Keynote Speech by G.A.Zyuganov at the Opening of the International Forum “Truth Against Fascism”
Moscow,
6 November, 2025
Esteemed Comrades, participants in the Media Forum!
We have assembled here in Moscow on the eve of the 108th anniversary the Great October Socialist Revolution whose victory meant that the time of the capitalist system was running out to give way to a new, more progressive social formation.
For almost 100 years capitalism has been in constant crisis. But the imperialists are determined to preserve their positions. In a bid to retain their dominance over the working people Big Business has given birth to Nazism and brought to power Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and their blood-stained accomplices.
We are called upon to do all we can to make sure that the experience of the heroic anti-Fascist struggle in Germany, Italy and Spain in the 1930s is not forgotten. It so happened that the forces of evil gained the upper hand at that historical juncture. Their rise to the pinnacle of power was a prologue to the most destructive war in human history. It paved the gruesome way toward the furnaces and gas chambers of Buchenwald and Oswiecim, the destruction of Guernica and Khatyn, the tragic siege of Leningrad.
The world paid an incredibly high price for getting rid of Nazism. The heroes of that struggle have covered themselves with undying glory. We remember well the contribution made to the victory over Fascism by the soldiers and officers of the Red Army, the fighters of the People’s Liberation Army of China, the warriors of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, the members of the French and Italian Resistance, the underground anti-Fascist fighters in Germany, the Yugoslav and Korean partisans, the Polish and Czechoslovak patriots.
The key commemorative events of this year are the jubilees of two great victories. It is 80 years since the defeat of Hitler’s Nazism and Japanese militarism. Fascism was vanquished in the Second World War. But it did not disappear from the face of the Earth. Its criminal services turned out to be very useful for the world oligarchy.
In the second part of the 20th century memories were still fresh of the decisions of the Nuremberg Trial. The USSR and its allies constantly reminded the world about them. Under these conditions the world capital demurred at admitting its direct link with neo-Nazism keeping it as “an ambush regiment.” In this century the West’s rulers have cast shame aside. Increasingly, they use Fascism as the spearhead in pursuing their unseemly goals.
The malicious and treacherous destruction of the Soviet Union gave the world predators a sense of impunity. The current Western position makes the world situation still more worrisome and dangerous. Neocolonialism increasingly manifests itself. The woes and suffering of the popular masses are multiplying. Hundreds of thousands of people die from hunger and lack of medical care, get killed in armed conflicts and at the hands of terrorists. Blood is being shed in Ukraine, in Gaza and in other parts of the planet.
The actions of imperialists complicate the situation in Europe and Asia, America and Africa. The USA and its NATO accomplices have attempted to overthrow the legitimate governments in Belarus, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Pressure is being exerted on the peoples of Russia, China, the DPRK and other countries. This is being done through sanctions, military threats and political blackmail.
Norms of international law are being flouted with growing cynicism. The US has maintained its economic blockade of Cuba for more than sixty years. On October 29 the absolute majority of UN General Assembly states renewed the demand to Washington to stop these bandit actions.
The global financial oligarchy stops at nothing to strengthen its dictatorship. It unashamedly supports Fascism. Inspired by this fact, the brown scum is planning to stage a historical comeback. Nazi riff-raff openly march in the streets of Kiev, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. Monuments to Soviet soldiers who liberated Eastern Europe are being pulled down. Communist symbols have been banned in some countries. The history of the Second World War is being brazenly distorted.
With direct support of NATO countries Nazism has been elevated to the level of state ideology in Ukraine. The Bandera lot has turned our sister country into a concentration camp for dissenters. They have made short shrift of the communist party, shut down undesirable media and decimated the opposition. The Nazis burned alive the people in Odessa and terrorized the people in Donbass who honored the Great Victory over Fascism. In spite of all this the “democratic” West continues to back the Zelensky junta. It is showered with money and pumped up with weapons. In effect the fire of a big war in Europe is being ignited.
The communists have always warned that “Fascism is war.” We see this being confirmed before our eyes. Washington and its NATO allies have ringed the world with their military bases and are building lethal weapons. More than 400 US military laboratories in various countries are conducting experiments with deadly viruses and bacteria. These criminal experiments threaten mankind as a biological species.
The designs of the imperialist West ooze with hatred of all those who come out for justice, social progress and real sovereignty. Trump and Merz, Macron and Ursula von der Leyen may disagree with one another on some specific issues. But they are one in being the servants of global capital. The price of their high positions is their readiness to serve the interests of the financial oligarchy.
The reactionary forces in the 21st century continue to cultivate ethnic and racial prejudices. Their canceling of Russian culture is driven by the desire to take revenge on the peoples that scored a heroic victory over Fascism and colonialism. The architects of imperialistic globalism want to see humanity under the unprecedented dictatorship of an electronic concentration camp.
The Western political systems, infected with the virus of neo-liberalism, have degenerated into absolute autocracies. The bourgeois elites have lost connection with the values of freedom and humanism. They have become enemies of independent development, democratic norms and moral principles. Their kinship with Fascism is absolutely logical.
Donald Trump rarely speaks without attacking communism. For him “Marxism” is the strongest cuss word. The underlying message is twofold. First, it is political preparation of aggression against the rapidly growing socialist China. Second, it is died-in- the-wool anti-communism which is part and parcel of bourgeois ideology. Thus, the danger of a world war grows with the growth of the right-wing threat.
