As with so many around the world, including thousands of brave Russians protesting against their country’s brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine, I’m aware of the inadequate resources for defending Ukraine’s independence and wish for democracy. Biden, NATO countries, and others are marshalling economic power, but it seems not to be enough.
Granted, sending soldiers in would only make it worse. But what if there’s an untapped resource for wielding power that’s hardly being considered at all? What if the resource situation is something like this: There’s a village that for centuries has relied on a stream, and because of climate change it is now drying up. Given existing financial resources, the village is too far from the river to build a pipeline, and the village faces its end. What no one had noticed was a tiny spring in a ravine behind the cemetery, which — with some well-digging equipment — could become an abundant source of water and save the village?
At first glance that was the situation of Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968, when the Soviet Union moved to re-assert its domination — Czech military power couldn’t save it. The country’s leader, Alexander Dubcek, locked his soldiers in their barracks to prevent a futile set of skirmishes that could only result in wounded and killed. As the troops of the Warsaw Pact marched into his country, he wrote instructions to his diplomats at the U.N. to make a case there, and used the midnight hours to prepare himself for arrest and the fate that awaited him in Moscow.
However, unnoticed by Dubcek, or foreign reporters or the invaders, there was the equivalent of a water source in the ravine behind the cemetery. What tapped it was the previous months of vibrant political expression by a growing movement of dissenters determined to create a new kind of social order: “socialism with a human face.” Large numbers of Czechs and Slovaks were already in motion before the invasion, acting together as they excitedly developed a new vision.
Their momentum served them well when the invasion began, and they improvised brilliantly. On Aug. 21, there was a brief standstill in Prague reportedly observed by hundreds of thousands. Airport officials at Ruzyno refused to supply Soviet planes with fuel. At a number of places, crowds sat in the path of oncoming tanks; in one village, citizens formed a human chain across a bridge over the river Upa for nine hours, inducing the Russian tanks eventually to turn tail.
To many observers in other countries who had wondered about the potential of tapping nonviolent power for defense, August 1968 was an eye-opener.
Swastikas were painted on tanks. Leaflets in Russian, German and Polish were distributed explaining to the invaders that they were in the wrong, and countless discussions were held between bewildered and defensive soldiers and angry Czech youths. Army units were given wrong directions, street signs and even village signs were changed, and there were refusals of cooperation and food. Clandestine radio stations broadcast advice and resistance news to the population.
On the second day of the invasion, a reported 20,000 people demonstrated in Wenceslas Square in Prague; on the third day a one-hour work stoppage left the square eerily still. On the fourth day young students and workers defied the Soviet curfew by a round-the-clock sit-down at the statue of St. Wenceslas. Nine out of 10 people on the streets of Prague were wearing Czech flags in their lapels. Whenever the Russians tried to announce something the people raised such a din that the Russians could not be heard.
Much of the energy of the resistance was spent weakening the will and increasing the confusion of the invading forces. By the third day, Soviet military authorities were putting out leaflets to their own troops with counter-arguments to those of the Czechs. The next day rotation began, with new units coming into the cities to replace Russian forces. The troops, constantly confronted but without the threat of personal injury, melted rapidly.
For the Kremlin, as well as for the Czechs and Slovaks, the stakes were high. To attain its objective of replacing the government, the Soviet Union was reportedly willing to convert Slovakia into a Soviet republic and Bohemia and Moravia into autonomous regions under Soviet control. What the Soviets overlooked, however, is that such control depends on the people’s willingness to be controlled — and that willingness was hardly to be seen.
The Kremlin was forced to compromise. Instead of arresting Dubcek and carrying out their plan, the Kremlin accepted a negotiated settlement. Both sides compromised.
For their part, the Czechs and Slovaks were brilliant nonviolent improvisers, but had no strategic plan — a plan that could bring into play their even more powerful weapons of sustained economic noncooperation, plus tapping other nonviolent tactics available. Even so, they achieved what most believed their most important goal: to continue with a Czech government rather than direct rule by the Soviets. Given the circumstances, it was in the moment a remarkable victory.
To many observers in other countries who had wondered about the potential of tapping nonviolent power for defense, August 1968 was an eye-opener. However, Czechoslovakia, wasn’t the first time real life existential threats stimulated fresh thinking about the usually-ignored power of nonviolent struggle.
Denmark and a famous military strategist
Like the ongoing search for potable water that can sustain life, the search for nonviolent power that can defend democracy attracts technologists: people who like to think about technique. Such a person was B. H. Liddell Hart, a famous British military strategist I met in 1964 at the Oxford University Conference on Civilian-Based Defense. (I was told to call him “Sir Basil.”)
Liddell Hart told us that he’d been invited by the Danish government soon after World War II to consult with them on military defense strategy. He did so, and advised them to replace their military with a nonviolent defense mounted by a trained populace.
Danes found a thousand and one ways to impede their use to the Germans. This widespread, energized creativity stood in stark contrast to the military alternative.
His advice prompted me to look more closely into what the Danes actually did when militarily occupied by next-door Nazi Germany during World War II. The Danish government knew of course that violent resistance was futile and would only result in dead and despairing Danes. Instead, the spirit of resistance developed both above and below ground. The Danish king resisted with symbolic actions, riding his horse through the streets of Copenhagen to keep up morale and wearing a Jewish star when the Nazi regime stepped up its persecution of the Jews. Many people still today know about the highly successful mass Jewish escape to neutral Sweden improvised by the Danish underground.
As the occupation ground on, the Danes became increasingly aware that their country was valuable to Hitler for its economic productivity. Hitler especially counted on the Danes to build warships for him, part of his plan to invade England.
The Danes understood (don’t we all?) that when someone depends on you for something, that gives you power! So Danish workers overnight went from being arguably the most brilliant shipbuilders of their day to the most clumsy and unproductive. Tools were “accidentally” dropped into the harbor, leaks sprang “by themselves” in the ships holds, and so on. The desperate Germans were sometimes driven to tow unfinished ships from Denmark to Hamburg in order to get them finished.
As the resistance grew, strikes became more frequent, along with workers leaving factories early because “I must get back to tending my garden while there’s still some light, because my family will starve without our vegetables.”
Danes found a thousand and one ways to impede their use to the Germans. This widespread, energized creativity stood in stark contrast to the military alternative of putting up violent resistance — carried out by only a percentage of the population — which would wound and kill many and bring stark privation to nearly all.
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DonateFactoring in the role of training
Other historic cases of brilliant improvised nonviolent resistance to invasion have been examined. The Norwegians, not to be outdone by the Danes, used their time under Nazi occupation to nonviolently prevent a Nazi take-over of their school system. This was despite the specific orders from the Norwegian Nazi placed in charge of the country, Vidkun Quisling, who was backed by a German occupation army of one soldier per 10 Norwegians.
Another participant I met in the Oxford conference, Wolfgang Sternstein, did his dissertation on the Ruhrkampf — the 1923 nonviolent resistance by German workers to the invasion of the coal and steel production center of the Ruhr Valley by French and Belgian troops, who were trying to seize steel production for German reparations. Wolfgang told me it was a highly effective struggle, called for by the democratic German government of that period, the Weimar Republic. It was in fact so effective that the French and Belgian governments recalled their troops because the entire Ruhr Valley went on strike. “Let them dig coal with their bayonets,” the workers said.
What strikes me as extraordinary about these and other successful cases is that the nonviolent combatants engaged in their struggle without the benefit of training. What army commander would order troops into combat without training them first?
I saw first-hand the difference it made for Northern students in the U.S. to be trained to go South to Mississippi and risk torture and death at the hands of the segregationists. The 1964 Freedom Summer considered it essential to be trained.
So, as a technique-oriented activist, I think of effective mobilization for defense requiring a thought-through strategy and solid training. Military people would agree with me. And what therefore boggles my mind is the high degree of effectiveness of nonviolent defense in these examples without benefit of either! Consider what they might have accomplished if they’d also been backed securely by strategy and training.
Why, then, wouldn’t any democratic government — not in hock to a military-industrial complex — want to seriously explore the possibilities of civilian-based defense?
“unsubstantiated claims will be removed”
Best delete the article then. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was followed by ‘Normalisation’. The singer Marta Kubišová banned, the actor and scriptwriter Darek Vostřel banned (albeit he managed to write under friend’s names) etc etc etc. The country was subjugated for two decades.
The idea that there was any sort of “negotiated settlement” is absurd.
Brilliant, George. An antidote to the crushing hopelessness of another senseless war.
Thank you George for offering this incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking essay that only you could write with your long-view of conflict and efforts to create more just and non-violent world.
