Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Right-wing propaganda disguised as historical scholarship — Part One

The false presentation of the Soviet famine as a “deliberate” policy of mass murder

In April, Basic Books published a second edition of Timothy Snyder’s 2010 book Bloodlands, advertising it as the “essential historical background to the war in Ukraine.” The extraordinary role that Snyder is playing in justifying the imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the alliance of US imperialism with the Ukrainian far right make it imperative to investigate this work more closely.

[wsws.org]

This is one of many attempts by people and or groups I've seen on facebook where history and facts are distorted. I'm particularly glad to see WSWS to finally begin turning some of their attention towards exposing the false propaganda bullshit, even though they still make an absurd claim in this article of the war beginning in Feb. Feb was merely the point Putin had to take steps to defend Russia and the people of the Donbass regions before it went any further. The objective in this war isn't Putin attempting to rebuild the USSR, it's the expansion of NATO towards an invasion of Russia with a regime change western governments are attempting to manufacture.

Hopefully we are finally seeing those who spoke out against Russia for coming to their defense and for the security of Russia to now beginning to voice the understanding many others see like myself. Peace doesn't always come without opposing conflict. In this case the fire had to be fought with fire towards ending the 8 years of a genocide campaign and another country being invaded illegally. The difference must be acknowledged! To deny this is a betrayal of true democracy and the sovereignty of another country. Which the Donbass regions have been living for 8 years and western governments speak of in regards to Russia. China, India, Africa, Iran, and Latin America.

{As the WSWS has documented, his Twitter threads have repeatedly sought to deny or downplay the role of Ukrainian fascists both in contemporary Ukrainian politics and the army and in the annihilation of 900,000 Ukrainian Jews during the Nazi-led Holocaust in World War II.}

Ukrainian Nazis. Not German Nazis. And the numbers are well over 900k by some counts. Entire villages were slaughtered and burnt to the ground. Mass graves of people lined up and shot falling in. It's well documented in video and can be found at RT. And people in the current Ukrainian government and those who lead the murdering protest of 2014 in Ukraine are tied to decedents of those who lead the genocide campaign during WWll. George Eliason made that connection in his work and provided photos of a wife of one of the commanders with these people who are now in the government and lead the 2014 protest at Maidan.

{Insinuating that the Stalinist policies that led to the famine were rooted in the 1917 Revolution and Marxism, Snyder denounces the October Revolution as a coup brought about by a German-funded Lenin. He writes that the Bolsheviks sought “mastery of both peasants and nations” and that “they were the enemies of their own peoples, whether defined by class or by nation. They believed that the people they governed was historically defunct, a bookmark to be removed before a page was turned.” (11)

This is not history but a political rant. Snyder fails to even attempt to substantiate any of his claims, as any historian must. He does not address or refute the historical scholarship that has shown that the Bolsheviks were brought to power in a social revolution, after having won the political confidence of the working class and sections of the peasantry.}

It is said in some circles that Marx and Engels never envisioned their work towards a socialist revolution to take place in the USSR. But within Germany and surrounding Eastern Europe. Long story short however, it was Lenin and Trotsky who lead and won the revolution in the USSR in 1917. The working class were eventually betrayed, Stalin out maneuvered Lenin, Lenin betrayed Trotsky by joining forces with Stalin. Trotsky was later murdered in Mexico. It was the handling of Soviet Ukraine by Lenin after WWl that lead to the famine being spoke of here. Lenin essentially giving Ukraine as its own republic. The conditions of the period though for Ukraine left on their own left them vulnerable to disaster. Whether that was on purpose can be arguable. The long story in in the article.

Quite frankly. You can look at the policies of that particular era of Stalinism in regards to that period and find that the policies of western governments in regards to covid and argue it of being an unnecessary socialized mass murder where millions died around the globe.

{Timothy Snyder’s claims of the famine as a “deliberate” act of mass murder targeting Ukrainians have a long history, going back to the Ukrainian far right, which collaborated with the Nazi occupation of Soviet Ukraine during World War II. As part of their occupation of Ukraine, the Nazis encouraged “revelations” of Stalinist crimes by their journalist hirelings in occupied Ukraine. Many of these “journalists” were members or sympathizers of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Without using the term “genocide,” which was not yet in use, they presented the famine as such and blamed “Muscovite imperialism,” the “Russification of Ukraine” and spoke of a “destruction of Ukrainian culture by the Bolsheviks.”}

Well, if you have a sense of clarity to todays information propaganda, this should seem highly recognizable. Clara Weiss goes on to list a number of her findings towards Snyder’s book being full of fallacy.