Essay:Western Marxists must stand against Ukraine

This essay will explore the nature of the Ukrainian state and the failures of western Marxists to address it accurately.

A brief history of the modern Ukrainian state

In the wake of the collapse of the USSR, of which Ukraine was a constituent, many far-right governments arose in the various newly established eastern European states, among these most importantly for our purposes are Russia and Ukraine. Originally in Russia the presidency was taken over by one Boris Yeltsin, a counterrevolutionary and Neo-liberal anti-communist who led the catastrophic liberalization of Russia, destroying the industries, ruining thousands of lives and leaving upwards of 13% of the Russian population and 22% of 18-25 year olds unemployed while dropping real wages by 50% This obviously unpopular presidency was followed up by Putin, who successfully revitalized the Russian economy, inheriting an unemployment rate of 10% he lowered it to closer to 6%, while the real wages soared by upwards of a 200% increase from the Yeltsin presidency, not only that, but he stabilized real wages, no longer massive shifts in the value of the ruble, but a relatively stable index of 93-120. Looking over to Ukraine we see a different type of trend, originally the secession was lead by Leonid Kuchma and Leonid Kravchuk, who immediately began mass neoliberalisation, decreasing life expectancy by 3 years and increasing poverty rates to 63% of the country, obviously in wake of all this the communist party won the first elections in the new Ukraine, but, just as obviously, the two Leonids did not allow them to ascend to government with the help of NATO and Boris Yeltsin, Kuchma proposed massive constitutional reform and threatened to dissolve parliament if the Communist Party did not agree, later going on to rig the 1999 election to stay in power, he convinced factions of the CPU to split in order to weaken the communist movement. However, the two Leonids presidency would not remain much longer, as soon one Viktor Yuschenko and his far-right coalition would go on to win the 2002 elections, as a US backed candidate he wanted to join NATO to submit Ukraine to the imperialist bloc, he and his coalition narrowly lost the 2004 election to the anti-American candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Soon however protests backed by oligarchs Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko broke out against Yanukovych, with John McCain, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinski visiting Kiev to declare their support for the unrest, ultimately ending with a Ukrainian Constitutional Court ruling in favour of a reelection, wherein Yuschenko won. During the 2008 financial crisis, Yuschenko's mismanagement would ultimately catch up to him as Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine, Unemployment trippled and many banks failed, causing Yuschenko's support to drop to 4%, ending in Yanukovych's victory in the 2010, Yanukovych aimed to normalise relations with Russia and cut ties to the IMF, eventually leading to his rejection of IMF demands to raise taxes and cut social spending, which would have caused hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs. This triggered the US government to fund a coup of the Ukrainian government, known widely in western circles as the "Maidan revolution" or "Euromaidan" the 2014 coup of the Ukrainian government established far-right oligarch Oleksandr Turchynov as the acting president of Ukraine until a different far right Oligarch, Petro Poroshenko (yes that one from earlier!!) took power in the snap elections.

The coup and it's connection to Nazis

The 2014 coup of the Ukrainian government had undeniable and direct links to Neo-Nazis. Being partially formed of and led by the Nazi groups of Svoboda, Right-Sector, UNA-UNSO, Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and Misanthropic division, all of which instigated violence, until eventually the coup went through.

The effects of the Coup were a banning of all communist symbols, including a 5 year prison sentence for singing the anthem of the USSR, a repealing of the language autonomy law and a strengthening of various Nazi groupings which lead to an active terror campaign in the Russian-majority areas of Crimea and the Donbass, with Crimea voting to rejoin the Russian federation in 2014, cutting off the bridge connecting it to Ukraine and calling upon 1990s agreements with Russia to host military support in anticipation of Neo-Nazi attacks. The Donbass however, had no such luxury and instead a separatist movement would take hold, igniting a civil war which would last until the 2022 Russian invasion.

Later the Ukrainian government under Zelensky would see a revision of the image of Stepan Bandera, a WW2 Nazi collaborator responsible for the deaths of 2 million Jews, naming multiple streets after him and declaring him a national hero. That's like if the German Government renamed a bunch of streets to "Göbbels" and declared him a national Hero, while claiming to be defending against the hordes Polish Nazis of course.

Our goal in the west

We in the west, who live in countries which actively support this fascist-loving, history-revising imperialist lapdog state, which has called itself the "Israel of the west" must stand against the further imperialist proxy-profiteering of our governments, who seek from this to make profits from selling weapons to Ukraine, extending the war, and weakening Russia, who is their adversary.

We must extend a critical support to Russia, who despite her flaws, is a country against Imperialism, one interested in a multi-polar world order which is our best chance to future victories.