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Justifying rhetoric for eventual Russian aggression. Op-Ed by Victor Pelin


https://www.ipn.md/en/justifying-rhetoric-for-eventual-russian-aggression-op-ed-by-victor-7978_1096137.html

“The Communist-Socialist opposition in the Republic of Moldova, as the Shor Party, are tacit accomplices to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, refusing to openly condemn the occupation of territories of Ukraine and waiting with big hope for the Russian yoke to also come to the Republic of Moldova...”

Nazism and Stalinism, twins...

Fourteen years ago, on April 2, 2009, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the commemoration of the victims of Nazism and Stalinism. The commemoration takes place annually, on August 23, when two global tyrannies in 1939 made an alliance by signing the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the secret Protocol. The European Parliament’s example was followed by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly that, three months later, also adopted a Resolution that equals the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. In 14 years, we have the occasion of seeing how the rhetoric of the Communist-Socialist forces in the Republic of Moldova changed in the period.

The first conclusion is that the Communist-Socialist parties continued to practice verbal aggression, beginning recently to use the rhetoric to which the senior administration of Russia and Russian propaganda resort to justify the military aggression against Ukraine. The most recent example refers to the official rhetoric of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), which, in the recent plenary meeting of March 25, 2023, announced that it gets ready for a new electoral cycle whose first stage covers the local general elections of this autumn: “These elections will represent the decisive struggle that the progressive forces of Moldova will fight against the national-fascist regime of the PAS, which is supported by the Western imperialism, as well as a launching pad for the parliamentary elections”.

It should be noted that since the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) came to power, the PCRM has tirelessly accused the PAS of being fascist and of having established Nazi dictatorship. To counter this dictatorship, the PCRM suggests returning to the concept of “enemy of the people” from the epoch of Stalin. The poor gerontocratic Moldovan Communists do not find anything more honorable than pretending to be barmy. Where did they see a fascist or Nazi regime tolerating the existence of Communist parties on the political arena of a country? The existence of the PCRM itself on the Republic of Moldova, with parliamentary representation and extremely aggressive and provocative rhetoric, is the main indicator of the existence of a democratic regime, even if this is weak and hollow.

Putinism perfectly matches characteristics of two totalitarian regimes

The constant pleading of the Moldovan Communists in favor of the restoration of the totalitarian USSR and the invoking of the necessity of resorting to Stalinist methods reveal their true essence: longing for totalitarianism. In fact, the accusations that the ruling party is fascist and Nazi are nothing but a preparatory element for the next phase – Putin, bring in the army! Evidently, for denazification and demilitarization. In this regard, the recent message of the informal leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) does not seem accidental. Addressing the voters in Gagauzia on December 31, 2022, he encouraged them: “Without Russia, we will not survive as we need that market, cheap diesel fuel for agricultural producers. We need cheap gas and electricity as there is no way out. That’s why I want to urge you: don’t despair! Everything will be fine and we will succeed. Ours are already close!” It goes to the same Dodon who publicly supported the annexation of Crimea in 2014 for flattering Putin to gain his support for the election campaign of 2014.

In such circumstances, it is inappropriate to say that only Nazism and Stalinism resemble each other. At least the basic criteria of fascism perfectly match the Putinist regime: nationalism; ignoring of the human rights, arrests followed by long-term jail terms for disagreement with the military aggression and pleading for peace; militarism and military aggression against the neighboring states; full control over the mass media; physical destruction of the opposition; repeated amendment of the constitution for extending the terms in office to keep power, rigging of elections; repression of civil society organizations; supporting of protectionism and corruption; involving of the Church for justifying the aggression, etc.

Intellectualist pretentions of Communist illiterates

We must admit that not all the members of the PCRM resort to aggressive rhetoric against the government. There are also persons who try, in a more subtle way, to reproach the ruling party for often not acting in a European manner. In fact, these Communists who consider themselves intellectuals are also Putinists. They create opportunities for complaining even in the presence of the Russian dictator about how hard it is for them to make a choice between good and good, which is between Europe and Russia, at a time when Russia attacks Ukraine, while Europe helps it to resist and defend its independence and sovereignty.

Not only the fawning attempts to make a difficult chose between good and good, but also the throwing of dust in the eyes cause smiles. This way, the self-styled Communist intellectual reproached the PAS members for using such notions as Mankurt from books that they didn’t even read, invoking the novel The Scaffold by Kyrgyz writer Cinghiz Aitmatov. If the Communist had kept silent, he would have remained an intellectual. The point is The Scaffold was devoted to another subject – moral degradation and trafficking in drugs in the USSR. Such subjects started to be raised only after the declaring of Perestroika. This way, the saying that everyone thinks about what concerns them the most is confirmed. The Mankurt law is part of another famous novel – The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years – that was published much earlier and was centered on the effects caused by the occupants who erased the memory of those whom they occupied – the Makurts – for dispossessing them of normal relations and of exploring them. Through thin angle, the novel is devoted to the conviction of aggressive militarism, which is exactly with what the USSR had been concerned.

In fact, the self-styled Communist intellectual tried to launch allegedly subtle invective, burdening the PAS with the Communist inheritance. Finally, the junction between the period (1946-1953) of condemnation in the USSR of cosmopolitism, which ended with the deportation of Jewish citizens from large Soviet towns, and the period of national renaissance – overcoming of Mankurtism by solving linguistic and historical problems - had the opposite effect. It actually revealed the fact that the Stalinist, Communist regime evolved towards state anti-Semitism, as the fascist regimes did. As they say, shooting at a pigeon and killing a crow! So, not at all accidentally the alleged Communist intellectuals mix things up, as they mixed up neocolonialism with neoimpressionism in the letter addressed to Xi Jinping.

Conclusions

If Nazism and Stalinism are similar totalitarian regimes, being equally criminal, they are yet different. Nazism and Stalinism, as Communism, have their origins in the leftist demagogy and this is not surprising. Mussolini had led the Italian Socialists before he became the founder of fascism. The Nazi party of Hitler had the words ‘national-socialist’ in its title. However, unlike Communism, fascism and Nazism displayed their anti-human objectives in a direct manner, without resorting to stratagems, as Communism did, declaring to be the defender of the interests of workers and peasants and destroying tens of millions of peasants during the civil war and during the so-called industrialization for the total triumph of a new class – the nomenclature.

The Communist-Socialist opposition in the Republic of Moldova, as the Shor Party, are tacit accomplices to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, refusing to openly condemn the occupation of territories of Ukraine and waiting with big hope for the Russian yoke to also come to the Republic of Moldova. Evidently, not for the sake of cheap hydrocarbons, but also in order to get rid of the eventual hugs of justice that the pro-European PAS does not yet manage to reform in a proper way. There is no doubt that the Communist-Socialist opposition is aware that the Putinist regime perfectly matches the definitions of the two twin totalitarian regimes mentioned above. That’s why the illiterate rhetoric of the Communist-Socialists about the so-called fascism and Nazism in the Republic of Moldova is actually an invitation, for now timed, to Russia to stage an aggression.