p By emancipating the many peoples of the Russian Empire, the October Revolution exerted a strong influence on the destinies of the peoples in all imperialist colonial empires. This can be seen from the writings of many outstanding leaders of oppressed nations. In his Three People’s Principles, the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen called the October Revolution “the great hope for humanity”, while Jawaharlal Nehru wrote that “...the Soviet revolution had advanced human society by a great leap and had lit a bright flame which could not be smothered ... it had laid the foundations for that ’new civilisation’ toward which the world would advance".  [202•1 

p He was echoed by his countryman Rabindranath Tagore, who said: “When I see elsewhere some two hundred nationalities—which only a few years ago were at vastly different stages of development—marching ahead in peaceful progress and amity, and when I look about my own country and see a very highly evolved and intellectual people drifting into the disorder of barbarism, I cannot help contrasting the two systems of governments, one based on co-operation, the other on exploitation, which have made such contrary conditions possible."  [202•2 

If the formation of a workers’ state on one-sixth of the world’s land surface and socialist construction in Russia heralded the ultimate collapse of the world capitalist system, the transformation of Russia’s colonies into socialist republics and the formation of the Mongolian People’s Republic heralded the impending collapse of imperialist colonial system.