Eastern Europe was not the first continent that broke with Stalinism. In fact China had started to embrace capitalism as early as 1978. It was the Chinese ’’Communist’’ Party that first started with Special Economic Zones, long before Mikhail Gorbachev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union (CPSU). The Chinese and many sectarian Stalinists had attacked the USSR for abandoning classic Stalinism after 1956. Now those sectarian Maoists were the first who embraced capitalism. The Vietnamese and Laotians followed with Doi Moi in 1986 and finally Eastern Europe under Soviet leadership slowly started to embraced the market dictatorship. Despite the promise of improvements, capitalism did not help working class people.
Stalinism as a failed political and economic model
From 1945 until 1990, Eastern Europe was ruled by communist parties, installed by Moscow as its puppets. These communist parties all followed the classic Stalinist system that Stalin had set up in the Soviet-Union around 1927. It was build on a single party state and the complete nationalization of all means of production. According to the Stalinists and their supporters, socialism was build and soon the communist society would set in. Revolutionary socialists from the Trotskyist tradition rejected this falsehood as we knew that a Stalinist society is build on top down centralism, bureaucratic planning and no democratic input from workers.
Yet even Trotskyists were surprised by the quick collapse of the Stalinist model between 1989 and 1991. The Stalinist communists always said that we were ’’ counter-revolutionaries’’ and that we stood for the ’’restoration of capitalism’’. In the end, it turned out that the Stalinists were the ones who embraced capitalism and abandoned their Marxist-Leninist facade. Not only the Eastern Europeans and the Soviet leadership moved towards the market economy, China and Asian Stalinists too choose the market over planning. The capitalists of the world proclaimed victory and called for the end of state ownership.
Stalinists introduce capitalism
Contrast to popular believe, the people who introduced the free market were the same ones who had praised Marx and Lenin just years before. It was the communist party bureaucracy in each Stalinist state that choose to privatise the economy. The first one was Poland, there the Polish United Workers Party lost power to the political party; Solidarity set up by Lech Wałęsa. Although the trade union Solidarity started as a socialist one, it’s political formation was divided and lacked a clear ideology. Lech Wałęsa managed to privatise the economy, but it cost him everything. Workers felt betrayed because they were told that capitalism would bring them wealth. Instead it only brought wealth to those who owned the privatised state enterprises.
Many blamed Mikhail Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet-Union. But the people who broke up the union were the members of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The Communist Party of the Soviet-Union was banned, but its members simply switched side and colours. Under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin they privatised the economy and ran off with the profits made by workers. Like Lech Wałęsa, Boris Yeltsin was hated and rejected by the late 1990’s. In Hungary and Bulgaria, the Stalinists simply renamed themselves into social-democrats and remained a force of power.
Elders praise the Stalinist period
Elderly people in former Stalinist countries, openly praise the time when there was no capitalism. Despite its limits and undemocratic nature, Stalinism provide workers with a (very) small glip of what is possible if the economy is under collective control. Yes, the propagandists of the ruling class will always use the ineffective planning methods and the abuses, but ordinary people who lived in those days also remember a time when life was not based on profiteering. Today elders suffer from low pensions and crumbling infrastructures as the capitalist state has all but abandoned them and their towns.
In Eastern Europe, Russia and former Soviet republics, the capitalist rulers care little for those who are old and of no use for the system. The You-Tube channel: Bold and Bankrupt by Benjamin Rich, shows how the people of the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe live today. Unlike western documentaries and history shows, his channel is a window into the world of ordinary workers, who experienced a decline of life under capitalism. Since Benjamin Rich speaks Russian, he can communicate with many people who were educated in Russian, even if he is not in Russia itself.
Poverty and disillusion due to capitalist restoration
What Benjamin Rich shows is that most older working class people, have entered poverty and disillusion. They had worked under the Stalinist system and many had high hopes for capitalism when it was introduced between 1989 and 1991. However most of them realised that the system was only serving those who had money. Capitalism ignores you if you don’t have capital and this is the iron rule in all countries, even in the western world. To please the new ruling class, few money is spend on pensioners and infrastructures. You can see this in the videos of Benjamin Rich as he visits countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. These nations have a lof of elder poverty and abandoned infrastructure, that used to be be part of ”socialist” life under Stalinism.
Because of the economic hardships after 1991, elders tend to idolize the Stalinist period. For them, life was better in a time when the state told them what to do. Under capitalism they must save themselves and none were educated to do that. Young people know how to work under capitalism, but low incomes forces them to leave the rural parts or whole countries as is the case in the Baltic nations. Although Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia look modern on the outside, many young workers do not wish to live in their birth nations. This is also the case in Hungary, were many younger workers hate the right-wing regime of Viktor Orban.
Democratic socialism, not social democracy is needed
The Stalinists embraced social-democracy in theory after 1991. But even classic social-democracy with its welfare system would no longer be tolerated by capitalists today. If a country would enforce classic social-democracy, the capitalist class would start to disinvest and close companies. Capital flight and mass lay-offs would force any government to capitulate as we saw with François Mitterrand. Until the late 1970’s, the capitalists feared a potential workers revolution, this is why they compromised with social-democracy. But now that the ”socialist” danger is gone, the ruling class has no reason to compromise and they went full on the offensive in the 1990’s, demanding austerity and deregulation.
Social-democrats have also been tainted with neoliberalism as most European social-democrats govern no different then liberals or conservatives. There is little or no difference between a social-democratic government or a liberal government. Social-democracy has become just another capitalist tool in the political game of the ruling class, they sell to us workers. This is why we call for democratic socialism from below.
The imperialists in Moscow have finally dropped their last facade in their war with Ukraine. From 24 February 2022 until March 2024, they claimed that Russia was only conducting an ”special military operation” in Ukraine. Anybody who talked about a war with Ukraine was censured and could face detention. However now the representatives of the Kremlin themselves are talking about a actual war with Ukraine, ending the facade of a ”special military operation”.
The situation as of March 2024
Vladimir Putin seems to have accepted reality, that Russia is at war with Ukraine. Until now the Russian propaganda was not allowed to use the word; ”war”, because the Kremlin did not wanted its people to know that they were fighting in Ukraine. However after 150.000 death soldiers they could not longer keep that facade alive. Russian men were dying and not in small numbers. Russia has lost more soldiers in the war with Ukraine, then with their war in Afghanistan (1979-1988). Ukraine has kept the imperialists from taking more land, but despite massive NATO support is unable to take back what Russia captured in early 2022.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised his people, that Ukraine would recapture all lost territories, including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. However as of March 2024, Ukraine seems unable to mount a offensive against the Russian imperialists. Mainly this because they are out of ammunition and despite promises of support, the western world is unable to provide. The western stockpiles are depleted, which leaves Ukraine unable to mount a effective attack. Meanwhile the Russians just have to wait until their North Korean factories have produced enough guns for a counter attack.
Can Russia win the war?
The Russian ”Empire” has the means to win the conflict. Their army is bigger and they have a better military industrial complex compared to Ukraine. Kyiv was forced to build up a defence industry out of nothing. There remains deep systemic corruption and abuses inside the Ukrainian economy. Capitalist privatisation and deregulation have only increased corruption as capitalists are free to exploit anything they get their hands on. This corruption is the result of a society dominated by greed capitalists (oligarchs) who are the actual rulers of Ukraine. The Ukrainian state has been reduced to a weak hulk before the invasion and was therefore unprepared for the attack.
Putin’s empire may have the better means to win, but they too are plagued with corruption and mismanagement. As with Ukraine, Russia embraced free market fundamentalism in the 1990’s. Despite the restoration of the Kremlin as the all powerful central government, the army remained ineffective. Russian soldiers are mostly made up of conscripts who are forced to fight. In the 2022 invasion, soldiers who made up the invasion force came from the poorer rural parts of Russia, not from the rich cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
Ukraine has the luck that Russia has an ineffective army, build on mistrust between soldiers and officers. The fact that Russia lost 150.000 soldiers and over 2.000 tanks and armed vehicles, shows us that between reality on the battlefield and parades on Red Square is a huge difference. The biggest fear of the Kremlin is a popular revolt like the revolution of February and November 1917. Because ordinary Russians do not wish to fight and with more death husbands, sons, uncles and friends, the reality of a brutal imperialist war caused by the Kremlin is now becoming more clear.
