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p A special place in the history of world socialism is held by the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against nazi Germany and the period immediately following it. The war against the USSR, thoroughly prepared by hitlerite fascism, the vanguard of international imperialism, was the supreme trial for the new, socialist system; it decided the fate of this initial bulwark of socialism and progress in the world, the destinies of all mankind.

Imperialism set special tasks before its strike force, fascism, in the Second World War: to stem the march of history by armed force, to crush the Soviet Union—the bulwark of the

17 world revolutionary process—to institute the imperialist "new order" and to put an end to the social progress of mankind once and for all.

p In the titanic battle against the imperialistbred forces of fascist aggression victory was won by the most advanced social system, by the ideology of communism, the most progressive ideology in the world, by the policy of the Leninist Communist Party which, in a relatively brief period, had turned the Soviet Union into a mighty industrial and agricultural state, united the Soviet people, inspired them to fight and led their struggle to a victorious conclusion. The socialist economic system, the moral and political unity of Soviet society which rested on the unbreakable alliance of the working class and the peasantry, gave the Soviet people the resources and energy for routing the fascist invaders. Socialism rendered an inestimable service to mankind by saving the world from a terrible fate, by foiling the biggest attempt of reactionary forces to turn back the course of social development, by saving culture, civilisation and progress from destruction.

p From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet Union drew on the international solidarity of the working people which helped to extend in Europe the liberation struggle against the common enemy and led to the rise of the anti-Hitler coalition. During the war the broad Resistance movement in nazi-occupied countries merged with the struggle for social emancipation, for the abolition of the decayed bourgeoislandowner regimes which had led the European states to national disaster. Fraternal solidarity 18 was also displayed by people of different nationalities participating in the Resistance movement in each country. The Soviet Union rendered it every support. Further, Soviet assistance in organising Polish, Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Rumanian armed units on its territory was extremely valuable.

p The liberation movement and the growth of elements of working people’s class struggle within it were prepared by development before the war and the influence exerted by the great successes of socialist construction in the USSR on the world revolutionary process.

p During the Second World War and especially at its concluding stage, the Western imperialist powers did everything possible to prevent the European peoples from freely choosing the system they wanted, and to prevent progressive forces from utilising the emergent revolutionary situations. To this end, as Winston Churchill testifies in his memoirs, they wished that the front of the Western armies "should be as far east as possible"  [18•1  because, as Churchill "saw quite plainly”, "Communism would be the peril civilisation (i.e., capitalism—Sh. S.) would have to face after the defeat of Nazism and Fascism”.  [18•2 

p There is hardly any need for comment on this eloquent admission by one of the most farsighted leaders capitalism was able to produce in the period of its decline. This statement was made in May 1945 when it was clear that no force in the world could restrain social progress. 19 “Thus,” Churchill recalled in his memoirs, "this climax of apparently measureless success was to me a most unhappy time. 1 moved amid cheering crowds, or sat at a table adorned with congratulations and blessings from every part of the Grand Alliance, with an aching heart and a mind oppressed by forebodings.”  [19•1 

p The ruling circles of Britain and the United States tried to steer events to keep the liberation movement within the bounds of struggle against German fascism, and to prevent it from affecting the mainstays of capitalism in countries liberated from the nazi invaders. As early as 1941, Churchill, in a message to his then Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, demanded that the Foreign Office should "view with a benevolent eye natural movements among the populations of different countries towards monarchies”,  [19•2  in other words, should back the elements in the Resistance movement who could be relied upon as implicit supporters of the old order.

p But the schemes of the reactionary forces came to grief, as the situation had become unfavourable to world capitalism. The fact that the Soviet Union had borne the brunt of the struggle against nazi Germany could not but affect the nature of the movement of the occupied peoples for their liberation. This facilitated not only the creation of an unprecedented coalition of states and peoples against the strike force of world imperialism, but it also gave an unusual sweep to the struggle in nazi-occupied countries for national and social emancipation.

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p The Soviet war of liberation merged with the liberation struggle of the Poles, Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs and others in fascist-occupied countries, because, by contrast with the Western powers, the Soviet Union had set itself aims in the war which had fully coincided with the interests of the oppressed European peoples. With the direct military support of the armies of the first socialist state in the world, the European nations launched a liberation struggle against the nazi invaders and their agents. By rendering military aid to the embattled nations, the Soviet people discharged their supreme internationalist duty.

p The war fought by the Soviet Union, with which the struggle of the other peoples against the common enemy merged, was of a class as well as a national liberation nature. In the course of it a revolutionary situation arose in a number of countries and the internal and external prerequisites matured for determined action by the working class against the nazi invaders and against the exploiting regimes. This explains how, during the war, victories by the Soviet Armed Forces, popular uprisings led by the working class and its vanguard, Communist and Workers’ Parties, were consummated in the establishment of the people’s democracy in a number of countries.

p Revolutionary actions in countries overrun by the nazis were carried on in exceptionally difficult conditions. They were marked by struggle between the truly patriotic progressive forces headed by the working class, and reactionary elements which, even if they did take part sometimes in the Resistance movement, did so only to 21 achieve the objectives set by the imperialists, namely, to save the capitalist system. In a number of cases, even after the ousting of the nazis from a country (or part of its territory), counterrevolutionaries sought to use armed force against the working people who demanded consistent democratic reconstruction. This was the case, for example, in Rumania where on February 24, 1945, a demonstration of 500,000 people in Bucharest and demonstrations in many other cities were attacked by reactionaries ready to plunge the country into civil war. In Bulgaria, after her withdrawal from the Axis bloc, antinational elements launched propaganda in the army against participating in the war on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. Early in 1945, reactionaries in Hungary tried to utilise the grave food situation for their own ends.

p Both during this period and earlier, the epochal victories of the Soviet Army which inspired the peoples to fight and the help of the Soviet Union served as important factors which predetermined the ultimate victory of the progressive forces. The treaties of alliance between the USSR, and Czechoslovakia and Poland, concluded during the war, played a big part in the growth of the liberation movement.

p The treaty between the USSR and Czechoslovakia was signed in Moscow on December 12, 1943. It had been preceded by other documents: the London Soviet-Czechoslovak agreement on joint action in the war against nazi Germany of July 18, 1941, under which the Soviet Government agreed to the formation of Czechoslovak military units on the territory of the USSR, and also the agreement to grant a loan to the 22 Government of the Czechoslovak Republic for the maintenance of the Czechoslovak Brigade in the USSR. These agreements and treaty were signed on behalf of Czechoslovakia by the governmentin-exile headed by J. Sramek, with Benes as President.

p The conclusion of agreements and a treaty with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile emanated from the Soviet desire to render the Czechoslovak people every possible aid in the struggle against the nazi invaders and to unite all Czechoslovak forces both within the country and abroad to combat nazism.

p As for the reactionary Czechoslovak bourgeoisie headed by Benes, in the prevailing conditions it could not ignore the popular wishes; the masses, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, called for stronger friendship with the Soviet Union in which they saw their sincere friend and deliverer.

p The victories of the Soviet Army were largely responsible for liberating the territory of many European countries, Czechoslovakia included. The London group of the Czechoslovak bourgeoisie had to take this into consideration. Benes’ admission that the "road to the homeland passes through Moscow" is significant. It is for this reason that the government-in-exile was compelled to conclude a Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Postwar Co-operation with the Soviet Union, striving to utilise it in the class interests of the Czechoslovak bourgeoisie. It hoped that the USSR would be weakened by the war and as a result it could annul the alliance with it. This explains the attempt 23 of the \vSrámek government, made during the Soviet-Czechoslovak talks (related by Z. Fierlinger who was the Czechoslovak ambassador in Moscow at the time), to insert an amendment to Article 6 of the treaty to the effect that the Czechoslovak Government would submit the treaty for additional ratification to parliament at the earliest opportunity after the end of the war. This reservation was to leave Benes and his government a loophole for renouncing the treaty after the war and again linking the destiny of Czechoslovakia with the Western imperialist states. This attempt, however, failed and the Czechoslovak Government had to sign the treaty as it was.

p Under the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of alliance both parties, bound by common aims and having a common state frontier, undertook to render each other military and other assistance in the war against Germany and all the states bound to her in acts of aggression in Europe.  [23•1  The treaty provided for mutual assistance in the postwar period as well. The parties undertook that "if one of them should become involved after the war in hostilities against Germany which would resume her Drang nach Osten policy or against any other state that would unite in such a war with Germany directly or in any other form, the other High Contracting Party would immediately render the Contracting Party thus involved in hostilities every military 24 and other support and assistance within its power".  [24•1 

p Considering the interests of their security, both parties agreed to maintain after the war close and friendly co-operation based on the principles of mutual respect for independence and sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, to develop economic relations on the widest possible scale, and to render each other every possible economic assistance.

p The Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Postwar Co-operation between the two countries was a major landmark in the development of traditional Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship, and served as a means for uniting the allied peoples in the war against the common enemy. The treaty was of tremendous significance for advancing the liberation movement in Czechoslovakia, and for stimulating the activities of guerrilla detachments operating in the country under the leadership of the Communist Party. It infused fresh energy into all the Resistance forces of Czechoslovakia and opened up broad prospects for fruitful co-operation in the postwar period.

