History of World War II 1939–1945 - Ideological preparation by imperialism for new wars

History of World War II 1939–1945

 5. Ideological preparation by imperialism for new wars

The incessant arms race and the invariably aggressive foreign policy of state-monopoly capitalism created an increasingly tense situation on our planet. Analyzing it, V. I. Lenin wrote in 1920: “... new imperialist wars are already being prepared by the present policy of all bourgeois states — and not only are they consciously prepared, but also follow with objective inevitability from all their policies...” {140}

The imperialists of all countries assigned an enormous role to ideology in preparing new wars. At the same time, they not only relied on the historical experience of the exploiting classes, who always paid serious attention to the ideological preparation of war, but also carefully took into account some of the most important features of the new era, which led to a significant increase in the role of ideology in the life of human society.

Colossal masses of people, including those from the colonial countries, were drawn into the abyss of the First World War. In the course of it, at the cost of countless sacrifices, the working people came to a correct understanding of the causes of the origin of the war, the unrequited guilt of world imperialism for the torment and death of many millions of people, to the realization of their fundamental class interests, because, as V.I. civilized country makes the governments expose themselves” {141} .

The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution had world-historic significance for the growth of the political maturity of the working people of the entire world. The truth about Soviet power penetrated into the most remote corners of our planet. As early as March 1920, V. I. Lenin noted with pride [42]: “... our peaceful policy is approved by the vast majority of the world's population” {142}. The imperialists also became convinced of the great vitality of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism from their own experience in the process of armed intervention against the young Soviet republics, when, in the words of V. I. Lenin, “through agitation and propaganda, we took away its own troops from the Entente” {143}

In preparing for new wars, the imperialists took into account this sad experience for them. They, making extensive use of printed propaganda, radio, cinema, and other mass media, continued to diligently introduce the ideology of militarism in all directions, which was a prelude to the direct ideological preparation of the Second World War.

The imperialist bourgeoisie countered the inspiring influence of revolutionary ideas with its own ideology, including the propaganda of militarism.

Once upon a time, the bourgeoisie was quite proud of the fact that, in contrast to medieval ignorance and the cult of brute force, it proclaimed the victory of reason, the ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity. But those days are long gone. The reaction inherent in the epoch of imperialism in all spheres of social life was also established in ideology. “In civilized and advanced Europe,” V. I. Lenin wrote on the eve of the First World War, “with its brilliantly developed technology, with its rich, comprehensive culture and constitution, such a historical moment has come when the commanding bourgeoisie, out of fear of the growing and the growing proletariat, supports everything backward, dying, medieval. The moribund bourgeoisie unites with all obsolete and obsolete forces in order to preserve the vacillating wage-slavery” {144}.

But the bourgeoisie is not only trying in the most cunning "recent" forms to galvanize the misanthropic ideas of the oppressors of past times, long condemned by all honest people, but so necessary to it. For the most effective impact on the consciousness of the people, while continuing to boast of its "objectivity", in reality it goes to a direct falsification of historical events, quite consciously bases its propaganda on direct deception, sophisticated, and sometimes gross lies. All this convincingly confirms the validity of the position put forward by V. I. Lenin back in 1914: “...bourgeois influences on workers never and nowhere in the world consisted only of ideological influences. When the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie on the workers falls, is undermined, weakens, the bourgeoisie is everywhere and always resorted and will resort to the most desperate lies and slander.

However, despite the anti-science and falsity of the basic premises of the bourgeois ideology, it would be a serious mistake to underestimate its danger, since this ideology is implanted by representatives of the economically dominant class of capitalist states.

On the spiritual preparation of peoples for war, the capitalists threw the entire arsenal of bourgeois ideology - political and legal, philosophical, and religious, ethical and aesthetic views.

Perversely interpreting the entire course of the development of human society, not only many historians, philosophers, lawyers, publicists, military theorists, but also statesmen of the bourgeois countries preached the cult of war and the army. Under the new conditions, the situation was repeated in which, as K. Marx wrote back in his work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, "mustache and soldier's uniform" were proclaimed "the highest [43] wisdom of society and its mentors" {146} . This preaching was especially zealous in countries that were defeated in the First World War or considered themselves deprived.

