Ninth Comment by the CPC
ON KHRUSHCHOV'S
PHONEY COMMUNISM AND
ITS HISTORICAL LESSONS
FOR THE
WORLD
COMMENT ON THE OPEN LETTER OFTHE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU (IX)
by the Editorial Department of
Renmin Ribao (People's Daily
)
and Hongqi (Red Flag )
July 14, 1964
Foreign Languages Press
Peking 1964
Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@cruzio.com (July 1997)
C O N T E N T S
| [A PREFACE [my designation -- DJR]] |
[1] |
| SOCIALIST SOCIETY AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF
THE PROLETARIAT |
|
| ANTAGONISTIC CLASSES AND CLASS STRUGGLE EXIST IN THE SOVIET UNION |
|
| THE SOVIET PRIVILEDGED STRATUM AND THE
REVISIONIST KHRUSHCHOV CLIQUE |
|
| REEFUTATION OF THE SO-CALLED STATE OF THE
WHOLE PEOPLE |
|
| REEFUTATION OF THE SO-CALLED PARTY OF THE
ENTIRE PEOPLE |
|
| KHRUSHCHOV'S PHONEY COMMUNISM |
|
| HISTORICAL LESSONS OF THE DICTATORSHIP OF
THE PROLETARIAT |
page 1
THE theories of the proletarian revolution and
the dictatorship of the proletariat are the quintessence of Marxism-Leninism.
The questions of whether revolution should be upheld or opposed and whether
the dictatorship of the proletariat should be upheld or opposed have always
been the focus of struggle between Marxism-Leninism and all brands of
revisionism and are now the focus of struggle between Marxist-Leninists the
world over and the revisionist Khrushchov clique.
At the 22nd Cgngress of the CPSU, the revisionist Khrushchov
clique developed their revisionism into a complete system not only by rounding
off their anti-revolutionary theories of "peaceful coexistence", "peaceful
competition" and "peaceful transition" but also by declaring that the
dictatorship of the proletariat is no longer necessary in the Soviet Union and
advancing the absurd theories of the "state of the whole people" and the
"party of the entire people". The Programme put forward by the revisionist
Khrushchov clique at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU is a programme of phoney
communism, a revisionist programme against proletarian revolution and for the
abolition of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the proletarian party.
The revisionist Khrushchov clique abolish the dictatorship of
the proletariat behind the camouflage of the "state of the whole people",
change the proletarian character of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
behind the camouflage of the "party of the entire peo-
page 2
ple" and pave the way for the restoration of capitalism behind that of
"full-scale communist construction".
In its Proposal Concerning the General Line of the
International Communist Movement dated June 14, 1963, the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is most absurd in theory and
extremely harmful in practice to substitute the "state of the whole people"
for the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the "party of the
entire people" for the vanguard party of the proletariat. This substitution is
a great historical retrogression which makes any transition to communism
impossible and helps only to restore capitalism.
The Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the
press of the Soviet Union resort to sophistry in self-justification and charge
that our criticisms of the "state of the whole people" and the "party of the
entire people" are allegations "far removed from Marxism", betray "isolation
from the life of the Soviet people" and are a demand that they "return to the
past".
Well, let us ascertain who is actually far removed from
Marxism-Leninism, what Soviet life is actually like and who actually wants the
Soviet Union to return to the past.
What is the correct conception of socialist society? Do
classes and class struggle exist throughout the stage of socialism? Should the
dictatorship of the proletariat be maintained and the socialist revolution be
carried through
page 3
to the end? Or should the dictatorship of the proletariat be abolished so
as to pave the way for capitalist restoration? These questions must be
answered correctly according to the basic theory of Marxism-Leninism and the
historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The replacement of capitalist society by socialist society is
a great leap in the historical development of human society. Socialist society
covers the important historical period of transition from class to classless
society. It is by going through socialist society that mankind will enter
communist society.
The socialist system is incomparably superior to the
capitalist system. In socialist society, the dictatorship of the proletariat
replaces bourgeois dictatorship and the public ownership of the means of
production replaces private ownership. The proletariat, from being an
oppressed and exploited class, turns into the ruling class and a fundamental
change takes place in the social position of the working people. Exercising
dictatorship over a few exploiters only, the state of the dictatorship of the
proletariat practises the broadest democracy among the masses of the working
people, a democracy which is impossible in capitalist society. The
nationalization of industry and collectivization of agriculture open wide
vistas for the vigorous development of the social productive forces, ensuring
a rate of growth incomparably greater than that in any older society.
However, one cannot but see that socialist society is a
society born out of capitalist society and is only the first phase of
communist society. It is not yet a fully mature communist society in the
economic and other fields. It
page 4
is inevitably stamped with the birth marks of capitalist society. When
defining socialist society Marx said:
What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not
as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary,
just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every
respect, eco nomically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the
birth marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.[1] Lenin also pointed out that in socialist society, which is the first phase
of communism, "Communism cannot as yet be fully ripe economically and entirely
free from traditions or traces of capitalism".[2]
In socialist society, the differences between workers and
peasants, between town and country, and between manual and mental labourers
still remain, bourgeois rights are not yet completely abolished, it is not
possible "at once to eliminate the other injustice, which consists in the
distribution of articles of consumption page 5
with its principle, "from each according to his ability, to each according
to his needs".