Ukraine and the workers movement
Early 2022, many men were willing to take up arms. But these men are either death or wounded. The group that is now fighting is losing moral due to the fact that Ukraine is not winning. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying each week that Ukraine will win, but soldiers understand that this is propaganda talking. The 2023 summer offensive failed, they could not breach the Russian defence lines. With this reality sinking in, recruitment becomes more difficult as men do not wish to join the Ukrainian Army. Although hope for a military victory remain, the Ukrainians start to understand that this war could be long and difficult for them.
Because of the war, the workers movement in both Russia and Ukraine is fully subjugated to the pro-capitalist leadership in Kyiv and Moscow. In Russia, the imperialists have silenced any opposition and Kyiv has presented itself as the leader of the resistance against Russian imperialism. However if the workers movement remains passive, then their suffering will only remain. This is why revolutionary socialists call for the formation of a revolutionary political alternative, to the governments of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Independent trade unions will have to be set up in opposition to the state controlled unions in both nations. Some small strikes have occurred in Ukraine, this shows us that there is the will to fight the injustice caused by the capitalist system. This is why International Socialist Alternative (ISA) believes it is important to develop a strong, organised and politically conscious working class movement in Ukraine, that can take control of the situation.
Is there a way out for the working class?
It remains important for socialists in Russia to build the anti-war movement. This is indeed difficult as the Kremlin does not tolerant opposition to their imperialist war. We say that opposition to the war must be linked to opposing and overthrowing the Putin regime and the capitalist system he supports. Putin fear a workers uprising, because his government is not that strong. If the Russian army is unable to conquer Ukraine, it will sure not be able to defend the Kremlin from a massive workers and peasants uprising on the scale of 1917.
We show solidarity with the Ukrainian working class, but not in a way to strengthen western imperialism or the nationalist government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Unlike some leftists we do not side with the idea that Ukraine must be armed by NATO. International Socialist Alternative stands for real links with workers’ organisations in Ukraine as they fight the labour laws, wage cuts and privatisation and to assist them directly with real material and humanitarian aid, helping the Ukrainian working class to create their own alternative organisations, independent of capitalist politicians like Zelenskyy.
In late February 2024, it will be two years after the Russians started their imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Despite that the whole western world supplied Ukraine with weapons, the reality is now clear that the former Soviet republic is not in a position to start an offensive against the Empire of Vladimir Putin. The Russian imperialists have dug themselves in and the summer attack of Ukraine failed to capture the occupied southern parts. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Ukrainians that their nation would win with NATO support, that is still the propaganda coming from Kyiv. Reality is that after two years the war has entered a stalemate, with Ukraine not able to recapture what it lost to Russian imperialism.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy losing military support?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the Ukrainian president since 2019. A pro-western leader and a populist, he failed to change Ukraine for working class people after winning the elections. It is much easier to play a president in a television series, then to be one in real life. Zelenskyy is a typical capitalist president, serving then needs of the deeply corrupt Ukrainian oligarchy. This is why in early 2022, he only had an approval rating of 30%. It is very possible he would have lost an election to a pro-Russian conservative candidate.
However then came 24 February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It boosted the popularity of Zelenskyy, who dropped the typical capitalist business suit and embraced a military outfit, which all Ukrainian ministers now use. He rallied the country to stand behind a government and state, which never cared for democratic rights. The Ukrainian state has always worked for a small capitalist minority as is any government or state on this planet. Ukraine did turn more western after 2014, but on the whole scale deep inequality remains with poverty around 24,1% of the population in 2022, just before the invasion.
The Ukrainian military had improved since 2014. They dumped their Soviet style uniforms and mentality. This maybe the only reason why the country was not overrun in 2022. Their use of western military methods turned out to be a save line as Russia’s military is still based on the mentality of the old Stalinist USSR, with deep mistrust between officers and conscript soldiers. Ukraine was able to hold on and their post-2014 military reforms did help them. It also motivated soldiers to take independent actions as opposed to Russian soldiers, who do not act unless direct orders are given from the top down.
Two years after the invasion, the Ukrainian military is becoming more critical of Zelenskyy. Valerii Zaluzhnyi is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since July 2021. He has stated that Zelenskyy is painting a too positive picture of the war and the chances of victory for Ukraine. Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi are said to be in conflict and it is very possible that Kyiv will replace Zaluzhnyi. Should Zelenskyy indeed choose to sack the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, it will weaken his position. Ukrainians will know that the government is taking action against those military officials who dare to challenge the line that Ukraine is winning the war.
Ukraine cannot win
Despite what the Ukrainian propaganda may claim, the country cannot win this war. Reality is that their old Soviet military stockpile is depleted. They now rely fully on western military support from NATO and EU countries. Russia has around 300.000 occupation troops in Ukraine and although 800.000 Ukrainian men are mobilised, these men are conscripts and not fully trained. Meanwhile the imperialists from Moscow had the time to dig in and to build their defences in the occupied eastern parts. North Korea has agreed on becoming the ammunition supplier of Russia, which gives the Kremlin more space to build tanks and other high tech materials while Kim Jong Un builds the bullets.
The imperialists also have learned to use low tech weapons like drones. Early in the conflict it was Ukraine who was able to win battles due to the use of drones. But Moscow has learned and now drones are used by the imperialists as well, with western technology inside them. This shows us that the economic sanctions against the Russian ”Empire” have failed. Moscow is still getting its hands on western technology by using different routes, mainly from Central Asia and China.
NATO is now arming Ukraine, but cannot do this forever as billions are required for which western tax payers must pay. Western governments have just agreed for another round of billions in military support for Ukraine. Revolutionary socialists oppose this, not because we want Russia to win but because we know that under the current capitalist system, no victory is possible. What is needed is a revolution, a genuine socialist revolution in both Kyiv and Moscow. Because with right-wing nationalism, no victory for possible for either side. Workers have already been sacrificed and should not die for either the imperialist needs of NATO or Russia.
Western style capitalism is not the alternative in Ukraine
It is understandable that Ukrainians stand with NATO and the western world. They think that the western world stand for democracy, freedom and human rights. This is what the nine conglomerates keep spreading on their news networks. Nine capitalist media conglomerates control what 90% of western people see on television. Their names: CBS Corporation, Disney, Vivendi SA, Viacom, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, General Electric and Bertelsmann. These nine media conglomerates make sure that no media outlet turns against the dogma’s of western imperialism.
Many in Europe and the USA think that supporting Ukraine with guns will help them defeat Russia. What we then ask is, why no weapons are given to the people of Myanmar, why the people of Afghanistan and Iraq were not armed to fight the American imperialists? Why were no guns delieverd to the Kurds, when they fought Islamic State in Syria and Iraq? Because western guns and money are only given when you submit your group/country to the wishes of western imperialism. Defeating Russia is part of the new Cold War between western imperialism and eastern imperialism. China is the leader of eastern imperialism with the USA as the leader of western imperialism.
Ukraine is right in the middle of this new Cold War. For them the struggle against Russian imperialism is seen as a fight for national liberation, but they cannot win by siding with the western imperialist camp. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine would win since February 2022. Due to mistakes and corruption of the Russian Armed Forces, Ukraine did win back some occupied parts. But now there is a stalemate and Zelenskyy’s propaganda is facing the stone wall of battlefield reality. Ukrainians will realise that their country is not winning, despite the massive use of western weaponry.
For Ukrainian workers the only way out of poverty and occupation is through revolutionary socialism, not by siding with Volodymyr Zelenskyy or the western imperialist camp. The western world never cared for Ukraine, until president Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019) started to say things the western world liked and the eastern world opposed. Poroshenko, a member of the Ukrainian oligarchy, was loved (by the establishment) for his pro-western views, yet ordinary Ukrainians gained nothing with him. He was a capitalist president, working for the ruling class. This is why the population voted for the actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Poroshenko only got 24% of the votes.
