[The left must offer a program of an honest peace without
territorial conquest or any further aggressive policy, with
remuneration for all destruction at the expense of those who unleashed
this massacre.]
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BORIS KAGARLITSKY: MY PEACE PLAN  
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Boris Kagarlitsky
June 28, 2023
Russian Dissent [[link removed]]

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_ The left must offer a program of an honest peace without
territorial conquest or any further aggressive policy, with
remuneration for all destruction at the expense of those who unleashed
this massacre. _

, photo Elmar Rustamov

 

Among the international communist and left movements, including their
Russian branch, there has been, throughout the entire period of the
war in Ukraine, three conflicting assessments of the situation:
unconditional support for Ukraine, a cowardly position of
“critical” support with “reservations,” and unequivocal
condemnation. However, even the generally correct anti-imperialist
position of rejection of militarism suffers greatly from
“pacifism” in the worst sense of the word. That is, this point of
view, by and large, comes down to only one thesis - the immediate
cessation of hostilities, without a specific plan, explaining by what
methods this will be achieved, by what means, under what conditions,
at what borders, etc.

And the social-chauvinists do not miss the opportunity to use this
circumstance as an advantageous argument for themselves as
justification for their conciliatory position: “And what do you
propose? The war is already going on, this is a given, it is not
possible to stop it, we must simply win and everything will end.”

Moreover, absurd and groundless accusations of “pro-NATO” and
“pro-American” rhetoric, and even of support for NATO's crimes,
are also flying at the communist internationalists.

You think we don't know about this!? We, whose senior comrades, and we
ourselves, have consistently condemned the invasions of Iraq, Syria,
Libya, Yugoslavia for so many years, held protests against the bombing
and interference in the affairs of sovereign countries and rallies of
solidarity with the peoples of these countries. Do you think we would
hide and deny the role of the “alliance” in the destruction of the
USSR and the socialist bloc, in the catastrophic results of these
processes? Let's leave these accusations against us to the conscience
of these moralizers, if anything is left of that at all. Their
position is all the more hypocritical because they themselves are well
aware of the character of the current Russian government, which has
started and continues the hostilities. It pursues a policy in its own
interests, which by no means identical to the interests of the people,
otherwise all this bloodshed would never have been started. So it was
with almost all the conflicts of recent years in which this government
participated: Chechnya, Syria, and now Ukraine. They have sold weapons
surreptitiously, and they trampled on agreements, all to promote the
interests of various oligarchs. It doesn't happen otherwise.

It is impossible to be against the government and at the same time
support its policies; this is called “schizophrenia” or “split
personality.” Let psychiatrists figure it out from there.

At the same time, unilateral calls to stop deliveries of NATO weapons
to Ukraine “here and now,” without preconditions or demands, no
matter who they come from, are naïve and have a slight shade of
hypocrisy and irresponsibility. After all, no similar requirements
have been presented to the opposite side.

In fact, the authors and heralds of this idea, perhaps unwittingly
themselves, are playing along with only one of the parties in the
conflict. In other words, if this requirement is implemented, the war
will not stop but will continue, but only on terms more favorable to
the Russian army. It will be temporarily suspended on the current
“lines of contact” until Putin's oligarchs gather strength for
their new campaign, using the truce as a respite. And for the people
of Russia, this automatically means the preservation of the political
regime, the continuation of police repression, state terror, and the
preparation of the authorities for a new, broader general
mobilization. In other words, such a truce would be no less - or even
greater - of a catastrophe for Russian society than a military defeat.

