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World-Wide Economic Crisis 1929-1933

p The partial stabilisation of 1924-29 proved to be but a brief interlude in the evolution of the capitalist system. In the autumn of 1929 an economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude overtook the capitalist countries. It lasted to 1933, longer, that is to say, than any of the preceding crises. Though universal in the capitalist world, its impact was strongest in the United States, the leading capitalist country.

p An industrial overproduction crisis was accompanied by a grave agricultural crisis and a financial collapse. Numerous banks, enterprises and firms of all kinds became bankrupt. Millions of small-business enterprises failed. 30,000,000 persons found themselves out of work. Industrial production in the capitalist world diminished by 35-40 per cent, and even more in particular countries where the production level dropped to that at the break of the century. Millions of bags of coffee were 135 dumped into the sea, and hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat were burned in the furnaces of factories and locomotives in an effort to raise prices and stop further loss of profits by the monopolies. And in the meantime over 100,000,000 workers, with their families, deprived of their livelihood, faced poverty and starvation.

p After the crisis of 1929-33 a long period of depression set in, to be broken, in 1937, by a new economic crisis. Some of the capitalist countries were spared this time, nor was the crisis as grave as that which broke out in 1929. Germany, Japan and Italy remained unaffected, charged to capacity as they were with government war orders. Preparations for war, it must be said, strongly influenced economic development in the capitalist world. As to the latest crisis, this was cushioned, in 1939, by the outbreak of the Second World War.

During the crisis of 1929-33 the contradictions between the victors and the vanquished of the First World War became particularly accentuated, as did those between the imperialist states and their colonies, and also those between workers and capitalists.

Attempts to End Crisis
at the Expense of the USSR

p The crisis also aggravated the basic contradiction of our time, that between capitalism and socialism. All the while the edifice of world capitalism was being rocked by that economic crisis, unprecedented in point of magnitude and scale, the Soviet Union steadily pursued the task of building a new way of life. The socialist system gave proof after proof of its superiority over capitalism in ordering the social and economic activities of its peoples as well as its foreign relations; and all this served to give a powerful impetus to developing offensive of the oppressed masses against capitalism.

p Confronted with this situation, the leading reactionary and aggressive elements of the world bourgeoisie strove to find a way out of the economic crisis through a war on the Soviet Union. Joint armed intervention was actually under discussion among the ruling circles of a number of imperialist states in 1929-32. There came, one after another, various noisy campaigns of protest against "Soviet dumping”, "forced labour”, etc., and anti-Soviet provocations and terrorist assaults, as in Finland, France and elsewhere. In their efforts to create an anti-Soviet bloc the European capitalist countries designated a special role to the Francesponsored scheme of “Pan-Europe”. In May 1930, A. Briand, the French foreign minister, invited twenty-seven states (excluding 136 the Soviet Union) to join in forming a so-called European Federal Union. The authors of the scheme expected that such a union would strengthen the influence of France in European affairs and at the same time confront the Soviet Union with a “united” capitalist Europe.

p Profound contradictions within the imperialist camp, however, prevented the scheme hatched by the French statesmen from being executed. Britain, Germany and Italy, for instance, were obviously disinclined to support a scheme that would strengthen the position of France. And after protracted and fruitless debates the “Pan-European” plan was finally relegated to the archives of the League of Nations.

p As the international situation became more and more aggravated and the imperialist forces showed themselves increasingly bellicose, there was one problem, the solution of which would have been important: this was the problem of disarmament. The solution of this problem would have saved mankind from the approaching disaster. The Preparatory Commission of the Disarmament Conference had been set up by the League of Nations in 1925, but neither the Commission nor the Conference itself, which worked in Geneva until 1934, did anything to solve this most crucial international issue.

While verbally proclaiming themselves ready to disarm and swamping the Conference with all sorts of projects allegedly designed to solve the problem under consideration, the imperialist states had begun to arm feverishly in preparation for war. Therein lay the reason for the vehemence with which they countered the proposals of the Soviet Union, the only concrete and workable proposals submitted to the Conference. As a result of this attitude of the imperialist powers the Disarmament Conference ended in a blind alley.

