Communist party briefing Six BACKGROUND TO EVENTS IN Ukraine Economy and population In 1990 the Ukraine had the second biggest GDP in the SU after the Russia Federation. It specialised in metallurgy, coal, aircraft, motor production and space craft as well as agriculture. Its population grew from 38m in 1952 to 52m in 1991. In the ten years after the dismantling of the Soviet Union its GDP fell to 40 per cent of the previous level. Almost all sectors of the economy were privatised. The population has fallen sharply to 45m.in 2012. Living standards collapsed. Per cap income is now $6,700.
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Political background A Soviet government was declared in Kiev in December 1917 but was driven east by proAxis forces and, after the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, into exile. After the defeat of the Axis powers in 1918 the revolutionary movement redeveloped and a Ukrainian Soviet Republic was formed in March 1919. In the wars of Western intervention that followed most of western Ukraine was absorbed into Poland and the south-west in Romania. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became a member state of the USSR in 1922 – although western (mainly British) intervention sustained right-wing nationalist resistance into the 1930s. In the late 1930s the Ukrainian nationalists in both Polish occupied Ukraine and the Soviet Ukraine switched allegiance to Nazi Germany and were heavily financed to undertake subversive activities. In June 1941 their leader Stepan Bandera established a quisling state and adopted an ‘elimination’ policy against the very large Jewish population. Bandera was removed by the Nazis in December 1941 but reinstated in November 1944 to mobilise resistance to the advancing Soviet army. Under the Nazis up to 3m Ukrainians were killed – most of them Jewish
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but including many non-Jews involved in the resistance. The great bulk of the population in the eastern Ukraine, industrialised in the 1920s and 30s, opposed the Nazi occupation and fought with Soviet forces.
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Post-Soviet Ukraine In 1991, after Yeltsin’s dissolution of the Soviet Union, the previous third Secretary of the Ukrainian party, Leonid Kravchuk, became President, took pro-Western positions and initiated a process of very rapid privatisation – creating powerful clans of industrial oligarchs. He was replaced in 1994 by Leonid Kuchma, whose power base was in Eastern Ukraine, and who followed a policy of closer alignment with Yetsin’s oligarch government in Russia. He left office in 2004. All the contenders for political power in the period since served as ministers under Kuchma: Julia Timoshenko,Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. All head (or headed) oligarch clans. The Communist Party was re-formed in the 1990s. The party has a significant base in southern and eastern Ukraine, mainly among industrial workers. It has actively campaigned against privatisation and oligarch rule. In the most recent parliamentary elections (2012) it secured 13.1 per cent of the vote.
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Developments since 2000 The replacement of Yeltsin by Putin in 2000 saw the United States revising its policies in Eastern Europe and seeking to pull frontline states, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine, into alignment with NATO. It gave active backing to Viktor Yushchenko and Julia Timoshenko in their bid to prevent Viktor Yanukovych succeeding Kuchma in the 2004 presidential election. The Orange Revolution was the result – with major mobilisations in the nationalist west forcing the
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annulment of the election and the holding of new elections which returned Yushchenko as president and Timoshenko as prime minister. Ukrainian troops were sent to assist NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The two oligarch clans subsequently fell out – and this, combined with the impact of the 2008 economic crisis, allowed Yanukovych to return as president in the 2010 election on a policy of non-alignment. Yanukovych represents oligarch interests principally oriented towards trading with Russia but has pursued highly opportunist policies – playing off the EU and Russia for the best results.
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In October 2013 he won a vote in parliament allowing him to negotiate for associate membership of the EU. Only the Communist MPs voted against. Then in December he reversed his position to seek a closer relationship with the proposed Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. This resulted in mass protests – spearheaded by right-wing nationalists and fascists.
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The Communist Party The party characterises current events as an attempt at a coup which threatens civil war and the disintegration of the Ukrainian state.
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Although it opposes any alignment with the EU, it has been calling for a referendum on the issue. It also calls for an end to the presidential system and the establishment of a parliamentary republic with a significant measure of federalism and elections based on proportional representation.
Bandera. The Secretary General of NATO Anders Rasmusen described the proposed EU pact as ‘a major boost to Euro-Atlantic security’. The anti-government forces The main pro-EU forces are Timoschenko’s Fatherland Party (base in the west and with 25 per cent of the vote in the 2012 election), the pro-EU Democratic Alliance of ‘the boxer’ Klychkov (13 per cent in 2012) and the fascist Svoboda (9 per cent in 2012). Svoboda now controls several cities in Western Ukraine and has been systematically erecting statues to Bandera and destroying Soviet war memorials.
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Much of the street mobilisation has been organised by even harder line neo-Nazi elements: Spilna Sprava (Common Cause) Trizub (Trident) Right Sector
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It points out that any free trade treaty with the EU would wipe out the Ukraine’s relatively advanced shipbuilding, motor and aircraft industries and only benefit those oligarch clans trading in raw materials and those who have seized control of Ukraine’s land resources.
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It condemns the government’s handling of the protests but highlights the level of US, German and NATO intervention and the degree to which there has been active support for extreme right-wing politicians. Senator john McCain shared a platform in December with the leader of the fascist Svoboda party, Oleh Tyahnybok, who shortly before had led a 15,000 march through Kiev in honour of Stepan 2/2