70 years since the Soviet Union defeated fascism
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 9, 2015
Why was the Soviet Union able to defeat the Nazi war machine? It was because the collective material and human resources of the country were mobilized by state planning. In May 1945, Soviet forces stormed the German capital of Berlin and the Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Goebbels both committed suicide.
The Soviet military victory over Germany is completely and dishonestly downplayed in the West. British people often think they won the war, and American mythology allots the United States armed forces a mythical central role.
The conventional history of World War II says it began when Germany invaded Poland. But in truth, it really began in China. Japan first occupied northeastern Chinese provinces in 1931. In 1935, Mao Zedong already understood the global nature of the war in China when he wrote,
"In the present nationwide anti-Japanese upsurge and worldwide anti-fascist upsurge, just wars will spread all over China and the globe. All just wars support each other and all unjust wars should be turned into just ones – that is the Leninist line. Our anti-Japanese war needs the support of the people of the world, above all the support of the people of the Soviet Union; and they will certainly support us, because we and they are concerned with each others' weal and woe."
When the Japanese launched a general invasion in 1937, Mao assessed the social forces that would be prepared to fight against Japanese imperialism by considering the loyalties and interests of different social classes. Communist policy exposed the spinelessness of the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, and when the Japanese were defeated, the Red Army had won over the masses in the revolutionary struggle.
In the West, the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been presented as the blow that defeated the Japanese. But in truth, when the United States dropped these bombs, Japan was already destroyed. After the U.S. occupied Japan for a time, many of its most murderous old leaders were let off scot-free and allowed to remain in positions of power.
Indeed, the real purpose of using the atomic bomb was to intimidate the Soviet Union. When Chiang Kai-shek's forces were obviously losing the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949), the U.S. considered dropping atomic bombs on the Chinese Red Army to prevent a communist victory, but the bomb was only an effective weapon against highly concentrated populations.
It appears that a major reason that Stalin organized the blockade of West Berlin from 1948-1949 was to present the Americans with a simultaneous German and Chinese crisis. Indeed the victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949 took place the same month as the declaration of the East German state. These two victories halted any possibility of the West launching a new war against the Soviet Union or China.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has moved eastwards in a way that is rightly considered a threat by Russia, and Western support for Ukraine's reactionary government is a continuation of this objective. The decision by Western leaders to boycott the 70th anniversary celebrations in Moscow is a shameful disgrace.
The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
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