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Maidan Voices
The
Ukrainian Night A short excerpt on the origins and
meaning of the 2014 Maidan uprising from Dr. Marci Shore's book.
2017
Yanukovich's end is a beginning Contemporaneous analysis
of the Maidan victory. People and Nature, February 26,
2014
Maidan and After This article by a US progressive
activist, rich in detail, provides observations of direct
participants in the Maidan uprising of 2014. See especially the
section "Recollections of the Kyiv Maidan." By Sam Friedman,
August 3, 2015
Maidan and Self-Understanding
In regard to the claim that the Maidan Revolution in 2014 was a
CIA-sponsored coup: every credible account has it that the EuroMaidan
movement consisted of pro-democracy activists – abetted by rightwing forces
as well, but the vast majority were progressively minded citizens asking for
independence from Moscow, an end to corruption, and basic human rights.
Their popular movement received support from the U.S., which in this case
(and contrary to U.S. foreign policy so often in the past) was supporting
the Ukrainian people and countering Russian domination. Guest lecture by Dr.
Marci Shore (author of
The Ukrainian Night), to the Yale University class of Timothy Snyder,
November 17, 2022. Video, 54 minutes
Ukraine's Maidan Revolution Ten years after the
uprising, a look back. By Marci Shore, November 21, 2023
Posters
displayed at the Maidan in honor of the uprising.
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Resisting Putin's war: the women risking it all on the streets of
Russia St Petersburg’s anti-war protesters want to send a message to those
"who are still silent." The Guardian (UK), May 26, 2022
A Letter to the Western Left from Kyiv
The writer criticizes the position of parts of the Western Left that he
characterizes as "the anti-imperialism of idiots." He includes those
who imagined NATO aggression in Ukraine and could not see Russian aggression,
like the International
Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), along with its New
Orleans chapter. By Taras Bilous, February 26, 2022. The author is a Ukrainian
historian and activist.
‘They’re Willing to Risk Ruining Their Lives.’ Putin’s War Is Driving
Russians Out
Russians are fleeing their own country, at a speed most likely not seen
since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are running not from foreign bombs
but from their own government. Rumors of impending martial law, closed borders,
conscription and punitive military service have fueled panic. Amid state
shutdowns of almost all of the last major independent media outlets and the
announcement of draconian punishment for any coverage or criticism of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, tens or even hundreds of thousands of members of
Russia’s liberal intelligentsia and political opposition are scrambling to
escape. By Sophie Pinkham, The New York Times, March 17, 2022
Against Russian Imperialism
Overlooking Russian imperialism is a terrible mistake for the left. It is Putin,
not NATO, who is waging war on Ukraine. That is why it is essential to shift our
focus from Western imperialism to Putin’s aggressive imperialism, which has an
ideological and political basis in addition to an economic one. By Russian Socialist Movement and Sotsialnyi Rukh (Russian democratic-socialist
organizations), April 7, 2022
Interview with
Ukrainian socialist historian Denis Pilash Dignified, careful, and thoughtful.
Democracy Now, April 21, 2022
Self-Determination and the War in Ukraine Two months ago,
when the author wrote “A
Letter to the Western Left from Kyiv,” he hoped that the shock of the Russian
invasion and the voices of the Ukrainian left would push Western leftists to
reconsider their approach. Unfortunately, too many of them have failed to do so.
In their analyses of the war, Ukrainians are just victims in need of humanitarian
aid, not subjects with desires that should be respected.
Of course,
this doesn’t apply to everyone on the left—not
by a long shot. Scandinavian left-wing parties as well as Eastern European
ones have listened to Ukrainians and supported arms supplies to Ukraine. Some
progress is taking place among U.S. socialists. But unfortunately, even a joint
statement by Ukrainian and Russian socialists hasn’t convinced enough people
to support military aid. The
writer
addresses the left once more.
By Taras Bilous, Dissent, May 4, 2022. The author is a Ukrainian
historian and activist.
Leaving is
my only option Interview with Natasha, a Russian exile, 20-minutes,
May 29, 2022
Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine speak out The Russian invasion has simultaneously given those who might be neutral in
their allegiances a stark choice about what kind of country they want to
identify with, and provided a rallying point that allows for a broad and
inclusive idea of what it means to be a Ukrainian patriot. ... As well as
strengthening the sense of Ukrainian identity among politicians and the general
population in the south and east of the country, the war has also helped
increase respect for these areas in the patriotic strongholds of western and
central Ukraine, where some doubted the loyalty of parts of the east,
particularly after 2014. June 6, 2022
The Right to Resist - A Feminist Manifesto Feminists from Ukraine call
on feminists around the world to stand in solidarity with the resistance of the
Ukrainian people against the predatory, imperialist war unleashed by the Russian
Federation. July 7, 2022
I'm a Ukrainian Socialist. Here's Why I Resist the
Russian Invasion
Among even many well-intentioned people in recent months, there have been loud
but vague calls for negotiations and a diplomatic settlement. But what exactly
does this mean? Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place for several
months following the invasion, but they did not stop the war. Before that,
negotiations on Donbas had lasted for more than seven years, with French and
German participation; but despite signed agreements and a cease-fire, the
conflict was never resolved.
Eighty percent of Ukrainians
consider territorial
concessions unacceptable. Giving up the occupied territories means betraying
their fellow citizens and relatives, and putting up with the daily abductions
and tortures perpetrated by occupiers. Under these conditions, the parliament
will not ratify cession, even if the West forces the Ukrainian government to
agree to territorial losses. This would only discredit President Volodymyr
Zelensky and lead to the reelection of more nationalist authorities, while the
far right would be rewarded with favorable conditions for recruiting new
members. By Taras Bilous, Jacobin, July 26, 2022
Ukrainian Feminist: We Need Western Solidarity in
Fighting Russian Imperialism
Western leftists and feminists who have misgivings about Western military
support for Ukraine often overlook that Ukrainians are fighting for
self-determination and against imperialism. Interview with Oksana Dutchak,
Democracy Now, July 28, 2022
How Russian propaganda utilized and distorted allegations by Amnesty
International that Ukrainian troops endanger civilians Meduza,
August 5, 2022
Russia’s Brutal Honesty Has Destroyed the West’s Appeasers
One of the writer's most revealing interviews covering Russia’s war on Ukraine was
with
Polina Kovalevskaya. Along with her husband and three daughters, she was
a refugee from Mariupol, the Ukrainian city with a prewar population of
almost 450,000 that was besieged by Russian forces for almost three months.
After three horrific weeks of hiding in basements during incessant Russian
shelling, the family managed to escape the city, which was already a
mass grave and charred ruin by then. When I asked them for a photo of
their former home, they sent me a video instead. In the clip, amid a vast
expanse of smoldering rubble, a Russian tank fires point-blank at an
apartment building that was somehow still standing. Part of the building
implodes, adding to the total devastation for miles and miles around. “This
was our home,” Kovalevskaya told me when describing the video.
What makes the video so chilling wasn’t just the fact that targeting
civilians is a war crime. It’s that the clip bears the unmistakable logo of
RT, the Russian channel that started off in 2005 as a mostly benign
attempt to improve Russia’s international image and ended up as a domestic
disinformation bullhorn. The video’s unequivocal message: This is what we’re
doing in Ukraine, and we’re not even going to pretend anything else.
By Alexey Kovalev, Foreign Policy, August 12,
2022. The writer is an investigative editor at
Meduza.
How
Will the War End? A precise answer requires precise questions. The
translation is turgid at times, but the article is valuable, in spite of the
questionable claim of suppression of the Russian language in Ukraine. By Boris
Kagarlitsky, September 2, 2022. The writer is a longtime Soviet and Russian
dissident.
Exiled Russian Activist Challenges Pacifist Approach to Ending War
on Ukraine Interview with Russian anti-war activist Lolija Nordic.
The defeats and mobilization have forced the war into the middle of Russian
society. Men are being called up and deployed in large numbers and against their
will. Almost every family in Russia has a loved one that could be forced to
fight in Ukraine. This has triggered broader questioning of the war. Before the
mobilization, conservative Russians could believe Putin’s claim that it would
not affect your life. They had supported Putin for years based on his promise of
stability and his claim that without his rule there would be chaos. By Ashley Smith,
Truthout, November 13, 2022
Zelensky's 10-point peace plan Reuters,
December 28,
2022
Remember the Russians Who Fought Against Putin's War
It can be confidently said that in the year since the invasion of Ukraine,
Russia’s government has undergone a transformation, finally turning into an
openly repressive dictatorship.
A year into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the state is cracking down ever
harder on all signs of dissent. Today exiled or jailed, the Russians who spoke
out against the war are key to rebuilding a peaceful, democratic society. By
Ilya Budraitskis (Russian socialist), January 22, 2023
Thinking about solutions, we must at least not
mistake the causes We have found that several left-wing organizations or
figures who are otherwise respected for their strong positions against American
imperialism have demonstrated astonishing complicity with their right-wing
adversaries on the subject of the invasion of Ukraine. We often find among them
an ignorance, even a complete denial of the historical experience of a number of
countries which suffered the oppression of the imperial Russian and then the
Soviet regime. There is a strong psychological component that comes into play.
We are facing methodological egocentrism. It is easier to believe that the West
and especially the United States are behind all the wars on the planet than to
assume that non-Western countries can act on their own. According to this logic,
even the Russian state is deprived of its own capacity for action and can only
act in response to the actions of the all-powerful West. The most virulent
critics of Western imperialism do not escape Western-centrism, but are a
paradoxical expression of it. Interview with Hanna Perekhoda
by Arthur Borriello,
November 16, 2023
Ukrainian Activist Traces Roots of War in ‘Centuries of Russian Colonization
Russia’s centuries-long efforts to impose its language on Ukraine, occupy its
territory with settlers and rewrite its history from Moscow’s perspective are
all hallmarks of colonialism. Ms. Naiem said it took the war for Ukrainians to take stock of this legacy and
finally begin to “decolonize” themselves. She cited the example of the many
people who have switched from speaking Russian to Ukrainian. By Constant
Méheut, The New York Times, June 9, 2024
Putin's
Legend The nonsensical basis of a terrible war. By Timothy Snyder,
August 25, 2024
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