Rift widens in Allied camp¶
Core Argument¶
Rift Widens in Allied Camp
This chapter, drawn from Socialist Appeal in mid-September 1943, argues that the military victories of the Red Army have exposed and deepened the fundamental antagonism between the Soviet Union and the Allied imperialist powers. The central narrative thrust is that the British and American ruling classes, far from being genuine allies of the USSR, are engaged in a desperate race to reach the Balkans before the Red Army, precisely because they fear the revolutionary upheavals that would follow its arrival. The capitalists recognise that if Soviet forces reach the borders of the Balkan states, the peoples will rise in revolt, regardless of Stalin’s wishes. Consequently, the Allies concentrate their military efforts not where a second front is most needed, but where their class interests are most endangered.
The chapter makes several key claims. First, the Red Army’s unparalleled victories are of world-shaking importance, comparable to Napoleon’s campaigns against feudal Europe. This achievement is all the more remarkable given that Russia had lost more territory than any other belligerent: a third of its population, food supply, railway network, and far more than a third of its coal, iron, and steel. Second, these victories were won despite Stalin’s bureaucratic interference. The chapter notes that Stalin was compelled to remove the nonentities and lackeys without military merit—Timoshenko, Voroshilov, Budenny—whom he had placed in command solely for their subservience, and to promote genuine military talent such as Rokossovsky, Zhukov, and Malinovsky. Third, the ultimate source of the Red Army’s resilience is the October Revolution itself: nationalised industry, even under bureaucratic leadership, has demonstrated its superiority over capitalism on the battlefield.
The chapter draws on the historical context of the Second World War and the pre-war diplomacy in which Britain and America manoeuvred to ensure Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. It cites the incautious remarks of Moore-Brabazon and his American counterparts, who openly hoped for a war that would weaken both Germany and the USSR. The polemic is directed squarely against the Allied imperialists, particularly those who favoured a prolonged war of exhaustion. The chapter quotes the Russian journal War and the Working Class, which denounced this as a philosophy that saw nothing bad in a conflict that exhausted not only Germany but the Soviet Union as well. The Times of September 3rd is cited to show that even Stalin has been impelled to blurt out the truth about these differences.