Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Greece in NATO: 66 years of tragedies

By Nikos Mottas*.

It was 66 years ago, on 18th February 1952, when the Greek Parliament ratified the country's accession in the imperialist North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Greece's NATO membership turned the country into a base for the adventurous plans of the imperialists, both against the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries and in the broader region of the Middle East. At the same time, it was a decision that led our people in very dangerous situations, with poignant results which, seven decades later, continue to afflict Greece's political affairs.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Stalin’s Ghost Haunts Capitalism

A Riposte to Stephen Kotkin’s ‘Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941’
By Raj Sahai*.

Princeton University historian Stephen Kotkin is writing a monumental three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. Kotkin’s is the latest in a large number of books on Stalin, starting with Isaac Deutscher in 1949. So, why yet another book on Stalin?
Kotkin says Stalin represents a “gold standard” in “personal dictatorship”, and more archival documents are now accessible, so now a definitive biography of Stalin can finally be written. He takes Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume biography of Trotsky as a model for his own work. Published in 2015, Kotkin’s first volume was titled ‘Stalin: Paradoxes of Power 1878 - 1928’. Volume 2, published in November 2017, is titled ‘Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929 – 1941’.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Poland towards fascistization: President Duda signs law that exonerates Polish Nazi collaborators

In a disgraceful effort to rewrite history and under the pretext of "safeguarding the country's image", Poland's President Andrzej Duda confirmed that he will sign into law a highly controversial bill which in fact intends to exonerate the polish collaborators of Nazi forces during WW2. 

The new law will impose prison sentences of up to three years for mentioning the term “Polish death camps” and for suggesting “publicly and against the facts” that the Polish nation or state was complicit in Nazi Germany’s crimes.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Roza Shanina- The Soviet Army's sniper who became the nightmare of the Nazis

Roza Shanina, In Memoriam.
Ро́за Гео́ргиевна Ша́нина
1924 - 1945.

It was January 28, 1945 when the heroic senior sergeant of the Soviet Red Army, Roza Shanina, died after being seriously wounded in combat. She was 20 years old and already a legendary fighter of the Soviet Army against the Nazis. 
Roza Georgiyevna Shanina was born in the village of Yedma, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia to logger Georgiy Mikhailovich Shanin and milkmaid Anna Alexeyevna Shanina. After completing elementary school in Yedma, she studied at a middle school at the nearby village of Bereznik. 
In 1938, she walked 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the city of Arkhangelsk, Russia to continue her education. In the same year, she joined All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol). In 1941, after the Soviet Union introduced tuition fees for college courses, she took on a job at a kindergarten in Arkhangelsk to help her own finances. 

Sunday, January 21, 2018

J.V. Stalin- Lenin: The Genius of the Revolution

Joseph V. Stalin -
Speech Delivered at a Memorial Meeting of the Kremlin Military School.
January 28, 1924. 

First Published on Pravda, No. 34, 
February 12, 1924.
Source: Works, Vol. 6, January-November, 1924, pp. 54-66, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954.
Reproduced from Marxists Internet Archives.

Comrades, 

I am told that you have arranged a Lenin memorial meeting here this evening and that I have been invited as one of the speakers. I do not think there is any need for me to deliver a set speech on Lenin’s activities. It would be better, I think, to confine myself to a few facts to bring out certain of Lenin’s characteristics as a man and a leader. There may, perhaps, be no inherent connection between these facts, but that is not of vital importance as far as gaining a general idea of Lenin is concerned. At any rate, I am unable on this occasion to do more than what I have just promised.

Monday, January 1, 2018

“Gulag Archipelago”: Exposing the anticommunist fabrications of Solzhenitsyn

 By Nikos Mottas*.

One of the most famous and celebrated works of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the “Gulag Archipelago”, has been for a long time a kind of “holy bible” for every anticommunist. Firstly published in 1973, it- supposedly- consists an analytical record of the conditions existed in the so-called “labour camps” of the Soviet Union. Within the framework of the slanderous anticommunist campaign, bourgeois historiography has extensively promoted Solzhenitsyn's work as a source of arguments about the so-called “Stalinist dictatorship” and “communist crimes” in the Soviet Union.

