Thread by @KristoNurmis

🧵 on the "referenda" in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Understandably, many people call these illegal, rigged, & a "travesty of democracy." But portraying them merely as fake democracy misrepresents and understates what Russia is actually doing. Let me explain. 1/

As many people, such as @Roger_Moorhouse, @reinraud, @KuldkeppMart, have already pointed out, these elections are eerily similar to Soviet elections during its expansion to Poland and the Baltic States in 1939-40. 2/

https://twitter.com/Roger_Moorhouse/status/1573225848144269312?s=20&t=S6BG7o7OPcGswELaywCXeA

https://twitter.com/reinraud/status/1572609501056077826?s=20&t=aF9-_ln3mVJD2W6SpVk6MQ

After securing military control over the territories, Soviet power staged rushed elections to the so-called people’s assemblies or people’s parliaments there, claiming 90%+ support for pro-Soviet deputies. These deputies then “requested” the territories to join the USSR, etc. 3/

But why did the Soviets stage these elections? Why did they make millions of people physically participate in a predetermined vote? Why did they bother? 4/

The usual answer is that by claiming 90%+ support, the Soviets sought to fake legality and lie to the outside world that the Balts and Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian populations genuinely wanted to join the USSR. 5/

But the question then becomes, why did Stalin’s Soviet Union (who had just been expelled from the League of Nations) suddenly care about liberal democracy, international law, and legality? Why did they care about western public opinion?

The answer is: they didn’t. 6/

The 1939/40 elections were neither about faking democracy nor appealing to legality. Reading the newspapers of the time, one immediately notices that the Soviets hardly concealed the undemocratic and illegal nature of the elections – stuff that diplomats could easily pick up. 7/

Soviet intimidation was public and blatant. “Let’s not be the enemies of the people,” Latvian paper Rīts wrote. “Anyone who abstains from voting today and tomorrow is unquestionably an enemy of the people… backsliders and cowards will not be able to halt history.” 8/

Communist-controlled Estonian newspapers admitted the illegality. They deemed legal nuances irrelevant, given the extraordinary times, and emphasized the *unique nature* of these elections. The following quote from an editorial is particularly revealing: 9/

In Lithuania, the language of election propaganda became so vicious and threatening that it prompted even the Nazi embassy to inquire whether the Lithuanian German minority would face repressions if they fail to turn up to vote. 10/

In other words, what mattered to the Soviets was not catering to western public opinion but making the people participate, to establish Soviet “legitimacy” on the ground.

Evidently, this legitimacy had nothing to do with the liberal notion of the consent of the governed. 11/

Soviet power was building Communism. It promised to liberate people from bourgeois false consciousness. It was driven by an unapologetically illiberal and socio-pedagogical agenda, on a mission to force, discipline, and educate the Balts into becoming Soviet People. 12/

But let's return to Ukraine today. Why would Putin opt for such old Soviet measures there? Is Putin a Communist? Is it because he is trying to recreate the Soviet Union as many would say? 13/

No. Putin has no interest in restoring Lenin's state. His war in Ukraine is unashamedly right-wing imperialist.

Intriguingly, however, Putin does share some of the Soviet notions of the plasticity of the human mind and the struggle over people's “correct consciousness.” 14/

This might hark back to his time as a KGB officer, probably trained in profilaktika aka disciplining the dissidents to behave – the KGB art of making an offer you can't refuse. 15/

Putin’s logic is the following: the people of Ukraine have been corrupted by decades of liberal and nationalist propaganda, western-imposed false consciousness that has blinded them of their true and historically predetermined interests – joining Mother Russia. 16/

The elections in occupied Ukraine are thus driven by a stern socio-pedagogical agenda of forcing Ukrainians to accept the ideals and identity of Russkii mir. If one refuses, one should rightfully be disciplined, a situation akin to an authoritarian school environment. 17/

The Soviets called their ideological indoctrination effort "ideo-political upbringing" or ideino-politicheskoye vospitanie, "vospitanie" implying a quasi-violent parental authority over the "immature" society (mainly the peasant mass and the unenlightened workers). 18/

The Soviet ideopolitical upbringing ethos was rooted not only in Marxist consciousness-forging but in deeper Russian disciplinary culture that endures in various realms of everyday life to this day 19/

https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1573969882273796096?s=20&t=dX89LevpoUT3JmoHc_AwSQ

And this disciplinary agenda also lies at the heart of Russian efforts at violently re-educating Ukrainians.

(and fighting the assumed enemy's – the "Ukro-radicals'" – counter-re-education. Russia is projecting, of course). 20/ vesti.ru/article/2646156

So, every time you hear about Russia orchestrating “referenda at gunpoint,” don’t think of these as a mere imitation of liberal democracy (as if ordinary Russians cared about democracy) or an attempt to fool the global public opinion (as if we're so stupid). 21/

(And here, I slightly disagree with @TimothyDSnyder that the referendums are a mere “media exercise” akin to ballot-stuffing at home. They are something much more.) 22/

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1572988432212963329?s=20&t=S6BG7o7OPcGswELaywCXeA

The elections in Russian-occupied Ukraine are an exercise of forcible public indoctrination where people have to physically affirm their new identity imposed from abroad: choose *our* side in history or perish. Be a Russian or a Nazi. Leviathan is watching. 23/

It is only ironic that Putin has appropriated the hyper-constructivist Stalinist practice to pursue his genocidal primordialist goals – liquidating Ukrainians as a nation and forcing them to join Russkii mir. 24/

Putin is a grotesque murderous pedagogue of sorts, disciplining entire populations to accept his authority and agenda. Doesn't matter how many Ukrainians oppose him; he'll keep on "disciplining" them. "Little Russians" just need to "learn" what is "in their best interest." END