Dmitry Novikov | Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Dear comrades!
On behalf of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, its Central Committee, and Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee G.A. Zyuganov, I welcome all of you, participants in the Paris international meeting in honour of the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism in World War II—a meeting organised by our comrades in the World Anti-Imperialist Platform.
Eighty years ago, the Red Army completed its heroic march across Europe, liberating the world from the brown plague. The red banner of Lenin, the banner of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the banner of the Soviet Union, was hoisted over the Reichstag.
Fascism became the most vicious and despicable offspring of imperialism. The peoples of the world have no right to forget the hell of military battles, death camps and Gestapo torture chambers, the torture and execution of people. Karl Marx and his comrades persistently and vividly exposed the anti-human essence of capitalism. But even this brilliant thinker could not have imagined what a monstrous conveyor belt of death would be created in the Nazi concentration camps.
The cannibalistic practices of fascism served the purpose of maintaining the class rule of big capital. The imperialists of the West took great care to nurture the regimes of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and their accomplices. Big capital, not only in Italy and Germany, but also in the United States, Britain and a number of other countries, played a special role in the establishment of fascist regimes. The imperialists were not bothered by the fact that entire peoples were declared ‘inferior’ and that preparations were being made for their extermination through mass murder, terror, starvation and sterilisation. The main victor over the ruthless machine of the Third Reich was the Soviet people. They won thanks to socialism, thanks to the genius of Lenin, thanks to the iron will of the Bolshevik Party. Soviet power created a highly developed economy. The Lenin-Stalin modernisation transformed the USSR into a powerful industrial power. Industrial production grew by an average of 17% per year.
The international family of Soviet peoples was freed from the scourges of a class-divided society. Russians and Ukrainians, Belarusians and Georgians, Uzbeks and Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs, Tatars and Kyrgyz, Jews and Tajiks, Bashkirs and Buryats, Ossetians and Lezgins, Yakuts and Avars—all the nations and nationalities of the USSR—stood as a wall against Hitler’s hordes.
In the battle against Nazism, the main line of struggle ran through the minds and hearts of the people. The Communist Party’s special merit was to unite our people on the basis of Soviet patriotism, on the basis of the bright ideals of justice, on the basis of love for their socialist Motherland. During the war years, Soviet patriotism manifested itself as a sacred hatred of the invaders.
Our fathers and grandfathers, young and old alike, were ready to fight the enemy until complete victory.
Many peoples of the world demonstrated their best qualities in the struggle against fascism. We pay tribute to the contribution made by the peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada and all participants in the anti-Hitler coalition to the common struggle. We honour the heroes of the Resistance movement who fought against the occupiers and collaborators in France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece and Poland.
We bow our heads in respect to the fighters of the anti-fascist underground. We proudly cherish the names of the anti-fascist heroes in our hearts. This great line includes Ernst Thälmann, Georgi Dimitrov, Maurice Thorez, Palmiro Togliatti, Dolores Ibarrola, Alvaro Cuniall, Klement Gottwald, Josip Broz Tito, Bolesław Bierut, Enver Hoxha and other leaders of the communist and workers’ parties of Europe. The names of the communists who led their peoples’ struggle against Japanese militarism are covered with unfading glory. A special place in this row belongs to Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, and Horloogiyn Choybalsan. All of them remain symbols of proletarian solidarity and an unyielding will to victory.
Our Soviet people paid an incredible price for the right to live on Earth and destroy fascism. Twenty-seven million lives were lost in this battle. The Bolshevik Party, led by Joseph Stalin, was a fighting party. Every second communist in the Soviet Union laid down his life in the struggle against the invaders.
Dear comrades! Just recently, on 22 April, the 155th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation opened the Second International Anti-Fascist Forum in Moscow. Speaking at the forum, CPRF Central Committee Chairman Gennady Zyuganov expressed his confidence that people of good will on planet Earth will never forget the heroism of the Soviet people who saved the world from the chains of slavery. Red Army soldiers came to Sofia and Prague, Bucharest and Warsaw, Belgrade and Vienna, to the plains of northern China and the mountain slopes of Korea, not as invaders and destroyers, but as liberators, internationalists and defenders of the working people.
