When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, they, like the Bolsheviks, inherited a country ravaged by war. Kampuchea had been dragged into the Vietnamese-American conflict and emerged completely devastated. The people were starving. The cause of the problems was the American bombing campaign that lasted from 1968 to August 1973. During the American invasion, the U.S. Army dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs on Kampuchea.
Kampuchea was a backward agricultural country. The basis of the Khmer Revolution was the peasants. At the same time, Pol Pot emphasized that "the working class, by its class nature, is the leading force." The situation of hunger had to be urgently corrected. Pol Pot had a positive attitude toward Stalin's collectivization and took his experience into account. But if Stalin's collectivization was linked to industrialization, which required a strong agricultural base to accelerate growth, in Kampuchea the survival of the Khmer people depended directly on collectivization. The economy was in decline, there was a shortage of food, there was nothing to say about industry. The forced decision was to relocate a certain part of the population to the village to cultivate rice fields. Pol Pot explained this move as follows:
"One of the reasons is economic. We could not solve the problem of feeding the population, especially in the cities... In the countryside, conditions were favorable for us, which is not the case in the cities. And then we had to evacuate the cities to solve the food problem. Only by solving this problem can we hope to gain the confidence of the people in the revolution. A population that is dying of hunger cannot trust the revolution."
As for taking money out of circulation, not long before the Khmer Rouge took power, money circulation in Kampuchea worked only in a small area around the capital. Money was hardly used in the rest of the country. As a result of the collapse of the economy caused by the war, money lost its purchasing value, and the Pol Pot government was forced to switch to natural exchange. "In 1974, the value of money dropped by 80%. After that, we asked people what they thought about money now, and in rural areas they responded positively to these changes. When people were evacuated from the cities, they were immediately accepted by the cooperatives. All this allowed us to completely abandon the circulation of money. The peasants were taxed in kind, mainly in rice, which was given to other groups of the population in the form of rations in kind." As you can see, there is no recklessness, but a competent and verified calculation.
The country was faced with the task of eliminating capitalism in three years. Recognizing the importance of scientific planning in the construction of socialism, the Khmer Rouge drew up a four-year plan for the development of the country a year after the revolution. Industry was almost nonexistent. Its early development was extremely difficult, so the initial emphasis was on agriculture. Special attention was paid to increasing the rice harvest. In order to increase the area of rice cultivation, it was planned to increase the water reserves by building a network of dams, canals and reservoirs. The capital generated from agriculture was to be used to finance light and heavy industry. Light industry was to ensure the production of consumer goods for the needs of the population, and heavy industry was to provide a strong material base for socialism, with emphasis on increasing the productive forces of agriculture through its mechanization, electrification, and development of means of communication. The plan also called for the development of animal husbandry, medicine, culture, etc.
The Khmer Rouge's words did not differ from their actions. Agriculture developed at a steady pace. Rural cooperatives were established everywhere. In 1977, the problem of hunger was solved and it became possible to earn money by exporting rice. At the celebration of the 17th anniversary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, Pol Pot reported the creation of many reservoirs.
In addition to agricultural successes, industrial successes were also achieved. Pol Pot noted:
"In industry, too, our party takes the concrete conditions of the country as a starting point, paying special attention to the factories that produce agricultural products and the livelihood of the people. With this in mind, we have built many new factories, we have renovated and transformed existing enterprises that were previously dependent on foreign raw materials into factories that now rely mainly on locally available raw materials." As a result of this policy, "the population is gradually returning to the cities, in line with the development of industry". So much for the "agrarian communists."
As the country rose from the ruins, it desperately needed competent professionals. The Khmer Rouge, who supposedly hated the bespectacled intelligentsia, did everything possible to ensure that the education program was carried out according to plan. Summing up the early successes in eliminating illiteracy, Pol Pot said:
"Our education has a strong national and mass basis. Efforts are being made to expand the study of science and technology. Our main goal in the near future is to eradicate illiteracy. In the old society, there were a number of primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, but in rural areas, 75% of the people were illiterate, especially the poor and weak middle peasants. Even in the cities, 65 percent of the workers were illiterate. Now, two years after national liberation, only 10% of the adult population is illiterate. We are solving this problem through the mass line and compulsory mass education." (Speech on the XVII Anniversary of the CPK).