Lies and propaganda
Revolutionary socialists say that there cannot be any trust in the Ukrainian capitalist establishment. Despite their nationalist propaganda and claims of victory, they will not win this war. Russia has not even mobilised its full army. Putin still calls his invasion a ”Special Military Operation”. This is done to hide the fact that over 120.000 Russian soldiers have died since February 2022, Ukraine lost around 70.000 soldiers. It remains difficult to say how many died as both sides are not telling you the real numbers. Both claim they have killed a lot of enemy troops while diminishing their own loses.
Russia can keep the stalemate going. Vladimir Putin is selling cheap crude oil to China and Asia, making huge profits. Also by using total control over the media, Russians are kept in the dark about the many young men that are death. Families of death soldiers are not allowed to report on the death of their sons, so the public does not know that more men have died in this war, then in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The reactionary Russian media claims that they are fighting the ”inferior LGBT+ culture” of the western world. Ukraine is called an ”Gay Nazi State” and Russia; the ”beacon of tradtional family culture”.
For workers from both countries, revolution is the only perspective out of war and poverty. This means that they need to brake with capitalism and build a socialist alternative. For this, revolutionary workers parties are needed that can lead the masses into revolution. The biggest problem is that the established left-wing is not revolutionary. Social democracy betrayed workers and Stalinism has joined the Russian camp as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proofs. The left-wing is not revolutionary, which is the biggest handicap for the workers movement.
In Ukraine, there is not even an established left-wing or any party that can be called centre-leftist. The political spectrum in the country has always been either pro-western (liberal) or pro-Russian (conservative). In reality, the left-wing has been demonised by the media of the Ukrainian state and oligarchy, by comparing Marxism to Stalinism. The fact that the Communist Party of Ukraine (banned in 2015) had a pro-Russian line, strengthen this perspective. A whole generation of Ukrainians is raised with lies about socialism as the only alternative out of the injustice that capitalism created.
Socialism means democratic control from below. Stalinism and social-democracy have nothing in common with that idea. Stalinist communists in Ukraine fully supported the two stage theory, this why they sided with pro-Kremlin conservatives. The Communist Party of Ukraine even joined capitalist Ukrainian governments in 1994 and 2006. Another reality remains that political parties in Ukraine are often vehicles for charismatic individuals with money, they do not function as typical political parties in western countries with an left or right ideology.
Finally, the Ukrainian workers movement at this stage is fully siding with the Kyiv government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is the same government that is attacking workers by demanding longer work hours and lower pay. Zelenskyy did not vetoed bills that now can result in arbitrary dismissals, overtime work on spurious grounds, ignoring collective agreements in terms of wage payment. This show us that the pro-NATO government is not a government of the working class, but just another corrupt pro-capitalist regime. Workers will need to brake with Zelenskyy and the whole rotten establishment.
Against nationalism and imperialism
Ukraine and Russia are in a propaganda war. Although most western people know that Russia is misleading its own people, Ukraine is playing the same card. We are never told about the massive deaths of Ukrainian troops. We do not see destroyed Ukrainian tanks and killed soldiers. Ukraine has shown us enough pictures of destroyed Russian tanks, ships and guns. But at the same time we must not forget that over 70.000 Ukrainian soldiers are death and the summer offensive in 2023 failed. No pictures of this failed offensive are shown and since Russian media outlets are banned in the western world, we do not see what is filmed on the Russian side.
Nationalism is a powerful weapon and both sides use it. Russia and Ukraine are playing with nationalist icons and demonising their opponents. Russia plays on the Great Patriotic War, the use of Soviet symbolism and Tsarist claims about southern Ukraine. Kyiv is playing on anti-communist nationalism by claiming that Russia wishes to restore the ”Communist Empire”. Ukraine is also using far-right symbols and icons such as the fascist red-black flag of the Ukrainian Insurrection Army of Stepan Bandera. This far-right killer of 200.000 Jews and Polish workers is hailed as a hero by the Ukrainian state.
In this war, far-right nationalism is tolerated and actively used. Russian fascists and nationalists mix symbols of Tzarist Russia and Stalinist Russia into one toxic mixture. Nowhere is this perfectly shown as in the grotesque Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces. Build in 2020, this Christian orthodox cathedral has icons of Stalinism, Tzarism and Orthodoxy mixed together. The cathedral glorifies the Russian army and its battles. Strangely only the Red Army of 1941-1945 is shown as Russian, not the original Red Army from 1917-1922, which fought against all what this cathedral and the Kremlin stand for!
Revolutionary socialists fully reject the abuse of Soviet symbols by the Kremlin and the Russian ”Empire”. We also call out the rehabilitation of the Ukrainian fascists and their symbols by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The fascist red-black flag is not something to be proud of. Yet the Ukrainian Armed Forces use it as if the Ukrainian Insurrection Army was fighting for a free democratic Ukraine during WW2, when it allied itself to Nazi Germany. Bandera wanted a fascist Ukraine with no room for Jews, leftists, Russians or anything not ethnic Ukrainian. This is why his far-right thugs killed 200.000 and actively supported the Nazi’s as members of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police of the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine.
The war in eastern Ukraine cannot be solved on the bases of nationalism. This is why we say that only a socialist revolution has the potential to end the conflict. Revolutionary socialists know that we are a minority, marginalised in Ukraine and oppressed in Russia. Yet our alternatives will proof to be the only way forward as more years will past and the nationalist rhetoric proof fruitless, in winning the war. The workers movement in both countries will have to be organised and willing to fight for a socialist alternative, that free’s them from the injustice of war, exploitation and opression, which are part of the daily lives of working class people.
Рабочие Украины и России, вам нечего терять, кроме своих цепей, вам есть что завоевать!
Трудящі України і Росії, вам нема чого втрачати, крім їхніх ланцюгів, ви маєте завоювати світ!
It is the biggest dream of any right-wing conservative, banning the whole LGBT+ movement. The Russian ”Empire” just did that! The Russian courts have branded the whole Russian LGBT+ movement as ”extremist” and therefore banned. This is what many right-wingers in the western world would love to do too. Russia has now done it, banning LGBT+ people from expressing themselves. The empire of Vladimir Putin already banned none-hetrosexual material in schools.
Russia is a conservative dictatorship. A brutal right-wing regime build on LGBT+ hatred and rejection of basic human rights. This is what the political right in the western world loves, many right-winger were close to Vladimir Putin like George W. Bush. With the banning of the LGBT+ movement the Russian ”Empire” has returned to the anti-LGBT character of Tsarist and Stalinist periode. We revolutionary socialists knew this long before the imperial court of Putin declared none-heterosexuals ”extremists”. The Kremlin is supported by the reactionary Russian Orthodox Church, a close ally of Vladimir Putin!
The Russian Orthodox Church is an institution that works against workers and youth. We denounce it as an enemy due to their slave love for the Russian state and their rejection of socialism. Orthodox priests spread the poison of Russian nationalism and anti-LGBT+ hatred in churches. They tell the masses to praise the state and its supreme leader Vladimir Putin. Dogmatic loyalty to religion, the state and its criminal leaders shows us why Karl Marx called religion the opium of the people, used by the capitalist class to control the masses.
For many western conservatives and nationalists, Russia is a prime model. They love the reactionary and dictatorial nature of the Russian state and its rejection of ”liberal” values. It comes to no surprise that Putin is still supported by conservative figures. Because there is a massive assault on LGBT+ rights in the western world. Right-wing governments wish to limit LGBT+ rights and in some American states, conservatives are trying to ban anything related to it. The LGBT+ movement dares to challenge the dogma that heterosexuality is the norm and this is what right-wingers fear above all, the fact that not all humans are ”straight”.
Now that the Russian imperialist invasion has stagnated, Russia needs to build up internal enemies to justify the growing poverty. Outside the big cities, the infrastructure is already in a very bad condition. After the Soviet-Union collapsed, most Russian local governments received little to no funding as Boris Yeltsin sold off state assents to former communist party bureaucrats, who became the oligarchs of capitalist Russia. The big cities keep all the money, while 2/3 of Russia is poorly maintained with infrastructures not modernised since they were build in the 1970’s to 1980’s.
Vladimir Putin knows that as long as he keeps the big cities in line, his regime can keep doing what it does since 1999, stealing the wealth from the Russian working class. This is possible because there is no opposition. The liberal opposition failed and was eliminated after 2008. Russia does not have genuine opposition parties as all political parties must support the line of the Kremlin. This is a common way of creating a democratic facade, Alexander Lukashenko also build up his presidential dictatorship on a facade of democracy.
What Russia (and all other countries) lacks is a genuine workers party on a socialist program. The small left-wing of Russia remains weak and sectarian. It is split between Stalinist supporters of the old USSR, anarchists and some Trotskyist groups with no real connection to the working class. Working in Russia today as a revolutionary socialist is very difficult. Between 1991 and 2014 it was possible, but after the invasion of Crimea the Russian state grew more intolerant each year. After February 2022, all opposition to the Tzarist regime of Vladimir Putin was outlawed.
As it was in the old Russian Empire, the revolutionary left-wing will need to work underground. This means that activists will have to be very careful as the FSB (successor to the KGB) is everywhere. Capitalist Russia is a paradise for those who favour an authoritarian government, with a deep hostility for liberals, LGBT+ people, socialists and anything that is not in line with the Kremlin bureaucracy. It comes to no surprise that Vladimir Putin has many right-wing supporters. Unfortunate the Kremlin is also supported by Stalinist communists in a false sense of anti-imperialism.
Stalinist communists have always rejected the LGBT+ movement. Stalin banned gay marriage in the 1930’s and returned to the conservative family traditions of the Russian Empire. Heterosexuality became the accepted gender norm of the Stalinist world. Even after the collapse of the Soviet-Union, many Stalinists remained hostile to the LGBT+ movement. Their social conservatism is the reason why communist parties in the former Soviet-Union have a deep rejection of the LGBT+ movement and call it ”bourgeois dirt”.
Revolutionary socialists oppose this rejection as we link the struggle for LGBT+ liberation with the socialist revolution. There cannot be true LGBT+ tolerance and acceptance inside the current capitalist system. We need socialism to build up a new society with full acceptance of all gender identifications. Capitalism is build on the dogma that heterosexuality is the gender standard. This is why we say that liberal LGBT+ groups fail to change anything. Woke-capitalism is also not the answer as capitalists do not care about true equality and gender acceptance.
We say that the LGBT+ movement needs to build a revolutionary socialist character in order to fight against capitalism and all dictatorships. We need a revolution in both the western world and the eastern world. We need to overthrow the capitalist dictatorships in order to end state oppression. This is why socialists fight with LGBT+ youth and workers, because their liberation can only come trough the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. We say this because the workers movement need to link up with the LGBT+ movement. Both are needed in the struggle against capitalist regimes and their intolerance.
”King Aliyev the Second” of the ”Kingdom of Azerbaijan” has inspected his conquered land. The ”king” inspected the former government buildings of the Republic of Artsakh, the name of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic that existed from 1991 until October this year. Although the separatist republic is to be dissolved on 1 January 2024, reality is that with the Armenian population gone the new rulers have raised their flag and simply took what was left.
Ilham Aliyev walked over the separatist Artsakh banner in a clear signal that Azerbaijan reconquered Nagorno-Karabakh. The separatist emblem has already been replaced by the state emblem of Azerbaijan on the government buildings in Stepanakert, now renamed Khankendi. Although ”King Aliyev the Second” said that the Armenian population can stay, the 120.000 people of Artsakh knew better then to trust the lies of a man, who is the head of a dictatorial monarchy. Azerbaijan is a kingdom, disguised as a democratic republic.
This is why the 120.000 people choose to flee after the Artsakh Defense Army surrendered. They knew that they would not be allowed to criticise nor oppose the regime in Baku. Azerbaijan is a brutal nationalist dictatorship that has poisoned generations since 1991, with anti-Armenian sentiment. The victory of ”King Aliyev the Second” was possible due to Turkish support and the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh was always recognised as part of Azerbaijan, even Armenia never accepted the government in Stepanakert.
The end of Armenian minority rule is a sad story. It is the final proof that capitalism has failed in the Caucasus. Nationalism led to ethnic wars and forced so many out of their homes. The Armenian minority are not the only ones. Georgians were forced out of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by separatist forces allied to Russia. Armenians themselves also forced many ethnic Azerbaijani’s out of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994. This shows us that ethnic nationalism is a poison that has caused so much suffering.
Socialism is the only alternative that can end ethnic cleansing and poverty. Ironically the early Soviet-Union was responsible for creating an autonomous oblast for the Armenian minority in Soviet Azerbaijan. But the Stalinist degeneration led to an increase in nationalist feeling. The first king of the Aliyev dynasty was in fact a Stalinist himself. Heydar Aliyev was the leader of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan from 1969 until 1982. He returned as a capitalist nationalist leader in 1994 and created a dynasty, by making sure his family would remain in power after he died.
In the ”Kingdom of Azerbaijan” you are always reminded of the deeds of ”King Aliyev the First”. His portrait is seen in many government buildings, despite that he died 20 years ago. Ilham Aliyev makes sure that the cult of his father remains, this not uncommon for family dynasties in the former Soviet-Union. Revolutionary socialists call on workers from both countries to reject nationalism and build societies free from capitalist exploitation. They need to reject the corruption and injustice that are part of their daily lives. Azerbaijan has used its oil wealth to modernise itself, but most wealth is centralised in the hands of a corrupt few around ”King Aliyev the Second”.
Armenia is more democratic then Azerbaijan, but even this former Soviet republic is plagued with corruption and inequality. What is needed is a workers party on a socialist program, that can lead the workers into a socialist revolution against the ruling class and those who support them. Nationalism has not resulted in social justice, it has divided the workers along ethnic lines, while capitalists enjoy the wealth workers create. This is why revolutionary socialists stand against ethnic nationalism and always take the side of the working class, who never benefit from wars caused by the poison of ethnic nationalism!
The end is coming for the separatist Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh. Soldiers of Azerbaijan forced the Artsakh Defence Army to surrender after attacking the unrecognised nation. Artsakh is the Armenian name of a republic set up in 1991, by Armenian separatists in what was the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijani Socialist Soviet Republic. The 35 year conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh could have been prevented with genuine socialism, unfortunate right-wing nationalism led to pogroms and racism.
Nagorno-Karabakh is the Azerbaijani name for a region covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. In 1867 it was made part of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire. With the collapse of the empire in 1917, ethnic nationalists from Armenia and Azerbaijan started a war over the region. During the two year war between nationalist Armenia and nationalist Azerbaijan neither side was able to win. The war weakened the capitalist rulers and as the Red Army of Soviet Russia moved in on the Caucasus, they were welcomed by workers from both sides.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh was settled with the building of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in 1923. But the degeneration of the Soviet revolution and the rise of Stalinism led to growing nationalist tendencies inside the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. Since Nagorno-Karabakh was part of the Azerbaijani Socialist Soviet Republic, its Armenian leaders were part of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. By 1969, Heydar Aliyev was first secretary of the party and he started to push against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Stalinism claimed on the outside that they were anti-nationalist. In reality, many Soviet republics allowed for some national pride as long as the local Stalinist bureaucracy remained loyal to Moscow. Heydar Aliyev was a good friend of Leonid Brezhnev and was allowed to join the politburo of the CPSU by 1982. Aliyev was removed from his elitist position as First Deputy Premier and from the Politburo by Gorbachev in 1987. He returned to the Azerbaijani Socialist Soviet Republic and dropped his Marxist-Leninist facade for Azerbaijani nationalism.
