Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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Russia

Understanding the contradictions of Ukraine

rs21 member Sam O’Brien argues for a more nuanced understanding which sees both the struggle for national liberation and rivalry between imperialist powers as driving the war.

American and Chinese flags and USA dollars

Review | The New Cold War

The new imperialist world order is characterised by increasing military tensions between the world’s major powers, but also by economic competition.

Chernobyl 1986 – when nuclear power came of age

A lethal combination of technical arrogance, corporate and state deceit and human fallibility that will forever lie at the heart of nuclear power.

Man spray paints image of Gorachev on a wall

Mikhail Gorbachev: twin portraits of a failed reformer

Gorbachev was neither a liberal man of peace nor an incompetent who trashed Russia

Graffiti is a flying bird in the colours of the Ukrainian flag

Inside the Ukrainian Resistance

Interview about the Ukrainian Resistance, the state of war, the dynamics of class struggle and popular consciousness, and the tasks of the international Left in building solidarity with Ukraine.

Striking union organisers raided by Russian security forces

Russian security forces raided the apartments of independent trade unionists in Moscow in a direct attack on the organising of gig workers.

Crowd with placards. One has chess board and 'stop playing with our lives'. Another reads 'Stop the war your imperialist pigs'

Russia’s war and the West

Gareth Dale responds to an article by Tom Bramble exploring the reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Russian imperialism under Putin

The invasion of Ukraine can be understood only with reference to the imperialist competition that dominates the world system.

Stop the war! No to Nato!

Opposition to the war doesn’t mean siding with the West’s rulers.

Protest in London on 6 March 2022. Placard reads 'Putin is murder, liar, gangster.' Ukraine flag in background. Photo by Steve Eason.

How the West made Putin

Anindya Bhattacharyya charts a recent history of links between Putin and key figures in the Western ruling class.

Imperialism is a world system - photo of earth with colour filters

Russia’s invasion and world imperialism

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows that we have to understand imperialism as a world system.

NATO: the West’s war machine

rs21 member Andy Gammon argues that solidarity with Ukrainians means calling for an end to NATO.

Ukrainian soldiers train with javelin missile systems in Donbas. These are arms supplied to Ukraine by NATO.

On the invasion of Ukraine

A statement from the rs21 Steering Group on the inter-imperialist war currently being waged in Ukraine.

A picture of jailed Russian antifascist Ilya Shakursky

‘Solidarity is a stream of sparks’: interview with an antifascist political prisoner

‘We are not alone, we are together, and we will win’: An interview with Russian antifascist political prisoner Ilya Shakursky.

Popular Uprisings in Lebanon and Belarus

Video: Popular Uprisings from Belarus to Lebanon

Mass movements around the world are continuing to upset the status quo. We were joined by activists from Belarus and Lebanon to learn more about the struggles unfolding in both states.

Protests in Minsk

Interview: Organised and disorganised labour in the Belarus uprising

Siarhei Biareishyk speaks to rs21 about the uprising in Belarus following the falsified re-election of Aliaksandr Lukashenka on 9 August 2020.

Interview: Putin’s crisis of legitimacy

A referendum characterised by unprecedented falsification theoretically clears the way for Putin to stay as Russian president until 2036, but popular support for his regime is declining sharply.

revolutionary reflections | Endgames of US petro-imperialism?

Brian Parkin explains some of the contradictions of the energy markets and the process of US imperial decline in an era of climate catastrophe

Review: We Need To Talk About Putin

Mark Galeotti’s alternate perspective on Putin, as presented in his recent book We Need to Talk About Putin, provides an interesting read.

Interview: Ukraine’s crisis of representation

Yuliya Yurchenko discusses the landslide victory of the comedian Vladimir Zelensky over the incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the Ukrainian presidential election.

Repression in Russia: demonstrate on Saturday 19 January

Support anti-fascists and leftists facing repression in Russia this Saturday.

None of them care about Syrian lives

Emma Wilde Botta and Shireen Akram-Boshar provide the background you need to understand the conflicts and consequences of Trump’s Syria withdrawal plan.

The Looming Massacre in Idlib

The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is threatening to carry out a massive assault on the province of Idlib, including a potential chemical weapons attack, in a bid to crush one of the last strongholds of opposition. Such an assault would have a potentially devastating impact on civilians, many of them refugees from the […]

Review: Ukraine and the Empire of Capital

Nick Evans finds much of interest in Yuliya Yurchenko’s analysis of Ukraine’s recent history.

Syria and US intervention

Listen to Omar Sabbour on the real nature of the US intervention in Syria and the implications for anti-imperialists and the left.

Russia: antifascists face torture and state repression

Russian antifascists have endured abduction and torture by state security agencies, as authorities use forced confessions to smear the left

LGBT Russians, 1921

Queer emancipation in early Soviet Russia

A long letter from a gay man highlights the emancipation which touched LGBT people across Russia after October 1917.

There’s nothing so weird as a revolution

Ian Birchall reviews China Miéville’s October, a new history of the Russian Revolution. It seems an odd pairing: the Russian Revolution and China Miéville, whose reputation is based on fantasy fiction which he himself describes as “weird”. But one only needs to read a few pages to realise that this is not a forced marriage […]

Images of Russia from liberation to oppression

Steve Eason reviews Red Star Over Russia and Not Everyone will be Taken into the Future by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, both at Tate Modern.

How memories of Soviet repression turn Eastern Europe against the left

Hanna Gal offers some personal thoughts on anti-communist political culture in Eastern Europe and how to bridge the divide between Eastern European workers and Western Marxists.