----- Original Message ----- From: Per Rasmussen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: UK_Left_Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Marxist-Leninist-List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Marxism-News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Marxism list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Power to the People <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 11:24 PM Subject: MLL: Vyacheslav Molotov - June 22, 1941 Vyacheslav Molotov (1889-1986), Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, had signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact on August 23, 1939. This bought the USSR two years in which to prepare for the Nazi attack, but in the meantime encouraged Hitler's aggression against Poland. By 1941 it was the Soviet Union's turn. For years, Hitler had claimed that Germany's future living space, or lebensraum, existed to Germany's east, namely Russia. He then turned his attention toward the Soviet Union and launched a massive attack on June 22, 1941. Below is the initial Soviet reaction, broadcast to the people by Molotov. Citizens of the Soviet Union: The Soviet Government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have authorized me to make the following statement: Today at 4 o'clock a.m., without any claims having been presented to the Soviet Union, without a declaration of war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders at many points and bombed from their airplanes our cities; Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, killing and wounding over two hundred persons. There were also enemy air raids and artillery shelling from Rumanian and Finnish territory. This unheard of attack upon our country is perfidy unparalleled in the history of civilized nations. The attack on our country was perpetrated despite the fact that a treaty of non-aggression had been signed between the U. S. S. R. and Germany and that the Soviet Government most faithfully abided by all provisions of this treaty. The attack upon our country was perpetrated despite the fact that during the entire period of operation of this treaty, the German Government could not find grounds for a single complaint against the U.S.S.R. as regards observance of this treaty. Entire responsibility for this predatory attack upon the Soviet Union falls fully and completely upon the German Fascist rulers. At 5:30 a.m. -- that is, after the attack had already been perpetrated, Von der Schulenburg, the German Ambassador in Moscow, on behalf of his government made the statement to me as People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs to the effect that the German Government had decided to launch war against the U.S.S.R. in connection with the concentration of Red Army units near the eastern German frontier. In reply to this I stated on behalf of the Soviet Government that, until the very last moment, the German Government had not presented any claims to the Soviet Government, that Germany attacked the U.S.S.R. despite the peaceable position of the Soviet Union, and that for this reason Fascist Germany is the aggressor. On instruction of the government of the Soviet Union I also stated that at no point had our troops or our air force committed a violation of the frontier and therefore the statement made this morning by the Rumanian radio to the effect that Soviet aircraft allegedly had fired on Rumanian airdromes is a sheer lie and provocation. Likewise a lie and provocation is the whole declaration made today by Hitler, who is trying belatedly to concoct accusations charging the Soviet Union with failure to observe the Soviet-German pact. Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already been committed, the Soviet Government has ordered our troops to repulse the predatory assault and to drive German troops from the territory of our country. This war has been forced upon us, not by the German people, not by German workers, peasants and intellectuals, whose sufferings we well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of Germany who have enslaved Frenchmen, Czechs, Poles, Serbians, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece and other nations. The government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable confidence that our valiant army and navy and brave falcons of the Soviet Air Force will acquit themselves with honor in performing their duty to the fatherland and to the Soviet people, and will inflict a crushing blow upon the aggressor. This is not the first time that our people have had to deal with an attack of an arrogant foe. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia our people's reply was war for the fatherland, and Napoleon suffered defeat and met his doom. It will be the same with Hitler, who in his arrogance has proclaimed a new crusade against our country. The Red Army and our whole people will again wage victorious war for the fatherland, for our country, for honor, for liberty. The government of the Soviet Union expresses the firm conviction that the whole population of our country, all workers, peasants and intellectuals, men and women, will conscientiously perform their duties and do their work. Our entire people must now stand solid and united as never before. Each one of us must demand of himself and of others discipline, organization and self-denial worthy of real Soviet patriots, in order to provide for all the needs of the Red Army, Navy and Air Force, to insure victory over the enemy. The government calls upon you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet Government, around our great leader and comrade, Stalin. Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours. Vyacheslav Molotov - June 22, 1941 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1941molotov.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elimination of the exploitation of man by man! Yours in solidarity Per Rasmussen Denmark "One has to have a great dose of humanity, a great dose of the feeling of justice and of truth not to fall into extreme dogmatism, into a cold scholasticism, into isolation from the masses. Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as motivation." Ernesto Che Guevara "The Marxist-Leninist doctrine on class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat affirms the role of violence in revolution, makes a distinction between unjust, counter-revolutionary violence and just, revolutionary violence, between the violence of the exploiting classes, and that of the masses." General Vo Nguyen Giap Let us continue the path of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao! Long live Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought! IMPERIALISM AND ALL REACTIONARIES ARE PAPER TIGERS! Familien Rasmussen: http://home0.inet.tele.dk/pera/ S�rens hjemmeside: http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900387/ Cuba SI!: http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900388/ Cuba SI mail-list: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Ernesto Che Guevara: http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900388/ernesto.htm Che Guevara Discussion List: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Viden er Magt! - Magten til folket!: http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900373/ Grundstudier i Marxismen-Leninismen Mao Tsetung T�nkning: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Knowledge is Power! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! mail-list: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] "A well-disciplined Party armed with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-criticism and linked with the masses of the people, an army under the leadership of such a Party; a united front of all revolutionary classes and all revolutionary groups under the leadership of such a Party -- these are the three main weapons with which we have defeated the enemy. " Mao Tsetung --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
