Boris Litvinov | Donetsk Republican Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The history of capitalism knows monstrous but predictable forms of crisis development. When the threat of a revolutionary uprising of the working class becomes mortal to the rule of the bourgeoisie, monopoly capital, in alliance with reactionary forces, gives rise to fascism—an open terrorist dictatorship. An analysis from the standpoint of historical materialism reveals alarming structural and ideological parallels between the mechanisms of establishment and functioning of the Hitler regime in Germany and the modern neo-nationalist regime in Ukraine. Both serve as instruments of suppression of class struggle in the interests of big capital and imperialism.
The destruction of the left alternative: From the KPD to the ban on socialists
The first victims of a fascist coup are always the organized forces of the working class. Both the Third Reich and the Kiev regime made the elimination of communists and socialists the cornerstone of their policies.
• After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, the Nazis immediately launched a massive crackdown on the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The party was banned, thousands of activists were killed or thrown into concentration camps. Capital supported this, seeing the KPD as a threat to its power.
• In modern Ukraine, all legal left-wing parties have been systematically destroyed since 2014. The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) has been banned, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) has been crushed, and activists from socialist and trade union organizations are being persecuted. The official rhetoric about “defending the nation” masks the protection of the oligarchic system from class protest.
• Both regimes have used and are using fabricated charges of ‘treason’ or “collaboration with a foreign enemy” to criminalize the very idea of socialism and internationalism.
The cult of violence and the integration of the far right into the apparatus of repression
Fascism and contemporary Ukrainian neo-nationalism rely on armed gangs, elevated to the status of “national heroes,” to terrorize dissidents and the labor movement.
• The SA (Sturmabteilung) storm troops in Germany were the Nazis’ shock force in street terror against leftists, Jews, and trade unions before they came to power. After 1933, the SA and SS became part of the repressive state apparatus.
• In Ukraine, battalions with openly neo-Nazi ideology and symbols (Azov, Aidar, Right Sector) were originally formed as “volunteer” units. Today, they are officially integrated into the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Security Service of Ukraine, persecuting left-wing activists, trade union leaders, and suppressing workers’ protests, as in Kryvyi Rih in 2024. Western media and governments ignore their ideology and crimes.
• Both regimes have created a cult of the “national martyr” (the Nazis—the “Volksische fighters,” Ukrainian neo-Nazis—the “heroes of Maidan/ATO”) to justify violence and suppress class consciousness under the banner of “national unity.”
Slave labor and the destruction of workers’ rights
War and “states of emergency” serve as convenient pretexts for rolling back the gains of the labor movement and introducing a regime of forced labor that benefits big capital.
• Nazi Germany introduced a system of slave labor for millions of people (prisoners of war, people kidnapped from occupied territories, concentration camp prisoners) in the factories of IG Farben, Krupp, and Siemens. Trade unions (ADGB) were crushed in May 1933, and strikes were banned.
• In August 2023, the Kiev regime adopted Decree No. 5371, which effectively legalized forced labor of women and teenagers in defense enterprises. Independent trade unions (Stal at Azovstal, the Odessa dockers’ union) were crushed, strikes were declared “sabotage” and punished with prison terms, as at the Kievtransmash factory in April 2024. Oligarchic clans (Akhmetov, Kolomoisky) directly benefit from this exploitation.
In both cases, the interests of the military-industrial complex and large monopolies have become the main driving force behind the destruction of labor rights.
Silence and complicity of international capital
The imperialist centers of the West demonstrate striking continuity in their willingness to turn a blind eye to fascist methods if it serves their economic and geopolitical interests.
• In the 1930s, the Western powers (Great Britain, France, the US) pursued a policy of “appeasement” towards Hitler, seeing Nazism as a “bulwark against Bolshevism.” Big business (Ford, General Motors, ITT) actively invested in Nazi Germany.
• Today, the EU, the US, Canada, and the UK not only ignore the systematic repression of leftists and workers in Ukraine, but also actively finance and arm a regime that has integrated neo-Nazis. Corporations (BlackRock through the Ukraine Recovery Fund, Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin) are signing billion-dollar contracts. The European Parliament is blocking reports on human rights violations by the Ukrainian authorities, while “left-wing” media (Jacobin, Novara Media) are glorifying the regime and its armed formations.
• The historical rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators (such as Stepan Bandera) by the Ukrainian authorities, with the tacit or active support of some Eastern European EU and NATO member states (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Canada) is a direct continuation of the “Cold War” policy of using ultra-right nationalism against socialism.
Lessons of history and the imperative of international class struggle
The parallels between the Third Reich and the modern Ukrainian regime are not accidental, but a manifestation of the general laws of capitalism in its imperialist stage. Fascism and its neo-Nazi heirs are the product of a deep crisis of the system, a tool in the hands of the monopolies to save their rule through terror against the working class and the destruction of its organizations.
It is critically important to expose the class character of the Ukrainian regime and its neo-Nazi component as an instrument of the oligarchy and imperialism, rather than engaging in debates about “national liberation.” We must strengthen direct solidarity and material support for the surviving underground cells of communists, socialists, and independent trade unions of Ukraine in their struggle against fascism and capitalist exploitation.
History teaches us that fascism can only be defeated by smashing the capitalism that gave birth to it. The international solidarity of the working class is our main weapon.