Japan Attacks China

p While disarmament was being heatedly argued at Geneva, an unexpected though carefully prepared attack was launched against the Northeastern provinces of China (Manchuria) by Japan, a member of the League of Nations. Thus, in September 1931, the first hotbed of war emerged in the Far East.

p The reason why Japan was first to seek forcible repudiation of the system established by the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Conference is not difficult to understand. Hard stricken by the economic crisis and menaced by brewing domestic upheavals, Japan saw a possible way out in war. The Japanese ruling clique had been drumming into the ears of the masses the 137 idea that only a major war and the conquest of wide areas in China would assure Japan opportunities for further development.

p Despite the fact that Japan’s invasion of China was a flagrant act of aggression and a clear violation of the Covenant of the League of Nations, that body dodged the application of sanctions against Japan. Debate on the Sino-Japanese conflict in the Council and other League of Nations bodies developed into endless prattle which clearly showed that neither Britain nor France intended to intervene in order to halt Japanese expansion even though they had condemned it as overt aggression.

p Such a stand on the part of the ruling circles of the Western powers resulted from their hopes that the Japanese, once they were in occupation of Manchuria, would move on northward and make war on the USSR. Those in power in Britain, France and the United States expected that Japan, exhausted as she would be by her far-flung campaigns in Manchuria and seriously weakened by an armed conflict with the Soviet Union, would be forced to accept such conditions as would be dictated by her more powerful imperialist rivals.

Contrary to these expectations the Japanese military, now well into China and overrunning one Chinese province after another, were in no hurry to comply with the wishes of Washington, London and Paris. Completely ignoring American and British interests in China, the Japanese military seized American and British-owned property, while nationals of both countries were frequently arrested and beaten. In March 1933, Japan walked out of the League of Nations, thereby demonstrating her utter contempt for the “peace-makers” of Geneva.

Reactionaries Gain in Japan.
Sino-Japanese War Begins

p Taking advantage of the conniving attitude of the Western powers and the anti-democratic policies practised by the Kuomintang leadership which offered virtually no resistance to the Japanese invaders, imperialist Japan continued her conquest of China. The Japanese considered that the Soviet Union alone could actually interfere with their plans in regard to China. Therefore schemes for a war against the Soviet Union were accordingly in preparation, and the Kwantung army, which was a formidable military force, was stationed along the Soviet frontier.

p In Japan proper, fascist-type military groups were becoming increasingly active. Their object was to establish a dictatorship, 138 dismiss the parliament, and crush once and for all the labour organisations, which were regarded as the chief hotbed of "dangerous ideas" (an expression coined by General Araki, a fiery militarist and one-time minister of education). In February 1936, a group of young officers belonging to the Kodoha organisation staged a coup d’etat in which the head of the government and a number of high officials were killed. Nevertheless, the coup d’etat ended in failure: its success would have meant the victory of the landowners group, something that could not be tolerated by the leading industrial monopolists group, both groups constituting the country’s ruling class. Still, the February coup d’etat helped strengthen the reactionary elements, especially the military clique. As cabinet succeeded cabinet in the months that followed, the influence of the military clique grew; and the army was in a position to topple any cabinet by recalling the minister of war, inasmuch as a new law required that the post be held only by a general on active duty.

The military clique continued urging the country’s ruling circles to new ventures in the sphere of foreign policy, tending to regard these as a means of dealing away with the growing social contradictions. Industrial conflicts were increasingly frequent in 1937; and more active forms were being employed by the workers in their struggle. Dissatisfaction was rife in the rural areas as well. In the parliamentary elections held in April the Socialist Party, acting as a legal organisation, secured 37 seats (as against 19 in the previous parliament). Moreover, symptoms of a gathering economic crisis appeared once again. In the face of all these developments the Japanese imperialists found it expedient to widen decisively the scope of their efforts to subjugate China. On July 7, 1937, a Japanese military force provoked an incident at Luk’ouch’iao bridge near Peking, and the Japanese army proceeded to occupy the country’s central provinces. This was the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war, which was to last more than eight years.

