After the fall of the USSR, the USA became the only superpower in the world. With immense power came immense arrogance. The ‘Bush doctrine’ was supposed to arrogate to the USA the right to intervene anywhere in the world, to interfere in the internal affairs of supposedly sovereign states, to spy, to bring down governments, to bomb, to assassinate and if necessary to invade with impunity. The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed US imperialism to intervene in what were formerly Soviet spheres of influence. They brought Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic states into NATO and then set their sights on former Republics of the Soviet Union.
American imperialism took advantage of that to start to seize the Balkans, Yugoslavia and Iraq – former Soviet spheres of interest – which they would not have dared to touch in the past. The breakup of Yugoslavia and the bombing of Serbia contributed to a feeling that Russia was being encircled and under siege. Together with the economic collapse and general impoverishment, this produced a deep sense of national humiliation.
Moscow was overrun by an army of foreign businessmen, speculators and similar human scum. These people acted as if they owned the place, which in part they did. The Yeltsin government consisted of the local agents of imperialism, anxious to lick the boots of their foreign paymasters. To economic collapse and unbearable poverty was added an even more unbearable sense of national humiliation. A proud people that had toiled and sacrificed to build the Soviet Union found it ruled by a drunken clown and a gang of thieves in the pockets of foreign bankers.
Both Stalinism and capitalism entirely failed to solve the national question in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Only by guaranteeing equal rights to all the peoples could a lasting fraternal union be established. But this is impossible under Stalinism or capitalism. Only a return to workers’ democracy offers a way out for the working class and the oppressed nationalities. Such a regime would return to Lenin’s policy of national emancipation and fraternal relations between the peoples, with all rights for the national minorities.
The October Revolution made great strides forward in dealing with the national question, which as Lenin pointed out, in the last analysis, is a question of bread. On the basis of the development of the productive forces and society moving forward, the national question receded. It was this policy that prevented the breakup of Russia after the October Revolution, but was cynically betrayed by Stalin. Within the borders of the USSR were 15 republics, with 100 nationalities and 400 ethnic groups. Sixty million people lived in republics other than those of their ethnic origin.
The Stalinist regime leaned heavily towards Great Russian chauvinism, but it was forced to pay lip service to proletarian internationalism. The capitalist oligarchy that replaced it is not constrained by any such considerations. It does not disguise its reactionary aims but openly embraces Russian nationalism in its most repulsive forms. Chauvinism, the Orthodox Church, anti-Semitism, racism and the brutal oppression of small nations like Chechnya are its stock in trade. Its policy is a foul mixture of the worst features of Stalinism and tsarism, laced with the poison of Black Hundred demagogy.
The breakup of the USSR was not in the interests of any of the peoples. The linking together of the economies of the Republics made sense and was in the interests of all the peoples. By contrast, the breakup of the Union, and the crazy attempt to sever the natural economic ties between the Republics, had catastrophic results. The newly independent states were therefore heavily dependent on trade with Russia. Russia can easily dominate the other states by using its economic muscle, particularly the supply of oil and gas. If that fails, it can use its powerful army, as Georgia and Ukraine soon found out.
Two decades ago Ted Grant wrote:
In the event of the re-establishment of capitalism in Russia, we would see the rise of a ferocious imperialist power. Russia cannot be democratic and capitalist at the same time. A military dictatorship in Russia would inevitably embark on an aggressive policy of expansion, on the lines of tsarism in the past. Apart from Ukraine, which could also end up under the domination of a military dictatorship, the ‘independence’ of the former states of the CIS would be largely fictitious. Inevitably they would fall under the control of Russian imperialism, by one means or another. (Ted Grant, Russia from Revolution to Counter-revolution. pp. 408-9)
That is precisely what has happened. Contrary to the stupid argument that capitalist Russia would be a weak semi-colonial country dominated by the West – a view that Ted strenuously rejected from the start – Russia has emerged as a powerful imperialist competitor to the USA. Yeltsin’s policy of slavishly subordinating Russia to America has been replaced by an aggressive foreign policy under Putin, who has moved to reassert Russia’s control over all the former Republics of the Soviet Union. Nobody speaks any more of the brotherhood of nations and the right of self-determination.
The movement towards capitalism in the former Soviet Union invested the national question with explosive dimensions, which plunged one region after another into bloody chaos. The full horror of the situation was brought out in the following report:
Nearly 9m people have moved within or between the 12 countries of the former Soviet Union’s Commonwealth of Independent States since 1989 in what a report published today described as “the largest, most complex, and potentially most destabilising” population movements in any region since the Second World War. 1 in 30 of the total CIS population has been affected by this mostly involuntary and continuing migration, the report says. In the five Central Asian republics 1 in 12 inhabitants has moved since 1989.
…About 3m people have fled seven conflicts in CIS countries since 1988, when Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The latest conflict, in the breakaway region of Chechnya, has displaced about 500,000 people. The breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 separate states left between 54m and 64m people – a fifth of the total CIS population – outside their ‘home’ territories. More than 3m of these people have ‘returned,’ mostly to Russia. Between 1936 and 1952, Stalin deported more than 3m people, including entire populations. Among them were Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars and Meskhetians from Georgia. (Financial Times, 23/5/96.)
The Caucasus is a vital area for Russia for both economic and strategic reasons. The Chechen ruling clique under the late General Dudayev took advantage of the general confusion following the breakup of the USSR in 1991 to seize control and declare independence. It was clear from the beginning that Moscow would never allow this.
Using the pretext of a threat to the unity of Russia, Yeltsin ordered the invasion of the Chechen republic to topple the ‘gangster regime’ of Dudayev. Without doubt, the Dudayev regime was heavily involved in drug trafficking and illegal arms deals, as well as having links with the Mafia in Russia. But that never affected Yeltsin’s outlook in the past. However, the Russians got more than they bargained for in Chechnya. The Chechens resisted and Yeltsin found himself bogged down in a bloody guerrilla war.
The humiliation of the Russian army in Chechnya was a striking indication of the degree of chaos and demoralisation that gripped the armed forces. An article in The Sunday Times (14/4/96) painted an astounding picture of an army in a state of virtual disintegration, with the troops on the verge of mutiny:
The desperation of Russian parents and their sons to avoid the draft is matched only by the determination of the recruitment centres to fulfil their quotas. They need to deliver 200,000 men by the end of June… Kovtun estimated that some 60 per cent of the potential recruits she sees suffer from chronic illnesses, many of them psychological and nervous disorders, that make them unfit for military service. “The worst thing is that many of the parents of ill boys then refuse to have their sons treated,” said Kovtun.
Yeltsin was forced to withdraw the Russian army from Chechnya and attempted to arrive at some sort of compromise. This withdrawal was the result of the feebleness of the Russian military effort in Chechnya, and the stubborn resistance of the Chechens. But there is no question of Moscow allowing genuine independence for Chechnya […]
In view of the enormous economic and strategic importance of the region for Russia, the generals could never allow this to happen. This means that conflict is inevitable in the future and Russian public opinion can easily be manipulated by provoking an incident in which Russian nationals are attacked. This method will be used not only in Chechnya but in other Republics if Moscow decides it to be necessary. (Ted Grant, op. cit. p. 410-11)
That is exactly what happened.