In Germany, the philosopher O. Spengler, popular in those years, argued that war in general is an eternal form and the highest value of human existence, and the whole meaning of the state's existence consists allegedly in waging wars {147}. It was a military theorist. And the militarist-practitioner, General H. von Seeckt, glorified the militarism and aggression even more zealously: "I can say that militarism made Prussia and then Germany big and strong" {148}.

The cult of war literally permeated the fascist bible Mein Kampf. And in Hitler's secret memorandum, distributed in 1927 by the monopolist Kirdorf among the German industrial magnates, all dots were put over and: “In this world, the last decision in the economic struggle is not determined by the more or less significant activities of competitors, but, on the contrary, by the power of the sword .. . which should be thrown into the scales» {149}.

There are people in the world who can still say that the Nazi Fuhrer wrote this. But the “democratic” Foreign Minister Stresemann, in his cautious but numerous statements a few years before the Hitler memorandum, tirelessly asserted that “in the final analysis, big questions were always decided with the help of the sword” {150}.

In Japan in the 1920s, the formula “war is the father of creation and the mother of culture” was introduced in every possible way, the principles of “Hakko Ichi U” and “Kodo” {151} were widely promoted, which, according to the definition of the International Military Tribunal, became “symbols of world domination carried out under assistance of military force" {152}. The results of the wars waged by Japanese imperialism in 1894, 1904 and 1914 were widely popularized in history textbooks, propaganda articles, and "scientific" works. They argued that Japan should experience "the beneficent wind of war" every ten years and that the absence of war in 1924 was the source of all the country's misfortunes. {153}. The cult of war and the army was also strongly implanted by religion; one of the most common Shinto characters {154} the sword appeared, and its worship occupied an important place in many ceremonies. Soldiers were diligently instilled with the ancient morality "busido" ("the way of the warrior"), which sang the loyalty of the samurai {155} to the emperor, which, as the command [44] believed, "would be the decisive condition for Japan's victory in the war against its opponents" {156} . In the draft instruction on "moral education" drawn up by the General Staff, it was said that "victory is given only to those who are imbued with the spirit of devotion to the emperor" {157}.

The position of Italian imperialism was expressed by B. Mussolini. He publicly stated that "fascism ... does not believe either in the possibility or in favor of permanent peace ..." {158}, advocated war and called on the Italians "to embrace the spirit and freedom of imperialist Rome" {159} . Stirring up militaristic psychosis, Mussolini told the army commanders on August 26, 1933: “War can break out suddenly, any minute, so you need to be ready for war not tomorrow, but now. We have always been and remain primarily a military nation. Since we have no fear of words, let's add - militaristic. And let's add - a militant nation! {160}

Although there were no mass standing armies in England and the USA at that time, militaristic propaganda assumed considerable proportions there as well. “History shows,” W. Churchill wrote, “that war is the destiny of the human race. Except for only brief and occasional breaks, there has never been peace on earth. Before history began, the earth was full of murderous strife.

One of the important directions in imperialism's ideological preparation for new wars was the further incitement of nationalism and racism. In the course of the First World War, through the efforts of the monopolists, the military and their learned lackeys, chauvinistic passions in the warring countries were "kindled to the last degree" {162}. They did not subside even with the advent of peace.

Speculating on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and relying on the reactionary traditions of Prussianism, the German militarists hammered into the heads of the burghers the ideas of pan-Germanism, the “chosenness of God” of the German nation, designed to regain its former power. In March 1924, Stresemann said at the congress of the German People's Party in Hannover that the national idea should be raised in the hearts of all Germans and be a "moral weapon" in their struggle for their future {163}. This was all the more possible because the German petty bourgeois, a representative of the middle strata, at one time went through the school of Wilhelmine education, which eradicated democratic ideas from the consciousness of the Germans by all means, covered everything reactionary in German history with romantic gilding, and instilled a spirit of arrogance towards other peoples. . From the deafest village school to the university, the Germans were told: “All the greatest military feats in history are Prussian, all the greatest works of art are German, the greatest inventions and the most outstanding scientists are German, the strongest gymnasts are German, the best industry is German, and the most intelligent workers are the Germans" {164}. It was on this nationalist anti-Versailles yeast that the Nazi Party grew, making the widest possible use of wild chauvinism and racism to prepare the people for a new world war. [45]

