Red Holiday Without Improvisation
On the work day of November 7, representatives of the Communist Party of Ukraine marked the 84th anniversary of the Bolshevik coup de etat in Petrograd. Apparently an important landmark, the celebration was treated with due seriousness by the Communists, staging, in the best party tradition, marches and rallies, disseminating leaflets, chanting slogans and singing the Internationale and Soviet anthems. In a word, going by the big party book.
But then the thinner than last year’s crowd predominantly made up of senior citizens and the apparently ill-matching mood. “There’s not much to be happy about,” Communist leader Petro Symonenko explained his somber look. One cannot help but agree with him, recalling the Communists’ failure to disrupt voting on the Land Code and the prospect of a parliamentary majority without his party. That is why or, perhaps, merely bracing up for a speech at the rally, People’s Deputy Symonenko skipped chanting “Long Live the USSR” and “Down with Capitalism” slogans on the alleged fifth column of market reforms’ march from the Square of Glory Square to European Square, the venue of the Communist rally. To be fair, the top Communist made up in full for his silence during the march. Interestingly, when within arm’s reach of the microphones, Mr. Symonenko and his entourage, unlike his spiritual father, Vladimir Ulianov, distanced himself from ordinary mortal Communists behind road blocs and police cordons. Ideas are sacred, but the chain of command reigns supreme: even Rear Admiral (retired) Anatoly Yurkovsky, one of the registered speakers at the rally, had a hard time making his way through these formidable defense lines. Incidentally, before plunging for the mikes, he had been adamantly trying to convince The Day’s correspondent that, “There is no better concept in the world than the Communist one.”
There is little point in recounting the content of the speeches, with any qualifying for the topmost in historical, economic, or geopolitical thinking. Take, for example, the declarations made by the number one Communist. It appears, at least to go by Comrade Symonenko’s words, that all the Verkhovna Rada caucuses (understandably, excluding Communists and their allies), are trying to railroad legislation to placate the Americans, citing the recently adopted Land Code. In Mr. Symonenko’s view, “The sale and purchase on land is not so much an issue of the economy as of Ukraine’s living space... Soon we will huddle on the land owned by others,” he summed up his view of the code.
Symonenko was more specific outlining the threat overhanging Ukraine’s mineral resources, “Ukraine is home to 4.6% of all world mineral deposits, but the powers that be want to embezzle all this wealth,” the leader of Verkhovna Rada’s largest caucus declared. According to him, the authorities “have crossed out a glorious day from our calendar (November 7 —Author) and are trying to drag through the legislature the Housing Code that will deprive Ukrainians of their right to shelter,” continuing in the same vain.
Having settled his scores with domestic enemies, Mr. Symonenko, strictly in line with Communist propaganda tactics, proceeded to deal with external ones. But this time the ride was not so easy as, apart from more loans, no other threats have come from the West, much to Mr. Symonenko’s chagrin. The fact, however, did not stop the Communist-in-chief from blaming the USA and the World Bank for all the misfortunes of Ukrainians and demanding for the umpteenth time that the US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual be banished from Ukraine. So much for theory. But promises to give way to theorizing and come to practice by staging another revolution are definitely causing concern. Mouthed by lawmakers with red flags, such threats look much more like rhetoric, but their younger breed carrying red banners on the streets sound far more resolute. Incidentally, I was able to see clearly that most of the younger followers of Lenin take the ideas of their elder comrades quite seriously and say they want to build the new Communist society, despite the obvious lack of a clear concept. Maybe their elders did not do their homework all that well. Or perhaps they were not quite good learning the lessons of history.
