P. CHABAL. Amilcar Cabrai. Revolutionary Leadership and People's War, London. Cambridge University Press. 1983. XIII - 273 p.

More than a decade ago, the life of the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC), A. Cabral, was cut short. However, to this day, his example and ideas have a huge impact on the revolutionary liberation movement that unfolded on the African continent. Speaking at an international symposium held in Praia, the capital of the Cape Verde Republic, in January 1983, the representative of the African National Congress, B. Magubane, said that the oppressed people of South Africa, "its freedom fighters "draw great inspiration from the life and works of Comrade Amilkar Cabral." 1 A message from the People's Organization of South-West Africa, read at the symposium, emphasized that Cabral "was not just a politician, a nationalist patriot. He was an internationalist, an ardent boreas against imperialism. " 2
But not all participants in the symposium shared this view. In the speeches of a number of Western scholars (R. Chilcote, I. Wallerstein, J. Ziegler, etc.), attempts were made to interpret Cabral's ideological legacy in such a way that its revolutionary content was questioned. The work of the English historian P. Chabal on Amilcar Cabral also adjoins this bourgeois-liberal trend.

In the early stages, A. Cabral, a native of the middle strata of colonial society, acted as a typical representative of Zelenomyssk nationalism, taking an active part in the literary movement "Cabo Verdianidad". Its members, the author emphasizes, "focused exclusive attention on their Zelenomyss origin, considering themselves more European than African" (p.34). Cabral's departure to study in Portugal in 1945 marked the beginning of a new stage in the formation of his political views. In Lisbon, he threw off the shackles of "insular" provincialism. According to Chabal, "the end of the Second World War, the declaration of independence of India, the armed struggle in China and Vietnam, and the strengthening of the position of socialism in Eastern Europe" had a great influence on him (p.39). But the ideas of negrohood, "reafricanization of the individual", have gained particular popularity among African students. At this time, discussions among students in Lisbon (at the Empire Students ' House, the Center for African Studies-

1 Magubane B. Message of Solidarity from the ANC to the First International Amilcar Cabrai Symposium. Praia. 1983, p. 1.

2 Message from the SWAPO to the First International Amilcar Cabral Symposium. Praia. 1983, p. 1.

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They began to take on an increasingly political character. They raised the issue of the legality of Portugal's presence in Africa.

After completing his studies with honors, Amilkar went to work in the Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau in 1953. As Chabal writes, his choice was already based on political considerations (p.47). In Bissau, Cabral gradually finds like-minded friends, through whose efforts in September 1956, in the conditions of deep underground, the PAIGC is created. At first, the circle of its participants was narrow (A. Cabral, A. Pereira, A. Duarte, J. Almeida, etc.). The young patriots, like many other independence fighters, started out as trade unionists, and at that time they were of the opinion that if the proletariat were mobilized and roused to a strike struggle that paralyzed urban life, the Portuguese colonialists would be forced to make concessions and eventually grant independence to the Africans.

However, the repression of the colonial authorities, as well as the weakness of the local proletariat, forced Cabral's supporters to change tactics. After the mass shooting of dockworkers at the Pidgigiti shipyards, "emphasis was placed on the peasantry" (p.60). On September 19, 1959, the PAIGC decided to move the anti-colonial struggle from cities to rural areas. A course was set for preparing an armed uprising. Such a course of events stemmed from the peculiarities of the social structure of Guinean society. The local cities were actually separate islands in the vast ocean of the peasant world. The country's 800,000-strong population was mainly represented by five major ethnic groups (Balaite, Manjak, Fulbe, Mandingo, and Pepl). Each of them had its own language, culture, religion, etc. 3. Enormous efforts were needed to rally this heterogeneous mass and lead it to fight. However, there was no other way.

With the independence of French Guinea in 1958, members of the PAIGC rushed to its capital Conakry, military training of fighters began here, and from here volunteer propagandists were sent to the hinterlands of the Portuguese colony in order to raise peasants to fight. It took three years of active work in the villages to create the conditions for an armed uprising. By the mid-60s, the flames of the revolutionary liberation struggle had spread across vast areas of Guinea-Bissau. Chabal writes that Cabral "was a proponent of limited war" (p.142) and did not seek to force events. Without making direct attacks on the Portuguese armed forces, the patriots "followed the tactic of gradually suffocating the cities" (p. 93), trying to isolate the colonialists in military forts, cut off all channels of communication with the outside world (by land, rivers, etc.), and ensure the security of the liberated areas.

But in reality, the scope of the armed struggle did not fall under the definition of "limited" actions: in 1965, the PAIGC controlled 30%, and in the early 70s-2/3 of the territory of Guinea-Bissau.

The Guinean revolutionaries did not limit themselves to the armed struggle against colonialism. In the liberated areas, the gradual elimination of the consequences of Portuguese rule began. The colonial administration, the bonded system of semi-slave labor on plantations and mines, was abolished. Extortionate taxes and the practice of forced cultivation of export crops were abolished. In the areas controlled by the PAIGC, the rural poor were given land free of charge, and cooperatives were organized. Cabral, as Chabal admits, was always of the opinion that "the economic war with Portugal must have a decisive influence on the development of the struggle" (p.112). In other words, the process of establishing institutions of revolutionary-democratic power was underway in rural areas.

