Speech by Tibor Zenker, Chairman of the Party of Labour of Austria, at the commemorative rally for the Day of the Anti-Fascist Victory at the Red Army Monument, Vienna, 9 May 2023.

Today we celebrate the day of the great antifascist victory of the peoples over fascism. In a joint effort, it was possible to defeat the Nazi tyranny and its allies and to end the Second World War in Europe that it had started. It is the historical merit of the anti-fascist resistance, partisan groups, the international anti-Hitler coalition and especially the Red Army of the Soviet Union to have made 8 and 9 May 1945 the days of liberation and victory.

With regard to Austria, it was above all the communist resistance that made its own contribution to our liberation; on a larger scale, it was again the Red Army that bore the main burden. The “Vienna Operation” alone cost the lives of 170,000 Red Army soldiers, almost 20,000 fell in the city area in the battle for Vienna in the first half of April 1945. On 13 April the Soviet red flag with hammer, sickle and five-pointed star flew on the Austrian parliament building, before and after that, until 8/9 May, substantial parts of the country were also liberated by the Red Army. This was the basis for Austria’s re-emergence as an independent, democratic and ultimately neutral state.

And that is why the Red Army Heroes’ Monument has been located here on Schwarzenberg square since August 1945. At the top of the colonnade is written in Russian: “Eternal glory to the heroes of the Red Army who fell in the fight against the German-fascist land robbers, for the freedom and independence of the peoples of Europe.” - In this spirit, we consciously pay tribute here today to the Soviet liberators who remained victorious at great sacrifice. It was soldiers from Russia and Ukraine, from Armenia and Azerbaijan, from Georgia, from Kazakhstan as well as from the other Soviet republics who stood together against fascist barbarism and proved the superiority of socialism.

Dear comrades, dear friends,

On the basis of Marxism-Leninism, we know that fascism was and is a direct result of monopoly capitalism, of imperialism. Fascism is the worst enemy of the working class - and vice versa: the conscious working class, the communists and so historically also the USSR were the most determined opponents of fascism. And we are it today, we want to eradicate fascism as a monopoly capitalist form of rule in the long term. For this, it is necessary to overcome capitalism as a whole. Only socialism is a guarantee for a world without fascism - and without imperialist wars.

As if further proof were needed, the counterrevolution in the USSR and subsequent developments have provided it. While the peoples of the Soviet Union lived among themselves in peace and brotherhood for more than 70 years, since then there have been conflicts and wars in and between former union republics, including fascist facets, as the SS folklore in Latvia or the Bandera homage in Ukraine show. We see clearly: capitalism means war, socialism means peace. The current climax is the war in Ukraine, which is an imperialist war in which NATO is also more or less openly involved. The working class has nothing to gain in this war, it has to force peace, against the rulers, against the warmongers, against the imperialists, against the fascists.

But back to today’s historic occasion. We pay tribute to the liberators, we honour the victims. And we reject any attempt to reduce or completely negate the merits of the Red Army and the USSR - whether for anti-Russian or anti-communist reasons. We oppose historical lies, shameful efforts to equate Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, fascism and socialism. Those who do so want to relativise and rehabilitate fascism - and at the same time discredit socialism. But perpetrators and victims are not the same thing. Oppressors and resistance fighters are not the same thing. And the operators and the liberators of Ausschwitz are never and never the same. We condemn the ban on the Soviet flag, which is again in force in Berlin today. And we reject the shameless anti-democratic request of the Ukrainian ambassador in Vienna to have commemorative events on Victory Day banned. Those who want to hide or even mock the victims of fascism and the anti-fascist liberators in this way are on the wrong side of history: Those who do not celebrate today have lost.

Dear comrades, dear friends,

We say: Never again war, never again fascism! This is our conviction and our mission. We fulfil it through our anti-fascist and anti-militarist commitment, through internationalism and solidarity. We fulfil it best through progress in the revolutionary class struggle for socialism. The day of the victory of the international working class over capitalism will be the day of the final liberation of humanity.

Glory to the Red Army, the liberators from fascism and foreign domination! For peace through socialism! Freedom!

Editor: Zhong Yao、Huang He

From: http://www.solidnet.org/article/Party-of-Labour-of-Austria-On-the-Day-of-the-Anti-fascist-Victory/（2023-5-11）