i take the problems of nationalism + western influence in the belarus protests to heart because i had a very sad experience with them while opposing putin back in russia in the early 10s. let me tell you a little bit about it in this thread

note: i still oppose putin because he’s no friend of the working class, although i do find the majority of positions demonizing him, especially those coming from the west, insincere, misguided and unhelpful to those actually living under his rule

my main finding is that there is almost no way to oppose inequality and autocracy in the post-soviet space without it being coopted into an anti-communist position

and whenever the centrist’s position is to consider communism the worse of two evils, the two polar opposites, capitalism and nationalism come sweeping in

i starkly remember the many peculiar turns reasoning in the anti-putin movement took, fueled by the western propaganda of RFERL and others

how michael mcfaul was lauded, how foreign government missives of disapproval were shared with glee, how everyone wanted to side with EU and US against putin but also against russia

how the nationalist fervor began fermenting in reaction to this. although, nationalism within russia meets more resistance because there is no “soviet colonization” narrative to justify it from a liberal standpoint

how nazi-sympathizer sentiments started creeping in, because the need to revise communist history can make you really stretch your imagination: “we’d be a better country under hitler than stalin”

how the bourgeoisie was suddenly coming to the forefront of the protests, offering surveillance solutions, rainbow capitalism, further balkanization, free markets and eternal neoliberalism

of course i was small when the soviet union was broken apart, but i understand that it all pretty much went according to the same scenario, although the fact that putin is the direct result of it all is still not clear to most

when the maidan happened in ukraine, you didn’t really have to do much to persuade people that it was the right side of history, the one that’s not with putin and is therefore inherently good

few people in the post-soviet space have been able to develop a critical view of the maidan and ukrainian nationalism, and the general trend is to dismiss any attempts to examine this further

it’s astonishing but ukrainian nationalism is very strong among the russian self-professed “leftists” today. not just liberals, of course, socialists, anarchists etc. align with ukraine on maidan, crimea, donbass

again, the idea of further balkanization of the post-soviet space is very popular, bordering on the bizarre: like when regular russians are accused of not caring enough about the ukrainian national project

right now i see overwhelming kneejerk support for the protests in belarus without any kind of nuance or reflection on the problematic parts of it, and i see overwhelming support for belarusian nationalism

because if the protestors are against luka, they must be fully on the right side of history, and there can be no fault with their positions. right? right? or what, do you support autocracy? or colonization maybe?

very few people, unfortunately, are ready to have honest conversations about the negative parts of the belarus protests. very few are brave enough to oppose the majority opinion

people who question protests are either the communist luka supporters, or right-wingers who support him and the violent cops beating people up, or a bunch of marxist sceptics who want luka gone but don’t want a maidan

meanwhile, a lot of belarusian protestors i’ve seen talk about it denounce parallels with the maidan, but at the same time remain staunchly supportive of ukrainian nationalism as their other positions show

anyone who tries to reason with the protest majority wielding the red and white flags is instantly labeled a kremlin bot, but what else is new? the binary is rigid, history has only two sides.

every criticism, like a discussion of said flag’s nationalist origins, or poland & lithuania’s nationalist and incessant influence on the protests , is discounted as russian propaganda and no one even bothers to address them seriously

anyone who asks for nuance is met with a resounding dismissal: “are you against the working people? do you want the anarchists beaten? are you against the queer liberation?”

no, but i’m against queer people, anarchists and most importantly the working class being appropriated as useful idiots for the cause of nationalism or a color revolution

and it’s funny because the same people who are so gung-ho to side with poland right now, and who share its telegram channel nexta, are the same ones who were pained by the government's mistreatment of queer people in poland recently

i also don’t want to see belarus privatized and in the pits of poverty, as its citizens roam europe looking for low-paid jobs as labor migrants. this will not be good for the working class.

whenever it's being addressed, liberal proponents of the protests say: “it’s not the right time to talk about privatization now, wait a bit”. well, post-privatization will be a remarkably much more shittier time to talk about its dangers.

it especially pains me that the aversion to serious talk from those who support the protests is often indicative of an unwillingness to investigate their bias about the soviet union, a very crucial thing right now

the vibe i get is overwhelmingly “against lukashenko, against soviet union, against communism”. we all remember the toppled statues of lenin in ukraine, too.

as i've mentioned, the reasoning literally goes like this: well, yes, the red and white flag was used by nazis, but the red and green one was used by the soviets, so the former is better

it’s become fashionable to consider yourself a leftist in the post-soviet space, online especially, but the overwhelming majority of those doing it are reluctant to go deeper than just the label and shift from their liberal positions. dialectics are too much work.

they will not read marx because marx was read in soviet universities and must therefore suck. if they somehow read marx, they will not read lenin, because lenin is “vonyuchiy sovok”, “stinky soviet”. mao is out of the question.

and don’t even propose to reexamine the soviet history and culture from a lens that’s free of the western influence: what are you, a terror apologist? again, the binary is very rigid.

but somehow these post-soviet left don’t use the same kind of critical filtering when they approach the liberal media run by local oligarchs or foreign governments even when saying they oppose imperialism.

why bother with critical thinking when the liberations that the west is offering to them are shinier, with glitter on, they’re more readily appealing, and you don’t have to do much to participate, just go along.

because in a color revolution, you don’t have to define what exactly change means, other people will do it for you, tune in, john oliver has a report ready. you just have to be prepared to implement whatever’s needed.

i try to keep my eyes on the workers of belarus. it’s not easy and from communist sources i’m hearing both overwhelming support for the strikers and reports that they are outliers or even fakes.

i will point out that the people who support strikes are also those who while coming from a marxist-leninist positions do not engage in a thorough analysis of western and nationalist influence on the protests, so that’s something.

a telegram channel on general strikes has been just launched https://t.me/zabastabel/  it's in russian but you can translate

their chat is the most curious bc people debate the veracity of strikes there a lot, so go see for yourself, and there are claims that channel’s participants are mostly from russia and poland, not from within belarus

also there are questions like: “how do i talk to my colleagues about worker solidarity if they’re all zoomers who voted for tsikhanouskaya?” oof

the online & media field are very much blurred by the liberal/western/nationalist bias and we can’t really see the workers through the red and white noise. it’s important that we remain vigilant and don’t let the same biased groups co-opt the workers' agency

by the way, i’ve been seeing this question popping up, from communists and liberals alike: well, if 80% of people voted for luka, where are they then? why aren’t they on the street?

but it’s logical that they don’t need to be on the street, no? if they support luka, then everything is like they expected it to be, so why would they protest? what would they protest?

so what are the workers doing, if anything? that’s the biggest question right now.

the liberal proponents of the protests will say to the skeptics: “workers protest but you poo-poo their protests” to deflect questions about nationalism and foreign influence. but are they doing this in good faith?

i’ve mentioned already that i rely on my personal working-class acquaintances in belarus & communist sources, and the more reliable of them more & more vehemently denounce luka but pointedly do not align with the neoliberal and nationalist protests

while the violence on the ground is real and dismissing it is evil, —especially if you’re an abolitionist,—the neoliberal and nationalist tendencies seem to be as much of a threat to worker solidarity as luka’s repressions

as i’ve said, i am very invested because i have seen all of it before. i hate to be seeing it again with the same stalwarts of neoliberalism at the helm, spewing out curses at “tankies”.

and yeah, all i want in life is for more people in the post-soviet space to stop being afraid of communism and to start being afraid of fascism.