The Woke Contrarian

I don't think I'm one of them either. I'm one of mine.

Category: War and Peace (Page 4 of 4)

Tankies suck at Russian

2023-09-05 / / 0 Comments

If you’re going to present yourselves as USSR and Russia fanboys, can you at least get the grammar in your name right? The Stalinist “US Friends of the Soviet People” group calls itself “США друзья советский народ [SShA druzya sovetskiy narod].” This is extremely bad Russian. I know only a little Russian myself, but I know just enough to tell that this is wrong. Russian has a case system, so the idea of “of” is expressed using the genitive case. The way it is now, it’s “USA Friends Soviet People” with no clear relationship between the words. I think the correct version would be Американские друзья советского народа or Друзья США советского народа. They should have had this checked by someone who knows Russian, but then again, I think these people like to LARP as Soviets without doing any research.

Graphic that says США Друзья Совиетский Народ, or poor Russian for American Friends of the Soviet People

Russia–Ukraine link roundup, 2023-08-21

2023-08-21 / / 0 Comments

I don’t agree with everything said, but these are all thought-provoking pieces about the Russia/Ukraine war, the events leading up to the full-scale invasion, tensions within Ukraine and other related topics. I’ve included a mixture of views, though I have consciously excluded work by Russian or Ukrainian nationalists, all state-run media, and anything that actively promotes the Russian invasion. (Admittedly, my links lean toward being critical of the Ukrainian government, but that’s only because most anglophone media is… very much uncritical of its policies.)

Socialists and the War in Ukraine, League for the Fifth International, Workers’ Power (probably the closest thing I’ve found to my position—yes, arm Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression, but don’t support the government’s policies)

The Rise and Role of Ukrainian Ethnic Nationalism, by Anatol Lieven, The Nation

Persecuting Ordinary Russians Won’t End Putin’s War, by Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

Answer to the article “War and Ukraine’s Anarchists,” by the Combat Organisation of Anarcho-Communists (in Russian—I used Google Translator for most of it)

Putin in anti-trans, anti-gay drive, by Rhodri Evans, Workers’ Liberty

The unique extra-parliamentary power of Ukrainian radical nationalists is a threat to the political regime and minorities, by Volodymyr Ishchenko, Foreign Policy Centre

Gone Rogue: The Left and Ukraine, by Joseph Grosso, CounterPunch

Multipolarity, the Mantra of Authoritarianism, by Kavita Krishnan, Z Network

Rampant Russophobia takes us down a dark path, by Anatol Lieven and George Beebe, Responsible Statecraft

What We Lose When We “Cancel” Russian, by Caroline Tracey, Zócalo Public Square

Israel lobby group ADL rehabilitates Hitler’s accomplices in Ukraine, by Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

Russia, Ukraine, and Lasting Peace in Europe, by Nicolai Petro, Transatlantic Policy

The Tragedy of Ukraine, by Nicolai Petro, The Transnational

 

 

 

Kiev City Council bans public use of Russian-language cultural products

2023-07-13 / / 0 Comments

Via Interfax-Ukraine:

“It is necessary to finally once and for all restrict the Russian-language cultural product on the territory of the capital of Ukraine. In fact, it is envisaged to prohibit public coverage and demonstration of Russian-language goods and services created in the process of carrying out activities in the field of culture. These are books, art albums, audiovisual works, musical sound recordings, handicrafts, theatrical and circus performances, concerts and cultural and educational services. Russian is the language of the aggressor country, and it has no place in the heart of our capital,” the press service of [Kiev] City Council quoted chairman of the Standing Committee on Education and Science, Youth and Sports Vadym Vasylchuk. [all errors in the original; all emphasis mine. —Ed.]

This is revisionist bullshit. Kiev is a historically Russian-speaking city. Are the ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians now “aggressors”? Is Zelensky an “aggressor” since his first language is Russian and produced most of his TV and film output in Russian? Note, too, that this is about content in the Russian language, not necessarily pro-Putin-regime content.

