Two events growing up led me to understand that the west didn’t care or know much about Eastern Europe. First was the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, and the first Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The current imperialism invasion of Ukraine is simply another in a long procession of events that further emphasizes this disconnect. This is obviously not much of a surprise, as the West tends to have a hard time understanding outside itself. The reaction of the progressive Left to the invasion has been particularly disappointing. They seem to split themselves into two camps: those concerned with NATO expansion, or those concerned with Ukrainian Nationalism and the Ukrainian far right.
First, let us consider the latter issue: why is Nationalism a problem in Eastern Europe? There are many factors here, including the Treaty of Versailles not bothering to delineate national borders past and including the Eastern border of Poland following the First World War. Nationalism rose in Eastern Europe However, there are two more recent and impactful causes: the Soviet Union, and the privatization of post-Soviet States. Much of the discussion about the Soviet Union is appalling to be honest, either: conservatives argue different shades that the Soviet Union was a satanic evil empire, or those who support the Soviet Union fail to learn about it past the theory its leader wrote. Unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union is complicated. Many of the actual systems, including Scientific Management Techniques and Fordist labor philosophies, it implemented are far from any flavor of socialism I’d be interested in. However, in terms of Nationalism the Soviet Union Under Stalin (to be clear Stalin did not characterize all Soviet leaders) before, during, and following the Second World war exacerbated the problem of Nationalism in Eastern Europe. As I am more familiar with the Polish case, I will use it as in an example. Following the second World War, the Soviets in partnership of the West oversaw a mass Ethnic Cleansing1 of Eastern Europe. Nationalist elements the Soviets actively partnered with purged Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and the rest of Eastern Europe of nationalities who were not they believe should not reside there. Poland that before the war had been a multi-ethnic nation had become what pre-war Polish Nationalists wanted, a Poland for only ethnically Polish and Catholic Poles. This, however, split families like my Babcia’s2 family was, like many in the border regions, multi-ethnic thus necessitating that they split, or armed nationalists would have killed them. This separation was not an unintended side effect of policy, but the main point. The Ethnic Cleansing in combination with previous Russification under both the Tzar’s and the Soviet regime led to many nations in Central Asia and Eastern Europe to adopt the Russian language. To this day, the Belarusian language is practically extinct. That the Soviet Union was predominantly led by mostly ethnically Russian leadership seemed to many in Eastern Europe as another reincarnation of the Russian Empire, especially as it sought to conquer its neighbors by force. Nationalism rose in response. This is not to say nationalism is justified, but it must be considered in context. Even if the Russian invasion’s true motive was to denazify Ukraine (which is highly dubious as the Russian leadership is by any definition a part of the far right) this invasion will only exacerbate the problem of nationalism in Eastern Europe.
However, the west cannot escape blame. Much of the rise of nationalism in Eastern Europe is due to the privatization of the Eastern-Bloc. The rise of neoliberal capitalism has led to, more unemployment, decreased life expectancy, a lower birthrate, deindustrialization. Ukraine has been and is one of the poorest countries in Europe, the poorest officially is Moldova, which is only beat by its breakaway region Transnistria. Russian, Western, and Ukrainian capitalists have for a long-long time have been benefiting while average people suffer. Ever wonder why stereotypes such as the “Polish-Cleaning lady” or “Russian gold digger” exist? Or perhaps why so many sex workers seem to be Eastern European? Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union, and the Russian backed variants have created a system of extractive capitalism. Within the framework of these systems, as show by the Leftist Greek government in 2008, governments have little to offer or that they could offer in pushback to the policies required by these organizations. The far-right comes to fill the gap. The left, in particular the Center-Left, have little to offer in response to people’s economic pain. To paraphrase one of the first Polish Government’s led by the “Union” Solidarity, the people should expect pain in transition to capitalism. For a time this was accepted. However, the pain never left, and as national policy could not be changed as that may scare off the little capital that remained, many looked for someone to blame. The right blamed everyone: except capitalism. Sure they said the system is bad, but that’s because the communists or (insert ethnic group) is in charge, not real (their ethnic group).
So what does this mean in the context of the here and now? The invasion of Ukraine is simply another imperialist invasion by a stronger power. To quote Ukrainian Socialist Academic Okasana Dutchak “we live in a world without a progressive state to provide material support to a struggle of this scale”. Take a step back, what is your opinion on the war, where does it come from? Does the argument of NATO expansion justify invasion? How exactly does NATO benefit from a war on its border? Expansion, into a country it did not want to be in NATO? Why did Western Leftists criticize NATO before the invading power? Why do many Western Leftists not even talk to Ukrainian leftists? What do you know about the region? Where did you learn it?
1: Defined here as the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society – Oxford Languages
2: Polish for Grandma
For those Interested Here’s some reading suggestions:
Gross, Jan Tomasz. 2006. Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation. 1st ed. New York: Random House.
Jan T. Gross. n.d. .
HIMKA, JOHN-PAUL. 2022. UKRAINE: Voices of Resistance and Solidarity. S.l.: RESISTANCE BOOKS.
Garcia, Ana, and Patrick Bond, eds. 2015. BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.
Ost, David. 2006. The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. 1. print., Cornell paperbacks. Cornell Paperbacks. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Brykczynski, Paul. 2016. Primed for Violence: Murder, Antisemitism, and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Dunn, Elizabeth C. 2004. Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor. Culture and Society after Socialism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Streeck, Wolfgang. 2014. Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. Brooklyn, NY: Verso.
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