It was obvious to England when fighting against Napoleon’s France that it was France and not the countries conquered by Napoleon who was England’s enemy.
Indeed, these countries were regarded by England as her allies. The Duke of Wellington for instance said at Waterloo: “I wish it were night, or the Prussians would come.” Together with Field Marshal Bliiclier he then defeated Napoleon.
It was therefore obvious who the enemy was.
In World War II the Allies regarded Germany as their enemy, but neither France nor Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Serbia, nor Greece were considered to be enemies, but were treated like allies and friends. Only Germany was ruthlessly fought and bombed, and countless women and children there lost their lives. After the Allied victory, the Hitler regime was abolished and the Nazi war criminals were sentenced in Nuremberg. Just as the entire German nation had previously been bombed during the war and had been fought with every means, now, too, it was obliged to hear the consequences of the war. Dismantling of works and factories, reparations, compulsory expulsion of 11 million Germans from the east and southeast territories, severance of entire German territories, partition of Germany into four occupied zones, the occupation by the Russians even up to the present time of a third of Germany, the Morgenthau Plan, etc., . . . all this was directed not only against the Nazi regime, which no longer existed, and not only against the German militarists and imperialists but also against the German nation as a whole. Thus the German people were held responsible for German imperialism. Whether this was just or not, is another question. We should merely like to state the plain facts at this point.
As regards the fight against Russia, however, matters are different. The situation should be as follows: the enemy is Russia — just as in former times Germany was the enemy, — and the allies of the West are the nations subjugated by Russia, for example, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkestan, Byelorussia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia, etc. The fight should be directed solely against Russia, and the weapons of destruction against the Russian ethnographical territory, in the same way as one dealt with Germany during the last war.
But the countries subjugated by Russia should be excluded from the entire strategy of combat, for they are and remain the allies of the West, just as France or Belgium were during the last war.
Moreover, it was not only German imperialism that was attacked, but also the entire German nation including women and children. In Hiroshima, it was not only Japanese militarism that was attacked, but even unborn children. When it is a question of Russia, however, one desists from attacking the Russian empire. The blame for the Russian annexations, dreadful atrocities and mass murders is thrust onto all the nations languishing in the Russian sphere of influence. No mention whatsoever is made of the Russian imperialists and colonial rulers. One concentrates on so-called international Communism to exonerate the Russians. But where is the seat, the general staff of so-called international Communism? Who is in command of the Communist Parties all over the world? Who sends out the conquering armies and equips them with arms? In whose empire have Turkestan, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Poland, and East Germany, etc., been incorporated? In the Russian empire! They are completely dependent on the orders issued by the Russian imperial headquarters in Moscow, — which include compulsory Russification, national subjugation, and economic exploitation to the advantage of the Russian militant centre, etc. If the Western world only sees the enemy in international Communism, it will never be in a position to distinguish the main enemy. It will not know where to fight and whom to fight.
But if one realizes that Russia is the enemy, the land that has bred Communism, which is organically in keeping with the nature of the Russian element, then one will also know where to look for the enemy.
The moment Russia is overthrown, Communism will cease to be a world danger. Communism like anarchism would have not influenced the world if Russia had not adopted this idea as the most modern form of imperialism. Incidentally, such Russian thinkers and writers, for instance, Berdyaev, and others have expressed the opinion quite openly that Bolshevism-Communism is a peculiarity of the Russian mentality, namely in psycho-moral and sociological respect.
Berdyaev analyses this fact without beating about the bush in his works, in particular, however, in his book “The Meaning and Character of Russian Communism”. He admits that Communism is a Russian messianic idea, just like Pan-Slavism, the defence of orthodoxy “with the idea of the Third Rome”, etc. Dostoievsky prophesied the Bolshevist revolution as a typical Russian phenomenon. If Russian power were not behind Communism, each nation would be able to deal with Communism itself.
