Commemoration of the Fifteen [15’ler Hatırası] on the eve of Stalin's Great Terror
As part of its special publication series marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)—or more precisely, Fırkası, [*] as it was originally called—the Social History Research Foundation of Turkey (TÜSTAV) published 15’ler Hatırası among its selected works.
15’ler Hatırası is a pamphlet published in the Soviet Union in 1936 to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the brutal drowning and murder of Mustafa Suphi and his comrades off the coast of Trabzon on the night of 28–29 January 1921.
- In his introduction to the pamphlet, Erden Akbulut recounts the story of how 15’ler Hatırası came to be published in Turkey:
- Historian Mete Tunçay discovered 15’ler Hatırası in the Lenin Library in Moscow and included it in the second volume of his book Left-Wing Movements in Turkey: 1925–1936. [**]
- Later, using the cataloguing details provided by Tunçay, historian Mehmet Perinçek obtained the original pamphlet and sent a copy to TÜSTAV.
- While working on his booklet about Salih Zeki, one of the key figures of the TKP, [***] researcher Arsen Avagyan found two articles by S. Zeki and a poem by S. Yılmaz that were missing from the Turkish version of the pamphlet. He also discovered a Russian edition with some differences and forwarded them all to TÜSTAV.
Some of the articles in 15’ler Hatırası were taken from another pamphlet published in the Soviet Union in 1923 on the second anniversary of the "Murder of the Fifteen," [****] or from texts that had appeared in various publications in the early 1920s. However, the bulk of the pamphlet consists of original writings specifically composed for 15’ler Hatırası.
This final group of articles, which forms the backbone of the pamphlet, demonstrates that the history of the TKP is, in many ways, intrinsically and unsurprisingly linked to the process of Stalinist degeneration within the global socialist movement.
The Stalinist bureaucracy’s seizure of power from the working class in the Soviet Union, the purge of revolutionary Marxists—especially Trotsky—who defended workers' democracy and world revolution against bureaucratic degeneration, and the rise of Russian nationalism hand in hand with Stalin’s “socialism in one country” policy deeply affected the TKP, as it did all communist parties worldwide.
These effects can be observed not only in what the articles in 15’ler Hatırası express but also in what they leave unsaid.
The clearest indication in the pamphlet that the TKP was influenced by the degeneration brought about by Stalinism in the USSR and the global communist movement is the way Stalin is mentioned in the articles written specifically for 15’ler Hatırası—as if he were, alongside Lenin, one of the two greatest leaders of the October Revolution and the world communist movement.
“The Russian proletariat, carrying on its shoulders the banner of liberation for all oppressed nations, waged this struggle under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, offering proletarians in other countries the finest example of heroism, the best methods of combat, and the clearest path to liberation.” (pp. 49-50)
“At that time, Lenin and Stalin, just as in other countries, provided the necessary guidance and facilitation for the formation of such a Communist Party in Turkey, in line with the prevailing circumstances and the conditions advanced by revolutionary movements.” (pp. 52-53)
“During the October Revolution, Suphi further developed and deepened his earlier efforts in enlightenment and activism under the guidance of Lenin, Stalin, and their Bolshevik Party, taking full advantage of the most favourable conditions provided by the revolution.” (p. 55)
“The Russian proletariat and its Bolshevik Party, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, seized power in the month of October 1917.” (p. 65)
The year 1936 marked the beginning of the period known as the "Great Terror" in the Soviet Union (1936–1938). Since Suphi and his comrades were murdered in January, the completion of the pamphlet’s writing, technical preparation, and printing coincided with the very eve of Stalin’s "Great Terror." Otherwise, in the articles written specifically for this pamphlet, we would have inevitably encountered not only even more numerous and exaggerated praises of Stalin but also crude and vicious attacks—particularly against Trotsky—aimed at the leaders of the Bolshevik Party who were being tried in the show trials.
Nevertheless, in the pamphlet, we see that the "dissident TKP" wing— in which Nâzım Hikmet played an active and leading role, and which, despite its loyalty to Stalinism, could no longer stomach the TKP leadership’s line of alliance with the bourgeoisie and began to criticise it—did not escape its share of Stalinist-style attacks and slanders. In the article signed by Cahit, titled The First Victims of the Revolution, the following is stated:
"Our Party, by relentlessly fighting against the opportunist tendencies that emerged within its ranks and the opposition that was an agent of the police, cleansed itself of all kinds of traitorous elements that hindered our class struggle." (pp. 62–63).
At the top of the list of “police agents” and “traitorous elements” was undoubtedly Nâzım Hikmet, even though his name is not explicitly mentioned in this article. The Comintern [III. (Communist) International], which had ceased to be the party of world revolution and had instead become an instrument of Stalinist bureaucracy to safeguard and expand its material privileges, issued resolutions accusing the "dissident TKP"—and along with it, Nâzım Hikmet—of Trotskyism and treason.
