Translated from Sanskrit, the name Sri Lanka means a glorious, blessed land. But the history of this South Asian island is by no means replete with examples of calm and serenity. As early as the 16th century, the gradual European colonization of the island of Ceylon began. First it was mastered by the Portuguese, then by the Dutch. In 1796, Ceylon was subdued by the British, who in 1815 liquidated the last independent Ceylon state - the kingdom of Kandy, after which the whole island became a British colony. The local population, however, did not give up hope of gaining independence. In the first half of the twentieth century, the first socialist and later communist circles appeared in Ceylon, whose activities, however, were suppressed in every possible way by the colonial authorities.
As in other regions of South and Southeast Asia, the rise of the national independence movement in Ceylon was associated with the Second World War. In 1948, Great Britain nevertheless agreed to declare Ceylon a dominion within the British Commonwealth, and in 1956 Sinhalese nationalists came to power on the island, expressing the interests of the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. They proclaimed Sinhalese the state language of the country (instead of English). At the same time, clashes began between the Sinhalese and Tamils (the second largest people of the island, professing Hinduism). In 1957, Ceylon got rid of the British bases on its territory.
By the 1960s. The Communist Party of Ceylon, created in 1943 on the basis of the United Socialist Party and a number of smaller Marxist groups, was active on the island. The party supported the government of the Sinhalese nationalist Solomon Bandaranaike, and then his wife Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the first woman prime minister in the world. Together with the Ceylon Freedom Party and the Socialist Party of Sri Lanka, the Communists formed the United Front. In the mid-1960s. in Ceylon, as in other countries of South and Southeast Asia, there was a demarcation into the pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese parts of the communist movement.
The pro-Chinese faction in the Ceylon Communist Party was headed by Premalal Kumarasiri. In 1964, the pro-Chinese faction finally separated and formed the Ceylon Communist Party (Peking wing), which then in 1991 was renamed the Sri Lankan Communist Party (Maoist). Tamil Nagalingam Shanmugathasan (19820-1993) became the general secretary of the Maoist party. The Ceylon Maoists criticized the activities of the pro-Soviet faction, which they suspected of compromising and cooperating with the imperialists - in general, they acted in the same way as their ideological allies in other regions of the planet. But the most interesting was ahead.
In 1965, a new radical left organization appeared in Ceylon - the People's Liberation Front, or, in Sinhalese, Janata Vimukti Peramuna. At its origins was a very young political activist - 22-year-old Patabendi Don Nandasiri Vijavira (1943-1989), better known as Rohana Vijavira. The son of a famous Ceylon communist, Vigevira, in 1960, at the age of 17, went to study in the Soviet Union. The young man entered the Peoples' Friendship University, but in 1963 he was forced to take an academic leave due to illness and return to his homeland. This return was the beginning of a sharp turn in his destiny.
During his stay in his homeland, Vigevira joined the pro-Chinese faction in the Ceylon Communist Party and established contacts with its leaders. Therefore, when he received medical treatment and decided to continue his studies in the USSR, the Soviet side refused to issue an entry visa to the young communist - precisely because of his political sympathies for China. Vijavira gradually became convinced that the "old left" movement of Ceylon was not really engaged in real revolutionary propaganda, did not work with the masses, but focused on near-parliamentary activities and internal squabbles. Having created the Popular Front for Liberation, Vijavira decided to start her activities by teaching supporters of Marxism. Throughout 1968, Vigevira traveled around the country, where he held the so-called "five classes" for members of the new party. The study lasted 17-18 hours a day with short breaks for eating and sleeping. At the same time, all activities were kept in strict secrecy so that neither the Ceylon special services nor the leaders of the "old left" parties would find out about it.
By the early 1970s, Vigevira and his associates came to the conclusion that it was necessary to start a revolutionary armed struggle against the Ceylon authorities. Despite the fact that the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, which the Soviet media positioned exclusively as a progressive politician, was in power in the country by this time, Vijavira was convinced of the reactionary nature of the country's political course. In the five years that the People's Liberation Front had managed to exist by that time, it managed to create an extensive network of its supporters in the southern and central provinces of Ceylon, acquiring weapons and establishing control over some villages. Although the main support of the Popular Front for Liberation was the student body, the organization had sympathizers among the junior officers of the Ceylon army. This allowed the revolutionaries to get at their disposal plans for airports, police stations, military units.
By 1970, Janata Vimukti Peramuna camps operated in Kurunegala, Akmeeman, Tissamaharama, Ilpitiya and Anuradhapura. In them, supporters of the organization took the training course "Five Lectures", trained in shooting and handling bombs. By 1971 the number of the organization had reached about 10 thousand people. The front structure looked like this. The lowest level consisted of combat fives led by the leader. Several fives made up a zone, several zones - a district, and the heads of districts were part of the Central Committee. The governing body was the political bureau, which consisted of 12 members of the Central Committee of the People's Liberation Front.
Party cells began to arm themselves with rifles, acquired blue uniforms, military boots and backpacks. A number of bank expropriations have been undertaken. On February 27, 1971, the last public rally was held in the Hyde Park of the Ceylon capital of Colombo, at which Vigevira declared that the revolution of workers, peasants and soldiers must be victorious. However, in March 1971, an explosion occurred in one of the underground bomb workshops. The police launched an investigation. Soon, 58 bombs were discovered in a hut at Nelundenya in Kegalle. The leader of the Popular Front for Liberation, Rohan Vijavira, was arrested and imprisoned on the Jaffna Peninsula. Further events developed without the participation of the main ideologist and the head of the organization.