However, there is a fundamental problem in the work of the deeply reactionary Solzhenitsyn: Gulag Archipelago is a completely antiscientific book, based almost entirely in rumors, speculations, third party opinions as well as interpretations of opinions by Solzenitsyn himself! In other words, the reader of this book becomes “hostage” of a novel type, unverifiable, recording to alleged events by Solzenitsyn and others who supposedly “saw”, “heard” or “learned” something.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

J.V.Stalin- The International Character of the October Revolution (Speech on the 10th Anniversary of the October Revolution)

Speech by Joseph Stalin on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution; Pravda, November 6-7, 1927. 

Source: J.V.Stalin, Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 
Moscow, 1954, Vol.10, pp. 244-55.

The October Revolution cannot be regarded merely as a revolution "within national bounds." It is, primarily, a revolution of an international, world order, for it signifies a radical turn in the world history of mankind, a turn from the old, capitalist world to the new, socialist world.

Monday, December 11, 2017

When Donald Trump Falsifies History

A response to U.S. President Trump's blatant falsification of historical events.

By Nikos Mottas.

Donald Trump seems to have his own version of history. A version that falsifies completely the real historical events. The tycoon- turned President of the USA- decided to demonstrate his ignorance (or, perhaps, ability to distort history) during a Republican Party's rally in Pensacola, Florida on December 8th. 

What did Trump say? Among others, the U.S. President said the following“We are the nation that dug out the Panama Canal, won two world wars, put a man on the moon and brought communism to its knees".

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Russian Communist Workers Party (RCWP): Life itself has proved the correctness of Marxism’s founders

Contribution by the Russian Communist Workers Party at the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties that took place in Leningrad (St Petersburg), 2-4 November 2017. 
By Viktor Tyulkin.
1st-Secretary of Russian Communist Workers Party Central Committee.
Dear comrades, let me greet all participants of the meeting!
27 years ago (in April 1990) I gave a speech at the conference of Leningrad CPSU organization that was to discuss the list of delegates to be sent to the XXVIII Congress of CPSU. Exactly then there took place the division between market oriented supporters of Gorbachev and orthodox communists. This division is still present in Russian Federation and manifests itself as the existence of two parties: CPRF and RCWP and the struggle between these two parties.

Friday, November 17, 2017

"Bread, Education, Liberty": 44 years later, the legacy of the Polytechnic Uprising lives on

Like every year, on November 17th, rallies have been scheduled for today in  Athens and other Greek cities in order to commemorate and honour the 43rd anniversary of the students and workers uprising in Athens, which is historically known as the Polytechnic Uprising. 

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Communist Youth (KNE), as well as numerous labour organisations, students unions and women's associations, have issued statements calling for mass participation in the march for the Polytechnic. 

Sunday, November 12, 2017

The Rebirth of the Communist Party of Indonesia

The following essay deals with the resumption of the legal activity of the Communist Party of Indonesia after 50 years of prohibition. It is an adaptation and elaboration of Vladimir M. Soloveichik’s presentation, published on the Leningrad Internet TV and YouTube on 27 June 2016, in Russian language.

The article offers interesting information about the heroic and tragic history of the once largest non-ruling Communist Party in the world and expresses the optimism that the new generations of indonesian communists will continue the path of the struggle, joining the marxist-leninist movement for the materialization of the communist ideal. 

Monday, November 6, 2017

1917 October Revolution: The Single Most Important Event in World History

By Ian Patrick Beddowes*.
Source: "Vanguard", Organ of the NST of the Zimbabwe Communist Party, Vol. 2, No.3, 4th November 2017.

This year we celebrate the centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution which took place in Russia on 25th October 1917 (Old Style) 7th November 1917 (New Style). To all those familiar with historical materialism, this is the single most important event in human history.

Why?

Because it represents the not only the first major step in the movement away from capitalism and the dawn of socialism, it was also the first step away from class society towards non-class society.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

The forgotten holocaust: The 1965-66 massacre against Indonesia's communists

By Nikos Mottas*.

Without any doubt, the WWII Holocaust and the 1915 Armenian genocide consist the two largest mass slaughters of the 20th century. They are crimes which must never be erased from the collective memory of the peoples, no matter how many decades will pass. 

However, there are also less known sides of History, the “forgotten” holocausts to which the bourgeois historiography has given little importance, either by downgrading them as insignificant details of world history or by distorting their true dimensions. 