It is also striking that 15'ler Hatırası makes no mention of the concept of world revolution, which was the indispensable objective of the proletariat’s struggle for Lenin and all the Marxists of the generation that led the October Revolution. As we have pointed out above, what is left unsaid in the pamphlet is just as significant as what is expressed. In this context, the complete absence of any reference to world revolution in such a publication can hardly be dismissed as a mere oversight. [*****] By 1936, when 15'ler Hatırası was published, the Stalinist bureaucracy had already elevated the fallacy of “socialism in one country” and the doctrine of national communism to the level of dogma on the world stage, replacing Marxism’s program of world revolution—in other words, proletarian internationalism. Consequently, by this time, the TKP had also erased the concept of world revolution from its vocabulary.
Yet, when the TKP was founded in 1920, it was unequivocally committed to the goal of world revolution. For example, in his speech at the First Congress of the Comintern, Mustafa Suphi stated:
“Through its geographical position Turkey always connected Asia with Europe. Moreover, it has fallen under the immediate yoke of capitalism. It is therefore safe to assume that the Turkish proletariat will occupy an honourable place in the future course of the world revolution.” [******]
Article 5 of the “Foundations” section of the party program stated: “The fundamental characteristic of the revolutionary movement of workers and peasants, which can be summed up as class struggle, is its social and international nature.” Article 8 outlined the implications of this for the revolution and the construction of communism: “Like social revolution itself, the implementation of communism, which emerges from the revolution’s supremacy and victory over the bourgeoisie, has a worldwide character.” [*******]
As Akbulut noted in his introduction, TÜSTAV included Cemil Seydahmedov’s article, The Activities of Suphi’s Organization, at the end of the pamphlet. There is a crucial difference that sets this article apart from the others in 15’ler Hatırası. While all the articles examining the TKP’s situation after the murder of Suphi and his comrades emphasize that the Party remained standing, continued to grow stronger, and persisted in the struggle despite this significant loss, Seydahmedov writes, “Suphi’s leaderless communist party disintegrated shortly afterward.” He does not stop there and further asserts, “The murder of Suphi and his comrades accelerated the disintegration of the communist party they had founded, but it was not the primary cause of this disintegration” (p. 119). It is evident that the author considers the TKP under Suphi’s leadership to have suffered from serious and unavoidable weaknesses.
Seydahmedov attributes these fatal weaknesses to the fact that Suphi's TKP did not embrace the old Menshevik notion of revolution in stages, which Stalinism resurrected and propagated on a global scale:
“The most important problem of the Turkish revolution was the eradication of the remnants of feudalism (…)
“The Congress drafted theses for the party program. However, these theses contained a number of significant shortcomings. One of the most critical was the failure to clearly define the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.” (pp. 112-113).
On the other hand, what none of the authors who contributed to the pamphlet, including Seydahmedov, could have foreseen was that, in a very short time, the Stalinist Comintern leadership would take its policy of alliance with the bourgeoisie in Turkey to the point of openly dissolving the TKP. A year later, in 1937, following Comintern directives, a decision would be made that would go down in history as "decentralization" (moving away from the center) or "separat" (standing apart). As a result of this decision, the organizational structure of the TKP would be dismantled, and its cadres would be directed to work within structures aligned with the CHP. Moreover, in 1937, while Stalinism was dismantling the TKP in Turkey, it would also reach the peak of its betrayal of the revolution in Spain—forming a Popular Front with the bourgeoisie and disarming revolutionary groups.
As I conclude, there is one final point I would like to make regarding the 15’ler Hatırası pamphlet. The writings in the pamphlet clearly reveal that, by the mid-1930s, the political and organisational strength of the TKP was almost non-existent, and the ideological-theoretical formation of its leading cadres was lamentably weak.
[*] Fırka is a word of Arabic origin that was used to describe a political party in the late 19th and the early 20th century Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic.
[**] Mete Tunçay, Türkiye'de Sol Akımlar: 1925-1936, Volume 2, İletişim Yayınları, Istanbul, 2009, pp. 618-635.
[***] Arsen Avagyan, Karanlıkta Kalmış Bir Eylemci: İttihatçı Komünist Salih Zeki (Kuşarkov), Sosyal Tarih Yayınları, Istanbul, 2020.
[****] 28-29 Kânûnisânî 1921: Karadeniz kıyılarında parçalanan Mustafâ Subhî ve yoldaşlarının ikinci yıldönümleri (1923), TÜSTAV, Istanbul, 2004.
[*****] The only exception to this is the slogan “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” on the upper part of the pamphlet’s cover. However, even when Stalinist organisations and parties had completely turned their backs on internationalism, this slogan continued to appear on the covers of their publications like a hollow shell. For example, a version of this slogan still appears on the cover of the theoretical organ of the Patriotic Party [Vatan Partisi], which today competes with fascist parties in nationalism and chauvinism.
[******] Founding the Communist International: Proceedings and Documents of the First Congress, March 1919 (The Communist International in Lenin's Time), Edited by John Riddell, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1987, p. 294.
[*******] Other examples could also be given of the central importance of world revolution in the TKP program. However, we must stop here to avoid shifting the focus of the article. A comprehensive evaluation of the program, statute, and political line adopted by the TKP at its First Congress would require a separate and highly detailed article of its own.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder