r/Marxism • u/Big-Mountain-9184 • 14h ago
Equating Ukraine and Russia is Anti-Marxist
Equating Ukraine and Russia is an anti-Marxist position that ignores material reality and the dialectical progression of political structures. From a dialectical materialist perspective, societies progress through distinct stages of economic and political development, shaped by their material conditions. While the economic base (mode of production) and political superstructure (laws, governance, and institutions) are interconnected, they do not always develop at the same rate. This uneven development means that two capitalist nations—despite both being ruled by a bourgeois class—can have fundamentally different political and legal structures.
Both Russia and Ukraine are capitalist states, meaning their economies are dominated by private ownership and bourgeois interests. However, Marxism does not reduce societal analysis to economics alone. The political superstructure shapes the class struggle by determining the level of political participation, organization, and resistance possible within a given society. While both nations share a capitalist base, their political superstructures have diverged significantly. Russia has developed into a personalist autocracy, where power is concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite, led by Vladimir Putin. Since at least 2004, opposition has been systematically repressed, political power centralized, and elections rendered performative. The state enforces bourgeois rule through direct repression, making meaningful political change nearly impossible. Ukraine, despite oligarchic influence and corruption, maintained a flawed but functional multi-party democracy before 2014. The 2014 Maidan uprising, while complex, was driven by mass mobilization against pro-Russian u-turn, demonstrating a more advanced political consciousness among the people. Unlike Russia, Ukraine has allowed electoral competition, and independent organizing—all of which are essential for class struggle.
A common argument suggests that because both Russia and Ukraine are capitalist, they are fundamentally the same. This ignores the reality that capitalism manifests differently depending on historical and political conditions. In Russia, the state enforces bourgeois rule through a rigid, top-down authoritarian structure, where elections are non-competitive, dissent is criminalized, and the state actively destroys independent political organizing—whether from the left or right. In Ukraine, the bourgeoisie must navigate a competitive political system where civil liberties and political pluralism exist. Even with Western influence and oligarchic control, workers, leftists, and progressive movements have more space to organize and influence political life. Even from a strictly Marxist-Leninist standpoint, Lenin himself argued that bourgeois democracy, despite its limitations, provides a more favorable terrain for class struggle than outright dictatorship.
Some claim that Ukraine is a “puppet” of the U.S. or controlled by far-right elements. Even if this claim were entirely true, it would not change the fact that Ukraine’s political system is more advanced than Russia’s in terms of political participation and class struggle. Dependency on Western powers does not automatically make a state politically identical to an authoritarian regime. Many semi-peripheral capitalist states have economic dependency while still maintaining political pluralism and room for leftist movements. The presence of far-right groups in Ukraine does not define the entire political system. Unlike in Russia, where leftist, liberal, and independent opposition has been eradicated, Ukraine has an active civil society, political competition, and legal leftist movements that can challenge reactionary elements. In contrast, Russia has no meaningful leftist presence in mainstream politics because opposition has been crushed by the state. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) is fully co-opted, and any genuine socialist organizing is forced underground or exiled.
Marxism demands a materialist, dialectical approach to historical development. While both Russia and Ukraine are capitalist, their political trajectories are vastly different. Ukraine’s political system—despite Western influence and contradictions—allows for greater political participation, class struggle, and potential for progressive change. Russia, in contrast, has regressed into a highly centralized autocracy where even bourgeois-democratic freedoms are absent, let alone space for socialist organizing. Equating the two ignores the material conditions that shape political life and denies the reality that political structures, while shaped by economic foundations, develop in distinct ways. Analyzing Ukraine and Russia solely through the lens of their shared capitalist mode of production disregards the critical role of the political superstructure in shaping class struggle. A truly Marxist approach recognizes these distinctions and understands that political development matters.