Boris Kagarlitsky: Eastern Ukraine people’s republics between militias and …
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By
Svetlana Tsiberganova, translated by
Peter Mikhailenko
August 8, 2014 – Liva.com — Many are surprised at how quickly Ukrainian society has fallen under the
rule of aggressive chauvinistic propaganda and begun to live according to the
principles of Orwellian dystopia: “War – is peace! Freedom – is slavery!
Democracy – is the limitation of all rights! Freedom of speech – is silence!
The victims burned and killed themselves!”[1]
But I’ve realised that that for some
time now, there is nothing surprising about this.
If we analyse the recent history of “left-wing movement” of Ukraine, it is
clear that these cynical principles are the very essence of Ukrainian
nationalism. They are shared even among those who would not be expected to
succumb to the chauvinist hysteria.
Why did the “left” liberals go to Maidan [Independence Square, Kyiv]? Why did
Ukrainian nationalists under the flags of the EU screaming “Pro-Russians to the
knives! Death to the enemies!” become, for them, “the people”, while the
population of the south-east, singing, “Arise, great
country!”[2] became sovky[3],
“cattle” and “Colorado beetles”?[4]
Did the “leftists” not notice the
anti-communist rhetoric that was heard everywhere at Maidan? The sincere
promises to introduce anti-social reforms immediately after the victory of
Maidan – reforms that are being implemented today? The aggression against all
those who raised a social agenda? What about the calls to suppress all dissent?
And the presence of clericalism that projects women as “helper of men” in the spirit
of late Middle Ages chivalry? Was all this not obvious?
For a long time, I was not able to solve this riddle, until I found on my
computer a photo from last winter at Maidan. It showed the crowd wiping their
feet on the red flag. Then everything became clear.
All the liberals who today actively support the regime of the oligarchs and
nationalists have for years been dismissing the left and uprooting and
destroying communist symbols. They are no different in this than the
brownshirted Ukrainian nationalists. They supported the anti-communist
rhetoric, demonising the Soviet past to the extreme. And they have introduced
anti-left stock phrases into education and historical sciences in order to
steer workers and the masses away from socialism – thus helping the expansion
of the right.
How many times, at every May Day organising committee, did I have to defend the
main symbol of the international communist and workers’ movement – the red flag
with the hammer and sickle? There were those who called for its removal, so as
not to scare off liberals and nationalists. They did not mind the presence of
the red and black flags of anarchists which 100 per cent of the people in Kyiv
associate with red-black flags of the ultra-nationalist Bandera movement that dominate
everywhere in the streets.
The marginal “left” sectarians actively fought with “authoritarian Stalinism”
(which has not existed for decades), while cowardly ignoring the real threat of
the rise of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism. Thus, they demonstrated stunning
authoritarianism – the likes of which was hard to find even in the regional
committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
The point is that the Ukrainian “anarchists” (I cannot write the word without adding
quotation marks) and “libertarians” became the yes-men for Ukrainian nationalism
before it was “cool” to do so. That is, long before the “Euromaidan”.
It is not surprising that today, the liberal lefts do not want to notice the
thousands of wounded and murdered civilians in the south-east. After all, it
would be terrible to lose the financial backing of European funders and disrupt
their habit of not threatening those in power, for example by organising a
peaceful anti-war protest in the capital for the mere purpose of stopping the
killing of some sovky in the south-east. They are scared
by the possibility of being beaten by the rightwing, or face hysterical
criticism in their office, or become outcasts in their favourite hipster
hangouts. They fear being branded “agents of the FSB” ever since the Ukrainian
bourgeois regime began to label anti-war protests as Kremlin-financed
provocations.
It is much easier to get a grant for a round table discussion about the “threat
of war”. “Have you heard? We have a war! Shall we get some funding from European
sponsors so we can talk about it at a conference?” Meanwhile, every second
bus of refugees fleeing Lugansk (if not every bus) comes under attack from the
Ukrainian army and right-wing militias at roadblocks and Kyiv “libertarians”
collect money for weapons and body armour for the National Guard.
Worse, a number of so-called
anarchists are openly fighting on the side of executioners in the Azov and
Donbass battalions, under the command of Nazis who publicly boast they are
taught by Swedish racists who brag of murdering Ukrainians.
Isn’t that a crime? Do posts in
personal blogs about the killing of innocent civilians — women, children,
elderly people and workers — and calls to end the war really mean support for
Putin or separatism? In recent months, none of my “left” liberal friends who
brought food for the far-right fighters at Maidan and commemorated the “Heavenly
Hundred”[5], have offered a word or even a hint of condemnation of the
actions of the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian right-wing militants nor sympathy
for their victims.
One of the most popular excuses for
war crimes is to blame the people of the Donbas region: “It’s their fault —
they haven’t kicked the bandits out of Donbas and they provoked the war with
their referendum!”[6]
How is a “leftist” writing such
stuff any different from the average nationalist fanatic? Let’s be honest — he
or she is in no way different.
The vilest thing about the sentimental
swamp of left liberalism is its attitude to the Ukrainian political prisoners
and refugees, among whom are many of our comrades. Thousands of unjustly (and
even randomly) arrested people receive no support from grant-receiving, liberal
“human rights” defenders. The principle of the Maidan activists: “Everything … for
our people only; for the rest … punishment by law!” People who justify again
and again massacres, kidnappings and beatings committed again and again by the
supporters of the regime then try to blame their failings on those with
different ideological positions and who are engaged in the struggle against
war. If this is anarchism, then what is fascism?
Now I’m at home, in Donbas. Every day, and sometimes all night, we have
shooting and shelling. Throughout the city there are men with guns. But for the
moment, I feel more or less at peace, for the first time in many months of hard
and heavy work. For the first time since the destruction of Borotba’s office in
Kyiv; since the mass arrests of ordinary people in Kharkiv (many of whom had
become my friends); since the attacks on my friends, persecution by police and
intelligence services and the attempted kidnapping of my comrade and boyfriend
that happened in broad daylight in the center of Kharkiv in May.
We get solidarity from a vast number of people — partisans of peace, who are
often apolitical, in Ukraine and different countries around the world. But to
support the opposition to the current regime in Kyiv is too courageous an act
for a left liberal. None of them commented on the murder of a member of the
Communist Party, Vyacheslav Kovshun, perpetrated by neo-Nazis. Probably because
he was not a human being for them, just a member of the “wrong bourgeois
Communist Party”, while the Nazis who killed him were “progressive” Maidan
activists. None of them said a word about the abduction of another comrade, a
communist from Volnovakha, or about the murder of Mariupol journalist Sergey
Dolgov. And likewise, they were silent about the assassinations of the
opponents to the right regime in Kharkov, Odessa and in the Donbas.
I had hoped that the “left” would take part in anti-war protests by supporting
the wives and mothers in western Ukraine protesting against the forced
conscription of their husbands and children. But what can you expect from those
who do not have the heart to be called a communist, leave alone act as such?
From those who consider themselves “leftists” but are amorphous, not aspiring
to the responsibility and consciousness of a liberal and who
obediently serve the interests of the Nazis and the oligarchs?
Now my hopes lie with humane and honest people. And I know there are many out
there.
The events of recent days, the protests of mothers and wives of Ukrainian
soldiers against conscription or the war, have shown that the Ukrainian workers
do not need a glamorous leftist fringe. Ukrainian workers need bold and
ideological communists, who will greet the word “leftist” with a kind of
contemptuous sneer. The workers need people who are not afraid of the working
class and are ready to organise and educate; who don’t ask: “Oh, how shall I
start a conversation with workers so they don’t tell me to go away?” They need
people who consider a worker a human being and are not befouled by oligarch
propaganda against “quilted jackets”.[7]
I know these people. Their numbers
are growing. The future belongs to them. It is these people who will make
Ukraine free and socialist.
[Svetlana Tsiberganova is a member of the left-wing political association in Ukraine
called Borotba. She is a native of Donetsk and was a student and resident in Kyiv
until recently.]
Notes
[1]
The latter refers to the excuses of Kyiv supporters for the torching of the
trade union building in Odessa on May 2, 2014, that killed more than 40 anti-fascist
protesters.
[2]
A verse from the popular mobilisation song during WWII calling on the people of
Ukraine to fight against fascism.
[3]
A pejorative term by modern-day liberals for people who have positive recollections
of the former Soviet Union. The literal translation is “’shovel”.
[4]
A derogatory term for people who wear the St. George ribbon, which is a symbol
of the victory of the Soviet Union over fascism during WWII. The colour of the
ribbon is orange with black stripes.
[5]
This refers to the rightist protesters who died fighting in Maidan Square in
January/February 2014. A “Hundred” is a Ukrainian Cossack term for
battalion.
[6] Donbas is the region in south-east Ukraine that includes the oblasts
(provinces) of Donetsk and Luhansk. The people there voted in plebiscites in
May for political autonomy from the central government in Kyiv.
[7] A derogatory term for Soviet soldiers in WWII,
who often wore quilted jackets fo