Fascists Seize Power in Germany

p The impunity with which Japan pursued her aggression in Asia lent wings to the German militarists in Europe. The world economic crisis of 1929-33 had hit Germany particularly hard. Practically all branches of the country’s economy had suffered. In their anxiety to shift the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the workers and peasants the German ruling circles passed extraordinary decrees enforcing such measures as wage cuts, new taxes, cuts in unemployment and disability allowances, etc. 139 Political rights and freedoms were increasingly restricted; the German Reichstag (supreme legislature) was being shorn of its functions, which were being illegally appropriated by President Hindenburg, of monarchist leanings.

p The reactionary policies pursued by the German bourgeoisie met with the growing resistance of the workers and peasants. The Communist Party of Germany led by E. Thaelmann and W. Pieck was their vanguard. Although a considerable part of the workers still followed the Right-wing Social-Democrats who urged support of the bourgeois government, the Communists wielded greater and greater influence among the workers. Back in 1928, 3,200,000 had voted the communist ticket in the Reichstag elections, whereas in the elections of November 1932, the Communists received approximately 6,000,000 votes. Meantime, however, the fascist party under Hitler, working a good deal faster than the Communists, strengthened and expanded their own hold upon the masses. The country’s capitalist monopolies Were building up the fascist party as a force which was intended to replace the bourgeois and Social-Democratic parties at the helm of the state, for the policies of these parties were becoming increasingly unpopular among the masses. Making wide use of mob-oratory tactics, the fascists made magnanimous promises 140 right and left, unleashing, meanwhile, a campaign of terror against their political opponents.

In the prevailing situation the German ruling classes realised that, if their main aim was to be achieved, a strong government had to be established, all bourgeois-democratic freedoms abolished, and the Communist Party crushed. That main aim was to put the country on a war footing, start a war for a repartitioning of the world and take a revenge for the defeat of 1918. In 1932 a final decision was made to establish a fascist dictatorship, which meant a take-over by the most reactionary and aggressive elements among the German capitalists. The task was made all the easier by the policy followed by the Social-Democratic Party and trade union leaders, which consisted in splitting the working class and keeping the workers from trying to stop the fascists. The national-socialist (nazi) take-over was accomplished on January 30, 1933. A bloodthirsty nazi dictatorship was set up, which was to last over twelve years.

Nazi Foreign and Domestic Policies

p The nazi political programme, both foreign and domestic, was one of extreme reaction, bestial chauvinism, aggression and war. At home, the nazis did away with all democratic freedoms, broke up the Communist Party and all other political parties except their own, and went about the physical extermination of all progressive elements. Whoever or whatever interfered with the propaganda of fascist ideas was banished or destroyed. Such outstanding members of the German intelligentsia and exponents of German culture as A. Einstein, L. Feuchtwanger, T. Mann and A. Zweig, and many others were compelled to leave Germany. Bonfires burned throughout the country and the twentiethcentury inquisitors committed the best of German literature and that of other nations to their flames.

p The nazis declared the Germans to be the "master race" and exhorted them to plunder and destroy other nations. They proclaimed German domination of the world to be their aim. They wanted to enlist the support of the reactionaries in Britain, the United States and other Western countries in their preparations for a war of revenge, and to that end they proclaimed that they were Europe’s bulwark against the "communist menace" and that their military programme was directed solely against the Soviet Union.

Tools of the monopolies that they were, the German fascists posed as the "friends of the working people”, promised them 141 untold wealth in the event of foreign conquests, and "bestowed largess" on some categories of workers and peasants. Unfortunately, fascist propaganda found quite a few willing listeners among the petty bourgeoisie, peasants, youth, as well as among the less politically conscious workers.

Ruling Circles of Western Powers
Aid Nazi Regime

p The American and British imperialists did much to help establish and strengthen the fascist dictatorship in Germany. We have already seen that as soon as the Treaty of Versailles was signed the ruling circles of Britain, the United States and certain other Western powers undertook to rebuild Germany’s industrial and military potential. Between 1924 and 1930, for instance, credits and loans to Germany totalled the round sum of 21,000 million German marks.

p In parallel with the economic aid made available to the German militarists certain concessions were made in the political sphere. In June 1933, that is within a few months after Hitler’s accession to power, four countries, namely, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, signed a pact of accord and co-operation. Although this four-power pact was never ratified and thus never acquired legal force, the very fact of its conclusion encouraged the German nazis and Italian fascists in their policy of provoking dangerous international conflicts. In October 1933, Germany walked out of the League of Nations and began to go about her preparations for a war of revenge. Thus a second hotbed of war came into existence, this time in the heart of Europe. The nazi rulers of Germany, anxious that their true aims should remain a secret, continued to assert that they were out to combat communism; but people everywhere were beginning to realise that what the nazis really aimed at was German domination of Europe and, indeed, of the world.

