One other important event took place in 1919 about which I must tell you. This was the founding of the Third International in Moscow by the Communist Party. I have told you in previous letters of the First International, which Karl Marx had founded, and the Second International, which after many brave words came to grief on the outbreak of the war of 1914. The Bolsheviks considered that the working class had been betrayed by the old workers’ and socialist parties which formed this Second International. The Third International was therefore created by them, with a definitely revolutionary outlook, to wage war against capitalism and imperialism, and also against those opportunist socialists who followed a “ middle-of-the-road” policy. This International is often called the Comintern (from Communist International), and it has played a great part in propaganda in many countries. As its name implies, it is an international organization elected by various communist parties in many different countries, but Russia, being the one country where communism has triumphed, naturally dominates the Comintern. The Comintern is of course different from the Soviet Government, though many persons occupy leading positions in both. As the Comintern is avowedly an organization for spreading revolutionary communism, it is bitterly disliked by the imperialist Powers, and they are always trying to suppress its activities in their territories.
The Second International (the “Labour and Socialist International”) was also revived in western Europe after the war. To a great extent the Second and the Third Internationals have the same objective, in theory at any rate, but their ideology and methods are very different, and there is no love lost between them. They quarrel and fight and attack each other even more than they attack the common enemy, capitalism. The Second International is now a very respectable organization and has often provided cabinet ministers to European governments. The Third continues to be revolutionary, and is therefore far from respectable.
Right through the civil war in Russia the Red Terror and the White Terror competed with each other in their harsh cruelty, and probably the latter surpassed the former greatly. So one would conclude from the American general’s account (which I have quoted above) about Kolchak’s atrocities in Siberia, as well as other accounts. But there can be no doubt that the Red Terror was severe, and many innocent people must have suffered. The nerves of the Bolsheviks, attacked as they were on all sides, and surrounded by conspiracies and spies, gave way, and at the slightest suspicion they punished heavily. Their political police, called the Cheka, especially, got a bad name for this terror. It was the equivalent of the C.I.D. in India, but with greater powers.
This letter is getting long. But before I end it, I must tell you something more about Lenin. In spite of the injuries he had received when an attempt to take his life had been made in August 1918, he had not taken much rest. He went on working at tremendous pressure, and in May 1922 came the inevitable collapse. After a little rest he was again at work, but not for long. There was a worse collapse in 1923, from which he never recovered, and on January 21, 1924, he died near Moscow.
For many days his body lay in Moscow—it was winter, and the body was preserved by chemical treatment—and from all over Russia and the distant Siberian steppes came representatives of the common folk, peasants and workers, men and women and children, to pay their last homage to that beloved comrade of theirs who had pulled them out of the depths and pointed the way to a fuller life. They built him a simple and unadorned mausoleum in the beautiful Red Square of Moscow, and there his body still lies in a glass case, and every evening an unending procession passes silently by. It is not many years since he died, and already Lenin has become a mighty tradition, not only in his native Russia, but in the world at large. As time passes he grows greater; he has become one of the chosen company of the world’s immortals. Petrograd has become Leningrad, and almost every house in Russia has a Lenin corner or a Lenin picture. But he lives, not in monuments or pictures, but in the mighty work he did, and in the hearts of hundreds of millions of workers today who find inspiration in his example, and the hope of a better day.
Do not imagine that Lenin was an inhuman kind of machine, wrapped up in his work and thinking of nothing else. Absolutely devoted to his work and life mission he certainly was, and at the same time wholly without self-consciousness; he was the very embodiment of an idea. And yet he was very human, with that most human of all traits, the capacity to laugh heartily. The British Agent in Moscow, Lockhart, who was there during the early, perilous days of the Soviet, says that whatever happened, Lenin was always in good humour. “Of all the public figures I have ever met he possessed the most equable temperament,” says this British diplomat. Simple and straight in his talk and his work, and a hater of big words and poses. He loved music, so much so that he was almost afraid that it might affect him too much and make him soft in his work.
A colleague of Lenin’s, Lunacharsky, who was for many years the Bolshevik Commissar for Education, made a curious reference to him once. He compared Lenin’s persecution of the capitalists with Christ’s expulsion of the money-lenders from the temple, and added: “If Christ were alive today, he would be a Bolshevik.” A curious comparison for irreligious people.
About women, Lenin once said: “No nation can be free when half the population is enslaved in the kitchen.” Very revealing was the remark he made one day, as he was petting some children. His old friend Maxim Gorki tells us that he said, “These will have happier lives than we had. They will not experience much that we lived through. There will not be so much cruelty in their lives.” Let us all hope so.
