Talk:Autonomous Resistance

Confusion about origins and dubious "Left-wing" moniker.

Currently the article just says they were "close to Svoboda". Their origins are more complicated than this suggests. They were born out of the fascist website "Реактор" which was made up of Ukrainian co-thinkers of the Russian "Nazi anarchist" group "Vonitsa". They already professed many "left-wing" positions in addition to Ukrainian ultranationalism and white identity politics, so it can't really be said they made an abrupt "left" turn later. One can question their sincerity, but in rhetoric at least they had always been "anti-capitalist", "anti-imperialist", etc.

This syncretic position is easy to understand when you realize that the initial leadership of AO came out of a split in the Ukrainian National Labor Party (UNTP) which is often described as "Strasserist". It is after the UNTP was dissolved that they became closer to Svoboda, and especially the Nazi populist Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn before later having a falling out with him, and gradually shifting towards alliances with nationalist friendly but ostensibly left-wing groups like Zakhyst Pratsi and started gradually moderating their openly bigoted views while continuing to use the UPA flag, trying to participate in events honoring Bandera/the OUN and identifying as nationalists.

Most of this falling out was because Svoboda's faction in the Lviv city council voted for real estate development that AO opposed.

I'm not sure what exactly would be the best way to express the actual process that happened, but the existing schema where they were "far-right" until 2012 and suddenly switched to "far-left" is obviously insufficient since this is a group that always had syncretic views influenced by "Left" fascism and they moderated these views over time, but continued to hold to ultra-nationalist views until they were informally dissolved, at which time some of the members joined red-brown convergence/third position organizations like "Avanhard", traditional far-right groups like the OUN, or groups from a left background but which are soft on nationalism, such as Social Movement (Ukraine) or Resistance Committee (Ukraine), so even in later years it is difficult to describe them as "far-left". Chilltherevolutionist (talk) 08:13, 23 April 2026 (UTC)