Author’s Note: What follows is a diary entry included in Alexander Werth’s epic 1947 book that records the events surrounding the momentous Battle of Stalingrad - which occurred in 1942. Werth spent much of the war-years between 1941-1945 ensconced as a BBC Journalist in the USSR and witnessed first-hand the brutality of the Catholic-supported Nazi German invasion - and attempted genocide - of that country’s population. Of course, the USSR was in fact fifteen diverse countries united in their joint other-throwing of the Bourgeoisie and the vicious capitalist system it practiced. At least three of these Republics, although ‘Socialist’, were nevertheless historically and culturally ‘Buddhist’. A number of Red Army regiments were formed containing ‘Buddhist’ men and women who fought bravely to defend the USSR from external attack! Of course, the West exercises a mixture of racially motivated ‘ignoring’, ‘disinforming’ and ‘misinforming’ when it comes to recording Soviet history. Soviet ‘Buddhists’ were good Communists – as Werth records. Furthermore, as we live in changing times in Bourgeois society - the manner in which Werth describes 'Tanya' is a product of his time and considered today as being 'insensitive' at best and 'discriminative' at worst. I certainly do not endorse this type of demeaning narrative. On the other hand, the historical data Werth conveys is infinitely valuable in the face of wall-to-wall US anti-intellectualism. Think for yourselves and make-up your own minds. As the (British-educated) Werth could read, write and speak Russian fluently, (he was born in Russia - but his family migrated to the UK when he was very young), he takes a rather stern and overly critical attitude toward the Soviet method of providing authoritative translation textbooks (conveying correct Russian to Asiatic language translations and vice versa) – which were then deployed amongst the non-Russian populations by specially trained Cadres of young people who could not necessarily understand the language of the non-Russian ethnicities to any great degree (as they did not have to). This Soviet method allowed a few genuine experts in all the included languages to centrally compile these textbooks - which were then printed in their tens of thousands and quickly distributed freely to the masses – thus enhancing communication and cultural exchange. In a very real sense, Cadres such a ‘Tanya’ featured below – acted as a proto-search engine – with the caveat that unlike the universal translators of the modern internet age, the translations she supplied were ‘correct’ and ‘sound’. Once again, if indeed another example is needed, we see the ‘corruption’ of the Lamaist system of landlordism which the Communist Party of China has thoroughly over-thrown in Tibet and China! Although John Snelling – of the Buddhist Society in London – once published a book about ‘Buddhism in Russia’, he did so by completely ignoring the English language evidence provided by Werth, a fellow Britain who had lived in the USSR for many years of his life! After-all, people like Snelling were pursuing the hidden agenda of conforming to the strictures of US anti-intellectualism during the so-called ‘Cold War’ and misrepresenting the USSR through the agency of Buddhism. For the record, I do not agree with the arbitrary ransacking of temples or stealing Buddha statues – as this is the behaviour of the Western imperialists (a process which can be clearly observed in the British Museum). Local people taking matters into their own hands, however, is an issue involving the self-governing of Revolutionary activities, and the situation explained below should be interpreted in this context. (25.9.2023) November 23 (1942) ‘The other day I got to know, through Ludmilla, an enormously fat girl, tall, red-cheeked, and ginger-haired, called Tanya – with legs like Doric pillars. She seems to be vaguely married to somebody – or divorced; I don’t know. Anyway, this formidable fat blonde is said to drive all the Caucasians and Asiatic crazy, whenever she visits their countries. She’s on a good racket. She translates into smooth Russian verse the works of Azerbaijan, Buriat-Mongol, Yakut and God knows whatever poets. She doesn’t know any of their languages, of course, but she is given a literal translation, and then concocts a poem with roughly the same idea, and it’s often called “Translated from the Buriat-Mongol,” etc. It’s a well-paid and well-encouraged racket, and she claims that Stalin himself was delighted with her Buriat-Mongol Poems. It’s done in the name of a closer acqiantance amongst the peoples of the Soviet Union, and these “translators” are given some wonderful facilities by the Writers’ Union. Thus, Tanya, has travelled by plane, ship, carriage, reindeer, sleigh, railway, and every other means of locomotion all over Western Siberia, and Yakutia, and right up to the Siberian Arctic coast, and all through Central Asia and Mongolia, and also the Caucasus. She is full of good stories about life in Yakutia, now quite a reasonably large town, and almost a metropolis in north-Siberian terms, and about all the remarkable