Translator’s Note: I acquired this important article from the Arab-language Telegram Channel of the Communist Party of Palestine. We have marched in protest marches in London many times with members of the KKE – who made the effort to band together in their native Greece – fly to the UK, and join us in whatever demonstration was going on. I cannot imagine British people doing this and flying to Greece! Remember, the British betrayed the Communists in Greece – our allies during WWII – by unleashing a British Army assisted by re-armed (surrendered) Nazi German soldiers and Greek fascists between 1946-1949. This was termed a “Civil War” – but the purpose was to oppose the will of the Greek people (who had been brutalised by the Nazi Germans) to initiate a Socialist Revolution. The USSR said nothing whilst this happened. Many of the Communist Greek forces wore British Army uniforms given to them by the UK during WWII. Scores of Communist Greeks were killed by British firing-squads – wearing British Army uniforms. Eventually, the UK inflicted a capitalist, bourgeois, liberal democratic system.
When I first engaged with the Communist Parties of Lugansk and Donetsk – both represented independent “Socialist” countries – supported by Russia and opposed by Neo-Nazi Ukraine (Ukraine banned the Communist Party due to the “Socialist” nature of the breakaway republics). As time progressed, the Communist Party of Russia started to be mentioned more often in Donetsk and Lugansk – beginning with gifts to the local people, followed by voluntary work and ever greater levels of assistance. As time progressed, the independent Communist Parties of Lugansk and Donetsk announced that they had become (non-independent) “branches” of the Communist Party of Russia – with its headquarters in Moscow. Furthermore, both the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic both announced that they were becoming geographical “extensions” of sovereign Russia – and were no longer “independent” or “Socialist” (both places had to adopt the capitalist system prevalent in modern Russia).
During one May Day March in London, my family carried Soviet flags and the flag of Donetsk. However, a male claiming to be representing Donetsk on the internet – stated that “non-Whites” should not be allowed to carry “his” flag. This is when we distanced ourselves from one Republic – and focused on supporting Lugansk – the people of which have been nothing but supportive (although we have very ittle direct contact today). The KKE mention the case of “Boris Kagarlitsky” which seems complex. The Western Trotskyites accuse him of being a Stalinist – and yet some of his viewpoints seem distinctly Trotskyite. Remember, after the 1956 betrayal of Stalin by Khrushchev – Trotskyism of various types became state creed in the USSR. The Soviet Revolution belonged to the entire world – not just Russia – this is the reality the bourgeois deliberately ignore. Boris Kagarlitsky supported Gorbachev and Yeltsin (?) – but then supported Donetsk and Lugansk – whilst opposing the 2022 Special Military Operation. His referring to the Russian action as “terrorism” online landed him in prison after he refused to delete the comments. It would seem that the KGB blocked his membership of the Communist Party in 1980 for Trotskyite activities “outside” that permitted by the State:
“Since 1977, he was been a left-wing dissident, participating in the publication of samizdat magazines Variants and Left Turn (later Socialism and the Future). In 1979, he became a candidate for membership in the CPSU . In 1980, after passing the state exam with flying colours, he was interrogated by the KGB and expelled from GITIS and candidate membership in the party “for antisocial activities.” He worked as a postman.”
The KKE quite correctly criticises modern Russia for its anti-Soviet activities that pervade far beyond the case of Boris Kagarlitsky – including the demonisation of Lenin, the Bolshevik Movement – and even the eulogising of a pro-Nazi Russian – Ivan Ilyin! This is why some question is their really any difference between modern Ukraine and Russia? Trotskyism lurks in the shadows like the threatening paedophile of legend. Trotsky may be buried in Mexico – but he certainly keeps raising his head. We are left having to steer the ship of dialectics through the chopping waters of revisionism without springing a leak or being flooded by betrayal! Finally, the KKE is itself a member of a group of revisionist Communist Parties in the West that routinely plays-down the true import of Marxist-Leninism, the importance of Joseph Stalin, and the ongoing war against fascism. This is why the KKE (and its ilk) have never opposed Neo-Nazism in Ukraine or supported Russia’s military response to it. Simply referring to Russia’s actions as “Imperialist” is Trotskyite in origin and intent. It dialectically solves nothing. ACW (13.3.2025)
An end to the anti-communist and anti-democratic decline in Ukraine and Russia
The Communist Youth of Greece (KKE) organized a protest in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Athens on Tuesday, March 11, while a delegation from the KKE and KNE stuck a protest letter from the KKE on the embassy door.
