Post-Soviet Left (PSL)

🟥 Andrey Konovalov: “A firm stance is always appropriate, everywhere.”

On Monday, June 23, a hearing was held within the walls of Council of Europe in Strasbourg. A representative of the PSL, Ukrainian citizen Andrei Konovalov, took part.   We asked Andrei to tell us more about the event.

— PSL: Briefly, what was the event about? Where was it held, and who organized it?

AK: The event took place in the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg and included several key meetings: first, with French parliamentarians, and second — with members of The Left group in PACE, which brings together left-wing representatives from various European parliaments. The reason for the invitation was a draft resolution on the war in Ukraine, which raised concerns within the left faction due to its one-sided nature.

Although the resolution condemned the aggression of the Russian Federation, it ignored the issue of amnesty for Russian political prisoners and remained silent on the rapidly growing number of politically motivated verdicts within Ukraine itself. These sentences are based on articles that do not meet international standards, including those of the UN Convention. This “blind spot” in the Western human rights discourse was one of the reasons for my participation, following an invitation from deputies of La France Insoumise, especially from Sophia Chikirou, one of the coordinators of the party’s group in the French National Assembly.

— PSL: What were the goals of the hearing, and were they achieved?

As I mentioned, the main goal of the hearing was to try to revise the draft resolution, to make it more balanced and humane.
My own objective was to bring to the attention of European parliamentarians facts that remain at the margins of public discourse today — despite their critical importance. I’m talking about tens of thousands of criminal proceedings opened in Ukraine under Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code — on “collaboration.” Its vague and broad wording has already been criticized both by the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and by the UN Committee Against Torture.

According to the UN’s findings from June 17, 2025, individuals accused under this article have been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment (for example, being held in basements). These findings are official, yet surprisingly little-known...

Read the full interview on the PSL website.

Join us to support our comrade!

🇵🇸 A year ago, university protests against the genocide in the Gaza Strip committed by Israeli troops took place in Berlin. An activist from our organization took part in them, and he is now charged under § 86a ("use of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations") for the slogan "From the river to the sea - Palestine will be free". The protests were subjected to massive police violence, and the persecution continues to this day.

This slogan is widely used by left-wing forces around the world: it expresses the demand for a secular, multinational Palestine - a state for all people living on its territory, including Jews. The slogan is directed against occupation and colonization, and does not contain anti-Semitism. The idea of ​​a binational state was long put forward by the socialist forces that dominated the Palestinian movement - precisely as a project for a secular, multinational and socialist Palestine.

❗️Why is this important:

🔴Repression and total control in universities undermine free thought and critical thinking — the basis of a liberal arts education. Migrants are particularly affected: they are at risk of expulsion and deportation.

🔴Based on the charges, our comrade faces up to 100 days of arrest and a ban on teaching. For young scientists, a ban on work is a serious blow to their career.

🔴There is no place for violence, occupation, ethnic nationalism and colonization — from Donetsk to Gaza. And there is no place for the persecution of left-wing activists either in the post-Soviet space or in the West.

✊We support our comrade and call on everyone who can to come to court and show that solidarity is stronger than intimidation.

When and where:

🕜 Friday, June 20, 2025 The hearing starts at 9:15 a.m., but it is better to arrive 30 minutes before the start to have time to enter the courtroom.

📍Tiergarten District Court
Turmstraße 91, 10559 Berlin
Sitzungsaal A 863, 3rd floor

Tomorrow, May 17, in Darmstadt — a meeting with antiwar leftists from Russia and Ukraine.

Our comrade Andrei Konovalov and lawyer Evgeniy Stupin will take part in the discussion “Peace from Below: Perspectives from Russia and Ukraine”, organized by the Darmstadt department of Die Linke.

We’ll talk about war, repression, resistance, and the possibilities of solidarity — where it’s least expected.

When: May 17, 19:00
Where: Theater im Pädagog, 5 Pädagogstraße, 64283 Darmstadt
Free entry

Come join us — to listen, ask questions, and discuss!

👮‍♀️ The “Rabochaya Vlast'” (Workers Power) case

⏺On April 21, 2025, the pro-government publication RIA Novosti reported on the discovery of a certain “group of students with left-radical views” at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU).

They reported that Artyom Pronko, a student at the university, had been charged with “violating the rules of holding a rally” over a March 24 installation on a monument to Count Uvarov under the administrative article on violating the rules of holding rallies.

The government media and police accused Pronko of membership in the Trotskyist student cell “Workers Power”, claiming that all members of the group were members.

Characteristically, they accused this group of “joining an international alliance with a management center in Great Britain,” calling them “pro-British supporters” acting allegedly in the context of deteriorating relations between Russia and Great Britain.

⏺On the same day, independent media reported that LETI student Stepan Timofeev was detained in the same case and a protocol was drawn up.

⏺A few weeks later, the case was further developed. On March 13 Primorsky District Court fined 26-year-old Alexei Sidorov, musician of the band Silver machine, 20 thousand rubles under the article on incitement to hatred or enmity (article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), pointing to his membership in the “Working Power” as one of the grounds for the sentence.

⏺ On May 15, searches were held in St. Petersburg at the homes of people allegedly connected with the left-radical group “Workers Power”: Harry Azaryan, Oleg Rubish, Irada Ibragimova, Denis Koval, Sergey Kadnikov and Kirill. The reason was a criminal case under the article on “calls to terrorism”, initiated against 23-year-old student from Kazakhstan Harry Azaryan.

According to the version of the IC, at internal meetings of the organization Azaryan allegedly called for “terrorist activity and mass murder.” Transcripts of the speeches, which allegedly included phrases about “class hatred” and ‘revolution’, were mentioned as “evidence”.

Leaflets and brochures (“Manifesto of the Workers' Power”) were seized from the defendants in the case, and interrogations were conducted. Human rights activists report about the beating of one of the detainees named Kirill. Some of the detainees were released with the status of witnesses - which, as the law enforcers warned, “can change quickly”.

⚡️Today by decision of the Krasnogvardeysky Court of St. Petersburg Harry Azaryan was placed in custody in SIZO-1 for 2 months, starting today.

According to “Workers Power” itself, the materials of the congress were downloaded from the account of one of its comrades before the shutdown, some of the documents were changed and falsified. Its representatives stated publicly that there were no illegal statements or appeals on their behalf.

Today, student self-organization, if it is not embedded in the official vertical and expresses class views, is automatically under suspicion. The persecution on political grounds, the attempt to intimidate the student left movement and break the young organizational culture is part of a general line to suppress any critical thinking in a militarized and reactionary environment.

We believe the case is politically motivated and the charges are baseless.

Freedom to Harry Azaryan and all the defendants in the case!

🟥✊To remember means to fight!

On May 8 and 9, PSL (Post-Soviet Left) activists took part in memorial events to use them as a platform for dialogue with migrants from post-Soviet countries.

🇩🇪 In Berlin, we intervened in the memorial events in Treptower Park to show that resistance to nationalism and war can and should be uncompromising. During the event, we repeatedly entered into dialogue with people of different views, including our direct opponents - nationalists of all countries, showing that a left-wing alternative is possible.

During our event, we also attracted the attention of journalists from Tagesspiegel and the BBC Russian service.

The next day, the German police did not allow our propaganda materials under the pretext of "fighting the symbols of aggression", not taking into account the fact that the content of the poster was clearly the opposite. However, the German police often turned a blind eye to the openly conspiratorial and xenophobic materials of Russian and Ukrainian nationalists, which speaks volumes about their priorities.

🇫🇷 In Paris, we laid flowers at the monument to the Soviet anti-fascist partisan, and also launched our campaign at the Immortal Regiment, which split into pro-Putin and anti-war parts. The latter was closer to us, and we focused the attention of those gathered on the fact that war is a product of capitalism, and to fight it, international solidarity and organization in the fight are needed.

Despite disagreements with some of those who came, we also received many words of support and made new contacts.

Against aggression, capitalism and compromises!

🟥 May Day of the internationalist left around the globe

This year, the internationalist left has significantly increased its street activism compared to last year. Our comrades came out with supporters in Cologne, Paris, Warsaw, Buenos Aires and other cities, showing a fundamental readiness to continue the struggle for socialism in the post-Soviet space even in the conditions of emigration!

🇩🇪 The main leitmotif of our column in Cologne was the desire to show that an uncompromising struggle against both Russian aggression and the nationalisms of all countries is necessary, and that war and crisis cannot be an excuse for xenophobia and discrimination. They were accompanied by slogans against our ruling regimes and forced mobilizations.

Comrades from Berlin both participated in the city demonstrations and made their own interventions, calling on migrants to unite beyond their borders as well.

🇫🇷 Paris comrades emphasized the need to free Russian political prisoners and to continue the struggle against Putin's capitalism. The PSL's anti-war slogan “War: good for the few, bad for the majority” went well with the slogan “For Peace, Against War”, under which the column of “France Unconquered” was moving.

