Party of Communists USA (PCUSA) - The October Revolution: A Beacon for Americans Today

The October Revolution: A Beacon for Americans Today.

Contribution of the Party of Communists, USA (PCUSA) at the Scientific Conference in honor of the 100 years since the October Revolution.

Leningrad, August 10-13, 2017.

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the socialist revolution in Russia. It was the first time that the working class anywhere in the world was able to seize and hold power. The revolution grew out of the conditions of imperialism and the First World War. Russia had been ruled by a tsar, or emperor, making it one of the most reactionary regimes in Europe.

International conference honoring the centennial of the October Revolution began in Leningrad

The works of the international scientific conference honoring the 100 years since the 1917 October Revolution began on Friday in St.Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia. 

The subject of the conference, which is hosted by the Russian Communist Workers Party (RCWP), is "the Centennial of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Lessons and tasks for the contemporary communists", while numerous communist and workers parties from all over the world are participating.

The Communist Party of Greece is represented by the member of its Political Bureau Giorgos Marinos and Elissaios Vagenas, member of the Central Commitee and head of the international relations section of the CC.

“Achievements and successes of the working class in socialism”, presented by the KKE in Athens

Τhe work “Achievements and successes of the working class in socialism”, published by “Synchroni Epochi”, was presented by the KKE's Central Committee, on July 12^th in Egaleo, Athens.

“Our future isn't capitalism. It is the new world, socialism”! This slogan was shouted by hundreds of members and friends of the KKE and KNE at “Alexis Minotis” municipal theatre of Egaleo, where the publication was presented. Working people from various sectors, who live the intensive capitalist exploitation, listened with interest the significant information that the new publication contains and which proves the superiority of the socialist system. The publication- a result of a collective effort by the Central Committee's department for Labor and Trade Union work- consists part of the KKE's greater multiform activity for the 100^th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution .

NATO openly glorifies Baltic Nazi-SS collaborators

The murderous, imperialist North Atlantic Treaty Organisation cannot hide its historical links with the Nazis. On 11 July 2017, the official account of NATO on Twitter published an English movie trailer called "Forest brothers. Fight for the Baltics". The tweet of NATO's account was writing: "This is the story of the Forest Brothers who fought the Soviet army for their homelands after WWII."

Joseph V. Stalin- Concerning Questions of Leninism

Concerning Questions of Leninism.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

 January 25, 1926.

Source: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 via Marxists Internet Archive.

Dedicated to the Leningrad Organisation of the C.P.S.U (B).

I. THE DEFINITION OF LENINISM

The pamphlet The Foundations of Leninism contains a definition of Leninism which seems to have received general recognition. It runs as follows:

“Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular.”1

Joseph V. Stalin- Address to the people on May 9th 1945 (Victory Speech)

Speech by the Marshal of the Soviet Union 

Joseph V. Stalin.

May 9, 1945.

Comrades! Fellow countrymen and countrywomen! 

The great day of victory over Germany has arrived. Fascist Germany, forced to her knees by the Red Army and the troops of our Allies, has admitted defeat and has announced her unconditional surrender. 

Vile anticommunism from SYRIZA's daily "Avgi"

The true face of social democracy's anticommunism is expressed through the pages of SYRIZA's daily newspaper, known as "I Avgi" (The Dawn). In a recent article, under the title "A tragic page of european history", the newspaper actually adopts the vile anticommunist-antisoviet imperialist propaganda regarding the so-called "Katyn massacre". 

Regarding this unhistorical and provocative article, KKE's daily "Rizospastis" points out that:

"The whole goebbelist propaganda about the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Nazis at Katyn forest in 1941 (which was attributed to the USSR by the crumbling Nazi Germany in 1943) is, once again, adopted by "Avgi" and her known anticommunist "stalinologist" article writer Vlasis Agtzidis. The article reproduces one of the most characteristic products of History's counterfeiting during the counter-revolution period of Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the USSR, in 1991-92, when the notorious document of the 5th March 1940 appeared, according to which Stalin supposedly gave his permission for the slaughtering of the Polish officials.

Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

 

By Grover Furr*.

The personality and the writings of Leon Trotsky have long been a rallying point for anticommunists throughout the world. But during the 1930s Trotsky deliberately lied in his writings about Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. My new book, Trotsky’s ‘Amalgams’, discusses some of Trotsky’s lies that have fooled people, and demoralized honest communists, for decades. 

In January 1980 the Trotsky Archive at Harvard University was opened to researchers. Within a few days Pierre Broué, the foremost Trotskyist historian of his time, discovered that Trotsky had lied. Trotsky had always denied that any clandestine “bloc of oppositionists” including Trotskyists, existed in the Soviet Union. Trotsky called this an “amalgam,” meaning a fabrication by Stalin. This “bloc” was the main focus of the second and third Moscow Trials of January 1937 and March 1938. Broué showed, from letters in the Trotsky Archive by Trotsky and by his son Leon Sedov, that the bloc did exist.

USSR 1991 – History did not end with the counterrevolution; Socialism is timely and necessary

By Nikos Mottas.

