Chapter 31 Chapter 5 Defend against powerful enemies together 5

5 But in 1936, and even in 1939, the real meaning behind the Spanish war was not only still remote, but even unreal.The anti-fascist united line of the Comintern, after ten years of wasted effort, was finally wiped from his agenda by Stalin - at least for a while it seemed so.Not only did he turn to make friends with Hitler (although both sides knew it would not last), he even instructed the Comintern to abandon the anti-fascist strategy.The stupidity of this decision can only be explained by the fact that Stalin was known for not taking any risks.But in 1941, the Comintern finally found a legitimate reason to oppose fascism.In this year, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and the United States joined the war—simply put, the war against fascism finally turned into an international war—from then on, this war was not only of military nature, but also of high political significance.American capitalism and Soviet communism worked hand in hand internationally.Every country in Europe—but not including the dependent countries that were still adhering to Western imperialism at that time—all people with lofty ideals, regardless of political consciousness, from left to right, as long as they are willing to stand up against Germany or Italy, now because of There are opportunities for cooperation in wars.What's more, all the European countries participating in the war except Britain have fallen into the hands of the Axis forces. Therefore, this battle against the enemy is basically a civilian battle, or it can be said that it is an armed battle composed of the aforementioned civilians.

The historical truth of the underground anti-enemy movement in European countries is still mostly a mystery like a myth.Because the legal status of the regimes of various countries after the war is mainly based on the record of resisting the enemy during the war.The example of France is particularly extreme, because the French government after the victory has no real continuity with the government that made peace with Germany and cooperated with Germany in 1940.The strength of the French underground anti-German organization was still weak until 1944, its armed forces were even worse, and popular support was not universal.France after the war was rebuilt by General Charles de Gaulle.The foundation of de Gaulle's founding is actually based on a myth: that is, the eternal and immortal France has never accepted the fact that it was defeated.He himself once said: "Underground anti-enemy activities are nothing but paper tigers that get lucky." (Gillois, 1973, p. 164) To this day, the principle of commemorating World War II in France remains unchanged: only those underground anti-enemy fighters, And those who join the Free French Forces of Charles de Gaulle are the warriors of the Great War.In fact, France is not the only European regime established on the rise of the underground anti-enemy myth.

Regarding the underground anti-enemy movement in Europe, two clarifications must be made here.First, until Italy withdrew from the war in 1943, the military power of underground activities was very weak, and except in parts of the Balkans, it did not play any decisive role, and its role was mainly political and moral.Fascist forces have been rampant in Italy for more than two decades and are extremely popular, even supported by intellectuals.Now, under the wave of underground anti-enemy movements that were generally mobilized in various places from 1943 to 1945, the lives of the masses in Italy have undergone major changes.In the central and northern parts of Italy, an armed partisan movement sprang up, and 100,000 people joined the battle, of which 45,000 unfortunately died (Bocca, 1966, pp. 297-302, 385-389, 569-570, Pavone, 1991, p .413).With a glorious track record of such movements, Italians can safely put the memory of Mussolini behind them.But the German people were not so relaxed, unable to draw a line between themselves and the Nazi activities between 1933 and 1945, because they always united with their government and supported them all the way.The resistance inside Germany consisted mainly of a small group of Communists, conservatives in the Prussian military, and a sprinkling of religious and liberal figures. These people either died in the flames of war or were trapped in concentration camps.On the contrary, a group of fascist fellow travelers and collaborators in the occupied countries disappeared from public life for a while after 1945.Until the beginning of the Cold War against Communism, such talents were once again active in the military and intelligence industries of Western countries, and showed their talents in underground secret activities.

Second—with the notable exception of Poland—the political lines of the resistance underground in Europe tend to lean to the left, for obvious reasons.Fascists, extreme rightists, and conservatives in various countries, these local wealthy and powerful classes, fear social revolution most in their hearts, so they express more sympathy for Germany, at least they will not rise up to oppose it.On the other hand, localists who have always belonged to the ideological right, or those smaller nationalist movements, also have a good impression of Germany, and even hope to benefit from it, and achieve their own political goals by cooperating with Germany—such as Countries such as Flanders, Slovakia, and Croatia.In addition, we must not ignore another fact, that is, the Roman Catholic Church's firm anti-communist stance is inherently incompatible with communism.Devout Catholics everywhere have always obeyed the church.However, the politics in the church are quite complicated, and it would not be appropriate to casually classify them as "collaborators".But as far as the basic standpoint is concerned, it is often not the norm for people on the right to rise up against fascism in their political line.For example, Churchill and de Gaulle are special cases in the consciousness camp.But having said that, no matter how hard-core the traditional rightists are, once their family and country are in trouble, their instinctive reaction is to use force to defend the country.It would be hard to believe that they lacked such patriotism.