In general, if we leave out other details, it becomes clear that the government of Pol Pot achieved significant successes. The people's standard of living increased, and the plan to build socialism was put into practice. The bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge wanted to destroy their people so much that the expression: "I will torture you like Pol Pot Kampuchea" can be considered a manifestation of concern.
Journalist Becker, who visited Kampuchea, described her impressions as follows:
"Before I went to Kampuchea, everyone told me how badly the economic system was working. I was surprised by the overall level of production in the country. I have to admit that the economic system seems to be working.
The myth of genocide is also refuted by a group of Marxists from the Canadian Communist League who visited Kampuchea before the war with Vietnam:
"During our 1000-kilometer journey through six provinces in the northern, central and southeastern regions, we could stop anywhere and ask questions. We saw with our own eyes that the stories of alleged massacres and famine spread by the Western media were simply lies and slander designed to justify aggression against Kampuchea.... No bloated bellies so characteristic of starving Third World children, no signs of "forced labor" in the fields.
Despite the apparent economic successes, there was no possibility of peaceful construction. External circumstances were extremely adverse. Kampuchea was threatened by Vietnam.
Vietnam entertained the idea of creating an Indochinese federation that would include Laos and Kampuchea. But the Kampucheans were not satisfied with this idea. They wanted to follow the path of independent development, relying on their own strength. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that at the time, Kampuchea was working closely with China, with which the Soviet Union was in conflict. China was actively helping to supply the Khmer army with weapons and military equipment. The Khmers were reluctant to oppose their ally.
The contradictions between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists grew. To justify the invasion of Kampuchea, Vietnamese propaganda began to spread lies about the genocide of their own people by the Khmer Rouge. With the connivance of the Soviet Union, the Vietnamese army gradually amassed on the border. Vietnam invaded Kampuchea in December 1978 and overthrew the Khmer Rouge government the following January.
That was the end of communist Kampuchea's short history. The Khmer Rouge and some of the peasants went into the forests and engaged in active guerrilla resistance for a long time.
The inflated myth of the genocide of the Kampuchean people is similar to the myth of Stalin's repressions. Both are complete lies designed to discredit communist ideas. And do not be fooled by the fact that the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge were acknowledged by the Soviet Union ITSELF. Despite the fact that Brezhnev slowed the process of capitalist restoration, it was still the same post-Stalinist CPSU that was in the process of degeneration. As a result of the nationalist deviation within the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Soviet Union's policy of sabotage aimed at containing China, the Soviet leadership deviated from the revolutionary line and overthrew the Pol Pot government at the hands of the Vietnamese. At the same time, the USSR did not pursue an imperialist policy and was not a social imperialist. The USSR continued to provide aid to fraternal peoples, and the content of its policy was aimed at building communism, but due to the incompetence of the party cadres and the dominance of opportunists in the party, it went in the wrong direction. The liquidation of the Pol Pot government was not aimed at enslaving the Cambodian people and gaining economic benefits, but was part of an unbridled split within the communist movement.
The main reason for the mass deaths of Cambodians was the American bombing and the resulting famine. But in the best tradition of anti-Communism, it was the Communists who were blamed for all the troubles. The Khmer Rouge were blamed for those who starved and were killed during the American invasion, supported by the remains of an unknown person. If anyone organized the genocide of the Cambodian people, it was American imperialism and the anti-people government of Lon Nol.
The genocide of the Kampuchean people as an argument about the bloodthirstiness of the communists is a false trump card in the hands of the bourgeoisie of all stripes. In the end, they did to Pol Pot what they dreamed of doing to Stalin. Clearing Pol Pot's name from slander is an important front in the struggle against enemy propaganda. Pol Pot is a true Marxist, a hero of the national liberation revolution who cares for his people:
"Our job was to fight for socialism, not to kill people. Look at me - do I look like a tyrant?"