With statements from the Communist parties of Greece and Turkey as well as the Workers' Party of Ireland
Soviet postcard graphic celebrating Victory Day, May 9 1945
May 9th, 1945 was Victory Day in the USSR when the Soviets officially accepted the surrender of Germany after years of devastating war. The world owes the peoples of the Soviet Union an immense debt of gratitude for their extreme sacrifices in the struggle to defeat fascism.
Here we share statements today (May 9, 2023) from the Communist parties of Greece and Turkey as well as the Workers' Party of Ireland celebrating the Great Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples.
On 12th January 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched its final offensive along a 1,200-kilometre front extending from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. The offensive developed at a rapid pace but there remained fierce battles to be fought before the world was liberated from the fascist imperialist Axis of Germany–Italy–Japan and their allies.
On 1st May 1945 the red banner of victory was hoisted over the Reichstag in Berlin and a few days later Germany officially acknowledged defeat. On 9th May Soviet forces defeated Nazis encircling Prague.
9th May is a landmark of the Great Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples. Millions of people from across the world lost their lives in the struggle against German fascism and Japanese militarism. Their sacrifices and contribution must never be forgotten.
At a time when the European Union, with its anti-communist rhetoric, falsifications and actions, attempts to disguise and distort the real meaning of 9th May with its feeble and anemic celebration of “Europe Day”, the Workers Party of Ireland remembers and celebrates the immense contribution of the Soviet Union and the Red Army, which suffered 20 million casualties, and the invaluable role of the Communist Parties and partisans that led the national liberation and anti-fascist movements around the world.
Today, we are confronted with the continuing threat and reality of imperialist war. The production of the means of mass destruction has assumed shocking proportions. The accumulation and technological refinement of nuclear weapons continues. Tens of billions of dollars are spent by the imperialist powers on weapons of war while public services such as health, education, housing and environmental protection are disregarded. The expansion of foreign military bases continues to pose a threat to peace. The US alone controls some 750 bases in at least 80 countries worldwide and spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined. Imperialism poses an ongoing threat to the peoples of the world through subversion, coercion, intervention, occupation and war.
Several decades after the counter-revolution and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the peoples of the world are now confronted with economic crises, militarism, capitalist exploitation, the growth of fascism and war.
That is why it is vital to expose and condemn the efforts of the bourgeois parties to downgrade the heroic struggle against fascism and to reassert and commemorate the importance of the Great Anti-fascist Victory and the staunchness and fortitude of the socialist forces who were key to that victory.
Gerry Grainger
International Secretary
Workers Party of Ireland
The Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued a statement on the 9th of May, which notes, among other things, the following:
"World War II, like World War I, was the result of imperialist rivalries for the new division of markets, territories and spheres of influence, as well as their sharpening in conditions of capitalist economic crisis [...]
From the outset, the USSR, the partisan movements throughout the world, led by the respective Communist Parties in the occupied countries, as well as communists and other radical militants opposed and finally defeated the fascist Axis [...] Over 20 million people fell victims in the USSR, many of whom were members of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and its youth, the Komsomol. [...]
In Greece, the KKE was the lifeblood and leader of EAM, ELAS, EPON and the other EAM organizations which saved the people from starvation, fought heroic battles, liberated large areas of Greece, where institutions of local administration, education and justice, created by the people, were established with the support of ELAS [...]
The war was just on the side of the USSR, which was fighting to defend the socialist power and on the side of the partisan movements, fighting against Nazism-fascism in their country. But it was unjust both on the part of the fascist Axis and the US-UK Allies [...]
The 9th of May shows the power of the people, led by the communists, that can defeat any imperialist coalition and domestic class exploiter and pave the way for socialism-communism."
Dozens of events across the country:
The party organizations of the KKE are organizing events across the country to commemorate the 9th of May. In Thessaloniki, an important event was held at Yedi Kule, the place of imprisonment and execution of communists and other militants during the Nazi occupation and afterwards.
In Berlin, the KKE organizations together with the organizations of the Communist Party of Turkey commemorated the 9th of May at the Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park, holding Party flags and symbols, despite the bans issued by the local authorities and the police attempt to prevent them from raising KKE flags.
9 May, one of the turning points in the history of humanity, the Victory Day that brought capitalist barbarism, fascism and racism to its knees… Seventy-eight years have passed since the Nazis and their collaborators who led the destruction in which 75 million people, including 27 million Soviet citizens, lost their lives and millions more were wounded, surrendered to the extraordinary struggle of the Red Army and the people.
9 May, the day the Great Patriotic War concluded victoriously and the day the Second World War ended in Europe, is the proof of the superiority of socialism over capitalism. In material and moral terms… On that day, the egalitarian, planned and fraternal order of socialism, the honourable sacrifice of millions of ordinary people, defeated the chaos of capitalism, the deceit and brutality of the monopolies.
Today, in the absence of socialism, the peoples of Europe and the world are under threat again. The contradictions created by the imperialist order have again led to war, casualties, destruction and displacement. The war in Ukraine continues to show how irrational and unscrupulous order capitalism is. What do we have at this point? An enlarged NATO with increased potential for aggression, an increase in the credibility of the US, an even more militarised Europe and resources stolen from the people in the name of armaments…
And in the face of this, there is the Victory Day that is tried to be erased from the memory of the peoples… For years, the Victory Day of the Soviets, partisans, communists and the working people of Europe has been commemorated as “Europe Day” to create an artificial common value. In this artificiality, what is hidden is discrimination, and the interests of capitalism. For this very reason, let us emphasize once again today: Victory Day belongs only to the logbook of the achievements of the working class.
Today, working people in Europe and all over the world yearn for conditions in which imperialist threats and aggression end and a peaceful and secure life is established. The only way to achieve this is through the intervention in the course of history by those who will rise up with the goal of building an equal and free present and future for humanity.
With our struggle for the construction of such a present and future…
Salutes to the Red Army, the Soviet people and those who fought in the anti-fascist struggle in Europe. Salutes to the 9th of May!