Suppression of the June 17 Uprising

The demands and slogans for the freedom of political prisoners, the resignation and withdrawal of the government, free elections and free parties, free social activity, and the unity of East and West Germany were raised by workers and the general public on June 17, 1953, in East Germany. This nationwide movement was ultimately suppressed by Soviet tanks and military forces. The June 17, 1953, mass uprising was the first popular uprising under the totalitarian dictatorship of the Soviet Union. About one million protesters marched in East Germany on this day for better living conditions, democracy, freedom, and the unity of Germany. Eventually, Soviet military forces were deployed in over 700 locations across East Germany to stifle this freedom-seeking movement in its infancy. More than 50 people were killed due to the military violence of the Russian army, hundreds were injured, and thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. The popular uprising initially began with the labor movement when most construction workers went on strike on June 16, 1953, and some of them started marching on a street named Stalin Street in East Berlin. At that time, none of the protesters could imagine that this rebellion would be suppressed by Russian tanks and by the orders of the Soviet dictatorship officials. The strikes initially had economic goals. The protesters opposed the decline in their living standards and demanded higher wages. Until the Minister of Industry of East Germany, a functionary of the dictatorial regime named Fritz Zai, went up on a table in front of the government ministries in East Berlin and announced that the demands of the workers would soon be addressed; however, the workers justifiably did not believe his words and demanded more. Behind the scenes, Soviet military officials were preparing to suppress the movement. According to reports from contemporary newspapers, about 700 construction workers were present at the government ministries. One of the representatives of the workers called for free elections throughout East Germany, and another speaker announced a general strike. At that time, the workers were not alone; the general public in East Germany also supported these labor protests. In East Berlin alone, on the evening of June 17, more than twenty thousand people continued their protests spontaneously in various areas. The protesters even stormed the state radio and television center, demanding that their demands be read in the daily news. Some of the workers' demands were read in the news of the state radio and television of East Germany, but there was no further mention of the general strike, which had become one of the main demands of the protest movement, and only the economic goals of the workers, free elections, and the refusal to punish and penalize the spokespeople of this movement were mentioned in the news. The East German statesmen and Soviet officials took the threat of a general strike seriously and ordered the readiness of all Soviet military forces in East Germany, immediately suppressing the movement. The reactions in Western countries, especially in West Germany, were decisive and firm. In solidarity with the freedom-seeking demands of the people in East Germany, government officials in West Germany announced that June 17 would henceforth be a public holiday in West Germany. Until on November 9, 1989, the wave of freedom succeeded against the socialist dictatorship, the Berlin Wall cracked, and eventually, the unification of Germany gradually took place. A point that remained in the historical memory of the German people is that June 17, 1953, was the day when the functionaries of the socialist dictatorship showed that they could suppress any popular movement in the name of workers, the people, and socialism, thus preventing the growth of civil society. Lenin was the main responsible for the suppression of the people in socialist dictatorships. It can be said that the result of Leninist ideology was historical crimes, state violence, secret police, and the torture of innocent people by the executioners of the communist dictatorship. These crimes began in December 1917 when Lenin ordered Felix Dzerzhinsky to form a special commission to combat counter-revolution. This is the commission that became known as the Cheka. The communist secret police known as the Cheka was the embodiment of the system of communist terror. It should not be forgotten that from the beginning, Lenin officially took major responsibility for all the crimes of the Cheka. At that time, Lenin called terror the 'star of the world revolution' and not only sought the ruthless execution of the opposition, even the left, but also demanded the killing of every thief. In the so-called language of Leninist ideology, all dissenters were thieves. Even individuals who distributed the announcements of opposing groups were to be executed by Lenin's orders. He easily legitimized the crimes of a dictatorial system by resorting to a one-dimensional ideology. One historical example of Leninist crimes occurred following the great famine in 1921/1922. Instead of accepting the proposal from the United States government, which wanted to provide humanitarian aid to the people of the Soviet Union, Lenin ordered the massacre of dissenters. At that time, the corpses of thousands of people lay in the streets of the Soviet Union. Lenin used the dire situation to advance his ideology and ordered the ruthless confiscation of the property of reactionary clergy and bourgeoisie. One of Lenin's subordinates, named Alexei Rikov, concluded that workers and peasants, due to their passionate feelings, could work even without eating bread, but horses did not have this power. Rikov continued that horses could be called counter-revolutionary, but he feared that ultimately, at least, peasants would need to be given bread and barley. This itself showed how contemptuous the views of communist functionaries were towards peasants and workers. Another historical fact is that the order to build and establish death camps was first given by Lenin on August 19, 1918, before the Nazis came to power in Germany. Lenin ordered that a military unit with reliable men should carry out the massacre of the kulaks, that is, the prosperous peasants, clergy, and soldiers of the White Army of Russia. By Lenin's orders, all suspected individuals were to be gathered in death camps and killed. Here, it should be emphasized that on the one hand, Marxism was one of the great conceptual and abstract ideals of the twentieth century, and on the other hand, it should be noted that Marxism and Leninism faced historical defeat. Of course, some of Marx's correct economic analyses are still taught in universities in the Western world, but, for example, Marx's fanciful notions of violence as the engine of history also had negative impacts on Lenin's theories. The dictatorship of the proletariat, whether in the Soviet Union or in East Germany, was the dictatorship of the state apparatus over the people and the working class of those countries. History showed that the Soviet Union was never an economic alternative but was only a military system that managed to rule for less than a century through historical force and violence. The next article will address the theories of a conservative theorist who sought to rescue at least basic freedoms.