Since Communism is an idea that is used in the service of Russia, a social-political system that is in keeping with the Russian character, a fact which is clearly proved by Dr. D. Donzov in his book “The Russian Mentality” and which Berdyaev also corroborates from the Russian point of view, its enforcement (even by Russian military means) is nothing but the enforcement of Russian alien rule on the subjugated countries. It is therefore wrong to talk about “ international Communism” as the main enemy, for the main enemy is Russian imperialism, whom all the Communist parties in the world serve as henchmen.
It is appalling to think how closely the forces of evil in the world are allied to each other. We are not by any means defenders of any kind of imperialism, since we ourselves are subjugated by imperialism; but in all fairness, we feel bound to say that insults have been heaped on English, French, Japanese, Belgian, Dutch, German and Italian imperialism without any thought being given to the fact that the nations in question might he offended. One never talks about monarchist English, republican French, or royal Belgian imperialism. But as soon as one talks about Russian imperialism, one inevitably uses the designation “ tsarist or Soviet imperialism”, so as not to offend the Russians in any way. One purposely overlooks the fact that it was, of course, not only the tsars for instance who were responsible for Russia’s imperialism.
In the Suez Canal Zone “ the English and French imperialists tried to carry out a ruthless campaign of conquest”, just as did the Belgian imperialists in the Congo, but in Hungary such a campaign was only carried out by the evil Communists, who are not organically connected with any nation and probably dropped on Budapest from Mars! No one would dream of suggesting that those responsible for this campaign were the Russian hordes who were lusting for conquest. In 1939 Poland was “invaded by German armies”, but Berlin and East Germany, where German women were violated and children were murdered, were not overrun by Russian hordes but by “international Communists”.
The following words appeared in Russian in the “Pravda” of July 24, 1942: “ We do not want to speak. We do not want to be indignant. We want to kill. If you have not killed at least one German in the course of the day, then your day has been wasted . . . When you have killed one German, kill a second. There is no sight more pleasing to us than German corpses. Do not count the miles. Only count the Germans whom you have killed.” And, further: “There is nothing innocent about the Germans, neither about the living nor about the unborn… Crush the fascist beast in its den forever. . . Break the racial arrogance of the Germanic women by force! Take them as your rightful booty! Courageous, advancing Red Army soldiers, kill, kill!”
Nor were conditions any better in tsarist days. Slave labour, deportations and sentences without trial were not invented in Russia by the Communists. These practices existed hundreds of years ago, as the French writer, Marquis de Custine, so fittingly points out in his book, in which Lie gives an excellent account of these conditions.
Here and there in the West one is prepared to talk about “Moscow’s imperialism”, to lay the blame only on the central power. But one does not talk about Loudon, Berlin, or Paris imperialism, but simply about English, German, or French imperialism. No one has any qualms about annoying the English people. But the Russians must not be annoyed under any circumstances!
Nor is it correct to talk about “ Soviet imperialism” instead of Russian imperialism, or to use the designation “ Soviets” for the Russians. This is nonsense, for the word Soviet in English means “ council”; hence Soviet imperialism means “imperialism of the councils”. If one applies this designation to the state structure of the Soviet Union, then it is even more incorrect, for various subjugated nations are incarcerated in the Soviet Union who have no connection whatsoever with imperialism and are, moreover, fighting a life and death struggle against Russian imperialism.
The British Commonwealth is above all a community of free nations, and no one dreams of talking about “ Commonwealth imperialism”. For it is obvious to everyone that the Greeks of Cyprus have nothing in common with any English imperialists. As far as the British Empire is concerned, for example, how could one think of holding the North Irish responsible for any English imperialistic aims?
The Soviet Union is the most ruthless colonial empire of all time. How then can one possibly think of holding the nations incarcerated and subjugated in this empire, which calls itself the Soviet Union, responsible for the imperialism of the Russian colonial rulers? The designation “ Soviet imperialism” is therefore merely another attempt to spare the Russians. It would be nonsense to talk about a “Union Française Imperialism”, since in addition to the French there are also countless other peoples voluntarily united in the French Union, and, in any case, the Union Française cannot be compared to the Soviet Union. Thus, if one cannot talk about Commonwealth or Union Française imperialism, then even more so, one cannot talk about Soviet imperialism, because the nations have been forcibly incorporated and incarcerated in the Russian empire, that is the Soviet Union.