Marxism-Leninism and the practice of the Soviet Union, China
and other socialist countries all teach us that socialist society covers a
very, very long historical stage. Throughout this stage, the class struggle
between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat goes on and the question of "who
will win" between the roads of capitalism and socialism remains, as does the
danger of the restoration of capitalism.
In its Proposal Concerning the General Line of the
International Communist Movement dated June 14, 1963, the Central Committee of
the Chinese Communist Party states:
For a very long historical period after the proletariat
takes power, class struggle continues as an objective law independent of
man's will, differing only in form from what it was before the taking of
power.
After the October Revolution, Lenin pointed out a number of
times that:
a) The overthrown exploiters always try in a thousand
and one ways to recover the "paradise" they have been deprived of.
b) New elements of capitalism are constantly and
spontaneously generated in the petty-bourgeois atmosphere.
c) Political degenerates and new bourgeois elements
may emerge in the ranks of the working class and among government
functionaries as a result of bourgeois influence and the pervasive,
corrupting atmosphere of the petty bourgeoisie.
d) The external conditions for the continuance of
class struggle within a socialist country are encircle- page 6
In socialist society, the overthrown bourgeoisie and other
reactionary classes remain strong for quite a long time, and indeed in certain
respects are quite powerful. They have a thousand and one links with the
international bourgeoisie. They are not reconciled to their defeat and
stubbornly continue to engage in trials of strength with the proletariat. They
conduct open and hidden struggles against the proletariat in every field.
Constantly parading such signboards as support for socialism, the Soviet
system, the Communist Party and Marxism-Leninism, they work to undermine
socialism and restore capitalism. Politically, they persist for a long time as
a force antagonistic to the proletariat and constantly attempt to overthrow
the dictatorship of the proletariat. They sneak into the government organs,
public organizations, economic departments and cultural and educational
institutions so as to resist or usurp the leadership of the proletariat.
Economically, they employ every means to damage socialist ownership by the
whole people and socialist collective ownership and to develop the forces of
capitalism. In the ideological, cultural and educational fields, they
counterpose the bourgeois world outlook to the proletarian world outlook and
try to corrupt the proletariat and other working people with bourgeois
ideology.
The collectivization of agriculture turns individual into
collective farmers and provides favourable conditions for the thorough
remoulding of the peasants. However, until
page 7
collective ownership advances to ownership by the whole people and until
the remnants of private economy disappear completely, the peasants inevitably
retain some of the inherent characteristics of small producers. In these
circumstances spontaneous capitalist tendencies are inevitable, the soil for
the growth of new rich peasants still exists and polarization among the
peasants may still occur.
The activities of the bourgeoisie as described above, its
corrupting effects in the political, economic, ideological and cultural and
educational fields, the existence of spontaneous capitalist tendencies among
urban and rural small producers, and the influence of the remaining bourgeois
rights and the force of habit of the old society all constantly breed
political degenerates in the ranks of the working class and Party and
government organizations, new bourgeois elements and embezzlers and grafters
in state enterprises owned by the whole people and new bourgeois intellectuals
in the cultural and educational institutions and intellectual circles. These
new bourgeois elements and these political degenerates attack socialism in
collusion with the old bourgeois elements and elements of other exploiting
classes which have been overthrown but not eradicated. The political
degenerates entrenched in the leading organs are particularly dangerous, for
they support and shield the bourgeois elements in organs at lower levels.
As long as imperialism exists, the proletariat in the
socialist countries will have to struggle both against the bourgeoisie at home
and against international imperialism. Imperialism will seize every
opportunity and try to undertake armed intervention against the socialist
countries or to bring about their peaceful disintegration.
page 8
It will do its utmost to destroy the socialist countries or to make them
degenerate into capitalist countries. The international class struggle will
inevitably find its reflec tion within the socialist countries.
Lenin said:
The transition from capitalism to Communism represents an
entire historical epoch. Until this epoch has terminated, the exploiters
inevitably cherish the hope of restoration, and this hope is
converted into attempts at restoration.[1] He also pointed out:
The abolition of classes requires a long, difficult and
stubborn class struggle, which after the overthrow of the
power of capital, after the destruction of the bourgeois state,
after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
does not disappear (as the vulgar representatives of the old
Socialism and the old Social-Democracy imagine), but merely changes its
forms and in many respects becomes more fierce.[2] Throughout the stage of socialism the class struggle between
the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the polit ical, economic, ideological
and cultural and educational fields cannot be stopped. It is a protracted,
repeated, tor tuous and complex struggle. Like the waves of the sea it
sometimes rises high and sometimes subsides, is now fairly calm and now very
turbulent. It is a struggle that decides the fate of a socialist society.
Whether a socialist
page 9
society will advance to communism or revert to capitalism depends upon the
outcome of this protracted struggle.
The class struggle in socialist society is inevitably
reflected in the Communist Party. The bourgeoisie and international
imperialism both understand that in order to make a socialist country
degenerate into a capitalist country, it is first necessary to make the
Communist Party degenerate into a revisionist party. The old and new bourgeois
elements, the old and new rich peasants and the degenerate elements of all
sorts constitute the social basis of revisionism, and they use every possible
means to find agents within the Communist Party. The existence of bourgeois
influence is the internal source of revisionism and surrender to imperialist
pressure the external source. Throughout the stage of socialism, there is
inevitable struggle between Marxism-Leninism and various kinds of opportunism
-- mainly revisionism -- in the Communist Parties of socialist countries. The
characteristic of this revisionism is that, denying the existence of classes
and class struggle, it sides with the bourgeoisie in attacking the proletariat
and turns the dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie.
In the light of the experience of the international
working-class movement and in accordance with the objective law of class
struggle, the founders of Marxism pointed out that the transition from
capitalism to communism, from class to classless society, must depend on the
dictatorship of the proletariat and that there is no other road.
Marx said that "the class struggle necessarily leads to the
dictatorship of the proletariat".[1] He also said: page 10
Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of
the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. There
corresponds to this also a political transition period in which the state
can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the
proletariat.[1] The development of socialist society is a process of
uninterrupted revolution. In explaining revolutionary socialism Marx said:
This socialism is the declaration of the permanence of
the revolution, the class dictatorship of the proletariat as the
necessary transit point to the abolition of class distinctions
generally, to the abolition of all the relations of production on which
they rest, to the abolition of all the social relations that correspond to
these relations of production, to the revolutionizing of all the ideas that
result from these social relations.[2] In his struggle against the opportunism of the Second
International, Lenin creatively expounded and developed Marx's theory of the
dictatorship of the proletariat. He pointed out:
The dictatorship of the proletariat is not the end of class
struggle but its continuation in new forms. The dictatorship of the
proletariat is class struggle waged by a proletariat which has been
victorious and has taken political power in its hands against a bourgeoisie
that has been defeated but not destroyed, a bourgeoisie that page 11
He also said:
The dictatorship of the proletariat is a persistent
struggle -- bloody and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and
economic, educational and administrative -- against the forces and
traditions of the old society.[2] In his celebrated work On the
Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People and in other
works, Comrade Mao Tse-tung, basing himself on the fundamental principles of
Marxism-Leninism and the historical experience of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, gives a comprehensive and systematic analysis of classes and
class struggle in socialist society, and creatively develops the
Marxist-Leninist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Comrade Mao Tse-tung examines the objective laws of socialist
society from the viewpoint of materialist dialectics. He points out that the
universal law of the unity and struggle of opposites operating both in the
natural world and in human society is applicable to socialist society, too. In
socialist society, class contradictions still remain and class struggle does
not die out after the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means
of production. The struggle between the two roads of socialism and capitalism
runs through the entire stage of socialism. To ensure the success of socialist
construction
page 12
and to prevent the restoration of capitalism, it is necessary to carry the
socialist revolution through to the end on the political, economic,
ideological and cultural fronts. The complete victory of socialism cannot be
brought about in one or two generations; to resolve this question thoroughly
requires five or ten generations or even longer.
Comrade Mao Tse-tung stresses the fact that two types of
social contradictions exist in socialist society, namely, contradictions among
the people and contradictions between ourselves and the enemy, and that the
former are very numerous. Only by distinguishing between the two types of
contradictions, which are different in nature, and by adopting different
measures to handle them correctly is it possible to unite the people, who
constitute more than 90 per cent of the population, defeat their enemies, who
constitute only a few per cent, and consolidate the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is the basic guarantee
for the consolidation and development of socialism, for the victory of the
proletariat over the bourgeoisie and of socialism in the struggle between the
two roads.
Only by emancipating all mankind can the proletariat
ultimately emancipate itself. The historical task of the dictatorship of the
proletariat has two aspects, one internal and the other international. The
internal task consists mainly of completely abolishing all the exploiting
classes, developing socialist economy to the maximum, enhancing the communist
consciousness of the masses, abolishing the differences between ownership by
the whole people and collective ownership, between workers and peasants,
between town and country and between mental and manual labourers, eliminating
any possibility
page 13
of the re-emergence of classes and the restoration of capitalism and
providing conditions for the realization of a communist society with its
principle, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his
needs". The international task consists mainly of preventing attacks by
international imperialism (including armed intervention and disintegration by
peaceful means) and of giving support to the world revolution until the people
of all countries finally abolish imperialism, capitalism and the system of
exploitation. Before the fulfilment of both tasks and before the advent of a
full communist society, the dictatorship of the proletariat is absolutely
necessary.
Judging from the actual situation today, the tasks of the
dictatorship of the proletariat are still far from accomplished in any of the
socialist countries. In all socialist countries without exception, there are
classes and class struggle, the struggle between the socialist and the
capitalist roads, the question of carrying the socialist revolution through to
the end and the question of preventing the restoration of capitalism. All the
socialist countries still have a very long way to go before the differences
between ownership by the whole people and collective ownership, between
workers and peasants, between town and country and between mental and manual
labourers are eliminated, before all classes and class differences are
abolished and a communist society with its principle, "from each according to
his ability, to each according to his needs", is realized. Therefore, it is
necessary for all the socialist countries to uphold the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
In these circumstances, the abolition of the dictatorship of
the proletariat by the revisionist Khrushchov
page 14
clique is nothing but the betrayal of socialism and communism.
In announcing the abolition of the dictatorship of the
proletariat in the Soviet Union, the revisionist Khrushchov clique base
themselves mainly on the argument that antagonistic classes have been
eliminated and that class struggle no longer exists.
But what is the actual situation in the Soviet Union? Are
there really no antagonistic classes and no class struggle there?
Following the victory of the Great October Socialist
Revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat was established in the Soviet
Union, capitalist private ownership was destroyed and socialist ownership by
the whole people and socialist collective ownership were established through
the nationalization of industry and the collectivization of agriculture, and
great achievements in socialist construction were scored during several
decades. All this constituted an indelible victory of tremendous historic
significance won by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet
people under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin.
However, the old bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes
which had been overthrown in the Soviet Union were not eradicated and survived
after industry was nationalized and agriculture collectivized. The political
and ideological influence of the bourgeoisie remained. Spontaneous capitalist
tendencies continued to exist both in the city and in the countryside. New
bourgeois
page 15
elements and kulaks were still incessantly generated. Throughout the long
intervening period, the class struggle between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie and the struggle between the socialist and capitalist roads have
continued in the political, economic and ideological spheres.
As the Soviet Union was the first, and at the time the only,
country to build socialism and had no foreign experience to go by, and as
Stalin departed from Marxist-Leninist dialectics in his understanding of the
laws of class struggle in socialist society, he prematurely declared after
agriculture was basically collectivized that there were "no longer
antagonistic classes"[1] in the
Soviet Union and that it was "free of class conflicts",[2]
one-sidedly stressed the internal homogeneity of socialist society and
overlooked its contradictions, failed to rely upon the working class and the
masses in the struggle against the forces of capitalism and regarded the
possibility of the restoration of capitalism as associated only with armed
attack by international imperialism. This was wrong both in theory and in
practice. Nevertheless, Stalin remained a great Marxist-Leninist. As long as
he led the Soviet Party and state, he held fast to the dictatorship of the
proletariat and the socialist course, pursued a Marxist-Leninist line and
ensured the Soviet Union's victorious advance along the road of socialism.
Ever since Khrushchov seized the leadership of the Soviet
Party and state, he has pushed through a whole
page 16
series of revisionist policies which have greatly hastened the growth of
the forces of capitalism and again sharpened the class struggle between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the struggle between the roads of
socialism and capitalism in the Soviet Union.
Scanning the reports in Soviet newspapers over the last few
years, one finds numerous examples demonstrating not only the presence of many
elements of the old exploiting classes in Soviet society, but also the
generation of new bourgeois elements on a large scale and the acceleration of
class polarization.
Let us first look at the activities of the various bourgeois
elements in the Soviet enterprises owned by the whole people.
Leading functionaries of some state-owned factories and their
gangs abuse their positions and amass large fortunes by using the equipment
and materials of the factories to set up "underground workshops" for private
production, selling the products illicitly and dividing the spoils. Here are
some examples.
In a Leningrad plant producing military items, the leading
functionaries placed their own men in "all key posts" and "turned the state
enterprise into a private one". They illicitly engaged in the production of
non-military goods and from the sale of fountain pens alone embezzled
1,200,000 old roubles in three years. Among these people was a man who "was a
Nepman . . . in the 1920's" and had been a "lifelong thief''.[1]
In a silk-weaving mill in Uzbekistan, the manager ganged up
with the chief engineer, the chief accountant, the chief of the supply and
marketing section, heads of
page 17
workshops and others, and they all became "new-born entrepreneurs". They
purchased more than ten tons of artificial and pure silk through various
illegal channels in order to manufacture goods which "did not pass through the
accounts". They employed workers without going through the proper procedures
and enforced "a twelve-hour working day' These examples show that the factories which have fallen into
the clutches of such degenerates are socialist enterprises only in name, that
in fact they have become capitalist enterprises by which these persons enrich
themselves. The relationship of such persons to the workers has turned into
one between exploiters and exploited, between oppressors and oppressed. Are
not such degenerates who possess and make use of means of production to
exploit the labour of others out-and-out bourgeois elements? Are not their
accomplices in gov-
page 19
ernment organizations, who work hand in glove with them, participate in
many types of exploitation, engage in embezzlement, accept bribes, and share
the spoils, also out-and-out bourgeois elements?
Obviously all these people belong to a class that is
antagonistic to the proletariat -- they belong to the bourgeoisie. Their
activities against socialism are definitely class struggle with the
bourgeoisie attacking the proletariat.
Now let us look at the activities of various kulak elements
on the collective farms.
Some leading collective-farm functionaries and their gangs
steal and speculate at will, freely squander public money and fleece the
collective farmers. Here are some examples.
The chairman of a collective farm in Uzbekistan "held the
whole village in terror". All the important posts on this farm "were occupied
by his in-laws and other relatives and friends". He squandered "over 132,000
roubles of the collective farm for his personal 'needs'". He had a car, two
motor-cycles and three wives, each with "a house of her own''.[1]
The chairman of a collective farm in the Kursk Region
regarded the farm as his "hereditary estate". He conspired with its
accountant, cashier, chief warehouse-keeper, agronomist, general-store manager
and others. Shielding each other, they "fleeced the collective farmers" and
pocketed more than a hundred thousand roubles in a few years.[2]
page 20
The chairman of a collective farm in the Ukraine made over
50,000 roubles at its expense by forging purchase certificates and
cash-account orders in collusion with its woman accountant, who had been
praised for keeping "model accounts" and whose deeds had been displayed at the
Moscow Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy.[1]
The chairman of a collective farm in the Alma-Ata Region
specialized in commercial speculation. He bought "fruit juice in the Ukraine
or Uzbekistan, and sugar and alcohol from Djambul", processed them and then
sold the wine at very high prices in many localities. In this farm a winery
was created with a capacity of over a million litres a year, its speculative
commercial network spread throughout the Kazakhstan SSR, and commercial
speculation became one of the farm's main sources of income.[2]
The chairman of a collective farm in Byelorussia considered
himself "a feudal princeling on the farm" and acted "personally" in all
matters. He lived not on the farm but in the city or in his own splendid
villa, and was always busy with "various commercial machinations" and "illegal
deals". He bought cattle from the outside, represented them as the products of
his collective farm and falsified output figures. And yet "not a few
commendatory newspaper reports" had been published about him and he had been
called a "model leader".[3]
These examples show that collective farms under the control
of such functionaries virtually become their
page 21
private property. Such men turn socialist collective economic enterprises
into economic enterprises of new kulaks. There are often people in their
superior organizations who protect them. Their relationship to the collective
farmers has likewise become that of oppressors to oppressed, of exploiters to
exploited. Are not such neo-exploiters who ride on the backs of the collective
farmers one hundred-per-cent neo-kulaks?