I shall finish up this letter with the words of a recent Russian composition for a full orchestra and people’s chorus. It is said by people who have heard it that the music of this piece is full of vitality and power, and the song seems to represent the spirit of the revolting masses. Even the English translation of the words, which I give here, has something of this spirit in it. The song is called October, and this means the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917. The Russian calendar in those days was what is called the unreformed calendar, and it was thirteen days behind the ordinary Western calendar. According to this calendar the revolution of March 1917 took place in February, and it is therefore called the “February Revolution”, and similarly the Bolshevik Revolution, which took place early in November 1917 is called the “October Revolution”. Russia has changed its calendar now and adopted the reformed one, but these old names are still used.
We went, asking for work and for bread,
Our hearts were oppressed with anguish,
The chimneys of the factories pointed toward the sky, like tired hands
without strength to make a fist.
Louder than the cannon, the silence was broken by the words of our
grief and our pain.
O Lenin! the desire of calloused hands.
We have understood, Lenin, we have understood that our lot is a struggle!
Struggle! Struggle!
You led us to the last fight. Struggle!
You gave us the victory of labour.
And no one shall take away from us this victory over ignorance and oppression.
No one! No one! Never! Never!
Let every one be young and brave in the struggle, because the name of
our victory is October!
October! October!
October is a messenger from the sun.
October is the will of the revolting centuries!
October! It is a labour, it is a joy and a song.
October! It is good fortune for the fields and machines!
Here is the banner name of the young generation and Lenin.
153
Japan Bullies China
April 14, 1933
While the World War was going on, certain events took place in the Far East which deserve our attention. I shall therefore take you to China now. In my last letter about China I told you about the establishment of a republic there, and of the troubles that followed. Attempts were made to re-e
stablish the empire. These failed; but the republic did not succeed in establishing its authority over the whole country, or rather, no single government succeeded in doing so. Ever since then there has been no authority which ruled without challenge over the whole of China. For some years there were two principal governments in the country, the Northern and the Southern. In the south Dr Sun Yat-Sen and his national party, the Kuo-Min-Tang, were supreme. In the north there was Yuan Shih-Kai in command, and after him came a succession of generals and military men. Tuchuns these military adventurers were and are called; they have been the curse of China during recent years.
China was thus in the unhappy condition of continuous disorder, and often of civil war between north and south or between rival tuchuns. It was an ideal opportunity for the imperialist Powers to intrigue and try to profit by these internal dissensions by encouraging one party or tuchun and then another. That was the way, you will remember, that the English established themselves in India. The European Powers took advantage of the opportunity, and started intriguing and playing off one tuchun against another. But soon their own troubles and the World War put an end to their activities in the Far East.
It was not so in the case of Japan. All the main fighting of the war was far away, and Japan felt perfectly safe in carrying on her old activities in China. Indeed, she was then in a far better position to do so because the other Powers were engaged elsewhere and were not likely to interfere. She declared war against Germany simply to get hold of the German concession of Kiauchau in China and then to push on farther inland.
Japanese policy in regard to China has shown a remarkable consistency for the last two score years. As soon as they had modernized their army and pushed on the industrialization of their country, they decided that they must become dominant in China. They wanted room to spread out and expand their industries, and Korea and China were both near and weak, and seemed to invite domination and exploitation. The first attempt they made was the war with China of 1894-95. They succeeded, but did not get as much as they wanted because of the opposition of certain European Powers. Then came the more difficult struggle with Russia in 1904. They won in this too, and established themselves firmly in Korea and Manchuria. Korea was soon afterwards annexed, and became a part of the Japanese Empire.
Manchuria, however, remained part of China. It forms, and is referred to, as the three eastern provinces of China. The Japanese simply took over the Russian concessions there, including the railway they had built, called till then the Chinese Eastern Railway. The name of this railway was changed to South Manchurian Railway. Japan now started getting a good grip of Manchuria. Meanwhile the railway attracted immigrants from the rest of over-populated China, and Chinese peasants poured in. A kind of bean, called the soya bean, flourished in Manchuria, and a world demand developed for this because of its valuable properties. Among other products, a kind of oil is made from this bean. This soya-bean cultivation also drew immigrants. So, while the Japanese tried to get full control of the economic machinery of Manchuria from the top, Chinese from the south poured in and peopled the land. The old Manchu people were drowned in this sea of Chinese peasants and others, and became fully Chinese in culture and outlook themselves.
Japan did not fancy the coming of the Republic in China. She disapproved of anything that might strengthen China, and her whole diplomacy was aimed at preventing the consolidation of China into one strong State. So she took a very active interest in helping one tuchun against another, so that the internal disorder might continue.
The young Republic of China had the most tremendous problems to face. It was not merely a question of seizing political power from the dying imperial government. There was little of political power to seize, for such central power hardly existed. It had to be created. The old China was an empire in name; in effect it was a collection of a large number of autonomous areas loosely strung together. The provinces were more or less autonomous, and so were even the towns and villages. The authority of the Central Government or Emperor was recognized, but this government did not interfere in local matters. There was no “unitary” State, as it is called, with power and the actual government concentrated in the centre, and uniformity in the various aspects of government. It was this loosely attached (in a political sense) State that had broken up because of the impacts of Western industry and imperialist greed. If China were to survive, it was now felt that China must become a strong centralized State with a uniform system of government. The new Republic wanted to create such a State. It was something new, and hence it became one of the great difficulties facing the Republic. Her want of proper communications, roads and railways, has itself been a tremendous barrier in the way of political unity.
In the past the Chinese people had attached little importance to political power as such. Their whole mighty civilization was based on culture, and it taught, in a way which has not been equalled elsewhere, the art of living. They were so full of this old culture of theirs that even when their political and economic structure fell down they clung to the old cultural ways. Japan had deliberately adopted Western industry and Western ways, and yet at heart remained feudal. China was not feudal; she was full of rationalism and the spirit of science, and she looked with eagerness towards Western developments in science and industry. And yet she did not rush in where Japan had rushed in. There were, no doubt, many difficulties in her way which Japan did not have. But still there was also a hesitation to do anything which might mean a complete break with the old culture. China has the philosopher’s temperament, and philosophers do not act hastily. In her mind there was, and is, a great ferment; for the problems she had to face were not merely political, they were economic and social and intellectual and educational and so on.
And then again, the very size of huge countries like China and India creates difficulties. They are continental countries, and have something of the heaviness of a continent about them. When an elephant falls, he takes his time to get up; he cannot jump up like a cat or a dog.
When the World War began, Japan immediately joined the Allies and declared war on Germany. She took possession of Kiauchau and then began spreading out inland over the Shantung province, in which Kiauchau is situated. This meant that the Japanese were invading China proper. There was no question of operations against Germany, as Germany had nothing to do with this area. The Chinese Government politely asked them to go back. What arrogance! said the Japanese, and forthwith they produced an official note containing twenty-one demands.
These “Twenty-one Demands” became famous. I shall not give them here. They meant the transfer of all manner of rights and privileges to Japan, especially in Manchuria, Mongolia, and in the province of Shantung. The result of agreeing to these demands would have been to convert China practically into a colony of Japan. The feeble Northern Chinese Government objected to these demands, but what could they do against the powerful Japanese army? And, then, this Chinese Government in the north was itself not a popular one with its own people. However, it did one thing which helped. The Japanese demands were published. There was a tremendous outcry immediately in China, and even the other Powers, busy as they were with the war, were much put out. America especially objected. The result was that Japan withdrew some of her demands and modified others, and, as to the rest, she succeeded in bullying the Chinese Government into accepting them in May 1915. This resulted in intense anti-Japanese feeling in China.
In August 1917, three years after the war had begun, China joined the Allies and declared war on Germany. This was rather ridiculous, as China could do nothing at all to Germany. The whole object was to put herself right with the Allies and to save herself from the further embraces of Japan.
The Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 came soon after this and was followed by a great deal of disorder all over northern Asia. Siberia was one battleground for Soviet and anti-Soviet forces. Kolchak, the Russian white general, operated from Siberia against the Soviets. The Japanese, alarmed by the Soviet trium
ph, sent a large army to Siberia. British and American troops were also sent there. For a while Russian influence disappeared from Siberia and Central Asia. The British Government tried their best to put an end completely to Russian prestige in these areas. In the heart of Central Asia, in Kashgar, the British set up a wireless station for anti-Bolshevik propaganda.
In Mongolia also there was a fierce fight between Soviet and anti-Soviet people. As early as 1915, while the Great War was going on, Mongolia had succeeded, with help from Tsarist Russia, in gaining a great deal of autonomy from the Chinese Government. China remained suzerain, however, and Russia was also given a footing there in regard to Mongolia’s foreign relations. It was a curious arrangement. After the Soviet Revolution there was civil war in Mongolia, in which the local Soviets won after three years or more of struggle.
I have not told you yet about the peace conference that followed the World War. I shall have to deal with that in another letter. I might mention here, however, that the big Powers at this conference—and this meant especially England, France, and the U.S.A.—decided to present the Shantung province of China to Japan. Thus, as a result of the war, China, their ally, was actually made to give up a part of her territory. The reason for this was some secret treaty made during the war between England, France, and Japan. Whatever the reason may have been, this shabby trick on China was deeply resented by the Chinese people, and they threatened the Peking Government with revolution if it compromised on the matter. A strict boycott of Japanese goods was also proclaimed and anti-Japanese riots took place. The Chinese Government (by which I mean the Northern, Peking Government, which was the principal Government) refused to sign the Peace Treaty.
Two years later a conference was held in Washington, United States, at which this question of Shantung cropped up. The conference was of all the Powers interested in Far Eastern questions, and they had met to discuss the strength of their navies. Several important results followed, so far as China and Japan were concerned, from this Washington Conference of 1922. Japan agreed to hand back Shantung, and so one question which had been agitating the Chinese people tremendously was disposed of. Two important agreements were also reached between the Powers.
Glimpses of World History Page 98