Now musicians are banned from publicly singing in Russian in Kiev. What’s next, speaking Russian at home? Since when is Ukraine a bastion of democracy?

I want Putin out of Ukraine. But I cannot endorse stunts like this. All this does is play into Putin’s narrative about “oppressed Russian-speakers.”

 

 

 

Hot Tankie Takes: Western leftists and progressives must not defend Putin’s Russia

2023-06-30 / / 0 Comments

The trouble with tankies

There is a disturbing tendency among some leftists and progressives—derisively called “tankies”—in America, Britain, Germany, and other Western countries to defend Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. To do so, they often echo Putin’s lies about wanting to “denazify” and “demilitarise” Ukraine. But Putin’s goal is not merely to “denazify” and “demilitarise” Ukraine. It is the product of a tsarist wet dream. Well before the invasion, Vladimir Putin made his intent loud and clear. In July 2021, just over half a year before his invasion, he wrote:

I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human and civilizational ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same sources, they have been hardened by common trials, achievements and victories. Our kinship has been transmitted from generation to generation. (emphasis mine)

And Putin isn’t the only Russian official to make these kinds of claims. More recently, Oleg Stepanov, the Russian ambassador to Canada, said in Russia in Global Affairs:

Russia reaffirms the goals of the special military operation. And they all will be achieved. Ukrainians will live in a federal, multilingual, multicultural, democratic, stable, prosperous country free from internal conflict where every citizen feels free and safe. And Russia will provide it. (emphasis mine)

Kiev shall announce that it ceases hostilities, orders its troops and nationalistic units to lay down arms, voluntarily subjects itself to demilitarization and denazification. This is the only way to build a healthy society in Ukraine in accordance with the interests of its people. (emphasis mine)

Stepanov is even blunter than Putin: the “special military operation” is not intended merely to defeat Ukrainian Nazis or ensure its military neutrality. It is to reabsorb Ukraine into the Russian state.

Tankies defend Vladimir Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine, blame the Russian invasion on the United States and its NATO allies, and ignore or outright deny Russia’s oppressive acts against its own people and the people it has conquered. Time and again, they defend Russia’s government and spread its propaganda.

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Much Ado about Ukraine

2023-06-29 / / 0 Comments

Summary

I support Ukraine’s side in its fight against Russian aggression, though this support comes with serious reservations. Keep reading to find out what those reservations are. 

Introduction

It’s hard being a leftist who’s critical of Ukraine but doesn’t support Vladimir Putin’s chauvinistic, revanchist, far-right, corrupt, brutally repressive, capitalist, neoconservative regime. It’s especially hard when you’re critical of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky’s government but also want them to receive military support to quash Putin’s ambitions to reconquer former Soviet states, since most “Ukraine-critical” leftists would rather withdraw aid and push for a peace settlement.

Some on the left—the tankies—support Russia’s invasion as a form of resistance against the imperialist NATO powers. Others—typically pacifists and Trotskyists—want a peace deal to be brokered immediately. Others promote a solidly pro-Kiev* position, advocating the use of more and more sophisticated arms for Zelensky’s forces. I fall into none of those groups. My position is complicated: I am an enthusiastic supporter of ordinary Ukrainian people who are suffering because of the Kremlin’s attacks, but I have harsh criticisms of the government and ultranationalists who use justified anger at Russia to promote regressive policies and justify neo-fascist elements within the Ukrainian armed forces. Regardless, Putin must be driven out of Ukraine for national-security and humanitarian reasons alike. 

Of course, it’s hard to know the whole story if you can’t see everything on the ground. But I think I’ve read enough to have an informed opinion.

*A note on nomenclature—I use Russian names for predominantly Russian-speaking areas and cities (e.g., Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Lugansk) and Ukrainian ones otherwise (Lviv, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk).

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