Obviously, they all belong to a class that is antagonistic to
the proletariat and the labouring farmers, belong to the kulak or rural
bourgeois class. Their anti-socialist activities are precisely class struggle
with the bourgeoisie attacking the proletariat and the labouring farmers.
Apart from the bourgeois elements in state enterprises and
collective farms, there are many others in both town and country in the Soviet
Union.
Some of them set up private enterprises for private
production and sale; others organize contractor teams and openly undertake
construction jobs for state or co-operative enterprises; still others open
private hotels. A "Soviet woman capitalist" in Leningrad hired workers to make
nylon blouses for sale, and her "daily income amounted to 700 new
roubles''.[1] The owner of a workshop in the Kursk Region
made felt boots for sale at speculative prices. He had in his possession 540
pairs of felt boots, eight kilogrammes of gold coins, 3,000 ; metres of
high-grade textiles, 20 carpets, 1,200 kilogrammes of wool and many other
valuables.[2] A private entrepreneur in the Gomel Region
"hired workers and artisans" and in the course of two years secured con-
page 22
tracts for the construction and overhauling of furnaces in twelve factories
at a high price.[1] In the
Orenburg Region there are "hundreds of private hotels and trans-shipment
points", and "the money of the collective farms and the state is continuously
streaming into the pockets of the hostelry owners".[2]
Some engage in commercial speculation, making tremendous
profits through buying cheap and selling dear or bringing goods from far away.
In Moscow there are a great many speculators engaged in the re-sale of
agricultural produce. They "bring to Moscow tons of citrus fruit, apples and
vegetables and re-sell them at speculative prices". "These profit-grabbers are
provided with every facility, with market inns, store-rooms and other services
at their disposal".[3] In the
Krasnodar Territory, a speculator set up her own agency and "employed twelve
salesmen and two stevedores". She transported "thousands of hogs, hundreds of
quintals of grain and hundreds of tons of fruit" from the rural areas to the
Don Basin and moved "great quantities of stolen slag bricks, whole wagons of
glass" and other building materials from the city to the villages. She reaped
huge profits out of such re-sale.[4]
Others specialize as brokers and middlemen. They have wide
contacts and through them one can get any thing in return for a bribe. There
was a broker in Leningrad who "though he is not the Minister of Trade,
controls all the stocks", and "though he holds no post on
page 23
the railway, disposes of wagons". He could obtain "things the stocks of
which are strictly controlled, from outside the stocks". "All the store-houses
in Leningrad are at his service." For delivering goods, he received huge
"bonuses" -- 700,000 roubles from one timber combine in 1960 alone. In
Leningrad, there is "a whole group" of such brokers.[1]
These private entrepreneurs and speculators are engaged in
the most naked capitalist exploitation. Isn't it clear that they belong to the
bourgeoisie, the class antagonistic to the proletariat?
Actually the Soviet press itself calls these people "Soviet
capitalists", "new-born entrepreneurs", "private entrepreneurs",
"newly-emerged kulaks", "speculators", "exploiters", etc. Aren't the
revisionist Khrushchov clique contradicting themselves when they assert that
antagonistic classes do not exist in the Soviet Union?
The facts cited above are only a part of those published in
the Soviet press. They are enough to shock people, but there are many more
which have not been published, many bigger and more serious cases which are
covered up and shielded. We have quoted the above data in order to answer the
question whether there are antagonistic classes and class struggle in the
Soviet Union. These data are readily available and even the revisionist
Khrushchov clique are unable to deny them.
These data suffice to show that the unbridled activities of
the bourgeoisie against the proletariat are widespread in the Soviet Union, in
the city as well as the countryside, in industry as well as agriculture, in
the sphere of production as well as the sphere of circulation, all the way
page 24
from the economic departments to Party and government organizations, and
from the grass-roots to the higher leading bodies. These anti-socialist
activities are nothing if not the sharp class struggle of the bourgeoisie
against the proletariat.
It is not strange that attacks on socialism should be made in
a socialist country by old and new bourgeois elements. There is nothing
terrifying about this so long as the leadership of the Party and state remains
a Marxist-Leninist one. But in the Soviet Union today, the gravity of the
situation lies in the fact that the revisionist Khrushchov clique have usurped
the leadership of the Soviet Party and state and that a privilegded bourgeois
stratum has emerged in Soviet society.
We shall deal with this problem in the following section.
