They had already been expelled from the People’s
Soviet in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and were not admitted to a rally.
Although it
may seem strange, Donetsk has undertaken the process of decommunisation almost
simultaneously with Ukraine. No, Lenin’s monument in the centre of the city
still stands, but the local communists have been kicked from practically everywhere.
All that there is to learn about the present-day
Donetsk communists fits in a small paragraph: their leader has been excused
from all positions in the DNR a long time ago, they were refused from
registering their own electoral lists at the last elections, their national
deputies were dismissed from the People’s Soviet of DNR on May 6. So now all
that remains is to wait for their statement, saying that they are going
underground?
It seems that, in the
self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, the local communists were “multiplied
by zero”. What’s strange is that without their support, the Russian spring in Donetsk would not have happened.
It was actually communists, who in February 2014 set up the first tent city “in
defence of Lenin” and it was specifically their disciplined old members, who,
having lived through countless elections, formed the backbone of the electoral
commissions at the 2014 referendum. Back in 2014 nobody denied this; what’s
more, the leader of the local communists, Boris Litvinov, even headed the local
People’s Soviet from July to October of that year.
 |
| En el Soviet Popular de Donestk |
On May 6, the
communist deputies were thrown out of the same People’s Soviet with the reason
being “loss of confidence”. On May 11, the local law-enforcement attempted to
impede a block of KP DNR, carrying red flags, from taking part in a rally. This
day, for those who don’t know it, is now a holiday – Day of the Republic. The
truth being said, Russia was represented only by two officials at this rally,
who happened to be State Duma deputies of KPRF (Communist Party of the Russian
Federation), Vladimir Rodin and Kazbek Taysayev. In the meantime, the red flags
of “their” block were being broken.
“Everything is very simple,
there will be two public organisations in the Republic: Doneckaya Respublika (Donetsk Republic) and Svobodnyy Donbass (Free Donbass)”, was
reported by a source in the DNR government. “Everyone else will just have to
play along! Last year, we had already denied the communists in registering
their list, what they did was get their people on Donetsk Republic’s list, but had not ceased their
political activities. Hence, they were removed by a decision of the Political
Soviet. Here, everything will be as we say, not otherwise!”
“Allowed” public organisations are tied to
Aleksandr Zaharchenko and Pavel Gubarev accordingly. Whereas, the DNR
communists held their plenum during the weekend with the goal of figuring out
what they should now do.
Already on Monday, Lugansk communists published a
statement in defence of their comrades in Donetsk on one of their websites. It
was an emotional reaction to the banishment of communists from the DNR’s
People’s Soviet. “Hiding behind statements, saying that such directions are
coming from Moscow, DNR’s authorities made the decision to prohibit the
operation of the Communist Party in the Republic”, stood in this statement. The
context was clear: hoping that Plotnickiy would not repeat the neighbours’
experiment in Lugansk. In the self-declared LNR, the communists have a
completely legal party. Still.
“It’s a mistake, we exist, presently, our party is
the only registered party in the DNR”, explained the leader of the Donetsk
communists, Boris Litvinov. “There was a small window of opportunity in October
2014, and we succeeded in getting a paper certificate of registration. There
are no other parties here; there are about a dozen public organisations. We are
being examined right now, in May, by DNR’s Ministry of Justice. As a party.”
Q: Is it true that you were arrested multiple times
and that on May 11 in Donetsk your block’s red flags were being smashed?
A: Well, there were some
excesses at the demonstrations. Yet, there are only some individual zealous
law-enforcement officers who are connected with it. People were being
brainwashed for 25 years, so now they attack everything red, like a bull
attacks the rag. Indeed, we were removed from the People’s Soviet. Our
political opponents from Donetsk Republic don’t
really want any competition on the political field. At the moment, Denis
Pushilin has more authority than we ever had. Elections may take place in the
Republic, and I associate our troubles with that.
But nobody has arrested me! The rumours materialised
in 2015. At that time, we came very close to the decision to launch our own
currency. It was even printed already, don’t ask where. Not in Donetsk, not in
Russia. The risk appeared that our enemies will try to capture this treasure.
For this reason, I had a very long conversation, about 12 hours long, with
experts from the Department for Combating Organised Crime. The rumours were
that I was taken under arrest…
Q: Do you think there will be elections?
 |
| Comunistas del Donestk |
A: You and I are real people and we understand that
Ukraine is simply incapable, even from a technical standpoint, to make all the
amendments to the Constitution and to coordinate with us the drafting of an
electoral law according to the Minsk Protocols anytime soon. The last sentence
is conditioned upon them wishing to follow along this process. I am quite
pessimistic about this. In any case, developing self-government is necessary
and at the end of July or beginning of August, I don’t exclude the possibility
of organising our own local elections in the DNR no matter what. Everything is
possible.
We will only understand the seriousness of our
problems next week. We are currently leading political consultations. I also
want to meet with Gennadiy Andreyevich Zyuganov [leader of KPRF] to get some
advice. We shall then see.
Also, we don’t need
supporters from the sidelines! The Lugansk communists’ statement from yesterday
was published on a website, which is controlled by persons, who were banned
from the party, one of whom has even served in Aidar [Battalion].
That means that this is an attempt to boil up another stew between us and the
head of the Republic.
Donetsk.
Originally published on 17.05.2016 on MK.ru news.
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