Introduction: Russia Today
Seeking to understand Russia today, The Pen is My Machete invited anti-imperialist scholars to address the following set of pressing questions: What structural relations define Russia’s position in the world today? What is Russia’s relationship to the Global Majority? Our quest was not to advance an overarching theoretical framework, but rather to illuminate the constellation of local, regional, hemispheric, and global forces that shape Russia’s place in the world today. The collection of essays we present in this special issue wrestles with these questions from various analytical perspectives. Bulgarian historian Arto Artinian discusses the Western neocolonial theft of post-Soviet societies, showing how the West saved itself from the global accumulation crisis of the 1980s by pillaging the wealth of Russia. The People’s Academy founding-member Pawel Wargan discusses the neo-colonial forces that drive the ongoing European Union-NATO war against Russia. Wargan challenges the ‘analytical myopia’ of Western scholars when it comes to Russian economic and political roles in today’s world. Henry Hakamäki, Guerrilla Podcast educator and translator and editor of the works of Domenico Losurdo (b. 1941, d. 2018), reviews Losurdo’s Stalin: History of a Black Legend. In a thought-provoking interview together with co-translator, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Hakamäki discusses how the mainstream liberal Left fragmented and distorted the history and legacy of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, paving the way for the triumph of the denial of Soviet history in Western debates on Russia.
From the Black Alliance for Peace, historian Glen Ford warns us that crises and disruptions of the capitalist system ‘do not, by themselves, bring down the system.’ In a speech delivered at the 2020 United National Anti-War Coalition conference, Ford discusses why Democrats became the ‘New McCarthyite Party’ that unleashed a new Russophobia, how Republicans seized the momentum, and why the historical Black consensus against imperialist wars is today’s pivot for building socialism. Calling our attention to West Asia, Iranian comparative literary scholar Elaheh Karimi Riabi reminds us that the fall of Bashar Al-Assad is only a short-term event in a larger conjuncture of forces linking the political aspirations of Moscow and Syria. The monumental October Revolution that changed the horizon of internationalism and socialism for the peoples of the world, is the theme of the essay ‘two views on the Russian Revolution’ by Guyanese Marxist historian Walter Rodney (b. 1942, d. 1980).Written at a time of anticolonial struggles around the world, the essay discusses the linkages between Third World emancipatory struggles and the Russian Revolution and its unbroken bond of militant solidarity with the working classes of the world.
Remembering Russian thinkers who are no longer with us, Greek economist Stavros Mavroudeas honors the life and times of Alexander V. Buzgalin (b. 1954, d. 2023). At a time when Marxism was under siege, Buzgalin established the Post-Soviet Marxist school, contributing to the rise of a new and vigorous Marxist school of thought that continues to yield some of the most rigorous scholarly works on Russia today. Because this month we celebrate the 108th anniversary of the October Revolution, we cheerfully included in this issue the work of the ‘soldier poet,’ Miguel Hernández (b. 1910, d. 1941). A towering figure in revolutionary poetry, Hernández travelled to the Soviet Union in 1937, from where he praised the ‘gigantic work accomplished by the Soviet people who live and work with joy and confidence in the future of the world.’ Hernández wrote his poems at a time when militant men and women of the world bonded together in ‘a fraternal sense of life’ against European fascism.[1] His poem titled ‘Russia,’ allows us to reflect upon our own times and the role of Russian peoples in the global struggle against fascism.
Our guest contributors make clear that the great heritage of the Russian Revolution, the dialectics of its historical change amid relentless imperialist aggression—including militarism and sanctions—and the forces of economic change at play during 1989, 2008, and 2014, are key for understanding Russia today. Their analytical arguments and historical expositions in many ways surpassed our expectations for this issue. The contributors have opened new lines of inquiry into Russia’s trajectory: from a ‘Eurasian’ perspective on its geopolitical identity, to the political aspirations of Russian society living under Western sanctions; from emerging regionalisms pivoting around Russia, to the direction, scale, and speed of historical change still in the making. In doing so, they have posed the questions that matter to all anti-imperialist scholars. We embrace the challenge of finding answers to these questions as we continue our collective effort to understand the constellation of forces shaping Russia’s role in the world, past and present.
Jeannette Graulau is a member of AISC. ____________________________________________________________________________________
[1] Santana Arribas, Andrés, ‘Segundo viaje de Miguel Hernández a Rusia (6-9 de junio de 2005),’ I Jornadas Hernandianas en Rusia, Fundación Cultural Miguel Hernández/Asociación de Hispanistas Rusos (2005) [online] https://www.miguelhernandezvirtual.es/new/files/segundoviaje.pdf .