For all these reasons, it is no wonder that the performance of Communists in the underground resistance movement is so remarkable.During the war, the communist movement in Europe also achieved great political gains, and its influence reached its peak in 1945-1947.Only in Germany, a large number of communists were brutally arrested and killed in 1933, and they continued to engage in suicidal heroic resistance for the next three years, and never recovered.In addition, even in those countries that are far from socialism, such as Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the Communist Party’s votes have doubled compared to before, covering 10% to 12% of the votes, becoming the fourth or even the third largest in the National Assembly. power.In the 1945 elections, the Communist Party of France became the largest party in the country, and for the first time ahead of its long-time rival, the Socialist Party.The gains made by the Communist Party in Italy were even more astonishing. Before the war, they originally only had a small core of cadres. They were small in number, surrounded and suppressed, and had an illegal status—in 1938, even the Communist International threatened to disband it—but In two years, under the momentum of the resistance movement, the tide rose, and it turned into a large party with 800,000 people; by 1946, it had almost 2 million party members.As for countries such as Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece, they mainly use internal underground armed forces to fight against the Axis forces; the political parties in these countries mostly use the Communist Party as the main force.The power of the Communist Party was so strong that even Churchill, who was the least interested in the Communist Party, had no choice but to turn the tide once the overall situation became clear. to the troops led by Tito; for the latter was clearly a much greater threat to the Germans than the former.

There are two reasons why the Communists took it as their duty to fight against the enemy underground.One is the structure of the vanguard party that Lenin engineered to provide a well-disciplined and impartial core of the revolution.Their sole task is to be as efficient as possible in action.Second, the extremely dangerous situation at that time, such as the illegal political status of the Communist Party, the persecution it suffered, and the sufferings brought about by the war itself, all kinds of harsh environmental conditions, completely conformed to the original design of this group of "professional revolutionaries". The purpose is just to let them show their talents.In fact, it was this group of communist fighters who "recognized the possibility of an underground resistance war" (M.R.D. Foot, 1976, p. 84).In this respect, the Communists differ greatly from the rest of the socialist parties.The latter believes that without legal status—that is, without elections, legal procedures such as public discussions—it is impossible to carry out any activities against the enemy.As for the fascist regime, or the occupation of Germany, the social democratic parties often disappeared during the war, almost hibernating.When the war is over, the darkness is over, and if you are lucky, you can come out again—such as the socialists in Germany and Austria—with the support of the old crowd and rise again, ready to show your skills in the political arena again.Although these people also participated in the resistance movement during the war, due to the different basic structures, the proportion of participation was very low.A more extreme example is Denmark, where a Social Democratic government remained in power even during the German occupation until the end of the war.Although basically we assume that they were not on the same page as the Nazis, this history damaged the party so badly that it took years to rebuild its reputation.

