Vandalised Soviet Emblem – Tbilisi
Post-Socialist Countries – Eastern Europe and Asia
Albania – Bulgaria – China – Georgia – Hunagray – Kazakhstan – Kyrgyzstan – Romania – USSR – Uzbekistan – Vietnam
The Soviet Union (and the majority of the Eastern European ‘Socialist’ Republics) veered off the revolutionary Socialist road following the so-called ‘Secret Speech’ by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. The debate in the International Communist Movement – between those who followed the ‘Revisionist Road’ and those following the ‘Revolutionary Road’ – would continue into the early 1960s but by 1966 the split was definitive with the majority of the countries in Eastern Europe following (slavishly) the Soviet line and the Party of Labour of Albania and the Communist Party of China in opposition.
A unified Vietnam came late to the party with its victory over American Imperialism on 30th April 1975 and started to build Socialism in the whole of the unified country – having to overcome huge difficulties following decades of destructive war. Their efforts weren’t helped by the treacherous invasion by the Chinese forces in 1978. After the many years of political struggle, which included the Great Proletarian Socialist Revolution, the Communist Party of China too veered from the revolutionary path following the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. A coup, hatched by the ‘capitalist-roaders and renegades’ within the Party, was able to wrest control from the revolutionaries before Chairman Mao’s body was even cold in his crystal coffin.
Due to both internal and external pressures it wasn’t long before the Socialist Republic of Vietnam itself sought a non-revolutionary path with the introduction of the policy of Đổi Mới, meaning renovation/innovation, in 1986. This anti-Communist policy followed hot on the heels of the equally insidious policies of Glasnost and Perestroika which were introduced into the Soviet Union the year before. An already tottering house, following decades of insipid leadership and aimlessness, fell within five years and the Soviet Union, the first workers’ state, disintegrated in 1991.
In varying degrees all these post-Socialist countries have attempted to eradicate their past. With their miserable capitalist present (and future?) to erase any vestiges of Socialism helps in the propaganda war against the possibility of a different type of society. Here are presented examples of where that ‘re-writing of history’ has (so far) failed.
Albania
‘Everything you want – or need – to know about Albania ….
…. or almost. If not already it is hoped in the not too distant future to be able to answer many questions people might have about the small Balkan country that has been the centre of conflict for centuries.
What follows are links to pages or posts that try to fill in the gaps of peoples’ knowledge of a country that was vilified for trying to maintain a real independence in the face of severe difficulties caught up, as it was, in the ideological struggle within the International Communist Movement which saw breaks first with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1961 and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1978.’
A vast amount of material has been posted concerning all aspects of Albania and that can be accessed by going to the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania page on this blog.
Bulgaria
Museum of Socialist Art – Sofia
China
‘When Chairman Mao Tse-tung made the Declaration of the People’s Republic of China in Tienanmen Square on the 1st October 1949 he ushered in one of the most important periods in the history of the international working class and peasantry, second only in importance to the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917.’
To access a vast amount of material and information about the People’s Republic of China, the writings of Chairman Mao Tse Tung, the construction of Socialism, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and other aspects of the country before the revolution was haled by the ‘capitalist-roaders and renegades’ go to the People’s Republic of China page on this blog
Georgia
Although geographically a beautiful country the prime importance for this blog is the fact that the Republic of Georgia was the birth place of Comrade Joseph Stalin, the place he developed his revolutionary practice which established the road upon which he walked of the rest of his life.
The fact he was born in a country that was being oppressed by the Russian (Tsarist) Empire was also instrumental in his ability to analyse and develop the ideas of how such dominated nationalities should be incorporated into the revolution of the proletariat and peasantry. This resulted in an early publication of his, Marxism and the National Question (1913), which was used as the basis for the Bolshevik approach to nationalities after the success of the October Revolution in 1917.
Being the homeland of Comrade Stalin it’s perhaps not a surprise that in the town in which he was born (Gori) there’s a museum to his life and work. However, although constantly criticised for promoting the so-called ‘cult of the individual’ this museum didn’t exist in his lifetime and was only established in response to the denunciation of Stalin, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, by the arch-traitor and revisionist Nikita Khrushchev.
Conflicts with the now capitalist Russian Federation have meant that a number of Soviet memorials (especially the memorial complex to the fallen in the Great Patriotic War in Vake Park in Tbilisi) have been allowed to fall into a shameful state of disrepair although they are around if you look for them.
Tbilisi
Bolshevik Illegal Printing Press
Murals by Bodorna Hydroelectric Plant
Vake Park, Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and the Mother of the Place
Kazbegi
Soviet-Georgian Friendship Monument
Gori
Rediscovered statues of Joseph Stalin
The Great Patriotic War Museum and War Memorial
Tskaltubo
Tskaltubo’s abandoned Spas, Springs and Sanatoria
Joseph Stalin’s private bath house
Kutaisi
Hungary
Kerepesi/Fiumei Uti Sirkert – Pantheon of the Working Class Movement
Szent László tér, Városligeti fasor, Gizella út and Szobránc u. murals
Monument to the Soviet Red Army, Liberty Square
Hungarian Railway History Park
Kazakhstan
Memorial of Glory – Panfilov Park – Almaty
Kazakhskiy University – Almaty – Socialist bas reliefs
VI Lenin and friends in Family Park – Almaty
Kyrgyzstan
Romania
The Monument of the Heroes of the Fight for the Freedom
Casa Scînteii – House of The Spark/Casa Presei Libere
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
‘The world would never be the same after the events of 7th November (25th October in the Julian calendar that had been discarded by the rest of Europe centuries before) 1917. On that day the workers and peasants of Russia, under the leadership of the Revolutionary Bolshevik Party, itself led by Lenin and Stalin, challenged the old Tsarist order and lit a beacon which – even though dimmed at times – still shines for those who hope to see the end of exploitation and oppression.’
For documents and material on the efforts of the first Workers’ State to build Socialism. including the writings of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Dzhugashvili Stalin (and many other Soviet leaders) go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR page on this blog
Uzbekistan
Monument to Courage – Tashkent
Vietnam
‘The history of Vietnam in the 20th century encompassed a great deal that was positive in the International Communist Movement – and then, unfortunately, something that was negative and destructive to that very same movement.
The Vietnamese people, under the leadership of a Marxist-Leninist Party defeated first Japanese, second French and then ultimately US imperialism – on the battlefield. At a time when many liberation movements were struggling against their colonial and imperialist ‘masters’ the Vietnamese struggle (and successes) were an inspiration.’
Vietnam only had a short time after their victory of the American Imperialists in 1975 to concentrate on the construction of Socialism before they too succumbed to the disease of ‘Revisionism’. However, their achievements and lessons for all those who are fighting against colonial oppression can be found on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam page on this blog.