p The Czechoslovak bourgeoisie, both prior and after signing the treaty, conducted a doubledealing policy as regards both the Soviet Union and the people of their own country. The government-in-exile and President Benes obediently followed the political line of the Western powers and hatched anti-Soviet plans. They took all measures to hamper the operations of the 25 Czechoslovak people against the German invaders. At the height of the war, Benes, addressing the Czechoslovak people from London, urged them: "Be cautious, preserve calm, do not succumb to provocations, we all are anxious to avoid unnecessary losses.”  [25•1 

p The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was the true organiser of the struggle of the Czechs and Slovaks for national liberation. It consistently called for the utmost spread of this struggle, for close military and political co-operation with the Soviet Union; the fighting men of the First Czechoslovak Brigade developed a spirit of friendship with the Soviet people. Relying on the assistance of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party led the guerrilla struggle, set up a united national front of Czechs and Slovaks, organised uprisings and worked to bring victory nearer. This upset the plans of the reactionary bourgeoisie to restore the old regime in the country after its liberation.

p The Soviet victories, the defeat of the nazi invaders and the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Armed Forces struck a devastating blow to the plans of Benes and other “ Londoners” to come back to Czechoslovakia with the American and British forces and again turn her into a state dependent on the imperialist powers. The British journalist, Kingsley Martin, pointed out in his reminiscences that Benes "had always expected to return with the American and British armies, and could not disguise his 26 disappointment that his route home lay through Moscow".  [26•1 

p In March 1945, Benes and members of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile arrived in Moscow. There all the main political parties held negotiations on the setting-up of the first government of liberated Czechoslovakia and the government’s policy. Benes and other leaders of the Czechoslovak bourgeoisie, fearing to lose their positions, had to consent to the establishment of a democratic government with the participation of Communists. This, however, did not mean that the bourgeoisie had shelved its plans for good.

p Immediately after the war, Czechoslovak reactionary forces, with the active support of US and British imperialists, made every effort to annul the gains of the Czechoslovak people, disorganise the National Front Government, and foil the implementation of the Kosice Government Programme, adopted in April 1945 by all the political parties which entered the new, democratic government.

p The Ko\vsice Programme outlined a number of important political and economic measures. The foreign-policy section of the Programme contained a statement on the organisation of the Czechoslovak Republic on the basis of close cooperation with the Soviet Union and other Slav peoples. "The Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance, Friendship and Postwar Cooperation”, it was stated in the Kosice Programme, "defines for all time the position of the Czechoslovak state on questions of foreign 27 policy. The liberation of Czechoslovakia will be completed, the freedom and security of Czechoslovakia, her peaceful development and happy future will be achieved with the help of the Soviet Union.”  [27•1 

p The Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Postwar Co-operation between the Soviet Union and the Polish Republic, concluded on April 21, 1945, marked a radical turn in the relations between the two countries from mutual estrangement, hostility and open conflict towards alliance and friendship.

p In the past Poland had been looked upon by the imperialists, particularly the German, as a corridor for campaign on Russia. After the First World War a state was set up on Polish territory, which represented a bridgehead for attack on Soviet Russia and served as a weapon of international imperialism spearheaded against the socialist country. Lenin wrote in 1920 that "the Versailles Peace has turned Poland into a buffer state which is regarded by the Entente as a weapon against the Bolsheviks".  [27•2  Even during the Second World War, when the Soviet Government rendered the Polish people every possible help, the reactionary Polish government-in-exile in London continued its hostile policy towards the USSR.

p The Soviet Union signed an agreement with the Polish government-in-exile in London on July 30, 1941, restoring diplomatic relations between 28 the two countries, and both governments undertook to render each other every support in the war against nazi Germany. The Soviet Government further agreed to set up within the USSR a Polish army which operationally would be subordinated to the Supreme Command of the Soviet Armed Forces.  [28•1 

p In December 1941, after talks in Moscow between the governments of the Soviet Union and Poland (headed by Sikorski), a Declaration of Friendship and Mutual Assistance was signed, in which both governments reaffirmed their readiness to continue the war until complete victory. They undertook to proffer each other full military aid during the war. Moreover, troops of the Polish Republic stationed in the Soviet Union would fight the German invaders jointly with Soviet forces.  [28•2  In peace-time, relations would be based on good-neighbourly cooperation, friendship and reciprocal honest discharge of the assumed obligations. Notwithstanding the serious difficulties the USSR experienced in 1941 and 1942, the Soviet Government gave the Government of the Polish Republic 300 million rubles for the maintenance of its army on the territory of the USSR.  [28•3 

p Thus, the Soviet Union did everything it could to pool the efforts of the Soviet and the Polish peoples in the joint struggle against the common enemy, to build up a Polish army which could fight, together with the Soviet Army, for the liberation of its country.

