The capitalists of the world are more afraid of communism than anything else. The Soviet Union was a nightmare for capitalists and their hangers-on. For 35 years the then-socialist Soviet Union proved that the working class: could rule a huge country; transform it from a ruined, peasant society into a modern industrial country; eliminate unemployment; and provide free medical care, education, retirement pensions, paid vacations – a decent standard of living for every worker.
The international communist movement, headed by the Soviets fought fiercely against sexism , racism, and every form of oppression. It was a mortal threat to capitalist rule everywhere.The largest attempt in history to destroy this, the world’s first workers’ state was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army.
Communist fighters smash facist armies
In December, 1941, 80 years ago, the communist-led Red Army of the Soviet Union stopped Adolf Hitler’s Nazi hordes cold. The Battle of Moscow stopped Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.
Hitler had always wanted a war against the then-socialist Soviet Union to stop communism. On August 11, 1939, Hitler said that “everything he undertook was directed against Russia.” The capitalist leaders of Europe encouraged him.
Germany had lost World War I because it lacked petroleum for fuel and rubber for tires. Hitler and his generals realized that Germany needed to wage a motorized war. They imported huge stockpiles and began to make synthetic petroleum and rubber from coal.
But this was not enough. So the Nazis needed to defeat the Red Army in no more than eight weeks – the kind of “lightning war,” or Blitzkrieg, that had defeated France in May-June 1940.
No capitalist country would ally with the Soviet Union. So in August 1939, when Britain and France had sabotaged the last attempt at joint action against Hitler, the Soviets signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany, in order to gain time for the inevitable German attack.
This treaty gained the Soviets 22 months to prepare for the inevitable German attack, and kept the German army 200 miles away from the Soviet border. Hitler was confident of a quick victory –and also desperately needed one. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany and her allies – over 3,700,000 strong – attacked the Soviet Union. The Red Army suffered very serious losses and retreated.
But they had defenses in depth. They killed a great many German and allied troops and fatally slowed the Blitzkrieg. Escaped soldiers and civilians formed partisan guerrilla groups in the German rear to sabotage the long German supplies lines.
Already in July 1941, Canaris, head of Hitler’s military intelligence, said the German situation was “black.” In August, the German High Command was saying Germany might lose the war. Meanwhile German troops were not prepared for winter weather – Hitler had only planned for a 2-3 month war.
The Battle  of Moscow
In early December, 1941, small German units were close to Moscow. But they never got any farther – thanks to the heroic Red Army. On December 5, at 3 a.m., the Red Army counterattacked and drove the Nazi hordes back. This was the first counterattack any army had ever made against Hitler’s forces.
The Battle of Moscow stopped Hitler’s Blitzkrieg, dooming Hitler’s attack. On December 8, Hitler abandoned the offensive. According to German General Jodl, Hitler realized on December 5, 1941, that he could no longer win the war.
The German defeat of December, 1941 – the Battle of Moscow -- had made Hitler so desperate that he had to risk war against the United States in order to draw Japan into the anti-Soviet war.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 11, 1941, Hitler declared war against the United States! But in 1939, the Red Army had defeated a Japanese invasion. This convinced the Japanese not to attack the Soviet Union, so they refused to help Hitler.
The Battle of Moscow sets the stage for Hitler’s defeat
* Shortages of fuel stopped Hitler from reinforcing German forces in North Africa, leading to Germany’s  defeat in the fall of 1942.
* The 1942 German offensive towards the Caucasus oil fields was forced on Hitler to gain essential fuel. The Red Army smashed the Nazis at Stalingrad.
* Hitler’s fascist allies, Finland and Spain, became demoralized. Spain and fascist Portugal began to collaborate with the Allies.
* On June 6, 1944, “D-Day,” the Western imperialist Allies stopped delaying and invaded France. They met stiff resistance, but defeated the German forces, 80 percent of which were far away fighting the Red Army.
Except for the Battle of Moscow, the Allies would probably never have invaded at all, but would have sought peace with their fellow anticommunist Hitler, who would have been incomparably stronger with the wealth of the Soviet Union at his command.
The Red Army killed 80 percent of all German soldiers killed in the war
The Soviet victory against the Nazi hordes proved that the capitalists could not crush the communist movement by force. But the Soviet Union and the international communist movement succumbed to capitalist ideas from within. They came to hope, and then to believe, the fatal notion that violent revolution against capitalism was not necessary, that socialism could be achieved through elections and by allying the working class with “good” liberal capitalists against the openly fascist bosses.
Nevertheless, we should be inspired by the Red Army’s victory over the Nazi army. The world’s bosses were defeated through communist dedication and leadership. We pledge to do so again.