Comrades,
On May 9th, 1945 —exactly 80 years ago—, Nazi Germany signed the surrender to the Marshal of the Soviet Union, Georgi Zhukov. This meant the final defeat of National Socialism. They left a constellation of concentration and extermination camps behind, as well as a devastated Europe and, in the case of the Soviet Union, more than 1,700 cities and 70,000 villages destroyed.
Up to 27 millions of Soviet people lost their lives because of the Nazi invasion. Many of them did so in the battlefield, in the heroic resistance, but many others also died due to starvation, torture or gassing in extermination camps as well as massacred in ways one cannot imagine — beatings, shootings, or gassing in vans.
The Nazi Germany’s war against the USSR, which starts in June 1941, is one of the most devastating campaigns in History regarding the loss of human lives. At the same time, it is one of the most distorted by historiography. Behind such distort, a political and ideological battle is concealed.
This battle is being waged by bourgeois intelligentsia in order to turn the USSR victory against Nazism into something different. The truth is, until 1939, the main bourgeois democracies in Europe —Great Britain, France— attempted to appease Hitler in the hope he could get rid of communism for them. They did so in the Spanish National-Revolutionary War with the infamous “Non-Intervention” policy. And also in Czechoslovakia, with the transfer of the Sudetes. And in Austria, as well, in spite of the Anschluss.
These powers, which attempted to nurture the fascist beast in the hope it could destroy the USSR, were later incapable of fighting it when it turned against them. Their military actions against it, though valuable, were victorious only because of the heroic role of the Soviet Union.
Many names, from those who gave their lives to stop fascism, were written forever in History. Among them, many were Spanish. After the defeat in Spain, there were Spanish people who played a key role in the French Resistance, even though the French Republic had welcomed them with concentration camps.
There were also those who, in the Soviet Union, refused to stay in the rearguard and wanted to keep on fighting against fascism in a country that was not theirs but, since it belonged to workers, it actually did belong to them too. Systematically recovering their names is a task of the ICM that should be tackled in the future. We are naming two of them as an example and a tribute.
The first one is Rubén Ibárruri, Pasionaria‘s son. He did not hesitate to take the lead of his battalion when his commander died, and he led a counterattack with a small group in order to slow down the advance of Panzers in Stalingrad. Wounded by a bullet, he continued to shoot. He received a second bullet, but he continued to shoot. Only when he was about to die, without ammunition, he was evacuated to the field hospital, where he died.
The second one, Francisco Gullón, was a 21-year-old young man who had been evacuated to the Soviet Union after the defeat of the 2nd Spanish Republic. When he was living in Kharkov in 1941, he refused to obey the evacuation order in the city and stepped forward to become part of the Red Army and resist fascism. He ended up leading the “Voroshilov guerrilla unit” composed by 101 Soviet men and 32 Spanish men. This unit conducted several actions in the rearguard in Leningrad and was completely annihilated. He died by a shot in the bowels after having caused serious damage to the German soldiers.
The events that led to the 1939-1945 World War and the war itself are today subject for distort. Behind it, there is a political and ideological conflict in which the Communist Party should have clear stances in order to draw some lessons.
First, the developments proved the Leninist understanding about the bourgeoisie choosing any option capable of stopping the workers’ movement when it achieves a significant advance. There is no possibility to formulate an anti-fascist front with bourgeois forces. They already showed in those moments their complicity with fascism by renouncing to all their democratic values when the advance of class-oriented positions and socialism are at stake.
Second, fascism has evidenced its particular historical role — the ruthless response of the bourgeoisie to the advance of class-oriented positions. What happened then can happen again. The growth of the far-right and their arrival to bourgeois Governments in Europe does not automatically entail the return of fascism —which is something different—, but it does mean an advance in the preparation of the social and political conditions required for such possibility, if necessary.
Third, the experience of the Spanish National-Revolutionary War —the prelude of World War— evidences the need to connect the anti-fascist struggle with the prospect of the seizure of power and the struggle of the influence of bourgeois political groups within the anti-fascist camp, since they will not hesitate in surrendering the arms against the enemy in order to stop the organized workers’ movement.
Fourth, we should be aware of the systematic effort carried out by Russia and certain political forces to appropriate the memory of the anti-fascist war and use it as a pretext to unleash today imperialistic conflicts. These conflicts have nothing to do with the resistance of the Socialist Soviet Union. The conditions for a new global carnage are being prepared.
Fifth, the assessment of the fast defeat of the German Communist Party against Nazism since 1933 should be deepened, precisely by examining the lack of direct grounding and systematic intervention at workplaces, as the very 3rd International already assessed. For the Communist Parties, it is not enough to grow in an abstract way and anywhere — we should get strong at workplaces and control the essential productive centers required to paralyze the capitalist economy.
Sixth and last, the Communist Parties from all over the globe should double their political, ideological, and organizational work in order to display a wide campaign against the imperialist war and to remember the historical role of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois political forces regarding fascism. The illusion of “anti-fascist fronts” should be dispelled, and a wide mass work capable of clearly connecting the question of the imperialist war, fascism, and the seizure of power should be organized.
Thank you very much.