In Japan, numerous fascist military organizations, the press, theater, and cinema were engaged in propaganda of nationalism and racism. The textbook "Nippon Shintoron" ("Theory of Japanese Shintoism") stated that the Japanese emperor is a deity, the Japanese are a race of god-men, all other people are beings "reptiles", "like worms"; the Japanese "holy empire rises above everything in the world in its sole and unattainable superiority", and all other states are "ephemeral as the dawn" {165}.

In an effort to arouse great-power feelings, Mussolini spoke in May 1927 of the “necessity” to create such a powerful aviation that “the roar of its engines could drown out any other noise on the peninsula (Apennine. - Ed.), And the shadow from its wings would block the sun over our land. And then, between 1935 and 1940, when, it seems to me, a decisive moment in the history of Europe will come, we will be able to make us listen and finally recognize our rights.

In Horthy Hungary, a kind of racism of its own, so-called Turanism, was vigorously propagated, ultimately aimed at "substantiating" the aggressive claims of the Horthy clique for dominance among the peoples of the Danube basin. Under Piłsudski's regime, nationalism blossomed in full bloom in Poland.

Propaganda of chauvinism and racism was conducted in peculiar forms after the First World War in the USA, Britain, France and other capitalist countries.

Geopolitics occupied a special place in imperialism's ideological preparation for new wars. This most reactionary theory was engendered by imperialism at the dawn of its history. F. Ratzel in Germany, G. Mackinder in England, A. Thayer Mahan in the USA, J. Kjellen in Sweden laid the foundations of geopolitics at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, as rightly emphasized in Marxist literature, geopolitics is an interstate phenomenon of the era of imperialism {167}.

After the First World War, geopolitical views were especially strongly propagated in Germany; a special journal "Zeitshrift fur geopolitik" is published, books by A. Dix, O. Maulla, A. Grabovsky, N. Krebs, K. Haushofer {168} are published. The first place among these preachers of aggression belonged, undoubtedly, to the former general of the Kaiser's army, and then professor of geography at the University of Munich, Haushofer, who helped turn geopolitics into an integral part of the fascist ideology. Through his former adjutant and student R. Hess, he establishes contact with Hitler from the very beginning of the Nazi movement, then visits him in the Landsberg prison and exerts a strong influence on him. It was from Haushofer that Hitler adopted the idea of ​​the conquest of "living space" by Germany {169}, which became one of the fundamental principles of the National Socialist worldview and played a sinister role in the ideological preparation of fascist aggression. [46]

Geopolitical views as a means of "justifying" the preparation of war were also spreading in other countries. The Japanese doctrine of the "sphere of mutual prosperity" was aimed at capturing all of Asia. Mussolini declared that Fascist Italy "must expand or suffocate" {170} . In Horthy Hungary, in the press, on the radio, in oral propaganda, there was a slogan calling for a revision of the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, a revision of the post-war borders {171}.

To stir up militaristic feelings in Germany, a wide and varied colonial propaganda was carried out. Having lost their overseas possessions, the German monopolists did everything possible to prepare the population of the country for the struggle for the return of the lost and the acquisition of new colonies. The leading role in this incendiary activity was played by German entrepreneurs, businessmen, officials, and military men who had returned from the colonies; according to data for 1921, their number reached 200 thousand {172}

The main center of colonial propaganda was the German Colonial Society, which had existed since the 1980s. In 1926 it had 250 branches in the cities of the country and had 30,000 members; it was headed by the former governor of German East Africa, deputy of the Reichstag G. Schnee and active colonial businessman T. Seitz {173}. This society was surrounded by a widely ramified network of affiliated colonial organizations. Soon after the First World War, the "German Society of Participants in the Colonial War", the "Union of the Memory of Colonial Warriors", the "Colonial Economic Committee", the "Colonial Union of German Nationalists", the "Women's Union of the Red Cross for Germans living in the colonies", "Association for German settlements and travel". In the autumn of 1922, they entered the newly created "Colonial Imperial Association".

All these "societies" and "alliances" made their contribution to the preparation of a new war. Already in 1920, about 4 million signatures {174} were collected under an appeal demanding the return of the colonies. In Rendsburg, a special school prepared German girls for life in overseas countries {175} . For colonial propaganda, the press was widely used, sometimes the most unexpected means were used, up to the manufacture and distribution of special coasters for beer mugs, equipped with colonial slogans. In 1928, colonial associations and business economic unions published a "General German Colonial Programme" signed by leading representatives of German monopoly capital. It openly put forward demands for a redistribution of the world.

Almost all the bourgeois parties of the Weimar Republic declared in their programs the need to recognize Germany's right to economic and political activity in the colonies {176} . In September 1924, in a note to the Council of the League of Nations, the government of the Weimar Republic put forward a demand for the return of its colonies to it as a precondition for Germany's entry into the League of Nations, and three months later, a new memorandum of this government stated that Germany had views on the territories [47] located in mandated administration {177} . The German ruling circles sought to win over the sympathies of the peoples of the East, putting forward demagogic slogans: "Germany and the East, deceived by Versailles", "Germany and the East are victims of imperialist arbitrariness" {178}.

Throughout the first post-war decade, colonial propaganda was also carried out in Italy and Japan. In England, France, and the USA, along with this, measures were taken to hold on to the colonies, up to and including armed struggle against the peoples who were trying to break free from the yoke of colonialism. And when the position of the colonialists became more difficult, they—already in the 1920s— resorted to organizing collective colonialism. An example of this is the coordination of efforts and mutual assistance of France and Spain in strangling the Rif Republic in 1925-1926. {179}.

The falsification of history, the history of the First World War in particular, occupied a large place in imperialism's ideological preparations for new wars. The imperialists, taking into account the ever-increasing importance of historical knowledge for shaping the consciousness of the people, worked on a broad front in all capitalist countries to use history for the political needs of the day.

First of all, the German imperialists sought to eradicate revolutionary memories and traditions from the people's consciousness. German bourgeois historiography had considerable experience in this shameful affair. After all, it was she who called the glorious 1848 the “crazy year” (“Das tolle Jahr”). In the 50s and 60s of the 19th century, according to K. Marx, "reactions in Germany managed to completely eradicate the memories of 1848-1849" {180}. The November Revolution of 1918 provoked an even greater wave of hatred among the imperialists. To slander, distort its essence and role in the history of the country, present the revolution as an "element of madness", force it to be forgotten, eradicate revolutionary traditions from wide circles of working people by any means, preserve and strengthen militaristic traditions - such was the desire of reactionary German historians. “Gegen Demokraten helfen nur Soldaten” (“only soldiers help against the democrats”) is the main rule, the basic principle of the “research” of history by German reactionaries from 1848 to the present day.

The militaristic revanchist spirit permeated historical research concerning any period of German history. The well-known historian G. Ritter wrote about Martin Luther that "he is ourselves: an eternal German." When analyzing the era of the liberation wars of the early 19th century, Ritter unambiguously tried to call on the Germans to the same decisive struggle against capitalist competitors in modern conditions. With particular zeal, German historians study the era of Bismarck. In 1919, the third volume of Bismarck's Thoughts and Memoirs was published, since 1924 his Collected Works have been published; memoirs of other politicians, diplomats, military figures of those times, as well as studies and articles are widely published. This whole flow of literature was supposed, on the one hand, to convince the broad masses of the correctness of the militant policy of the "Iron Chancellor" and of German imperialism as a whole, and on the other hand, to arouse nationalist feelings in every possible way. And it is no coincidence that the same Ritter report on Bismarck in 1928 ended with the words: “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt” (“Germany, Germany is above everything, above everything in the whole world”).[48]

At the epicenter of the ideological struggle was the history of the First World War, especially the question of its perpetrators. The general line of the imperialists was described in 1927 by the American researcher G. Laswell: “There should be no hesitation in relation to who should be hated. The reason for the war should not be put forward neither by the world system of managing international affairs, nor by the stupidity and ill will of the ruling classes, but exclusively by the predatory instincts of the enemy. Crime and innocence must be geographically demarcated, and all crime must be on the other side of the border” {181} .

