Stalin’s Liquidation Game

This book brings Shums’kyi’s legacy out of the shadows into the light of today’s struggle and provides a new perspective on the causes of Soviet repression and Russian pathologies regarding Ukrainian independence, helping us to understand Russia’s current war against Ukraine. It reveals a tragic, complex figure who fought for Ukraine from within the Soviet system.

Oleksandr Shums’kyi, a Marxist and staunch opponent of the imperialist notion of Ukraine as “Little Russia,” believed in an equal, sovereign, and socialist Ukraine, not a subordinate appendage of the Russian Empire.

Despite torture, paralysis, and the murder of his wife, Shums’kyi never confessed to Stalin’s fabricated crimes, sustaining for over a decade a massive protest against his repression and the Stalinist attack on Ukraine. He died for the idea of a free Ukraine, refusing to surrender his dignity or his homeland.

His refusal to surrender, a sense of dignity, and a love for his homeland—echoes in Ukraine’s battle today.