Now few people remember that the first war of the Bolsheviks was an attempt to capture independent Ukraine in January 1918. And it would be worth remembering, first of all, because Putin's sarcasm about Lenin, who allegedly granted independence to Ukraine, looks simply inappropriate when compared to the facts. It's from the region - "Congratulations to the Sovramshi."
Secondly, because fascinated by coincidences of dates, beginnings, and ends, people from Putin's entourage would have to note that Russian Bolshevism, which began with the war with free Ukraine and, very possibly, will end in the war with Ukraine. It is not Russia that will end, namely Russian Bolshevism, which seized power in Petrograd 105 years ago.
I am talking about the continuous existence of Russian Bolshevism as a power system throughout all these decades quite consciously. This has a few arguments.
1. Bolshevism is not an ideology, but a form of existence. Bolshevism can use different ideologies - socialist, liberal-market, national-patriotic, cosmopolitan. Ideology is only a convenient propaganda tool at the moment and only naive “prostaks”, "useful idiots", but not "real Bolsheviks" can sacrifice their lives for this ideology. These same, "real" will sacrifice everything for one thing - "the whole, directly to the violence of the relying power." It is priceless because power makes it possible to dispose of any property and any life in the territory subject to the Bolsheviks. And for the Bolsheviks, there is nothing as desirable as such a power.
2. Such power can be exercised only through a system of organized brutal violence, since people will never voluntarily agree to part with their property, with the fruits of their work, and with their very lives and the lives of those people close to them in whom they see their happiness. This organized violence has institutionalized into the system of Cheka - OGPU - NKVD - MGB - KGB - FSB. Abbreviations changed, but the essence of the institution of violence remained one - illegal or pseudo-lawful massacre. And it is no coincidence that this "organ" created in December 1917 leads its succession to this day, and its "lyceum anniversaries" are magnificently celebrated in the Bolshoi Theater with the most active participation of the head of Russia - Putin. No KGB - no Bolshevik Russia.
3. The loss of power over a particular part of the space previously managed by Bolshevism was always considered by it a robbery. The famous "Brezhnev principle" - "mine is mine, and what is not mine, we will talk about it" was completely unshakable in both 1920 and 2020.
4. Bolshevik power, unlike ordinary state power, is bandit power. It is not formed by citizens at any level. She is power over citizens, or rather over the population. The Bolsheviks do not abhor elections, but these are always pseudo-elections, imitations of elections with a predetermined result, elections for idiots, as well as socialism for idiots under Stalin, and liberalism for idiots under Yeltsin. For the Bolshevik authorities, both a person, and the resources of the country, and the property of any citizen are the property of the authorities, a means to achieve its goals - unrestrained enrichment, expansion of its space, but not the goal in itself, as in a normal democratic society.
5. This commitment to Bolshevism among the current Russian authorities is quite obvious. Although he has nothing to do with the former socialist drapery of the USSR by half a word, all the idols of that era are reverently preserved - the same statues of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Kirov, Marx, names of villages, streets. It is noteworthy that in occupied Ukrainian cities, the old Soviet toponyms are being restored first of all, which for thirty years they could not get rid of either in Russia or in Belarus. First of all, Putin restored the Soviet anthem, and Lukashenko restored both the flag and the coat of arms of the country. And Russian tanks entered the villages of the Kherson region sometimes under red flags. This is not empathy for youth among old Moscow “kebeashniks” - it is loyalty to centuries-old Bolshevism. Like any gangster community, Bolshevism does not give up its own. Any condemnation is considered a manifestation of weakness. Therefore, for the Bolsheviks, Khrushchev will never be a hero with his criticism of Stalin's "personality cult", neither Gorbachev nor Yeltsin. The Bolsheviks will never erect their monuments. And Stalin or Andropov - please.
I will allow myself to recall the highlights of that first Bolshevik war.
On November 20, 1917, the Central Rada announced in the III Universal the formation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, "without separating from the Russian Republic, to preserve its unity and help become a federation of equal, free peoples." Elections to the Constituent Assembly from eight Ukrainian provinces - Kyiv, Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Podolsk, Volyn, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Poltava - showed the strength of Ukrainian national feeling and commitment to the slogans of socialist revolutionaries. In all these provinces, except Kherson, parties that proclaimed their "Ukraine" in opposition to all-Russian parties received 60 to 80 percent of the votes. Among them, the vast majority were Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries. Wealthy rural Ukraine did not want Bolshevik robbery at all. The Bolsheviks received 12-20 percent of the votes everywhere. No more. Only in Kherson province (now Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions), inhabited mainly not by Ukrainians, but by immigrants from all over Russia, Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries received a little more than 10% of the votes, while the all-Russian AKP - more than half. The Bolsheviks here collected less than 12% of the votes, the Cadets - 7%.
On the night of December 12-13, Kyiv was occupied by parts of the Ukrainian National Army. They arrested the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee headed by G. Pyatakov, and the Bolshevik leaders were expelled to Moscow. The Central Rada said that the Ukrainian working people will be able to give a worthy rebuff to the Council of People's Commissars. Indeed, at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, members of the Socialist-Revolutionary peasant organization "Spilka" severely pricked the Bolsheviks and took over the mandate commission and the presidium of the Congress. The Bolsheviks, who this time faced an organized manifestation of the hostile "people's" force, fled from Kyiv to Kharkiv and there, having held their congress, announced that they were taking power in Ukraine into their own hands. The Congress of Soviets of Ukraine (its delegates were appointed by the Bolshevik party committees) in Kharkiv proclaimed Ukraine a socialist republic, then divided it into the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih and Odesa Soviet republics.
Red detachments from Kharkiv immediately began to capture Ukrainian cities and villages.
After the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the danger of capturing Kyiv and the threat that under the terms of a separate peace with Germany, Ukrainian provinces will be transferred to the enemy, January 9/22, 1918. The Rada adopted the IV Universal, which proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic "an independent, free and sovereign state of the Ukrainian people." She sent her delegation to Brest-Litovsk, received recognition from Germans and Austrians, and pledged to supply 1 million tons of food and fuel to the Central Powers as an indemnity. As you can see, Lenin's "merit" to Ukrainian independence is that by ordering to disperse of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly in Bolshevik, he showed the true face of Bolshevism and thus forced Ukrainians to end ties with Russia as soon as possible.
Two weeks after the announcement of the IV Universal, the Red Army of Lieutenant Colonel Left Socialist-Revolutionary Muravyov approached Kyiv. Persistent battles between red troops and units of Ukrainian patriots, cadets, and Cossacks lasted nine days. At the same time, the Bolshevik Revolutionary organized an uprising against the Rada in the city itself. The uprising was suppressed, but when the Bolsheviks began shelling the city with heavy siege guns, panic began on the night of February 9, A.D. The Central Rada and the Secretariat (government) left Kyiv and moved to Zhytomyr.
Having captured Kyiv, the Bolsheviks carried out a massacre in it. About five thousand officers and several hundred Ukrainian young soldiers - Haydamaks - were killed. On the first day of Bolshevik power in Kyiv, Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) was brutally killed by revolutionary soldiers, famous doctors were shot - surgeon Bocharov and Dr. Rakhlis for wearing military uniforms, pop singer Sokolsky - for singing anti-Bolshevik verses. Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles were killed with equal cruelty and greed. According to an eyewitness, the Red Army executed anyone who naively showed a red ticket - a certificate of belonging to Ukrainian citizenship. They could also shoot a bullet in the back of the head and for the golden officer shoulder straps and for the beautiful shoes that the Red Army soldier liked. Everything is Bolshevik and everything is very recognizable.
"The first arrival of the Bolsheviks in Kyiv was met even joyfully by the Russian population of Kyiv, who was already impatient with the rampant Ukrainians. But soon the check began to operate, soon the famous Latsis appeared, life became terrible, robberies one by one became more frequent in Kyiv... From week to week, life became more painful... and now the domination of the Bolsheviks is over. The Germans came..." recalled Protopresbyter Vasily Zenkovsky. Five months in power. Memories. Min. 1995. - P.43.
Before that, focused on the Entente, the leaders of Ukraine hastily signed a separate peace with the Central Powers in Brest and on February 12 appealed to Germany for help. On March 2, German troops restored the power of the Rada in Kyiv. The Bolsheviks fled, leaving a city looted and covered with blood. According to the apt remark of V.V. Shulgin, a previously pro-Russian and anti-German Kyiv layman, after three weeks of Bolshevik rule, was ready to say: "we will under the king of the Western, non-Orthodox."
For 105 years in the world, there has been a struggle between human attitude towards man, the right to expand his freedom and dignity, and Bolshevism, which seeks to suck a person to the bottom, to make him only an instrument, only a slave devoid of conscience and honor. And, admittedly, most of the population of Russia got used to Bolshevism and lived by its rules, it, without realizing it, became part of the bandit Bolshevik community.
And now, wanting to extend their unlimited criminal power to the areas lost "under weaklings", which have become independent normal countries with democracy, local self-government, civil liberties, old KGB officers have begun this "last war". They, these officers, really rallied around Putin, but they are ready to sacrifice Putin if he also shows "weakness" - they will eat him without blinking an eye, for the sake of coveted power over space and human souls.
Those who believed in a New, democratizing Russia began to live on the principles of normal people - paying taxes, obeying the law, trying their hand at the elections, now, opening their mouths, look at the rampant bloody demon throwing Russian boys into the milk of senseless war. Many believe that Putin has gone crazy by unleashing this nightmarish massacre and fined for the slogan "No to war." But neither Putin went crazy nor did his entourage. This is "just" a new war of Bolshevism against humanity, in fact, the war of Bolshevism against both Ukraine and Russia. Bolshevism won the first war. In 1921, Lenin, with the consent of Poland, made most of Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR, sacrificing Galicia and Volhynia, and in 1922 suppressed the last pockets of Russian anti-Bolshevik resistance in the Far East.
Now in the vastness of Ukraine, there is a new Patriotic War of the Ukrainian people against Bolshevism. He goes with exceptional valor and incredible courage. And in the openness and freedom that is peculiar to Ukrainian soldiers, I recognize our Russian "volunteers" of 1918-22. This is one war, a war for man, for the right to be a free man on your land. And I hope this is the last war of Bolshevik Russia. Soon, perhaps thanks to this war, our Russia will cease to be Bolshevik. Forever. The circle will close.