Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T05:30:59.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soviet Russia and the Asian revolution, 1917–1924

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Stephen White
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The founding fathers of Marxism provided an analysis of the contradictions of capitalist society and an indication of the means by which its revolutionary overthrow might be accomplished. They had less to say, however, about the colonial world into which the capitalist society of their day was rapidly expanding, and in their scattered writings on the subject they leave the clear impression that they shared the views of most of their socialist contemporaries that the colonies were the objects rather than the subjects of history, and that their destiny would be determined by the success or failure of the revolutionary movement in the major metropolitan countrieSo1 Marx and Engels were generally unsentimental about the nature of imperialist rule in the colonies, and they drew attention to the plunder, corruption and destruction by which it had usually been accompanied. They had little sympathy, however, for the ‘undignified, stagnatory and vegetative life’ in which most of the colonial peoples were believed to dwell, and they followed Hegel and much of Victorian social theory in regarding its displacement by the way of life of the major metropolitan countries as both inevitable and in accordance with a general scheme of social evolution by which ‘all, even the most barbarian nations are drawn into civilisation’, as the Communist Manifesto put it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 219 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. The most useful general account of this subject is Avineri, Shlomo (ed.), Karl Marx on Colonialism and Modernization (New York, 1969)Google Scholar. On Soviet policy towards the Asian countries more generally, see Spector, Ivar, The Soviet Union and the Muslim World, 1917–1958 (Seattle, 1959)Google Scholar; Kapur, Harish, Soviet Russia and Asia, 1917–1927 (Geneva, 1966)Google Scholar; Eudin, Xenia J. and North, Robert C., Soviet Russia and the East 1920–1927 (Stanford, 1957)Google Scholar; Schram, Stuart and d'Encausse, Helene Carrere, Marxism and Asia (London, 1969)Google Scholar; and (on a subject which falls outside the scope of this essay) Bennigsen, Alexandre and Wimbush, S. Enders, Muslim National Communism in the Soviet Union (Chicago, 1979)Google Scholar. Some of the themes developed in this article were first presented in White, Stephen, ‘Communist International and the colonial revolution’, Science and Society, vol. XL, no. 2 (summer 1976)Google Scholar and in the same author's Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution (London, 1980).Google Scholar

2. Marx, Karl, ‘British rule in India’ (1853)Google Scholar, in Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Werke, 39 vols. (Berlin, 1956-1968), vol. IX, pp. 127–33Google Scholar, at p. 132.

3. Marx and Engels, Werke, vol. IV, p. 466.

4. Lenin's Imperialism (1916) is in Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (hereafter PSS) 55 vols. (Moscow, 1959-1965), vol. XXVI, pp. 299–426Google Scholar.

5. Bukharin, N. I., Ekonomikaperekhodnogo perioda (Moscow, 1920), p. 155Google Scholar.

6. Pervyi kongress Kominterna (Moscow, 1933), p. 207Google Scholar.

7. Quoted from Soviet archives in Reznikov, A. B., ‘Bor'ba V. I. Lenina protiv sektantskikh izvrashchenii v natsional'no-koloniarnom voprose’, Kommunist, 1968, no. 5, pp. 36–47Google Scholar, at p. 39; further extracts are quoted in Reznikov, A. B., ‘Iz istorii podgotovki V. I. Leninym reshenii II Kongressa Kominterna po nationarno-koloniarnomu voprosu’, Narody Afriki i Azii (hereafter NAiA), 1971, no. 2, pp. 40–53Google Scholar, at pp. 44–6.

8. Lenin, PSS, vol. XLII, pp. 71–2 and vol. XLIV, p. 282.

9. Zhizn’ natsional’nostei, 26 May 1919; similar sentiments were expressed in a letter to Lenin from a number of Soviet leaders in the Eastern republics of 12 June 1920, quoted from the Soviet archives in Persits, M. A., ‘Ideinaya bor'ba po problemam sootnosheniya kommunist-icheskogo i osvoboditel'nogo dvizheniya na vostoke v period II Kongressa Kominterna’, NAiA, 1974, no. 5, pp. 38–53Google Scholar, at p. 45.

10. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, 1920, no. 11–12, col. 2316.

11. Pervyi s”ezd narodov vostoka: stenograficheskie otchety (Petrograd, 1920), p. 139Google Scholar.

12. Dokumenty vneshneipolitikiSSSR, vol. Ill (Moscow, 1959), no. 309 Art. 7, no. 305 Art. 4, and no. 342 Art. 4.

13. Letters of 3 June and 5 October 1921, in Ibid., vol. IV, pp. 165–8 and 394.

14. Letter of 30 July 1921, Ibid., pp. 247–8.

15. Pavlovich, M. N., Revolyutsionnaya Turtsiya (Moscow, 1921), p. 90Google Scholar.

16. Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn’, 1922, no. 15 (133), p. 21.

17. Soviet archival source cited in Kheifets, A. N., Sovetskaya diplomatiya i narody vostoka, 1921–1927 (Moscow, 1968), p. 231.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., pp. 239, 250 and 228–9.

19. Soviet archival source cited in Kheifets, Sovetskaya diplomatiya, pp. 79–80.

20. Roy, M. N., Memoirs (Bombay, 1964), p. 492Google Scholar.

21. Carr, E. H., The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923 (London, 1953), vol. III, p. 468CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22. Kheifets, Sovetskaya diplomatiya, pp. 211–13; Tanin, M., Mezhdunarodnaya politika SSSR (1917–1924) (Moscow, 1925), p. 83Google Scholar.

23. Tanin, Mezhdunarodnaya politika, pp. 89–91; Kheifets, Sovetskaya diplomatiya, pp. 74–5; Maisky, I. M., Vneshny aya politika RSFSR (Moscow, 1923), pp. 147–8.Google Scholar

24. Kheifets, Sovetskaya diplomatiya, pp. 231–2.

25. Tanin, Mezhdunarodnaya politika, pp. 83–4.

26. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, 1920, no. 11–12, cols. 2161–4.

27. Vtoroi kongress Kominterna (Moscow, 1934), pp. 28Google Scholar and 103.

28. Pervyi s”ezd narodov vostoka, p. 40.

29. Secret Intelligence Report, 25 October 1920, P.O. 371/5178/E13412, P.R.O., London.

30. Pervyi s”ezd narodov vostoka, pp. 88–90.

31. Secret Intelligence Report, 25 October 1920, loc. cit.

32. Stasova, E. D., Stranitsy zhizni i bor'by (Moscow, 1957), pp. 109–10Google Scholar. For a fuller discussion of the Congress, see White, Stephen, ‘Communism and the East: the Baku Congress, 1920’, Slavic Review, vol. XXXIII, no. 3 (September 1974), pp. 492–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1st series, vol. XIII (London, 1963), p. 507Google Scholar. General accounts of this episode include Carr, Bolshevik Revolution, pp. 242–4, Lenczkowski, George, Russia and the West In Iran, 1918–1948 (Ithaca, 1949), pp. 46–60Google Scholar, Ivanova, M. N.Natsional'no-osvoboditel'noe dvizhenie v Irane v 1918–1922 gg. (Moscow, 1961), pp. 85–106Google Scholar, Kheifets, A. N., Sovetskaya Rossiya i sopredel'nye strany vostoka v gody grazhdanskoi voiny (1918–1920) (Moscow, 1964), pp. 227–55Google Scholar, and Ivanov, M. S. (ed.), Istoriya Irana (Moscow, 1977), pp. 310–20.Google Scholar

34. Agaev, S. L. and Plastun, V. N., ‘Iz I istorii razrabotki programmy i taktiki Iranskoi kommunist-icheskoi partii v 1920–1921 gg.’, NAiA, 1976, no. 3, pp. 31–42Google Scholar, at p. 40.

35. Ibid., pp. 32–5; Vtoroi kongress Kominterna, pp. 119–20.

36. Kheifets, Sovetskaya Rossiya, pp. 251–2; Ul'yanovsky, R. A. (ed.), Komintern i Vostok. Kritika kritiki (Moscow, 1978), p. 248.Google Scholar

37. Kommunist (Baku), 3 August 1920, and as quoted in Secret Intelligence Report, loc. cit.

38. Godovoi otchet NKID k IX s”ezdu sovetov (1920–21) (Moscow, 1921), p. 72Google Scholar (this passage is omitted from the version printed in Dokumenty Vneshneipolitiki SSSR, vol. II).

39. Godovoi otchet, p. 72; Irandust ( Osetrov, V. P.), ‘Voprosy gil'yanskoi revolyutsii’, Istorik marksist, 1927, no. 5, pp. 124–46Google Scholar.

40. Agaev and Plastun, ‘Iz istorii’, p. 39; Godovoi otchet, p. 73 (this passage is also omitted from the version printed in Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, vol. II).

41. Pravda, 14 January 1921.

42. Zhizn' natsional'nostei, 17 March 1921.

43. Sinha, L. P., The Left-Wing in India (1919–1947) (Muzaffarpur, 1965), p. 58Google Scholar.

44. Imam, Zafar, ‘The rise of Soviet Russia and socialism in India, 1917–1929’, in Nanda, B. R. (ed.), Socialism in India (Delhi, 1972), p. 54Google Scholar.

45. See for instance Usmani, Shaukat, From Peshawar to Moscow (Benares, 1927), p. 168Google Scholar, and Nehru, Jawaharlal, An Autobiography (London, 1942), p. 362Google Scholar.

46. Imam, Zafar, ‘The effects of the Russian revolution in India, 1917–1920’, in St. Antony's Papers, no. 18 (London, 1966), p. 96Google Scholar.

47. Ahmed, M., The Communist Party of India: Years of Formation (Calcutta, 1959), p. 8Google Scholar.

48. Persits, ‘Ideinaya bor'ba’, p. 40; Mel'nikov, A. M., ‘Indiiskie kommunisty 20-kh godov o kharaktere natsional'no-osvoboditel'nogo dvizheniya’, NAiA, 1978, no. 5, pp. 54–65Google Scholar, at p. 57; UPyanovsky (ed.), Komintern i vostok,p. 255.

49. See for instance Lacouture, Jean, Ho Chi Minh (Harmondsworth, 1969), pp. 21–34Google Scholar; and Schwarz, Benjamin I., Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao (New York, 1967), pp. 13–16.Google Scholar

50. Zinoviev, G. E., Kommunisticheskii Internatsional za rabotoi (Moscow, 1922), p. 66Google Scholar.

51. Tretii Vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala (Petrograd, 1922), p. 6Google Scholar.

52. Fourth Congress of the Communist International (London, 1923), pp. 222Google Scholar and 224.

53. See White, Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution,chaps. 4 and 6.

54. Spratt, Philip, Blowing up India (Calcutta, 1955), pp. 34Google Scholar and 37.

55. Secret Intelligence Report, 21 June 1922, F.O. 371/8193/N6024, P.R.O., London.

56. Ezhegodnik Kominterna (Moscow-Petrograd, 1923), pp. 54–5.Google Scholar

57. Zabih, Sepehr, The Communist Movement in Iran (Berkeley, 1966), p. 52Google Scholar.

58. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, 1924, no. 1, cols. 158 and 174.

59. The discussions are well summarized in Carr, Bolshevik Revolution, pp. 251–9, Whiting, Allen S., Soviet Policies in China, 1917–1924 (Stanford, 1968), pp. 42–58Google Scholar, Haithcox, John P., Communism and Nationalism in India (Princeton, 1971)Google Scholar, chap. 2, and Lazitch, Branko and Drachkovitch, Milorad M., Lenin and the Comintern, vol. I (Stanford, 1972), pp. 382–96.Google Scholar

60. See particularly Reznikov, ‘Bor'ba V. I. Lenina’ and ‘Iz istorii’, and the same author's ‘V. I. Lenin o natsional'no-kolonial'nomu voprosu’, Kommunist, 1967, no. 7, pp. 91–102Google Scholar, ‘V. I. Lenin o problemakh natsional'no-osvoboditel'nogo i kommunisticheskogo dvizheniya na vostoke’, NAiA, 1974, no. 6, pp. 45–56Google Scholar, and Strategiya i taktika Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala po natsional'no-kolonial'nomu voprosu (Moscow, 1978)Google Scholar.

61. Vtoroi kongress Kominterna,p. 99.

62. See particular Reznikov, ‘V. I. Lenin o natsional'no-osvoboditel'nom dvizhenii’, pp. 92–4, and ‘Bor'ba V. I. Lenina’, pp. 36–47.

63. Vtoroi kongress Kominterna, p. 98; corrected versions of both sets of theses are printed in Shirinya, K. K. (ed.), V. I. Lenin i Kommunisticheskii Internatsional (Moscow, 1970), pp. 198–202Google Scholar and 202–4.

64. See for instance Vtoroi kongress Kominterna,pp. 105 and 185.

65. Zhizn' natsional'nostei,24 December 1920; Kommunisticheskii Internatsional,1920, no. 15, col. 3368.

66. From Soviet Archives Firsov, F. I. (ed.), Tretii kongress Kominterna (Moscow, 1975), pp. 34–5.Google Scholar

67. Ibid., pp. 70–2.

68. Zinoviev, Kommunisticheskii Internatsional za rabotoi,p. 74.

69. Stalin, I. V., Sochineniya, vol. VI (Moscow, 1947), p. 144Google Scholar.

70. Vestnik Sotsialisticheskoi Akademii, vol. I (1922), p. 163Google Scholar.

71. Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn’, 1922, no. 15 (133), pp. 35–6Google Scholar; Tivel, A., ‘Puti i perspektivy Indiiskoi revolyutsii’, Novyi Vostok, 1922, no. 1, p. 118Google Scholar.

72. Gol'far, A., ‘Gandi i gandizm’, Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn 1922, no. 6 (124), pp. 10–12.Google Scholar

73. IV vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala: izbrannye doklady, rech'i i rezolyutsii (Moscow, 1923), pp. 263–7.Google Scholar

74. V vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala: stenograficheskii otchet, 2 vols. (Moscow-Leningrad, 1925), vol. I, p. 615Google Scholar; Carr, E. H., Socialism in One Country, 1924–1926, vol. III (London, 1964), pp. 650–2.Google Scholar

75. Carr, Socialism in One Country,p. 644.

76. Ibid., pp. 645–8; Lenczkowski, Russia and the West,p. 105; Ivanov (ed.), Istoriya Irana,p. 329.

77. Tanin, Mezhdunarodnaya politika SSSR, pp. 82–83.

78. Tretii vsemirnyi kongress,p. 464.

79. Harris, George S., The Origins of Communism in Turkey (Stanford, 1967), pp. 114–37.Google Scholar

80. Ibid., pp. 80–4; Safarov, G., Natsional'nyi vopros iproletariat (Petrograd, 1922), p. 196Google Scholar.

81. Degras, Jane (ed.), The Communist International 1919–1943, I (London, 1956), pp. 380–1.Google Scholar

82. Fourth Congress of the Communist International,pp. 221–2.

83. Dvenadtsatyi s”ezd RKP(b). Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1968), pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

84. Vos'moi s”ezd RKP(b). Mart 1919g. Protokoly (Moscow, 1959), pp. 47–8Google Scholar.

85. Secret Intelligence Report, 27 June 1923, F.O. 371/9369/N5849, P.R.O., London.

86. Ul'yanovsky, R. A. (ed.), Komintern i vostok (Moscow, 1969), p. 193Google Scholar.

87. Lenin, PSS, vol. XXXIX, pp. 329–30.