I was 28 years old when the war began, and my political views had been formed many years before that. My world view for the most part can be described as Russian Nationalism. One of the key Russian Nationalist Ideas is the necessity of uniting the divided parts of the Russian Ethnos under a Single Government. The existence of the artificial Ukrainian State is an example of this division. Modern Russian Nationalist have spoken of this problem for over a quarter of a century. The task of reclaiming Russian Soil and reuniting the Scattered Russian Ethnos has been one of the most important objects of our Political Program. Despite that all being very important, there was no way to implement any of it. The maximum that could done in practice was printing leaflets, holding meetings, shooting at the firing range and running drills at the training center. We wanted to act but no practical means containing real possibilities ever arose. In 2014 a window of opportunity opened releasing a raging flood of thousands of Russians who for years had been waiting for this hour, and it finally came. The Russian Spring had arrived. The seemingly endless gloom had lifted, and the bright light of National Rebirth shone in Russia and within the souls of millions of Russian People.
Regardless of Liberal Media Claims in regard to our Volunteers in 2014 there was no “Hand of the Kremlin” in Donbass. We went there on our own and conducted operations on our own with a respectable outcome. Of course, most of our hopes and expectations went unrealized. New Russia was not liberated, Slavyansk was surrendered, and most of Donbass remains under Ukrainian Occupation. Be that as it may the events of 2014 were a decisive break through compared to the State of the Affairs that had reigned during the proceeding 50 years. Crimea was reunited with Russia, part of Donbass received independence from anti Russian Ukraine, and thousands of Russians have received experience waging a War of National Liberation. Beyond simply experience thousands of Russians of developed a taste for battle, they understand that they can and should take direct action. One develops an appetite the more he eats and Russian Nationalist have developed a taste for National Liberation. After 2014 it is impossible for us to accept the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, and all the other Russian Land lost after the breakup of the USSR. We have overcome the humiliating weight of National Impotency foisted on us at the beginning of the 90s, we showed ourselves and the world that the Russians are back. An atmosphere of National Inspiration arose in Donbass, a brotherhood united by the “spirit of 14” (the year of 2014, the start of the Russian Spring). This Spirit turned disparate and totally unready for war men into highly motivated, unyielding soldiers. All who held the frontier and supported the uprising from Russia walk in the Spirit of 2014 and it was this Spirit that enabled us to hold on and overcome odds heavily stacked against us more than once.
These 85 days in Slavyansk constitute a triumph of the Russian Spirit. No matter how bloody the battles most Strelkovites (the men under Strelkov at Slavyansk) remember those days as the best of their lives. No other days could be as meaningful because it was at Slavyansk where they bared the unbearable, where miraculous bravery was common and where they sacrificed for each other in the name of the highest value-Russia.
The above is the afterword to Alexander Zhuchkovskys 2018 book 85 days in Slavyansk about Igor Strelkov and the Donbass Militias defense of that city. Despite those being the final paragraphs, they actually serve as a good means for starting our review.
The Kremlin would prefer to just forget that the events of the Russian Spring ever happened, and no matter what Zanon claims the Russian Spring was never about Multipolarism and owning 3rd Reich Cosplayers. It was about Russian Irredentism which Zhuchkovsky describes as a battle of the Russian people of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltics and other “sovereign” countries to unite under a single Government for Russians. More immediately it was about protecting a concrete and utterly dispossessed, humiliated group of people, Ethnic Russians. Westerners who support Russia today often do so for reasons that don’t correspond to reality, they think the Kremlin is BASED and redpilled, others believe the Kremlin is exactly what Ritter, Escobar and the collective Zanon cabal say it is, the Leader of a Multiracial, Orthodox Christian/Shia Islamic/Chinese Confucianist, Neo-Socialist Alliance out to own the dollar and bring down the Anal Satanic West. Other than the multiracial part the Kremlin is none of that. That is, most Westerners who support Russia do so for the wrong reasons. Likewise, most Westerners who hate Russia do so for the wrong reasons. They think the Kremlin is run by Neo Soviet Hard Liners hell bent on recreating a new and even scarier USSR, others think that the Kremlin is ran by Alexander Dugin secretly and that Russian Policy is geared towards reviving a neo-Mongolian Eurasianist Empire that will subjugate Europe under an Orthodox Christian/Islamic/4th Positionst yoke like Rasputin wanted Tsar Nicolis the 2nd to do. Others think Putin is a Russian Nationalist and literally Hitler, they hate Putin for the same reason many Western Rightwingers mistakenly like him. In this vein both Western Haters and Admirers of Russia fit the Russian Spring into their own preconceived ideological boxes. Ideologs with very strong opinions about Russia and the Russian spring whether supportive or hostile require these readymade boxes, open the box and there are your inane scripted talking points and justifications for your dumb opinions. But these boxes and their contents do not help shed light on what Russia is and the Russian Spring was in any way whatsoever, if you want some legit knowledge as opposed to ideological diarrhea and low rent propaganda on these themes please read on a bit.
On Rurik/Rolo Slavsky/Skywalker/Christwalkers Legendary Blog the Slavaland Chronicles a review of a book about the Famous Donbass Militia Commander Alexi Mozgovoi was posted back in the day which received a fairly positive response. This book was authored by Alexander Zhuchkovsky, the same author we are reviewing here. Mozgovoi was Zhuchkovskys second book and 85 days in Slavyansk his first. If you find the following interesting than I encourage you to read the Mozgovoi review at the Slavland Chronicles as well if you haven’t done so, this was a collaboration between myself and Rurik and much of the commentary is his.
In Mozgovoi Zhuchkovsky leaves the reader with the impression that he was just a volunteer helping to move men and supplies to various militias in Donbass but in 85 Days we find out that he directly participated in some heavy battles himself. Part 1 of our review here doesn’t cover any fighting as he spends the first few chapters giving a basic history of what “New Russia” is historically and how Ukraine as it existed in 2014 came into existence. If you really want to “get” Russia and what motivated the men who spilt their blood in the name of that country and continue to do so today in Ukraine this historical context is essential. I said above that most Westerners with strong opinions about Russia hold these opinions either out of ignorance or ideological insistence. If you are anti-Russian than you are an enemy as far as I am concerned no matter what justifications you give. But if you are pro for the wrong reasons than Zhuchkovsky is going to give you more grounded reasons that correspond to reality to be on the side of Russia and the Russian Spring.
Zhuchkovsky is the bald guy in front
After a very brief overview of the events on Maidan which we need not go over Zhuchkovsky covers how the first thing the American Installed Satrapy in Kiev did after seizing power is cancel a law that guaranteed that any language used by more than 10% of a Regions Population was considered as a legal language for Government related activities. This served as a catalyst for mass protest against the Maidan Satrapy in the Southeast of Ukraine.
Canceling this Status [The Status of Russian being an Official Language in Ukraine] was meant to restrict the use of Russian and reduce the rights of the majority of Ukraine’s Citizenry who spoke Russian, most of all in the Southeast.
There is no hyperbole in what Zhuchkovsky is saying. On 23 of February 2014 in Donbass where literally nobody spoke Ukrainian as a first Language, and well over 90% of the population didn’t speak it at all it was just illegal to conduct Official Business with any relation to the Government in Russian. Hohol apologist will say that its bad faith or dishonest to pretend this cancelling of Russian as an official language was a big deal because speaking Russian wasn’t illegal in general. There is a subtle absurdity in this hohol apologetic. If speaking Russian at all were prohibited than it would in effect have amounted to making 90% of verbal communication in the Country illegal. Also, hohol apologist correctly in the strictly factual sense point out that the restriction on Russian wasn’t even really enforced, this is true because not even Bureaucrats and Government Employees spoke Ukrainian. The people who canceled Russians Official Status were Russian 1st Language Speakers; such was the absurdity of this situation. The law wasn’t enforced because at the time it was impossible to do so but the intent was obvious. To argue otherwise is to insist that the slippery slope is a fallacy and imagine trying to argue that after all that the world has seen in the past few decades. Giving homos a few rights won’t result in full on gay BDSM parades and dragqueen story hour. Giving immigrants a little extra help won’t result in full on ethnic enclaves and organized crime running our cities. When critics said that the intent behind gay marriage was full on BDSM parades and homos adopting boys to sodomize they were correct. Likewise, time as shown that all the privileges given to nonWhite immigrants are done with the intent of turning White Civilization into 4th world, not helping the immigrants live like 1st Worlders in European Civilization. Russians are generally smart people, and they immediately recognized the intent behind the law and unlike retarded Westerners who are easily swayed by reddit tier sophistry (omg nobody will arrest you for speaking Russian LOL, yes you can register your car in Russian right now lol) the Russians of Ukraine immediately started expressing disgust with the New Satrapy in Kiev in mass.
I want to emphasize that the overthrow of the Government and the immediate anti-Russian Measures became reasons for the emergence of resistance to Kiev, but they were not the root cause. The root cause of the events that transpired in Donbass lay much deeper and fermented over many decades.
Yes, pretending or generally thinking the current bad will between Russians and Self Conscious Ukrainians started at Maidan is an error that both pro and anti-Russian Westerners often engage in.
The region referred to as South East Ukraine has no relation to Ukraine and never did. This region was never Ukrainian culturally or politically. It is South West Russia, New Russia. Historically New Russia was the vast region that bordered the Black Sea which was annexed by Russia as a result of the Russo-Turkish Wars in the second half of the 18th Century.
1800 atlas of Russia fragment with lands taken from Turkey outlined in various colours. These lands correspond to New Russia and were never part of Ukraine.
Zhuchkovsky covers the effect that the Bolshevik Revolution had on New Russia which I also have covered quite a bit both in a few blog posts and on Notes but Zhuchkovskys summary is worth repeating on the off chance someone new is reading this and just so that it sinks into my respected and much appreciated readers consciousness that Ukraine as it exists today is a totally artificial country and the result of anti-Russian Nation Building conducted by various foreign powers and the Bolsheviks themselves.
After the October 1917 Revolution most of New Russia was included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the term New Russia was declared illegal.
Lol Imagine that Respected Readers. It’s crazy how much the opinions of Self Conscious Ukrainians, their supporters, and shit tier neo-nazis align with those of the Early Bolsheviks they hate so much for some reason. No USSR-no Modern Ukraine. It just straight up be like that and we are about to see more evidence of just how much modern Ukraine is a Soviet Invention.
During the Civil War the Ukrainian Peoples Republic was created and supporters of Ukrainization came to power in Kiev.
Don’t be confused, when Zhuchkovsky said after the October Revolution that New Russia was included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the term New Russia was forbidden, he is describing the final outcome of the Civil War and Bolshevik Politics in regard to Ukraine. Before there was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic however there was the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Republic. After the October Revolution Local Bolsheviks seized power in both Kiev and Krivoy-Rog (birth place of Zelensky BTW). The reason these 2 Republics didn’t immediately unite was because the Kiev Bolsheviks were fanatical Ukrainianizers and the ones in Donetsk/Krivoy Rog weren’t.
Even amongst the Bolsheviks who by no means can be called Russian Nationalist there was bitter disagreement about how to go about building the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Creators of the Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Republic aspired to join the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and were in unceasing conflict with the Ukrainian Peoples Republic. In the end the Ukrainian Nationalist were victorious as they enjoyed the support of Lenin and Stalin. In time the Creators of the Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Republic would all be killed and Donbass would become part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1954 Crimea would also be given over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Republic existed for all of one month from February to March 1918, but its legacy is still invoked by some Soviet Nostalgic People in New Russia. For example:
The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was invoked during the war in Donbas (started 2014), when the legislature of the unrecognized separatist Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) adopted a memorandum on 5 February 2015 declaring itself the successor to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, and Artyom as founding father.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donetsk–Krivoy_Rog_Soviet_Republic
The Artyom being refereed to there is Fyodor Andreyevich Sergeyev who organized the Bolshevik takeover of all that historically corresponded to New Russia and founded the Krivoy Rog-Donetsk Republic. He fought the Whites during the civil war and was a Bolshevik from his youth. In absolutely no way was he a Russian Chauvinist or Nationalist. He just didn’t consider himself or the population of New Russia Ukrainian. Artyom may have been prepared to turn his countrymen into generic, rootless, abstract “workers” but turning them into hohols was going too far. The man apparently had some decency and humanity left in him. He would die under questionable circumstances in 1921 and Stalin would adopt his son Artyom who would grow up sharing a bedroom with his son Vassily. Why Fydor was called Artyom I’m not sure, but his son who grew up with Stalin after his Father’s death was officially named Artyom after the nickname his father was known by. Artyomsk in Donbass, also known as Bakhmut was named in honor of Comrade Artyom.
Comrade Artyom
Before the Bolsheviks there was the Austrians. It was after the Austrians came into possession of Galicia following the first Partition of Poland that the bitter roots of Ukrainianism were planted.
It’s enough to say that during the indicated time (the 19th and 20th Centuries) the illness of Ukrianianism was planted amongst no small part of the population of Ukraine and most of all amongst the Intelligentsia. This was all accomplished thanks to the diligent work of Educational Institutions, the Press, the Catholic Church and eventually self conscious Ukrainians themselves, the most successful and famous being Michael Grushevsky.
What he means is that the educational institutions ran by Austria weren’t staffed by “Ukrainians” nor was the Press or the Church. They were run by Austrians with a goal, the creation of self conscious Ukrainians in the first place. Unfortunately, they succeeded and the result was men like Grushevsky who basically laid the foundations for what it meant to be a Ukrainian back in the late 1800s (by forging literature first and foremost). For an illustration of how this process worked in practice check out my tribute to the Ukrainian Language if you are interested.
The reason that the Austrians had need for “Ukrainians” is that the population of Galicia was Ethnically Russian. They were East Slavs and culturally/linguistically/religiously the same as those living in the Russian Empire albeit with some Polandisms in their speech after a few centuires of Polish Rule. The Austrians needed subjects that desired neither the return of the Kurwas to the North nor reunification with their ethnic kin in the Russia Empire to the East, enter hoholism.
However as I have already stated the leading factor in realizing a Ukrainian Ethnicity was the Ethnic Politics of the Bolsheviks which set a goal to manufacture Ukrainians at an industrial pace.
This is seriously not hyperbole. Once more if you don’t believe that check the article on the Ukrainian Language I already linked. My very first post about the Holodomor covers why the Bolsheviks found it expedient to ally with and please Ukrainian Nationalist as does my series about the de-Russification of Ukraine. Banal Ethnic hatred against Russians was a big factor for men like Kaganovich and Lenin, Stalin just found it tactically expedient to divide Ukrainian Nationalist from Poland. Later during his rule Stalin would start cracking down on the more outspokenly anti-Russian Cultural Figures in Soviet Ukraine including Grushevsky but this would come to a stop when Khruschev and Brezhnev, both Ukrainian born took power in the USSR. This isn’t to imply by any means that Khruschev and Brezhnev were outright raging hohols like modern self conscious Ukrainians and I would say Brezhnev was the best Leader of what amounts to Greater Russia since….Brezhnev. The point is just that in the mid 40s Stalin started taking timid baby steps at pumping the breaks on the rabid Ukrainianization he had promoted from the 20s through the 30s. By the time he was murdered in 53 Ukrainianization continued at a humbler pace in general, but it was never halted and occasionally received huge gifts from the Ukrainians running the country. Like Khruschev gifting Ukraine Crimea and Brezhnev pumping Dnipropetrovsk, his home city full of cutting-edge critical industry and infrastructure.
Any artificial ethnos is created by concrete people and powers with a concrete goal, the division and ruin of a competing power. Ukrainianism as a concept, Ukrainian Nationalism as a Political Project and in the end Ukraine as an independent Government was a systematic, goal-oriented project carried out by geopolitical enemies abroad as well as traitors within the State with the objective of weakening and dividing the Russian Ethnos.
This is a simplification but in essence 100% true. The project was first started by Austria as means of ensuring that the local Orthodox, Russian Speaking, Culturally Russian East Slavs in Galicia wouldn’t want to reunite with Russia. The torch was passed to the Bolsheviks who continued the project out of a combination of ethnic hatred on the part of the non Russian Bolshevik Leadership for Russians and the need to split Ukrainians from Poland. During the Late Soviet Period under Gorbachev the need for a Ukrainian State and totally separate from Russian Ukrainian Ethnic Group was beneficial to Zog West as a means of ensuring that Russia had less of a chance of ever crawling out from amongst the ruins of the USSR. The late Soviet Nomenklatura who ran Ukraine got filthy rich picking clean the USSRs corpse in Ukraine and they benefited outrageously from that Empires murder. This is true of all Former Soviet Republics including Russia but agreement amongst the Higher Nomenklatura Class across all the more Influential Soviet Republics was needed to go through with murdering the country. These are the traitors that Zhukovsky is speaking of. The dismemberment of the USSR also benefited Zog West obviously, hence we have conspiracy amongst both foreign and homegrown degenerates. When we see just how fast the people that murdered the USSR moved to integrate into the West it’s kinda obvious that what Zhuchkovsky is saying is true, and it shows how stupid the claim is that Russia still is and Ukraine before Maidan was ran by a Neo-Soviet revanchist cabal.
To illustrate this point Zhuchkovsky quotes from the 1st President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchmas book “Ukraine isn’t Russia”:
No matter what one thinks about the events of the 1920s it has to be said that without the Ukrainization of Educational Institutions carried out in those days that our current independence would have been impossible. The mass of Ukrainian Schools through which passed tens of millions of people has proven with time to be the most important and lasting element of a Ukrainian Start for a Ukrainian Country.
How about that, no rabid Ukrainianization under Stalin and there would be no Ukraine today. And once more, the early Bolsheviks including the Stalin of the 20s were either indifferent to Russians at best or outright hostile. Therefore, this Ukrianianization was the work of people hostile to Russia, and it was in the words of Kuchma, Ukraine’s first President who wrote a book called “Ukraine is not Russia” essential for the existence of Modern Ukraine. And who benefited from and helped liquidate the USSR in partnership with Western Bankers and Spooks? Men like Kuchma. Not regular Ukrainians who suffered almost as bad as regular Russians in the 90s.
During both the Soviet Period and under “Independent Ukraine” Donbass was always burdened by the fact that it was included in Ukraine while in essence it was Russia. A tendency to separatism didn’t start in 2014, but rather at the very beginning of its inclusion as part of Ukraine. Still, it might not be accurate to accuse Donbass of separatism. It was always Ukrainians promoting separatism from Russia and this was finally achieved illegally in 1991. It’s not actually the Rebels of Donbass that are separatist but the Ukrainians. About 100 years ago when Comrade Artyom, the Creator of the Krivoi Rog-Donetsk Republic was accused of separatism by the Ukrainian Bolsheviks he famously replied, “You are the Separatist, not us”!
Yes, the self-conscious Ukrainian Bolsheviks of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic accused Artyom of Separatism in relation to Ukraine because Artyom wanted to include New Russia as part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. And yes, the liquidation of the USSR was carried out illegally as per the Soviet Constitution and against the will of the overwhelming majority of Soviet Citizens outside of maybe the Baltics. On March 17 1991 a referendum was held on whether not to end the country and 77.85 % of the population voted no. Here is a screen shot of the results from Ukraine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum
In Ukraine specifically 71% voted to save the USSR, lower than the National Average but look at where almost all the votes for independence came from. Kiev city shitlibs and the far West Oblasts of Galicia who had been subjected to anti-Russian Nation Building for centuries already. This also matched linguistic lines pretty neatly, where all the votes for independence are concentrated is where you would find people that might actually speak some Ukrainian at home with the exception of Kiev city where the worst Russian Shitlib scum would just pretend to speak Ukrainian. Kind of analogous to Belarus today actually except that nobody at all in any oblast speaks school textbook Belarussian except for Minsk liberals who pretend to. Unsurprisingly Luhansk and Donetsk came in with well over 85% against ending the USSR and Crimea at over 87%. Now granted the Baltics and Georgias Political Leadership boycotted the vote, probably because they were worried about the outcome making the Nomenklaturas demands for independence look farcical but 77.85% wanting to maintain the country isn’t bad. I think if you ran a similar referendum for dissolving the US today the outcome for supporters of the Union would be way lower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum
But again, Zhuchkovskys assertions may sound overstated but they really aren’t. Besides the far West Ukraine gained independence against the will of the vast majority of its people. There was no triumph of downtrodden but plucky hohols gaining freedom from a tyrannical system that was oppressing them. The system separated the majority of Ukrainians from Russia against the will of both Russians and Ukrainians. Pure revolution from above, or treason in other words.
Moving back to the events of 2014:
In the Spring of 2014 in every region of New Russia mass protest against the Maidan Coup and fierce skirmishes against supporters of Euromaidan and Right Sector took place. This Spontaneous Russian Movement received the title of “Russian Spring”. From the very beginning it was a pro-Russian phenomenon, thousands of people went out on the streets draped in Russian Flags. After the reunification with Crimea hope and certainty arose amongst the population of Donbass and New Russia that their regions too would be reunited before long. We know now that these hopes were unjustified. Not just in the 8 Oblasts of New Russia where thousands took to the streets against Kiev but even in Donetsk and Lugansk where the 11th of May referendum resulted in those 2 Oblasts declaring independence. Many years later and the RF still hasn’t recognized these 2 Republics as independent (this book was written in 2018).
According to Zhuchkovsky it was the annexation of Crimea that put wind in the sails of the Russian Spring most of all. We know now in retrospect that the Kremlin had no intention of liberating New Russia and they tried to keep the genie they let out of the lamp with the Crimean Unification under control and eventually to put him back in all together.
At the beginning of April the Donbass Peoples Militia was created in Donetsk and the Army of the Southwest in Lugansk. Both were more like Community Activist Organizations at the time than true Military Formations. Eventually meetings escalated to more direct action and on April 6 the Main Government Administration Buildings were seized in both Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia did not aid in these actions then or at any time after. It was a purely local movement, starting with rocks and clubs until weapons were seized from Ukrainians Stocks and employed against the former owners. Those who first seized weapons in early April weren’t truly ready for a serious armed confrontation though. After occupying the Administration Buildings and SBU HQs in Donetsk and Lugansk the Militias just sat and waited for Russia to come and fix everything, or give the command to conduct a referendum to join the RF. This didn’t happen, instead Igor Strelkov appeared in Slavyansk on April 12 with his Crimean Company. Most likely the Russian Spring would have been brutally suppressed in its entirety if the banner of armed resistance to Kiev hadn’t been raised in Slavyansk.
Hohol apologists swear that none of the protesting was real and that pretty much everyone supported Maidan because they were mad at Russia because of Stalin and the USSR. They say it was actually Spetsnaz that seized the SBU and Administration Buildings and that all anti Kiev Protesters were paid. Obvious question, why was the hand of the Kremlin so much more effective in Crimea than in New Russia? Per pro hohol logic Russia had an analogous network of paid protestors, FSB and Spetsnaz in New Russia to the one in Crimea. If we accept the hohol claims than why did the Spetsnaz and FSB who seized the SBU and Admin buildings do absolutely nothing afterwards and why did Russia not recognize the referendums set up by FSB and voted in by their paid supporters? Hohol apologetics don’t withstand cursory scrutiny and the truth is just that Russia wasn’t interested in taking New Russia and like Zuchkovsky says this really was locals acting in expectation of their own Crimean Scenario. The “Russian” Oligarchy are not generous people, and they aren’t going to pay 10 tens of thousands of people to protest pointlessly and run referendums they don’t plan on recognizing.
It ought to be said that the situation in Ukraine on the eve of Maidan that eventually led to war is often lazily blamed on Ukrainian Nationalist and America alone. Of course, they and many others have their own interest which always will conflict with those of Russia. Russia herself however shares the biggest portion of guilt for conducting counterproductive politics in Ukraine for the entire Post Soviet Period and not even remotely supporting pro Russian movements, including in Donbass. The RF placed its bet on the Party of Regions and Yankovich and lost completely. Ukrainian Nationalism was more attractive to youth than Russian Patriotism which was associated with pro Soviet Sentiment not only in the West but also in the East of the country. The West and the US especially through the Education System, NGOs and Social Media supported anti Russian Politicians and Ukrainian Nationalist. Russia responded with complete indifference, preferring to rely on people like Medvedchuk and Yanokovich who would lose to the pro Maidan faction of the Ukrainian Elite.
Today, almost 8 after this book was written and Russia has completely lost the entire Post Soviet space besides Belarus which they almost lost a few years ago. Russia either learned nothing from what happened in Ukraine or just doesn’t care. Or maybe the people running Russian Foreign Policy are totally incapable of acknowledging mistakes. Whatever the case may be what Zhuchkovsky is describing is not an expansionist cabal in Moscow hellbent on rebuilding a lost Empire. What is being described is a system that’s totally oblivious or indifferent to threats brewing in its front yard and uninterested in creating effective levers for expanding soft power.
The reason Russia ignored pro Russian voices in Ukraine comes down to the fact that Moscow does not view the people living there as Russian. In Russia itself Ethic Russians are “Figures of Silence” as there is no Russian Nation as such, just a Multiethnic Russian Federation. As far as the Leadership of Russia was concerned Russians living in Ukraine were Ukrainians.
Moscow was in complete agreement with Kiev and the West about the status of Russians living in Ukraine and to this day Moscow is fine leaving Russians stranded in Former Soviet Republics to rot. By this logic Russians don’t exist as coherent populations outside of Russia and the “Russian” Oligarchy running the RF is free to do business with people that persecute Russians in Former Soviet Republics. If forced to choose between business and standing up for Ethnic Russians Moscow will pick business every single time. Zhuchkovsky quotes Pavel Gubarev who was one of the main organizers/coordinators of the Russian Spring in Ukraine:
Through the Education System Kiev tirelessly worked on the Banderazation of the Youth while Officials of the Russian Federation simply refused to consider us Russians. We [pro Russians in Ukraine] were never invited to study in Russian Universities or Schools. We fell into a tragic situation where “Proper Ukrainians” considered us unwanted Moskalis and the Leadership of the RF considered us Ukrainians, like Red Headed Stepchildren.
Pavel Gubarev
Of course, the Self Conscious hohols were correct to consider people like Gubarev a 5th Column. Whats so surreal and absurd though is that this Pro Russian 5th Column in Ukraine had absolutely no outside sponsors whatsoever, they were as unwanted by Kiev as they were by Moscow. The only people in Ukraine that the RF was actually supporting were those like Yanukovich:
Victor Yanukovich came to power with the support of the RF and under pro-Russian Slogans. In practice though Ukrainization was not slowed down in a single region of Ukraine including Donbass and Crimea. Yanukovichs regime was defined by it’s 2 faced nature; the slogans were pro-Russian but in practice no less anti-Russian than that of Yushenko.
Victor Yushenko became the President of Ukraine following the Orange Revolution in winter of 2004-2005. The Orange Revolution was a big anti-Russian/pro-Western protest movement supported by all the usual suspects, including “Russian” Oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky who helped fund Yushenkos campaign. Berezovsky is a banker/pornographer by ethnicity BTW. Some of Yushenkos big supporters during the Orange Revolution have sense moved to Russia, one is even a Senator. I cover that at the end of this post:
The ridiculous reality that “Russian” Oligarchs were supporting Yushenko and some of his most key supporters have since moved to Russia and one has become has a Russian Senator ought to tell you everything about the Patriotic Qualities of the Russian Leadership. The Orange Revolution was Maidan 1.0.