It was according to this recipe that the victorious countries wrote in the Treaty of Versailles that the only culprit of the war of 1914-1918. is Germany (the German delegation was told that the matter was not subject to discussion). Speaking in March 1921 in London, Lloyd George said: “For the Allies, German responsibility for the war is a basic provision. This is the basis on which the edifice of the Treaty of Versailles was erected. If this provision is rejected, or if a concession is made here, the treaty will be destroyed. We therefore wish to make it clear once and for all that the Allies must regard German guilt as an established fact .

Of course, this decision was contrary to the truth, because the organizers of the First World War were the imperialists of all countries. But even German bourgeois historians and politicians, opposing the thesis of the Treaty of Versailles about the guilt of Germany, fought not for the truth, but for the justification of German imperialism and the creation of ideological prerequisites for the preparation of new wars by it. K. Kautsky wrote in 1920 that "Germany did not plan war" and "tried to avoid it" {183} . President Hindenburg said in 1927 that “war was for us the last means of self-defence of the whole people against enemies in the world by means of heavy sacrifices. With pure hearts we came to the defense of the fatherland, and with pure hands the German army wielded weapons” {184}. Thus, a kind of united front was created from the right-wing Social Democrats and bourgeois historians to the elderly field marshal. They all tried to present German imperialism as an immaculate lamb and shift the entire responsibility for the world war either to Russia or to France and England.

Three and a half months after Hitler came to power, the official Nazi Party frankly wrote: “It should not be forgotten that German historical science undertook a struggle against the Treaty of Versailles. Its task is to forge historical weapons against the lies about the perpetrators of the war, about the "corridor" and Upper Silesia, for the annexation of Austria and for the struggle for the Rhine" {185}. This statement cannot be regarded merely as an exposition of the views of fascism on the role of history. It not only set tasks for German historical science, but also cast a retrospective look at the activities of historians during the period of the Weimar Republic. Most of them in the 1920s, fulfilling the social order of German imperialism, concentrated all their efforts on ripping open the Versailles Treaty at all seams, educating the Germans in the spirit of nationalism, chauvinism and revanchism. [49]

Widespread anti-Versailles propaganda on the question of the perpetrators of the war was combined with an equally false interpretation of the reasons for the sad outcome of the war for Germany. The defeat of the country was attributed to the notorious "DolchstoYa" ("dagger in the back"), allegedly thrust by leftist forces.

By cultivating the myth of the invincibility of the German army and the correctness of the General Staff, of the genius of the generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, reactionary German historiography made its considerable contribution to the preparations for a new world war. About the true nature of the work of the historians of Weimar Germany, one of the prominent ideologists of German imperialism, General Keim, frankly wrote at the end of 1920: “The old militarism ... we are not in a position to revive. You don't have to deceive yourself about this. But we must nurture and nurture the true military spirit. The spirit of Tannenberg, which led us to victory in countless battles, is the same spirit that in August 1914 inspired all Germans and now inspires many hundreds of thousands of compatriots... To do this, we must constantly remind the people, in all its strata, of the heroic military exploits of the world war,{186} .

The revival of militarism in Germany began primarily with the reconstruction and wide dissemination of its ideology and traditions in the state apparatus, school, and Reichswehr. As General Müller, who worked in the military-political department of the Reichswehr ministry in the 1920s, testifies, “traditions in the Weimar Republic were cultivated in order to prepare for revenge” {187}. A significant part of the workers of German culture and science, including historical ones, played an extremely unseemly role in relation to their own and other peoples, supporting, developing and propagating militaristic traditions and ideology. If the Prussian teacher was said to have won the battle for the creation of the German Empire under Bismarck, then the reactionary authors of the period of the Weimar Republic bear a great responsibility for the fact that they ideologically prepared the youth for aggression against other peoples, for countless victims of the world war.

