On June 22, 1941, Hitler’s army invaded the Soviet Union. For several months, the Red Army retreated. In October, and again in December, the Red Army counterattacked, driving the fascists back. This was the first time the Nazi-led forces had been stopped. In 1940 French and British troops had been quickly routed by the German Wehrmacht.
The USSR was invaded not by Germany alone. Most of continental Europe, already occupied by Germany, poured its industry, raw materials, and human resources into the invasion. Units from almost every European country fought on the side of the Nazi army. It’s more accurate, therefore, to refer to Hitler’s military as the “Fascist” forces. Finland, Romania, Hungary, and Italy also declared war on the USSR and sent large-scale armies to the invasion. These same armies collaborated in the mass murder of 15 million Soviet civilians, including two-thirds of the 6 million Jews killed by the fascists.
The Red Army faced 80 percent of all the Fascist forces, far more than did the Western Allies. More Soviet soldiers were killed in the taking of Berlin than U.S. soldiers killed during the entire war.
Early on in World war II, there is compelling evidence that the Western Allies had tried hard to help Hitler conquer the Soviet Union. There is a huge amount of evidence of this. For example:
The “Munich” sellout of October 1938, where the Britain and France gave democratic Czechoslovakia to Hitler without even informing the Czech government (first the Sudetenland, then in March 1939 the rest of the country). The Bank of England even transferred the Czech gold reserves to Hitler!
The refusal of the Polish government to endorse “collective security” against Hitler. Josef Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, refused to sign any agreement that would permit the Red Army to enter Polish territory in order to engage the German army. This one act guaranteed World War II and the destruction of Poland.
A few years ago, evidence was discovered in the Russian Archives that suggested that Beck was a German agent. In any case, he certainly acted like one.
The refusal by the British government in August 1939 to sign a mutual defense treaty with the USSR against Nazi Germany, thus guaranteeing Hitler’s victory against Poland in September 1939.
The refusal of Britain and France to defend Poland when Hitler invaded it on September 1, 1939, despite their mutual defense treaty with Poland.
The “phony war” of September 1939 to May 1940, when France and the UK, though formally at war with Hitler, refused to engage his forces.
The attempt by the UK and France to send an army to fight against the USSR on the side of pro-Germany Finland during the Russo-Finnish War of December 1939 to March 1940.
The Soviet victory heralded the advance of communism throughout the world. This terrified the capitalists, who began inventing lie after lie about the Soviet role in the war, the Red Army, and the communist forces generally. These lies continue to be spread today, as is evident in Bloodlands, the recent book by Yale professor Timothy Snyder. It is yet another attempt to equate Stalin and Hitler, communism and fascism.
It’s important to expose these lies, though that never stops the anti-communists from spreading them and inventing others.
Meanwhile, World War II is portrayed as “the Good War” in Western capitalist countries. A good book that unmasks this myth is Jacques Pauwels’ The Myth of the Good War.
New Communist Force Needed Today
Today, fascism is once again on the advance. Without the example and the threat of a socialist bloc, the world’s capitalists see no reason not to drive the living standards of workers as low as they can possibly go. All over the world, capitalist forces are assaulting the wages, benefits, and living standards of working people. In Europe, the “welfare state” is under sharp attack. In the US, what little social welfare we enjoyed is being swiftly eroded.
To support this new fascism the old forces of extreme nationalism and patriotism, sexism, racism, anti-immigrant racism, anti-Semitism, prejudice, religious ideologies, and anti-communism are being pushed with renewed intensity. The capitalists aim to divert workers’ attention from their oppression under the profit system. Meanwhile, the capitalists get richer and richer. As in the past, the logic of capitalist exploitation is international competition and war—eventually another world war. Capitalism leads to war for imperial conquest and to divide up the world’s riches.
This is a dismal future! The question is, what can we do about it? The answer is simple. We need another worldwide movement for communism! One that has learned from the errors of the communist movements of the 20th century while building on their successes. There is no other way forward for the international working class. Let’s get to it!
