National Enslavement Uprising (Maidan 2014) as a Historical Innovation

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This article provides a Russian look at the recent developments and current situation in Ukraine and Russia.

Published by a Russian blogger, Denis Selezniev; Translated by AlexD exclusively for SouthFront

Recently, I have managed to formulate for myself an important difference in the historical development of the two largest post-Soviet regions – the Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Both the difference and the unity of destiny. And it consists in the fact that the Maidan in the Ukraine is jumping and the Maidan in the Russian Federation is creeping.

In short, in general what is the Maidan? Quite simply, we have today two poles (that is, two extreme types) of socio-economic development – communism and ultra-liberalism (which theoretically can flow to its highest stage – fascism). And in the middle of this scale is social democracy. Usually, the movement on this scale is called progress-reaction in the Marxist tradition. That is, the movement towards communism is progress; the movement towards ultra-liberalism (or fascism) is reaction.

At some point, the Soviet system followed the path of reaction and counter-revolution and eventually gave rise to post-Soviet. Since this development is a non-stop process, it is logical that at some point the stage of social democracy has begun. Post-Soviet social democracy. Its essence is in our specificity (because in the West it is different, because of other historical experiences) in order to reconcile the population with the emergence of large private property, that is, oligarchy. Yes, political and economic power is given to the fusion of the emerging oligarchy with the highest bureaucracy, and in return, the population retains a number of social benefits such as free medicine, education, all social securities, pensions, benefits, and so on. In addition, representative democracy and freedom of expression remain in place. Yes, no one can win the elections except those who please the ruling class, and freedom of speech and indignation does not lead to any fundamental changes but they do exist.

However, commodity countries are inevitably involved in the orbit of the global centre (which consumes these resources), which in turn seeks to minimise costs at the expense of the inhabitants of the resource periphery, and therefore post-Soviet democracy is becoming impractical and must be gradually eliminated.

And now the process of eliminating this social democracy in favour of a further liberal movement is the Maidan. The movement on this scale, on the other hand, means even greater involvement in the global economy in the second and third cast. It was the social democrats that were the hated orange kuchmists and regionals. Of course, social democrats are post-Soviet and reactionary. But they were not enough reactionary for liberalism and preserving a lot of Soviet ideological and social rudiments. In fact, the 2014 Maidan is a brilliant historical example, a historical innovation – the national enslavement uprising. Rebellion for the sake of increased control by the colonising forces. It is amazing how the Ukraine for the second time in a century became the founder of a new world trend; in 1918 in the Ukraine the style of peasant national-liberation uprisings was developed, which were cloned in the 20^th century in many agrarian regions of the world. Now we see how the Ukraine has brought the idea of national enslavement to a solid working model.

The Russian Federation is moving along the same path from social democracy to an ultra-liberal system as if in the shadow of the Ukrainian Maidan. The Russian Federation had its own jumping Maidan in the 90s, which allowed it to build on the wreckage of socialism and set the right direction for the country. The inertia from the terror that the broken Russians were subjected to by the shooting down of the parliament, the terrifying common man of the Chechen war, was enough for a very long time. Now the Ukrainian bouncing Maidan has become a scarecrow, under whose cover the same goals that were achieved by the Russians, scare them. They are a brilliant couple, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation, worthy to become role models in the science of society development. One jumps arguing about the dignity of being a slave, the other crawling after ridiculing the jumpers that there is no greatness and proving that the greatness of slavery should be measured and not as hasty.

Now the Russian Federation is starting to get up and jump in order to speed up the process. This is due to the fact that the new generation entering into political force is increasingly alien to the notions of greatness and striped ribbons. But there is no contradiction here. This movement will be in the same direction and will differ only in its speed.

The return of the Ukraine and the Russian Federation in 2012, in times of even stronger social democracy, is as impossible as the restoration of the USSR. And in the pole of ultra-liberalism we will have to start with a campaign to restrain ourselves, to smash our faces in the blood on it, so that even the latest plebeians will clearly understand what it was like at all.

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