Propaganda of the cult of war, incitement of nationalist passions, revanchism, attempts at geopolitical "justification" of aggressive desires, falsification of history for militaristic purposes - all this did not represent anything completely new. Similar methods of ideological preparation for wars, in one form or another, on one scale or another, were used by all the exploiting classes before. Characteristic of the interwar period was that war propaganda became even more frank and intrusive, its scale and scope increased sharply, and its technical capabilities improved significantly.

One of the essential differences in imperialist propaganda before the First World War and after it was that bourgeois propaganda resorted more and more to demagogy, to unsubstantiated promises, in order to draw the masses along without paying attention to the fact that its the elements were not only in logical connection with each other, but even contradicted each other. The prominent bourgeois researcher of the history of German fascism, W. Hofer, wrote: “The ambiguity in the program provisions allowed the National Socialists to simultaneously appear in both anti-capitalist and anti-proletarian garb, portray themselves as a force both restorative and revolutionary, call themselves nationalists and at the same time socialists. [fifty]As a result, the party (Hitler's. - Ed.) managed to acquire allies for itself in various social strata of the German people ” {188}.

A qualitatively new direction appeared in the system of ideological preparation for war in the interwar period—anti-communism, anti-Sovietism. It immediately became the main, dominating one in the entire ideological preparation for wars and embraced all the imperialist countries without exception.

After the accomplishment of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the world-historic victories of the young Soviet government, the bourgeoisie was mortally “intimidated by “Bolshevism”, embittered at it almost to the point of insanity ...” {189} . Having reigned supreme for many centuries, the bourgeoisie, in the rumble of the armed uprising in Petrograd, in the victorious march of the Red Army regiments, for the first time heard the sounds of funeral bells for themselves as a class. And from that moment on, she passionately desired the destruction of Soviet power, world Bolshevism. B. Colby, US Secretary of State in 1920-1921, frankly declared in the early 1930s that the American policy of non-recognition of the Soviet state from the very beginning "was based on the definition of Russia as a hostile state" {190}. And in May 1931, he explained in the press: "When I speak of Russia as a 'hostile state', I only affirm what was freely recognized and nowhere denied" {191} . W. Churchill, declaring during the debate in the English Parliament in 1926 that he hoped to live to see the day when Soviet power would be overthrown in Russia and a "civilized government" {192} would be created , expressed not only his own, but also the world's cherished dream imperialist bourgeoisie. In this case, Churchill expressed only what had long been the cherished dream of his like-minded people, who not only reasoned, but also began a concrete alignment of forces for the implementation of anti-Soviet plans.

On January 15, 1920, the commander of the American occupation forces in Germany, General G. Allen, wrote in his diary: "Germany is the state most capable of successfully repelling Bolshevism." Further, he unequivocally deciphers his understanding of this "reflection": "The expansion of Germany at the expense of Russian territory would divert the Germans to the East for a long time and thereby reduce the tension of their relations with Western Europe" {193} .

Such a "social order" of the Anglo-French-American imperialists fully corresponded to world anti-communism, the anti-Soviet plans of the German military. Literally on the second day after the November Revolution - November 10, 1918 - Chancellor Ebert negotiated by phone with the Supreme Command of the Ground Forces on joint actions against Bolshevism and the left-wing radical part of the German working class {194} . On the same day, Field Marshal Hindenburg demanded in a special telegram from officers and soldiers to take all measures in order to “prevent the spread of terrorist Bolshevism” {195} . About the "necessity" of fighting communism, General Trainer [51] wrote to Hindenburg in 1923. {196}. On March 15, 1929, Hitler declared: "Every officer should know that Marxism has destroyed the old empire" {197} . In February 1930, the head of the military administration, General von Hammerstein, wrote: "The Reichswehr is decisively fighting against the line of communism, the Third International" {198} .

In the general anti-Soviet choir, the voice of the Japanese militarists was also heard. In 1928, Alkawa Takaharu wrote the book On Modern Ideas in the Army, which formed the basis for the indoctrination of the Japanese soldier. In this book, the author argued that it was no longer possible to completely protect the army from the ideas of socialism and communism, and therefore army educators should "boldly clash with Marx and deal with the communists" {199} .

