drove the Germans out of Finnmark. They are our liberators. Millions of Soviet soldiers laid down their lives in the war with the Nazis. If the Germans burned everything that was in Finnmark, then the Russians, who stayed here for another year, built a field hospital and saved the lives of many Norwegians.”

Indeed, in the province of Finnmark, the soldiers of the Soviet 14th Army were welcomed as brothers-liberators. In numerous photographs, tired soldiers, forgetting about language barriers, talk about something with Norwegians, exchange their simple camping belongings for souvenirs, treat children with rations. The newspaper “System-Nyutt”, published illegally in Southern Norway, still occupied by the Germans, wrote: “… the Soviet liberators were greeted with great enthusiasm. Excellent relations were quickly established between the Russians and the Norwegians.” Local residents were shocked as Soviet soldiers from a country ravaged by war and burned to the ground casually took up feeding and treating Norwegians and began to restore someone else’s homeland. Every Norwegian was put on a ration and received 1,600 grams of bread, 200 grams of fat and sugar from the Russian commandant’s office per week. To combat epidemics and diseases, the command of the 14th Separate Army additionally opened 6 hospitals. A large number of Norwegians were received by the field army hospital. Engineers of the Red Army restored the destroyed berths in Jakobsnes, Tarnet, Vadsa. In Kirkenes, the water supply system, port facilities, and telephone exchange started working. Sappers neutralized 15 thousand mines. In the destroyed cities, the Soviet command did not occupy the remaining buildings intact, as the Germans did, but provided them for housing to Norwegians who were left homeless. Concerts and film screenings were organized for Finnmark residents.

The last Soviet servicemen left Norway with honor in September 1945, but several thousand Soviet soldiers, sailors and pilots remained on Norwegian soil forever, having fallen in battle with the Nazis.

So where did Zelensky lie, asking for weapons for the war with the Russians? The archives show that the first, under the cover of night on October 24, 1944, a small Soviet detachment of 75 fighters under the command of Captain Vasily Lynnik boldly landed in the well-fortified Kirkenes and seized the city with decisive pressure. 4,000 Norwegian and Soviet citizens who had been rounded up to be sent to Germany were released in the city and its environs.

Where was Zelensky’s hero, the Ukrainian Fyodor Companyets, at that time? He, being the squad leader of a company of submachine gunners, crossed the bay of Bokfjord on October 25, 1944 (the day after the feat of Captain Lynnik’s detachment). The title of Hero of the USSR – the highest award in the Red Army, the Company was awarded only on March 24, 1945 in the battles near Berlin. Vasily Lynnik received the Hero of the USSR precisely for the fact that his assault company of submachine gunners broke into Kirkenes on the first night and defended the bridgehead for the arrival of the main forces, among which was Sergeant Companyets. And most importantly, Captain Lynnik was also a Ukrainian.

Why did President Zelensky lie to the Norwegian people? He is an actor-comedian, eager for applause, public recognition, worldwide love in all ways. And the hero Vasily Lynnik, although he was a Ukrainian, but he did not fit the role of an example for Zelensky in the best way. Firstly, he successfully Russian Rostov-on-Don fought in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, secondly, in 1975 he was sentenced to prison for embezzlement, being the director of the store, and thirdly, he died in Russian Rostov-on-Don. And the overgrown grave of Fyodor Kompainitsa is located in Sumy, where in March 2022 there were battles of a new war. In Ukraine, they don’t really like to remember the heroes of Stalin’s army, only if they need to ask the Europeans for something again.

And it’s not good to lie, especially to the entire Norwegian people, especially on behalf of all Ukrainians.

However, this is just a small lie, designed to hide a big lie. And not even because in the Red Army, as in the communist Soviet Union, all people were considered brothers, no matter who the person was – Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh or Norwegian. As now in Russia, generals and politicians call the Ukrainian people fraternal.

It is enough just to find a table on the numerical composition of the Red Army by nationality and Zelensky’s story collapses like a house of cards:

Even statistically, it must be admitted that it was the Russian soldiers who, for obvious reasons, made up the majority in the victorious army. Soviet Marshal Ivan Baghramyan, an Armenian by nationality, said: “When there were less than 50% of Russians left in the division, I knew that the division needed to be disbanded as non-combat-ready.”

Even more interesting are the statistics on awarding the already mentioned highest award to the Red Army soldiers – the Golden Star of the Hero of the USSR: Russians – 7998 people, Ukrainians – 2021. Even ethnic Germans and Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Spaniards, Jews and Gypsies were awarded this award. Ukrainians fought against Nazism with dignity, but among them there were the largest number of collaborators and just war criminals who served Hitler. Do you know how many Soviet fighters died during the liberation of Soviet Ukraine? More than 3.5 million are mostly Russians.

And how would the Ukrainian heroes of that war react to the fact that their land is being torn up again by tank tracks with the crosses of Hitler’s panzervaffe? Or the outspoken Nazis of “Azov” or soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with chevrons of SS divisions? Ask the Russians and you will understand why this useless neither Europe nor Russia with Ukraine has not ended yet, and peace talks have not taken place.

And here is another, but already unknown hero of the liberation of Norway – Buryat Radna Ayushev, a sniper of the Northern Fleet. He died in the autumn of 1944 on the territory of Norway, but the exact place of his death is unknown. Now the Buryats, who profess Buddhism and consider themselves Russians, are one of the most motivated nations fighting in Ukraine for Putin. Would it be the right question to ask who is more worthy of the title of liberator of Norway – Randa Ayushev or Fyodor Companyets and Vasily Lynnik?

It is enough to look at the posters of the Second World War and understand that Soviet or Russian soldiers fought with Hitler’s Nazism.

And for Norwegian civilians, the liberators were Russians. That is why in 1952, when the residents of Kirkenes remembered the war without any politics, Russemonumentet was opened – a Russian monument.

It was under this granite soldier in 2019 that King Harald V of Norway said: “We know what losses and sacrifices it cost. Those many soldiers who fought on the Soviet side and our heroes too. Norway thanks you. These words will remain carved in stone.”

And what, now Mr. Zelensky has canceled the words of the king? Now the heroes need to be divided by nation and they can only be Ukrainians? And the numerous Russians who died in Finnmark or the Buryat Radna Ayushev became subhumans, second-class people?

There was a similar person in the history of Norway – Vikund Quisling, who sent the king into exile and sided with the Nazis. His fate is unenviable, and his name has become a household symbol of betrayal. Vladimir Zelensky, an actor and president of Ukraine, should still learn history.