Through this protest, the KKE and KNE condemned the years-long political persecution, arrest, and torture of Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich, cadres of the Ukrainian Communist Youth (Komsomol).
They denounced the fact that this prosecution is being carried out on the basis of false and fabricated charges and that it is unacceptable, as is the Ukrainian authorities’ attempt to add new charges against them and send them to the front of the imperialist war to face their death.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) demand the immediate lifting of all legal proceedings against the Kononovich brothers and their immediate release, while emphasizing that the Ukrainian authorities bear sole responsibility for their safety. They also demand the repeal of all anti-communist and anti-democratic laws that impede the free and unrestrained expression of the genuine will of the Ukrainian people, who are experiencing the tragic consequences of the imperialist war.
The KKE once again raises the unacceptable nature of the ongoing anti-Soviet propaganda surrounding (fake) “Holodomor” claims, as well as the elevation of Ukrainian collaborators with the Nazis, such as Bandera or the “men of the 14th Galician (Ukrainian) SS Division,” to the status of “heroes” and “patriots,” and other relevant decisions taken by the current Ukrainian authorities, which aim to rewrite history and vindicate the Nazis.
A protest letter also addressed to the Embassy of the Russian Federation
In Athens, at the same time, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) also sent a protest letter to the Russian Embassy, condemning the years-long political persecution and arrest of Marxist sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky and his five-year imprisonment.
In its letter, the KKE notes that this unacceptable political persecution is based on false and fabricated charges and puts Boris Kagarlitsky’s life in danger.
The KKE demands the immediate lifting of all ongoing legal proceedings against Boris Kagarlitsky and his release, while emphasizing that the Russian Federation authorities bear sole responsibility for his safety.
The KKE also calls for the repeal of all anti-democratic laws that impede the free and unrestrained expression of the true will of the people of the Russian Federation, who are also experiencing the tragic consequences of the imperialist war.
Finally, the letter describes the ongoing anti-Soviet, anti-Bolshevik, and anti-V.I. Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution, as uttered by the country’s president, is unacceptable.
The letter also harshly criticizes the recent attempt (February 2025) in a court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg to present Lenin’s seminal and symbolic work, “State and Revolution,” as a “terrorist manual” by a state expert, with the aim of convicting members of a “Marxist group” who were being held in pretrial detention as “terrorists.”
Also despicable was the decision to open a faculty named after the Russian fascist philosopher Ivan Ilyin at one of Moscow’s central universities, who had praised the Nazi German regime in the name of “victory over Bolshevism.”
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This is emphasized in both letters sent successively to the Ukrainian and Russian embassies, which emphasize that such actions are unacceptable and provocative to peoples, such as the Greek people, who shed their blood in the struggle against the monster of fascism spawned by capitalism, and whose crushing at the hands of the heroic Red Army and the resistance movements led by the communists this year marks the 80th anniversary of their defeat.
Arab Language Text:
بيان إعلامي يصدُرُ عن قسم العلاقات اﻹعلامية للجنة المركزية للحزب الشيوعي اليوناني
فليُوضع حد للانحدار المناهض للشيوعية والديمقراطية في أوكرانيا وروسيا
نظمت الشبيبة الشيوعية اليونانية وقفة احتجاجية أمام السفارة الأوكرانية في أثينا يوم الثلاثاء 11 آذار\مارس، في حين قام وفد للحزب الشيوعي اليوناني والشبيبة الشيوعية اليونانية بإلصاق رسالة احتجاجية للحزب الشيوعي اليوناني على باب السفارة.
هذا و أدان الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني والشبيبة الشيوعية اليونانية عبر هذا الاحتجاج، الاضطهاد السياسي المديد اﻷعوام واعتقال وتعذيب ميخائيل وألكسندر كونونوفيتش، كادري الشبيبة الشيوعية الأوكرانية (كومسومول).
واستنكرا كون هذه الملاحقة جارية على أساس تهم باطلة وملفقة و أنها أمر غير مقبولة، كما هو حال سعي السلطات الأوكرانية إلى إضافة تهم جديدة ضدهما وإرسالهما إلى جبهة الحرب الإمبريالية ليلاقيا الموت.
