For a number of Indians, including those born in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the lure of Russia proved fatal. They were drawn to Bolshevism by Lenin and his famous thesis on the National and Colonial Question at the Second Congress of the Comintern 1920. They met their end at the hands of Jossef Stalin.
KGB archival records show that as many as ‘45 Indian revolutionaries were sent to firing squads on trumped-up charges of espionage and conspiracies’. The purge, which began in the late 1930s, labelled these men ‘British spies’.
However, the documents do not elaborate on the charges. Records collected in the Memorial, an institute run by Russian Indologist Yan Rachinskii in Moscow, show that 12 of the 45 Indians have been identified. They all lived in Moscow.
The Indian Communists in Russia, who held a special relation with several Indian revolutionaries including Savarkar and also the Communist Party of Great Britain, were sent to firing squads just before Stalin signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression with Germany in 1939.
One of them was Birendra Nath Chatterjee, brother of Sarojini Naidu. Chatterjee joined hands with Savarkar to launch a nation-wide movement against the British Government.
After travelling in Europe he went to the Soviet Union in 1918 and joined the Comintern.
He survived the war of succession following Lenin’s death but was arrested in 1937 and put before the firing squad.
Another was Abani Mukherjee whose Russian name was Mukherjee Trilokovich.
A professor of history at the Moscow State University, he was arrested and shot the same year as Chatterjee.
Purobi Roy, who holds a chair in St Petersburg University, says that while Russia is trying to find out what happened to the ‘lost revolutionaries who began vanishing from the late ’30s to early ’40, there’s hardly any interest in India to trace their men.
‘‘I think neither the Congress nor the Indian Communists wanted to disturb the Indo-Russian friendship,’’ says Roy.
Roy who visited Russia way back in 1995 with the Asiatic Society team had also come across evidence on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s reported presence in Russia after the air crash in Taiwan in 1945.
Concerning the fallouts of the revelations of the Indian killings, Roy is not quite clear.
‘‘There isn’t any elaboration on the charges barring that they were accused of being British spies and were killed. but I would try to link an interesting letter and 8-page missing report which Ben Bradley, leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain, wrote to Abani Mukherjee saying ‘Don’t allow Subhas Chandra Bose to re-enter India’.
’’ The letter was written in 1936. At that time Bose was on last leg of his exile in Europe and trying to come back to India with the British Government’s permission.
‘‘We’ve already mentioned the letter in our book Indo-Russia Relation from 1929 to 1947, Vol 2. Only then we didn’t know that these Indian members of Comintern were killed on charges of espionage. Now we could understand at least that Bradley wanted to elicit Comintern’s support to put a check on Bose’s return from exile. We need more research to know exactly what happened.’’
Discuss please - Leon Rao
But the Indian Government doesn’t appear too keen to know what happened.
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I just wish Netaji Subash Chandra Bose would have been alive and prime minister of India instead of Nehru , Nehru and his family ruined our country, all his policies are wrong, if initial fundamentals of India would have been better, there was no need of partition and this and that, Muslims and Hindus could have stayed together and progressed together with common law, system for everybody irrespective of religion, common opportunities, no corruption, no loot day and night, education, quality of life, i even read in my research Nehru was afraid of Netaji and so called plane in which he died is false news, Netaji was in Siberia and Nehru asked Stalin to kill him, he was left to die since Nehru wanted Prime minister position for himself, such big cover up by Congress party in India, traitors of nation, whole history was rewritten, our generations are suffering because of all this animosity between Hindus, Muslims, so many riots, so much of loot and corruption, Congress party is getting richer by loot ,nobody listen to common man, i tried to file Right to information against local contractor who was stealing money from roads and i got threats that they will shoot me if i don't keep quiet, nothing works in India, ultimately Nehru also died but he was greedy, he should have worked hard to get Netaji back to India from jail in Siberia where Stalin detained him, India would have become super power by 1970 , but ironically i feel Netaji died somewhere in Siberia because of collusion of Mahatma Gandhi(whom i hate to the core of my heart and consider him responsible for all present problems of India) and Nehru( i hate him even more than Gandhi, biggest scammed ever born in India), Stalin's own daughter said Netaji is in Siberia in so and so barack as well as cell number, why Manmohan Singh who is present prime minister of India is not requesting Putin (President of Russia) to dig into old files of KGB and find out about Netaji, we have right to know how our most patriotic and best leader was killed and under what type of circumstances, why don't India government bring his ashes from Ramkoji temple in Japan, i think this was biggest consipracy theory of its time and atleast Britian, Nehru of India and former USSR, three government were involved in conspiracy and they killed him like cowards somewhere, facts were hidden and this is what India has become today, same thing i will say about Pakistan too, where is quality of life in these countries, only few people loot and live, all others are forced to work hard, obey orders and fight among each other on one pretext or another. I hope i came to know about this conspiracy theory in my life, my biggest idol was and is Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.
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ReplyDeleteI am speechless reading truthteller as I got exactly the same resonance. Netaji is the king of all fighters for humanity just like Vivekananda.But blood hound bustards scoundrels prevailing in the then India were so frightened by Subhash that their first Moto was to get clear of the enemy at the cost of Indiana's future.Much to be talked on the issue but bye ....
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