Let's try to imagine a real plan that would actually work to end the
confrontation, and not simply to extend the Putin oligarchy. It could
consist of four main points:

1. Stop fighting on both sides;

2. Cessation of any supply of foreign weapons and ammunition to both
Ukraine and Russia;

3. Abandonment by the Russian Armed Forces of the territory of Ukraine
as of February 1, 2014 (“zero option”);

4. The UN and its peacekeeping forces are temporarily introduced to
the territories left by the RF Armed Forces.

In fact, even some official propagandists are beginning to understand
the need to move in this direction. For example, Margarita Simonyan,
head of the Russia Today TV channel, proposed to hold referendums
again (in other words, from the point of view of the authorities, she
calls for a review of the new borders of the Russian Federation). It
seems that in the fall of last year, the Zaporozhye and Kherson
regions, and the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics were entered
into the Constitution of Russia. The Criminal Code even has a special
article for such a case: “Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Federation. Public calls for actions aimed at violations of
the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.”

If you believe the Kremlin propaganda, one of the mouthpieces of which
is Simonyan herself, there have already been “referendums” in
these regions, but now she is proposing to hold new ones. So then, you
will admit that what happened before was a circus, and not a vote?

But here a fundamental point emerges: it is necessary to stop the
bloodshed not only to correct the previous injustices, but also to
prevent new ones. It won't be easy or simple. And in order to stop the
escalation of violence and repression from any side, an appropriate
policy is needed, which needs to be thought out today.

In order to avoid clashes and outrages on both sides, it is proposed
to create a “humanitarian corridor” in the territories left by the
Russian troops for the unhindered exit of residents in both
directions, and to temporarily deploy UN peacekeeping forces from
among countries that are not directly or indirectly involved in the
conflict.

Failure to comply with at least one point entails the continuation of
the war with innumerable victims and suffering for Ukrainian and
Russian citizens, a war that claims hundreds and thousands of lives
every day. So let's find out, looking at the reactions to this
program, what is actually more important to the elites and governments
- is it land and territory, saving face (in fact, saving power and
capital), or is it people's lives? Bring out the hysterics to the
slaughterhouse, who themselves are in no hurry to leave for the front,
or send their children and relatives there!

Everything has gone too far, Russian territory is being shelled (it
was foolish to believe that this would not happen - usually in wars,
in response to constant shelling, the other side also starts shooting
back!), and threats of a nuclear apocalypse are heard. Yes, the
chances of this scenario occurring are extremely small, but such
rhetoric itself speaks of the seriousness of the current situation.
Time does not wait!

The peoples are tired of war, they want peace, and therefore a plan is
needed that will stop the bloodshed and create conditions for the
mutual laying down of arms, without fear of monstrous consequences for
Ukrainians and Russians.

The left must offer a program of an honest peace without territorial
conquest or any further aggressive policy, with remuneration for all
destruction, not from the pockets of the working people, but at the
expense of those who unleashed this massacre. It cannot be ruled out
that such a “peace plan” could bring the revolution in Russia
closer, contribute to the awakening of class consciousness among the
soldiers, to their desire for self-organization, and to an awareness
of themselves as an independent force. The left is fundamentally in
favor of finally saying its word to “His Majesty the Working
Class,” the same class that is often thrown into a meat grinder
against his will and desire. So that there are no “agreements”
behind the back of the people, and at their expense, and the working
people themselves ought to be the ones to stop the war. However, for
the time being we have to be guided not by what we ultimately desire,
but by the existing reality. And therefore, we need to take
responsibility, take the first step, and begin the process that will
lead to an end to the war, and lead the workers to victory in the
struggle for their power, so that the defeat of the insane adventurist
plans of the government of the Russian Federation does not turn into a
defeat for the people and the country.

_Translated by Dan Erdman_

_BORIS YULYEVICH KAGARLITSKY
[[link removed]] is a
Russian Marxist [[link removed]] theoretician
[[link removed]] and sociologist
[[link removed]] who has been a political
dissident [[link removed]] in
the Soviet Union [[link removed]]. He is
coordinator of the Transnational Institute
[[link removed]] Global Crisis
project and Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social
Movements
[[link removed]] (IGSO)
in Moscow [[link removed]]. Kagarlisky hosts
a YouTube [[link removed]] channel Rabkor,
associated with his online newspaper of the same name and with
IGSO. _

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