The privileged stratum in contemporary Soviet society is
composed of degenerate elements from among the leading cadres of Party and
government organizations, enterprises and farms as well as bourgeois
intellectuals; it stands in opposition to the workers, the peasants and the
overwhelming majority of the intellectuals and cadres of the Soviet Union.
Lenin pointed out soon after the October Revolution that
bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideologies and force of habit were encircling
and influencing the proletariat from all directions and were corrupting
certain of its sections. This circumstance led to the emergence from
page 25
among the Soviet officials and functionaries both of bureaucrats alienated
from the masses and of new bourgeois elements. Lenin also pointed out that
although the high salaries paid to the bourgeois technical specialists staying
on to work for the Soviet regime were necessary, they were having a corrupting
influence on it.
Therefore, Lenin laid great stress on waging persistent
struggles against the influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideologies,
on arousing the broad masses to take part in government work, on ceaselessly
exposing and purging bureaucrats and new bourgeois elements in the Soviet
organs, and on creating conditions that would bar the existence and
reproduction of the bourgeoisie. Lenin pointed out sharply that "without a
systematic and determined struggle to improve the apparatus, we shall perish
before the basis of socialism is created".[1]
At the same time, he laid great stress on adherence to the
principle of the Paris Commune in wage policy, that is, all public servants
were to be paid wages corresponding to those of the workers and only bourgeois
specialists were to be paid high salaries. From the October Revolution to the
period of Soviet economic rehabilitation, Lenin's directives were in the main
observed; the leading personnel of the Party and government organizations and
enterprises and Party members among the specialists received salaries roughly
equivalent to the wages of workers.
At that time, the Communist Party and the government of the
Soviet Union adopted a number of measures in the sphere of politics and
ideology and in the system
page 26
of distribution to prevent leading cadres in any department from abusing
their powers or degenerating morally or politically.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union headed by Stalin
adhered to the dictatorship of the proletariat and the road of socialism and
waged a staunch struggle against the forces of capitalism. Stalin's struggles
against the Trotskyites, Zinovievites and Bukharinites were in essence a
reflection within the Party of the class struggle between the proletariat and
the bourgeoisie and of the struggle between the two roads of socialism and
capitalism. Victory in these struggles smashed the vain plot of the
bourgeoisie to restore capitalism in the Soviet Union.
It cannot be denied that before Stalin's death high salaries
were already being paid to certain groups and that some cadres had already
degenerated and become bourgeois elements. The Central Committee of the CPSU
pointed out in its report to the 19th Party Congress in October 1952 that
degeneration and corruption had appeared in certain Party organizations. The
leaders of these organizations had turned them into small communities composed
exclusively of their own people, "setting their group interests higher than
the interests of the Party and the state". Some executives of industrial
enterprises "forget that the enterprises entrusted to their charge are state
enterprises, and try to turn them into their own private domain". "Instead of
safeguarding the common husbandry of the collective farms", some Party and
Soviet functionaries and some cadres in agricultural departments "engage in
filching collective-farm property". In the cultural, artistic and scientific
fields too, works attacking and smearing the socialist system had
page 27
appeared and a monopolistic "Arakcheyev regime" had emerged among the
scientists.
Since Khrushchov usurped the leadership of the Soviet Party
and state, there has been a fundamental change in the state of the class
struggle in the Soviet Union.
Khrushchov has carried out a series of revisionist policies
serving the interests of the bourgeoisie and rapidly swelling the forces of
capitalism in the Soviet Union.
On the pretext of "combating the personality cult",
Khrushchov has defamed the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist
system and thus in fact paved the way for the restoration of capitalism in the
Soviet Union. In completely negating Stalin, he has in fact negated
Marxism-Leninism which was upheld by Stalin and opened the floodgates for the
revisionist deluge.
Khrushchov has substituted "material incentive" for the
socialist principle, "from each according to his ability, to each according to
his work". He has widened, and not narrowed, the gap between the incomes of a
small minority and those of the workers, peasants and ordinary intellectuals.
He has supported the degenerates in leading positions, encouraging them to
become even more unscrupulous in abusing their powers and to appropriate the
fruits of labour of the Soviet people. Thus he has accelerated the
polarization of classes in Soviet society.
Khrushchov sabotages the socialist planned economy, applies
the capitalist principle of profit, develops capitalist free competition and
undermines socialist ownership by the whole people.
Khrushchov attacks the system of socialist agricultural
planning, describing it as "bureaucratic" and
page 28
"unnecessary". Eager to learn from the big proprietors of American farms,
he is encouraging capitalist management, fostering a kulak economy and
undermining the socialist collective economy.
Khrushchov is peddling bourgeois ideology, bourgeois liberty,
equality, fraternity and humanity, inculcating bourgeois idealism and
metaphysics and the reactionary ideas of bourgeois individualism, humanism and
pacifism among the Soviet people, and debasing socialist morality. The rotten
bourgeois culture of the West is now fashionable in the Soviet Union, and
socialist culture is ostracized and attacked.
Under the signboard of "peaceful coexistence", Khrushchov has
been colluding with U.S. imperialism, wrecking the socialist camp and the
international communist movement, opposing the revolutionary struggles of the
oppressed peoples and nations, practising great-power chauvinism and national
egoism and betraying proletarian internationalism. All this is being done for
the protection of the vested interests of a handful of people, which he places
above the fundamental interests of the peoples of the Soviet Union, the
socialist camp and the whole world.
