The first head of the Comintern’s Far Eastern Bureau looks at the impact of the revolution and Soviet diplomacy on the eighth anniversary.

‘The Bolshevik Revolution and the Peoples of the Colonies and Semi-Colonies’ by Grigori Voitinsky from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 55. November 7, 1925.

IN the eighth year of its existence the importance of the Bolshevik revolution for the oppressed peoples of the East stands out with greater clearness than ever. China with its population of many millions, rent asunder by world imperialism more than ten years ago, is now in the eight year of the revolution experiencing a great revival among her population, who are uniting in order to resist the intervention of the imperialists of America, England, France, Japan and other countries. With an unprecedented absence of concealment, the great capitalist powers have undertaken a grand attack upon the toiling masses of China.

At this moment the only ally of the Chinese masses and the Chinese people as a whole, the only defender of their interests, is the Union of Soviet Republics. This fact is now known to the population of Southern, Northern and Central China as well as to the peoples of outer China–Thibet, Chinese Turkestan and outer Mongolia.

The treaty concluded by the U.S.S.R. and the Chinese republic has shown to the Chinese people that the new state is inspired by the spirit of real national equality in its relations to a people oppressed by imperialism The enslaving treaties which were violently enforced upon China by the imperialists of all nations and by the former czarist government were disclosed to the Chinese masses by the Chinese-Soviet treaty and the great danger menacing China by further penetrations of imperialism became obvious.

Our treaty which once and for all abolished the shameful privileges which permitted the czarist government to have its own streets (extraterritorial concessions) on Chinese territory, its own courts, its own armies, and its own laws, aroused a wave of enthusiasm among the Chinese masses, it also intensified the hatred of these masses towards the imperialists who still continue to exercise these privileges.

The annulment by the treaty of the Russian portion of the Boxer indemnity, the annulment of ah imposition of many millions, laid upon the Chinese people in favor of the imperialists as a sign of the latter’s victory over the Chinese people in 1900-1901, will have great influence in bringing the Chinese masses nearer to the revolutionary movement of the world proletariat.

THE Chinese people are beginning to understand the duel between our Red diplomacy and world imperialism on the territory of China. In the heart of China, Peking, after a bitter struggle, the red flag was finally hoisted in the stronghold of the imperialists, the legation quarter. The stone wall surrounding the imperialists’ quarter in Peking, thru the openings of which guns bitterly menace the Chinese people, has collapsed where the concession of the czarist government was originally; from this side the Chinese people have secured the possibility of entry into the stronghold of imperialism. Here the memorial of Lenin, whose name is honored by the entire Chinese people, will serve as an inspiration to the toiling masses of China and as a symbol of our great Bolshevik revolution.

The Chinese Eastern railway, which was constructed by the tzarist government with the object of enslaving the Chinese people, and which later served as the highroad for the plundering expeditions of world imperialism, has at last been torn from the clutches of the imperialists, and will henceforth serve as the highroad for the victorious proletariat marching to the aid of the oppressed masses of China.

AT the other end of Asia the small country of Afghanistan, heroically fighting for its independence, and struggling desperately to rid itself of the remnants of medieval feudalism, finds in the U.S.S.R, a trusty ally and a comrade who is prepared to defend it from aggression of British imperialism. The insurrections inspired and nourished by the “labor government” and headed by Prince Kherim Khan, who is aiming at the throne of Afghanistan, is serving still more to unite the Afghan people with the Union of Soviet Republics, which for many years has proved its sincere desire to help the people of Afghanistan to liberate themselves from the chains of feudalism and foreign intervention.

The flight of the red airmen, who, with the audacity of eagles crossed the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan, serves as a symbol of the assistance which the victorious proletariat is prepared to lend the oppressed peoples of the East in their struggle against imperialism.

THE people of Turkey, who experienced the revolution of 1908, the impulse to which was our revolution of 1905, who suffered from the intervention of imperialists after the world war, and who from peasant Angora fought for the independence of Turkey, found a trusty ally and a friend in the U.S.S.R. in every stage of its struggle.

With the aid of the Soviet diplomacy, and thanks to the firmness of Soviet policy on questions of the Near East, the struggling Turkish people succeeded in retaining their independence at the Lausanne conference. The Turkish people know that their only friend both in the fight for political independence and in the future struggle for economic independence, is the Union of Soviet Republics.

OUR neighbor, Persia, who for long years has been the prey of the imperialist powers of England and czarist Russia, has since the revolution entered on the path of national independence. At the present moment, when British imperialism, backed by the flag of the Second International, is instigating insurrections in southern Persia with the object of overthrowing Riza Khan, the leader of the national-revolutionary movement of Persia who succeeded in securing the independence, the mighty influence of the Soviet Union is a wall against which the British schemes of plunder are being smashed.

The innumerable millions of toilers of India have since the revolution ceased to feel that they are alone in their fight against the British oppressors. They know that in the north a powerful force has sprung up and is ripening, a force capable of inspiring fear even in the heart of “invincible” British imperialism. The toilers of India know that the country of the Soviets is their one true and unselfish ally.

IT is not therefore surprising, that at the trade union congress in 1921, the Indian proletariat declared its fraternal solidarity with the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia. It is not surprising therefore that on the death of Lenin the oppressed masses of India united with the general mourning of the toiling masses of the world.

It is not surprising therefore when the blind hatred of the British bourgeoisie towards the Soviets is urging them to break the agreement with Soviet Russia, the Indian revolutionaries are defending the Soviet Union against the attacks of British imperialists, even bourgeois and Indian newspapers, such as the Bombay Chronicle, are obliged to admit this fact.  

The idea of the revolution is becoming familiar even to the most backward and oppressed peoples of the Near, Middle and Far East.

KOREA, a country with a population of 15 millions, struggling in the iron clutches of Japanese imperialism, has since 1919, and under the influence of the revolution, made heroic attempts to liberate herself; she has been swept by a revolutionary wave coming from the west, from the Amur and the maritime regions.

The cry “Hands off China” is being carried from the country of the Soviets thruout the whole world and will without doubt find a response in oppressed Korea, the fate of which is so closely bound up with China, and will serve as a further stimulus to the Korean liberation movement.

THE peoples of Arabia and the African colonies who are fighting an unequal duel with the armies of the imperialists, are turning their eyes more and more to the Soviet Republics, feeling that they are their sole friend and protector in their struggles.

These peoples have found the way to Moscow, and on the eight anniversary of the revolution the representatives of Arabia will be able to celebrate with us the victory of the working class over the deadly enemy of the peoples of the East—czarist Russia, and over international capitalism. Greater and greater divisions of the oppressed sections of mankind are marching under the banner of the Bolshevik revolution. All forms of struggle against oppression are being dedicated to the great idea of the revolution; whether the struggle of the revolutionary proletariat in the capitalist countries, of the national-emancipation movement of dependent peoples or the struggle against theocrasy, against religious oppressions, these are becoming identified with the struggle of the vanguard of the world proletariat, the Union of Soviet Republics.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n255-NYE-sect-2-rev-anniv-nov-07-1925-DW-LOC.pdf