Firstly, thank you for accepting me into the community. Within the last few weeks I came to the realisation that there is no such thing as a healthy, stable, capitalist society. I want to learn more about communism because it could be a real alternative to the frankly poor conditions of working class life in the UK (and any other capitalist country).
There is one thing that stands out to me here that I’d like to understand because it’s a little jarring. In a few places (e.g. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9012898/6943775) on the topic of Russia, specifically the war, people seem to believe the invasion was justified and that the Ukraine government is Nazi? Why? From my point of view, which I do admit is going to have inherent Western/NATO bias because I live in the UK, is that this is an example of Russian imperialism. If the US invaded Canada, or the UK invaded France, it would rightly be considered a travesty. Why is Russia not given the same treatment? After all, it is not communist any more and it is working class people being sent to die in this war.
Shouldn’t the modern Russian government receive the same scrutiny as any other capitalist government?
Imperialism isn’t just taking over territory. If it was almost every country would be imperialist and it wouldn’t be a very useful word now would it. Invasion is one way to force a country in a state of imperialist subjugation, but it isn’t what imperialism is.
The accusation that the current Ukrainian government is run by neo-nazis doesn’t come from nowhere, it is common to see Ukrainians soldiers and politicians harboring various fascist nazi related symbols including on official photos. They aren’t brandishing swastikas of course (at least not when there are journalists around) even fascist understand that this wouldn’t fly even in the heavily propagandized west, instead they use less well known fascist symbols. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some they use often:
The flag of the OUN:
The OUN was a fascist paramilitary group that operated in Ukraine during ww2 and openly collaborated with the Nazi invaders.
The face of Stepan Bandera:
The leader of the militant faction of the OUN. The Ukrainian government has taken various actions to enshrine him as a “war hero”, including passing a law that forbid denying that he was. Some Ukrainian military patches have his face on them.
The black sun or sonnerad:
A symbol created by Heinrich Himler and used by neo-nazis world wide. You can see it on the Azov patches.
The wolfsangel:
A “rune” widely used as symbol in nazi germany and by neo-nazis. This one tend to be more sneaky than the other, especially with the variations in dimensions and orientations it’s displayed in. Ukrainian fascist like to deny its nazi origin and claim that their’s is actually a capital I and N mashed together and standing for “the Idea of a Nation”. You also see it on Azov patches:
Totenkopf/gestapo skull:
Exactly what the name says, a human skull symbol used by the gestapo.
Emblem of the 14th waffen grenadier division of the SS:
The emblem of a branch of the SS that operated in Ukraine during the occupation.
The iron cross:
Like the wolfsangel, this one is a bit sneaky due to the variety of forms it takes.
These are only some of the most used ones that I can think off. There are many more.
If you pay attention you’ll see these frequently on photos of Ukrainian soldiers or in photos taken inside a Ukrainian politician’s home or office.
Adding to this, there were a lot of foreign fascists joining the Ukranian army. Lots of them openly showed nazi symbols such as this ones. Fortunately, this trash is getting liquidated.