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p In addition to exploiting their own peoples the imperialists of a small number of developed countries enslaved many peoples of other countries. By armed force, deceit, blackmail, bribery and treachery they seized entire continents—Africa, Latin America and a considerable slice of Asia—creating giant colonial empires, which only recently ruled the destinies of more than half of mankind.

p The imperialist colonial system is one of the unhappiest pages of human history. It brought death to a countless number of people, inhuman exploitation, starvation, disease and ignorance. Suffice it to say that more than a hundred million people were taken from Africa alone and sold into slavery or put to death.

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p To this day the imperialists and their ideologists speak of their humanity, of their civilising mission, claiming that they bring backward peoples civilisation, modern technology, culture, a new way of life, and so on. But this empty prattle deceives nobody. The peoples know what colonialism really stands for. They know that for the imperialists the colonies are a sphere for the profitable investment of capital, sources of cheap raw material and manpower, markets and huge military bridgeheads. They exploit enslaved nations for one and only one purpose—maximum capitalist profit.

p Naturally, the peoples concerned could not reconcile themselves to colonial rule. They waged and continue to wage an unremitting struggle against the imperialist vultures, for freedom and national independence.

p The national liberation movement received a mighty impetus from the Great October Socialist Revolution, which awakened the oppressed peoples, stirred them to rise and fight and drew them into the single torrent of the world revolutionary movement. For the oppressed peoples, the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist country, has become an inexhaustible source of political and moral support.

p The triumph of socialism in the U.S.S.R. which brought freedom from social and colonial oppression to more than a hundred nationalities and nations, the defeat of German nazism and Japanese imperialism, the new balance of forces on the international scene after the Second World War, the formation of the world socialist system, the growth of the revolutionary working-class movement and the broadening influence of the Communist Parties have created extremely favourable soil for the success of the national liberation struggle. Imperialism had strangled the national independence and freedom of the majority of peoples and put them in the irons of ruthless colonial slavery. Socialism, on the other hand, ushers in the era of the liberation of oppressed nations. The mammoth wave of national liberation movements is sweeping colonialism out of existence and shaking the foundations of imperialism. New sovereign states have emerged and continue to emerge in place of former colonies and semi-colonies.

p Fundamental changes have taken place in Asia, where China, India, Indonesia and other countries have liberated themselves from colonial or semi-colonial dependence. The 114 colonial system is falling apart in Africa, where many countries have raised the flag of sovereignty. The period that has elapsed since the Second World War has witnessed the formation of nearly 60 independent countries, most of whom had won their freedom in the past 10-15 years. Latin America, where the U.S. imperialists have held undivided sway for long decades, is rising against imperialism and colonialism. For the Latin American peoples, heroic Cuba, where the people’s revolution has triumphed, has become a beacon in their just struggle for national liberation and social progress.

The time is not far distant when colonialism will receive the final coup de grace. This is inevitable, for it clashes with the objective course of history, with the requirements of social progress, with the interests of the masses. The oppressed peoples and all nations will not know rest until the last bastions of colonialism are levelled to the ground.