KARACHI, Nov 7: For long we have been hearing that communism has ended giving the example of Soviet Union for communism’s failure. But we have to tell the future generations and explain to them the actual reasons behind its so-called failure, said Dr Lal Khan, well-known Marxist leader and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign, at the book launch of Roos Inqilab say Radd-i-Inqilab Tak on Thursday at the Arts Council.

Also, since it was the 96th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Comrade Khan discussed the successes and failures of the revolution, communist principles and the witch-hunt of some its prominent leaders. “There were a number of reasons behind the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR). After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 many of its prominent leaders were killed in the initial years. Consequently, opportunists took over the newly-formed government and developed a philosophy of National Socialism that was completely in contrary to the philosophy of communism envisaged by the likes of Lenin and Trotsky. The isolation of USSR due to decline in its economy and other factors were also behind its degeneration.

“Lenin himself predicted the fall of the USSR that he discussed at length in his important work The State and Revolution. One of them was that the proletariat has a great responsibility to intervene in the class struggle decisively. And because it departed from some of the objectives, the experiment of USSR failed.

“Trotsky was an important leader of the Bolshevik Revolution along with Lenin. After Lenin’s death, Stalin and his regime took over and it was left to Trotsky and his like-minded comrades to struggle for the working class and Bolshevism. Some of the leaders gave great sacrifices to the struggle and Trotsky was one such person. He was expelled from the Communist Party and sent to Siberia. He was then deported from Soviet Union and he tried to take refuge in Turkey, France and the UK but all these countries refused. Finally he was attacked by a pickaxe and he succumbed to his injuries.”

Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research Karamat Ali said that when Pakistan came into existence one of the objectives was to protect the interests of the feudal class that comprised the Muslim elite. Another objective was allying itself to the United States and hence carried out activities to destabilize the communist party in the newly formed state. In fact Clement Attlee, the then prime minister of the UK, had stated that Pakistan would be a bulwark against the Soviet Union, he added.

The book, originally written by Ted Grant, is the Urdu translation of Russia: from Revolution to Counter-Revolution.

The translation has been done by Comrade Khan.