The civil war in Burma is little known to the average Russian. Only experts and amateur historians, yes, perhaps, those who watched and remember the movie "Rambo-4", have an idea of the events, which will be discussed below. Meanwhile, for all of us, the history of this civil war serves as an example of what a state can comprehend, which is at the intersection of interests of various powers, possessing some reserves of natural resources and, at the same time, not distinguished by political and social stability.
In the second half of the twentieth century, during the years of the so-called. During the Cold War, Indochina became an important area of military-political activity. Even before the outbreak of World War II, in the Asian colonies of European powers, under the influence of the Soviet Union, communist and national liberation parties and movements began to form. The victory in World War II, which in Southeast Asia had the character of a bloody confrontation between the Imperial Japanese Army and the anti-fascist coalition represented by the British, Australian, American troops, led to the strengthening of the positions of the national liberation movements around the world.
Naturally, the mood of victory also affected Indochina. In its eastern part - Vietnam, and then Laos - the national liberation movement ultimately ended with the victory of the Communists, American military aggression, victory over American troops and their allies, and the establishment of socialist regimes that exist with certain adjustments to the political and economic course up to present. Cambodia has survived the "Pol Pot experiment". Royal Thailand, which never received the status of anyone's colony and throughout history retained state sovereignty, became a staunch ally of the United States. Burma, on the other hand, is the westernmost and in many ways the most closed country of the Indochina Peninsula - for many decades it has become a place where interests of various forces clash. That caused a long civil war on the territory of the country, some centers of which have not been eliminated up to the present time.
Since 1989, the country has abandoned the name "Burma", which was popular outside its borders, and for the last twenty-five years it has been called "Myanmar". But for the convenience of readers' perception, we will use its old and familiar name in this article. All the years of its post-war independent (from the British colonialists) existence are the years of the rule of successive authoritarian regimes and the incessant civil war.
Representatives of several dozen peoples and tribal groups live in this relatively large state (55 million people). Although for the average European or American they are all "on the same face", in reality there are very serious differences between them in linguistic affiliation, and in religion, and in the peculiarities of culture and economy. While Burma from 1885 to 1945. was under the control of the British crown, British politicians managed to maneuver between the contradictions of the country's numerous ethnic groups and build a sufficiently capable system of government. Japanese occupation of Burma 1942-1945and her subsequent release from the British protectorate, led to the exacerbation of previous grievances.
Postwar Burma began its history as a federal state - the Union of Burma, which included seven provinces inhabited mainly by Burmese (Myanmar) and seven national states (Shan, Chin, Mon, Kaya, Karen, Kachin and Arakan). Naturally, from the first days of the independent existence of the state, the political situation in it was destabilized. The catalyst was the promise of the outgoing British colonialists to grant state independence to several territories densely populated by national minorities - the states of Shan, Karen and Kaya. The peoples of other states also joined in, who also thought that in "Burmese" Burma their national rights and interests would be infringed upon in every possible way.
The central government of post-war Burma was represented by "national" socialists from the Anti-Fascist League of People's Freedom (hereinafter - ALS). This organization, inheriting the traditions of the pre-war national liberation parties and societies (Dobama Asiyon, etc.), stood on the principles of “Burmese socialism”, which, however, did not duplicate the Marxist-Leninist concept, but proposed its own model of reforming economic, social and political life country.
The first ALNS leader was Aung San, a legendary Burmese revolutionary killed by terrorists in 1947 and known to the Russian-speaking reader for his biography published in the Life of Remarkable People series by Igor Mozheiko. For eleven years, the ALNS (from 1947 to 1958) was headed by U Nu, one of the few Burmese politicians who are well known to the average Russian-speaking person of the older generation thanks to his friendship with the Soviet Union.
Once established in power, the U Nu government embarked on an economic reform with the goal of gradually transforming Burma into a prosperous socialist country. However, by this time the social situation in the country had deteriorated significantly, which was due, among other things, to the impoverishment of the Burmese peasants due to the predatory actions of the Hindu usurers. Among the poor peasant masses in the lower part of the country, the Communist Party of Burma gained significant influence, proposing a more radical program of action. Already in 1948, shortly after the proclamation of the country's independence, clashes broke out between government troops and the armed forces of the Burmese Communist Party.
It is worth noting that by this time the Burmese Communist Party split into two parts - simply the Communist Party, also called the White Flag Party, and the Red Flag Communist Party. The latter was considered more radical and held irreconcilable positions, although the militant formations of both factions of the Burmese Communist Party participated in the armed confrontation with the Burmese authorities. It so happened that the "Red Flag", accused by opponents of Trotskyism, was entrenched in the west of the country, in the province of Arakan, and the arena of activity of the "White Flag", reoriented to Maoism, first became Lower Burma, and then - the northern and eastern provinces of the state.