Implementation of the nazi programme of conquest called for a war not only against the Soviet Union but also against France, Britain, the United States and other Western countries. Aware of the trend of events and solicitous of the interests of their country, L. Barthou, the French foreign minister, and a number of prominent French statesmen proposed creating a united front of peaceloving states to meet the threat of nazi aggression. Barthou quite rightly argued that this threat could not be effectively met without the participation of the Soviet Union. In September 1934, therefore, thirty member-states of the League of Nations invited the Soviet Union to join the League. Hoping thereby to buttress the 142 peace the Soviet Union accepted the invitation and on September 18 was officially admitted as a member of the League of Nations. Seconding the Soviet Government, Barthou worked for the conclusion of an East European pact of mutual assistance, considering that such a pact would be a step towards the creation of a system of collective security. The pact was to include all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and also France; but owing to the equivocal attitude of Britain and as a result of German pressure it was never concluded.

Anti-Fascist Popular Front
in France and Elsewhere

The nazi victory in Germany, in 1933, and the unprecedented reign of terror that followed stirred the hitherto slumbering forces of reaction, darkness, chauvinism and war nearly everywhere in the capitalist countries, in some of which these forces were already fighting to seize the power.

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p The terrible threat of fascism to the peoples of the world lay in the fact that it meant the destruction of all democratic freedoms, all the political and social gains that the working class had won in long years of struggle, and that it meant nothing but slavery, spiritual degradation and cruel suffering under the yoke of tyranny. Fascism stood for terror and unbridled reaction at home and wars of conquest and plunder abroad, all for the sake of enriching a handful of imperialists. A deadly danger hung over our civilisation and, indeed, all of mankind.

p True democrats, all those who valued the freedom and independence of their country, saw very clearly the necessity of joining forces and standing shoulder to shoulder in order to stop the advance of fascism. And the working class, especially the Communist Parties, which constituted its vanguard, became the main force of the anti-fascist movement.

p The main battle-field where the forces of anti-fascism came to grips with the fascists was France. The successes registered by the nazi thugs stirred the French fascists to action, and on February 6, 1934, armed fascist bands poured into the streets of Paris. While the Daladier (Radical) cabinet vacillated, the French proletariat— Communists and Socialists—took up the challenge and forced the fascists to beat a retreat. February 9 and 12 were marked by powerful anti-fascist strikes and demonstrations all over France. In those days, at first spontaneously and then with full awareness of what they faced, the workers strove to achieve a unity of action in their struggle against fascism. The French Communists did much then to consolidate the gains of the day.

p The fascist victory in Germany had been facilitated in a great measure by the split in the ranks of the working class, which served, moreover, to weaken the links between the proletariat and other democratic forces. In France, the necessary inferences had been drawn from the German events. The French Communist Party, headed by Maurice Thorez, succeeded in overcoming the split within the working class; and on June 27, 1934, a pact was signed, providing for a unity of action by the Communist and Socialist parties. That was the beginning of a united anti-fascist front.

p The united front of the working class now became the nucleus, the corner-stone, of the Popular Front against fascism and war. On the initiative of the French Communist Party the political parties of France—Radical, Socialist and Communist; the trade unions; the various democratic and anti-fascist organisations; the masses of workers, intelligentsia and petty bourgeoisie that followed their leadership—all these united in the anti-fascist Popular Front in the name of freedom, democratic rights, and peace.

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p In July 1934, an agreement on the unity of action was concluded between the Communist and Socialist parties of Italy.

p On July 14, 1935, a great demonstration was organised by the Popular Front in Paris. Communists, Socialists and Radical Socialists, marching arm in arm in the front ranks, were followed by countless numbers of democratically-minded Parisians. The antifascist Popular Front in France proved that when united the working class, the people are in a position to block the forces of extreme reaction.

p Between July 25 and August 25, 1935, there was held the Seventh Congress of the Comintern whose decisions were of major significance for the development of the people’s struggle against fascism. Georgi Dimitrov  [145•1  submitted to the Congress the basic report, in which the Communist International outlined the broad and largely revised tasks to be accomplished in the struggle against the threat of fascism and war. With the lessons of the fascist victory in Germany and the results of the anti-fascist struggle in France in mind, the Seventh Congress set before all Communist Parties the task of creating everywhere a united proletarian front which would be the keystone of a broad antifascist Popular Front uniting millions of workers and members of the middle classes.

