The International Relations Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has condemned the decision of the Russian authorities to sentence members of a Marxist study group to prison terms ranging from 16 to 22 years, warning against the criminalization of communist ideology and political struggle.
More specifically, the statement, published in 902 portal, reads:
“The decision of the Russian authorities to impose prison sentences of 16 to 22 years on members of a Marxist study group—based on the absurd yet dangerous ‘expert opinion’ of an appointed committee that characterized Lenin’s State and Revolution as a ‘terrorism manual’—is utterly unacceptable and exposes the anti-communist and anti-democratic degeneration of bourgeois power in Russia.
The reliance of the Russian bourgeois judiciary on a lexicographical interpretation of the word ‘revolution,’ and the classification of the ‘ideology of socialism,’ ‘power to the Soviets,’ and the ‘establishment of Soviet power’ as ‘extremist ideology,’ in order to substantiate the alleged ‘violent nature of changing the fundamental principles of the existing regime,’ reveals a ruthless attempt to smear revolution and socialism. At the same time, it aims to suppress even the most minimal political activity that challenges the choices of the bourgeois class and struggles for the overthrow of capitalist barbarism.
This court ruling represents yet another link in the anti-communist chain employed by the Russian bourgeoisie. Notable examples include the hosting of an international fascist gathering—with the participation of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn—the operation of a political school at a public university dedicated to the Russian fascist philosopher Ivan Ilyin, and the anti-Soviet and anti-communist arguments used by Vladimir Putin to justify the unacceptable Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That invasion marked the formal beginning of the ongoing imperialist war, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people from Ukraine and Russia—primarily from poor working-class backgrounds—in the interests of capital.
The KKE condemns this unacceptable verdict in the strongest terms. It is consistent with similar anti-communist trials and bans in Ukraine, more recently in Poland against the Communist Party of Poland, as well as with the ‘week against communism’ proclaimed by Donald Trump. These developments demonstrate that anti-communism is not an exclusive instrument of the Euro-Atlantic imperialist bloc, but can also be deployed by capitalist Russia whenever deemed necessary by bourgeois power. At the same time, Russia’s leadership falsely claims to be waging an ‘anti-fascist war’ and seeks every 9th of May to appropriate the Anti-Fascist Victory of the USSR and the resistance movements over Nazism—a product of capitalism itself.
We demand the immediate release of the convicted members of the Marxist study group and an end to anti-communist political persecution.
Hands off the communists.”
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