It was December 26, 1991 – 25 years ago- when the red flag with the sickle and hammer was lowered from the Moscow Kremlin. It was then, during the cold days of December, when the first socialist state of the world, the homeland of the world's proletariat, bent under the weight of the counterrevolution. Four days before, on December 22^nd, the leaderships of three of the largest Soviet republics had decided the dissolution of the USSR, while the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had been outlawed on summer of the same year.

The events of December 1991 sealed the victory of the counterrevolution, as the result of a process which officially began in 1985 with the Perestroika and reached its peak in 1989 with the overthrow of Socialism. Of course, the roots of the counterrevolution can be traced back in a series of revisionist-opportunist decisions taken at the CPSU's 20^th Congress back in 1956.

KKE’s perception on socialism: Assessments and conclusions on socialist construction during the 20th century, focusing on the USSR

18^th Congress of the KKE: Resolution on Socialism.

The following is the Resolution of the 18th Congress of the KKE (held on February 2009), containing assessments and conclusions on socialist construction during the 20th century, focusing on the USSR.

The 18^th Congress of KKE, fulfilling the task set forward by the 17^th Congress four years ago, dwelled deeper into the causes of the victory of the counterrevolution and of capitalist restoration. This has been an imperative and timely obligation for our Party, as it is for every Communist Party. It was thus that we faced this task during all the years that have elapsed since the 14^th Congress and the National Conference of 1995. It is a task interlinked with the revival of consciousness and of faith in socialism.

For more than a century now, bourgeois polemics against the communist movement, often assuming the form of an intellectual elitism, concentrate their fire on the revolutionary core of the workers’ movement; they struggle, in general, against the necessity of revolution and its political offspring, the dictatorship of the proletariat that is the revolutionary working class power. In particular, they fight against the outcome of the first victorious revolution, of the October Revolution in Russia, fiercely opposing every phase where the Revolution exposed and repelled counterrevolutionary activities and opportunist barriers, which, in the final analysis, were weakening, directly or indirectly, the Revolution at a social and political level.

John Reed- Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) Chapter II "The Coming Storm"

Ten Days That Shook the World.

By John Reed.

CHAPTER II: THE COMING STORM.

In September General Kornilov marched on Petrograd to make himself military dictator of Russia. Behind him was suddenly revealed the mailed fist of the bourgeoisie, boldly attempting to crush the Revolution. Some of the Socialist Ministers were implicated; even Kerensky was under suspicion. (See App. II, Sect. 1) Savinkov, summoned to explain to the Central Committee of his party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, refused and was expelled. Kornilov was arrested by the Soldiers' Committees. Generals were dismissed, Ministers suspended from their functions, and the Cabinet fell.

Kerensky tried to form a new Government, including the Cadets, party of the bourgeoisie. His party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, ordered him to exclude the Cadets. Kerensky declined to obey, and threatened to resign from the Cabinet if the Socialists insisted. However, popular feeling ran so high that for the moment he did not dare oppose it, and a temporary Directorate of Five of the old Ministers, with Kerensky at the head, assumed the power until the question should be settled.

John Reed- Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) Preface & Chapter I "The Background"

Ten Days That Shook the World.

By John Reed.

PREFACE.

This book is a slice of intensified history—history as I saw it. It does not pretend to be anything but a detailed account of the November Revolution, when the Bolsheviki, at the head of the workers and soldiers, seized the state power of Russia and placed it in the hands of the Soviets.

Naturally most of it deals with “Red Petrograd,” the capital and heart of the insurrection. But the reader must realize that what took place in Petrograd was almost exactly duplicated, with greater or lesser intensity, at different intervals of time, all over Russia.

In this book, the first of several which I am writing, I must confine myself to a chronicle of those events which I myself observed and experienced, and those supported by reliable evidence; preceded by two chapters briefly outlining the background and causes of the November Revolution. I am aware that these two chapters make difficult reading, but they are essential to an understanding of what follows.

Joseph V. Stalin- The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists (1924)

The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

Source:Problems of Leninism, by J.V. Stalin, 

Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1976, p. 117.

Republished from Marxists Internet Archives.

Three circumstances of an external nature determined the comparative ease with which the proletarian revolution in Russia succeeded in breaking the chains of imperialism and thus overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie.

Firstly, the circumstance that the October Revolution began in a period of desperate struggle between the two principal imperialist groups, the Anglo-French and the Austro-German; at a time when, engaged in mortal struggle between themselves, these two groups had neither the time nor the means to devote serious attention to the struggle against the October Revolution. This circumstance was of tremendous importance for the October Revolution; for it enabled it to take advantage of the fierce conflicts within the imperialist world to strengthen and organize its own forces.

Why Socialism is superior to Capitalism- The achievements of Socialist construction in the Soviet Union

Why Socialism is far superior than Capitalism: The achievements of Socialist construction in the Soviet Union 

By Nikos Mottas.

