I realized something interesting about tankies' "The Soviets ended the Holocaust!" rhetoric. By painting the liberation of the camps as valorous due to humanitarianism, as well as centering Jewish victims, these same people are adopting a Western (US) frame, not a Soviet one.
Fetishization of the red Army/Soviet objectives has always been offensive & inaccurate. What's interesting about this *specific* trope is that those who engage in it are revealing their framing of historical events--as well as their assignment of value--is Western in nature
The Soviets did not sell themselves as liberators of oppressed Jewish people, due to antisemitism & other factors. And, given all the red Army had experienced, both during the war & at home, their reaction to victims & camps was fundamentally different than that of Allied forces.
Anyway, it's always irritating to see these tropes. But it's also revealing that people choose to praise the red Army through a Western (US) lens, rather than a Soviet one.
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