Studying the experience of the liberation movement in other countries, Cabral's associates came to the following conclusions: the anti-colonial revolution cannot be reduced to a simple replacement of the colonialists by the African elite; without the participation of the broad peasant masses, the liberation struggle in the colonies is doomed to failure; only the ideals of the struggle against colonialism and neocolonialism, against the exploitation of man by man, can A significant influence on the formation of Cabral's views at that time-

3 Davidson В. No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky. The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Lnd. 1981, pp. 29 - 30.

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riod was influenced by Marxist-Leninist teaching. Chabal interprets the ideological evolution of the African revolutionary in a different way, reducing it almost exclusively to the manifestations of nationalism (p.168) and pragmatism (p. 114). Cabral expressed his attitude to Marxism-Leninism and the experience of the Great October Revolution in the following words:: "It is difficult not to recognize the correctness and even ingenious nature of Lenin's analysis and conclusions. Their historical significance was shown in the fact that they illuminated such a thorny area with a life-giving light... the path of the peoples fighting for complete emancipation from imperialist domination " 4 .

In the 60s and mid-70s, the spread of scientific socialism in Portuguese-speaking Africa was directly related to the attempts of liberation organizations to involve the broad masses in the armed struggle and give it a revolutionary character. Marxist literature penetrated the Portuguese colonies in a variety of ways. It was mainly delivered through the" front-line " states bordering Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau. A. Cabral and his associates took certain provisions of the theory of Marxism-Leninism and tried to implement them in their practical activities.

In the course of the anti-colonial war, the MPLA, FRELIMO, and PAIGC switched to the position of revolutionary democracy. Determining factors in the process of their ideological and political evolution were the influence of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine on the patriots, the experience of the revolutionary liberation struggle, as well as the international assistance of the socialist community in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. It is characteristic that even then the leaders of the liberation organizations took the first steps to acquaint the partisans with the revolutionary experience of the Russian proletariat. PAIGC fighters went into the anti-colonial struggle inspired by a great goal: the creation of a social justice and equality society in Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands .5
In an effort to contain the onslaught of the revolutionary liberation forces, the colonialists increased the size of the expeditionary force in Guinea-Bissau to 40 thousand people. Residents of areas adjacent to the war zone were rounded up in so-called "fortified" villages, not unlike concentration camps. A large role was assigned to the psychological processing of the population. Attempts were made to sow intertribal discord, split the unity of the PAIGC, and crack down on its leaders. In the early 70s, the organization formed a schismatic group (R. Barbosa, I. Kani, I. Toure, etc.), which established close ties with Western foreign centers and the colonial administration. Evaluating its activities, Chebel simply interprets the events, reducing everything to the dissatisfaction of factionalists with the "high concentration of Zelenomysts in the upper echelon of the party" (p. 134). In fact, under the guise of "black" racism, Barbosa's henchmen sought to seize the reins of power in the PAIGC and enter into negotiations with Portugal to grant Guinea-Bissau autonomy within the colonial empire. In January 1973, Cabral was killed by the cabal in Conakry, and many prominent PAIGC figures were arrested. However, a day later, the dissenters ' speech was suppressed.

Despite such a significant blow, the PAIGC did not waver and even more rallied its ranks. In March 1973, the revolutionary Democrats launched a large-scale offensive against the colonialists. The victory of the April Revolution in Portugal in 1974 brought new adjustments to the tactics of the struggle. Given the current situation, the PAIGC decided to agree to a truce and try to exploit the contradictions within the Portuguese Armed Forces Movement (ICE). This was especially true, as Chabal notes, of the local progressive wing of the Internal Revenue Service, where supporters of a "political solution to the issue" were strong (p. 144) and where Cabral's personality enjoyed sympathy and respect. Seeing that the process of decolonization was not progressing, the radical members of the ICE took the initiative. According to Chabal, negotiations with PAIGC were conducted simultaneously-and often without any coordination - by the emissaries of the metropolis in London and Algeria, as well as by the local administration in Guinea-Bisaoui. Without waiting for their outcome, the Portuguese soldiers began to leave their fighting positions. Cases of desertion, disobedience to the military order have become more frequent.-

4 Cabral A. Unidade e luta. A arma da teoria. Lisboa. 1976, p. 220.

5 Political portraits of fighters for national independence, Moscow, 1983, pp. 297-300.

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The events were clearly out of the control of the Portuguese authorities. Finally, on August 26, 1974, an agreement was signed on granting independence to "Portuguese" Guinea and recognizing the right to self-determination of the Zelenomyssk people (pp. 182-188).

Analyzing the general and specific features of the development of the revolutionary liberation movement in the Portuguese colonies, the author rightly concludes: "The PAIGC most successfully implemented the idea of national unity, carried out political mobilization, and created a new political organization in the liberated areas" (p. 217).

This peer-reviewed book is the first fundamental work in the West about the life and work of a prominent African revolutionary. The monograph is based on a variety of documentary sources, many of which were not previously introduced into scientific circulation: materials from the Cabral family archive, the collections of the A. Cabral Center for Information and Documentation in Bissau, etc. The work goes beyond a biographical essay: it tells the story of the struggle of the peoples of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands for freedom and independence.

But not all of Chabel's conclusions and assessments can be accepted. Thus, the development of the local nationalist movement in Guinea-Bissau prior to the creation of PAIGC was actually outside the scope of his book. The figure of the African leader himself appears in a somewhat contradictory, fragmentary form. The reader does not get a complete impression of Cabral's contribution to the revolutionary liberation struggle on the continent. And most importantly, the author obscures the influence that Marxism-Leninism had on the formation of the worldview of the outstanding son of Africa.

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