On Sat, Jan 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM, gojko rakic wrote: > > To learn about Maidan events you could read one old interview with > Volodymyr, who wrote many analysis based on intensive data and facts by > his research, > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/volodymyr-ishchenko-towards-the-abyss > >
I drew the attention of the list to the NLR article you cite when it appeared in April, 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion. No one has influenced my view of Ukrainian developments from Maidan to the war more than has Volodymyr Ishchenko. https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/16027 In introducing the article, I commented that “it's remarkable how so many of us can profess agreement with the analysis of the conflict as generally and admirably presented here by Ishchenko - including universal condemnation of the invasion - and yet come to such diametrically opposed conclusions about whether to call for a ceasefire and an end to the war or more and better NATO arms shipments to Ukraine to continue it.” I said "I was particularly interested in Ishchenko's take on the Minsk Accords since this has been a cornerstone of debate and division on the left, with the pro-Ukraine faction arguing that Ukraine was justified in rejecting the accords because they were one-sided and forced on the country by Russia, and others like myself seeing Ukraine’s refusal to abide by them as the key factor preventing a peaceful settlement.” I didn’t comment about the views he expressed about Maidan but, like yourself, agreed with his analysis of the uprising. While he and we defend Maidan as a popular expression of the fundamental democratic right to freedom of speech and assembly, Ishchenko did not shy away from noting that it "was captured by several agents, all of whom participated in the uprising and contributed to its success, but who were very far from representing the whole range of forces involved or the motivations that drove ordinary Ukrainians to support Euromaidan. "Predominant among these agents were the traditional parties of the opposition, represented by, among others, Petro Poroshenko who became President of Ukraine in 2014. These oligarchic parties were structured around a ‘big man’, on patron-client relations: lacking any other model, they reproduced the worst features of the cpsu—heavy-handed paternalism, popular passivity—voided of its legitimating ‘modernity project’. "Another smaller but very important agent was the bloc of West-facing ngos and media organizations, which operated more like professional firms than community mobilizers, with the lion’s share of their budgets usually coming from Western donors. During the uprising, they were the people who created the image of the Euromaidan that was disseminated to international audiences; they were primarily responsible for the narrative about a democratic revolution that represented the civic identity and diversity of the Ukrainian people against an authoritarian government. "Then there were the far-right groups—Svoboda, Right Sector, the Azov movement—which, unlike the ngos, were organized as political militants, with a well-articulated ideology based on radical interpretations of Ukrainian nationalism, with relatively strong local party cells and mobilizations on the streets. "Western states and international organizations also gained increasing influence, both indirectly—through their funding of civil-society ngos—and directly, because they provided credit and military help against Russia, as well as political support. These were the four major agents that grew stronger after the Euromaidan—the oligarchic opposition, the ngos, the far right and Washington–Brussels. His most recent view of the conflict appeared last month in the French publication Révolution Permanente, translated and reproduced in the online publication of the Socialist Project group in Canada. https://socialistproject.ca/2024/12/ukraine-real-desire-to-sacrifice-oneself-for-the-state-is-very-weak/ Here he takes stock of the war weariness which has set in among the population: "There is no enthusiasm, or at least, this enthusiasm is limited to a much smaller group of people than in 2022”, he says. The entire interview is worth reading, but I was drawn to his comments on the state of the tiny Ukrainian pro-war far left which many on this list have strongly identified with in the past. Ishchenko has never been impressed with “the young left milieu (which) had no more than 1,000 activists and sympathizers in the whole country, even in the best years of its development, and their numbers have been declining since then.” Their main influence has been outside the country where they have "integrated better with the democratic socialists and the liberal left in the West” with a social base "closer to the pro-Western NGO-ized 'civil society' of the middle class in Ukraine." Some of them, he now believes, "are tending to revise their positions on the war, especially in response to the brutal conscription. It is really difficult to claim that the war is still some kind of 'people’s war' when the majority of Ukrainians do not want to fight...There is also criticism of the ethno-nationalism coming from this left environment because it has become too difficult to ignore how Ukraine has changed in two years, with the spread of discrimination against Russian speakers and the regime’s ethnic assimilation policies.” -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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