14/3/2014

The KKE from the very first moment denounced the imperialist intervention of the USA-NATO-EU in Ukraine and the coup carried out by reactionary forces, with the participation of Nazis, which creates major dangers for the Ukrainian people. The stance of these forces and their criticism in relation to the developments in Ukraine and the referendum in the Crimea are a monument of hypocrisy. As these are the same forces that played the leading role in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, in the secession of Kosovo, in the imperialist interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, in the organizations of coups against governments that are not to their liking. They attempted to do the same in Syria as they are doing now in Ukraine.

Having as our criterion the interests of the people, we consider that the assimilation of the Crimea into Russia does not deal with this intervention effectively, nor does it solve in essence any of the real problems of the Crimean people, nor does it mean any normalization of the situation or long-term solution of peace and cooperation for the peoples of the region with prosperity and progress. The majority of the people are suffering both in Russia and Ukraine, living inside conditions of capitalist barbarity, which were brought about by the counterrevolutionary changes in 1991.

We understand that the people of the Crimea, who to a great extent are of Russian and Tatar background, are worried about the acquisition of governmental power by nationalist and fascist forces, which amongst their first acts was the targeting of minorities and communists, abolishing with a law the “regional languages” and destroying anti-fascist monuments. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of Crimea for the Ukraine and its assimilation into Russia will not solve the problem of changing the correlation of forces against the reactionary and fascist forces.

It would be different if Russia was a socialist country and the people of the Crimea had made the choice and demanded accession to a socialist union together with Russia, as occurred with the accession of countries to the USSR.

The secession of the Crimea and its assimilation in Russia will further strengthen the nationalist current, both in Ukraine and in Russia. It will entrap millions of workers in a confrontation on the basis of nationality, concealing the real causes of the conflict, as well as the only alternative solution, which exists for the workers and is found on another path of development, socialism.

There is also the danger of opening “Pandora’s Box” in other regions as well, especially in the Balkans, leading to other regions being assimilated e.g. the assimilation of Kosovo into the so-called “Greater Albania” which is linked to the annexations of the territories of neighbouring countries. There are in any case examples from the dismemberment of Yugoslavia which, in the name of the self-determination of the peoples, paved the way for border changes.

The developments confirm the superiority of socialism in dealing with related problems. All the administrative changes in the Crimea, from its declaration as an autonomous republic in 1921, in the framework of the USSR, until its administrative assimilation in Ukraine in the 1950s, occurred smoothly and peacefully, because socialist relations of production were prevalent and consequently the criterion was the interests of the working class and people.

The Crimean people, the Ukrainian people, the Russian people have historical memories and positive experiences from the years of socialism, which are not erased even if over 20 years have passed since the overthrows. The Crimean people have intense memories of the anti-fascist struggle of the Soviet people, who wrote history in the siege of Sevastopol. The fact that in various regions that are seeking union with Russia they are demonstrating with, amongst other things, red flags expresses such a memory or expectation, despite the fact that such an expectation is not realistically based on today’s reality and development. Because today Russia is a capitalist country, which is in competition with the other imperialist centres, and its people are also suffering.

The historical experience teaches that in the conditions of socialism is that the peoples and the nationalities in the USSR lived fraternally and progressed with peace, while now the nationalist-divisive poison is being spread. These peoples, all the peoples, must follow this path today.