Intervention by the CPRF

Yemelianov Yuriy (The Communist Party of the Russian Federation.)

First of all let me thank Greek communists for their efforts in order to organise this meeting. It is a good opportunity to show that not everybody in the capitalist world in subject to the pressure of absurd lies.

During 65 years since the Second World War became history many of its episodes and aspects turned into objects of heated discussions. However there are facts related to the origin and character of the Second World War which are irrefutable and cannot be questioned.

There is no doubt that as a result of this war launched by Nazi Germany and its allies a number of countries and peoples suffered many millions of human losses. Also there is no doubt that the triumph of Nazi Germany and its allies could bring about enslavement of a greater part of human race and total annihilation of many peoples of the planet.

And yet it is also clear that even before the War began the first and foremost enemies of fascists were communists. The organisation of fascist parties by the ruling classes of capitalist countries was undertaken soon after the beginning of the October socialist revolution of 1917 in order to preserve and consolidate bourgeois order, to inflict a striking blow at the revolutionary communist movement and the first country of socialism. In his "Mein Kampf" Hitler proclaimed his hatred towards Marxist ideology, communists of Germany and the USSR led by communists. These principles shared fascists all over the world. Therefore the international alliance of fascist and militarist powers was formed as the Anti-Comintern pact. Being sure of his victory over the USSR in the beginning of July 1941 Hitler said to the Government officials: "I will be known in history as a person who annihilated bolshevism".

At the same time anticommunism of fascists logically resulted in their hostility towards the greater part of the mankind. The fascist goals of establishing global order based on racial and national inequality contradicted the principles of economic and social progress, social and national equality shared by the communist movement from its inception.

That is also why communists were the staunchest fighters against fascism. The communists of the world and the Soviet Union led by the Communist Party made the greatest contribution to the cause of victory over fascism and rescue of the mankind from the mortal menace. Communists of Greece, Yugoslavia and other countries led the armed struggle against the occupation forces of Italy and Germany. The greatest part of the war effort against the Japanese aggression was performed by national-liberation forces led by communists of China, Vietnam and Philippines. The longest front of the Second World War was the Soviet-German front. Here the full-scale operations involving large military units lasted much longer than on other fronts of the War. Over 75% of all human and material losses of the German armies account for the Soviet-German front.

Denying these well-known and irrefutable facts prevents understanding the reasons, the character and the conduct of the greatest drama in the history of the mankind. And yet now neglecting the cardinal differences between fascism and communism the falsifiers of history speak about their identity. They make public opinion think that the struggle between them was inadvertent. No wonder many young people nowadays fail to answer correctly who fought against whom during the Second World War. Their absurd answers are brought about by the growing absurdity of the modern society.

 At the start of the cold war mass-media began to spread widely the concept of totalitarian state which was invented in order to eliminate the difference between socialism and fascism. At that time George Orwell wrote a novel "1984", which depicted a stark future subjugation of the Earth by so called totalitarian powers. And yet the latest events prove that the so called "free" and "democratic" West follows the absurd and fraudulent principles of Orewellian Oceania. Presenting Peace prize to the US President who extended the scale of his country's military involvement is an eloquent proof that the members of the Nobel committee adhere to the principle "War is Peace" taken from Orwell's novel. Imitating the Ministry of Truth of Oceania many European governments who are busy rewriting and distorting history obviously follow the principle of Oceania: "Who controls the past, controls the present. Who controls the present controls the future".

The efforts to distort history multiply as the bankruptcy of capitalism and its growing hostility towards the population of the Earth and even its nature becomes obvious. At the same time one can see more clearly the falsehood and absurdity of modern capitalism which destroy the truth for the sake of profits.

The vendors of absurd lies partly succeed because many of participants of the War died the memory and activity of some of the living participants slackened and the new generations do not have the real experience of those times which became distant. This makes the young more susceptible to the pressure of artful fraud. That is why especial efforts to distort the past are undertaken in the sphere of education.