Two other factors contributed to the rise of the Communist Party's reputation in anti-enemy activities: the first was the international nature of communist ideology itself, and the second was the incomparable belief of Communists in dedicating themselves to their ideals (see Chapter 2).The international character of the idea of ​​communism, more than any other patriotic demand limited to one nation and one people, touched and mobilized the anti-fascist-oriented masses of men and women.For example, in France, refugees from the Spanish Civil War became the main force of the armed guerrilla forces in the Southwest—the total number reached 12,000 before the Allied forces landed in Normandy (Pons Prades, 1975, p. 66).In addition, there are refugees and labor immigrants from 17 countries. Under the name of the Immigrant Labor Organization (Main d'Oeuvre Immigree, MOI), they have performed some of the most difficult and dangerous tasks for the Communist Party, such as Manoushan's underground resistance against the enemy. Organization (Manouchian Group).The small group, made up of Armenian and Polish Jews, had staged attacks on German officers in Paris.Inspired by their enthusiasm and conviction, the Communists sacrificed their lives bravely, and even their enemies respected them.All kinds of great deeds are recorded vividly and detailedly in the book "Wartime Records" (Wartime) written by the Yugoslav author De Geras.Even a moderate political historian praised the Communists as "the bravest of all" (Foot, 1976, p. 86).Their organization and training are rigorous and well-equipped, so they can survive the torture of prisons and concentration camps, and their survival rate is very high.But their sacrifices were still extremely heavy.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of France has always been disliked by people, and even communists in other countries hate it very much, but we cannot completely deny that they call themselves "le parti des fusilles" (le parti des fusilles)—— During this period, at least 15,000 Communist fighters were brutally killed by the enemy (Jean Touchard, 1977, p. 258).The Communist Party has great appeal to hot-blooded men and women, especially young people.In countries such as France and Czechoslovakia, where there is little popular support for active resistance to the enemy, the Communist Party is all the more prominent.In addition, the intellectual circles were also greatly inspired by the Communist Party.Intellectuals are best able to mobilize under the banner of anti-fascism, and they often form the nucleus of non-partisan resistance organizations (although these organizations are often left-wing).French scholars fell in love with Marx, while communist intellectuals dominated the Italian literary and artistic circles.This left-wing phenomenon has lasted for a generation in both countries. The root cause is that it was given by the resistance movement during the war.Regardless of whether they joined the resistance in person—as one major publishing company proudly declared that every employee at the Wartime Society had taken up arms and fought guerrilla—or simply stood by and silently agreed, some , or their family members, in fact, I am afraid they are on the other side - everyone feels the powerful attraction of the Communist Party.

However, except in the guerrilla strongholds in the Balkans, the Communists generally made no attempt to establish a revolutionary regime during the war.Of course, their political strength west of Trieste was clearly insufficient even if they tried.But another important reason lies in the Soviet Union, to which the communist parties of all countries pledge their allegiance.This big brother strictly prohibits all parties and small parties from aspiring to power individually.And those successful communist revolutions (such as Yugoslavia, Albania, and later China) actually violated Stalin's will.The Soviet Union’s point of view was that, regardless of international or domestic actions, the postwar political process should continue the framework of the wartime anti-fascist alliance.In other words, the Soviet Union hopes to maintain a long-term coexistence or symbiosis structure between the two major systems of capitalism and communism.The Soviet Union believed that the combination of the two camps in wartime would lead to a so-called "new democratic state".As these new democracies continue to change internally, they will inevitably lead to social and political changes over time.This wishful thinking of the Soviet-style worldview quickly disappeared without a trace in the long night of the real Cold War. It disappeared so completely that most people now have no memory of it; Stalin urged the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to maintain the country’s monarchy. In 1945, the British Communist Party strongly opposed the dissolution of the coalition cabinet established by Churchill during the war—that is to say, the general election that would bring the British Labor Party to power was strongly opposed by the British Communist Party, which is also on the left.Stalin's sincerity at the time cannot be denied; he even proved it with his actions. In 1943 and 1944, he disbanded the Comintern and the American Communist Party.

Stalin's intentions became more and more clarified under his decision-making.His decision-making policy, to borrow the words of a certain American Communist Party leader, is to "never make demands for socialism under circumstances and in a manner that endangers the unity of ..." (Browder, 1944, in J. Starobin, 1972, p. 57) .But in doing so - as other revolutionaries with different views have realized - it is bound to part ways with the world revolution forever.From then on, socialism will be limited to the territory of the Soviet Union, except for those areas that were decided to be handed over to the Soviet forces through diplomatic negotiations among various countries—basically, most of the areas occupied by the Red Army at the end of the war.Moreover, even within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, in these new forms of "people's states," the future of communism was too uncertain for immediate deployment in full swing.But history has always followed the exact opposite path, regardless of the original intention of policy design—with one exception.Under the agreement between 1944 and 1945, the world was divided into two spheres of influence—at least most of the world fell under this division—the Chu River and Han borders have remained unchanged since then. In the past 30 years, except for occasional short-term incidents, neither side has crossed the border, nor has there been any open and positive conflict or confrontation between the two sides.Therefore, fortunately, the world of the Cold War did not heat up into the hell of the Hot War after all.