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Taras Bilous Profile picture
Taras Bilous
@ahatanhel
Ukrainian socialist, soldier, historian, co-editor of Spilne/Commons @commonscomua, member of the @SocRuch organization. Born and raised in Luhansk
7 subscribers
May 28, 2023 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
On May 22, Ukrainian anthropologist and my friend Evgeny Osievsky died near Bakhmut.

He planned to go to Vanuatu in the field, to write a dissertation, but because of the Russian invasion, he ended up at the front instead. 1/7 Image Evgeny was a very bright and kind person and had a great sense of humor.

We called his pieces gonzo-anthropology. He began by going to Krishnaites, Scientologists, neo-pagans etc. for months, immersed himself in the community and then wrote fascinating long-reads about them. 2/7 Image
Apr 28, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
On April 19, 2023, the Russian anarchist Dmitry Petrov a.k.a Ilya Leshiy, died in the battle near Bakhmut.

He fought in the Ukrainian army against Russian imperial aggression. His death was confirmed yesterday. 1/9 Image Dmitry was a PhD in history, an anthropologist and worked at the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He visited Kurdistan, co-authored a few books, and co-hosted the Hevale research and media project about Rojava. 2/9
hevale.nihilist.li/about_english/ Image
Feb 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
On the morning of February 24 last year, I packed my things and went to Kyiv to the place where we, a group of leftist and anarchist activists, had agreed in advance to meet if the war started.

But first, I met my friend from Severodonetsk near the Kyiv railway station. 1/3 A day before the invasion, his friend from Donetsk city called and told him to leave Severodonetsk immediately, because the invasion would begin soon. He left in the evening, and when Russia started firing missiles, he was traveling on a train. 2/3
Jan 18, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Varlam Shalamov, a Soviet left-wing dissident who spent many years in Gulag.

One of my friends posted a quote from Shalamov's text, "What I learned in the camp." /1 There were the following words:

"I understood that a person keeps a feeling of anger last of all. A hungry person has only enough strength for anger, and is indifferent to the rest."

Thank God I was never in a concentration camp. But I think I understand Shalamov's words. /2
Dec 16, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
If you follow the Ukrainian left - @SocRuch and @commonscomua, you might have paid attention to our illustrations.

These are the works of Katya Gritseva. She is from Mariupol, from a working-class family, studied in Kharkiv, but fled to Lviv when the invasion began. She joined us last year and revolutionized our style.

I'm very glad that she found us. We also became an important community for she (at least that's what she says in this interview about her work)

justseeds.org/interview-with…
Dec 13, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
This is another text from the DSA IC on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which there is not a single critical word about Russia. On the contrary, there is an attempt to downplay Russia's brutality.

But I don't see the point of writing a response to this, because… Perhaps the best response to this @GerardDalbon's text is the article by his colleague from @dsa_intl_comm

I hope that more and more DSA members will follow this example and publicly condemn campism.

newpol.org/deconstructing…
Dec 2, 2022 • 36 tweets • 9 min read
@After__History wrote a thread in response to my thread about tankies and the Holodomor.

Well, I was waiting for someone to write something more serious. Here is my response. A long thread 🧵/1 @After__History refers to a book by Davies & Wheatcroft's, which has been criticized by many authors.

Even Mark Tauger, quoted in his following tweet, criticized their harvest estimates. /2
jstor.org/stable/20451271
Nov 30, 2022 • 20 tweets • 6 min read
Bohdan Krawchenko was the leader of the Ukrainian diaspora New Left in Canada in the 1970s.
They organized solidarity campaigns with political prisoners in the Soviet Union, delivered banned literature to Ukraine…

A thread 🧵 about Ukrainian diaspora left. /1 In 1972, when there was a wave of repression in Ukraine, they organized a hunger strike and stopped it only after then Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau agreed to raise the issue of political prisoners during negotiations with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin. /2 Image
Nov 28, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Tankies call the Holodomor fascist propaganda and deny that it was a man-made famine.
What is the reaction of many Ukrainians whose ancestors died during the Holodomor? Hatred of the left.
And then some Western leftists complain that Ukrainians are too right-wing. 1/10 One of the claims is that it was not genocide. Well, many historians dealing with this topic do not consider it a genocide either. They characterize it as a crime against humanity. And this is the main thing - it was a crime that cannot be justified or denied. 2/10
Nov 26, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Today is Holodomor Memorial Day.

Probably, most Ukrainians (with the exception of Western Ukraine, which was not part of the USSR then) have a family story about the Holodomor. Me too, but a little non-conventional. 🧵 All my Ukrainian ancestors who survived the Holodomor died before my parents were born. But one great-grandmother died later. She was a Russian.

A few years before the Holodomor, her family had fled from the repressions to the Donbas. There they worked as miners. 2/12
Oct 15, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
On the eve of the invasion, RU propaganda accused Ukraine of alleged planning an offensive at Donbas and used to confirm this the increase in the number of ceasefire violations on the frontline. Recently I saw it being used again.

So a short 🧵 thread. The number of violations did increase, but even so it remained lower than two years before.

2022: osce.org/files/2022-02-… Image
Oct 15, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Myrotvorets is a terrible site that published confidential personal data of journalists and violates the law. Some of my friends also got into its database. As well as some Ukrainian officials.

But this is not a kill list.

1/2 This is a non-governmental site, but some officials promoted it, and the intelligence services probably cooperated with it.

This is the legacy of the previous president Poroshenko's rule. Zelensky should have banned this site. He didn't it and now he is paying for it.

2/2
Oct 13, 2022 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Looking at how much of the Western left can't take an adequate position regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war even after seven months of war has made me appreciate Bernie Sanders and the Squad even more.
A short🧵 thread. 1/11 Image Against the background of shameful campism and pseudo-pacifism of much of the Western left, Bernie demonstrates true internationalism and solidarity with the oppressed.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all members of Sanders' team. 2/11
Sep 23, 2022 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
Alexander Khodakovsky, the pro-Russian Donetsk commander, admitted that Ukraine prepared for a defensive war, while they were preparing for an offensive one. So he refuted the RU myth that the invasion was a reaction to Kyiv's alleged preparations for an attack on Donetsk
🧵 1/ Quote: "Ukraine, assuming a clash with Russia and realizing the difference in potentials, was preparing for a defensive war. Among the many documents that fell into our hands and determined the tactics of Ukraine's actions…

2/
Sep 15, 2022 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
Those who still write that Russia was "provoked" by the US and accuse the West of unwillingness to negotiate ignore many facts that contradict their US-centric worldview. In particular, the US-RU negotiations before the invasion

A🧵 thread about this negotiations

1/ (It's actually very sad that after six months of war I still have to write about it, but a recent thread by a Western historian who once worked at Eastern Europe showed me that it's still relevant)


2/
Sep 14, 2022 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
I don't like Žižek, but his texts about Ukraine are much better than what many other left-wing intellectuals write. Nevertheless, even his texts show that he doesn't know details known to almost every Ukrainian. In particular, his recent article...

🧵 1/
project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukr… Žižek write about Ukraine between two colonialisms (Russian and Western), IMF pressure and the threat of economic colonization of Ukraine by Western capital.

2/
Sep 13, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The West must pressure on Azerbaijan to force them to stop aggression.
Russia's defeat in Ukraine may will create a security vacuum and a threat of Turkish dominance in the South Caucasus. Under these circumstances, Aliyev can dare not only to carry out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also to occupy the "corridor" to Nakhchivan.
Already now, Azerbaijan is bombing sites in the depths of the internationally recognized territory of Armenia.
Sep 7, 2022 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
One of the strange things I often encounter in discussions about Western support of Ukraine is how much attention Western left pay to the motives of Western politicians.

A 🧵 about this bias, the interests of Western elites, Johnson and Corbyn.

1/ Well, talk about the motives of politicians wouldn't be strange in context of election or something. But I really don't understand, what does it matter regarding military aid and sanctions?

2/
Sep 2, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This may sound provocative, so please read to the end before judging my words. Ukrainians as victims don't deserve all aid that other states give us. There are many people in Africa and Asia who need help much more.

🧵1/ Rich countries should give more aid (and reparations) to poor countries especially Pakistan now. The West bears a large share of responsibility for many of the problems facing the peoples of the Global South, including climate change.

2/
Aug 31, 2022 • 34 tweets • 7 min read
Boris Johnson's visit in April really influenced the negotiations. But those who write that Johnson disrupted negotiations between Zelensky and Putin distorts the information available to us, ignores other events that then influenced Zelensky's position…

1/ First of all, the Ukrainian Pravda article, which is usually referred to, does not mention Johnson's pressure on Zelensky. Instead, the article mentions that Zelensky's position was also influenced by Bucha massacre.

2/
 pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/…
Aug 15, 2022 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
In 1993 there were political crises both in Ukraine and Russia. In Ukraine this ended with re-elections of both the president and the parliament. The same step would have been the optimal solution in Russia, but Yeltsin dissolved the parliament and dispersed it with tanks.

1/ After that, a new constitution was adopted in Russia, which gave enormous powers to the president. This laid the legal foundations for the formation of Putin's regime.

2/