Above: fighters from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Just a month ago, the anti-imperialist struggle was in a much worse place when it came to the Eastern European front than it is now. This is because back then, it looked a lot more likely that Russia would make a mineral deal with the United States, thereby giving Washington leverage over which foreign policy moves Russia will make next. Putin had just offered to sell Russia’s minerals; which many antiwar commentators mistakenly viewed as a good thing, when in fact it was a step towards turning Russia back into a U.S. client state. Russia becoming a U.S. business partner simply wouldn’t be compatible with Russia committing towards the anti-imperialist struggle. This is why the mineral deal proposal did not come from Russia’s revolutionary elements; it came from the pro-appeasement liberals, who still hold a fair amount of influence over Putin.
However, in recent weeks Trump’s White House has adopted a much more aggressive posture towards Russia, and this has forced the Kremlin to sideline those liberal actors. The new sanctions on Russia, the renewed aid to Ukraine, the ongoing intelligence-sharing with Kiev, and the U.S. mineral deal with Zelensky have all worked to pressure Putin into committing towards anti-imperialist resistance. And the communists, who pressured Putin into fighting back against the hegemon, are now working to further expand their movement’s influence.
As reported by the journalist Colonel Cassad, this week 120 Russian fighters “appealed to the Chairman of the Committee for the perpetuation of the memory of outstanding personalities and historical events in Nizhny Novgorod Evgeny Chintsov…with a request to support the initiative of the Nizhny Novgorod communists…to install a monument to Generalissimo of Victory Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.” Cassad noted the language these fighters used, where they emphasized how crucial Stalin’s leadership style was in defeating Hitler. One of those quoted was Vladislav Egorov, the first secretary of the CPRF’s Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch, who said that:
“Support for the CPRF initiative to install a monument to I.V. in Nizhny Novgorod. Stalin to the participants of the special military operation…says the importance of this decision in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory and in the conditions of Russia’s fight against neo-Nazism in Ukraine.”
“Stalin is the organizer of the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the liberation of Europe from fascism. Our fighters, like no one else, understand that without a strong-willed, decisive and wise leader, without the industrialization of the USSR in the 1930s, Victory in May 45 would have been impossible. The city of Gorky in the years of the first, pre-war five-year plan was transformed into the largest industrial and scientific center of the country by the decision of the Soviet leadership headed by Stalin. We are sure that 120 signatures of soldiers, sergeants and officers from various military units under the appeal in support of the installation of a monument to Stalin is just the beginning.”
Also consider the group’s language about how they’re certain this will only be the start of their new effort to re-Sovietize Russia. They’re speaking like they have full confidence that their side will keep gaining more representation. And given how much Trump has pushed Putin into aligning with their goals, they’re correct to expect this.
This is the victory our enemies have just unintentionally given us: now that Russia’s bourgeois government can no longer pretend it has a chance of compromising with Washington, its only path forward is to follow the anti-fascist military doctrine which Stalin utilized. It has to be strong-willed and decisive, or it won’t be able to survive this stage of Washington’s offensive.
For decades, the hegemon has been preparing to enter into a major war that has several fronts; it knows that to keep its dominance in the multipolar era, at some point it will need to be fighting Russia, China, and Iran all at once. The Trump White House is following this plan by sabotaging the Ukraine peace negotiations, and by inviting a direct conflict with Iran over its support for Yemen. When the U.S. instigates a war with China is less certain. It may depend on how soon Washington can get the assurance that the PRC’s biggest partners won’t back China should war break out in East Asia; which depends on how much influence the Russian and Iranian capitalist classes can exert during this next phase.
This week, the appeasers in Iran gained a major policy victory: they initiated nuclear talks with Washington, using rhetoric about the region needing to become “nuclear-free.” Much of the alt media has portrayed this as a brilliant way to get Iran leverage, yet this logic falls apart as soon as you look at the history of how Washington has acted towards Iran. To view this as something that will benefit Iran, one would need to believe the story Washington tells, where supposedly the tensions will go away if only Iran were to show it doesn’t want nukes. As the antiwar commentator Noctis Draven has written in response to this idea’s promoters:
Do you not understand that it will NEVER be enough for them? They will poke, they will pry, they will torment you to no end until they get the war with you they desire. They will be the fly in your face begging you to swat at them and when you do they use this as their excuse to pull us into war. It is not your compliance that Israel and America seeks, it is your destruction. For decades you have danced this dance but can you not see, can you not understand the dance floor is shrinking. Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and how long before Iran is next? They have not stopped so far so why do you believe they will stop with you? Again, with great humility and respect, I understand the reasoning for not wanting to possess nuclear weapons and in a perfect world, a world not filled with savages and evil this would be commendable. But we do not live in such a world. I am an American and I am telling you to pay attention to who the US and Israel bully, invade and meddle with. It is never those who possess equal destructive powers.
Draven was right to say this, but the practical reality is that Iran’s government won’t be swayed by statements from us Americans; the only way it will be swayed is through the mobilization of Iran’s popular masses. It’s absolutely necessary for us to articulate these critiques of Iran’s liberal appeasers, though; both because this indirectly helps the Iranian anti-imperialist forces, and because we must reject the capitulationist worldview if we want to win the class war where we are. The same applies to how we must treat the appeasers in Russia, or in any other other country.
We cannot take guidance from the global bourgeois elements that seek to make friends with imperialism. We must look to the example of those who are resisting imperialism with consistency and principle. The Russian communists; the Yemeni fighters; the Palestinian guerrilla warriors; these are the types of political actors who can actually defeat the hegemon. Our success depends on whether we can learn from those who’ve been successfully fighting back against colonialism, neo-colonialism, and fascism. We have to internalize the lessons from their struggles, which tell us that we can’t negotiate with the reactionaries; for them to stop waging war against us, we must bring their final defeat.
Far too many alt media voices perpetuate the myth that peace can be reached through compromising with the hegemon. To advance the revolutionary struggle, we must shatter this myth; which is something the enemy has been making much easier for us. The best thing Trump could have done for the anti-imperialist struggle was show that Washington won’t stop assailing Russia until Russia has truly won. Now that Trump has done this, we have to do all we can to support Russia in its next battles. We can’t just support Russia, though; we have to actively expose any future attempts at appeasing NATO from Russia’s liberals. And more than anything else, we must work to advance the class struggle in our own countries, building a strong proletarian organizational force. Then we’ll be able to provide solid international support for all peoples who are resisting the empire.
We have limited control over where the struggle goes in Iran, or in any other country; but Russia’s anti-fascist war is a focal point in this struggle, one that can impact every front within this fight. If we can combine the rising global worker movement with the fight against the hegemon, our cause’s next gains will be won much faster and easier.
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