During the last 25 years, after the victory of the counterrevolutionary forces in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the public political discussion has been dominated by the concept of the “end of history, end of ideologies”. This is certainly a very convenient concept for the dominant class, the bourgeoisie, in her effort to convince the world that: 1) Socialism has irreversibly failed, 2) Capitalism is the final winner in the succession of History's socio-economic transformations, 3) Every argument for a non-capitalist society, where the means of productions will be socialized in a centrally-planned economy, is “unrealistic” and a “utopian fantasy”.

Anticommunism, of course, consists a core part of the above bourgeois principle. For more than two decades, the bourgeois forces and their mechanisms (historiography, media, etc.) in all over the world have unleashed an anticommunist crusade, mainly through demonizing and slundering the Soviet Union and the socialist construction of the 20^th century in general.

Nostalgia for the USSR- People in former Soviet republics say life was better in Socialism

A new survey, conducted by Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), M-Vector, Ipsos, Expert Fikri and Qafqaz in 11 countries of the former Soviet Union, at the request of Sputnik news agency and radio, shows that the residents of 9 out of 11 surveyed former Soviet countries aged over 35 believe that life in the USSR was better than it has been since the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Also read: Life was better under Communism" says the majority of Russians, Romanians and Eastern Germans.

MOSCOW (sputniknews.com) - Some 64% of respondents in Russia who lived in Soviet times believe that the quality of life in the Soviet Union was better. About 60% of respondents in Ukraine agreed with this statement. The survey showed that the highest rates of agreement with this statement are found among respondents in Armenia (71%) and Azerbaijan (69%). Those respondents who do not remember living in the USSR, those aged 18-24, believe that life has improved since the collapse. Some 63% of young people in Russia think so.

The remorse of a dissident: Alexander Zinoviev on Stalin and the dissolution of the USSR

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

Alexander Zinoviev (1922-2006) was a Russian philosopher, sociologist, mathematician and writer. He is an extraordinary case of a dissident in the Soviet Union who later apologized for his anti-sovietism and anti-stalinism. In his youth, in 1939, he was arrested for allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin. As a head and professor of the Logic Department at Moscow State University, Zinoviev acquired a dissident reputation. In 1978 he left the Soviet Union - he lived in Western Europe until 1999. 

Having the opportunity to live both the socialist system in the USSR and Western Europe's capitalism, Zinoviev made a u-turn in his thoughts after the counterrevolutionary events in the Soviet Union (1989-1991). He profoundly regreted for his previous anti-soviet stance and even asked from the Russian people to forgive him for that. 

He wrote in one of his books: 

"Life was better under Communism" says the majority of Russians, Romanians and Eastern Germans

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

First of all, let us say that the proper phrase is "under Socialism". During the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe were in the process of socialist construction. According to the Marxist-Leninist theory, "Socialism" consist the first stage (phase) of Communism. 

Having said the above, let's go to the core issue. The people who have lived both under Socialism and Capitalism give their answer to the various bourgeois and petty bourgeois unhistorical slanders. Various polls in former Socialist countries prove that the majority of people, in Russia and Eastern Europe, think that life was better before the counter-revolutions and the restoration of Capitalism. Under Socialism their major problems had been solved: Free education, free healthcare for all, social security, jobs, free vacation and holidays for everyone, etc. The restoration of Capitalism brought an unprecedented barbarity in almost every sector of public life: Social inequalities, unemployment, privatization of major public sectors from healthcare to education, etc. 

On March 2016, a survey conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center (VTsIOM) showed that: 

Hiroshima - Nagasaki 1945: The real reasons behind the 20th century's most horrific war crime

"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us [...] We must constitute ourselves trustees of this new force--to prevent its misuse, and to turn it into the channels of service to mankind. We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes".

The above words are the words of an imperialist war criminal. It was August 9, 1945 when U.S. President Harry Truman was delivering a radio address to the American people. Three days ago, the bomber Enola Gay had dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb in Hiroshima and another bomb was spreading death and destruction in Nagasaki. Truman actually lied to the American people. The reason behind the use of the atomic bomb wasn't to end WW2 or save lives. It was a warning against the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of the "Cold War". 

1980 MOSCOW OLYMPIC GAMES OFFICIAL FILM - МОСКОВСКИЙ ОЛИМПИАДЫ 1980

1980 MOSCOW SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES OFFICIAL FILM.

Distributed by MOSFILM.

Solzhenitsyn — The rotten legacy of a Fascist

By Nikos Mottas.

It was August 3, 2008 when the “Patriarch” of anti-communism, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, died. The writings of Solzhenitsyn became a major source of anti-Soviet hysteria and blatant slanders against the first socialist state. Even today, Solzhenitsyn's major work “The Gulag Archipelago” is, more or less, regarded as the anti-communist “bible” of the world's apologists of capitalism and anti-soviet propaganda. 

The supposed “honest” testimonies of Solzhenitsyn- which he was never able to prove- were used in the building of an anti-stalinist, anti-communist obsession which the West had so much need to base upon, especially after the end of WW2.

However, who was really this nobel prize-winning Russian and how much credibility do his anti-soviet fairy tales contain?