"Right now we are through a turning point in the history of Eastern Europe" - The Combat Organisation of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK) discusses the situation for Anarchism in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

From the telegram channel of Boak

 Be your own force

“...many of us anarchists, especially those who were a little bit theoretically determined, wasted time on false attempts to find in anarchism something super-perfect, for which there is no place in the life of the present. The place for it, they say, is only in the future, and it is not known in what forms.

Nestor Makhno. Memories.

Right now we are going through a turning point in the history of Eastern Europe. In the abyss of events, we can clearly distinguish the small black sail of the anarchist movement. In the Russian resistance, the actions of the Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists had a great resonance. In Ukraine, at the forefront of the fight against imperialism, groups of our like-minded people, both with weapons in their hands and in many “peaceful” spheres, are demonstrating an anarchist perspective in the context of current events. In the nationwide upsurge against the dictatorship in Belarus in 2020, which in this war echoed the echo of rail sabotage, the anarchists were one of the brightest and most articulate forces. These testimonies tell us about the relevance of anarchism in the current political realities.

However, those involved understand that in order to become a real factor of change and a force influencing the minds of the people and society as a whole, we still lack something. Maybe a lot.

Let's talk about one thing today. There are two approaches that seem to prevent our movement and the active people who make it up from adequately realizing themselves and building a line of action in the current moment. In fact, these are two sides of the same coin.

Now sometimes you can hear statements that “everything is lost”, “the anarchist movement in Russia and Belarus has been defeated, and in Ukraine it is incredibly weak” ... put your hands down, drain the water - write memoirs, but it’s better not to have them. And they say it just the same at a decisive moment. When the entire social reality of the region is staggering and can choose the most unpredictable trajectory (and this alone already gives the revolutionaries a great chance).