The world bourgeoisie sought by any means to destroy the nascent socialist world as quickly as possible. This was primarily aimed at its economic, political, military and ideological activities.

In the field of ideology, the first commandment of the imperialists was to prevent the “ideological infection of Bolshevism” from entering their countries, to hide from the people the very fact of the successful practical implementation of the ideas of scientific socialism. The bourgeoisie once tried to ignore the emergence of Marxism. Then this attempt failed. But the doomed classes, as a rule, do not heed the lessons of history well. The imperialists "concluded among themselves a real conspiracy of silence, fearing above all the spread of truthful news about the Soviet Republic in general, its official documents in particular" {200} .

But, as you know, ideas travel without visas, and, despite all the obstacles, the truth about the Soviets reached the working people of the capitalist countries. The bourgeoisie mobilized everything it could to fight against the ideas of socialism: the press, cinema, radio, theater and literature. And everywhere there was a lie, everywhere the bourgeois press “in millions of copies of their publications poured disgusting slanders on the Bolsheviks ...” {201} , “there is not that absurd and monstrous accusation that would not be raised against us” {202}. But perhaps the most beloved were the allegations of "red militarism." In January 1921, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G. V. Chicherin was forced to send a telegram to all Soviet diplomatic representatives abroad stating that "the campaign of lies about our supposedly aggressive intentions against our neighbors is becoming so unbridled that we cannot continue treat it with indifference, and the real purpose of inciting the peoples living peacefully in our neighborhood against us is becoming more and more obvious” {203} .

As the successes of the Soviet government, the scope of the slanderous campaign increased even more. In an interview with an employee of the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) in July 1925, G. V. Chicherin spoke of the most typical phenomenon of the political camp that opposed us - about forgeries that entered the system and turned into a craft. They were an integral part of the campaign of lies and slander launched against the USSR by its opponents and became especially fierce during these years. The interview listed 20 forgeries discovered in a short time, and on the basis of [52] incontrovertible facts, it was concluded that government-affiliated bodies were mostly quite knowingly using such falsifications and paying for them {204} .

The leaders of the right-wing socialists continued to faithfully serve their imperialist masters. In the resolution of the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the summer of 1927, it was noted that “along with the bourgeoisie, the so-called international social democracy, together with the “ultra-left” renegades of communism, is taking over the ideological preparation of the war against the USSR: all-round discrediting of the USSR as a state ; slander about degeneration, kulak politics ... and Bonapartism; cries about “red imperialism”, about the alleged incendiary role of the USSR, which is “guilty” of violating the peace carefully “guarded” by the League of Nations ... - all this should serve as a cover and justify the class war of the imperialist bourgeoisie against the proletarian state and distract the workers of Europe from fulfillment of the proletarian duty of defense by all measures of the USSR"{205} .

As for the workers who were members of the Social Democratic parties, a significant part of them did not support the foreign policy course of their right-wing leaders and took a positive position in matters of protecting peace. The anti-war actions of the Social-Democratic workers flowed into the general mainstream of the struggle for the preservation of peace.

Thus, the first world war had hardly ended when international imperialism began to threaten humanity with a new world war. This danger was generated both by the aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism in the period of its general crisis, the intensification of the uneven development, and by its reactionary domestic and aggressive foreign policy, the growth of armaments, and militaristic ideology, due to the very nature of imperialism. The systematic propaganda of anti-communism in all capitalist countries has greatly contributed to the creation of a militaristic frenzy. It was in an atmosphere poisoned by the spirit of anti-communism that such a monstrous social phenomenon as fascism could appear. Today the whole world knows what a fatal role the ideas of anti-communism played in the preparation and unleashing of the Second World War.

The imperialists actually began practical preparations for a war for a new redistribution of the world immediately after the end of the first worldwide armed clash. "The war is over, long live the new war!" — this is the motto of state-monopoly capitalism.

1. The capitalist system after the first world war

2. Aggravation of contradictions between the imperialist states

3. The growth of armaments in the capitalist countries

4. Aggressive foreign policy of the capitalist states