After Vijavira was detained, it became clear to his associates that they had no other choice - either an immediate opposition to the government, or the growing police repression would soon lead to the complete defeat of the organization. On March 16, 1971, the government of Ceylon declared a state of emergency throughout the country. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Popular Liberation Front decided that on the night of April 5, 1971, attacks on local police stations should be carried out throughout the country. On the morning of April 5, 1971, militants from the Popular Liberation Front attacked the Wellawaya police station. Five police constables were killed. However, in the meantime, the special services managed to arrest several militants who were trying to kill the country's prime minister. The head of government was transferred to a safe place - the official residence, which was well protected and surrounded by loyal parts of the government security forces.
Despite the measures taken, the police failed to prevent the protest. At the same time, 92 police stations across the country were attacked. Five police stations were captured by the insurgents, another 43 stations were abandoned by the fleeing police. By April 10, the rebels managed to take control of the city of Ambalangoda in Galle. The organization's militants destroyed telephone lines and blocked roads with fallen trees. These actions helped to establish control over almost the entire south of Ceylon. Only Halle and Matara, where small army garrisons were stationed in the old Dutch forts, were not captured by the rebels.
The first days after the outbreak of the uprising, the government of Ceylon was in complete confusion. The fact is that the country's armed forces were ill-prepared and unprepared for such a turn of events. Their funding was cut back in the 1960s, and the left government fired many old and experienced officers and non-commissioned officers for political reasons. The commander of the armed forces, Major General Attyagall, ordered the army units to take over the protection of the capital of the country, Colombo. A squadron of the Royal Ceylon Air Force, with only three helicopters, began flights to supply police stations in remote areas of the country with ammunition and weapons. At the same time, the mobilization of reservists began. The majority of those mobilized were former members of the Ceylon units of the British colonial forces who had experience of fighting during the Second World War.
Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (pictured) made an appeal for help to friendly countries. The leadership of Pakistan was one of the first to react. Units of the Pakistani army were transferred to Ratmalan airport, taking protection of some important objects. Subsequently, units of the Southern Operational Command of the Indian Armed Forces were transferred to Ceylon. The Indian Navy deployed a naval cordon around Ceylon, protecting the coast of the island from the possible landing of any allied rebel forces. The Indian and Pakistani troops, which took under the protection of airports, ports, government offices, freed the main part of the Ceylon army from guard duty. Thus, Ceylon was able to concentrate all its armed forces on the fight against the rebels of the Popular Liberation Front. Indian planes and helicopters were sent to the aid of the Ceylon army. Five fighter-bombers and two helicopters were provided to Ceylon by the Soviet Union.
With the support of foreign states and mobilizing reservists, the Ceylon army launched an offensive against the rebels. The fighting throughout the island lasted for about three weeks. Finally, government forces managed to regain control over almost the entire country, with the exception of a few hard-to-reach areas. To secure the surrender of the continuing resistance of the rebels, the government offered the participants in the uprising amnesty. The captured rebels were arrested, more than 20 thousand people were in special camps. Several months later, in accordance with the declared amnesty, they were released. According to official figures, 1200 people became victims of the uprising, but independent experts say about 4-5 thousand dead.
To investigate the circumstances of the uprising, a special commission was created under the chairmanship of Chief Justice Fernando. In 1975, Rohan Vijavira was sentenced to life in prison. At the trial, he delivered the famous speech “We may be killed, but our voices will not be drowned out,” imitating Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Among the international consequences of the uprising was the severance of diplomatic relations between Ceylon and the DPRK, since in Colombo it was believed that it was North Korea that provided the main assistance to the left-wing radical rebels. Among those arrested was the leader of the Maoist Communist Party Nagalingam Shanmugathasan, who, although he criticized Vijavira and the Popular Liberation Front, was sympathetic to any armed struggle under communist slogans.
However, then Rohan Vigevira's life sentence was commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. In 1977, he was released from prison after an opposition political party came to power in Sri Lanka. The liberation of Vijavira led to a renewed activation of the Popular Liberation Front. Since by this time the contradictions between the Sinhalese and Tamil population increased in the country, the People's Liberation Front, taking advantage of the situation, began to actively exploit the theme of Sinhalese nationalism. The ideology of the front by this time bizarrely combined Marxist-Leninist phraseology, Ernesto Che Guevara's theory of guerrilla warfare, Sinhalese nationalism and even Buddhist radicalism (in Sri Lanka, Buddhism for the Sinhalese is also a kind of banner of confrontation with Hindus - Tamils). This led to the organization of new supporters. The militants of the Popular Front for Liberation resorted to the tactics of political assassinations, ruthlessly cracking down on any opponents of their ideology. In 1987, a new uprising of the Popular Liberation Front broke out, which lasted for two years. In November 1989, government forces managed to capture Rohan Vijavira. The leader and founder of the Popular Front for Liberation was killed, according to some sources - burned alive.
After the death of Vijavira, it was already easier for the Sri Lankan authorities to suppress the resistance of his supporters. About 7,000 members of Janata Vimukti Peramuna were arrested. It should be noted that the government security forces used cruel and unlawful methods in the fight against the insurgents, including torture and extrajudicial executions. In the 2000s. The Popular Liberation Front has become a legal political party with the position of left-wing radicalism and Sinhalese nationalism.