Meanwhile the Communist Party of Azerbaijan got competition in the form of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. Both the Stalinist party and nationalist party started to use ethnic nationalism to win supporters. The Armenian minority in the country started to suffer from far-right attacks as Azerbaijani nationalists realised that they could attack Armenians with no consequences. In January 1988, far-right thugs attacked the homes of Armenians in Sumgait. Over 100 were killed and many Armenian women were raped as the far-right had poison many with racism and ethnic hatred
The Azerbaijani Soviet government stood by and did nothing to stop the destruction and the killings. It can be assumed they did not intervene for the fear of losing support. The Soviet government also did not intervene in the Baku pogrom in January 1990, when Armenians in the capital city were dragged out of their homes and beaten to death by far-right Azerbaijani’s. The pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR against Armenians resulted in ethnic nationalism among the Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
Fear of the Azerbaijani nationalists resulted in massive support for Armenian separatists, who called for Nagorno-Karabakh to join with the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic. By 1990, the Soviet army was falling apart and nationalists on both sides were arming themselves for war. Nationalism and hatred fuelled the coming battle. The Armenian separatists played on the pogroms and declared that the Azerbaijani’s were a brutal people of ”Islamic killers”. Meanwhile the Stalinist communist party had adopted the colours of the old nationalist: Republic of Azerbaijan and embraced Azerbaijani nationalism.
They abolished the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh on 26 November 1991. By now the Soviet-Union could no longer intervene as Boris Yeltsin had taken control over the Russian government. Soviet president Gorbachev was powerless since the August coup and only president in name. Just days after the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was abolished and the red flag lowered, the army of the Republic of Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan had more tanks and 2.000 more troops then the Armenians.
However there was one major advantage for the Armenians. Inside the Soviet army, the Azerbaijani’s were massively discriminated by the (cultural Christian) Russians. Leading officers in the Armenian army had served long in the Soviet army as top leaders. The Azerbaijani leadership did not have such luxury. Their army was led by commanders who did not have high positions in the former Soviet Armed Forces. Azerbaijan started a war against an enemy with better military educational backgrounds.
The lack military experience was one factor that left Azerbaijan unprepared for the war. It was not able to capture Nagorno-Karabakh and lost approximately 9% of its territory outside the enclave. 11.000 young Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, while the Armenian side only lost 6.000 men. The defeat was a major embarrassment for the nationalists in Baku. It resulted in the return of ex-Stalinist Heydar Aliyev as President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1994. Aliyev build on the nationalist failure in the war to build his family dictatorship.
Internationally, the separatist republic was not recognised. However due to the defeat in 1994, Azerbaijan was not able recapture its lost territories until 2020. It needed 26 years and its oil to rebuild, before seeking revenge. Nagorno-Karabakh meanwhile remained poor and backward. Since it was only supported unofficial by Armenia, it could never develop what it conquered. The Armenian separatists had also purged their land of its Azerbaijani civilians, killing many innocents. 750.000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh as ethnic nationalism spread as a cancer across the Caucasus.
Heydar Aliyev died in 2003. He made sure that his son Ilham Aliyev became the next supreme autocrat of the Aliyev dynasty. The political vehicle for the family dictatorship is the New Azerbaijan Party, a nationalist party build by former Stalinist bureaucrats with support from the Azerbaijani KGB. Like Putin’s United Russia, the New Azerbaijan Party has won every elections since 1995. Since open criticism of the government and its leader is met with repression and arrests, the Aliyev dynasty can rule with ease!
It took Ilham Aliyev years to rebuild his country from the humiliated defeat of 1994. It was however never forgotten. The nationalist propaganda made sure that each generation was told that the Armenians were the evil and that they stole land of Azerbaijan. Partially this was correct as the Republic of Artsakh controlled lands that were also outside the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before the 2020 war, there were 150.932 people living in the separatist republic. Although they declared themselves an independent republic, they relied fully on Armenia for almost everything.
With oil profits and Turkish support, Ilham Aliyev build up his army for revenge. He also recruited Syrian soldiers from another family dynasty, that of Bashar Assad. The second Nagorno-Karabakh war started on 27 September 2020 and lasted for 1 month and 2 weeks. In that time the poorly armed Artsakh Defence Army and Armenian soldiers were overrun by superior trained and armed Azerbaijani troops who were guided by Turkish NATO commanders. Armenia was forced to retreat and the Republic of Artsakh (Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh) was left with only 3.170 kilometres of land.
Ilham Aliyev was hailed as a great victor by the nationalist media in Azerbaijan. He said that sooner or later, the whole region would be under his control again. The Republic of Artsakh was left with only one road linking them with Armenia, the Lachin corridor. From 10 November 2020 until 12 December 2022 the road was open and under Russian control. However Baku had made a new plan to subjugate the remaining parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. They illegally blocked the Lachin corridor under the false pretence of environmentalism.
This caused massive shortages in the Republic of Artsakh. Schools were closed, hospital could not operate and food was running out. This is how the kingdom of Aliyev prepared to weaken the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. After almost 10 months of isolation and starvation, the Azerbaijanis attacked the last remaining positions of the Artsakh Defence Army in September 2023. In less then 24 hours, they had captured 90% of the positions held by the Armenians. The leadership of Artsakh understood they had no chance of winning. They surrendered their arms and it is assumed that 120.000 Armenians will leave Nagorno-Karabakh.
Revolutionary socialists have always rejected the brutal nationalist wars in the former Soviet-Union. We stand against the nationalist Aliyev regime and call for a socialist Azerbaijan under control of its working class, with full democratic minority rights for the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku claims that all Armenians can remain under Azerbaijani law. Problem is that the Armenians know better then to trust Azerbaijani law. The kingdom of Aliyev is a nationalist dictatorship that does not believe in minority rights!
Armenia will be forced to settle 120.000 people and that will be a major problem. The country is much poorer then Azerbaijan and not prepared for so many refugees. Revolutionary socialists say that there is no future under capitalism. Azerbaijan can use the defeat of Artsakh for nationalist propaganda, but they cannot hide the reality. Capitalism has create a lot of inequality in the oil country too. The Aliyev family are thieves who enrich themselves with millions. Thanks to the selling of oil, poverty has been sharply reduced. But this makes the country also very dependent on oil as 81% of all exports are based on that black gold.
Socialism is the only solution for both countries. Azerbaijani nationalism has won over the Armenian separatists in the end, Nagorno-Karabakh is under the control of Baku. But in the long run, capitalism will only benefit a small class of owners and the circle around Ilham Aliyev. When the oil prices drop and the world has less need for crude oil, the first who will suffer is the working class. This is why a socialist alternative needs to be build up.
In the Republic of Armenia, workers cannot trust the pro-capitalist politicians. There is massive anger as the current government is unable to help the Republic of Artsakh. Jerevan could not intervene, otherwise Azerbaijan might have invaded Armenia too. Clear is also that Russia has not helped Artsakh. It seems that Vladimir Putin has worked with Ilham Aliyev against the Armenians, who now feel betrayed. For years they naively believed that Russia was on their side. Now they know that Russian imperialism has its own interests.
Nationalist Armenians want revenge, but there is little they can do. Armenia is poorer compared to Azerbaijan and its army would not last in battle. Even if a right-wing nationalist government is elected, it will soon realise that invading Azerbaijan is a suicide run. Also, the international community would turn on Armenia as they have always said that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Baku. What are our alternatives? We call for socialism and democratic rights for minorities. At the same time we also would have demanded that all imperialist troops (Russia) leave Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is not often that a whole nation ceases to exist. The Republic of Artsakh was home to almost 160.000 people from 1991 until 2020. It was not a big country, but it existed. 32 years of history, families, culture and traditions will soon be gone. But as we have seen before, many Armenians will not allow their homes to be captured intact. We saw that homes were burned in 2020, when Azerbaijan recaptured the lands they lost in 1994. It is possible that the capital of Stepanakert could also be put on fire when Azerbaijan moves in sooner or later.
Our positions on the conflict remain the same as in 2020:
Imperialist forces should be withdrawn from the region. But they will not just withdraw ”if asked”. They need to be forced to do so by a mass anti-war movement, uniting workers and youth from both Armenia and Azerbaijan
Decisions should be made by transparent negotiations conducted by the democratically elected representatives of the working people of the region.
