A Russian Predicts Ukraine War & Putin In 1992 (Eduard Limonov)

Many Russians were upset with Ukrainian independence in the 1990s. Although much of this can be attributed to a perceived loss of status and imperial power, real, practical problems, such as newly-made borders which separated ethnic Russians from their families in Russia, persisted as well. In this video, Eduard Limonov (1943 - 2020), the founder of Russia’s National Bolshevik Party (pejoratively known as Nazbol abroad), speaks at a demonstration in 1992. He is upset not only with Boris Yeltsin, whom he perceives as weak, but Perestroika, as well, calling it a slow but deadly process for over a hundred million Russians dealing with a near-total collapse of the state.

There are two details worth mentioning. First, notice that 1990s Russian politics do not fit into predictable American politics. Although Eduard Limonov (Эдуард Лимонов) is a reactionary, this does not mean he’s interested in markets or the aesthetic trappings of capitalism. Second, notice how Russian political thought once thought to be “fringe”, might not have been fringe at all. One can also imagine Russia under a different context (such as with an American-led Marshall Plan to help prevent the appeal of authoritarianism) where soft power matters above all, and the loss of Ukraine is negligible.

This video was used as part of our 3.5 hour discussion with Ukrainian scholar Ivan Katchanovski. This can be found at ArtiFact #38: Ivan Katchanovski On Russia / Ukraine Propaganda, Maidan, Donbass, & The USSR – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xvNnTfmh50

This longer discussion can also be seen on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v2apa5z-artifact-38-ivan-katchanovski-on-russia-ukraine-propaganda-maidan-donbass-a.html

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Tags: #ukrainewar, #russianlanguage, #putin