Ukrainian Alienation from the Means of Production
Karl Marx was a regular occupant of one of the tables in the newly built British Museum Reading Room. Throughout the 1860s, he scribbled away industriously, giving shape to his economic sociology.
Marx believed that the rich become wealthy off the labor of the poor, and that the poor would inevitably revolt against such domination and establish a fair economy in which all would share alike in a global fraternity of nations.The Ukrainian problem with Leninist-Stalinist Marxism was that yes, the wealthy and powerful elite were indeed exploiting the proletariat. The revolution had not ushered in a universal free sharing of resources, but simply a new elite who talked like peasants while acting like Tsars.
Communist rhetoric was that Ukraine was free, happy, and prosperous. For Ukrainians, the bitter truth was that Ukrainians harvested wheat and fought as soldiers for Russia. Ukraine, along with all the Sputnik Soviets, served Russia’s interests. The true Ukrainian was still running from the Iron Wolf, hiding away among the hovels of the poor, constantly pursued and never at rest.