As some of you may know, Roger Annis, a one-time member of the
Trotskyist movement in Canada, has become one of the most prominent,
prolific and ardent defenders of the Kremlin’s attempt to carve a
Novorossiya out of Ukraine, and arguably other territory that dates back
to the original Russian empire created during the reign of Catherine the
Great.
For most defenders of Putin’s foreign policy, support for the Lugansk
and Donetsk Peoples Republics is based on the notion that Russia was
forced to back the separatists and annex Crimea as a defensive measure
against NATO encroachment. There are references to John Mearsheimer’s
argument that Russia is entitled to do this because the USA does it as
well. Just look at how JFK reacted to Russian bases in Cuba. Why would
anybody expect the Kremlin to behave any differently when Ukraine was
becoming aligned with NATO and western corporations? That the left would
adopt such logic is really quite breathtaking. When you excuse Russia on
this basis, where does socialism fit in? It was never a great idea to
defend Soviet control over the “buffer states” in the name of
realpolitik, and all the more so after Russia became another capitalist
society.
Generally I don’t respond to Roger’s articles since most people have
pretty much made up their mind on the Ukrainian issues. But I was taken
aback when I saw his latest post on his website titled Dramatic Shifts
in the political and military situation in Ukraine that includes a link
to another article titled Donetsk Peoples Republic proclaims itself
successor of the Donetsk-Krivoy-Rog Republic of 1918. The linked article
makes the case that the breakaway republics are simply a restoration of
the original Soviet republic that followed in the footsteps of October
1917. It states:
The capital of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic was Kharkiv and later
Lugansk. The government of the Republic was represented by a Council of
People’s Commissars, headed by Artem (Fyodor Sergeyev). In March 1918,
the Republic became part of Soviet Ukraine, at the time a constituent of
part of Soviet Russia. A year later, an agreement was reached for its
dissolution. A Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in 1922
and its capital became Kyiv. It was a founding constituent of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics, founded the same year.
Understandably, this historical reference might seem obscure to the
average reader, and even some veterans of the Marxist movement who have
this blog bookmarked. At first blush, this might seem like a good thing.
Who could possibly object to the separatists invoking the infant USSR
especially when their enemy has John McCain on their side? Maybe this
was finally Boris Kagarlitsky’s encomium to the Donetsk separatists as
“the perfect embodiment of the anarchist concept of the revolutionary
order” finally coming true.
full:
http://louisproyect.org/2015/02/25/the-ukrainian-national-movement-versus-great-russian-chauvinism/
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