adventurous characters one meets there – trappers, and sea captains who sometimes hibernate in the Bear Islands and Wrangel Island. She also tells stories of Buriat-Mongolia – of the secretary of the Obkom who as a youngster became famous for killing the most notorious bandit of the region; he came home one day and threw the bandit’s head on the family dinner-table, much to his mother’s horror. “He has an extraordinary face,” said Tanya, “very and pale, a perfect Mongolian face, with grey temples and black fiery eyes.” He had also led the young people’s revolt against the Lamas. When the Buriat-Mongolian Communists heard Stalin had expressed approval of Tanya’s translations from Buriat-Mongolian, they ransacked a distant temple and presented her with a whole trunkful of Buddhas. When I went to her flat the other day – she shares her house with some other people – I found that she still had a few Buddhas left; the rest had been looted by her friends, while some had been destroyed in the bombing of Moscow last year when there was a fire in the house where she was living. One of the Buddhas she carries around everywhere and seems to be very superstitious about it. She also owns a remarkable brass statue from a Buddhist temple – an unbelievably erotic affair.’ Alexander Werth: The Year of Stalingrad, Simon, (2001), Book III - The Defensive Battle – Chapter V - Moscow in October and November, Pages 327-328 English Language Reference:
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Donbass: Russian Troops From Kalmykia Are Fighting Against Ukrainian Neo-Nazism! (15.8.2023)8/15/2023 The people of the Republic of Kalmykia practice Tibetan Buddhism. Indeed, the flag of this Russian Republic includes the 'Lotus' flower - a symbol which recurs throughout Mahayana, Vajrayana and Tantrayana Buddhism. The Republic of Kalmykia is located in the North Caucasus region of Southern Russia. The Kalmyk people are of Monoglian ethnicity and originate to the North of China's Xinjiang province - probably from the adjacent Mongolian region. There is much racially motivated lies and disinformation in the West (arising out of US 'Cold War' anti-intellectualism) regarding the Kalmyk people. These 'Buddhist' people fully supported the 1917 Russian Revolution, fought bravely in the Soviet Red Army between 1941-1945 - with many distinguishing themselves on the battlefield agsinst the Nazi Germans and their Catholic and Trotskyite allies. As the Nazi Germans were ethnically cleansing all non-White people in the USSR - the Kalmyks were relocated to a safer area. Of course, deficient Western discourse has imagined all kinds of false narratives about these times. Nevertheless, today the Kalmyk people are loyal members of the Russian Federation and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Kalmyk people are NOT ethnically Tibetan - but like many ethnic Mongolians that live in China and Mongolia - the Kalmyk have adopted various aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. Since 1991, the CIA-controlled 'Pro-Tibetan Movement' has attempted to infiltrate Kalmyk Buddhism by fabricating all kinds of bizarre stories in the West (that have no currency in Russia - and which remain mostly 'unknown' in that country) involving the corrupt 14th Dalai Lama (who was filmed recently 'kissing' a young Indian boy) - stating that 'His Holiness' has 'recognised' a US Taxi-Driver as the 'reincarnation' of an important Lama! Mental-illness and sheer fantasy aside - for a non-White person, the fight against Neo-Nazism - and fascism in general - is a very important aspect of contemporary existence. Nobody in their right mind would want a war - but when war comes it must be fought and fought effectively and well! Russian Language Text:
Author’s Note: The book entitled ‘The German Ideology’ was written by Marx and Engels around 1846 – but could not be published at that time (despite attempting to do so) for various reasons (indeed, it is remarkable to consider that this text was not eventually published until 1930). As history unfolded - and world events took shape - this manuscript became forgotten and was even gnawed by mice! Forty years later in 1886 (and three-years after the death of Marx in 1883) - Engels rediscovered this very important manuscript and penned a mature overview of it entitled ‘Feuerbach and End of Classic German Philosophy’ (from which two quotes are extracted in this essay). As ‘Buddhism’ and ‘Ancient India’ are mentioned – this material can be added to the ever-growing body of research data related to Marx and Engels regarding this subject. Although during the 1800s the ‘Theosophy’ movement was busy reinventing Eastern religious thinking and practice in its own (Eurocentric) image, it is important to remember that Buddhist Enlightenment is not ‘god’, the Buddha was not ‘Jesus’ and the ‘mind’ does not (and cannot) generate the material world through the power of its thought! Within the Buddhist teachings the mind is impermanent and only (temporarily) exists whilst a living (human) body is in-touch with the material environment it inhabits – via the six sense-organs perceiving the corresponding six sense-objects. When this interaction is broken, the mind ceases to exist and therefore does not (and cannot) pre-exist the physical conception of the individual body - or post-exist the death of that body, etc. Probably through the correct influence of Karl Koppen, Marx and Engels appear never to have fallen into the ‘Theosophy’ trap which has done so much to re-shape Asian Buddhism into its Western (Bourgeois) equivalent! The historical (Indian) Buddha placed the physical universe as the basis from which all existence evolves. It is only in the Bourgeois appropriation of Buddhism that the ‘mind’ becomes an all-knowing and all-conquering ‘god’ that creates the material world upon a whim! This is nothing but an ‘inverted’ myth which millions of people in the West dedicate themselves to following generation after generation – as it has become a very lucrative aspect of consumer capitalism! Marx and Engels, whilst recognising the existence and importance of Buddhism, nevertheless, never quite manage to include it in the same subject as theological religion. Of course, although NOT a religion in the conventional sense, Buddhism does sometimes serve that function for individuals and communities, and so whilst being distinctive and useful to the ideology of Marx and Engels, its religious associations can never quite be fully ignored either! ACW (20.1.2023) ‘If Feuerbach wishes to establish a true religion upon the basis of an essentially materialist conception of nature, that is the same as regarding modern chemistry as true alchemy. If religion can exist without its god, alchemy can exist without its philosopher’s stone. By the way, there exists a very close connection between alchemy and religion. The philosopher’s stone has many godlike properties and the Egyptian-Greek alchemists of the first two centuries of our era had a hand in the development of Christian doctrines, as the data given by Kopp and Berthelot have proved. Feuerbach’s assertion that “the periods of humanity are distinguished only by religious changes” is decidedly false. Great historical turning-points have been accomplished by religious changes only so far as the three world religions which have existed up to the present – Buddhism, Christianity and Islam – are concerned. The old tribal and national religions which arose spontaneously, did not proselytise and lost all their power of resistance as soon as the independence of the tribe or people was lost.’ Friedrich Engels: Feuerbach and End of Classical German Philosophy (1886), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Selected Works (In One Volume), Lawrence and Wishart, Third Edition, (1973), Page 602 - (Entire Article Pages 584-622) - First Edition (Progress Publishers) 1968 – USSR ‘We will now in addition deal only briefly with religion, since the latter stands furthest away from material life and seems to be most alien to it. Religion arose in very primitive times from erroneous, primitive conceptions of men about their own nature and external nature surrounding them. Every ideology, however, once it has arisen, develops in connection with the given concept-material, and develops this material further; otherwise, it would not be an ideology, that is, occupation with thoughts as with independent entities, developing independently and subject only to their own laws. That the material life conditions of the persons inside whose heads this thought process goes on in the last resort determine the course of this process remains of necessity unknown to these persons, for otherwise there would be an end to all ideology. These original religious nations, therefore, which in the main are common to each group of kindred peoples, develop, after the group separates, in a manner peculiar to each people, according to conditions of life falling to their lot. For a number of groups of peoples, and particularly for the Aryans (so-called Indo-Europeans), this process has been shown in detail by comparative mythology. The gods thus fashioned within each people were national gods, whose domain extended no farther than the national territory which they were to protect; on the other side of its boundaries other gods held undisputed sway. They could continue to exist, in imagination, only as long as the nation existed; they fell with its fall. The Roman world empire, the economic conditions of whose origin we do not need to examine here, brought about this downfall of the old nationalities. The old national gods decayed, even those of the Romans, which also were patterned to suit only narrow confines of the city of Rome. The need to complement the world empire by means of a world religion was clearly revealed in the attempts made to provide in Rome recognition and altars for all the foreign gods to the slightest degree respectable alongside of the indigenous ones. But a new world religion is not to be made in this fashion, by imperial decree. The new world religion, Christianity, had already quietly come into being, out of a mixture of generalised Oriental, particularly Jewish, theology, and vulgarised Greek, particularly Stoic philosophy.’
Friedrich Engels: Feuerbach and End of Classical German Philosophy (1886), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Selected Works (In One Volume), Lawrence and Wishart, Third Edition, (1973), Page 618 - (Entire Article Pages 584-622) - First Edition (Progress Publishers) 1968 – USSR Dear M
Thank you for your interesting email: The Buddhology of Marx and the Development of Historical Materialism The above is the essence of my research over the years. Certainly, the USSR academics treated Buddhist philosophy with a certain deference - as did Marx and Engels. Modern China follows exactly the same path and has shown considerable interest in this work - as have academics from Laos and Vietnam, etc. The British academic Trevor Ling - independently to myself - also suspected some type of systemic link between the thinking of Marx and Buddha (Professor Zhao Yuezhi in China also shares my views). When Buddhism is stripped of all its accrued 'religiosity' (which is both 'alien' and 'contradictory' to the ideology of Early Buddhism) a system of proto-Marxism is laid bear. A soft materialism arises that recognises the material (and 'primary') reality of the physical world - whilst fully acknowledging the 'conscious' conundrum that defines the historical, existential and prophetic predicament that humanity finds itself within! The Buddha also provides the first ever human documentation of a theory of evolution in the 'Agganna Sutta' (which I am sure pre-dates anything the Greeks were churning out - probably by two-hundreds or more). Remember that in China the Buddha is around 500-years older than Western academics have decided - a position shared by a number of Indian scholars who reject the Eurocentric dating. Certainly, as wise as he was, the Buddha could not read or write and was 'illiterate' whilst remaining 'highly educated' in all practical and linguistically transmitted arts - a status of learning in accordance with his High Caste (Khaitriya) social positioning (he was taught martial arts, seduction, political studies and all the known spiritual learning - but through practical instruction which did not rely upon the written word). In this older dating, the Buddha lived between 1029/28 - 949/48 BCE - assuming he lived 80-years! If this was the case, then the Buddha's use of a logical, dialectical mind - pre-dates the Greeks by at least 500-years - and strongly suggests the flow of mind development was from East to West! As always, think for yourself! Kind Regards Adrian Chan-Wyles The suffering this man unleashed upon humanity has been intense, ongoing and ever-increasing! Like Khrushchev before him, he was an arch 'Trotskyite' who manoeuvred his way into the position of 'General Secretary' of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - and was even 'President' of the Soviet Union between 1990-1991 - whilst he oversaw the final destruction of the then 74-year-old Workers' State! The US, UK and EU flooded the post-Soviet space with perpetuators of religious extremism, fascism and free market economics - a process which has saw ‘minority’ Neo-Nazi (and Neo-Fascist) fringe groups brought to mainstream power in the Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, etc! Although modern Russia is now a poverty-stricken, capitalist country suffering from the fascistic-leanings associated with Pan-Slavism, the Russian State has at least seen fit to unleash its military (the successor to the Soviet Red Army) upon its Ukrainian neighbours to combat the Neo-Nazi ‘Euro-Maidan’ regime which was illegally brought to power in 2014 by the US Obama Administration! The Americans have chosen Neo-Nazism as its primary foreign policy tool as it remains staunchly ‘anti-Russian’ in both its early anti-Bolshevik ‘Mein Kampf’ phase – and in its later post-1945 ‘Soviet crushing’ of Nazi Germany phase! This despicable fascist regime has subsequently been further armed, financed and politically supported by the US, UK and EU – with its military being primed for a major push into the territory of West Russia (advancing the cause of ‘NATO’ in the process)! In reaction, the people of the Crimea voted to leave the Ukraine and join Russia – whilst a number of left-leaning ‘Republics’ were declared throughout East Ukraine – all stating their secession from the Ukraine, their self-determination and their eventual intention of merging with Russia! Although the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi ‘Nationalist’ Battalions were used to ruthlessly destroy a number of these ‘Republics’ - two managed to hold-out for the full eight-years – namely Lugansk and Donetsk in the Donbass region. A UN Report states that between 2014-2022 the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi ‘Nationalist’ Battalions killed between 10,000-15,000 men, women and children in the breakaway region, maiming a further 50,000 people! As a consequence, the military actions of Russia are entirely legal - as Russia is coming to the aid of a population that has declared its ‘independence’ and which has ‘requested’ such assistance! Of course, it is ironic that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are also the successors of the Soviet Red Army, and that the Ukraine is the area that suffered the most during Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR between 1941-1945 (killing around 41 million Soviet citizens). Indeed, the USSR took care to build as many defensive areas as possible throughout the Ukraine without openly effecting the quality of life for the local population, in an effort to ‘protect’ the population of the USSR from the threat posed by a NATO ground and air assault! Today, whilst the Neo-Nazi Ukrainians flaunt their Swastikas and their unbridled Western support – Russia abounds with working-class dereliction, racism, religious extremism and religious stupidity, homophobia and an intellectual and cultural poverty that has taken just 31-years to instil into their minds and bodies! Russian people in general are as ‘nationalistic’ as the Ukrainians they are fighting, and the Donbass inhabitants they are liberating! This fact underlies the power of the betrayal that the man pictured at the top of this article unleashed on the people of the USSR! A people that just 31-years ago viewed themselves as being ‘united’ and part of the ‘International Working Class’ - now view themselves as a ‘separate’ and ‘distinct’ (superior ‘Slavic’) race which hates all non-Russians and views the political left-wing of Europe and America (a political left-wing the USSR helped to nurture and grow throughout the 20th century) as being some type of ‘liberal’ conspiracy designed to import homosexuality (which modern Russians incorrectly associate with paedophilia) into Russia as a means to deprive Russia of its natural manliness! All this bourgeoise greed, hatred and delusion had been educated out of the minds and bodies of the citizens of the USSR through their Soviet (Marxist-Leninist) education – but in just 31-years of the bourgeoisie throughout the post-Soviet space taking back control of the means of production – nationalism, racism, hatred and discrimination are the new norms! The capitalist West may criticise the war between Russia and the Ukraine – but behind the scenes the Western leaders will be happy! The capitalist division of labour is nothing less than the division of the working class! When groups of limited self-interest form that possess no underlying and unifying base – then conflict and competitiveness are the inevitable result! When the working class is divided and fighting itself for the petty control of land – then it is too busy to ‘unite’ and form ‘Socialist’ groups that could effectively challenge the status quo! Surely, this is the greatest achievement of the man pictured at the top of this article – who lived just long enough after the collapse of the Soviet Union he engineered to see its constituent people start the processes of killing one another!
Dear M
The problem is a lack of genuine Buddhist material in the West. However, the book 'What the Buddha Taught' by Walpola Rahula is a sound Theravada text that explains that the Buddha rejected the notion of a spirit as opposed to matter. Indeed, the Buddha even described 'thought' as a material phenomenon. The Buddha, like Marx, stated that human suffering is premised upon an inverted mindset that perceives things the wrong way around. The answer to eradicate this inversation and develop a true consciousness. The Buddha defines reality through the Four Noble Truths. This contains the Five Aggregates explanation of reality. The Buddha places the world of matter as being primary, from which emerges sensation, perception, thought formation and consciousness. Consciousness only exists as long as the human sense organs are in regular contact with the physical world. No contact (such as in death) no consciousness. The Buddha also says that when greed, hated and delusion are fully uprooted, then a practitioner realises that there is no rebirth and no divine realms, etc. Trevor Ling has written a number of books about the similarity of Buddhist ideas and Marxist thinking. Marx learned his Buddhism from his friend Karl Koppen (a renowned Early European expert upon the subject) - but his excellent books have yet to be translated from their native German into English. Marx even writes to a friend saying that he had tried Buddhist meditation to help relax his mind: https://buddhistsocialism.weebly.com/when-karl-marx-practised-buddhism.html The Soviets appear to have known about this association as Joseph Stalin opened a Buddhist Academic Centre in 1928 as a means to gather and focus good quality work about Buddhist thought. You might be interested in this: https://thesanghakommune.org/2017/02/21/ussr-fi-shcherbatskoy-1866-1942-expert-in-buddhism/ Best Wishes Adrian |
AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
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