adminRtd Brig Gen Abel Mazinyane
The Great October Revolution did not only usher the era of the proletarian revolution. It also triggered a crisis for the ugliest face of capitalism, colonialism.
The success of the Great October socialist revolution put the Soviet Union as the vanguard of workers and peasant movement worldwide. It inspired the oppressed throughout the world to fight for their liberation. The Great October Revolution was on 24 October 1917 as per the then Russian calendar.
Mao Tse Tung said, “the gun volleys of the October revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism”, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921. Jawara Nehru Prime Minister of India had this to say, “I had no doubt that the Soviet revolution had advanced human society by a great leap and had lit a bright flame which would not be extinguished.”
It was the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution that made the survival of socialist Cuba at the doorstep of the US world possible. The Great October Socialist ushered in a new type of democracy. A dictatorship of the poor. This democracy introduced total equality when in other countries women and people of colour were not allowed to vote. It introduced equal pay when it was not known in other countries. To these revolutionaries any other dictatorship other than the dictatorship of the poor cannot guarantee peace.
The Great October Socialist Revolution’s immediate task was to address the land issue. Extracts from the land decree were as follows;
1. Land proprietorship is abolished forth with or without compensation.
2. Private land ownership shall be abolished forever.
3. Land of ordinary peasant shall not be confiscated.
Article 28 of the constitution of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) read in part, “the foreign policy of the USSR is aimed at . . . supporting the struggle of peoples for national liberation and social justice,” these are some of the issues that needed to be addressed to guarantee peace.
The USSR established an NGO in the name of Afro Asian Solidarity Committee to directly attend to day by day problems facing African and Asian people fighting for independence.
Prior to the establishment of the Afro Asian Solidarity Committee in 1950 on the insistence of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) an International Trade Union Fund was founded. The purpose of this fund was to assist leftist parties in non-socialist countries. Other members of this fund were China, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland and German Democratic Republic (GDR). China withdrew in 1962.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had contact with the South African Communist Party before 1927. However, on record is the visit by the president of the ANC of South Africa to Moscow in 1927. Josiah Gumede was invited to attend the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Since then ANC and SACP have worked together as one till today, that is comradeship which does not evaporate. One would have expected USSR to give more support to South African Communist Party than to ANC, but instead it was the opposite. This demonstrates that the USSR’s assistance was not to spread communism but simply to assist the oppressed.
During the war of liberation Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) worked closely with Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) Chris Hani and other MK cadres were sent for military training in 1963. USSR later trained MK soldiers in highly sophisticated equipment such as military aircrafts, military submarines and others.
At the beginning the USSR supported most of the Angolan liberation movements. National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) and Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). UNITA was formed in 1966 when Jonas Savimbi split from FNLA while FNLA was founded in 1962 from GRAEUDA. The USSR finally settled to supporting MPLA as the most progressive of all Angolan movements.
The USSR sent equipment and military personnel to assist MPLA fight against foreign aggression after independence. During the war of independence USSR trained hundreds of Angolan fighters within its borders. It also took in many Angolan students in its universities. Financial assistance to Angola grew in leaps and bounds. In 1970 Soviet journalists visited MPLA fighting zones in Angola.
Augustine Neto had this to say to them, “tell the world the truth about our struggle and our hardships, let the Soviet people, whose sympathy and support we have felt all these years day in day out.” Through the assistance by USSR the Angolan army was able to humiliate the South African (apartheid) army in the battle field. The invincibility of the South African army in Africa was proved to be a false alarm in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. Cuban forces (a by-product of Great October Socialist Revolution) physically fought in Angola to help defeat South Africa and usher the independence of Namibia.
Beginning of 1960s USSR got in contact with Mozambican liberation movements, Mozambican African National Union (MANU) Democratic National Union of Mozambique (UDENAMO) and Front for the Liberation of Mozambique. Soviet Union and other Socialist countries assisted Frelimo with all they could for the liberation of Mozambique. Soviet journalists moved through Mozambique with Frelimo fighters during their war of liberation.
The first assistance to Zimbabwe liberation war movements was given to the NDP (National Democratic Party) in 1961. This assistance was given to NDP not only that it was the most progressive mass nationalist movement in Southern Rhodesia but also that it was taking action in support of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. A decision was taken by CPSU to give it 5 000 British pounds. In 1962 they were given 150 000 British pounds after Joshua Nkomo’s request. By the way USSR had sent its aircrafts in Congolese insignia to Congo to help deploy Lumumba’s forces.
When Zimbabwe entered the phase of the armed struggle the USSR and all those states that were ushered by the success of the Great October Revolution stood with the oppressed people of Zimbabwe at their hour of need. PF Zapu cadres were sent to the Soviet Union in 1963 for military training. These were the cadres who formed the nucleus of the armed struggle for Zimbabwe. Some of these cadres were the late national hero Ackim Ndlovu, Dumiso Dabengwa, VP Phelekezela Mphoko and others.
The Soviet Union sent its military officers to Angola to help together with Cubans train ZPRA (also known as Zipra, PF Zapu’s military wing). They also sent military advisors to Zambia to work with ZPRA headquarters. They offered their airplanes to uplift ZPRA and other cadres from Dar es Salaam to the USSR for military training. Later they opened an AEROFLOT (Soviet Airline) route Lusaka –Luanda-Budapest-Moscow. Most of the time the plane was carrying freedom fighters with tickets paid for by the USSR or other socialist countries. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries offered many educational scholarships to Zimbabwean students, some of whom are great assets to Zimbabwe today.
Soviet army officers were sent to Angola to help train ZPRA cadres together with Cubans at Boma near Luso (Luema). Soviet experts were sent to Zambia to investigate the problems ZPRA was experiencing with SAM7s; this was the Surface to Air Missile. The Soviet experts insisted on investigating the problem in the battlefield.
This became a headache to the ZPRA High Command which did not want an international incident on their hands. To them nothing was too risky for the liberation of the people of Zimbabwe.
I also recall when they sent a team to Lusaka to screen ZPRA candidates for pilots and air craft technicians training in the USSR. They took about two weeks to come up with the numbers ZPRA wanted. This was all paid for by the Soviet government. The USSR gave the Patriotic Front (PF) a unity of Zanu and Zapu during the war, its unwavering support when it was formed.
The Great October Socialist Revolution imparted to the guerrillas the spirit of respect for human life, the respect for the will of the people and to shy away from acts of terrorism and be freedom fighters. The Soviets were sensitive to racial utterances.
They were advocates of class revolution, although they also accepted that the national liberation struggle was part of the world revolutionary process. The world has a lot to thank the Great October Socialist Revolution for.
The impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution can never be wished away.
n Rtd Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane is a former member of the ZPRA High Command.
Online Reporter