Another Discovered Lost Brother -Remembering Russell Bonner “Texas” Bentley

"You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist." Jean-Paul Sartre.

​The conflict between Russia and Ukraine did not start when Russia invaded Ukraine with their military campaign in 2022. It actually started about eight years before that, when the United States state department headed by Victoria Newland and Samantha Powers, who worked for their boss Hillary Clinton, decided to help fascist minded Ukrainians foment a coup against the democratically elected leader Viktor Yanukovych. The far-right “Maidan” movement which had ties to Nazis and nazi sympathizers, would unleash a campaign of violence and chaos which would leave many dead and running for their lives. Maidan snipers killed protesters who were protesting the coup, as well as the police that were trying to maintain order during the insurrection. 

2014, Russian was the dominant language for a large portion of the population in regions like Crimea (77%), Donetsk (74.9%), Luhansk (68.8%), and Kharkiv (44.3%). (From Wikipedia)

There were many people, especially Russians, who wanted to support the terrified and embattled Russian people that lived for many generations, mostly in the east and south of Ukraine, but also, all over Ukraine. Suddenly they were being shelled by their own country. The far right Maidan coup conspirers had a propaganda campaign against their Russian citizenry, calling for the abolition of speaking Russian, which almost a majority of the country did speak Russian. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and when the Soviet Union dissolved, Ukraine claimed sovereignty. 

The ousted president Victor Yanukovych had maintained a neutral stance when it came to NATO. Knowing that it was Russia’s red line, he would never entertain joining NATO as it would be a declaration of war towards Russia. Though no promises were ever made, past American presidents knew that this was a threat to Russia, and had made some reassurances that it would not be something the United States would push for.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire

Because of the political unraveling and fear of a large scale conflict, the province of Crimea had a referendum and overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia, ending their Ukrainian union. I have a friend from Odessa, and she always told people she was from Russia, although we know Odessa is in Ukraine. The two could never really be culturally separate, only ideaologically.

For years, many Western Ukrainians idolized a Nazi collaborator, Stephan Bandera, forming marches by the thousands on January 1st every year, carrying his picture. The far right made it clear; they didn’t like Russia, who’s KGB had killed Bandera in 1959, and they didn’t like Russians or the Russian language, which was naturally pervasive in the country.

Like me, there were other people around the world watching all of this unfold in horror. Two of them, Russell Bonner “Texas” Bentley of Texas and Alexis Castillo of Colombia were die hard fighters of fascists and admirers of the great Russian people who were known to be the great force behind beating Hitler’s SS, taking losses with around 20 million dead.

To be continued…