Communist Platform (Italy): Lenin and Putin on Ukraine

Originally posted on Communist Platform's website:  piattaformacomunista.com/

Lenin and Putin on Ukraine  

Lenin wrote:  

 

He who justifies the capitalists who “are leading us into war in order to throttle Poland and the Ukraine,... (e.g. calls the throttling of Poland and the Ukraine a ‘defense of the fatherland’ of the Great Russians)... is a lickspittle and a boor, who arouses a legitimate feeling of indignation, contempt, and loathing.  

"‘No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations,’ said Marx and Engels, the greatest representatives of consistent nineteenth century democracy, who became the teachers of the revolutionary proletariat. And, full of a sense of national pride, we Great-Russian workers want, come what may, a free and independent, a democratic, republican and proud Great Russia, one that will base its relations with its neighbours on the human principle of equality, and not on the feudalist principle of privilege, which is so degrading to a great nation. Just because we want that, we say: it is impossible, in the twentieth century and in Europe (even in the far east of Europe), to ‘defend the fatherland’ otherwise than by using every revolutionary means to combat the monarchy, the landowners and the capitalists of one's own fatherland, i.e., the worst enemies of our country. We say that the Great Russians cannot ‘defend the fatherland’ otherwise than by desiring the defeat of tsarism in any war, this as the lesser evil to nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Great Russia. For tsarism not only oppresses those nine-tenths economically and politically, but also demoralises, degrades, dishonours and prostitutes them by teaching them to oppress other nations and to cover up this shame with hypocritical and quasi-patriotic phrases.  

The objection may be advanced that, besides tsarism and under its wing, another historical force has arisen and become strong, viz., Great-Russian capitalism, which is carrying on progressive work by economically centralising and welding together vast regions. This objection, however, does not excuse, but on the contrary still more condemns our socialist-chauvinists, who should be called tsarist-Purishkevich socialists (just as Marx called the Lassalleans Royal-Prussian socialists). Let us even assume that history will decide in favour of Great-Russian dominant-nation capitalism, and against the hundred and one small nations. That is not impossible, for the entire history of capital is one of violence and plunder, blood and corruption. We do not advocate preserving small nations at all costs; other conditions being equal, we are decidedly for centralisation and are opposed to the petty-bourgeois ideal of federal relationships. Even if our assumption were true, however, it is, firstly, not our business, or that of democrats (let alone of socialists), to help Romanov-Bobrinsky-Purishkevich throttle the Ukraine, etc.... our home-grown socialist-chauvinists, Plekhanov, etc., etc., will prove traitors, not only to their own country – a free and democratic Great Russia, but also to the proletarian brotherhood of all the nations of Russia, i.e., to the cause of socialism.." ("On the National Pride of the Great Russians", Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21, pp. 104-105)  

"The independence of the Ukraine has been recognized both by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the R.S.F.S.R. (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic) and by the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). It is therefore self-evident and generally recognised that only the Ukrainian workers and peasants themselves can and will decide at their All-Ukraine Congress of Soviets whether the Ukraine shall amalgamate with Russia, or whether she shall remain a separate and independent republic, and, in the latter case, what federal ties shall be established between that republic and Russia."  

"If a Great-Russian Communist insists upon the amalgama- tion of the Ukraine with Russia, Ukrainians might easily suspect him of advocating this policy not from the motive of uniting the proletarians in the fight against capital, but because of the prejudices of the old Great-Russian national- ism, of imperialism. Such mistrust is natural, and to a certain degree inevitable and legitimate, because the Great Russians, under the yoke of the landowners and capitalists, had for centuries imbibed the shameful and disgusting prejudices of Great-Russian chauvinism." ("Letter to the Workers and Peasants of the Ukraine Apropos of the Victories Over Denikin", Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, pp. 292 and 295)  

Putin in his speech to the nation on February 21, 2022 said:  

"So, I will start with the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia. This process started practically right after the 1917 revolution, and Lenin and his associates did it in a way that was extremely harsh on Russia – by separating, severing what is historically Russian land....  

“When it comes to the historical destiny of Russia and its peoples, Lenin’s principles of state development were not just a mistake; they were worse than a mistake, as the saying goes. This became patently clear after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991....  

“Lenin criticised this plan and suggested making concessions to the nationalists, whom he called ‘independents’ at that time. Lenin’s ideas of what amounted in essence to a confederative state arrangement and a slogan about the right of nations to self-determination, up to secession, were laid in the foundation of Soviet statehood. Initially they were confirmed in the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR in 1922, and later on, after Lenin’s death, were enshrined in the 1924 Soviet Constitution.”  

Comparing Lenin's thought and Putin's statements, as well as exposing all the lies on which contemporary Great-Russian nationalism is built, shows the profoundly reactionary, chauvinistic and imperialist character of today's Russia and its anti-communist "leader" Putin.  

Those who still place their hopes in Putin are pinning their hopes on the old tsarist prison-house of nations, which Putin and the capitalist-imperialist class of which he is the current representative glorify and dream of.  

Capital is an international force, and to overcome this force it is necessary to create an international alliance, the international brotherhood of the workers and of all working people of the world.  

The oppressed proletarians and peoples of all countries must fight together against all the great imperialist powers, be they the USA, NATO, the EU, Germany or China and Russia. Only those who fight against their own ruling class and its war preparations are fighting for peace!  

NO to the war of inter-imperialist division fought on the backs of the Ukrainian people!  

Fight against Italian imperialism and its warmongering policy hitched to the chariot of the USA and NATO!  

Eternal glory to the Red Army and the Red Navy, to the partisans who fell in order to defeat Nazism, under the banner of the struggle against capitalism and imperialism, of freedom and peace among peoples, for socialism!  

May 8, 2022 (77th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazism)  

Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy