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Did the Soviet Union instruct Southeast Asian communists to revolt? New Russian evidence on the Calcutta Youth Conference of February 1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

Larisa Efimova
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Abstract

This article uses recently declassified archival documents from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) concerning the Calcutta Youth Conference of February 1948. This evidence contradicts speculation that ‘orders from Moscow’ were passed to Southeast Asian communists at this time, helping to spark the rebellions in Indonesia, Malaya, Burma and the Philippines later that year. Secret working papers now available to researchers show no signs that the Soviet leadership planned to call upon Asian communists to rise up against their national bourgeois governments at this point in time. This article outlines the real story behind Soviet involvement in events leading up to the Calcutta Youth Conference, showing both a desire to increase information and links, and yet also a degree of caution over the prospects of local parties.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Special Issue 3: The origins of the Southeast Asian Cold War , October 2009 , pp. 449 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2009

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References

1 There has also been debate over the role of a contemporaneous conference of the Indian Communist Party in Calcutta. For the argument that these Calcutta conferences were important, see Brimmell, J.H., Communism in South East Asia; A political analysis (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp. 255–63Google Scholar.

2 McVey, Ruth, The Soviet view of the Indonesian revolution (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, 1969)Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., p. 14.

4 Ibid., p. 19.

5 Ibid., рp. 32–3.

6 Hence even McVey's, RuthThe Calcutta Conference and the Southeast Asian uprisings (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1958), pp. 13Google Scholar, 18 and 24, while arguing there were no instructions for revolt conveyed at Calcutta, concentrates analysis on the dissemination and discussion of the new Soviet line. Lacking access to Soviet documents, she argued that the implications of the new public line were not as clear as previous scholars had suggested.

7 The Russian State Archive of Social-Political History (RSASPH) was created in March 1999. It contains documents of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) [CC AUCP (B)] for 1898 and 1903–91, and documents of Soviet youth organisations, including the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) from 1918–91 and the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth (ACSY), 1941–56.

8 Russian State Archive of Social-Political History (RSASPH) fond (f) 17 opis (о) 128 delo (d) 428 list (l) 74.

9 Ibid., f.17 о.128 d.71 l.42.

10 Ibid., l.106.

11 Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RSASPH) fond (f).17 opis (о).128 delo (d).247 list (l).183.

12 Ibid., l.182.

13 Ibid., l.187–191.

14 Ibid., f.17 о.128 d.247 l.199.

15 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.249 l.23–52.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 ‘Revolution’ here meaning ‘anti-colonial revolution’.

19 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.249 l.23–52.

20 See, for instance, Kahin, G. McTurnan, Nationalism and revolution in Indonesia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1963, pp. 26–9Google Scholar.

21 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.216 l.39.

22 Ibid., l.42.

23 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.94.

24 Ibid., l.9.

25 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.249 l.44.

26 Ibid., l.44–5.

27 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.216 l.47.

28 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.249 l.49.

29 Ibid., l.46.

30 Ibid., l.45.

31 RSASPH f.17 о.128 d.249 l.45.

32 Ibid., l.46.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid., l.45–6.

35 Ibid., l.47.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid., l.48–9.

38 Ibid., l.49.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid., l.45.

41 Ibid., l.48.

42 Ibid., l.51.

43 Ibid., l.51–52.

44 Ibid., l.58–61.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid., l.56.

47 Ibid.

48 Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RSASPH) fond (f).17 opis (о).128 delo (d).432 list (l).21–24.

49 Ibid., f.17 o.128 d.427 l.46–58.

50 Phạm Ngọc Thạch (1909–68), head of the Vietnamese delegation to the Delhi youth conference. He had led a revolutionary youth group in Vietnam prior to 1945, was later appointed as a member of the provisional Nam Bo (southern) administration and then as the chairman of the Sai Gon-Gia Dinh Administrative Resistance Committee. Subsequently he became the first Health Minister of the DRV. He was also famed for his research on malaria, and a hospital and medical university were posthumously named after him. For some biographical details in English, see Chau, Ham, ‘Pham Ngoc Thach: A physician and revolutionary’, Vietnamese Studies, 147 (2003): 48–52Google Scholar.

51 Ibid., l.59.

52 Apparently this covering letter was attached to the short paraphrase of the Soviet youth delegation's account.