The reconstruction of the existing reality of the present by distortion of the past was performed during destruction of socialist order in the USSR and other countries of Europe. One-sided and often lying exposition of the Soviet history contributed to the ideological degradation and later to the political collapse of the Soviet society. The present government of the Russian Federation lately spoke time and again about the need to put an end to falsification of history and even established an appropriate committee. Yet it is clear that during almost two decades after the triumph of bourgeois regime the distorted notions about the Soviet past took root in the consciousness of Russian public.

Schools and universities of Russia teach pupils and students about the identity of the Soviet and Nazi regimes. Thus in the text-book "The History of Fatherland" (Moscow, "Gradarika", 2007; edited by professors R. V. Degtyareva and S. N. Poltorak), which was made for use for students of higher educational institutions, it was stated: "Stalinism and Hitlerism are similar in many respects. Both political movements took root in the so called "theory of violence". Though the last two words are italicized this does not help to explain the unknown "theory of violence", which was ostensibly responsible for emergence of the Soviet regime at the time of Stalin and its antipode -- Nazi regime. The pupils of vocational schools are made to memorise ten characteristics of "totalitarian political regime" of the USSR which were discovered by the authors of "History of Russia" (edited by P. S. Samygin; Moscow, "Prospect", 2007).

The decisive role of the Communist party in bringing about victory is denied. At the same time the text-books harp on all real and mostly imaginary mistakes of the Soviet government and military commanders during the war. Exagerating losses of the Soviet soldiers at the battle-field A. A. Levandovsky, Y. A. Schetinov and S. V. Mironenko (authors of the text-book for the 11-th grade school-children "History of Russia. XX -- the beginning of the XXI century; published in 2008 by the Moscow publishing-house "Education" and recommended by the Education Ministry and science of Russian Federation) in fact accuse not the aggressors but the Soviet political and military leaders of killing millions of people at the front.

The text-books on universal history use to underestimate or neglect the role of communists in the European Resistance movement. The text-book "The Contemporary history of foreign countries" for the pupils of the 9-th grade (its authors -- A. M. Rodriguez, M. V. Ponomarev, I. N. Selivanov, L. A. Karimova, L. S. Nikulina; Moscow, 2009) only one paragraph of three sentences is dedicated to European Resistance. The text-book by N. Zagladin ("The Universal History. The Contemporary History. XX century" for the pupils of the 9-th grade; Moscow, 2009) dedicated just half a page to the groups of European Resistance in Greece, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, France, Belgium, Norway. But there is not a single word said about communists who fought against occupation troоps.

The distortion of history in text-books is supplemented by a flow of Anti-Soviet publications. Television show constantly programmes which vilify the activities of the Soviet government and ordinary Communists before and during the War. Their leading part in the achievement of victory is denied. Thus speaking in a TV programme on January 31 2010 the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Cyrill asserted that the efforts of the Communist Party and personally Stalin failed to consolidate the people during the war. The Patriarch explained the consolidation of the Soviet people in their resistance to the enemy by a miracle.

Nowadays the Communist party of the Russian Federation reminds that this miracle was performed by the Soviet people led by Communists.

 Long before 2010 the party began to organise meetings dedicated to the anniversaries of various battles of the Great Patriotic War and during the celebration of the 130-th anniversary of Joseph Stalin's birth. At such meetings War veterans and historians tell the young people true facts about the socialist reconstruction of the country which helped it greatly to prepare for the coming hard trials, about the heroic struggle of the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party, about real reasons of gaining victory over the foe. Many scholars, journalists who are members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation or cooperate with the Party wrote books and articles, took part round table and other discussions exposing the falsifiers of history.

The Communist party of the Russian Federation highly appreciates the efforts of fraternal parties directed at the preservation of memory about the struggle of peoples of the world against the fascist scare. There is no doubt that the joint work of communist parties directed at the restoration of historical truth contributes to the liberation of social consciousness from the stereotypes of bourgeois propaganda. It makes an important step towards the development of scientific thinking which is so necessary for the revolutionary transformation of society.

The communists of the XX century were the first to start the struggle against the enemies of the mankind and made the decisive contribution to the cause of victory over them. Their heirs -- the communists of the XXI century are the first to start the struggle in defence of historic truth against lies and fraud.