"Imperialist War into People's War"

[p. 347] LENIN distinguished between two kinds of wars: predatory, and consequently, unjust wars, and wars of liberation, just wars.

The Germans are now waging a predatory war, an unjust war for the purpose of seizing foreign territory and subjugating foreign peoples. That is why all honest people must rise against the German robbers, as enemies.

Unlike Hitlerite Germany, the Soviet Union and its allies are waging a war of liberation, a just war, for the purpose of liberating the enslaved peoples of Europe and the U.S.S.R., from Hitler's tyranny.

We have not, and cannot have, any such war aims as the seizure of foreign territories and the subjugation of foreign people—whether it be peoples and territories of Europe or Asia, including Iran.

We have not, and cannot have, any such war aims as that of imposing our will and our regime upon the Slavonic or other enslaved nations of Europe, who are expecting our help. Our aim is to help these nations in the struggle of liberation they are waging against Hitler's tyranny and then to leave it to them quite freely to organise their life on their lands as they think fit. There must be no interference whatever in the internal affairs of other nations!

—J. STALIN, November 6, 1941.

This war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies, it is also a great war of the entire Soviet people against the German fascist armies. The aim of the national war in defence of our country against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also to aid all the European peoples groaning under the yoke of German fascism. In this war of liberation, we shall not be alone. In this great war we shall have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people [p. 348] who are enslaved by the Hitlerite misrulers. Our war for the freedom of our country will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic liberties. It will be a united front of the peoples standing for freedom and against enslavement and threat of enslavement by Hitler's fascist armies.

—J. STALIN, July 3, 1941.

I. TRANSFORMATION OF JUNE 22ND

On June 22nd, when Hitler treacherously invaded the U.S.S.R., it was no more an extension of the Second Imperialist War but its transformation into a People's War. The war against the U.S.S.R. changed the character of the whole Second World War.

NOT EXTENSION BUT TRANSFORMATION

The attack on Red Russia was not like an attack on any other country. It was an attack on the Socialist Fatherland of the workers of all lands, it was an attack on the anti-imperialist friend of the oppressed peoples of the East; it was an attack on a new civilisation, it was an attack on one-sixth of the earth, which alone was really free and prosperous, which embodied the best dreams and all the hopes of the best of mankind, and behind which stood not only the organised worldwide Communist movement but all freedom-loving and progressive peoples. It was an attack on the one people's government, on the one free union of nations the like of which the world has not yet known, which represents the interests of its own peoples and of all the peoples of the world. It was an attack on the Red Flag planted on the only victorious fortress of World Revolution, that the workers, toilers, and enslaved nations of all lands possess.

That dastardly attack did not and could not succeed. The attack on the U.S.S.R. was a stepping stone to world domination in the foul dreams of the fascist brigands. The defence of the U.S.S.R. became the beginning of the battle for world liberation, in actual reality. The unconquerable defender of the fortress of World Revolution came into action as the foremost fighter for world liberation. Such is the world historic role of the U.S.S.R.

[p. 349] The attack on the U.S.S.R. transforms the character of the imperialist war into a people's war. The attack on the U.S.S.R is a call for people's mobilisation to win the war. The victory of the U.S.S.R. becomes the guarantee of people's liberation all over.

This is the new and decisive change in the whole world situation, end of the period of the imperialist war, beginning of the period of the People's War. It is a historic turning point for all humanity, for the peoples of all lands.

AIM OF WORLD DOMINATION DISRUPTED

With the entry of the Soviet Union, the war in which two imperialist blocs were fighting for world domination is transformed. It now becomes a war waged by the united front of the peoples led by the Socialist Soviet Union for the destruction of Hitler fascism and its allies and for world liberation.

Hitler, when he struck against the Soviet Union, hoped by that act to create an all European—nay, an all-world front against Bolshevism. He hoped that his rivals, especially the British imperialists, menaced by his European victories and favourably impressed by his attack against the base of world revolution, would now agree to settle up with him the issue of the division of the world at the expense of the Soviet Union. But his calculations went wrong. He counted without the might of the Soviet Union, which was based on 24 years of Socialist construction and on the invincible unity of the Soviet peoples. He counted without the bond of brotherhood which existed between the peoples of the world and the Soviet Union to whom they looked for lead and for liberation in the struggles against imperialism. He counted without the fact that two years of imperialist war had only sharpened the conflict between the Axis Powers and the Anglo-American bloc. The result is that Hitler and his allies now face their inevitable doom at the hands of the most powerful combination of the peoples of the world led by the U.S.S.R.

The British and American imperialists who had staked so much on the policies of turning the fascist powers against the Soviet Union and had suffered a series of disasters and defeats as a consequence during the two years of the imperialist war, had now no other alternative but to join with the Soviet Union and bring into existence that very alignment which they had all these years prevented and tried to sabotage. The one bloc of [p. 350] world imperialism, the fascists, now face the firing squad of the peoples of the world. The other bloc, headed by the British and American imperialists are caught in the pincer grip of that mighty coalition through which they can no more attain their dream of world domination to which however they still hold.

WORLD LIBERATION ON THE AGENDA

On June 22nd, the crisis of world imperialism which began with the outbreak of the Second World War, enters a new stage. The imperialists are divided sharply on a world scale in relation to the Soviet Union. In every country there is a parallel division. The peoples of the world on the other hand, get united in one common front nationally and internationally, under one leader, the Soviet Union, for one aim: the destruction of fascism and the achievement of people's peace, in one indivisible war: the war of world liberation. On June 22nd, the peoples of the world cease being pawns and victims of the imperialist bourgeoisie in their game of world domination. They now step forth as the main actors, under their own leader—the Soviet Union—shaping their own destiny, achieving their own liberation by advancing to win the people's war in a people's way. On June 22, Hitler Fascism rang its own deathknell. It was also the deathknell of world imperialism as we have known it so far. The first salvoes fired by the Red Army against the advancing Nazi hordes ushered in the new epoch: the epoch of the struggle for the people's world. This is the meaning of the transformation of 22nd June.

II. ANTI-FASCIST WAR OF WORLD LIBERATION

GENERAL CRISIS—BASIC CONFLICT

After the First World War, world imperialism entered the period of its last and permanent crisis. The most striking feature of this crisis was that one-sixth of the world passed irrevocably out of its grasp. The victorious November Revolution in Russia, the birth of the U.S.S.R. was one permanent victory for the peoples of the world. Here the peoples of the Soviet Union began building a new world, a new life of Socialism, and a new fighting army and a base for the emancipation of the peoples of the capitalist world. The world of socialism [p. 351] grew stronger and more powerful every year, became more and more an object lesson and a rallying centre to the peoples of the rest of the world. The world of capitalism, on the other hand, decayed, passing from one economic crisis to another. All its conflicts became more and more insoluble. The imperialists crushed the early post-war revolutions and entered into a period of partial stabilisation, only to find that it was the beginning of one of the deepest and longest economic crises they had ever known. A revolutionary situation grew up in several capitalist countries again. In the colonies, especially in India and China, a powerful revolutionary upsurge for independence broke out. The conflict between the two groups of imperialists, between the main victors of the last war and the rest led by Germany developed, for redivision of the world, for colonies and markets.

NEW IMPERIALIST CONFLICT

The second Imperialist War really began in 1931 when Japan attacked Manchuria and spread with Italy's attack on Abyssinia and with re-armed Germany's aggressions in Europe. These three powers stepped forth on the arena of world politics with a demagogic claim for "living space" for their peoples and as holy crusaders against the menace of Communism and the revolution. What they really wanted was colonies, markets and spheres of influence which they could only get by wresting them from the grip of the master imperialist powers, viz., Britain and America.

The British and American imperialists were not blind to this danger but they deliberately allowed these powers to grow as spearheads of counter-revolution in Europe and in the East (China) and against the Soviet Union. As the bosses of the world, they were playing “the big and dangerous game” of nourishing reaction and hurling it, against the rising revolution and against the U.S.S.R. This is how they thought they would be able to solve the new conflicts at the expense of the peoples and of the Soviet Union and thus save their bossdom of the world.

This policy meant the strengthening of fascism, the spread of the second imperialist war as an open world war and a war against the Soviet Union as well. To defeat this monstrous policy of world imperialism, led by the fascist and pro-fascist reactionaries, the advanced sections of the peoples led by their [p. 352] Communist Parties and in alliance with the Soviet Union, sought to create a worldwide anti-fascist peace front.

TWO CAMPS

Already in the years of growing fascism and fascist aggression which preceded the outbreak of the present war, the world was divided into two camps.

The camp of world imperialism stood for reaction. It was led by the fascist and the pro-fascist reactionaries, who were driving the world towards fascism and war, perpetuation of colonial enslavement and attack on the Soviet Union.

The camp of the peoples of the world was the camp of progress. It was led by the Soviet Union and the advanced sections of the peoples of the world. It was taking shape as a world anti-fascist front of peace which stood for fighting back fascism and fascist aggression, for preventing war in alliance with the Soviet Union. It stood for maintaining peace through collective security, for freedom and democracy for every country, including the colonies.

This peace front was, however, disrupted before it could consolidate itself. It was betrayed by those who believed that Chamberlain and Daladier “non-intervened” in Spain in order to save peace, who believed that Czechoslovakia was being broken up and handed over to Hitler to save peace, who believed that Japan was being “appeased” to save peace.

The result was that the British, the French and the American imperialists went on with their game of strengthening their fascist rivals in the hope that they would attack the Soviet Union. These plans, however, ended in a fiasco for their makers. Hitler did not feel himself strong enough yet to attack the U.S.S.R. He preferred to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union which infuriated the British reactionaries so much that they promptly declared war against Germany.

THE SECOND IMPERIALIST WAR

With the outbreak of the second World War in September 1939, the front of the people, the front of peace was cut up. People were ranged against people.

The British and the French imperialists told their people that they were fighting against Hitlerism and for freedom and democracy and for Poland. In reality, they were doing nothing of the sort. In Hitler they were fighting the rival imperialist who had “betrayed” them, i.e., who had refused to attack the [p. 353] U.S.S.R. and play the part of junior partner in their scheme of world domination.

Hitler had preferred to make a bid for world domination on his own and against the British and French hegemony. He cheated the German peoples by saying that he was fighting for “living space” for Germany against Britain and France who owned almost the whole world.

It was a war for world domination, for colonies, raw materials and markets, on both sides. The people had nothing to defend in that war. They were dragged into it as pawns and victims by their imperialist rulers. The advanced sections of the people in every belligerent country fought to end it.

The Soviet Union stood aside. Germany dared not attack it as yet and had signed a Non-Aggression Pact with it. The British imperialists had failed in their game of war provocation for the time being. That the Soviet Union stood aside and neutral was a great fiasco for the British and French imperialists. They got the war in a manner they had not bargained for. They had staked too much on a war in the East to serve their own ends. Even after the outbreak of the war, the British imperialists tried hard to light the conflagration in the East. They provoked Finland to fight the U.S.S.R. and openly supported it. They staked on themselves getting involved in a war with the U.S.S.R. with a view to encourage Germany to attack the U.S.S.R. These plans came to nought.

SOVIET LEADS PEACE FORCES

The Soviet Union pursuing an independent policy of peace had strength enough to smash these machinations. She was determined to maintain peace in the East in her own interests and in the interests of all the peoples of the world. She sought to help and actually helped her neighbouring states to get out of the clutches of the imperialist warmongers and stand with her in consolidating a peace bloc in the East, in preventing the spread of the war. She explained to the peoples of the warring states that the war which their ruling class was waging was an imperialist war. She appealed for peace before the conflagration had spread farther. Though the front of the peoples and of peace had been broken by the outbreak of the Imperialist War, the Soviet Union remained and grew strong as a mighty people's base, vigilant and ever ready to re-unite with the peoples of the other countries as soon as the situation was [p. 354] ready for it. The Communist Parties in every country were struggling to re-establish the common front against Imperialism as a world united front of the peoples for ending the Imperialist War and for Peoples' Peace.

THE NEMESIS

The dramatic and disastrous developments of the first 22 months of the Second World War sharpened the crisis of the bourgeois system to such an extent that it became a crisis of the bourgeois ruling class itself. As the war progressed, the conflict between Germany and Britain sharpened. It became a worldwide conflict in which all the big imperialist states virtually lined up either on one side or another. The British imperialists who had staked so much on a war in the East (against the Soviet) had weakened the states of Western Europe in their efforts to appease fascism. They had allowed the ruling class of these countries to be corroded by fascism. They had assisted in the battering down of popular movements in these countries. The nemesis of this reactionary policy became visible when Hitler struck against Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France. Weakened by Fascism from within, these countries collapsed. Their peoples fell under the enslaving whip of Hitler's armies. Hitler gained command over the whole of Western Europe and its industrial resources. He seized the strategic coastline of Western Europe from Narvik to Bordeaux. He was now able to hold the threat of invasion and rain destruction and death on the heads of the British people.

IMPERIALIST CONFLICT SHARPENS

Having thus liquidated the Western Front, Hitler turned eastwards—towards the Balkans. Here too the ruling class divided itself into pro-German and pro-British groups. The people in general desired peace in alliance with the U.S.S.R. Hitler, of course, wanted to conquer the Balkans. The British imperialists wanted to create a new front against Hitler there. Hitler strengthened the pro-fascist groups. They encouraged the pro-British sections to suppress the pro-Soviet peace trend of the people and go to war. It is Hitler who profited by this disruption and by the weakening of the popular movement. He succeeded in enslaving Rumania and in immobilising Bulgaria. [p. 355] He conquered Yugoslavia and Greece by the force of arms and instituted a regime of Hitler-terror in these countries. Hitler's mastery of the Balkans created a serious menace to British interests in the Middle East and to the Suez. Hitler's mastery of Europe created the most serious challenge to Britain's as well as America's supremacy of the world that history has ever known before. The British and American imperialists drew closer together to conduct what was virtually a joint war against German imperialism (Anglo-American Naval agreement). Hitler faced them with the Tripartite Pact of military alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan. In the Spring of 1941, the war was on the eve of becoming a giant world conflict, fought over all continents and oceans between two giant imperialist blocs. The Anglo-American imperialist bloc having lost the initiative and points of vantage to the enemy in the first round, was preparing to regain its world supremacy by a long war of attrition and began mobilising all resources.

WHY HITLER STRUCK

Hitler knew the difficulties of facing such a protracted war against such a mighty combination. He had conquered Europe but he was sitting on top of a live volcano, of a dozen subjugated nations. He had seized vast industrial plants but needed raw material resources badly. Above all it was necessary to split the mighty combination forming against him. He sought the solution of all these in the dastardly and treacherous attack upon the Soviet Union. He hoped to seize vast resources of wheat, coal and oil. He hoped to smash the base of revolution and thus perpetuate his conquest and enslavement of Europe. He hoped, above all, to bring about a split in the ruling circles of Britain on the issue of discontinuing the war against Hitler now that he has turned against the Soviet and reaching a settlement with him. He hoped this would also bring about a split between England and America.

A NEW ALIGNMENT

Hitler staked his all on the attack against the Soviet Union. He “gambled against the class revolution” as Comrade Stalin puts it. He hoped to make a decisive turn in his own favour, in the war of world domination. What happened was indeed a decisive turn—the greatest that human history has ever known [p. 356] but it was exactly the opposite of what Hitler expected. He hoped to divide his imperialist rivals. But what actually happened was that the attack against the Soviet Union called into existence a mighty united front of the peoples, led by the Soviet Union. A division in the ruling circles of British and American imperialism did indeed come about but not as Hitler wanted it. The section which now became dominant in Britain was not the pro-fascist section which had pursued the anti-Soviet policy, but the one which threw that policy overboard and allied itself with the Soviet Union. A parallel change took place in America. The result was that a powerful coalition of Britain, America and the U.S.S.R. now faced Hitler. The driving power behind this was, of course, the alliance of the peoples of Europe and America, led by the U.S.S.R. Hitler miscalculated how deep the conflict between the rival imperialist blocs had become as a result of his conquests and what bitter lessons the peoples of Europe and America themselves had learned out of the disasters of the last two years.

BANKRUPTCY OF BOURGEOIS POLICIES

The attack upon the U.S.S.R. revealed as if in a single flash, how deep and insoluble the crisis of world-imperialism had become and how bankrupt their policies were. Hitler-fascism by that act becomes at once the main enemy of all mankind, the greatest menace to the freedom and democracy of the peoples of the whole world. The imperialist rulers of Britain and America have had to throw overboard their 23 year-old hostility towards the Soviet Union and to join hands with her. They certainly hope to save their world domination through this alignment but the reality is exactly the opposite. The powerful unity of the peoples of the world with the Soviet Union which stands behind this alignment grows ever stronger through the war itself and through the heroic example and inspiration of the Soviet Union. It becomes more determined than ever to see that not world domination is attained through this war, but the utter destruction of Hitler-fascism and its allies, and the achievement of world liberation.

[p. 357] HITLER'S DOOM

The stroke with which Hitler hoped to reach his world supremacy as if in one leap, becomes the disastrous turning point in his fortunes, the beginning of the end of his criminal designs against humanity. The vaunted invincibility of his blitzkrieg which had become a terror was debunked by the unconquerable might of the Red Army and the Soviet people. Only an emancipated people with 24 years of Socialism behind them could build such a powerful military machine, and such a rocklike and indomitable unity of peoples which shattered all Hitler's boastful plans. Instead of wintering in Moscow, Leningrad and Rostov, his armies are now rolling back battered, bruised and frost-bitten. In his rear flames forth the wrath of the subjugated peoples of Europe in the form of a gathering people's revolt. In Germany itself, in the Army Command, in the ranks, among the people in the fields and factories in the rear the discontent grows greater and greater for the gathering storm.