p Succeeding events soon confirmed the wisdom of the Congress’s programme. In France, the Popular Front won a resounding victory in the parliamentary elections held in the spring of 1936, when the parties aligned with the Front won 54 per cent of the seats. Also, early in 1936, the Communist Party of Spain achieved the conclusion of the Popular Front Pact, uniting the Left-wing democratic parties and the workers’ organisations. In the February 1936 parliamentary elections in Spain a decisive victory was won by the Popular Front, causing rabid hate among the reactionaries in Spain and elsewhere.

p In China, the efforts of the Communist Party during 1936-37 brought about the creation of a united anti-Japanese national front. A Popular Front movement was started in 1936 in Chile, and soon achieved substantial success. Movements in favour of uniting all progressive elements gathered momentum in other Latin American countries as well, though in some they were unable to overcome the forces of reaction.

p Anti-fascist feeling ran high, too, in other countries, as in Great Britain, for instance, where no organised Popular Front movement similar to that in France or Spain existed. A peace ballot 146 147 was carried out towards the end of 1934, and its results showed that British public opinion had markedly veered: of the over 11,500,000 who were polled by far the greater majority voted for peace, for a policy of collective security, and for unity of action against the aggressors.

Fascist aggression in Europe could have been seriously hampered if the mutual assistance agreements between the USSR and France and between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, signed in May 1935, had been implemented. That they were not was due to the fact that they had been sabotaged by the French and Czechoslovak policy-makers to the great detriment of the cause of peace.

The New Deal in the USA

p In the United States, in 1933, after many years’ interval, the Democratic Party was back in power once again. This development was due to the complete failure of the Republicans, who had loudly boasted about American prosperity before the years of depression turned that prosperity into untold poverty for the masses, brought unemployment to 16,000,000, and ruined hundreds of thousands of farm households. Franklin Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate, was elected president because he saw and argued the necessity of changing the government’s policy. American capitalism found itself in a tight corner, and the bourgeoisie had every reason to fear that misery would drive the masses to action that would imperil its dominant position. A farsighted statesman, Roosevelt saw such a possibility before anyone else. Upon his inauguration he worked out and subsequently began to put through a series of measures which came to be known as the New Deal. They provided for certain concessions to the workers, for the creation of a wide range of public works designed to absorb part of the unemployed, for cushioning the crisis in agriculture, and so on.

p Roosevelt’s policies encountered strong opposition on the part of certain important quarters identified with American monopoly capital. Thus, the United States Supreme Court, which became the nucleus of this opposition, rescinded a number of laws passed by Congress.

p Promises alone, however, were not enough for the working class; and in the late 1930s a wave of strikes swept the country. The American trade union movement was rapidly veering to the Left. Representative of this trend was the creation (and subsequent sustained growth) of a federation of trade unions known initially as the Committee for Industrial Organisations and later 148 as the Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO), which united the particularly exploited elements of the working class. Mass action on a growing scale forced the ruling circles to meet the demands of the workers, that is, to raise wages, introduce social insurance, etc. Roosevelt’s popularity grew accordingly: he was re-elected in 1936; and he won the elections of 1940 and 1944, which was something unprecedented in United States history. He enjoyed the support of the country’s progressive elements, even though they criticised some of his measures as being only halfmeasures reflecting his desire to avoid irking the reactionary monopolists.

Roosevelt’s foreign policies came in for particularly bitter criticism on the part of the progressive elements. However, he did, indeed, show himself capable of a- realistic approach in this sphere as well, as, for example, by re-establishing, in 1933, diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, the suspension of which had become obviously detrimental to the United States while the country was in the grip of a vicious economic crisis. In regard to the fascist aggression, however, which was the crucial international issue in the 1930s, the United States Government steered a course basically similar to that of Britain and France, who looked upon the fascist encroachments with indulgence. This attitude of the United States ruling circles was a direct challenge to those millions of Americans who were determined that the aggressions should be stopped and who had joined the movement for creating a Popular Front in the United States. The American Communist Party, whose membership had then increased to 100,000, was in the vanguard of that movement.

War Threat Grows.
The Policy of Appeasement

p In October 1934, the French Foreign Minister Barthou was brutally killed by fascist agents. This assassination made it much easier for the reactionary forces of the Western powers to make a deal with the fascist aggressors at the expense of other nations.

