What's the deal in Ukraine after a year of war? Let Leon Trotsky explain
Just about a year ago, shortly after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine that has since bedeviled the globe, protests erupted in cities all over Russia. It was no surprise to learn that not everyone in that huge and troubled nation was on board with Putin's war — or was fooled by his mystifying rhetoric about "denazifying" and "demilitarizing" Ukraine — especially not among the younger, better educated and more Europeanized populations of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Milonov seems to play something like Marjorie Taylor Greene's role within Russia's governing party, espousing overtly homophobic and xenophobic positions that make Putin sound reasonable by comparison. When I say that Milonov's words were mysterious, I mean that they reflect the long, long tail of the historic divide among 20th-century Marxists between followers of Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, which no doubt feels like inscrutable ancient history to nearly everyone in the West and seems utterly irrelevant to the geopolitical conditions of the 2020s. When I say that they were clarifying, however, I mean that I hope everyone in what we might call the internationalist radical left who has felt tempted to make excuses for the Russian invasion or to see Putin — in some cold-blooded, "great game," deep-focus historical sense — as the lesser of two evils was paying attention.
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