Asiatic Orientations of Early Soviet Socialism

Abstract

The international projection of Soviet socialism and responses to it were a major aspect of the political life of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In Asia, including India, this was noticeable from the time of the early work of the Comintern (1919). The Maulana Azad lecture for 2014 discussed this theme. The lecture presented the political background to what took place—tracing the Comintern initiative in Asia following the Congress of the Workers of the East in Baku in 1920. The rest of the lecture was divided into three sections. The first section dealt with the way in which awareness of Soviet socialism increased in Asian countries. This came to take shape as Oriental Studies in Soviet Russia took on a new form which included teaching and involvement of foreign revolutionaries at the Communist University of the Workers of the East and the operations of the All Russian Association for Oriental Studies. The technologies of the 1920s were put to work—among them photography and radio. The limits of the initiatives were a part of the nature of the institutions and the techniques employed. The second section focused firmly on India and dealt with reception in India of Soviet socialism, drawing in information of the importance of communications difficulties as well as the problems posed by British authorities. The final section pointed out that despite the positive response of many of his friends to Soviet socialism, Maulana Azad refused to engage with the phenomenon – most likely in view of his own sense that what it meant was not quite clear since limited information was available in India.