Only by the democratic planning of the economy in the interests of the people can the homes and jobs needed for the mass of refugees in the region be provided
With the economy developing in a sustainable way freed from the inequality, corruption and authoritarian measures that result from capitalism, for the first time the people’s and nationalities of the Caucasus will be able to discuss, negotiate and decide democratically how the region is governed, in a federation of voluntary and democratic socialist states
This may, at the current time, appear to be an unachievable goal, but it is the only way to prevent future conflict, poverty and ecological disaster in the region. Those who agree with this aim need to organise, seek new supporters and start the task of building a revolutionary socialist party capable of leading the mass movement to overthrow the rule of capitalism in the region.
On 21 september 1993, the Russian constitutional crisis began. This led to the siege of the Russian White House and the end of parliamentary rule in Russia. It resulted in a centralised presidential system, which evolved into the nationalist dictatorship the Russian ”Empire” today is. The key player was Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who had become President of Soviet Russia in juli 1991. In the final year of the Soviet-Union, Yeltsin had abandoned Stalinism for brutal free-market fundamentalism. After the failed coup of the KGB and Stalinist hardliners, Yeltsin restored the flag of the Russian Empire and capitalism.
In 1989, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was created. Until October 1991, the majority of seats were under control of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union (CPSU), however none-partisan members made up a minority. In late 1991, the number of none-partisan members increased massively. A group of KGB and CPSU hardliners feared that the politics of Micheal Gorbachev would led to the destruction of the Soviet-Union. They decided to take power away from the President of the Soviet-Union.
Their State Committee on the State of Emergency lasted only four days as there was massive opposition from working class people. Although the KGB leadership supported the coup they failed to capture Boris Yeltsin, who barracked himself in-front of the Russian White House in Moscow and called on the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic to reject the coup. Many working class people in Moscow joined Yeltsin, who had build a reputation of a fighter against corruption in the capital. This is why he was popular with many as he had denounced the communist party openly.
After four days, the CPSU/KGB coup failed as the local Soviet army in Moscow joined Yeltsin and the Congres of People’s Deputies. After the members of the State Committee on the State of Emergency returned to Moscow after speaking to Gorbachev they were arrested. Boris Yeltsin finally had a momentum to ban the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union. This was done on 22 August 1991 as the tzarist flag was restored as state flag of Russia, ironically the name of the country remained RSFSR until 25 December 1991.
With the CPSU banned, the Stalinist monolith on absolute power collapsed. Its members were paralysed. Local Stalinist leaders who supported the coup all declared themselves nationalist overnight. Those who had hailed Marxism-Leninism (Stalinism) in early 1991, now all declared their loyalty to nationalism and capitalism. Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar started to privatise the Russian economy in January 1992. Their capitalist politics led to the rise of oligarchs, a group of super rich who were able to become the new capitalist class by buying state owned enterprises and taking all wealth for themselves.
However the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation soon got into conflict with Boris Yeltsin. They reminded him that his powers as president were limited as the early Russian Federation had a parliamentary system, not a presidential system. Yeltsin wanted to a president with almost unchecked powers like many post-Soviet presidents in Central Asia. However the Congress stood against him as his supporters were a minority. In fact the Congress was dominated by none-partisan members by March 1993. Many of them were not happy with the shock doctrine set out by Yegor Gaidar.
Boris Yeltsin decided that he needed to destroy parliamentary rule in Russia in order to build his presidential regime. On 21 September 1993, the President of the Russian Federation ordered the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation to be dissolved. He had no right to do that as Russia was still ruled by the modified 1978 Soviet constitution. The Congress of People’s Deputies decided to remove Yeltsin as president for abuse of his powers.
The crisis escalated as Boris Yeltsin mobilised the Russian Armed Forces against the Congress. Although the general staff was loyal to the neoliberal president, he was not liked by many working class soldiers. Yet, the National Salvation Front and the none-partisan members of the Congres did not recruit ordinary soldiers. They did not called for massive strikes and workers councils/soviets to overthrow the ruling class and capitalism. In fact they barricaded themselves in the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation (Russian White House) and called on people to join them.
Yeltsin was supported by the whole capitalist establishment. Pro-western liberals and federalists stood on the side of Boris Yeltsin as well as the whole western world. Bill Clinton fully supported the privatisation of the economy. Stalinists of the newly created Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) fully opposed Yeltsin, together with far-right nationalists and monarchists. These three factions made up the National Salvation Front in the Congress of People’s Deputies. Yeltsin had one major advantage, he could play on fearmonger. His camp claimed that the Congress of People’s Deputies would reinstall a dictatorship.
In fact it was the Yeltsin camp that was the dictatorial side in this crisis. Yes, revolutionary socialists criticised the National Salvation Front for its reactionary and Stalinist ideas. But the Congress of People’s Deputies was democratic elected in March 1990 and had the right to stand up to the undemocratic President of the Russian Federation. On 4 October, twelve tanks of the Russian army opened fire on the House of Soviets, the Russian White House. Over 30% of the building was burned and many supporters of the Congres were murdered by soldiers.
Officially around 147 were killed and 437 wounded. However some say that over 1.000 were killed by soldiers. After the Congress of People’s Deputies was destroyed and its members arrested by force, the Yeltsin government banned the National Salvation Front and all remnants of the old Soviet administration were to be dissolved. On 12 December 1993, elections were held for the State Duma, the new parliament of Russia. The turnout proofs the distrust many had for this new organ. While 70% vote for the 1990 Congress of People’s Deputies election, only 54.34% came and voted for the first State Duma election.
After restoring the old tsarist State Duma, Boris Yeltsin made the last cosmetic change by restoring the two headed eagle as the national emblem of Russia. Between december 1991 and december 1993, the old emblem of the RSFSR was used. By restoring the tsarist eagle, the old Russian Empire was back in all but name. ”Tsar” Boris Yeltsin never got a popularity boost. By late 1999 he was hated by so many, he choose to walk away from the presidency after a bribe scandal. He appointed the unknown Vladimir Putin as his successor.
Was there a alternative in September 1993. Yes and no, the working class could have rebelled against the Yeltsin government. But the Congress of People’s Deputies did not called for a general strike nor appealed to workers. They simply hide in their parliament building and waited for the army to shoot at them. Yes, calls were made to support the Congres, but no real revolutionary organisation stood behind them. The National Salvation Front was a top down coalition of the Stalinist CPRF, far-right nationalists and monarchists, it was only united in their opposition to Boris Yeltsin and neoliberalism.
Vladimir Putin gave Boris Yeltsin a lifetime immunity from prosecution. The first tsar of the Russian Federation died in 2007, many Russians did not mourn his death. His successor build up the dictatorship and was able to bind the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the nationalists to the side of the Kremlin. Today the Stalinist party is a loyal dog and no revolutionary alternative. It fully supports the imperialist invasion of Ukraine and is a supported of a state-capitalist economy.
For revolutionary socialists it is no possible to work in the open. Russia is now a nationalist dictatorship that does not tolerant criticism of the government. Despite the abuses, the Russian state is not as powerful as the Soviet one. It knows that it only has a minority of support among the working class. If a revolutionary workers party could be set up underground, then the base for a socialist revolution can be made. That is what Putin fears the most, another 1917. The current tsar may openly praise the Stalinist Soviet-Union, but he hates the socialist foundations.
This is why the flags of the House of Romanov, the Russian Empire and the Soviet-Union are now used by the Kremlin propaganda for great Russian chauvinism. It is also why revolutionary socialists should not use the hamer and sickle anymore. Yes, we know the true meaning behind the Soviet flag, but millions are told that it is ”Russian” and that stands today for imperialism, dictatorship and terror as we have seen in Ukraine. Our propaganda is too weak to counter the capitalist claims from both west and east, about the nature of the Soviet-Union and its symbols. For now we should therefore not use them!