Neither Britain, nor France, nor the United States which stood behind them, took any steps to counter such unilateral acts on the part of Germany as the introduction of compulsory military service, in March 1935; the military occupation, in March 1936, of the demilitarised zone on the left bank of the Rhine, which had served in some measure as a guarantee against any sudden German attack against France; and other similar acts in defiance of the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Notes of 149 protest were dispatched to Berlin, at best, and these were completely disregarded by the nazi leaders. In June 1935, the British Government concluded a naval agreement with Germany, giving an official sanction to the revival of German sea power. With Britain and France thus conniving at the infringement of international treaties and even giving the fascist aggressors encouragement, Italy saw the way open for an invasion of Ethiopia, which was duly launched in October 1935. This was a war of conquest, begun by a member-state of the League of Nations against a fellow-member, and public indignation compelled that organisation to declare Italy an aggressor. No effective collective action was taken, however, such as was proposed by the Soviet Union. And in 1936, with nothing to counter Italian planes, tanks and other weapons, Ethiopia was conquered.

Civil War in Spain

p The ambition of the fascist powers grew by leaps and bounds. During the summer of 1936 the Spanish reactionaries under General Franco staged an armed revolt against the lawful Popular Front government. The revolt developed into a civil war in which the German and Italian fascists lost no time in intervening on the side of the rebels, whom they supplied with tanks, 150 planes and warships, in addition to sending sizable expeditionary forces. While the joint German and Italian intervention grew in scope with every passing day, the governments of the Western powers, and the League of Nations which was to all intents and purposes under their control, did not lift a finger to aid the Spanish people in the desperate battle they were waging against their foes, domestic and external. A Non-intervention Committee was set up under Anglo-French sponsorship; but this Committee soon became virtually a screen behind which Germany and Italy continued, unimpeded, their intervention against the Spanish Republic.

The revolutionary war of the Spanish people is one of the most glorious episodes in its history and in the annals of proletarian internationalism. Progressive elements all over the world rose to the aid of the Spanish republicans. Volunteers from dozens of countries were organised in several international brigades, which joined the republican troops battling against the superior combined forces of the rebels and interventionists. They did much to repulse the first enemy attack in the autumn of 1936, and distinguished themselves in numerous later battles. Substantial aid, in the shape of arms and men, was given to the Spanish people by the Soviet Union. Thanks to this aid from the world’s progressive forces, but above all thanks to the heroism of millions of 151 Spaniards, Republican Spain was able to accept the challenge and carry on the fight against great odds for over two and a half years. The inspirer and the driving force in this struggle against fascism was the Spanish Communist Party and its leaders, Jos6 Diaz and Dolores Ibarruri. Under the Republican government far-reaching social changes had been worked in Spain, where the working people now played an important role in governing the country. To cancel these gains became the aim of General Franco’s followers and the fascist interventionists, who were winning more and more favour in the eyes of the ruling circles of Britain, France and the United States. Their joint effort finally crushed the Spanish Republic. In April 1939, aided from within the city by the traitors, the fascist forces entered Madrid.

Fascist Powers’ Coalition.
Western Powers Seek Understanding
with Fascist Bloc

p Having carried off their acts of aggression with impunity, Germany, Italy and Japan now proceeded to join forces. Over the years 1936 and 1937 a coalition of fascist powers took shape, 152 initially as a Berlin-Rome Axis and later as a Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Triangle. The leading role in this aggressors’ bloc belonged to nazi Germany. Subsequent developments followed a pattern: the fascist powers, intent on speeding up their preparations for a major war, struck blow after blow at Britain, France and the United States in Europe, Asia and Africa, while the governments of these countries, blinded by their class hatred of the Soviet Union, continued to believe that Germany, having absorbed the minor states situated on the approaches to the Soviet Union, would make war only on that country and none other.

In May 1937, Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister of Great Britain. A Conservative, just elected leader of his party, Chamberlain was a determined advocate of British-German cooperation. The advent of the Chamberlain cabinet meant that the British ruling circles would now seek an early and broad agreement with the fascist powers, so as to turn the nazi aggression eastward. This policy enjoyed the support of the men then at the helm in the United States, France and other Western states. In November 1937, Lord Halifax, one of Chamberlain’s closest associates, went to Germany to negotiate with Hitler. In the course of their meeting Halifax told Hitler that Britain would place no obstacles in the way of fascist expansion in Eastern Europe and implied in no uncertain terms that German “acquisition” of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Danzig would meet with no objection on Britain’s part.