The victorious spring of 1945 opened a new chapter in the history of mankind. The defeat of fascism had an enormous impact on the renewal of the entire planet. People’s democratic revolutions in a number of countries led to the formation of the Socialist Commonwealth. A powerful wave of national liberation movements crushed the colonial system.
For 80 years now, anti-communists of all stripes have been unable to erase the meaning and significance of the great struggle against fascism from people’s minds. Unable to defeat the memory of the people, they have waged a war on monuments. In Eastern European countries, monuments to Soviet soldiers are being despicably destroyed. Attempts are being made to distort, distort and rewrite the history of the Second World War.
Yes, dear comrades, the forces of reaction are continuing their dirty work. The pretenders to world domination have not disappeared either. When Donald Trump declares, ‘Make America Great Again,’ the shadow of Harry Truman looms behind him, who proclaimed that the United States of America‘must take leadership of the entire world.’ Mr. Trump’s claims to Canada and Greenland, his interference in the affairs of Mexico and Panama, Washington’s sanctions against China, Cuba and other countries are typical of the imperialists.
What is happening today means that the lessons of the Second World War are extremely relevant. Humanity is facing acute threats. The imperialists want to turn back the tide of history. For them, the destruction of China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and Laos would mean the destruction of socialism, which is so desired by the reactionaries. The defeat of Russia and its allies would allow neocolonialists to shape the world as they see fit. That is why big capital—the most unscrupulous and bloodthirsty provocateur—continues to fan the flames of war and conflict.
The imperialists are systematically fuelling confrontation in the Middle East.
The atrocities against the peaceful Arab population and the barbaric bombing of Palestinian refugee camps are reminiscent of the darkest pages of history. Washington’s aggressive foreign policy is increasingly threatening a military confrontation between the United States and China.
Banderaism has become a sadistic form of neo-Nazism. A clique of monsters in Kiev is trying to indoctrinate Ukrainian youth with ideas of ‘conquering Muscovy,’ “abolishing” Russian culture, and physically exterminating ‘Russians.’
Following the example of Hitler’s pogromists, Bandera’s rabble has set about demolishing monuments to Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Pavlov and anti-fascist heroes. A campaign of terror has been unleashed against the peaceful population of Donbass. All opposition organisations, starting with the Communist Party of Ukraine, were banned.
Imperialism, the father of fascism, remains the main threat to humanity. Capitalism is stubbornly dragging the planet into the hell of nuclear war. In the 21st century, humanity once again faces a fateful choice: socialism or barbarism. According to the UN, of the eight billion people on the planet, one and a half billion live in extreme poverty, without even access to clean water. Only a decisive turn towards humanism, social justice, and therefore socialism, can remedy the situation.
Our most important task is to stop neo-Nazism and cover with shame the names of those whose ideological fathers were condemned in Nuremberg in the autumn of 1945. The misfortunes brought to the working people by the global crisis of capitalism are a stark reminder of the saving socialist alternative.
The prospects for this choice are confirmed by the successes and steadfastness of China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Joseph Stalin was right when he said that in order to destroy the very possibility of world wars, imperialism must be destroyed.
The bloody trail of capitalism’s crimes stretches across the last hundred years—from the First World War to the bloody crimes in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine, Syria, to the tragedy that unfolded in our beloved brotherly Ukraine.
Dear comrades! Today, millions of people around the world are participating in the struggle against imperialism and neo-fascism. But the scale of this struggle is still insufficient. It is extremely important to strengthen our solidarity and unity of action against new bloody wars, for a happy future for humanity.
Communists have a special score to settle with fascism. We are inspired by the bright ideals of anti-fascist fighters. It is we who have great experience in the struggle and victory over the Nazi evil.
The justice of our cause drives us forward!
We are inspired today by the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism.
Let us strengthen our ranks!
Forward, to the victory of socialism!
