Minor violation

Cartoon recasting

Mar 12, 2023

A 1925 cartoon popped up on social media recently. Bob Minor was the artist. It shows figures representing the Third World towering over the forces of imperialism: the US, France and England. Minor was an active member of the American Communist Party and served the party line with his artwork.

He saw no hypocrisy in including the Red Army soldier in the back, smiling approval. Though only a few years old in 1925, the Soviet Union, like the Russian Empire it replaced, was an imperialist, colonial power. It re-conquered the empire’s countries that had declared independence at the fall of tsar, brutally suppressing those who resisted Soviet rule with murder, imprisonment, starvation, and relocation. The Soviets “Russified” these regions with Russian colonists. They also suppressed local languages and cultures.

It’s a tribute to the Kremlin policy and propaganda, such as Minor’s drawing, that so many in the world saw, and STILL see, imperialism and colonialism as purely capitalist sins. When the USSR conquered another country it was “liberation.” It didn’t help left-leaners see the truth when the right-wing called them communist fellow-travelers, and gave a pass to any dictator who committed atrocities under the name of “anti-communism.”

It is a frustration to Eastern European countries that others still think this way, especially in recent years when western liberals are looking so critically at their own colonial past. In their heads, colonialism and imperialism are things that happened to the third world, not Europe. They are busy overturning statues, denouncing historical figures and demanding reparations and official statements of regret and apologies, but they don’t grasp the parallels with Russia.

Western democracies have, some more than others, denounced their past behavior. Imperialism’s days are over in Europe - with two exceptions. Hungary is one and bears watching. The other is Russia.

Russia sneers at western self-denunciation. There is no longer any such critical self-examination allowed in the Russian Federation. It is literally illegal in Russia.

Russia’s president Putin celebrates past Russian Empires: Soviet, Peter’s, Catherine’s. He speaks and writes nostalgically about them. Russia has no moral qualms about seizing other countries that seem weak enough to take. The Russian people support this, they want to be a world power again.

But, maybe because it doesn’t fit their pre-perceptions, westerners can’t comprehend the danger. The topics of conquest and empire-building have been removed from their table, so they assume, as the west does, that the same is true elsewhere. Eastern Europeans fears and warnings about Russia’s ambitions seem paranoid and simpleminded to them.

Bob Minors cartoon has been repurposed, again serving the Kremlin line. It reminds you that the imperialist powers have always been the US, France and England, and supports the claim that Russia is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine with the old imperialist powers.

Of course, this is a lie. The truth is that Russia, always an unapologetic imperialist power, is fighting to reoccupy Ukraine and other countries that were once part of its empire. Don’t forget Russia is also engaged in“frozen wars” in Moldova and Georgia. Events are now unfolding in those two countries that resemble those in Ukraine circa 2014.

In Georgia, Russian-influenced politicians tried to pass an anti-free speech law, modeled after Russia's, until the western-leaning populace rallied in the streets, forcing the perfidious politicians to withdraw the bill. In Moldova, which recently elected a pro-western government, US intelligence says Russia is plotting an overthrow. When the legislature drafted a bill that would make advocating succession a crime, Russia warned that it was a “provocation.”

So, I’m recasting this cartoon. In the role of the mobilized, oppressed masses are the people of Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia. The modern imperialists/colonialists are Russian dictator Putin, Belarus dictator Lukashenko and Georgian politician Garibashvili. I included Belarus rather than Moldova because of the massive protests that followed Belarus’ fraudulent 2020 presidential election. That Russian Red Army soldier, now dismayed, observes from the background.

Other recent drawings

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