A major example of such a “forgotten” holocaust is the mass slaughter of the communists in Indonesia by Suharto's dictatorship during the 1965-66.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Poland's government tries to distort and rewrite history: Statement by the Communist Party of Poland

Act of barbarity: Polish authorities demolishing
the Red Army monument in Trzcianka.
We condemn the changes of street names around Poland driven by the government, and the increasing number of devastations and liquidations of monuments commemorating heroes of struggle against fascism. Recent example is the dismantling of the Mausoleum of the Red Army in Trzcianka. Changing names of the streets and attacks on monuments of Soviet and Polish soldiers, communist partisans and militants of the workers’ movement are a result of the historical policy imposed by the state authorities. It is being implemented by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) which is questioning even liberation of Poland in 1944–1945.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Kostas Papadakis - The equation of Communism with Nazism is unacceptable and provocative

By Kostas Papadakis*.

Article first published in the “Efimerida ton Syntakton” newspaper, 22/08/2017, reproduced from inter.kke.gr.

The anticommunist conference-provocation of the Estonian Presidency of the EU is no bolt from the blue. Similar anti-communist events being organized in the framework of the so-called "European day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian regimes", as the EU with enormous budgets is trying to establish the 23rd of August. This is an orchestrated campaign that aims to slander socialism, rewrite history, and to unacceptably and provocatively equate communism with the monster of fascism. I.e. equating Nazism with the forces that in historical terms smashed it.

A basic goal is to conceal the fact that fascism is a form of capital's power in specific conditions. In Germany, Nazism constituted the ideal form to support capital in the conditions of the military preparations for the conquest of new markets, in the conditions of a very deep capitalist crisis, of the rise of revolutionary ideas, of the increase of the prestige of the KPD and the USSR. It was supported politically and financially by sections of German capital, it identified with monopolies (Krupp, I.G.Farben, Siemens etc.), it collaborated with the colossi of the "democratic" capitalist states (General Motors, General Electric, ITT, Ford, IBM).

Thursday, August 24, 2017

VULGAR ANTICOMMUNISM BY THE EU: They equate Marx's "The Capital" with... Hitler's "Mein Kampf"!

The EU and the Estonian Presidency of the European Council have reached the ultimate limits of political vulgarity and anticommunist distortion of History. The- organised by the Estonian EU Presidency- despicable "conference" in Tallinn proved its role as an unhistorical, hideous forum where the participants tried to equate communism with nazism. 

Among the many unhistorical references and efforts to distort the historical truth, the most horrible one came from Goran Lindblad of Sweden, President of the so-called "Platform of European Memory and Conscience". In his speech, Lindblad refered to the importance that the condemnation of all the "totalitarian regimes" has, and added that: "communist ideology in itself was bad, not that something had gone wrong when it was implemented. “Both the texts of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and Karl Marx include it, the idea to use terror to keep dictatorships in power,” Lindblad, a member of the Swedish Moderate Party, said.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

KKE speech in Leningrad Conference: Our future isn't capitalism, it is the new world, socialism

Speech of the Communist Party of Greece at the the International Theoretical Conference of Communist and Workers parties: "100 years after the Great October Socialist Revolution, the lessons and tasks for the contemporary communists." (Leningrad, Russia 11-13/8/2017). 
Dear comrades,
On behalf of the CC of the KKE, we thank the RWCP for this initiative and for hosting our Conference Today.
The Central Committee of the KKE honours the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It honours the climactic world-historic event of the 20th century which demonstrated that capitalism is not invincible, that we can construct a superior organization of society, without the exploitation of man by man.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Communist Party of Italy - Contribution to the scientific conference in honor of the 100 years since the October Revolution

Communist Party of Italy.
Contribution at the Scientific Conference in honor 
of the 100 years since the October Revolution.
Leningrad, August 10-13, 2017.
A hundred years ago scientific socialism became reality. Until then, Marxism had only been theorized within the First International and applied to the class struggle in conditions of bourgeois domination; after that, it became reality for a short while, during the Paris Commune, showing that the proletarian revolution was not only possible, but even necessary. With the October Revolution, Marxism is applied to building Socialism, as the first step in the construction of the Communist society.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Z. Zigedy- Ruminations on the JFK Assassination

By Zoltan Zigedy*.

I found four good reasons to revisit the John F. Kennedy assassination.
First, I have finished reading the 2017 Antonio Veciana memoir, Trained to Kill. Gaeton Fonzi, one of the most thorough and honest assassination investigators always maintained that Veciana, a Cuban anti-Fidel CIA asset, and Sylvia Odio, another member of an anti-Communist organization, were the keys to unlocking the CIA, Oswald, assassination nexus.