The plans of creating “a new world order” are fraught with growing aggression, armed conflicts and the desire to saddle the planet with colonial plunder. As it sinks into a severe crisis, capitalism seeks to prolong its existence by taking a Fascist revenge. World reaction is more and more inclined to encourage the heirs of Hitler and Antonescu, Mannerheim and Pilsudski, Bandera and Shushkhevich.
Esteemed comrades! Only the unity and solidarity of the world’s progressive forces can gain the upper hand over Fascism and stop the slide into the abyss of a nuclear war.
The First International Anti-Fascist Forum held in Minsk in 2023 adopted a Manifesto “Safeguard Humanity Against Fascism” calling the peoples of the world to unite. It reads in part: ”The flaming years of the Second World War saw the emergence of a great alliance of the opponents of Fascist barbarism, the union of communists and patriots, fighters against tyranny and democrats. It was created in spite of social and political divergences, differences of political and religious views. Such was the bidding of the time. The new era of trials again calls for the united actions of all the people of good will.”
The title of this international media forum is “Truth Against Neo-Fascism”. In working out common approaches it is important to stress several basic principles.
1. The struggle against the mounting threat of war, reaction and Fascism calls for a broad unity of all the progressive anti-war and anti-Fascist forces.
2. Historical experience shows that the most consistent opponents of Nazism and militarism have always been communists and advocates of the socialist path of development.
3. The cause of defending peace and social justice, like consistent struggle against Fascism, is directly and immediately connected with the struggle against imperialism.
4. The position of the left parties and movements worked out by the First and Second Anti-Fascist Forums held in Minsk and Moscow in 2023 and 2025, provides the necessary foundation for unity in the struggle against neo-Nazism and neo-colonialism.
5. Effective counter-action to imperialist reaction calls for the highest degree of synergy of all the left-wing, genuinely patriotic forces in pursuing a more active and coordinated information policy.
On the face of it, the development of communication technologies opens up broad opportunities for the enlightenment of society. However, Big Business and its governments use all the innovations in their selfish interests. Their aim is to instill in the population consumerist attitudes, form false values and distract citizens from acute social problems. To this end the information space is being filled with cheap entertainment and other trash. Fake data are being spread. Cynical lies and manipulation are rife.
The term “information war” did not appear by chance. Propaganda is an inalienable part of political life in any society. But global capitalism, whose citadel is in the West, and its information tools have mounted an unprecedented brainwashing drive. Freedom of expression in bourgeois society is a thing of the past. Information warfare is being waged not so much against an external enemy as against the working people at home.
Earlier the Western governments embraced as the new normal the politics of sanctions against countries and peoples they do not like. Now they are introducing ever tougher “embargos” on the spread of objective information. This confronts the left-wing forces with an exceedingly important task: to learn to effectively counteract the propaganda aggression of the bourgeois media. This is needed in order to explain our position to the workers and peasants, to youth and to old folks. To uphold the historical truth, and counter dirty falsifications. To present the picture of the real achievements of socialism. To counter the special operations of the CIA propaganda and expose its sophisticated fakes.
Global capital has created a powerful far-flung network of media outlets. In order to succeed in bringing socialist ideas to the masses, the left-wing forces need skill in countering the huge potential of our adversaries. We can and must prevail in the information war through truthfulness and persuasiveness, quick reaction and flexibility, ideological staunchness and morality of our assessments, through honest and intense work.
Increasingly relevant for the left-wing parties and movements is coordination of efforts in creating a system of information diffusion. In this connection it is important that we jointly answer the questions: what resources do we have at our disposal? What opportunities exist but have not yet been tapped? How to increase the outreach of information about the real state of affairs on the planet?
In the process of bilateral contacts our fraternal parties have more than once stressed the need to receive objective information about the state of affairs in Russia. About the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine. About the position and activities of the CPRF.
In addition to the problem of fakes there is the usual shortage of data on the situation in various regions of the world. For example, the official Russian media still operate in accordance with the long-established Euro-centric approach. In the stream of world news they single out events in the USA and Europe. What happens in other countries is often marginalized. This, too, is an area in which we need to work together. It is in our common interest to build a system of propaganda and counter-propaganda which presents the popular patriotic position of the left movement in the global media space effectively and broadly. We believe that to this end it is important to pool the efforts of the progressive, communist and workers’ parties of the world in jointly forming the information stream. This is the only way to counter the massive disinformation, withholding of the truth and one-sided view of events.
This is precisely why the CPRF has proposed holding this media forum. Its aim is to exchange experience, discuss a joint strategy of actions in these complicated and explosive times. Only by combining our efforts can we widely disseminate our common ideas and values, uphold the historical truth and successfully struggle for socialism.
To tackle our common tasks our parties have newspapers and magazines, radio stations and TV channels and the new media. Particular attention should be paid to working out concrete forms and methods of coordinating their work, joint struggle for peace, friendship and progress on our unique planet.
The two International Anti-Fascist Forums have worked out a realistic platform for united actions of the left-wing forces in the struggle against the brown menace. Information support of this work is very important.
We are convinced that the Truth Against Neo-Fascism Media Forum will help to move our common movement forward!
Let us be united, hence invincible!
For the victory of socialism!
For the cohesion of all the forces of peace, good and justice!