Soviet Colonialism in Asia
SOLOVEITCHIK, SAMSON
WRITERS and WRITING Soviet Colonialism in Asia The Peoples of the Soviet Far East. By Walter Kolarz. Praeger. 187 pp. $4.50. Reviewed by Samson Soloveitchik Professor of International Relations,...
...Though the Soviet regime has no monopoly on any of these oppressive measures, the author points out that national oppression in the USSR is "even more intolerable than in most other colonial empires" because of "the lack of freedom of expression in Russia's metropolitan territories...
...6) prohibition of the cultural and political integration of kindred ethnic groups...
...Here as elsewhere, the claims are doubtless true in great measure (as Mr...
...This, in brief, is the history of the first Soviet satellite, the Mongolian "People's Republic...
...A Frenchman can criticize his government's policy in North Africa, but no Russian dares speak up for the submerged nations of the Soviet East...
...Three decades ago, Western statesmen ignored the warnings of Russian democrats that the Russian people wanted "neither Lenin nor Kolchak," and, by supporting Tsarist generals, contributed to the victory of the Bolsheviks...
...Kolarz has this to say: "It is difficult to imagine a situation in which Russia could 'swallow up' Communist China culturally and politically...
...Then, when they are no longer needed, they are liquidated as "counter-revolutionaries" and "Western agents...
...4) liquidation of the native upper class and intellectual elite...
...7) imposition of an alien ideology, language and culture...
...5) persecution of minority religions...
...Mr...
...The Kremlin's claims about its "civilizing role" in Asia, the author notes, are similar to those of other colonial powers...
...called upon Buddhists in Mongolia, Tibet and India "to support with all their power the fight for the emancipation of the Chinese people...
...8) suppression of native historical and cultural traditions...
...2) destruction of the native economy through slate confiscation of cattle, fostering of the class struggle, etc...
...On the other hand, the victory of Chinese Communism may have, from the Soviet Russian standpoint, adverse effects on the destinies of the European population of the Soviet Far East, on the Mongols of the Mongolian People's Republic, and even on the Buryats and other nationalities of Siberia...
...The legendary Mongolian hero Geser was long treated as the "expression of an age-long dream of happiness and a better life...
...Kolarz demonstrates with figures...
...With this new force emerging in Asia, we are no longer confined to a choice between appeasing Communism and supporting leaders who have become poles of attraction for all the reactionary elements...
...Reviewed by Samson Soloveitchik Professor of International Relations, University of Kansas City This is more than just a thoroughly documented account of the Kremlin's policy toward the various peoples of the Soviet Far East...
...The question is whether this material progress justifies colonial oppression...
...3) mass colonization of "national territories" by Europeans...
...Thus, a "Congress of Soviet Buddhists," held in Moscow in the winter of 1926-27...
...Kolarz declares, "for a Buryat to lay stress on the wrongs which the Tsarist regime did to his people by expelling them from their best lands...
...The pattern is the same everywhere: At first, the local nationalists are supported and extolled as fighters against Western imperialism...
...Could not a new, vigorous China try to draw these nationalities into its orbit in the same way a strong Japan did in the past...
...The book bears out the viewpoint of Asian Socialists, expressed recently by Kyaw Nyelin, Burmese Minister of Industry, when he said that the "Soviet form of colonialism is even more dangerous than the old imperialism more ruthless, more systematic, and more blatantly justified in the name of the world Communist revolution...
...In the past, the Kremlin has made attempts to exploit Asian nationalism and even religions...
...In the meantime, the awareness of Soviet colonial oppression on the part of Asian anti-Communist Socialists like Kyaw Nyelin carries a vital message for American policy-makers...
...It is no longer advisable," Mr...
...The Buryat-Mongol people are now taught to consider even Tsarist Russia as a friend...
...Today, he has been replaced in Sovietized Mongolian folklore by Peter the Great...
...Kolarz lists the eight principal forms of national oppression in Soviet East Asia: (1) industrialization and de-tribalization, accompanied by the resettlement of natives in large urban centers...
...Kolarz also raises some crucial questions about relations between the USSR and the Communist-controlled countries of Asia, particularly China and Mongolia...
...The Soviet regime's assumption of the "white man's burden" in Asia has been accompanied by rewriting of the history of various Asian peoples...
...The overwhelming majority of colonial peoples answer this in the negative, and so does public opinion in the free world...
...Then, in 1948, he was suddenly discovered to be a "symbol of feudalism, pan-Mongolism and religious prejudice...
...Whether it provides some clue to possible future frictions in the Moscow-Peking alliance is difficult to tell...
...Must we make the same mistake in Asia...
Vol. 37 • July 1954 • No. 27
