Beware the Revolutionaries - Ukraine in Turmoil
Dr. Randy White
What a mess in the Ukraine. While most of us can’t even point it out on a map and almost none of us can adequately interpret the events of the last few weeks, the Ukrainian situation has rightly taken center stage in the newsrooms around the world (second, of course, to the Oscars). Since it has often occurred in world history that small battles led to huge wars, every American should have some degree of concern over the Ukrainian matter. As a Texan, I would remind you, “Remember the Alamo.” Though Mexican General Santa Anna wrote in his diary that the Alamo battle was “but a small affair” (militarily, it was, taking less than an hour to complete), that small affair set off the dominoes that literally led to the USA stretching from sea to shining sea.The current Ukrainian revolution is sometimes called “Euromaiden.” It has been portrayed by our media as anti-Russian and pro-European, which is enough for many of us to say, “It’s good enough for me.” Being especially suspicious of Vladimir Putin of Russian, his enemy is our friend.But what if his enemy needs to be our enemy too?A few days ago I noticed the tweets and Facebook postings by my fellow evangelicals and in the Christian press celebrating the appointment of Baptist pastor Oleksandr Turchynov as interim President of the revolutionary government. I don’t know if it is because I associate with a lot of Baptist pastors or because I’ve not been too impressed with the Baptists who have led our country (Clinton & Carter), but it was this news that led me to do a little google-research to see what was afoot.While I find very little about Turchynov (he has served his career in the shadows), I find a lot about his party and his appointments, neither of which encourage me. What most disturbs me is his party’s connections with far-right radicals. For the uninformed conservative evangelical, our testimony is often, “The more conservative the better.” We may think that anything right-wing is good. However, please understand that on the world scale, “far-right” means fascist and neo-Nazi.[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=“yes” overflow=“visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=“1_1” background_position=“left top” background_color=“” border_size=“” border_color=“” border_style=“solid” spacing=“yes” background_image=“” background_repeat=“no-repeat” padding=“” margin_top=“0px” margin_bottom=“0px” class=“” id=“” animation_type=“” animation_speed=“0.3” animation_direction=“left” hide_on_mobile=“no” center_content=“no” min_height=“none”][caption id=“” align=“alignleft” width=“385”]
Young Ukrainian Revolutionaries in the 2014 Revolution.[/caption]European journalists have been more forthright about the neo-Nazi and nationalist sentiments of the revolutionaries. One journalist said that the pro-European revolutionary element of Ukraine (the ones the West supports) has “violence in its DNA.” Speaking of the Svoboda Party (bedfellows with President Turchynov’s “Fatherland” Party), the journalist said that the party was “extreme right and near fascist.”It was these extreme right-wingers who set up the 2014 revolution, building blockades in downtown Kiev, and even holding court behind their blockade, putting on trial the leaders of the Ukranian government. Would any government of the world allow this to happen in their borders? (I wonder, under my breath, how much the US Government orchestrated or funded the Svoboda revolutionaries.)Is Baptist President Turchynov part of these neo-Nazi elements? I doubt it. But his party is strongly nationalistic (more of that in a minute) and he did appoint the co-founder of Svoboda, Andriy Parubiy as Secretary of the Security and National Defense Committee, which supervises the defense ministry and the armed forces. I am not comfortable with the political expediency this new government is showing, one which accommodates Nazism for pragmatic (if not ideological) purposes. Any Ukrainian government needs to recognize the rule of law and needs to deny any association with the nationalist movement.If you listen to the protesters, the nationalism comes through loud and clear. “Glory to Ukraine!,” shouts a leader, to which the crowd responds “To heroes glory!” “Glory to the nation!” the leader would shout, and the crowd, in roaring approval, shouts back, “Death to enemies!” and “Ukraine above all!” This kind of nationalism is dangerous, and reminiscent of Nazi Germany. (The American Revolution, on the other hand, was one almost devoid of nationalism, to the degree that there was scarcely enough national system to allow the new nation to survive).Is the neo-Nazi sentiment anti-Semitic? Of course. Look closely and, under the anti-Russian propaganda, you’ll hear plenty of vulgar comments against the Jews as well. Or, just look at the armbands (a neo-nazi symbol) or the symbol of the revolution (a cross with a plus sign is a “white supremacy” symbol).I readily admit that I know almost nothing about the facts of the case. If you want an expert, you’ll have to look elsewhere. I may even have some incorrect factual data in this piece (though I have tried to research it, which I found to be very difficult, needing the deciphering of language and propaganda). But what I do know is that we will do poorly if we simply back the revolutionaries because we have a revolutionary spirit ourselves (anyone remember the Arab Spring?)My advice is as follows-
- For the Christian – don’t be moved by human plight or Christian talk. Question the assumptions.
- For the Jew – Move out of Ukraine, go to Israel.
- For anyone – realize that we may have two enemies at play here, and a political push to support one over the other will likely bite us in the end—as it has so many times before.