Hitler Occupies Austria and Dismembers Czechoslovakia.
The Munich Deal

p Thus encouraged by the ruling circles of the Western states to further acts of aggression, the nazis occupied Austria in March 1938, and started preparations for the occupation of Czechoslovakia. To provoke a conflict, they claimed to be acting on behalf of the German minority in Czechoslovakia, whereas their true intention was to annex the highly important industrial and strategic Sudeten region, and to dismember and subjugate the country. From the very beginning of the conflict Britain and France may be said to have given their unreserved support to the nazi ambitions.

Exercising unrelenting pressure on Czechoslovakia and taking full advantage of the defeatist mood of its leaders, Chamberlain and Daladier extorted concession after concession from that country. That was not enough for the nazi rulers, however. On September 29 and 30, 1938, Chamberlain and Daladier held a conference with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich, which sealed 153 Czechoslovakia’s fate. As a result of the Munich deal Czechoslovakia was partitioned, certain important areas being given to Germany, which meant that the country was shorn of its defences and foredoomed to complete occupation by the nazis, which is what happened six months later. But the Munich deal did more than surrender Czechoslovakia to Hitler. On September 30 an Anglo-German non-aggression declaration was signed at the conference. And in December of the same year a similar declaration was signed by France and Germany.

Post-Munich Policies of Imperialist Powers

p The agreements signed at Munich were the high-water mark of the foreign policies of the Western powers over the entire period between the two world wars. What the Western powers hoped to bring about was a German attack against the Soviet Union. The ruling circles of Britain, the United States and France were not reticent about their hopes that nazi Germany, having launched its war against the Soviet Union, would find itself bogged in its vast expanses, would exhaust its military and economic resources and thus cease to be a menace for the Western powers.

p While it was a most important milestone on the road of 154 appeasement of nazi Germany and her Axis allies, the Munich deal did not signify the end of that disaster-laden policy. That policy was continued after September 30, 1938, and it was high-lighted by the following events: a deal with the German and Italian aggressors resulting in the crushing of Republican Spain (March 1939); connivance at the nazi occupation of all of Czechoslovakia (March 1939), and the Italian occupation of Albania (April 1939); and, finally, secret negotiations between the British and German governments, in the summer of 1939, regarding a broad political and economic settlement and a partitioning of spheres of influence.

p The impetuous development and continuous success of fascist aggression during 1938 and 1939 led to a sharp change in the balance of power in favour of the fascist bloc, both in Europe and in the world at large. This caused growing concern among the peoples of the Western states. In Britain, France and the United States influential newspapers and many prominent soldiers and statesmen voiced sharp criticism in regard to the policy of appeasement and deals with the fascist aggressors. The British and French governments were compelled to reckon with their mood. They also could not avoid seeing that their positions all over the world were kept under continuous attack by the fascist powers, which were winning new markets, greedily eyeing many Western colonies, etc. The fascist bloc was pouring its secret agents into scores of countries to prepare the ground for subsequent invasion and occupation (such agents came to be referred to as the "fifth column" during the fascist intervention in Spain). The threat to the imperialist interests of Britain and France, to their very existence, indeed, and the acuteness of contradictions between them and the countries of the fascist camp were no secret to the ruling circles of the grouping that opposed the latter in the international arena. Britain and France were therefore constrained to resort to certain measures designed to warn Germany and her allies against presenting any fresh territorial demands in respect of areas where they—Britain and France—would not see fit to grant them.

p In the nature of such warnings were the pledges of assistance in the event of nazi attack, which London and Paris gave to Poland, Greece, Rumania and Turkey in the spring of 1939. Another manoeuvre was the Anglo-French offer to open negotiations with the Soviet Union on the subject of repelling any aggression. These negotiations, however, which were pursued from March to August 1939, revealed that the Western powers had no intention of concluding an equitable and effective agreement with the Soviet Union, which alone could stop the fascist bandits. In fact, while they made a pretence of negotiating in Moscow, the British and French statesmen still secretly tried to come to terms 155 with Germany in exchange for giving her a free hand in the East.

The true aim of German imperialism, however, which consisted jn achieving a radical repartitioning of the world at the expense of Britain, France and the United States, among others, precluded any union between the Western powers and the fascist states. The contradictions between the Western powers and the fascist bloc could not be overcome at the expense of other nations. These contradictions were inexorably driving the two rival imperialist groupings into an armed conflict, a new world war.