🇦🇷 Our Argentine comrades from the Argentina Obrera channel (https://t.me/argentinaobrera/497) came out with slogans for peace, class solidarity and for the struggle against both the Russian and local regimes.

🇳🇱🇩🇪🇵🇱 In addition, on the same day our supporters came out to support us in Amsterdam, Gelsenkirchen, Aachen and Warsaw, joining the local left. We hope that more guys will show up in these cities to continue the struggle.

🇷🇺🇲🇩 You can also read in the material (https://t.me/InternationalFront/124) of our Russian comrades how the May Day actions took place in the territory of the post-Soviet countries.

We are happy that the left internationalist force is starting to gain momentum and continue the resistance on the ground despite the war, crisis and repression. We plan to involve more people in the struggle for socialism in our countries.

The struggle continues!

You can join us by writing to the bot: @postsovietleft_bot

Below is the link to the stream with two participants from Ukraine (in English), discussing mobilization, attempts to leave the country, the state of the media, and leftist organizations.

Starting around 18:10–18:15.

https://uni-goettingen.zoom-x.de/j/4661265999

Far-right activists are once again using the state's repressive mechanisms to pressure left-wing activists. Their weapon is denunciations to the Prosecutor General's Office.

The latest victim of this tactic is musician and left-wing activist Kirill Medvedev from the group "Arkady Kots". However, the persecution has affected not only him. The Foundation for Support of Left-wing Political Prisoners, which provides assistance to activists who have been subjected to repression, may also come under attack.

The far-right association "Call of the People" (ZOV NARODA) has sent a statement to the prosecutor's office accusing Medvedev of "rehabilitating Nazism" and supporting "left-wing extremists and terrorists".

The formal reason for the denunciation was a charity concert organized in support of left-wing political prisoners. The funds raised were sent to a fund that provides material and humanitarian assistance to arrested left-wing activists. Many of them, such as the defendants in the Tyumen case, the Ufa Marxists case, and the Network case, were arrested on fabricated charges of extremism and terrorism, becoming victims of politically motivated repression.

In addition, the presentation of Medvedev's new book served as the basis. He himself stated:

"The Call of the People movement wrote a letter to the prosecutor's office in connection with the presentation of my book Anti-Fascism for All. Several Z-channels called for the event to be disrupted. Phalanster decided to cancel the presentation for the sake of common safety. It is sad, but the decision is logical. Among the Z-patriots who could have responded to the call and come, there are many unbalanced people."

The tactics of the far-right are unchanged: using denunciations and administrative resources, they try to suppress any manifestations of solidarity and resistance, discrediting public figures, activists, and organizations advocating for justice and human rights.

According to Medvedev, in the book he writes, among other things, that:

"anti-fascism — as the history of the victory of the USSR and the Allies, as the history of the Resistance — is a great legacy that still connects us with Europe."

And he adds that the Russian government is using this legacy for its own purposes, and on the other hand,

"we have long heard from part of the opposition that a revision of history is needed, to the point that the USSR and the Third Reich are equated as two equally evils."

Medvedev believes that this is a path to nowhere:

"The modern official picture of the Great Patriotic War and the accompanying cult of war can and should be criticized, but in the essence of that victory there is a huge, universal humanistic meaning that we need today. Because Russian politics and ideology are part of one far-right turn that has been happening everywhere in recent decades: from Russia and Ukraine to Germany, the USA, Israel or Argentina. Nationalism, militarism, new borders, new practices of exclusion."

In this regard, we call on left-wing activists in Russia to take care of their safety and remember that the enemy is not only in the Kremlin, but also on the streets – in the form of the far-right, who closely cooperate with the authorities.

Repressions against communists in Ukraine

According to the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, SBU officers detained people allegedly associated with the Workers' Front of Ukraine. These activists resisted forced mobilization and positioned themselves as an unofficial political force of Marxist and communist ideology.

They are accused of anti-war agitation and resistance to forced mobilization.

We stand in solidarity with our comrades and believe that opinions and expressions of political positions should not be grounds for persecution. Any political violence against the left must be stopped, and military action cannot be a justification for repression.

We call for solidarity with the detained activists and support for their fight against political repression.

Freedom for Ukrainian communists!

UPD: Representatives of the RFU stated that the people have nothing to do with the organization, but also ask for support.

UPD2: They also write that three of the defendants are in custody. The court has ordered round-the-clock house arrest for the other two, with the wearing of an electronic device

UPD3: We were also asked to distribute a fundraiser for the detainees. You can find it here: https://t.me/free_antifas_ukraine/6