Laiškas Lietuvos socialistams iš Vokietijos/Letter to Lithuanian Socialists from Germany /
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Dear comrades,
I am sending you the response of the MLPD to the deeply anti-communist letter of the deputy president of the Lithuanian parliament on the occasion of the erection of the statue of Lenin in Gelsenkirchen in June 2020.
I ask you to support the call for the International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist United Front. This is very important in the situation where more and more governments are moving to the right. More on this at www.icor.info.
Klaus Dumberger
Responsible for Eastern Europe of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany – MLPD
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SEIMO VALDYBOS POSĖDŽIO MEDŽIAGA
LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS SEIMO NARYS MEMBER OF THE SEIMAS OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA Gedimino pr. 53, LT-01109 Vilnius, LITHUANIA Tel. +370 5 239 E-mail: @lrs.lt
25 June, 2020 Vilnius
Zentralkomitee del MLPD Schmalhorststraße 1c 45899 Gelsenkirchen E-Mail: info@mlpd.de
To Whom May Concern:
I would like to address you regarding your recent decision to unveil the statue of Lenin in city Gelsenkirchen. This decision deeply shocked Lithuanian society and the whole international community. Lenin, the head of the soviet government from 1917 to 1924, who ushered in a communist regime, is a symbol of violence, human cruelty and terror. Soviet regime caused the deaths and misery of millions of people. The totalitarian communist regimes which ruled in Central and Eastern Europe in the last century, have been characterised by massive violations of human rights. The violations have included individual and collective assassinations and executions, death in concentration camps, starvation, deportations, torture, slave labour and other forms of mass physical terror. Over a quarter of a million people were sent to gulags and exiled from Lithuania after the Soviet Union occupied our country during WWII, and over 20,000 people members of the armed resistance and their supported were also killed. The tragic consequences of these actions affected almost every family and are felt to this day.
Countries across the globe have condemned the crimes against humanity and massive human rights violations committed by the totalitarian Soviet regime in the numerous documents of international organizations and institutions. It is clear that public awareness of crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes is very poor and your decision regarding the unveiling the statue of Lenin is an example. nced that that the awareness of history is one of the preconditions for avoiding similar crimes in the future. Those victims of crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes who are still alive or their families deserve sympathy, understanding and recognition for their sufferings.
For your attention and information, I enclose a book about the crimes of communist regime in Lithuania. It is my firm belief that your decision regarding the statue of Lenin has to be reconsidered.
Radvilė Morkūnaitė – Mikulėnienė Member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
Seimas oftené republic of Lithuania
To Radvilé Morkûnaité-Mikuléniené
Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania
Gedimino pr. 53, LT-01109 Vilnius, Lithuania; e-mail: radvile.morkunaite@lrs.lt
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Dear deputy Radvilé Morkûnaité-Mikuléniené,
the following letter is translated with the program deepl. If you have any questions about the translation, please do not hesitate to contact me.
With kind regards,
Klaus Dumberger
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Dear deputy Radvilé Morkûnaité-Mikuléniené,
on behalf of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) and its Central Committee I strongly reject the anticommunist accusations in your letter of 25 June 2020 against the MLPD and Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – called Lenin.
1) your accusations are allegations not supported by any facts, but dictated by undemocratic anticommunism. They claim – without any evidence – „Lenin … is a symbol of violence, human cruelty and terror.„
Shortly after the October Revolution, starting in March 1918, 14 capitalist and imperialist countries launched a military attack against the liberated country under aggressive anti-Leninist slogans. Until then they had waged war against each other, but against socialism they were suddenly united. It was also mobilized for this purpose in Germany. The later fascist Brigade Erhard was involved in the invasion of socialist Russia. But when the Russian workers and peasants followed Lenin’s call, saying, „We must defend our country and will not give up the gains“ – what did those reactionaries, of all people, who invaded the country sound: „Lenin, a mass murderer!„
I suppose you know the real source of this lie:
It was Adolf Hitler himself! He raised this lie „Lenin is a mass murderer“ in his speeches already in 1920. With this battle cry the victims of the war of that time, an imperialist invasion, were simply attributed to Lenin and the revolutionaries. Yet they had defended themselves quite justifiably. Isn’t it shameful for SPD and CDU that they have taken up the same battle cry again today?
We condemn this reactionary historiography in the clearest terms!
2) You do not mention the great victory of the socialist Soviet Union in World War II over the fascist Hitlerite regime and instead spread the monstrous lie that the „Soviet regime caused the deaths and misery of millions of people”.
„The victory of the Soviet Union over German imperialism was a historic triumph of socialist society over fascism, over the cruelest form of the capitalist social order, which was built upon anticommunism, racism and undisguised terror. Not only did more than 20 million Soviet citizens lose their lives to this terror; on the territory of the USSR the fascists destroyed 31,850 industrial enterprises employing some four million workers, 1,135 coal mines, 61 of the biggest power plants and much more.“ (from „Dawn of the International Socialist Revolution.“, p. 101, source Enzyklopädie der UdSSR, Vol. I, col. 871–872)
The tremendous success of the victory over fascism under Stalin’s leadership, what great suffering the peoples were spared as a result, not only the Russian, but also the German, Polish or Lithuanian people, all this remains unmentioned in your letter.
How easy it is today to point with a raised forefinger at those who have made the greatest sacrifices for this – and certainly could not avoid all mistakes! Where would the world be today if, under the leadership of these people, tsars and other feudal oppressors had not been overthrown in hard battles, wars ended, Hitlerite fascism defeated? We would not be able to speak our minds today if these battles had not been fought.
Above all, you do not distinguish between the socialist Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin and the betrayal of socialism under Khrushchev in 1956, with which the CPSU degenerated into a revisionist party and the Soviet Union into a social-imperialist superpower. The XXth Party Congress of the CPSU marked a fundamental change not only in societal conditions in the Soviet Union, but also in the world communist movement.
„A stratum of petty-bourgeois bureaucrats in the party, the state apparatus and the economic system led by Khrushchev usurped political power. Behind a fog bank of pseudo-socialist phrases the new bourgeoisie created a new type of state-monopoly-capitalist social order in which Marxism-Leninism was revised, an all-round process of restoration of capitalism was initiated and little by little the socialist achievements were dismantled.“ (from „Dawn…“, p. 106)
It may be convenient for people oblivious to history to blame the crimes of the bureaucratic-capitalist Soviet Union on socialism. However, this does not change the fact that the Soviet Union fundamentally changed its societal character with the XXth Party Congress and since that time can no longer be called a socialist country. Invasions of other countries like Czechoslovakia in 1968, the exploitation of the countries of the CMEA with the help of the fraud of the „socialist division of labor“ or the military and political support of dictatorships in Africa and Asia cannot be blamed on communism.
The MLPD has very intensively studied the victories and defeats, the successes and problems in socialist construction in the Soviet Union under Stalin and in China under Mao Zedong.
Undoubtedly – and this critical and self-critical position is also part of the MLPD – these leaders were also not free of mistakes or errors. It would be absurd to claim that. Undoubtedly, there were also crimes committed in the name of socialism during the time of Stalin and Mao Zedong – against their will. In order to regain socialism, we have the greatest interest in reviewing this. We have even set up a historical commission to investigate all this in detail. But precisely with the aim of fighting for socialism again and not for keeping capitalism alive even longer and disparaging all alternatives.
3) You conceal the collaboration with the fascist Hitler regime and the character of the armed resistance against the Soviet Union.
In August 1940, the three Baltic countries joined the USSR under pressure from the Soviet Union for protection against the impending fascist invasion. According to bourgeois German sources, about 43,000 people from the three Baltic countries were forcibly deported at that time, mostly to Siberia. You call the deportees innocent victims „after the Soviet Union occupied our country during WW II„. We reject this, because you protect fascist elements with it. Hitler demonstrably relied on a „5th column“, which he wanted to win for his conquest plan among ethnic Germans and German-friendly parts of the population. It was not a matter of national oppression, as you twist it, but mostly members of the bourgeoisie in favor of Hitlerite Germany. The deportees were those who were already in pact with Hitler and had made arrangements to support his war.
When the fascist Wehrmacht invaded the Baltic countries in June/July 1941, the fascists began the systematic murder of the Jewish population, according to German bourgeois sources a total of about 267,000 people in the entire Baltic region. About 10,000 Lithuanians joined the SS, most of them voluntarily. Many Lithuanians participated in the murder of the Jewish population without any coercion by the Hitler fascists, according to consistent accounts by bourgeois historians.
However, there was also a partisan movement against the fascists and resistance from the population against the recruitment of Lithuanian men by the German army. An armed Jewish resistance against the Nazi occupation was formed. However, World War II and the tremendously complicated situation for the socialist Soviet Union do not play any role for you. You remove all questions from the historical context, although this has fundamental importance for the evaluation of the history and the class struggle of your country.
After the end of the war, deportations were carried out by the Soviet government; according to bourgeois German sources, this amounted to about 96,000 people in the entire Baltic region. You generally refer to these deportations as crimes and write, „over 20,000 people members of the armed resistance and their supporters were also killed.“ We strongly reject the glorification of the armed resistance against the Soviet Union as a just national liberation struggle. The condemnation of Nazi collaborators and the suppression of armed resistance against the socialist Soviet Union was justified! Even more, the armed anti-Soviet resistance was interspersed with fascist elements or even led by them.
I ask you, what were the goals of the Lithuanian armed fighters in the struggle between fascism and socialism? In this situation in the middle of the world war, could it only be about the national self-determination of the Baltic countries? The right of self-determination of peoples, elaborated by Stalin and realized in the Soviet Union as long as it was socialist, must be placed in the context of the then known and openly presented German imperialist plans of conquest in the Baltic.
„When a life-and-death struggle is developing between proletarian Russia and the imperialist Entente, there are only two possible outcomes for the border regions: Either they go along with Russia, and then the toiling masses of the border regions will be freed from imperialist oppression; or they go along with the Entente, and then yoke of imperialism will be inevitable. There is no third course.“ (Stalin Works, Vol. 4, p. 365)
With your glorification of armed Lithuanian resistance, you take sides – whether you like it or not – with fascism, the most barbaric form of capitalist dictatorship.
In doing so, I do not want to exclude the possibility that there were unjustified convictions, deportations or even executions in which citizens of your country became victims of crimes committed in the name of the socialist Soviet Union. I specifically exclude such victims from accusations of fascism or collaboration with the Nazis. Their families, as you write, deserve compassion, understanding and recognition of their sufferings.
„Marxist-Leninists do not deny that mistakes, misdirected developments or even crimes against humanity occurred in socialist countries. They themselves are most interested in a full elucidation in order to learn from it for the future. But they are able to distinguish between anti-communist slanders, unscientific corruption of historical facts and the manipulation of public opinion, on the one hand, and a critical and self-critical appraisal of the experiences of the first socialist countries in their historic context from the viewpoint of the struggle for liberation from exploitation and oppression.“ (Dawn …, pp. 75/76)
4) the „society and the whole international community“ of the EU, as whose democratic advocate you appear to us, is a community of imperialist and capitalist countries. If you honestly want to denounce mistakes and crimes, then I ask you: why does the EU, in whose parliament you served for many years, maintain close cooperation with the regimes in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Libya or even with Mr. Trump in the USA?
How can you support an EU policy that costs the lives of tens of thousands of people in the Mediterranean? Are these not crimes? You are not offended by these crimes. But the communists, they are attributed every victim of contemporary history. We do not go along with this kind of historiography. This hatemongering must be opposed very clearly.
Dear deputy Morkûnaité-Mikuléniené,
The Lenin statue is a victory against the manipulation of opinion and has caused great excitement, especially in the bourgeois camp. This excitement is very healthy because it contains a new social debate about Marx and Lenin, which is bitterly needed and must replace the undemocratic anticommunism. Society needs new visions and these visions can only arise from a clear worldview and an accurate theoretical basis.
With your aggressive anticommunist argumentation you are on the same level as the proto-fascist AfD in Germany. If you have an honest interest in tackling injustice and crimes against humanity without anticommunist blinkers, then I welcome further discussion on an equal footing. However, should you insist on your deeply undemocratic, anticommunist positions, then you are building a bridge to fascism and further discussion is pointless.
Yours sincerely,
Klaus Dumberger,
Eastern Europe Officer of the Central Committee of the MLPD