How then could they share a common imperialistic cause with their subjugators, the Russian colonial rulers?
There is only Russian imperialism, and one should talk about it at least in the same way as one has hitherto talked about English or French imperialism, even though this is not a fitting comparison since one cannot relegate the civilized English and French people to the same level as the Russian barbarians.
If someone uses the designation “ Soviet Russian imperialism”, then he wants to define the actual Russian imperialism by this term, and similarly, too, with the term “ Russian Communist imperialism”. We should like to point out that when talking about English or French imperialism, no such expressions are used to indicate a certain terminology. And the frequently used designation “ Communist imperialism” also aims to divert attention from the main enemy. One does not talk about “ democratic imperialism”, even though France and England at the time of the expansion of their empires had a democratic system and spread this in their colonies in Africa and Asia. By analogy, therefore, one should talk about democratic imperialism to spare the feelings of the French and the English. But this is inappropriate, for fundamentally every idea can be used for imperialistic purposes.
In conclusion, we should like to stress that the enemy must be called by its right name, — in this case, Russian historic imperialism (combined with the messianic attitude of the Russian mentality), which in various forms, for instance, PanSlavism, the idea of the Third Rome, “ defence of orthodoxy”, international Communism, is to bring about the realization of the Russian national conquest aims.
We preach neither racial hatred nor chauvinism. We make no objections to a Russian state in its ethnographical areas, nor do we object to the Russians if they withdraw from our national territories and keep to their own native soil. But we definitely object to being held responsible for the Russian atrocities that have been committed for centuries. The West has no right to try to thrust the list of crimes onto us, even though there may be certain guilty persons; among our nations. But among every nation, there are always some traitors and profiteers, who seek to further their own personal interests and place their services at the disposal of the Russian colonial rulers. The Norwegian people were not punished for Quisling, but Quisling himself was called to account.
The fact that the disintegration process of the empires (a typical phenomenon of the present era) is in progress must result in universal and wholehearted support on the part of the freedom-loving world for the national liberation struggle of the nations incarcerated in the Russian colonial empire, all the more so since the Russians are doing their utmost to overthrow the Western empires and to enter upon their heritage as the new colonial rulers. The disintegration of the Russian colonial empire and the restoration of the independent democratic states of all the nations subjugated by Russia— irrespective of the date when they became the victims of Russia— should be proclaimed as the aim of Western policy.
The Communist system forcibly introduced by Russian armies in the countries subjugated by Russia in the Soviet Union and the so-called satellite countries is a form of modern Russian colonial alien rule.
Not an international Communism which has dropped from the skies or has been carried up out of hell rules over our nations, but a perfectly concrete Russian Communism, that is to say, the most modern form of perpetual historic Russian imperialism and colonialism. Just as in tsarist times, perfectly concrete Russian armies, consisting of genuine Russians, with brutal force crushed and conquered our countries (and neither Peter I nor Catherine I was a Communist!), so, too, in Lenin’s day perfectly real armies (and not phantom armies!), consisting of genuine Russians, massacred our nations and forcibly introduced the Communist system in our countries.
Nicholas II, Kerensky, Lenin, Khrushchov, or the NTS chief,— they all agree on one point, namely to preserve the Russian colonial empire by every possible means! “ Better a poor dictator (Stalin!— The author) than a dismembered living body of Russia (i.e. the Russian empire!— The author)”-—was the comment of Miljukov on one occasion, and all Russian parties from the extreme leftists to the extreme rightists agree with him on this point! What indeed has this to do with “international Communism”?
Jaroslaw Stetzko
Архів ОУН. – Бібліотека. – Неперіодичні видання. – ABN Correspondence. – 1961. – №11-12. – C.8-11.