Vladimir Putin, the imperialist invader of Ukraine and Russian tyrant, might just have murdered the leaders of the Wagner Private Military Company. Yevgeny Prigozhin was Putin’s cook and a powerful oligarch of the Russian ”Empire” because he owned restaurants and catering companies that provide services to the Kremlin. During Soviet times, Prigozhin was a thug who worked in criminal gangs. After the collapse of Stalinism, he entered the restaurant business and by 2002, Prigozhin was serving Vladimir Putin and his friends like George W. Bush. Twenty years later, Putin used Prigozhin and his private army for his illegal war in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin founded the Wagner Private Military Company in 2014. The Kremlin used that group to fight its dirty wars across the planet. From Africa to Russian separatists in Ukraine, Wagner was there to fight. At first the group was not bigger then 250 men led by Prigozhin. But by March 2016, Wagner expanded itself and had grown to 1.000 combat fighters. Armed with Russian military material, Wagner grew into the largest private army in Russia with 8.000 members in April 2022.
The Kremlin realised that they could use the the Wagner Private Military Company in their invasion of Ukraine. Many of the Wagner men had combat experience as they had fought for the Russian separatists against the Ukrainian army. In Ukraine they lost many soldiers so the group started to recruit criminals and thugs into their ranks. Since Yevgeny Prigozhin himself was a criminal thug since his teens, it is no surprise that he personally went to Russian jails to recruit new members. For many, Wagner is an escape from the harsh reality of Russian prison life.
However relationships between the Wagner and the Russian Armed Forces soon degenerated. Prigozhin was one of the few who openly attacked the army and its inferior leadership. Wagner had grown to 50.000 active fighters in December 2022 and was fighting on the front lines. Prigozhin publicly shamed the Russian command structure and this the Kremlin did not liked. Putin ordered Prigozhin to stand down, yet the old cook was not willing to bow down again. Feeling strong, the Wagner group turned on the Kremlin by 23 July 2023.
Prigozhin could have started a civil war. There are enough Russians who support his criticism of the Russian military command. But the tsar was standing strong and denounced his former cook. Prigozhin did not moved on Moscow and ordered his units to stand down after 24 hours. His rebellion ended with the Wagner group moving to Belarus. Yet Prigozhin himself remained in Russia and this sealed his fate. Because on 23 August 2023, his private plane was shot down. It is save to assume that Vladimir Putin ordered the FSB to bomb the Embraer Legacy 600.
The tsar does not forget and does not forgive. Yevgeny Prigozhin had turned on the Kremlin, on Putin himself. By remaining in Russia, Prigozhin gave Putin a change to take him out. Let us not forget that the Kremlin is not afraid to murder people who openly turned on them. Both the KGB and FSB have been the instruments of murder on the orders of those who rule the Kremlin. By murdering Prigozhin in open air, the Kremlin also puts out a clear message: Don’t You Dare to Speak Out!
Killed in the crash of the Embraer Legacy 600 is not just Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin also joined the flight. Utkin was the living proof of far-right Russians fighting for the Kremlin. He was an open Nazi, glorifying Nazi Germany and the instruments of terror like the Waffen SS. This far-right thug had worked for the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) for almost 30 years, which proofs us that the Kremlin is not anti-fascist. Dmitry Utkin left the GRU in 2013 and joined Prigozhin as a co-founder of Wagner.
With the death of their leaders, it is unclear if the Wagner Private Military Company can survive. It is reported that Wagner camps in Belarus have been removed. The killing of Prigozhin and Utkin might have been the start of the liquidation set out by the Kremlin. Since Belarus is a loyal puppet of Russia, Alexander Lukashenko could have been ordered to close down Wagner bases and disarm the remaining 25.000 soldiers. Putin meanwhile keeps up a facade by giving his condolences to those killed in the Embraer crash. He claims that Prigozhin and Utkin did good by fighting the ”Neo-Nazi” regime in Ukraine. What the tsar failed to say was that their usefulness had ended!
Revolutionary socialists do not mourn the death of thugs like Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin. These men were far-right criminals who killed on the orders of Moscow. In the end, the empire they served turned on them and their private army. It is therefore that we oppose private soldiers as they fight for profit and kill for profit. Revolutionary socialists call for the banning of private armies like Blackwater USA (Constellis Holdings) and the Wagner Private Military Company. We first need democratic control over regular armies. Later under socialism, the old armies of capitalism will be replaced by democratic armies of the working class with no ranks and privileges!
Capitalism causes wars and fuels private armies and their greed. Since this system works internationally, we need to fight for a international alternative. Socialism cannot be build in one country surrounded by a hostile capitalist system. It is essential that we build international socialism in all parts of the world. Because if Wagner can send soldiers to Africa, we must be prepared to fight internationally too. The working class cannot stop in America or Europe. The battle against capitalism and its armies is a international fight. Therefore we call upon the workers of the world to unite in International Socialist Alternative (ISA). Let us fight against capitalism and its private armies.
The Royal Netherlands Air Force has decided to donate over 24 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. The Netherlands is joining NATO countries who donate tanks and planes to the Kyiv government in their fight against the Russian imperialist aggression. Despite that many Dutch support Ukraine, revolutionary socialists do not support the fact that western tax payers are funding the Ukrainian army. Also we must not forget that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has subjugated his country to the wishes to western imperialism. The reality is that Ukraine cannot win this war by military means. Only a political revolution in both Kyiv and Moscow has any chance of ending this bloody conflict.
Revolutionary socialists understand that Ukraine want arms. We understand that many Ukrainians think that NATO is about freedom and Russia is about oppression. Russian imperialism controlled Ukraine for a long time and has stolen Ukrainian territories since 2014. But we warn against the illusion that the western world is good and the eastern world is bad. Western imperialism never cared about Ukraine before 2014. The country was seen as a typical ex-Soviet republic, poor and backward. It was only after a pro-Russian president was kicked out that the west started to support Ukraine.
Western imperialism was happy with the collapse of the Soviet-Union in December 1991. Ukraine was one of the ex-Soviet republics who dissolved the USSR, together with the Russian Federation. Between 1991 and 2014, Ukraine often had a good relationship with Moscow. Even the (failed) Orange Revolution did not changed much. The failure of the pro-European liberal camp in building a functional society led to the rise of Viktor Yanukovych, a conservative pro-Russian leader. Euro-Maidan led to the rise of Russian separatism and the hostile invasion of Crimea by Russia.
Today is said that Ukraine will never be pro-Russian again. This might be true but Ukraine is not a functioning democracy. It is a deeply flawed society with a government that is willing to use authoritarian methods. Anything related to communism is banned by law while far-right Ukrainian organisations and their symbols are fully legal. Ukraine has a problem with glorifying those who murdered around 200.000 Polish people. Despite this, the far-right has little support as elections have proven. Ukrainian nationalism is however as poison as Russian chauvinism.
Russia is a full nationalist dictatorship by August 2023. The facade of a democratic Russia has been destroyed by the Kremlin and the Federal Security Bureau (FSB). Russians know this and therefore do not dare to speak out. Because the regime has arrested and jailed over 19.673 people who oppose the war. Ukrainians often wonder why Russians don’t dare to fight back. The problem is that Russia does not tolerate criticism of the government. Since 2000, Vladimir Putin slowly restored the authoritarian state and many were happy because they hated the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.
Between 2000 and 2014, Putin only went after those who were organised like liberal oligarchs. But after 2014 he also turend against individuals, like us revolutionary socialists who oppose his tzarist style of ruling. Putin hates socialism (and communism). But he is willing to use the Soviet-Union for his nationalist propaganda. You can see huge flags of the Russian Empire and the Soviet-Union next to the banner of the Russian Federation on the beach in Saint Petersburg. Yet the Kremlin blames Lenin and the Bolsheviks for creating Ukraine.