Points worth exploring, George, though the present situation, with Ukraine leadership pleading for allied air support, as many residents evacuate Kiev, suggests a vulnerability beyond the remedy of just non violent resistance. Even given leaders want it known that they are taking up arms. Whatever Russian invasion scope, possible occupation (an intent Putin presently denies), Ukrainian resistance, protracted underground, guerrilla warfare, looks likely. While it may seem mere comical whimsy, what we’re viewing here is, after all, a predominantly macho operation. Female citizens of Russia already being interviewed are not especially keen on this atavistic imperialistic spectacle. With domestic economic conditions stressed enough, why wouldn’t the mothers, wives, lovers, and sisters of “Mother” Russia want to use whatever leverage they can to keep their sons, mates, brothers out of unnecessary harm’s way? — We can bank on further protests in the streets of Moscow et ale. The fictional figure Lysistrata arose from the feminine ranks of ancient Greece to, with a simple policy of withholding sex, win the peace. Who’s to say something like that could not provide great relief to the all too real surreal tragedy presently unfolding?
Wonderful, heartening! I’ve seen references to the Danish king having worn a Jewish star but I’ve also seen this story debunked. Snopes.com has concluded that it’s false. I think this article would be stronger without it.
Dear George,
Your article is profound! The whole world must adopt this creed and a plan is ready now — a Global Movement of Nonviolence (GMofNV)!
A GMofNV is a grassroots movement designed to unite the people of the world, all the religions, movements, mayors, labor, indigenous people, and youth under one umbrella — nonviolence.
The intricacies are complex, but there is simplicity in setting the movement in motion. Once it begins, all your ideas and recommendations will be utilized, and the efforts of Gene Sharp and all the nonviolent organizations.
BUT WE NEED A CATALYST TO MAKE IT HAPPEN! The catalyst must be different and special — and unexpected!
A GMofNV is purposely outside of the box, but has tentacles to every part of society. Therefore the best possible representatives of nonviolence are asked to lead, the people that are usually not listened to, the people that are usually socialized to be the least physically violent, the people with the closest association with the children, the people that are usually affected the worst from war, the people that USUALLY ARE NOT FIGHTING IN WAR — WOMEN!
In Jonathan Schell’s, “The Unconquerable World” about nonviolence and includes some of the examples you highlight in your article, Schell writes one paragraph (Pg 353), which may be the most profound, about women:
“Of equal or greater importance is the feminist revolution, itself a part of the much broader democratic revolution of modern times. The public world has hitherto been run by males, and it is clear that, whatever their virtues and vices, their way of doing things has reached an impasse. Experts can dispute whether the unmistakable male proclivity for war is innate or learned, the product nature or nurture, but one thing we cannot doubt is that historically organized violence has been bound up with the male way of being human – with men’s needs, men’s desires, and men’s interests. It is no less clear that historically the pursuits of women have been more peaceful. Could it be that nature in her wisdom created two genders in order to have a “second sex” in reserve, so to speak, for just such an emergency as the one we now face? There may be a less violent way of doing things that is rooted in female tradition and now will move to the fore, together with the gender that created it.”
For more information and to discuss participating, please contact Facilitator (at) GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org.
Thank you very much.
Andre Sheldon
Founder and Director, Global Strategy of Nonviolence
Thanks, George. Great article about the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance. But I’m wondering if you and/or your colleagues with Nonviolent Resistance experience have already or are working on creating a list of resistance tactics and strategic plans to offer the people of Ukraine? I’m sure you have specific ideas for what the Ukrainian people can try, in addition to picking up arms. Ukraine still has internet and electricity. Now is the time to publish/send suggested tactics and strategies. Ukrainians have many urgent needs, and Americans are donating to relief organizations, but how can experienced nonviolence strategists like yourself offer their expertise? You may not know all the details needed for the best approach but certainly, initial tactic ideas can be offered in a list that spells out the easier low-risk tactics up to more difficult, ongoing or high-risk tactics. Are NV strategists in the US and other parts of the world putting their heads together and formulating strategies to suggest to the Ukrainian people?