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

In his desperation, Hitler played his last card when he instigated Japan to launch her prepared aggression in the Pacific. That is a blow aimed at the most vulnerable spot of British and American supremacy—their colonial empire. The Jap fascists are certainly scoring initial victories against and at the cost of the peoples of the Philippines, Malaya and Burma whom the imperialist colonial rule left defenceless, unarmed and enslaved. The Jap fascists are utilising the natural national emancipatory and anti-imperialist sentiments to split the colonial people from the joint front of the peoples of the world against fascism and for freedom that is growing up under Soviet leadership. But the peoples of India and of the colonies in the East who have learned by their experience that freedom cannot come as a gift from British imperialism also know well that it can neither come to them on the point of the blood-stained sword of the Japanese fascists. The colonial peoples are determined to line up in the world front of the peoples under the leadership of the Soviet Union and the Chinese people to win the war against Hitler and the Jap fascists and to win their own freedom and defend their homelands despite the imperialists. Thus the new extension of the war to the [p. 358] Pacific and the East brings no relief to the fascist world enslavers. It only accentuates their death-crisis into which they plunged on June the 22nd.

QUANDARY OF ANGLO-AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

British and American imperialists are facing a crisis of disintegration of their Empire and their ruling class, the successive fiascoes of their policies for maintaining their world domination have landed them finally into an alignment which can no longer become a tool in their hands for attaining their selfish class aim—world domination. The very alliance with the U.S.S.R. brings about on the one hand, a division in the ruling class of Britain and America and on the other, a powerful unity of the peoples nationally and internationally. As the war progresses this unity grows in power and demands more and more firmly closest co-operation with the Soviet and Chinese peoples politically, militarily and economically to achieve the joint peoples' war aims. These war aims which become the banner of the all peoples' war against fascism are :

(a) Complete annihilation of Hitler-fascism and its allies in Italy and Japan;

(b) People's victory, ensuring liberation of all the peoples in Europe, Asia and America;

(c) People's peace—a peace without annexations, based on the independence and democratic liberties of all the nations and peoples of the world and consolidated by their free and equal co-operation.

The imperialist governments still attempt to pursue their old aims through the new alignment which brings them up against a united people getting more and more impatient of vacillations and who are determined to win the people's war in a people's way. These Governments who have divided bourgeois ruling class behind them and a united people before them, are less and less capable of enforcing their aims and policies on the people. It is the people who are now in a position to seize the Government by the scruff and make it do their own bidding more and more, isolating the reactionary section from it.

[p. 359] TOWARDS A PEOPLE'S WORLD

Hitler-fascism and its allies are a scourge which was born out of the festering general crisis of world imperialism which began with the end of the last war. It is the British and American imperialists who forged this poisoned spearhead of counter-revolution to stab the people's revolutionary movements in Spain, China and France, and to attack the Socialist Soviet Union. That is how they hoped to save world imperialism and their domination in the world. History has wreaked a horrible vengeance on the peoples of Europe and of the world for their failure to resist and frustrate these reactionary policies of their rulers in time. Hitler enslaved the whole of Europe, struck a paralysing blow at his imperialist rivals and felt himself strong enough to fling his murderous hordes against the Soviet Union, the embodied might of the people's revolution. He thought it was his master stroke for world domination. But he had struck his own doom and the doom of world imperialism. The British and American Governments hastened to ally themselves with the Soviet Union. They sought refuge in the camp of the people. They yet dream of regaining their world domination by the backdoor. Empty dreams! They can do so only by betraying the alliance with the Soviet Union, only by stabbing the people in the back. Can they do it? The peoples of the world have undergone far too much to tolerate such treacheries again. Their consciousness is sharpened by the deeds of unparalleled heroism of the Soviet people. Their unity is forged in a giant world-front under Soviet leadership. The peoples of the capitalist world are determined to smash through all obstacles which hinder them from reaching the goal they have set themselves. They see before them Hitler's murderous armies being rolled back across the blood-stained stretches of the Soviet Union. Their strength is growing in the Nazi-occupied countries of Europe, in Britain and in America. The Jap fascists have struck against the colonial peoples of Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Burma to cut them off from the world unity of the people, to cut off China from India and the rest of the world. They will not succeed in their dastardly designs. Their treacherous aggression will only cement ever more firmly the unity of the peoples of China, India, Burma and East Asia with the peoples of Europe and America in the joint war of world liberation under the leadership of the Soviet Union and its great [p. 360] leader, Comrade Stalin. The peoples of the world are advancing arm in arm, with one common aim of destroying Hitler-fascism and its allies, of smashing up the very structure of world imperialism, which bred the plague of fascism, and imperialist war and of replacing it by a world of free peoples.

"THE WAR IS ON, THE PEOPLE'S WAR, OUR SACRED FINAL FIGHT"

IT WILL NOT STOP TILL THE PEOPLES EMERGE VICTORIOUS