Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
A global perspective
A very positive feature of Marco Bojcun’s new book, ‘Towards a Political Economy of Ukraine’, is that it attempts to situate the development of capitalism in Ukraine in the global perspective. The author cites some authors from the tradition of world-system analysis, such as (...)
At the end of 1965, the apparatchiks of the Communist Party of Ukraine received an outrageous samizdat – in Ukrainian: samvydav – entitled “Internationalism or Russification?”. It argued that behind the facade of fraternal coexistence of peoples in the USSR, there lurked a Great Russian chauvinism (...)
A Historian’s Perspective
This article looks at Ukraine’s geopolitical position from a historian’s perspective. It is divided into three parts, reflecting on Ukraine’s neglected position vis-à-vis the European Union, the unreliable ‘ally’ United States, and Russia’s attempt to assert its dominance. (...)
After February 24, 2022, when the Russian army attacked Ukraine, the sinister image of Russia in the discourse of the Ukrainian mass media took the form of an “Absolute Evil” (Russia is “Mordor” and Russians are “orcs”). Any manifestations of this evil were regarded as toxic and disastrous for (...)
In this pivotal war on a global scale, the Ukrainian nation is struggling to preserve its independence, obtained only 30 years ago, after centuries of domination and relentless Russification. It rejects the “Trinitarian” Russian nation (Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine) imagined in the tsarist era (...)
How do the working people of the world transform themselves from a plethora of groups waging a multitude of scattered struggles for survival and dignity to a revolutionary force capable of ending capitalism, governing the earth, and taking over production? They have innumerable tasks before (...)
On May 8-9, we in Спільне / Commons Journal often reposted memories about Auschwitz by Roman Rosdolsky, one of Ukraine’s most prominent Marxists. He was imprisoned by the Germans for helping the Jews, but he was lucky to survive.
This is a translation of memoirs in English by John-Paul Himka – (...)
This was written as Russia’s aggressive war has been raging in Ukraine. I think a relatively short history of Ukraine in English, one that can be read in a couple of hours, can help people orient themselves to the issues. Every historical survey is, of course, an interpretation and a (...)
Putin’s Russia is raining destruction down on the citizens and infrastructure of Ukraine, supposedly in the name of the “denazification” of the country. The Russian president and his propaganda machine have been greatly exaggerating the strength of neofascist trends there, often brazenly lying. (...)
At the turn of the last century, Ukraine’s labor movement was subject to tsarist domination and divided along linguistic lines. The revolutions of 1917 inspired calls for self-determination and the formation of a common Ukrainian identity.
Faced with the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, many (...)
Published here is a series of rare texts of the debates of the Ukrainian Marxists of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party at the crucial turning point of the revolution in January 1919. Christopher Ford is author of UKAPISME - Une Gauche perdue, Le marxisme anti-colonial dans la (...)
The Donbas is at the heart of Vladimir Putin’s claim that Lenin divided Russia to create Ukraine. Yet the region’s real history shows how much the Bolsheviks struggled with demands for national autonomy amid the collapse of the tsarist empire.
Announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine late last (...)
Looking back on the turbulent twentieth century
Ukraine’s security and independence must be restored — Vladimir Putin’s Great Russian imperial dreams cannot be allowed to succeed. As was made unmistakably clear in his speech on 21 February, Putin justifies the aggression against Ukraine with a (...)
Putin’s Russia is raining destruction down on the citizens and infrastructure of Ukraine, supposedly in the name of the “denazification” of the country. The Russian president and his propaganda machine have been greatly exaggerating the strength of neofascist trends there, often brazenly lying. (...)
Some of my Russian Facebook friends are seriously discussing the Putin narrative that claims that, over the past eight years, the Ukrainian military has subjected civilian populations in the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics to constant shelling. Some of those discussing Putin’s (...)
Introduction
Two weeks after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, events are not turning out as he planned. He had not anticipated the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, the already high number of Russian casualties, or the massive support the Ukrainians have won from (...)
“Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us,” declared Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. “It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” This conception of Ukrainian history forms the bedrock of Putin’s justification for invading the former Soviet (...)
If someone suggested that we could understand the Black Lives Matter struggle without some knowledge of the historical background of slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow and so on, we would find it unconvincing, to put it mildly. But many on the left seem to think that they can comment on the crisis in (...)
The chain of events that led to today’s current crisis in Ukraine is connected to the 2014 Euromaidan protests. The year prior, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a pending free trade agreement with the EU, choosing instead to pursue closer relations with Russia. This sparked (...)
The famine of 1932-33 which saw millions perish , is an event of central importance in the history of Ukraine. The Holodomor as it is known, is not only an historical question but has become a key issue of debates on the Ukrainian question in the 21st century. The reason for this is the (...)
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