يطالب الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني والشبيبة الشيوعية اليونانية برفع جميع الملاحقات القضائية عن الأخوين كونونوفيتش فوراً وإطلاق سراحهما، بينما يؤكدان أن السلطات الأوكرانية تتحمل المسؤولية الحصرية عن سلامة حياتهما. وطالبا أيضاً بإلغاء جميع القوانين المناهضة للشيوعية و للديمقراطية التي تُعيقُ التعبير الحر وغير المقيد عن الإرادة الفعلية لشعب أوكرانيا، الذي يعيشُ العواقب المأساوية للحرب الإمبريالية.
و طرحَ الحزب و الشبيبة مرة أخرى الطبيعة غير المقبولة للدعاية المستمرة المعادية للسوفييت حول “غولودومور”، فضلاً عن اعتبار المتعاونين الأوكرانيين مع النازيين، كبانديرا أو «رجال الفرقة 14 من قوات الأمن الخاصة الجاليكية (الأوكرانية)» في مستوى “الأبطال” و”الوطنيين”، وغيرها من القرارات ذات الصلة التي اتخذتها السلطات الأوكرانية الحالية، والتي تهدف إلى إعادة كتابة التاريخ و إحقاق النازيين.
رسالة احتجاج أيضاً إلى سفارة الاتحاد الروسي
في أثينا في الوقت نفسه، أرسل الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني أيضاً رسالة احتجاج إلى السفارة الروسية، أدان فيها الاضطهاد السياسي المديد اﻷعوام واعتقال عالم الاجتماع الماركسي بوريس كاغارليتسكي وسجنه لمدة خمس سنوات.
وفي رسالته، يُسجِّلُ الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني أن هذا الاضطهاد السياسي غير المقبول جرى بناءاً على تهم كاذبة وملفقة و هو يضعُ حياة بوريس كاغارليتسكي في خطر.
يطالب الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني برفع جميع الملاحقات القضائية الجارية ضد بوريس كاغارليتسكي فوراً وإطلاق سراحه، في حين يُشدِّد على أن سلطات الاتحاد الروسي تتحمل وحدها المسؤولية عن سلامة حياته.
ودعا الحزب الشيوعي اليوناني أيضاً إلى إلغاء جميع القوانين المناهضة للديمقراطية التي تُعيقُ التعبير الحر وغير المقيد عن الإرادة الحقيقية لشعب الاتحاد الروسي، الذي يعيشُ أيضاً العواقب المأساوية للحرب الإمبريالية.
وأخيراً، توصِّفُ الرسالة في محتواها الدعاية المستمرة المعادية للسوفييت و البلاشفة و ضد ف.إ. لينين – قائد ثورة أكتوبر – التي ينطق بها رئيس البلاد، بأنها غير مقبولة.
و في سياق الرسالة تُنتقدُ بنحو لاذع، المحاولة الأخيرة (شباط\فبراير 2025) في محكمة في مدينة يكاترينبورغ الروسية لتقديم عمل لينين الأساسي والرمزي “الدولة والثورة” باعتباره “دليلاً إرشادياً لإرهابيين” من قبل خبير دولة، بهدف إدانة أعضاء “مجموعة ماركسية” تم احتجازهم احتياطياً باعتبارهم “إرهابيين”.
كما و كان دنيءٌ أيضاً كان قرار افتتاح كُليِّة تحمل اسم الفيلسوف الفاشي الروسي إيفان إيلين في إحدى جامعات موسكو المركزية، و هو الذي كان قد أشاد بنظام ألمانيا النازية باسم “النصر على البلشفية”.
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هذا و يُؤكَّد في كِلا الرسالتين الموجهتين تباعاً إلى السفارتين: الأوكرانية والروسية، على أن مثل هذه الأعمال غير مسموحٌ بها و أنها مُستفزة للشعوب، كالشعب اليوناني الذي بذلَ دماءه في النضال ضد وحش الفاشية الذي ولدتهُ الرأسمالية، والذي نحتفل هذا العام بالذكرى اﻠ80 لسحقه على يد الجيش الأحمر البطل و حركات المقاومة التي ترأسها الشيوعيون.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 