President Gonzalo's intervention at the First Congress of the PCP, 1988:
World War II is a significant event in the history of the world; it strictly began in 1939 and ended in 1945.
It is a world war in which on the one hand there is imperialist plunder, the dispute for world hegemony that Germany demanded for itself under Hitler; but on the other it is the defense of socialism and development of the revolution, yes, it is very clear and correct that the war fought then by the USSR was a Great Patriotic War.
It was a just war of defense, a Great Patriotic War, that is how it was correctly defined, that is why; and development of the world revolution because in addition to that glorious heroic defense that cost the USSR 20 million men, we have an anti-imperialist struggle that is going to take place in oppressed nations, mainly in China.
And why do we say mainly in China?
It is good to remember that 60% of the Japanese army was retained in China for a long time; That is why we do not agree when we simply talk about the Western Front, the Eastern Front but taking everything as what was fought in Europe, and seeing the problem of the East which is a great front of struggle and a great revolutionary front, it is wrong, in our opinion, when it is intended to be reduced to the action of the imperialist Westerners and mainly the United States, that has not been the case.
It is the great war of resistance of oppressed nations, such as China, Korea, Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc., where precisely the imperialists fled like rats and it was the people of those nations who took up arms; Those who were lucky enough to have a Communist Party triumphed and advanced and those who were not, at least transactionally escaped being colonies, for example Indonesia, which ceased to be, as a result of that war, a colony of Holland.
In that war there was a sinister plan: the crusade against the USSR, and I emphasize the word crusade because of its medieval roots that clearly express its reactionary core and because it was thus proposed by Hitler himself, as an anti-Bolshevik crusade, because the black dream they had was to sweep the USSR off the face of the earth; futile, glass dream, crashed against the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the leadership of the Party and Comrade Stalin, of the Russian proletariat, of the Russian people.
Comrades, heroic pages!: Stalingrad, the greatest struggle of war in cities, of war in the streets, the one that generates the most mortality, there it was fought not only house by house but room by room: these are chapters that have shaken the world.
In this world war, the dirty, cunning game of the imperialist allies has also been clearly seen: the United States, England, I am not talking about France because it was occupied - and it was in 18 days -, cunning people who delayed the opening of the invasion of Europe from the north to hit the heart of Germany, seeking for fascist Germany to defeat the USSR.
We all know, and we must remember it, comrades, that fascist offensive led by the Nazis in which the Italian fascists, Franco's Spanish fascists contributed and used all the economic power of subjugated Europe, launched a million and a half men, the cream of the German army, 75% of its air force, penetrated. But C. Stalin had wisely handled diplomacy in a big way and with subtlety - these are things that (...) the German-Soviet pact was necessary (...) some say, but that did not free the USSR from the invasion, they don't know what they are talking about, one thing was to buy time and another thing was that Germany would necessarily hit the USSR, reason: it could not continue advancing in the West with a powerful enemy at its back and with a fertile and very rich land of fabulous potential; Yes, comrades, that must be recognized, reality must be understood as it is (...) and a people of over 200 million, that was inevitable. There we must highlight the sagacity and penetration of the Soviet intelligence service, that was intelligence service!, which they learned on the day of the invasion; They say it was of no use – I think they are stupid burps –
What could Russia do in the face of such an attack?
Apply a strategic defense and that is what was done - we as communists and managing people's war understand what a strategic defense is - and that is what was done, together with scorched earth, leaving them nothing, bare earth; and they had the audacity, the high decision to blow up monumental works like that famous dam that connects the Volga with the Don that cost so many years of effort, it was blown up!; The Germans never dreamed, they thought that this work would not be blown up because it was too important and had cost a lot of effort.
Comrades, the dictatorship of the proletariat was at stake, the revolution was at stake, we cannot stop in our minds nor can we simply allow ourselves to be hindered, as Chairman Mao says, by defending inches of land, not junk; That's how we communists are.
They crashed at the gates of Leningrad, at the gates of Moscow and Stalingrad; But not only was it a scorched earth, but guerrillas and even individual men were left with their good rifle and good quantity of ammunition and their vodka for the cold and to annihilate one of those, the Germans had to lose 10 men, that is the average comrades.
It has not been easy as the Germans believed; think about it, comrades. That this offensive is a high-quality military plan, thus, the highest and most enlightened German military leaders developed that plan and the German school has a proven war tradition many times over: in three months they were going to conquer the USSR, in three months.
The forecast of c. Stalin had already taken measures since the 1930s when there was the great transformation of the countryside and industry, they had already transferred factories beyond the Urals, even foreseeing the possibility of abandoning Moscow, well, it is true, everything was already ready in case they could not ultimately defend Moscow, although that was the decision taken, it was already planned to move the leadership and the center to the Urals; Thus, the first thing that was done was to take measures for the transfer of Lenin because he could not fall into the dirty hands of miserable children of hell, he could not fall.