Dear George, I write to you, my friend of over forty years, with tears in my eyes. Your words/descriptions of the power of nonviolent resistance in history are so moving and hopeful. The words of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to his people, the Russian people, and to the world this past week haunt me: “We are all alone.” Your words remind me that he is not alone, and I want to shout them to him. “We are with you. We beg God and the world to be with you, and to show us ways to actually do so.” He roused his people and the Russian people with, “We are all alone, but we will never surrender.” God bless those who are resisting in this way right now, and bless you, George, who never fail to lead us with your heart, voice, and “arms of love.”
Thank you, George! Also, growing protests in Russia could undermine Putin’s invasion, as did the protests in the US during the war in Vietnam. One popular Russian rapper noted inspiration from the peace movement of the Vietnam era and pledged to build an antiwar movement in Russia.
Fascinating. There are some examples from Estonian history as well, of “untrained civilian resistance” that was effective.
I wrote about the 1968 Czech resistance many years ago here: https://nonviolence3.com/history/czech/
The Czech resistance was spontaneous, but training and pre-planning can make the technique more powerful. The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense has issued two preparedness manuals on the “modes and principles of civil resistance” for national defense, says Maciej Bartkowski of ICNC. The Baltic countries used civil resistance to gain independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.
Of course, Gene Sharp was a big advocate for more study on the potential of civilian-based defense. If you’re looking for more information, I have material from Sharp about CBD on my blog: an audio lecture (https://nonviolence3.com/sharp/cbd/), an interview (https://nonviolence3.com/sharp/interview/), and an article I wrote for Commonweal Magazine (https://nonviolence3.com/sharp/warfare/).
So, yes, let our aid to Ukraine be a trained.(or untrained) force of people willing to make human chains and barriers at significant places. Motto “I know you asked for bullets, but here is nonviolent residence instead.” Part of the strategy should be to invite forward forces to get off their horses and out of their tanks to join in the resistance, while inside Russia, the protest anti war grows.
Without Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insistence on non-violence I do not think that the situation of black people in the United States would have been improved. The mob action at the Capitol on January 6 turned out to be counter productive.
I had not thought about that kind of resistance being used on an international scale, but that’s what the economic resistance to Putin/Russia is too, I guess. Thank you for the good examples you used.
In addition to George Lakey’s excellent points about nonviolent resistance within Ukraine to the Russian invasion, I think it is important for any statement by outsiders about the invasion to also encourage and express solidarity with those Russian conscripts and enlistees who resist the Russian draft, mutiny, desert, sabotage, fraternize with the Ukrainian “enemy”, or refuse orders to take part in the invasion of the Ukraine.
Here’s a new statement via War Resisters International including statements against the Russian invasion of Ukraine from Russian and Ukrainian pacifists:
https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2022/ebco-russiaukraine-peace-only-solution-protect-conscientious-objectors-and-all-civilians
“The Conscientious Objectors Movement calls on the _Russian soldiers not to participate in hostilities. Do not become war criminals. The Conscientious Objectors Movement calls on all recruits to refuse military service.”
We should not discount the potential for this resistance, or its impact. Russia has one year of “universal” active duty military conscription for young men, and relies on conscripts to wage war.
Resistance to the draft, resistance within the military, and opposition to the foreign military adventures of the Soviet regime by family members of draftees killed and wounded in Afghanistan played a key role in getting the USSR to withdraw from Afghanistan (from a war often described as “the Soviet Vietnam”) in 1989, and in setting the stage for the overthrow of Stalinism and the decolonization of the Soviet empire in 1991-1992 (even if the hopes for democratic non-Stalinist socialist successor governments were dashed by neoliberals and kleptocrats backed by the US government).
I saw some of the background to both of these events travelling in Pakistan and to the Afghan border in late 1989, and travelling in both Russia and Ukraine (and other ex-Soviet republics) in 1992 within months of the independence of Ukraine and the other republics.
Ironically, my partner’s paternal grandparents were Jews who came to the U.S. from what is now Ukraine to avoid the Tsarist draft. There have been reports in the news this week of fighting in the town they were from near Kiev, where we visited the few remaining Jews in 1992.
In that part of what was the Russian Empire and is now “Ukraine”, neither the Yiddish-speaking Jewish peasants nor the Russian-speaking overlords were considered, or considered themselves, “Ukrainian”, nor was a “Ukrainian” language even recognized.
