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A question on the Russia-Ukraine war (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 month ago by honeyontoast@lemmygrad.ml to c/asklemmygrad@lemmygrad.ml
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Firstly, thank you for accepting me into the community. Within the last few weeks I came to the realisation that there is no such thing as a healthy, stable, capitalist society. I want to learn more about communism because it could be a real alternative to the frankly poor conditions of working class life in the UK (and any other capitalist country).

There is one thing that stands out to me here that I'd like to understand because it's a little jarring. In a few places (e.g. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9012898/6943775) on the topic of Russia, specifically the war, people seem to believe the invasion was justified and that the Ukraine government is Nazi? Why? From my point of view, which I do admit is going to have inherent Western/NATO bias because I live in the UK, is that this is an example of Russian imperialism. If the US invaded Canada, or the UK invaded France, it would rightly be considered a travesty. Why is Russia not given the same treatment? After all, it is not communist any more and it is working class people being sent to die in this war.

Shouldn't the modern Russian government receive the same scrutiny as any other capitalist government?

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[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

pinging @davel@lemmygrad.ml for the resource dump

[–] davel@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Previously:

Honest question from a non-communist, based on your reply here. Does one need to support Putin to be a Marxist?

In a word, no. In a few more words, support for Russia (not Putin, as historical materialists don’t subscribe to great man theory) is only a partial, temporary, tactical one, in the context of imperialist liberation. Russia is still a capitalist state, though, so it’s a two stage strategy: first liberate colonized bourgeois states from colonizer states, and second revolution within those liberated bourgeois states.

Russia is an interesting case: it has already liberated itself from the post-Soviet “shock therapy” neocolonizers. This occurred during Putin’s administration, which is why he is especially hated by the US. So now the support for Russia is in the context of keeping the colonizers from recolonizing it, and supporting Russia to the extent that it helps other states liberate themselves. But Russia isn’t trying to “liberate” Ukraine, at least not all of Ukraine. It’s trying to resolve the genocidal attacks on the people of the Donbas, and it’s trying to resolve the imperialist military expansion at its border.

Previously:

The US-backed Maidan coup and US & Ukraine-supported fascist paramilitary attacks on eastern & southern Ukraine:

 
NATO expansion:

 
NATO in general:

[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 month ago

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2: