Umsebenzi Online Volume 21, Number 4, 14 July 2022
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Volume 21, Number 4, 14 July 2022 |
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Red AlertThe fascistisation and nazisisation of international relations: Events in Ukraine from the point of view of Marxist-Leninist theory |
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By Professor Alexander Mezyaev
The events in Ukraine in 2022 are presented by mass-media as a "Russian-Ukrainian conflict". However, such an interpretation seems to be erroneous and misleading. Like any phenomenon of social life, the events in Ukraine should be considered from a scientific point of view, from the standpoint of Marxist-Leninist theory.
For a correct understanding of the events occurring in the world today, it is necessary, first, to single out what is the main and what is fundamental to them. Thanks to the purposeful activities of the media, the events in Ukraine have become main (central) to modern international relations. However, the question arises: are these events the fundamental ones? Certainly not. To identify the fundamental events of modern international relations, we need to turn to the theory of imperialism developed by V.I. Lenin in his work "Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism".
In this work V.I. Lenin identifies five basic features of imperialism, among which are: (1) that the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, based on this "finance capital," of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquired exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves and (5) the territorial division of the entire world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.
The more than a century that has passed since the formulation of these basic features of imperialism has not only confirmed their accuracy but also showed that all these features are developing with increasing activity.
But first, special attention should be paid to the second feature, which relates to the formation of finance capital. In the second half of the 20th century, finance capital grew so strong that it was able not only to "fight" states but also to successfully defeat them, to "capture" them. At the same time, we are talking not only about the states of the "periphery" but also the "centre" states. In the 21st century, the supranational (global) finance capital has already set the task of eliminating the nation-state as a global project.
The first major attempt to change the world system by finance capital was the Second World War. Fascism, exemplified by German Nazism, was chosen as a weapon for destroying the world system that existed at that time. The main target for destruction was the USSR. Up until now, the Second World War is usually dated back to 1939, although from the point of view of its goals, it is more correct to speak of 1941 as the beginning of this war (the moment of the attack on the USSR). The war on the western front had a fundamentally different character than on the eastern one (that is, against the USSR). On the western front, the war had the character of gaining control over the territory together with the population, when on the eastern front Germany waged a war of extermination of the population. The war of Nazi Germany against the USSR was of a colonial nature according to the Anglo-Saxon type of colonialism: the territory was conquered for the settlement of the "superior" German race and thus, the local population was to be eliminated. It should be recalled that in 1941, the USSR was attacked by a coalition of nine fascist states, the main striking force of which was Nazi Germany. Thus, the model of fascism-Nazism was formed and tested as a means of radically breaking the world order.
At the 7th Congress of the Comintern, fascism was defined as an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital. As you can see, back in 1934, the relationship between fascism and financial capital was clearly highlighted. From this correct conclusion follows the supranational character of fascism and, as a result, its focus on the destruction of the existing world system as a whole. Hence an important reminder to all the states of the world today: the revival of fascism and Nazism will affect not only individual states. The goal is the entire world system.
The victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany (and the other 8 fascist states of Europe), unfortunately, did not become a complete and final defeat of fascism. To understand this fact, it should be borne in mind that European fascism and Nazism was a special military-political project of the Anglo-Saxon world, primarily the United States and Great Britain. In modern historical research, the role of these countries in bringing Hitler to power is shown in sufficient detail. One should not be deceived by the participation of these states in the anti-Hitler coalition jointly in the USSR. The second front was opened by the "allies" of the USSR only in June 1944 - three (!) years after Hitler's attack, and moreover, when the USSR had already almost completely liberated its territory and began to liberate the countries of Eastern Europe. The position of the US military elite was openly expressed by then - time Senator and future President of the USA H. Truman: "If we see that Germany is winning, then we should help Russia, and if Russia is winning, then we should help Germany. And let them kill as many as possible."
In 1999, the UK declassified its archival documents, from which we learned about Operation Unthinkable, that was developed in April 1945 (a month before the victory) - the plan for the invasion of the USSR just a month after the Hitler's defeat! The invasion was planned to be executed by both the British troops and the captured troops of Nazi Germany. The evacuation to the US of a huge number of employees of the Third Reich also suggests that as early as the spring of 1945, fascism and Nazism were assessed by finance capital only as having suffered a tactical, but not a strategic defeat, and were considered as weapons in future wars.