Despite all the efforts of the Soviet Union and the international communist movement to prevent the war between socialists and communists, it became more and more fierce. An important role was played by the split in the communist movement, part of which went to China. For obvious reasons, in Southeast Asia, the position of the Chinese Communist Party, which adopted the doctrine of Maoism, turned out to be very strong. It was precisely because of its pro-Chinese orientation that the Soviet Union did not provide the Communist Party of Burma with the support that, say, the Vietnamese communists received.
The initial success of the communists in the civil war was largely due to the support they enjoyed among the peasant population of Lower Burma. Promising to endow the peasants with land and overcome the exploitation of Indian usurers, the Communists attracted the sympathy of not only the rural population, but also many soldiers mobilized into government troops, who deserted in whole groups and went over to the side of the rebels.
And, nevertheless, by the mid-1950s, the activity of the communists began to gradually subside, largely due to organizational squabbles and the elementary inability of communist leaders to negotiate both with each other and with other key actors of the armed confrontation in the country. in all, with ethnic formations in the national states.
In 1962, General Ne Win came to power in Burma. A veteran of the Burma Independence Army, he received his military education during the Second World War in Japan, with which the "takins" (fighters for the independence of Burma) then worked closely. After the transition of the "takins" to anti-Japanese positions, the end of World War II and the proclamation of the country's independence, Ne Win consistently held high positions in the armed forces of sovereign Burma, until he was appointed prime minister in 1958 and in 1062 he carried out a coup d'etat.
Ne Win's political platform, like U Nu, was based on socialist principles, only unlike his predecessor, the general did not fail to implement them. The entire industry of Burma was nationalized, agricultural cooperatives were created, and opposition political parties were banned. The new leader of the country also took decisive measures against the communist rebels. The armed detachments of the Communist Party suffered several serious defeats, after which they were forced to retreat to the hard-to-reach northern regions of the country inhabited by national minorities, and go on to the classic guerrilla war.
Unlike Ne Win, who occupied important posts, his peer and former comrade in the national liberation movement Takin Tan Tun went into deep opposition after the end of World War II. It was he who led the Communist Party of Burma (White Flag) and for twenty years spent in the jungle, led its military operations against the central government of the country. British researcher Martin Smith calls Takin Tan Tun the second most important figure in the national liberation movement of Burma after Aung Sang, emphasizing his level not only as an organizer and leader, but also as a theoretical worker.
Takin Tan Tun and his associates supported the Chinese line in the international communist movement, accusing the Soviet Union and the CPSU of supporting the semi-colonial nationalist regime of Ne Win. Naturally, the actions of the Maoist Communist Party were beneficial to China, which acquired a conduit for its influence in Burma and Western Indochina as a whole. At the same time, the reorganization of the Communist Party in the Chinese way began, accompanied by the creation of a school of political preparation and the conduct of its own "cultural revolution" with the aim of cleansing the party of "revisionists". As a result of this "cultural revolution", large-scale purges were carried out in the party, which also affected its leaders. At the same time, according to the Maoist rule, friends and even sons or brothers of the "traitors to the party line" condemned to death were included in the number of executors of sentences.
In 1968, Takin Tan Tun was killed by one of his gunmen. Internal purges and continued operations by government forces also led to a significant reduction in the scale of the CPB's activities. The party, which suffered serious losses, was forced to concentrate its activity in areas inhabited by national minorities, primarily in the Wa region.
The ideological line of the Communist Party remained Maoist. In 1978, the new leader of the party, Takin Ba Tein Tin, characterized the policy of the USSR as imperialist, and Vietnam as hegemonic, fully supporting the Cambodian Khmer Rouge. The "people's war" based on the insurgent potential of the villages was seen as the main tactical line of the communists at the present stage of the confrontation.
With the liberalization of the political course of China itself, its numerous satellites - the Communist Party of Southeast Asia - lost their real positions in their countries. The weakening of the Burmese Communist Party, which followed in the 1980s, was largely due to the reduction in Chinese aid, although at the same time, one should not underestimate the specifics of ethnic and social relations in the Burmese provinces, the skillful policy of the central leadership, which combined military operations with truces with leaders national minorities.
At present, the communist partisans do not have even a fraction of the influence in Burma that they used to enjoy before, and of course they cannot be compared in scale of activity with like-minded people in the not so distant Philippines. However, according to Burmese and British media reports, given certain social grounds, the Burmese Communist Party is able to resume its military activity.
Thus, we see that the communist insurgency in Burma, which for several decades was one of the key problems of the central government, decreased its activity as its senior partner, China, became de-radicalized. Today, the Chinese government is more inclined to use economic leverage than support for radical groups in neighboring countries. As for the Soviet Union, in the case of Burma, it suffered a clear political fiasco. The military regime turned out to be rather closed, including for the expansion of Soviet ideology, and the opportunity to influence it by controlling the activities of the Communist Party was lost in the late 1940s - since the Union reoriented itself to support the socialist government of U Nu.
The Americans and the British turned out to be more far-sighted players in Burmese politics, using the activities of nationalist movements of ethnic minorities to realize their strategic interests. But this is a completely different story, about which - in the next article.
Ilya Polonsky