Ukrainian national identity, like all nationalisms, is a social construct. It’s complicated. For example, Mikhail Bulgatov, a native of Kiev wro wrote during the Soviet period, is considered one of the greatest of modern “Russian” writers:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/dec/11/mikhail-bulgakov-ukraine-russia
Peace,
Edward Hasbrouck
https://resisters.info
Courage comes in many shapes and colors. Creativity and community are powerful forces. Practice makes perfect. I defeat my enemy when I find common ground and make him my friend.
Is there a non-violent direct action movement in Ukraine that we can help??
I don’t know of any Ukrainian nonviolent activists or movements or any in Russia. But we should look to the Global Nonviolent Action Database at: http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ . Then read the book, “Revolution 2.0” about the Arab Spring. And finally the book “Beautiful Trouble” for creative techniques of nonviolent direct action. But George Lakey is spot on two things about the global movement for nonviolent direct action campaigns. Number one is the lack of cohesive strategy and vision of a more “perfect union” for the planet, and ways to get there, through non-violent direct campaigns. The second is the massive need for training, locally and globally. As we move from the “Marconi & Edison Stages” (Dave Dellinger) of nonviolent direct action into the “Digital Stage” of nonviolent direct action, we have no time to waste on either of these fronts. But as with what happened in the Civil Rights Movement, we will fall back to “acting our way into thinking,” that the late Bill Moyer, always would talk about when he trained me.
Wonderful job explaining the disregarded histories from Denmark, Norway and Czechoslovakia that demonstrate the power of a nonviolent resistance plan. The Greens in Western Europe in the 1980s called for just what George Lakey advocates – training before the fact for an elaborate resistance strategy to replace NATO’s nuclear weapons. It would save more innocent people than a violent fight back and it would drain the occupier perhaps sooner than a war would.
Amazing and essential to learn specifics. I facilitated and trained others in AVP work fir 15 yrs so I know its power. Kudos to you.
Thank you so much. I have started posting on Facebook about Erica Chenoweth’s work and I will share this, too. We’ve got to start thinking/working outside the box. I’ve been studying, practicing, training and teaching non-violent activism for over 40 years, too. It amazes me how brainwashed our culture is to think that it is insignificant and ineffective. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a breakthrough.
Of course, one wrong doesn’t justify another. Military violence for 8 years should not be confronted violently with retaliatory force. Instead, Nonviolent-advocates need to consider both sides, discussing and negotiating to understand each other, without blaming and evil-izing the other.
I wonder if the Nonviolent Peace Force might be useful and/or a human peace chain around Ukraine might dissuade Putin’s troups. Just a thought for nonviolent resistance to show him there is another way less destructive to human life.
There also is Erica Chenodwerh’s new book: “Civil Resistance: How it works,” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NZV9RY2/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 or her previous book: ” Why Civil Resistance Works: How to use Strategic Nonviolence” or “Revolution 2.0” about the Arab Spring. These books and articles, need to be smuggled into Russia and the Ukraine after being translated, by diplomatic pouches, balloons, small drones and any way possible.
Russia has said that in addition to 15 to 20 year sentence for protesting the war in the Ukraine , that they would be sent to the front after being conscripted. Well if everyone is sent to the front and surrenders, throwing down their weapons, eventually there will no longer be an army to invade an occupy Ukraine. If Russians refuse to make and send weapons to the front and refuse to obey Putins orders, his government falls. How do we get these books and articles translated into Russians and Ukranians? Do we use balloons, small drones, diplomatic pouches? Already Russian troops have punctured their gas tanks and surrendered. Zelesky has made videos offering 1 million dollars to any Russian pilot and a half a million dollars to Russian Helicoptor pilots to fly and land to surrender. What if they had a war and nobody came? We have seen brave unarmed Ukranians protesting Russians trying to take control of a nuclear power plant and the kidnapping of the mayor of a Southern city in the Ukraine.
What might George Lakey conclude would be a positive outcome for Tibetans, their culture, and the Dalai Lama subsequent to China’s brutal invasion and continued occupation of this peaceful country?!
Absolutely fascinating.
Agree that strategy and a certain degree of cunning is far more effective than direct confrontation. I’m Swedish and suffering from utter SHOCK that Sweden might join NATO. 200 years of Neutrality…Russofobia is rampant, it’s sheer McCarthyism.
We need COMMUNICATION strategies, like those of Assange, Snowdon and Manning.
Sure wish I was a Cyber wizard, nobody would stop me.
Thank You for your illuminating article. Will share.