The fact that the US and UK elites pay special attention to the concentration camp staff, a significant part of whom were also evacuated to the United States, should not escape our attention. Until now, this fact may look incomprehensible due to the incorrect general assessment of Nazi concentration camps as "death factories". In fact, the main goal of the Nazi concentration camps was not killing and using them as slave labour, but experimentation on people. The killings in the camps were only the visible side of this process. The invisible side is still almost unknown. At the same time, the most important part of the experiments in the concentration camps was not so much physical but mental experiments of the cruellest nature. The demand for the organisers of these experiments and their results for finance capital suggests that the corresponding plans were intended to radically change the humanity as a whole.
The destruction of the USSR was the result of its defeat in the Cold War. The term "cold" should not mislead us in understanding the essence of this phenomenon precisely as war. Considering that the main instrument of influence in this war was the influence on the minds of people (and, therefore, on their psyche), apparently, it still remains to be seen what the role was in this process of obtaining the results of mental experiments of Nazi concentration camps by West.
The destruction of the USSR was only an intermediate stage in the implementation of the unfinished operation of finance capital to radically change the world-system. The USSR was destroyed, but Russia remained. The fact that Russia immediately became the next main target of the West is evidenced by the immediate expansion of NATO. Despite the fact that the Warsaw Pact Organisation (WPO) was dissolved, despite the closure of all military bases by Russia (in Cuba, in Vietnam), NATO expansion only intensified and surrounded the territory of Russia with an ever - denser ring. Despite the promise of the leaders of NATO countries not to expand their membership "one inch to the east", not only former WPO members but also countries that were previously part of the USSR itself were brought into NATO.
A quantitative analysis of NATO military bases around Russia signals the goal of waging war against Russia, including biological warfare. There are currently 336 US biological laboratories in the world. Most of them are located around the borders of Russia, twenty-six of them - in Ukraine.
During the special military operation (SMO) of Russia in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, information was revealed that proves that the purpose of these U.S. laboratories is not scientific research but has a military orientation and objective. The data and evidence have been presented by the Russian Ministry of Defence to the UN Security Council. The special connection of the US Democratic Party and the Biden family personally with Ukraine in this regard has yet to be completely revealed and understood by the world in connection with the information that has already come in and that continues to come in.
The destruction of the USSR did not complete, but, on the contrary, intensified the military activity of the West. It was after the destruction of the USSR that the process of a new fascistisation of international relations began. While the permanent destabilisation of the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America was conducted under the cover story of "democratisation", the destruction of Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, came as an open terror - thus manifesting the process of fascistisation of the modern world.
In the same period, another important process occurred. Under the guise of creating "international" judicial bodies, the institutionalisation of global bodies of financial capital has been accomplished. First, the ad hoc criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) were established, and then the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). The essence of these institutions as bodies of global governance (that is, as bodies of finance capital) is hidden by misleading names and the use of international legal mimicry (the imitation of these bodies of the features of others). Under the label "international" these courts pursue a policy that is different from the policies of states that constitute the corresponding organisations. The sole prosecutor and judges (accountable and responsible to no one!) of these courts carry out the policy of finance capital. An analysis of the activities of international criminal courts and tribunals allows us to conclude that there are three main goals of this system: 1) Maintaining international conflicts and preventing their resolution; 2) The elimination of objectionable (independent) political leaders in certain states; 3) The destruction of progressive international law replaced by the formation of a new, repressive global law.
However, Ukraine occupies a special place in the process of fascistisation of international relations. Firstly, this is due to historical attempts to form the Ukrainian nation as an anti-Russian project and, secondly, to the special role of Nazism in Ukraine. It is safe to say that the Nazi project for Germany in the 1930s and the Nazi project for Ukraine in the 2000s are completely identical in terms of combining fascism with Nazism. At the same time, it should be emphasised that Ukrainian Nazism, in terms of the cruelty of the methods of its activity, largely overlaps the cruelty of German Nazism. This was confessed even by a number of high-ranking Nazis of the Third Reich.
Open terror (fascism) against the Russian and Russian speaking population of Ukraine living in the East of the country (Donbass) constitutes not only war crimes and crimes against humanity but also genocide. According to Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), in particular, genocide is not only the killings or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the defended group, buts also the deliberate inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. This is exactly what the Nazi Ukraine government was and still doing since 2014. The intent to reach exactly these goals is expressed openly. The current President of Ukraine V. Zelensky called the peoples of Donbass as not humans and species, when the former President P. Poroshenko promised the people of Donbass that their children will spend their lives in the cellars (meaning that the Ukraine army will shell their homes for their whole lives).
For eight years (starting from 2014) the International Criminal Court showed no interest in the genocide of the Russian and Russian speaking population of Ukraine, although officially the situation in the country was under its investigation. Moreover, the ICC acted as an external "legitimator" of the coup d'état in Ukraine in March 2014. The situation changed in February 2022, when, on the third day after the start of the Russian SMO in Ukraine, carried out to suppress the ongoing genocide of the Russian population of Donbass, the ICC prosecutor began an investigation into the alleged war crimes supposedly committed by Russia. Having visited Ukraine a few days after this statement, the ICC prosecutor again did not visit the territory of Donbass, which continues to be shelled by the Ukrainian army even during the Russian SMO. At the same time, the ICC prosecutor continues to present himself as "impartial and independent."
This situation is by no means new for the activities of the bodies of "international" justice. This is not the first time that international courts have been a party to an armed conflict. Such actions were committed by the ICC against Libya and the ICTY against Yugoslavia (issuing an arrest warrant for the head of state subjected to NATO aggression). Thus, in addition to the main real goals of the "international" courts, one more can be named: the performance of the international court as a weapon of war (for example, in the form of the "de-legitimisation" of one of the parties to the conflict). The actions of the ICC prosecutor clearly fit into the main goal of the "international" courts as finance capital institutes: the maintenance of international conflicts world-wide. The ICC prosecutor is not interested in the genocide of the Russian population of Ukraine, which has lasted eight years under his investigation without any charges being laid.
To assess the situation in Ukraine in 2022, it is necessary to analyse the practical interaction of Lenin’s fourth and fifth features of imperialism at the present stage. Even at the 7th Congress of the Comintern in 1935, it was emphasised that fascism is not only an instrument of imperialist wars but also "an attempt to get out of the general crisis of capitalism." It is quite obvious that modern capitalism is in a state of deepest crisis. However, unlike the cyclical (structural) crises of previous periods, the current crisis seems to be general (systemic) one and therefore the most dangerous for capitalism (and thus - for the whole of humanity). The fascistisation or Nazification of international relations clearly shows that at the present stage, the global finance capital is ready for a big war. The implementation of the fifth feature of imperialism - the struggle for the redistribution of the already divided world - is carried out not only by states, but mainly by finance capital; hence the characteristic features of the new wars of the 21st century, in particular, the participation in these wars of private security companies, PMCs, militant groups (including those disguised as "refugees").
The Second World War showed that fascism, in the form of Nazism, is an effective weapon capable of not only capturing but also eliminating entire states and even leading to a change in the world system as a whole. The preservation of fascist-nazi personnel, the use of their experience at the beginning of the 21st century, the creation of a new Nazi state in Ukraine - is the result of imperialist contradictions between national states (as an institution of the industrial capital) and supranational subjects (as institutions of finance capital) in a process of a new re-division of the world. This new r-division has the most radical character: now the global finance capital seeks to re - divide the world without nation-states. It should be noted that V.I. Lenin, in the final formulation of the second feature of imperialism, speaking of the formation of a finance capital from industrial and bank capitals, used the neutral term "merging" (Russian: слияние). However, from the book as a whole, it is clearly seen that the formation of finance capital is not the result of the union of two capitals, but the capture of industrial capital by bank capital. Thus, the goal of eliminating the nation state as an institution of industrial capital was objectively set by the finance capital from the very beginning. Another thing is that to implement that goal became possible only after a long preparation process. The scale of the task also determines the severity of the means used (fascism-Nazism).
The Marxist-Leninist analysis of the current state of the world affairs makes it possible to conclude that though the Russian SMO in Ukraine could be considered as the main event, it is just a response to the basic event. The basic event is the fascistisation and nazisisation of international relations as the attempt of the global finance capital to resolve the general crisis of capitalism. Russia was forced to use force. It is carried out in self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. A sober look at the current state of the world brings us to the conclusion that apart from Russia, there are no states left that are ready and, moreover, capable of the existential fight with fascism and Nazism. Thus, in the case of a Russian (even bourgeois Russia) defeat in this war with Nazism - one should not build illusions about what kind of "brave new world" the supranational finance capital is preparing for humanity as a whole.
- Prof. Alexander Mezyaev Head of the Chair of the Academy on International Law and Governance in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia.
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