“ON LENIN DAY WE SEND HEARTY GREETINGS TO ALL who are doing something for carrying forward the ideas of the great Lenin. We wish success to the great experiment Russia is carrying out. We join our voice to that of the international working class movement. The proletariat will win. Capitalism will be defeated. Death to Imperialism”.
-Telegram to 3rd International on Lenin Day (by Bhagat Singh and his HSRA comrades)
On January 21, 1930, Bhagat Singh and his HSRA comrades, accused in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, appeared in the court wearing red scarves and raised slogans “Long Live Socialist Revolution”, “Long Live Communist International”, “Long Live People” “Lenin’s Name Will Never Die”, and “Down with Imperialism”. He then read the text of the above telegram and asked the judge to send it to 3rd International, Moscow. The above telegram shows how Lenin and his works inspired Bhagat Singh and other Indian revolutionaries.
Lenin (22 April, 1870 – 21 January, 1924) was a great revolutionary teacher of the proletariat, the working people, and the oppressed nations of the whole world. A disciple of Marx, Lenin devoted his life to revolution, to destroy capitalism, and to form a classless society free from all kinds of oppressions. In 1917 in Russia, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, seized power and founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The establishment of the Soviet Union marked the first advance in human history of the creation of a society free from class exploitation. The rapid strides made by socialism, the transformation of a once backward economy into a mighty economic and military bulwark confronting
imperialism, have confirmed the superiority of the socialist system. Significant achievements were recorded in the Soviet Union, in the fields of agriculture, industry, health, education, science, and technology, women’s equality and empowerment, culture, housing, eradication of illiteracy and poverty, etc, are all well-known. Despite the strict surveillance of imperialist forces, the news of the remarkable successes of Soviet society and Communism was reaching India. The Russian Revolution and its experiments with socialism impacted the Indian freedom struggle in different kinds of ways.
Lenin was passionately concerned with the struggles for national liberation of the colonies oppressed by imperialists. USSR supported the national liberation movements and newly-liberated countries. Lenin was the only head of a state (USSR) who supported the Indian freedom struggle. Soon Lenin became an important figure for the workers and peasants in India. All the revolutionaries in India were greatly influenced by the Russian Revolution and USSR. A few weeks after the revolution in Russia, the freedom fighter and Tamil poet, Subramania Bharathi, wrote his poem ‘Pudiya Russia’ about the Russian Revolution. Mohammad Barkatallah, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of India, met Lenin on May 7, 1919. He witnessed revolutionary changes and the unprecedented enthusiasm of the working people of Soviet Russia and was incredibly impressed by his meeting and his reading of the programme of the Communist Party. He later wrote in 1920: “Comrade Lenin has raised the banner of genuine freedom, equality and brotherhood. Let us join our ranks in the fight under that banner for the liberation of the entire human race. Follow the example of Lenin, who took the
initiative to gain the hearts of the peoples of the East, and succeeded beyond any expectation.” On February 17, 1920, a group of Indian revolutionaries met in Kabul to pass a resolution. The resolution, expressed deep admiration of Soviet Russia’s working class struggle that was led by him. The statement said, “The Indian revolutionaries express their deep gratitude and their admiration of the great struggle carried on by Soviet Russia for the liberation of all oppressed classes and peoples, and especially for the liberation of India”. Just about a couple of months later, Lenin responded to the Indian call. He wrote, “I am glad to hear that the principles of self-determination and the liberation of oppressed nations from exploitation by foreign and native capitalists, proclaimed by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic, have met with such a ready response among progressive Indians, who are waging a heroic fight for freedom”.
In 1923, the constitution of the HRA was written. Influenced by the Russian Revolution and the achievement of USSR, it declared that the ultimate aim of the organisation was “to establish a ‘Federal Republic of United States of India’ through organised and armed revolution…The fundamental principles of this Republic would be establishing universal suffrage and eradicating the social system in which there is class-exploitation”. The programme of the HRA also spoke of ‘organising workers and peasants’. The early phase of revolutionary movement of India, from Ghadar Party to HRA, was inspired by the Soviet Union and Lenin but in their ideas and actions, they were mainly nationalists. This situation changed after Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh was one of the earliest Marxist thinkers of India. He was an avid reader of the teachings of Marx and Lenin. The ‘Naujawan Bharat Sabha’, under the leadership of Bhagat Singh, in 1925, declared that its objective was to establish “a completely independent Republic of Workers and Peasants in India”. Bhagat Singh was instrumental in changing the name of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) into the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). In his prison notebooks, he quoted Marx and Lenin several times in reference to imperialism and capitalism. In one of his letters written to his friend Jaydeb, he requested him to send books like Civil War in France by Marx, Left Wing Communism, and Collapse of the Second International by Lenin. In his last testament, “To Young Political Workers”, he declares the ideal of the revolution as the “Social reconstruction on new, i.e., Marxist, basis” and “to establish the dictatorship of the
proletariat”. On the day of his execution, when Bhagat Singh was called, he asked his executioners: “Wait a while. A revolutionary is talking to another revolutionary.” as he was reading the book, Reminiscences of Lenin, authored by Clara Zetkin. His last wish was that he wanted to finish reading Lenin’s life before his death. After HSRA, the effect of Lenin and his ideas can be seen in Tebhaga, Telangana, Srikakulam, Naxalbari, and other revolutionary movements in India. Leninism is the Marxism of the era of imperialism, his great teachings founded the basis of the formation of Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) in 1969. The party was founded by Com Charu and others on Lenin’s birthday.
Lenin is an ideological force representing the irresistible desire of people across the world for liberation from imperialism. Lenin is present, in the struggles of workers and farmers against the big corporates, the struggles of adivasis against the imperial loot of Jal-Jangal-Jameen. Until the final defeat of Capitalism, Lenin will be part of the struggles of the oppressed. Reflecting the tremendous spirit of hope that the Russian Revolution and Lenin breathed into the national liberation struggles, the American poet Langston Hughes wrote;
Lenin walks around the world.
Frontiers cannot bar him.
Neither barracks nor barricades impede.
Nor does barbed wire scar him.
Lenin walks around the world.
Black, brown, and white receive him.
Language is no barrier.
The strangest tongues believe him.
Lenin walks around the world.
The sun sets like a scar.
Between the darkness and the dawn
There rises a red star.