But what was the order then, comrades?
After they penetrated to the aforementioned doors, the order was not to retreat any further!; You will say, and how were there plans to go to the Urals? Comrades, there is always a plan in case it fails, a single plan is never made, that is stupid, there are plans for various and even extreme circumstances. It is very memorable and we must always remember how on November 7, the anniversary of the revolution, they had nowhere to celebrate it and it was already considered impossible to celebrate it; Comrade Stalin said: “to the station!”, “but there is no stage there, there are no seats there”, c. Stalin stopped a box, stood in it, spoke celebrating the revolution and said: "How many were we when we conquered power, what strength did we have when we rejected the immediate imperialist aggression of the October Revolution? Few and weak! Compared to what we are today, therefore they will not defeat us, we will crush them! and we will annihilate the beast in its own lair, in Berlin", didn't he say that? Comrades, these are things that one must remember, so that the c. Stalin, that is why the Party says we must see World War II.
It is well known how after that came the great resistance, the breaking of the German lines, the siege of Stalingrad where the commanders asked Hitler for permission to retreat (...) but here, Hitler, he told them, the Aryans do not retreat, the Aryans cannot be defeated by barbarians, by Mongols by inferiors" yes, but those inferiors, barbarians, Mongols, hunted them like rats and had to surrender.
It is good to always reiterate this: Stalin, who handled the war with skill and wisdom, always took into account the moral element and made all the defeated, surrendered Nazis parade and throw their flags, their eagles, their swastikas at the foot of Lenin's mausoleum; Not only a great military defeat, but a great moral defeat! The arrogance and arrogance of the Nazis had been sunk in the mud and trampled. It was the greatest moral blow they received! That is where the breakup of the Nazi army began.
The other resistance of the 300 thousand of the heroic race that would prevent the Russians from entering Germany, the Soviet offensive of the Red Army blew it into a thousand pieces and blew up 300 thousand more men; Germany was made, of course, comrades. That's when the imperialist Westerners rush to land in Normandy, why? Because the Red Army, the communists and communism were advancing threateningly over all of Europe, that was; But we well know that at the beginning of May, the Red Army took Berlin and in the Reichstag, their corporate parliament, they nailed the red flag with the hammer and sickle, the photographs remain for eternal memory. Hitler committed suicide, as we well know, he was even cremated because he knew what would happen if he stayed, they would not forgive him; Westerners, maybe them, but the USSR was not going to forgive him.
The other great front, in the east, is centered in China where the Japanese army got mired in a sea of masses, mined, undermined by guerrilla warfare; various oppressed nations took up arms against them; the Westerners "supported" and then returned, it is good to remember Mac Arthur, the best cadet that West Point, that is, the United States military school, has ever had, one of the highest strategists that the United States has ever produced, he had his headquarters in the Philippines, what did he do? He retired pronouncing what his famous phrase says: "I will return!" When did they return, then? When the Japanese were undermined, undermined by the struggle in China and in the various oppressed nations of the East. It is therefore the oppressed peoples who have resisted the Japanese beast that is once again back to its old ways. Think about this simply so you can see what it has cost the United States, 100 thousand soldiers, that is all that World War II has cost it, most of them dead in the East, you see? And due to the fear that having concluded the war on the Western European front, and as the agreements said, the USSR had to turn its front against Japan, due to the fear that the Red Army would expand, then they had to use the atomic bomb; Yes, there you can clearly see how politics directs the war, the Japanese were going to be crushed, they could not resist, justifications that they want to give us today are just that, justifications.
All that great event of World War II shook the world and marked men and bore good fruit; Not everywhere, yes, but it even bore mediated fruits, for example, France and Italy, revisionist reasons, allowed themselves to be robbed of the triumph, the fruits of victory by having guerrillas of 500 thousand men, of 300 thousand men, forged in that heroic resistance of the European class and peoples that must also be taken into account. Thus, World War II is an event of great significance.
The prestige of the USSR rose greatly on earth, just look at the newspapers of the time, (...); I remember, comrades, when the victory, yes, I was in Callao, the port that you know (...), how the sirens of factories and ships sounded when Germany surrendered! Because there the war was already won, the other thing was to end it, it was a global uproar, as I also remember, as if I saw it today, how the pages of the newspapers were already raising the atomic bomb like a club to scare the fearful by asking ourselves: Is there a risk of disintegration, will the earth disintegrate? A foolish thing because if there had been so much risk would the scientists have dropped the atomic bomb? It makes no sense, that is not seeing the political essence that directs In war, weapons are used for political objectives; That bomb killed a whopping 60 thousand people in Hiroshima; Nagasaki there were 145 thousand and yet Hiroshima is celebrated or remembered more because it was the first time, but in Nagasaki there were 145 thousand, more. They are facts, then, of transcendence that shape the minds of people in those turbulent times.