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> Mr Utkin, a former paratrooper in the Russian special forces, is reportedly the founder and overall commander of the Wagner group. He himself was formerly kno

> Mr Utkin, a former paratrooper in the Russian special forces, is reportedly the founder and overall commander of the Wagner group. He himself was formerly known as “Wagner” because of his alleged interest in Nazi Germany, which promoted the music of composer Richard Wagner. The photo of him shows what looks like an "SS" rune tattoo on his collar. How prevalent is Nazism in Russia? It kinda boggles my mind, since they had a very low opinion of Slavs and treated Russian soldiers very badly.

Thorrez 5y ago
Yeah, the Soviet Union had 20-27M deaths in WWII, the most of any country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Yeah, the Soviet Union had 20-27M deaths in WWII, the most of any country. That's another reason for a Russian to not be a fan of Nazism, but it doesn't seem like an insurmountable one. The thing that boggles my mind is the Nazis thought Slavs like Russians were subhuman and planned to exterminate them [1]. "Russian Nazi" seems like it would be almost the same level of contradiction as "Nazi Jew." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Slavic_sentiment#Nazi_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Slavic_sentiment#Nazi_Ger...
  - me_me_me 5y ago
    I don't know what you are downvoted for, because all you said is exactly he history. POV camps for Wester Allies and Soviets were like haven and hell. Soviets were considered a half-human by nazi regime.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  Some niggles: 'Only' about half of those were in Russia itself. Breaking things out by Soviet 'provinces', which are now independent countries: Belarus had 2.3M and Ukraine had 6.9M. Absolute numbers also don't tell the whole story: 25% of Belarus' population was killed, while 'only' 12.7% of Russia's was. Ukraine, 16.3%; Latvia, 13.7%; Armenia, 13.7%; Poland, 17%.
ordu 5y ago
> How prevalent is Nazism in Russia? There were Nazi groups in 1990s and 2010s, then government policies stopped them mostly. It all started with forbidding nazis, then were atheists insulting religious people, now it came to forbidding to insult government. In a short, I wouldn't be surprised if some people made Nazi's tattoos at 1990s. Though not now, especially because after 2014 Russia's propaganda paints Ukraine as a Nazi's lair, and shows a lot of examples how it is bad. Nazi's symbols are associated with Ukrainians in a public unconsciousness, and one might get hurt showing them in a public. Or, more likely, imprisoned because "Nazi's propaganda" is punishable by the law. > It kinda boggles my mind, since they had a very low opinion of Slavs and treated Russian soldiers very badly. Russian Nazis promote superiority not of Aryan race, but of some other. Slavs race, I believe. Or may be they are just promote Russian's superiority. Never bothered to learn their beliefs in detail. I think, that their minds works like "our grandfathers kicked our arses, so they were strong; Nazi kicked arses of our grandfathers hard so they were strong also; so if we copied them, we would be strong also". Grandfather's ideas failed with USSR, they needed some new ideas, so they chose Nazi's.
thrwway34 5y ago
Pretty prevalent, and they're supporting far-right parties in Europe and US as well.

Thorrez 5y ago

Yeah, the Soviet Union had 20-27M deaths in WWII, the most of any country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

tablespoon 5y ago
> Yeah, the Soviet Union had 20-27M deaths in WWII, the most of any country. That's another reason for a Russian to not be a fan of Nazism, but it doesn't seem like an insurmountable one. The thing that boggles my mind is the Nazis thought Slavs like Russians were subhuman and planned to exterminate them [1]. "Russian Nazi" seems like it would be almost the same level of contradiction as "Nazi Jew." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Slavic_sentiment#Nazi_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Slavic_sentiment#Nazi_Ger...
- me_me_me 5y ago
  I don't know what you are downvoted for, because all you said is exactly he history. POV camps for Wester Allies and Soviets were like haven and hell. Soviets were considered a half-human by nazi regime.
throw0101a 5y ago
Some niggles: 'Only' about half of those were in Russia itself. Breaking things out by Soviet 'provinces', which are now independent countries: Belarus had 2.3M and Ukraine had 6.9M. Absolute numbers also don't tell the whole story: 25% of Belarus' population was killed, while 'only' 12.7% of Russia's was. Ukraine, 16.3%; Latvia, 13.7%; Armenia, 13.7%; Poland, 17%.

ordu 5y ago

> How prevalent is Nazism in Russia? There were Nazi groups in 1990s and 2010s, then government policies stopped them mostly. It all started with forbidding nazis, then were atheists insulting religious people, now it came to forbidding to insult government. In a short, I wouldn't be surprised if some people made Nazi's tattoos at 1990s. Though not now, especially because after 2014 Russia's propaganda paints Ukraine as a Nazi's lair, and shows a lot of examples how it is bad. Nazi's symbols are associated with Ukrainians in a public unconsciousness, and one might get hurt showing them in a public. Or, more likely, imprisoned because "Nazi's propaganda" is punishable by the law. > It kinda boggles my mind, since they had a very low opinion of Slavs and treated Russian soldiers very badly. Russian Nazis promote superiority not of Aryan race, but of some other. Slavs race, I believe. Or may be they are just promote Russian's superiority. Never bothered to learn their beliefs in detail. I think, that their minds works like "our grandfathers kicked our arses, so they were strong; Nazi kicked arses of our grandfathers hard so they were strong also; so if we copied them, we would be strong also". Grandfather's ideas failed with USSR, they needed some new ideas, so they chose Nazi's.

thrwway34 5y ago

Pretty prevalent, and they're supporting far-right parties in Europe and US as well.