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p But the reactionaries who dominated the government-in-exile were less interested in organising the struggle against Germany than in intrigues, anti-Soviet slander and actions hostile to the Soviet Union, the true ally of Poland. This government was a tool in the hands of reactionary US and British circles. On the instructions of the government-in-exile, the Polish Army headed by General Anders had refused to participate in hostilities against Germany and, by August 1942, had been evacuated from the Soviet Union. The government-in-exile launched extensive anti-Soviet activities, to such an extent that in 1943 it, in compact with the German fascists, launched a slanderous campaign against the Soviet Union about the Polish officers killed in the Smolensk area by the nazis, ascribing this heinous crime to the Soviet Army.

p The Soviet Government exposed the slanderous fabrications of the Polish reactionary bourgeoisie egged on by the US and British ruling circles. In its Note of April 25, 1943, the Soviet Government pointed out that the hostile campaign against the USSR had been undertaken by the Polish Government so as "to bring pressure to bear on the Soviet Government by utilising the nazi forgery in order to wrest from it territorial concessions in Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Byelorussia and Soviet Lithuania".  [29•1  Consequently, the Soviet Government broke off all relations with the Polish government-in-exile, which, far from expressing the interests of the Polish people, acted contrary to them, playing into the hands of fascist Germany.

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p At the same time, the Soviet Government continued to render every assistance to the Polish people and their democratic forces in the struggle for liberating Polish lands and creating a strong, independent and democratic Poland. Aware that Polish-Soviet friendship was the best guarantee of rebuilding an independent and sovereign Polish state, the Polish democratic forces, headed by the Polish Workers’ Party (PWP) which was organisationally formalised in January 1942, made every effort to strengthen Polish-Soviet friendship and rouse their people to fight the common enemy. In wartime the PWP became the leading and organising force of Polish patriots in the struggle against nazi Germany.

p The Union of Polish Patriots set up a Polish division named after Thaddeus Kosciuszko, which subsequently became the core of the Polish Army in the USSR. Notwithstanding the obstinate resistance of the reactionary forces the national liberation movement in Poland headed by the Communists gained in size and strength. The Polish National Council, Krajowa Rada Narodowa, formed on the initiative of the Polish Workers’ Party on January 1, 1944. played a big part in rallying together the democratic forces of the Polish people. It included, in addition to the PWP, the leading force of the bloc of the revived democratic parties, also the Polish Socialist Party, Stronnictwo Ludowe and Stronnictwo Demokratyczne. From the very first days of its existence Krajowa Rada Narodowa became a genuine righting force for liberation and the establishment of a democratic Poland. Under the leadership of the working class, the Polish people took into their own hands the cause of their 31 liberation, the restoration of national independence and state sovereignty.

p In June-July 1944, as a result of a Soviet offensive at Vitebsk, Bobruisk and Mogilev, Soviet troops reached the Vistula and liberated a considerable part of Poland. The arrival of the Soviet Army and the Soviet-based Polish Army on Polish soil stimulated the liberation movement and the activities of guerrilla detachments operating behind the nazi lines. This further consolidated Poland’s democratic forces, notwithstanding the hostile, reckless actions of the government-in-exile.

p On July 21, 1944, the Krajowa Rada Narodowa, fulfilling the will of the entire Polish people, set up the Polish Committee for National Liberation which assumed the functions of a Provisional Government and proclaimed friendship and co-operation with the Soviet Union the cornerstone of foreign policy. The Committee for National Liberation outlined in the governmental programme important economic and political measures designed to revive the Polish state. By decision of the Krajowa Rada Narodowa, in December 1944 the Polish Committee for National Liberation was reconstituted into the Provisional Government of Poland. It was recognised by the Soviet Union in January 1945 and diplomatic relations were established between the USSR and Poland.

p The new Poland scornfully rejected the reactionary emigre clique and began to build a people’s democracy. The Polish people became convinced that they could gain security and preserve the independence of their state only on the basis of friendship with the powerful Soviet Union.

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The Soviet Armed Forces, having defeated nazi Germany, liberated other peoples in Europe from fascist tyranny and made it possible for them to arrange their life as they thought fit. A highly favourable situation arose in Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania and in the territory that is now the German Democratic Republic. Their peoples put an end to imperialist oppression by fascist states and ousted the decayed bourgeoislandowner regimes whose leaders had collaborated with the nazis. Having won freedom and national independence, these countries began to establish people’s democracies.