This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The war, which cost over 61 million lives, began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939 and ended on 2^nd September 1945 when the Japanese Emperor Hirohito surrendered following the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American atom bombs.

Announcing the news of the German surrender on 8th May 1945 the old king, George VI, said: “We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will. To that, then, let us turn our thoughts on this day of just triumph and proud sorrow; and then take up our work again, resolved as a people to do nothing unworthy of those who died for us and to make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and for ours.”  That world, sadly, has not happened.

It would be quite impossible, of course, to write all that should be said about the Second World War. But there are three key points that must never be forgotten.

The first is the imperialist nature of the conflict that was launched by German finance capital, which saw territorial expansion as necessary to break free of the constraints placed on Germany after the First World War.

The second is the impact of fascist ideas that led to the most barbarous treatment of many people, especially Jews and other minorities, under the Nazi heel. Slave labour and super exploitation soon became murder by brutality and starvation and ultimately it became mass slaughter in the gas chambers of the Nazi death camps.

The third aspect was the war against the USSR. This was more than an attack against a state, it was a direct attack on socialism. The Nazis even used this fact to try and lure other capitalist leaderships to support its anti-communist crusade against the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump can, perhaps, be forgiven for believing the Hollywood myth that the Americans, almost single-handedly, won the war.

To be fair, he did acknowledge that Russia “lost millions of people, and that was absolutely an important factor”, while nevertheless adding that there was “no factor as important as us”.

Still, that’s more than some European politicians would say these days as the Soviet role in the victory is air-brushed out of history by those who choose to forget those who made the greatest sacrifice in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

Winston Churchill said that the RAF’s battle with the Luftwaffe in 1940 was the “finest hour” in what would later be called the Battle of Britain. It certainly was, but the finest hour for the world communist movement was undoubtedly the Battle for Europe.

The Soviet people, led by Joseph Stalin and the Bolsheviks, liberated half of Europe and smashed Nazi Germany while Josef Broz Tito’s guerrilla army and Enver Hoxha’s partisans drove the fascists out of the Balkans. Communist-led resistance forces had the fascists on the run in Greece, France and Italy, while Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung and Ho Chi Minh led the fight for freedom against the Empire of Japan.

If it wasn’t for the communists, Germany and Japan would have won the war. What that would have meant can easily be seen by their actions during the conflict – the extermination of millions of Jews and others deemed unfit to live by the Nazis; concentration camps, mass

slavery and dictatorial rule by industrialists, landowners, war-lords and degenerates of every kind. This was the world ruled by Hitler and Hirohito – a world that would have set back civilisation hundreds of years had it succeeded.

The Soviet Union is now sadly no more but nothing can take away its achievements. The Soviet victory will be remembered by working people for ever.