Here I am again, Helen Blau from sunny Georgia.
Without doubt, it is not only the warm temperament that the Georgian people are famous for. Georgia is a very ancient country. People already lived on its territory from the dawn of history. So, no wonder that Georgians have many interesting centuries-old customs and traditions, which can be rapturously admired, say, when men in Guria (part of Western Georgia) sit and talk over some cheerful glasses of the most delicious Georgian wine, the first toast drunk is always to peace. It proves in its own way that Georgians treat Peace as a primary issue.
It is no secret that the present situation in the Caucasus poses a great danger to peace, and it is one of the most difficult issues preoccupying our community right now.
A delegation from Georgia, comprising members of the United Communist Party of Georgia and also the representatives of the Union of the People's Patriotic Forces of Georgia, led by the First Secretary of this organization, P.I. Georgadze, participated in the First Congress of the Peoples of the Caucasus which took place in Nachilsk, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus, Russia) on September 26, 1999.
Over 734 delegates represented 16 territories and all regional republics. There were representatives from over 100 nationalities living in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and in the territory of the North Caucasus of Russia. They were mostly members of the Communist parties and the Peoples Patriotic Forces.
I was not among the participants of the Congress, but I read all of the materials in the special issue of the newspaper Pravda (the issue of October, 1999) and I thought that the readers of NSC might find the information about the congress useful and interesting.
This is written in the hope that our friends in Armenia and Azerbaijan and also Russia will not be miffed by my initiative to do it and that it shall not be regarded as a violation of ethics. The only purpose to submit this material is not only a wish to draw attention to a very serious problem that appears to have been formed in the North Caucasus, but also to share the important information about some concrete steps which the People's Patriotic Forces, led by the Communists, undertake in the sincere attempt of preventing a great war in the region and of taking certain practical measures towards resurrecting the Soviet Union.
Having analyzed the materials of the congress. I came to the conclusion that all of the reports printed in newspapers are worth the NSC readers' attention, they were all permeated with deep concern about the sharp aggravation in the North Caucasus.
As far as I can judge by the published materials, the general tenor of the talks given at the congress was patriotic and naturally a bit emotional as it sprang from the attitude of the speakers towards the subject discussed. The mood was very decisive and that promoted a business-like atmosphere.
It is important to recognize that all of the speakers were unanimous in their assessment of the situation in the North Caucasus and presented a serious approach towards all of the problems discussed.
Since space in NSC is very precious, I will center only on some reports which, as I see it, contain more analytical ideas expressed mostly in a matter-of-fact manner and which propose common-sense solutions to the current political predicaments in the North Caucasus.
Reports to the Congress were many and varied
As G.N. Seleznev, Chairman of the Russian National Assembly, stated in his letter of greeting to this congress: "delegates have gathered in the period which is complicated and responsible for both the Caucuses and Russia. It is a time when extremists, separatists and aggressive forces of international terrorism have undertaken all desperate measures to explode and destabilize the situation in the Caucasus and in Russia in order to drive a wedge amongst the peoples of the Caucasus and to aggravate the inter-ethnic relations."
The report by Egor Ligachev, First Chairman of the International Committee "For the Unity and Brotherhood of Peoples" was printed in NSC, vol. 8, no. 7, page 5.
Nicholas Bindjuckov, a deputy of the Russian National Assembly, and a member of the Committee for CIS affairs and cooperation with compatriots, focused in his speech on the analysis/causes of the war in Chechniya and of the current military-political crisis in Daghestan, that is entailed by the war.
He also stressed that the unpopular Constitution of Russia adopted in 1993, which legalized the course towards the market economy (capitalism) of the society, has led to the further deterioration of the national relations. He criticized the constitution, saying that it laid the foundation for aggravating inter-regional conflicts. The next bloody step in aggravating the inter-ethnic relations and the national-state structure of the Russian Federation is connected with the war in Chechniya, unleashed by the powers in the Kremlin.
The war in Chechniya is a global phenomena aiming to re-partition the world, a zone of competitive struggles between NATO (USA and Turkey) and Russia for the control over the transportation of the large Caspian oil, it is a revival of the century-old struggle for domination over the Caucasus, which was a sphere of the English and Turkish influence as very long ago as the XVIII-XIX centuries.
ln other words, the war in Chechniya on the part of foreign states, which provoked it by its character is Imperialist and also a "criminal" one.
Neither was it just on the part of the former Yeltsin government. Moreover, judging by all the course of events, the Russian State regime did not factually strive to maintain the integrity of the Russian Federation. It is a conflict between the capitalist groupings from Moscow and Grozny for the sake of the control over the oil extraction in Chechniya.
This war, on the part of Chechniya's regime was neither just or patriotic. All the actions of this regime has anti-Soviet, bourgeois and criminal trend. During all of the redistribution of the public property it struggled desperately for a big piece of privatization of all the peoples' accumulated Soviet property. For mercenary motives the Chechniya regime most willingly accepted the cooperation with foreign Imperialist forces.
He also accused the aggression unleashed by Chechniya against his autonomous republic of Daghestan which was the result of inactivity on the part of Yeltsin's regime to settle the Chechen crisis. There was no wish on the part of the regime of Yeltsin and his backers to have a clear-cut policy and pursue it persistently on the local territories of Russia. There must be instituted such a policy very quickly.
N. Bindjuckov said that: "No social accord can be achieved when class antagonisms are gaining in strength and scope. Since the break-up of the former USSR it has become quite clear that it will be impossible to maintain the integrity and unity of our common Great Motherland unless the country goes back to the road of people's power and socialism. We must have real independence of our Fatherland and not the impudent dictat of the West.
For this reason the present regime which is antipopular, should be now deprived of power, the need for socio-economic course to be changed and a national salivation government should be reformed.
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, Sergei Badalyan, declared that it is the peoples' wish to be together, "Our union, - he said, - is a voluntary brotherly union of peoples. We must state this to the whale world! Armenia cannot exist without brotherly economic and mutually advantageous cooperation with Georgia, Azerbaijan and the North Caucuses and especially with the whole of Russia.
Ramix Akhmadov, Chairman of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, criticized Russia. It is inconsistent, not intensive, not patriotic, but is very tolerant towards nationalistic pro-Western underhanded plotting. The involvement in our internal affairs of the USA, NATO, IMF is well known. Since 1994 the Communist Party of Azerbaijan was an active member the UCP-CPSU (Union of Communist Parties - CPSU) it is an international organization which is trying to gather the fragmented former Soviet Union in an effort to resurrect the USSR.
There can be no peace without justice. Peace must be the result of the peoples' decisions and concord with the interests of all the different nationalities. Some of the policies of the leaders in the Caucasus towards Russia are far from being far-sighted now unfortunately. We must distinguish between the present image of Russia and that of the present leadership of Russia. We always must popularize again the results of the Leninist policies on the national question.
Addressing the delegate, Eugene Copishev, Chairman of the CEC of the International Union of Soviet Officers, Air Force Major General, and vice chairman of the UCP-CPSU, formulated the primary aims of the army, some of which are: to maintain the unity of the army units and the people, not to allow the army to participate in police actions, in wars among brotherly peoples, to keep and popularize battle traditions of older generations, to defend the rights of the servicemen and not to ever allow NATO's boots to trample our land.
Touching upon the problem of the armed gangsterism and international terrorism, Eugene Copishev underlined that they can be exterminated once and for all only through the restoration of the real Soviet people's power.
The Appeal of the First Congress of the Peoples of the Caucuses was as follows:
APPEAL
To all peoples, parties, leaders of states, republics, territories, to parliaments, legislative assemblies, all governments and mass media of the Caucasian region.
Friends! Brothers and Sisters!
We all, the representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus, express our great anxiety about the present and future of our children, our mothers, relatives, about the fate of our peoples and states. We have passed a hard century-old path of the struggle for freedom and independence, for the needed unity with all the peoples of Russia.
Having made the Great October Socialist Revolution, the working people of the multinational Russia overthrew the oppression of Tsarism and the local elite and established the power of the working people; they turned the land and the industries and enterprises over to the working people... we also established peace and accord among all the people.
During Soviet times, all nationalities were preserved and provided with all-round development, for the first time many of them acquired their statehood and even a written language. The Great Russian people rendered an incalculable assistance to the formation of the working class and intelligencia in the Caucasus, to the creation of modern economics, to the development of culture, science, education and care of the public health.
It is the Communist party and all Soviet power that corrected the mistakes of the past: condemned repression against some peoples, brought them back to their native places, resurrected their national state territories and ensured their free and safe life and also gave them confidence for their future.
In recent years the Caucasus has been involved in military and other ethnic conflicts, terrorist acts which took hundreds of thousands of lives. It was primarily caused by the break-up of the Soviet Union, by the destruction of all the Soviet power and socialism and the restoration of capitalism. The ethnic conflicts were also aggravated and they are connected with the economic decay, mass unemployment, deep poverty, property stratification and the sharp deterioration of the standard of living for population.
The artificial contradictions caused by all the separatists, pitting one class against another. This is done for the purpose of power for the leadership plus the amassed peoples property. Before, during Soviet times there were absolutely no ethnic conflicts, but now these conflicts are fanned. The present Russian regime had and has a slogan, when capitalism was instigated: "Take as much sovereignty as you can", meant the encouragement of national separation. We had no territorial claims during USSR... but now we have, and they are increasing.
The policy of utilizing the diversity of religious beliefs is used far justification of the national reserve and exclusiveness. Before, there were no "Foreigners" nor were there "Heterodoxies" here, but now there are. The foreign-inspired course of breaking off territories and enclaves from Russia are being purposely imposed from abroad. Plans for establishing Western military bases in the Caucasus is in the works. Aggression and intervention are taking place in the North Caucasus, especially in Daghestan with the sole purpose of separating this important region from Russia proper and for further dismemberment and enslaving of the people.
Such is the truth. We are now at a historical point and crossroads. We are sinking into an abyss of discord. This Congress feels and knows that salvation is only possible if the power of the working class is established. At the same time this Assembly demands the resurrection of the USSR on a voluntary basis. We welcome the union between Russia and Byelorussia and support this movement.
We appeal to the citizens of the villages and auls [aul - village in the Caucasus and Central Asia], stanitsas [stanitsa - large Cossack village] and cities, working bodies, political parties and public movements, parliaments and legislative bodies and governments, plus the heads of states and republics and regional territories to:
- actively take advantage of our old experience of joint coexistence and cooperation of the peoples of the Caucasus as part of the Russian state and of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
- provide by joint actions the much needed economic recovery, eliminate unemployment, timely payment of wages, retirement benefits and the raising of the standard of living.
- settle all the problems by peaceful means; by talks and reciprocal concessions. There must not be any place for ultimatums or the use of weapons.
- no restrictions on any religious grounds or nationality. Shame on those who started to use the term "a person of Caucasian nationality"! All people are equal!
- we cannot allow no communication between the peoples of all the Caucasus. We cannot imagine the Caucasus without Russia or Russia without the Caucasus.
- along with the dissemination of the local languages, to support the Russian language as a means of communication by all people. We must pass a law to grant the Russian language a status that is equal with the local languages. We must revive the Days of Culture, Festivals and literature.
We appeal to all workers, peasants, intelligencia to take steps to bar strife, to stop the refugee problem and to liquidate all gangsters and kidnappings. We want and demand peace and tranquillity to come to this region, in each house and in each family!
For peace and friendship among the peoples of the Caucasus! Together with the people of Russia!
Our strength and guarantee of prosperity is in the unity of the people!
P.S. Dear readers:
The above article was not yet finished when the news came of comrade Sergei Badalyan's death quite unexpectedly.
The untimely death of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia is a very great loss not only for the Armenian people, but also for the Georgian communists and for all the people living on the territory of the USSR, besides the international communist and peoples movement.
After the dismemberment at the USSR and the banning of the CPSU, comrade Sergei Badalyan was one of the first to raise the banner of the revival of the communist movement in Armenia and for the unification of Armenian communists and also for the defense of the working people and the revival of socialism.
He knew the history of the Armenian and Georgian peoples and tried to strengthen the bonds of friendship.
We deeply believe that the three brotherly republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will again link their future with Russia and the revival of the USSR and socialism.
Comrade Sergei Badalyan's friends, all the people fighting for socialism will forever hold him in remembrance.
The resurrection of the Soviet Union will be an immortal wreath to his name.
On behalf of the Editorial Board of NSC and that of the Organizing Committee for an International Council and of the Central Committee of Canadian Friends of Soviet People, we extend our condolences to all the family of comrade Badalyan. Your loss is our loss also. His name shall live on forever!
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