In Episode 118 [16] of the CounterVortex podcast [17], Bill Weinberg explores the possibility that Putin's criminal adventure in Ukraine could backfire horribly, actually portending the implosion of the Russian Federation into its constituent entities, the "autonomous" republics, oblasts and krais. Troops from Russia's Far East were apparently involved [18] in the horrific massacre [19] at the Kyiv suburb of Bucha [20]. But indigenous leaders from Siberia and the Russian Arctic are breaking with Moscow [21] over the Ukraine war. Rumblings of separatist sentiment are now heard from Yakutia [22] (Sakha [23]), Khabarovsk [24], Kalmykia [25], Kamchatka [26], Tatarstan [27], Tuva [28], the Altai Republic [29], and the entirety of Siberia [30]. China, which controlled much [31] of what is now the Russian Far East until the 1850s, has its own expansionist designs [32] on the region. Frederick Engels called for the "destruction forever [33]" of Russia during the Crimean War, but it may collapse due to its own internal contradictions rather than Western aggression.
Listen on SoundCloud [16] or via Patreon [34].
Books discussed: The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR [37] by Jonathan Brunstedt [38]; The Coming War Between Russia and China [39] by Harrison E. Salisbury [40]; The Breakdown of Nations [41] by Leopold Kohr [42]
Production by Chris Rywalt [43]
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