On 25/02/2025 4:08, Mark Baugher wrote:
I didn't know it was from Putin and need the context. Was Putin referring to
the Russian annexation of the eastern Ukrainian provinces. I cannot tell. But
Putin has been disputing Lenin for some time now.
Right, I should have been clearer, sorry about that.
Ironically the quotation is from one of your sources, which in my view
has been thoroughly (and wilfully) misread by the western press, which
is why I think it's worth quoting directly from it--secondary sources on
what it says are unreliable, and it's very hard to convince myself to
believe them instead of what's plainly written in the text.
I'm referring to the article on the historical unity of Russians and
Ukrainians (note the word, historical).
In this article, Putin goes over an admittedly partial and
historiographically dubious review of Russia and Ukraine as parts of a
whole, starting by referring to the throne of Kiev as dominant.
The article does contain the infamous phrase that Lenin planted a "time
bomb" in the form of the right of secession. Nonetheless, in its
fashion, it also recognises the right to self-determination. I quote a
bit more context here:
When working on this article, I relied on open-source documents that contain
well-known facts rather than on some secret records. The leaders of modern
Ukraine and their external ”patrons“ prefer to overlook these facts. They do
not miss a chance, however, both inside the country and abroad, to condemn ”the
crimes of the Soviet regime,“ listing among them events with which neither the
CPSU, nor the USSR, let alone modern Russia, have anything to do. At the same
time, the Bolsheviks' efforts to detach from Russia its historical territories
are not considered a crime. And we know why: if they brought about the
weakening of Russia, our ill-wishes are happy with that.
Of course, inside the USSR, borders between republics were never seen as state
borders; they were nominal within a single country, which, while featuring all
the attributes of a federation, was highly centralized – this, again, was
secured by the CPSU's leading role. But in 1991, all those territories, and,
which is more important, people, found themselves abroad overnight, taken away,
this time indeed, from their historical motherland.
What can be said to this? Things change: countries and communities are no
exception. Of course, some part of a people in the process of its development,
influenced by a number of reasons and historical circumstances, can become
aware of itself as a separate nation at a certain moment. How should we treat
that? There is only one answer: with respect!
You want to establish a state of your own: you are welcome! But what are the terms? I will recall the assessment given by one of the most prominent political figures of new Russia, first mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. As a legal expert who believed that every decision must be legitimate, in 1992, he shared the following opinion: the republics that were founders of the Union, having denounced the 1922 Union Treaty, must return to the boundaries they had had before joining the Soviet Union. All other territorial acquisitions are subject to discussion, negotiations, given that the ground has been revoked.
In other words, when you leave, take what you brought with you. This logic is hard to refute. I will just say that the Bolsheviks had embarked on reshaping boundaries even before the Soviet Union, manipulating with territories to their liking, in disregard of people's views.
The Russian Federation recognized the new geopolitical realities: and not only recognized, but, indeed, did a lot for Ukraine to establish itself as an independent country. Throughout the difficult 1990's and in the new millennium, we have provided considerable support to Ukraine.
and so on.
Yes, the article is very iffy in many ways; but it's hard not to read it
as recognising self-determination in general, and Ukrainian
self-determination in particular.
--Mod
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