Nationalist flags fly over an anti-government protest in Kiev. (cc photo: Antanana/Wikimedia)
Some commentators on the Ukraine crisis seem so convinced that it must be a struggle between good guys and bad guys that they’re willing to ignore evidence that there’s anything problematic about their chosen side.
In the US press, this generally means whitewashing the opposition that overthrew the government of President Viktor Yanukovych, since Yanukovych had the support of official enemy Russia. To maintain a simple good vs. evil framework, the fact that Ukraine’s neo-fascist movement had a significant role in that opposition—and in the new government that replaced Yanukovych—was downplayed or even outright denied.
Take Timothy Snyder’s widely circulated piece from the New York Review of Books (3/1/14), “Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda.” Snyder is a professor of history at Yale; I’ve read one of his books, The Reconstruction of Nation: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999, and thought it was excellent. But his piece on the Ukraine crisis illustrates that being a gifted historian does not automatically convey the ability to write about events in one’s own time in a clear-eyed fashion.
Photo illustrating Timothy Snyder’s New York Review of Books piece (by Jerome Sessini)
Complaining that “from Moscow to London to New York, the Ukrainian revolution has been seen through a haze of propaganda,” Snyder cited claims by both Russian and former Ukrainian officials that “Ukrainian protesters were right-wing extremists” and that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had been ousted by “right-wing thugs.” “Interestingly,” Snyder wrote,
the message from authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Kiev was not so different from some of what was written during the uprising in the English-speaking world, especially in publications of the far left and the far right. From Lyndon LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review through Ron Paul’s newsletter through The Nation and the Guardian, the story was essentially the same: little of the factual history of the protests, but instead a play on the idea of a nationalist, fascist or even Nazi coup d’état.
In other words, not only Russian and ex-Ukrainian officials, but also various Western media outlets—with the most oddball and marginal listed first—are putting forth the “propaganda” claim that Yanukovych was overthrown by the far right.
Given this introduction, you would expect the article to go on to debunk the idea that the people who overthrew the Ukrainian government were fascists. Instead, Snyder spends the next 20 paragraphs arguing that Yanukovych’s government was bad and undemocratic. It need hardly be said, of course, that bad, undemocratic governments can have fascist opponents; if they could not, his opposition to Stalin would disqualify Hitler as a fascist.
Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok (cc photo: Marco Residori)
So it isn’t until the 23rd paragraph that Snyder begins to address the claims made by “the far left and the far right” about fascists overthrowing Yanukovych. And he starts, surprisingly enough, by acknowledging that there’s an element of truth to them: “The Ukrainian far right did play an important part in the revolution,” he writes. That’s maybe something he could have mentioned some 1,800 words earlier; it seems an important qualifier to the assertion that talk of “right-wing extremists” is mere “propaganda.”
Snyder makes an argument that Yanukovych, by not repressing his fascist opponents as much as he did liberal democrats, was actually using them to bolster his claim to power—imputing to Yanukovych a sort of association with fascism for failing to be antifascist enough. Snyder sees no need, on the other hand, for the anti-Yanukovych movement to apologize for actually including fascists in its coalition; in fact, he depicts the participation of fascist militia in the overthrow of Yanukovych’s government in what can only be described as a heroic light:
The radical youth of Svoboda fought in considerable numbers, alongside of course people of completely different views. They fought and they took risks and they died, sometimes while trying to save others.
Svoboda’s original logo evoked the swastika, and even more closely resembled a symbol used by Nazi SS units.
Svoboda is a far-right party launched in 1991; its original name (the Social-National Party) and logo (a swastika-like superimposed I-N, standing for “Idea Natsii,” or “Idea of the Nation”) were deliberate echoes of Nazism. It supposedly purged neo-Nazi elements in 2004, but its ostensibly more moderate leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, is notorious for his attacks on the “Moscow/Jewish mafia ruling Ukraine” and “the Moskali [Russians], Germans, Kikes and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state” (Channel 4, 12/16/13). Yuri Mykhailyshin, one of Tyahnybok’s top advisers, set up something called the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Centre in 2005 (OSW Commentary, 7/4/11). Did some of the people these far-right extremists fought alongside have “completely different views”? One should hope so.
Though not all of them do; another group that played a large role in the violent clashes was Right Sector, an ultra-nationalist movement that has criticized Svoboda for its “pacifism” (Nation, 1/21/14). While disclaiming racism and antisemitism, Right Sector describes itself as “nationalist, defending the values of white, Christian Europe against the loss of the nation and deregionalization” (Le Monde Diplomatique, 3/14). Snyder calls Right Sector “the group to watch” as “the radical alternative to Svoboda,” but suggests that it, too, is nothing much to worry about, and possibly even represents a constructive stabilizing force: Its leaders tell Jews and Russians “that their goal is political and not ethnic or racial,” and since the government’s overthrow, “they have not caused violence or disorder. On the contrary, the subway runs in Kiev.” But do the trains run on time?
Andriy Parubiy (cc photo: Sasha Maksymenko/Wikimedia)
Snyder insists that “the transitional authorities were not from the right,” and that the “new government, chosen by parliament…is very similar in its general orientation.” This is simply false; Snyder mentions a couple of political figures who are not fascists, but passes over in silence a number of bonafide far-right extremists who have been given powerful positions.
The new deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Sych, is from Svoboda; National Security Secretary Andriy Parubiy is a co-founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National Party, Svoboda’s earlier incarnation; the deputy secretary for National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the head of Right Sector. Chief prosecutor Oleh Makhnitsky is another Svoboda member, as are the ministers for Agriculture and Ecology (Channel 4, 3/5/14). In short, if the prospect of fascists taking power again in Europe worries you, you should be very worried about Ukraine.
Forbes‘ Greg Satell
Snyder’s piece inspired a much less informed screed in Forbes (3/4/14) making an even more sweeping denial of the role of the extreme right in the new Ukrainian government. Forbes contributor Greg Satell wrote:
There has also been completely unfounded accusations that Ukraine’s interim government is “Neo-Nazi” and “Ultranationalist.” Timothy Snyder has done a wonderful job debunking these claims.
Satell’s link, of course, goes to Snyder’s “Haze of Propaganda.”
“Are there Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?” writes Satell. “Sure, just as there are in Chicago and every other major American city. Are some politically active? Yes, as is David Duke in our own country. Do they have any power to shape policy or events? Categorically no.” Unless you count leading the fighting that overthrew the government as shaping events, or getting to run the military and justice system as affecting policy.
Satell has the nerve to call his utterly ignorant article “How the Western Press Is Getting It Terribly Wrong in Ukraine.”
Snyder’s providing intellectual cover for US and European efforts to replay the Cold War, and, although it should be unnecessary to make such a disclaimer, to posit that doesn’t place one cheering on the Russian sidelines.
(Parenthetically, I have a hard time taking seriously the political analysis of someone who can label The Nation and the Guardian as “far left”.)
Maybe Snyder is a fascist? That would explain it.
Since I trust NO corporate media network, I did some research. YOU must read the treaty signed btw Reagun and Gorby after the Soviet Union fell . It clearly states that “no Nato or US other foreign bases will be constructed in those countries”. Well the US reneged on that deal. Then read the treaty between Russia and Ukraine on the pipelines going through it Europe and the Port in Crimea which has been under Russia control since the 1800’s. That port treaty states that “Russia is permitted to have no more than 25,000 troops stationed there. When the neo Nazis took over Kiev (and the former president had called for elections in may) the neo Nazis fearful they wouldn’t win in an election overthrew him in an illegal coup de tat. They then elected themselves so they are not an legitimate government, as elections haven’t taken place.
Where in the world did you get the information that Dmytro Yarosh, the head of Right Sector, has a government role? That’s false.
http://www.channel4.com/news/svoboda-ministers-ukraine-new-government-far-right
“Overseeing the armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-ukraine-crisis-far-right-insight-idUSBREA2618B20140307?
“Two of the groups under most scrutiny are Svoboda, whose members hold five senior roles in Ukraine’s new government including the post of deputy prime minister, and Pravyi Sector (Right Sector), whose leader Dmytro Yarosh is now the country’s Deputy Secretary of National Security.”
Ok, it seems you’re right (although I could not verify in the website for the National Security Council, which is out of the air right now). Nonetheless, this is a role with no power, since the council is merely an advisory body to the president, not to be confused with the ministry of defence.
In other words, Channel 4 is wrong to refer to it as “head of defence”
Synder’s rants in NYRB have disqualified him as an academic authority on Ukraine and exposed him as an ideological apologist for the Kiev coup and backer of the intervention by the US and EU.
Yes, except the minister of defense is also from Svoboda.
I love the insinuation that the Guardian is a “publication of the far left”. That’s hilarious! At the last general election, it didn’t even support the Labour Party but backed the centrist Liberal Democrats instead.
You use the same facts Snyder does, the only difference is where you place the emphasis. Snyder’s point is that it’s inaccurate to characterize the entire movement in Ukraine as fascist, as Russia has tried to do, because it is a coalition of various parties and points of view. Snyder acknowledges that one of those points of view is a far-right point of view. He notes it is a relatively small portion of the coalition, and nothing you’ve presented here refutes that. Even if Svoboda were literally Nazis, which is quite a stretch, that would hardly justify the distortion that the uprising in Ukraine is a fascist movement. Yatsenyuk and Klitschko and their parties, which advocate centrists, democratic positions, have been far more visible and central to the recent events in Ukraine. Snyder is not whitewashing anything. He’s calling for a more objective view of the movement in Ukraine that one that represents the views of a small number of the movement’s members as indicative of the entire movement.
Two final points: an open letter from some 265 Jewish organizations in Ukraine blasted Putin. Strange that they would do this in defense of a “fascist” uprising.
http://www.jta.org/2014/03/05/news-opinion/world/ukraines-jewish-leaders-to-vladimir-putin-back-off
Second, the handwringing in the U.S. and elsewhere over supposed fascist elements in Ukraine is, directly or indirectly, a justification for the occupation of Ukrainian territory by Putin, whose Russia is best by far more virulently xenophobic and violent elements than anything Svobodoa or anyone else in Ukraine has even attempted. Like it or not, with pieces like this one, you do Putin’s work for him.
I agree with susan, maybe Snyder’s a fascist. in fact, maybe our whole mass media is fascist. maybe they have to be to stay in line with their corporate owners and our war-mad government.
I read this quote recently, by ernest hemingway, from for whom the bell tolls, ” there are many who do not know they are fascists, but they will find out when the time comes.”
globalresearch has an AMPLE number of articles by different writers who all have written about the Nazi, pro-Nazi, or fascists in the u.s. supported new ukraInian “government”. on top of that,..!.. the recently obvious, and less and less surprising, Israeli, Zionist, and u.s. neocon push AND cooperation for all of them.
read Thierry meyssan at voltairenet, Christopher bollyn at bollyn.com, or many others– then try to figure out how our state dept loves those types so much, how john McCain and senator graham (?) love them so much, and how our government wants to sanction Russia now for trying to protect its crimea area military base. ?!
so what’s obviously going on is whitewash by the corporate crapitalist prop media. paul craig Roberts said it perfectly enough and also says how extremely dangerous the whole situation really, REALLY, is.
BUT most of us can not believe the obvious even when we see with our own eyes -pictures of Nazi flags, threats of war against Russia, and more lies and ” the first Nazi-related government in place since ww11″- ( Thierry meyssan )
“I find it odd that is trying to prove the proposition, “In the US press, this generally means whitewashing the opposition that overthrew the government of President Viktor Yanukovych” focuses entirely on a single article in an academic-intellectual journal. The article certainly bears criticism, but this is hardly the venue for it. I certainly don’t think that the Western media has been white-washing the role of the extreme right. Certainly not the NY Times, which has published several articles on the subject.”
Good article, but almost too kind to Snyder. Snyder is a propagandist, who takes sides in Eastern European politics. He’s guilty of promoting a re-written version of WWII history where responsibility for the war rests equally with Stalin as it does with Hitler. Forget all about Munich, collective security, etc. Everything started with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This viewpoint is what the ruling class in Europe has been trying to push since about 2009. You can read more about it on the site defendinghistory.com.
Anyway, I read Snyder’s article and it is a ridiculous fairy tale. I mean every part of it.
I see there are more intelligent, thoughtful people here than most other websites that are out of the mainstream. Matter of fact maybe more than in the whole of congress!
From TIME magazine:
“Nowhere in Ukraine has the uprising involved neo-Nazi groups, and no swastikas have appeared on the revolution’s insignia. But every one of the dozen or so people TIME spoke to in Sevastopol was certain that the revolt was run by fascists, most likely on the payroll of the U.S. State Department. That message has long been propagated in Russian state-run media, which millions of people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine rely on for information.”
It’s an outright lie. But what else to expect from our media.
dave g., that’s a good example, from time magazine, and comment from you. I appreciate seeing it especially since I haven’t looked at a time magazine in nearly 10 years.
I can recommend this sharp writing from globalresearch, one of many to contradict Snyder and most of the msm, but especially good right here because it responds to a similar british writer like snyder, owen jones, supposedly from the liberal “left”. Greaves calles jones a pseudo dissenter : http://www.globalresearch.ca
Philip Greaves, “Coup d’état in Ukraine- Bias and Hypocrisy of the Western Liberal ‘Left’ Media.” posted march 8.
Gott DEM Himmler, Das POTUS: Stop your dog-Wagnerian Putschy riots and Panzy Division Fiats of Goering Blue for Nuland’s lebensraum in the sake of your Syrian/Ukrainian/Venezuelan Baracksis of Evil on behalf of their rape of Bankings’ party of NotSee! Kenya Nazi you must take a halfascist goose-steppe back from the swastikas, stars and bars, and skinheads, your Company’s unleashed?
I agree for the most part with NYBLS. The truth is somewhere in between Naureckars’s piece and Snyder’s, though somewhat closer to the latter. It’s true Snyder shouldn’t try to downplay the rise of Svoboda, but it seems he’s trying to counter all the hysteria and overstatement that was cooked up primarily by the Russian government and the Communist Party. That’s understandable. The US left have been conned by Communist Party propaganda; I thought we in the western left were done with all that? And it is disturbing how the ‘antiwar’ right in the US buys into the same propaganda.
That being said, Ukrainian nationalists could play a serious role in the new government, and it’s extremely alarming. I think that Russian nationalism is even more alarming and dangerous, and for your part (Naureckas) and others on the US left, you downplay this for completely mysterious reasons – the Russian government no longer even pretends to be socialists, so let’s knock it off.
mr drinkwater, which governments or countries EVERYWHERE around the world has Russia subverted and controlled lately? as opposed to the disastrous and unforgivable war results of the u.s./eu/ and nato collaborators?
and no one seems to care, either, do they? whether Russia is socialist or not socialist. .. wasn’t all the bad communism done away with by the crashup of the soviet union when the Harvard boys/ Chicago school/ and wall st and London accountants went in to sell off and privatize what they could? (and didn’t “the capitalists’ boy” ,yeltsin ,have to blow a missile at the Russian parliament to get it all done ?) (did we even hear about that then? )
now this is now, and OUR country is the one who spent 5 billion to help “fix” up/ (or down) Ukraine before this extremely flammable and dangerous disruption was conducted over there! the u.s. and the e.u. plans did this, didn’t they? (and right next to Russia. is that..?… not important? )
I just want to recommend one more essay regarding Ukraine and the propaganda which is flying around here AND Europe, evidently, (npr loves bbc, etc. british SUN loves nypost, etc. ) propaganda is flying here as much as Nazi-connected flags over there . …this brilliant writing on the topic will .. or should.. move all of us, I think. ( it definitely moved me) the author is a world traveler. do see his journalism and photos if you haven’t before, and perhaps ponder and share with others his latest – that’s andre vltchek’s article, THE INDOCTRINATED WEST (at counterpunch and elsewhere) …. http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/07/the-indoctrinated-west/
Greg Satell claims, “I’ve served in senior Strategy and Innovation roles at the Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest marketing services organizations and was previously Co-CEO of KP Media, where I ran brands such as Bigmir, Ukraine’s leading web site and Korrespondent, a news organization which played a pivotal role in the Orange Revolution as well as a variety of women’s and lifestyle brands.”
http://www.digitaltonto.com/about/
To me this is as good as a written confession admitting one is tied to the CIA/US State Department.
People that I know (Ukrainian’s)admit that the country had devolved into a place where all sides………were bad guys.They need a re boot
http://maidantranslations.com/2014/03/05/open-letter-of-ukrainian-jews-to-russian-federation-president-vladimir-putin/
To say that Oleksandr Sych is the “new deputy prime minister” is misleading, he is one of two Vice Prime Ministers. Above these two is the First Vice Prime Minister who is actually the deputy. The other Vice Minister is Jewish.
David Duke lives in Ukraine now (seriously)
See detailed analysis of Ukranian situation, including role of neo-fascist groups at Charge of the Right Brigade:Ukraine and the Dynamics of Capitalist Insurrection
Anton Lyakhov, 52, waved a Russian flag. “Only Russia can defend us from fascists in Kiev and from Islamic radicals in Crimea!.”
I wish we would stop labeling neo fascist neo nazis on the “right”. I am not on the left, do I have to be thrown in this group’s moniker ? They are backed and funded more by people on the left. They are allied with and backed by Islamists and the Moslem Brotherhood.
Hardly people we support. The far left is much more allied with these people. Look who Obama jumps to support in that military coup, and pointing his finger at Russia who was asked by the deposed president to help. You’re either with Christians and Russia, or you’re with the Islamists and neo fascists, who have been harrassing Russia for a long time, especially the poison pen.
Segal has it Right
Obama and all of our mainstream media are siding with rioters, neo nazis and islamists who overthrew the elected pro Russian president of Ukraine. Russias Christians vs the Islamic tartars, 10 000 were in the street, alot screaming “allah akbar” and “no more russia” this looks like an extension of the “arab spring” to me, which is causing trouble all over the globe.
Obama is fomenting jihad and has been in lockstep with the MB in every foreign policy decision, after all he’s filled washington with their agents and acts like a card carrying member himself. Qadaffi complained about Al Qaeda, Syria complained about Al Qaeda, and Obama keeps supporting their splinter groups and rallies against the secularists like Assad, even to the point of backing an obvious frame job in regards to chemical weaponry, now they’ve resorted to calling chlorine “chemical weapons” so they can paint assad as a demon.
Crimeans toast future with Moscow after 95% approval vote… http://news.yahoo.com/sevastopol-happy-rejoin-russian-motherland-vote-003509669.html
Putin warned of widespread anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi activity in Ukraine, in particular in Kiev. This, he said, was a source of great concern to the people in eastern Russia, and warned that Russia “reserves the right to use all means available” to defend them. But, he qualified, this is “an extreme measure.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4494980,00.html
I think that Ukraine wanted to be with Europe so that it will increase more relationships and will have more protection, but also being safely close with Russia as well.
8. Is concerned about the rising nationalistic sentiment in Ukraine, expressed in support for the Svoboda Party, which, as a result, is one of the two new parties to enter the Verkhovna Rada; recalls that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go against the EU’s fundamental values and principles and therefore appeals to pro-democratic parties in the Verkhovna Rada not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party; http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2012-0507+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
The EU asked not to work with Svoboda. Nobody remembers, everybody seems to forget.