Everything that happened in Donbass in 2014 was fully at the initiative of the Russian Population of that region. No matter what Ukrainian or other Propagandist say there was no “Hand of the Kremlin” directing events which I saw for myself upon arriving in Donbass in May of 2014. The Russian Spring was a spontaneous revolt by Russians to protect their Russian Identity. Only at the end of Summer in 2014 was the RF forced to take measures to save the LDNR but by no means did they initiate the Revolutionary Process. Moscow has consistently only reacted to events post fact.
Why Moscow brought Crimea home while doing nothing of the sort for Donbass has no clear answer and Zhuchkovsky doesn’t speculate about that. My personal theory is losing the Naval Base at Sevastopol may have spooked enough of Putins Faction that they decided to act and act they did. They pulled off reunification with Crimea cleanly and professionally and that was even with Shoigu trying to sabotage the effort. Not long ago Putin mentioned that Shoigu ordered the Military at the last second to stand down on occupying Crimea and Putin had to countermand that order. That is even with high level sabotage Moscow can act decisively when enough of the leadership is taking the task seriously. The reason Moscow was much less enthusiastic in the case of Donbass comes to down to the identity problem in my opinion. If Russia also reunified with Donbass after just having done so with Crimea that would have terrified Russia’s beloved, respected partners in all the former Soviet Republics with significant populations of Stranded Russians. If the Leadership in the Baltics and all the Central Stans who enjoy lording over Abandoned Russians thought that the Bear was actually waking up for real, they would have panicked and created lots of headaches for the “Russian” Oligarchy and Moscow simply didn’t want that.
The main things to take away here are that New Russia, Kharkov, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporozhe, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Crimea and Odessa were never part of Ukraine until after the Bolshevik Revolution. The Russian Spring was explicitly about Russian Identity and defending it. Moscow did not support the Donbass Uprising and as far as the Kremlin is concerned there are no Russian Populations stranded abroad because a Russian is a Russian Passport Holder of any ethnicity. In fact, the best Russians according to Kremlinite thinking are not an Ethnic Russians with an Identity that requires defending and nurturing as having to do that at the State Level would negatively impact on the Oligarchy’s business opportunities in Former Soviet Republics. Finally, Ukraine gained independence in 1991 against the will of the vast majority of the population who voted to preserve the USSR. In Part 2 we will cover Zhuchkovskys speculations about who was backing Strelkov, Strelkov’s arrival to Slavyansk, Donbass Mafia Politics, and some the early battles of spring 2014.
Thanks for the education, Dr. Livcis.
Being a new subscriber, I inherently have trust and believe what you say.
I got tired of listening to Ritter's propaganda some time ago.
Simplicious turned out to be a big disappointment because he never finds fault with either Putin, the Kremlin, or the SMO. Several months ago, I wrote in his comment section, "There was never any doubt that Russia would win militarily against Ukraine. The bigger question remains: why hasn't Russia taken out Kyiv in the first place and forced a surrender instead of settling for much less? Russia will win the conflict but lose the peace because it failed to take out Ukraine. Ukraine will survive and serve as a platform to link up with European forces in a few years and Russia will say that they've been deceived again, just like every other time it said it. No country fears Russia, having been emboldened by its passive stance and eagerness to resume business with the West. Whose side is the Kremlin on, anyway? Follow the money. I was pleased to see your comment match mine when you said in your previous article, "The general axiom I am putting forward here is that a Russian Force capable of delivering Slavyansk and Kramatorsk could also deliver Kiev eventually, and without Kiev the war is a net L for Russia".
I'll be back reading your articles, Dr. Livcis. Thanks again.
Peace out, from Canada.
Fantastic, looking forward to the rest. None of my fellow Englishmen will likely ever read any of this, shame really, there is a lot that can be learned and internalised for our own struggles. Ar well.