For the tsar in Moscow, the Stalinist USSR was good as it enforced Russian culture and language on other Soviet republics. Stalin is praised, Lenin rejected. The Russian revolutions of 1917 Putin denounces, while praising the degeneration that came with Stalin in the late 1920’s. This the paradox of the Soviet-Union in the modern Russian Federation. It is praised, yet the socialist foundation is hated and rejected. This is why we revolutionary socialists need to expose the Putin regime and how it works in league with the Stalinist school of falsification.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands has been a loyal dog of the USA. Under prime ministers Jan Peter Balkenende and Mark Rutte, the country joined U.S imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was called NATO capacity-building missions. In reality, Dutch soldiers were fighting the opponents of the corrupt regimes installed by the Americans. 24 soldiers of the Royal Netherlands Army were killed between 2006 and 2010. Now the kingdom is donating its F-16 fleet to Ukraine. A move only done to strengthen the Kyiv government. Meanwhile the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria is completely ignored!
In North East Syria, the Kurdish led Autonomous Administration is fighting Turkish imperialism since 2016. Turkey is a member of NATO and was not sanctioned when it invaded Syria. The Autonomous Administration is not aided by western imperialism, because it is under siege by a NATO member. While the western world attacks Russia, the criminal invasion of northern Syria is ignored. Here we see the hypocrisy of western imperialism. Ukraine is fully supplied with heavy tanks and planes, while the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria is not!
Ukraine cannot win back their lost territories by military means. Even with all the western weapons it lacks the man power to defeat Russia. The Ukrainian offensive has not resulted in massive victories. Front lines have moved little as of late August 2023. The fact that Ukraine remains silent on this proofs that their offensive is not having the effect many in the west hoped for. What is to be done now? Some say that Ukraine must accept peace talks in order to stop the war. We say that there is an alternative!
The alternative is building socialism! This could rally Russian workers against the tsar in Moscow and his henchman. Socialism in Ukraine unfortunate is a dirty word. Like the USA, antisocialist politicians and their capitalist media have brainwashed a new generation with the idea that socialism stands equal to Russia. Young Ukrainians born after 1991 only know socialism as something undemocratic. While there is nostalgia for the Soviet-Union among elderly ethnic Russians, many ethnic Ukrainians oppose it. Also we must not forget that many (Stalinist) leftists in Ukraine have historically always sided with the Kremlin!
This makes it very difficult for revolutionary socialists to fight for a socialist alternative, in a country that equals socialism with Russian colonialism. Yet, socialism is the only alternative out the crisis that capitalism created. As International Socialist Alternative explains: We cannot rely on any of the imperialist institutions or war machines involved to create peace, let alone prosperity… We should have no trust in these imperialist bodies. Any ”diplomatic solution” agreed between them, while it would be welcomed initially by people worldwide, will ultimately be at the expense of ordinary people and only prepare the ground for further tensions and confrontations.
It is reported that the Ukrainian Army has begun their summer offensive against the Russian occupiers. Armed with western weaponry and tanks, the army of Ukraine is attacking the Russian lines in the Donbas region. We know that one Leopard 2A6 was abandoned, four M2 Bradleys damaged or abandoned and one BMR-2 tank was destroyed in the Zaporizhzia Region. If the Ukrainian Army can push the Russian imperialists out, the western world will see it as a victory and use that to supply more weapons to Ukraine. But for working class people, the defeat of Russian imperialism is not true liberation.
Revolutionary Socialist Media opposes western weapons for Ukraine. Despite that some leftists openly support western guns for Ukraine, we know that arming the Kyiv government will not bring about victory for working class people. At the same time weapons in the hands of a capitalist state will always be used against the working class in a potential revolution. Those who support western guns call the Ukraine war, a war of national liberation. This war is a proxy war in the new imperialist Cold War between western imperialism (mainly NATO and EU) and eastern imperialism (mainly China and Russia). Ukraine is a pawn in this game.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he wrongly thinks that he can annex the Russian speaking parts of the country, with the same ease he took Crimea in 2014. But the imperialists in the Kremlin were wrong, Ukrainians rallied behind the Kyiv government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For them this battle is a nationalist war, a ”great patriotic war” against a foreign imperialist country that does not accept their existence. Because Vladimir Putin blames the Bolsheviks for the creation of Ukraine, despite that the first Ukrainian People’s Republic was a bourgeois capitalist state in 1917.
In this imperialist conflict, the symbols of the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics are abused by the Russian imperialists. The Soviet victory flag of 1945 is used by Russian soldiers as a war symbol. By using Soviet symbols, the Russian imperialists only strengthen the anti-communist propaganda of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who now can equal the Soviet-Union with that of the Russian Empire. For Putin and the Russian imperialists, the USSR is indeed seen as ”Russian”. This despite the fact that Putin hates socialism and the foundation ideas of the Soviet-Union. This is why the Kremlin ignores Lenin, but praises Stalin!
Revolutionary socialists do not side with Zelenskyy, who has fully subjugated his country to the wishes of western imperialism. Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to join NATO and the European Union. We know that this will not help Ukrainian workers. The Kyiv government is already attacking the working class by preparing more deregulation and privatisation of state enterprises. Zelenskyy is using the war to push anti-worker and anti-union laws through the Ukrainian parliament. We never hear this in the western media, because western nations support these capitalist laws.
The summer offensive is now three days ongoing. Since both Ukraine and Russia remain silent on victories and loses, we do not know the fine details. Russian imperialism claims to stop any Ukrainian attack, but we know that Russia is a master in lying. The propaganda goes very far in claiming that Russia is fighting for religion, traditions and nationhood. The same words we heard coming from the Nazi propaganda, when they invaded the Soviet-Union in June 1941.
What is to be done? We revolutionary socialists oppose both western imperialist guns and the Russian occupation. Ukraine has the right to fight back and to accept western weapons. But we cannot expect western workers to pay for the Ukraine war. Sooner or later, the ammunition is depleted and the military industrial complex is the one who will get rich, if we allow our governments to spend our money on wars. This is why we call for socialist solutions to this conflict, meaning a alternative to the capitalist system and its imperialist Cold War.
It is understandable that Ukrainian workers rally behind Zelenskyy. But this is not helpful as Zelenskyy is not a socialist nor a supporter of the working class. He is a western type capitalist politician, who has this misguided view that European style capitalism works. Zelenskyy is a good actor and knows how to play the role of a leader under siege. But his (neo)liberalism changed nothing. He had lost the support of many voters and would have lost the elections had Russia not invaded in February 2022. Zelenskyy only had a 32% approval rating just before the invasion.
Revolutionary socialists of International Socialist Alternative say:
We fight against the trap of the “lesser evil” — supporting one capitalist or imperialist force against another. We stand for an independent working class position in all questions. This is not easy or automatic. It requires theoretical clarity and democratic discussion to reach a common analysis. Capitalism is a desperately sick system. It threatens the planet’s very existence. A new labour movement will be built in the titanic mass struggles ahead. With the genuine ideas of Marxism, the international working class will be equal to history’s challenge.
This is why we do not support one imperialist camp over another. We reject western arms for Ukraine as it would strengthen one capitalist class, especially the American/European military industrial complex. Ukraine can win this conflict by building a socialist alternative, this could rally Russian workers against Putin. Because this is what the Kremlin fears the most. If the Ukrainian government was a genuine product of the working class it would abandon the dictates of NATO, dissolve the far-right militia’s and expropriate the wealth of the oligarchs and capitalists.
But this is not what capitalist Ukraine is doing. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put his country in the western imperialist camp. This is why we cannot give political support to the government in Kyiv, because it does not work in interests of the working class. At the same time we fully reject the imperialist agenda of the Kremlin. Ukraine might push the Russian imperialists back, but as long as Putin does not call for a full mobilisation, Ukraine has not faced the full might of the Russian army yet. This is why we say that this war cannot be won by western weapons.
A political revolution is needed in both countries to end the conflict. It is up to socialists and the labour movement to fight for a socialist alternative. Against Ukrainian nationalism and Russian chauvinism, against NATO and all who try to profit from war. Our enemy is the capitalist class and the oligarchy that has exploited workers in both nations since 1991. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin are the public faces of two brutal capitalist governments. This is why we say no to western arms, no to the Russian occupation and NO TO THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM that is playing a GAME OF THRONES with our lives!
Revolutionary Socialist Media 