Boris Ziherl
Communism and Fatherland
I.
In the great war of liberation against the
invading and enslaving Hitlerite coalition, the
communists proved by deeds that they were the
truest sons of their fatherland and their people.
In the countries conquered by the fascists, or
whose independence was menaced by them, the
communists were not only in the first ranks of
the people's resistance against foreign invaders
and their local henchmen, but were also almost
everywhere the inspirers, organizers and leaders
of the resistance.
By their self-sacrificing struggle for their
country, for its national independence, as one
of the basic conditions for its progressive development, the communists shattered completely,
in the course of the World War II. the slanders
of the reactionary bourgeoisie which had for a
whole century been trying to portray the communists as indifferent and hostile towards the
vital interests of their country and people. But
this is not all. The slanderers of the communists,
the reactionary bourgeoisie themselves, were unmasked in the conquered countries of Europe,
as the anational and anti-national lackeys of
foreign invaders, as traitors to their fatherland,
whose interests were so opposed to the interests
of their "own" people, that they could be defended only with foreign help, only through the
intervention of foreign imperialists, only through
collaboration with foreign imperialist aggressors,
only under the auspices of the representatives
of the superior race
In the years of the great war against the
Hitlerite coalition the inseparable interconnection
of the struggle for national independence of the
country with the struggle for the overthrow of
the treacherous, anational bourgeoisie in every
country became obvious. The inseparable interconnection between the national liberation struggle and the people's liberation struggle, and the
anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist struggle (i. e. socialist revolution) became apparent. The concept
of communism became inseparably linked with
the concept of the most ardent patriotism. In occupied Europe this fact was best illustrated
by the liberation struggle in Yugoslavia from
1941-1945, which was led from the very beginning by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
After the World War II, the inseparable interdependence of true patriotism and the struggle
against the treacherous bourgeoisie is reflected
in the resistance that the masses of the people
of the capitalist countries are offering, under the
leadership of the communist parties, to the economic and political enslavement of their respective countries by the American imperialists. All
sorts of theories purporting to prove the obsoleteness of nations, the, necessity to liquidate their
independence and sovereignty and the necessity
to create a single world state are but a spiritual
preparation for such subjugation. Renegade, decadent artists are "creating" various sorts of
anational and super-national cultures, trampling
upon the cultural heritage of their people, endeavouring to efface their individuality and to
paralyse them spiritually. Right-wing socialists
of the Blum brand are among the most zealous
prophets of all sorts of reactionary cosmopolitan
theories. They are even trying to represent the
theoretical defense of American expansionism
as the height of Marxist internationalism, not
refraining from the most impudent distortions
and falsifications of the teachings of Marx and
Engels.
While the communists in the capitalist world
are fighting against the political, economic and
cultural effacement of their peoples, for their
national individuality, freedom and independence, the masses of the people under the leadership of the communists are building their
socialist fatherlands in a series of liberated
countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
A creation of the Great October Revolution,
the Soviet Union, which even today almost exclusively unites the peoples of the former Russian
Empire, was until 'World War II the only country where socialism was being, and was, built.
After World War II, peoples who had been
developing for centuries politically, economically
and culturally within the framework of states
other than those of the peoples of the Soviet
Union, undertook the task of socialist reconstruction. The political, economic and cultural
achievements of their former historic development, to which the process of the building of
socialism in those countries is unavoidably linked,
are very different both in the said countries and
in the Soviet Union. In short, in addition to the
Soviet Union, there is today a series of states
whose working populations also quite rightfully
consider them as their socialist fatherland, take
pride in the fruit of their struggle and labour
and are imbued with the noble patriotic desire to
strengthen the common anti-imperialist camp of
socialism as much as possible by building up their
country.
The success of the struggle against the aggressive plans of the American imperialists which is
being waged in the capitalist countries now, by
the masses of the people under the leadership of
the communists depends to a large extent on
whether the relations which are now being established between the socialist countries will really
be a materialisation of the principle of equality
and brotherly cooperation between peoples, whether they will be the expression of the unity
of patriotism and internationalism, under whose
banner the communists of all countries are
fighting against the nationalism and cosmopolitanism of present-day bourgeois reaction. Contrary to the relations existing between contemporary capitalist countries built on inequality,
American hegemony and mutual distrust, socialist countries must base their relations on
equality and mutual trust and the peoples of
the capitalist world should with joy and faith,
see in them their own national future.
In this, apart from other things. lies the
principled and practical-political significance of
the struggle that our Party is waging for correct relations among socialist countries.
Using as a point of departure the fact that
now after the World War II, there are several
"socialist fatherlands", several countries in which
the masses are building socialism, the concepts
regarding the relationship of communism to the
fatherland dating from the days when the Soviet
Union stood alone in front of the whole world
of capitalism should be discarded as obsolete,
useless and harmful stereotypes. Taking into
account this post-war reality we must discard
the concept according to which the world still
consists of the following two parts: the USSR
and that which is "on the other side" of the
Soviet border.
The clarification of these concepts can only
contribute to the elimination of disagreement
and to the establishment of relations among the
socialist countries which correspond to their
social-economic and political character.