The line Khrushchov pursues is a revisionist line through and
through. Guided by this line, not only have the old bourgeois elements run
wild but new bourgeois elements have appeared in large numbers among the
leading cadres of the Soviet Party and government, the chiefs of state
enterprises and collective farms, and the higher intellectuals in the fields
of culture, art, science and technology.
In the Soviet Union at present, not only have the new
bourgeois elements increased in number as never before, but their social
status has fundamentally changed. Before Khrushchov came to power, they did
not occupy the ruling position in Soviet society. Their activities were
restricted in many ways and they were subject to attack. But since Khrushchov
took over, usurping the leadership of the Party and the state step by step,
the new bourgeois elements have gradually risen to the ruling position in the
Party and government and in the economic, cultural and other departments, and
formed a privileged stratum in Soviet society.
This privileged stratum is the principal component of the
bourgeoisie in the Soviet Union today and the main social basis of the
revisionist Khrushchov clique. The revisionist Khrushchov clique are the
political representatives of the Soviet bourgeoisie, and particularly of its
privileged stratum.
The revisionist Khrushchov clique have carried out one purge
after another and replaced one group of cadres after another throughout the
country, from the central to the local bodies, from leading Party and
government organizations to economic and cultural and educational departments,
dismissing those they do not trust and planting their proteges in leading
posts.
Take the Central Committee of the CPSU as an example. The
statistics show that nearly seventy per cent of the members of the Central
Committee of the CPSU who were elected at its 19th Congress in 1952 were
purged in the course of the 20th and 22nd Congresses held respectively in 1956
and 1961. And nearly fifty per cent of the members of the Central Committee
who were elected at the 20th Congress were purged at the time of the 22nd
Congress.
page 30
Or take the local organizations. On the eve of the 22nd
Congress, on the pretext of "renewing the cadres", the revisionist Khrushchov
clique, according to incomplete statistics, removed from office forty-five per
cent of the members of the Party Central Committees of the Union Republics and
of the Party Committees of the Territories and Regions, and forty per cent of
the members of the Municipal and District Party Committees. In 1963, on the
pretext of dividing the Party into "industrial" and "agricultural" Party
committees, they further replaced more than half the members of the Central
Committees of the Union Republics and of the Regional Party Committees.
Through this series of changes the Soviet privileged stratum
has gained control of the Party, the government and other important
organizations. The members of this privileged stratum have converted the
function of serving the masses into the privilege of dominating them. They are
abusing their powers over the means of production and of livelihood for the
private benefit of their small clique.
The members of this privileged stratum appropriate the fruits
of the Soviet people's labour and pocket in comes that are dozens or even a
hundred times those of the average Soviet worker and peasant. They not only
secure high incomes in the form of high salaries, high awards, high royalties
and a great variety of personal subsidies, but also use their privileged
position to appropriate public property by graft and bribery. Completely
divorced from the working people of the Soviet Union, they live the
parasitical and decadent life of the bourgeoisie.
page 31
The members of this privileged stratum have become utterly
degenerate ideologically, have completely departed from the revolutionary
traditions of the Bolshevik Party and discarded the lofty ideals of the Soviet
working class. They are opposed to Marxism-Leninism and socialism. They betray
the revolution and forbid others to make revolution. Their sole concern is to
consolidate their economic position and political rule. All their activities
revolve around the private interests of their own privileged stratum.
Having usurped the leadership of the Soviet Party and state,
the Khrushchov clique are turning the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of the
Soviet Union with its glorious revolutionary history into a revisionist party;
they are turning the Soviet state under the dictatorship of the proletariat
into a state under the dictatorship of the revisionist Khrushchov clique; and,
step by step, they are turning socialist ownership by the whole people and
socialist collective ownership into ownership by the privileged stratum.
People have seen how in Yugoslavia, although the Tito clique
still displays the banner of "socialism", a bureaucrat bourgeoisie opposed to
the Yugoslav people has gradually come into being since the Tito clique took
the road of revisionism, transforming the Yugoslav state from a dictatorship
of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the bureaucrat bourgeoisie and its
socialist public economy into state capitalism. Now people see the Khrushchov
clique taking the road al ready travelled by the Tito clique. Khrushchov looks
to Belgrade as his Mecca, saying again and again that he will learn from the
Tito clique's experience and declaring that he and the Tito clique "belong to
one and the same
page 32
idea and are guided by the same theory".[1] This is
not at all surprising.
As a result of Khrushchov's revisionism, the first socialist
country in the world built by the great Soviet people with their blood and
sweat is now facing an unprecedented danger of capitalist restoration.
The Khrushchov clique are spreading the tale that "there are
no longer antagonistic classes and class struggle in the Soviet Union" in
order to cover up the facts about their own ruthless class struggle against
the Soviet people.
The Soviet privileged stratum represented by the revisionist
Khrushchov clique constitutes only a few per cent of the Soviet population.
Among the Soviet cadres its numbers are also small. It stands diametrically
opposed to the Soviet people, who constitute more than 90 per cent of the
total population, and to the great majority of the Soviet cadres and
Communists. The contradiction between the Soviet people and this privileged
stratum is now the principal contradiction inside the Soviet Union, and it is
an irreconcilable and antagonistic class contradiction.
The glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which was
built by Lenin, and the great Soviet people displayed epoch-making
revolutionary initiative in the October Socialist Revolution, they showed
their heroism and stamina in defeating the White Guards and the armed
intervention by more than a dozen imperialist countries, they scored
unprecedentedly brilliant achievements in the struggle for industrialization
and agricultural collec-
page 33
tivization, and they won a tremendous victory in the Patriotic War against
the German fascists and saved all mankind. Even under the rule of the
Khrushchov clique, the mass of the members of the CPSU and the Soviet people
are carrying on the glorious revolutionary traditions nurtured by Lenin and
Stalin, and they still uphold socialism and aspire to communism.
The broad masses of the Soviet workers, collective farmers
and intellectuals are seething with discontent against the oppression and
exploitation practised by the privileged stratum. They have come to see ever
more clearly the revisionist features of the Khrushchov clique which is
betraying socialism and restoring capitalism. Among the ranks of the Soviet
cadres, there are many who still persist in the revolutionary stand of the
proletariat, adhere to the road of socialism and firmly oppose Khrushchov's
revisionism. The broad masses of the Soviet people, of Communists and cadres
are using various means to resist and oppose the revisionist line of the
Khrushchov clique, so that the revisionist Khrushchov clique cannot so easily
bring about the restoration of capitalism. The great Soviet people are
fighting to defend the glorious traditions of the Great October Revolution, to
preserve the great gains of socialism and to smash the plot for the
restoration of capitalism.
At the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Khrushchov openly raised the
banner of opposition to the dictatorship of the proletariat, announcing the
replacement of the state of
page 34
the dictatorship of the proletariat by the "state of the whole people". It
is written in the Programme of the CPSU that the dictatorship of the
proletariat "has ceased to be indispensable in the U.S.S.R." and that "the
state, which arose as a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, has, in
the new, contemporary stage, become a state of the entire people".
Anyone with a little knowledge of Marxism-Leninism knows that
the concept of the state is a class concept. Lenin pointed out that "the
distinguishing feature of the state is the existence of a separate class of
people in whose hands power is concentrated".[1] The state
is a weapon of class struggle, a machine by means of which one class represses
another. Every state is the dictatorship of a definite class. So long as the
state exists, it cannot possibly stand above class or belong to the whole
people.
The proletariat and its political party have never concealed
their views; they say explicitly that the very aim of the proletarian
socialist revolution is to overthrow bourgeois rule and establish the
dictatorship of the proletariat. After the victory of the socialist
revolution, the proletariat and its party must strive unremittingly to fulfil
the historical tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat and eliminate
classes and class differences, so that the state will wither away. It is only
the bourgeoisie and its parties which in their attempt to hoodwink the masses
try by every means to cover up the class nature of state power and describe
the state machinery under their control as being "of the whole people" and
"above class".
page 35
The fact that Khrushchov has announced the abolition of the
dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union and advanced the thesis of
the "state of the whole people" demonstrates that he has replaced the
Marxist-Leninist teachings on the state by bourgeois falsehoods.
When Marxist-Leninists criticized their fallacies, the
revisionist Khrushchov clique hastily defended themselves and tried hard to
invent a so-called theoretical basis for the "state of the whole people". They
now assert that the historical period of the dictatorship of the proletariat
mentioned by Marx and Lenin refers only to the transition from capitalism to
the first stage of communism and not to its higher stage. They further assert
that "the dictatorship of the proletariat will cease to be necessary before
the state withers away"[1] and that
after the end of the dictatorship of the proletariat, there is yet another
stage, the "state of the whole people".
These are out-and-out sophistries.
In his Critique of the Gotha
Programme, Marx advanced the well-known axiom that the dictatorship of
the proletariat is the state of the period of transition from capitalism to
communism. Lenin gave a clear explanation of this Marxist axiom.
He said:
In his Critique of the Gotha Programme Marx wrote:
"Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the
revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. There corresponds to
this also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing
but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." page 36
Up to now this axiom has never been disputed by Socialists,
and yet it implies the recognition of the existence of the state right
up to the time when victorious socialism has grown into complete
communism.[1]
Lenin further said:
The essence of Marx's teaching on the state has been
mastered only by those who understand that the dictatorship of a
single class is necessary not only for every class society in
general, not only for the proletariat which has overthrown the
bourgeoisie, but also for the entire historical period which
separates capitalism from "classless society", from Communism.[2] It is perfectly clear that according to Marx and Lenin, the
historical period throughout which the state of the dictatorship of the
proletariat exists, is not merely the period of transition from capitalism to
the first stage of communism, as alleged by the revisionist Khrushchov clique,
but the entire period of transition from capitalism to "complete communism",
to the time when all class differences will have been eliminated and
"classless society" realized, that is to say, to the higher stage of
communism.
It is equally clear that the state in the transition period
referred to by Marx and Lenin is the dictatorship of the proletariat and not
anything else. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the form of the state in
the entire period of transition from capitalism to the higher stage of com-
page 37
munism, and also the last form of the state in human history. The withering
away of the dictatorship of the proletariat will mean the withering away of
the state. Lenin said:
Marx deduced from the whole history of Socialism and of the
political struggle that the state was bound to disappear, and that the
transitional form of its disappearance (the transition from state to
nonstate) would be the "proletariat organized as the ruling class''.[1] Historically the dictatorship of the proletariat may take
different forms from one country to another and from one period to another,
but in essence it will remain the same. Lenin said:
The transition from capitalism to Communism certainly
cannot but yield a tremendous abundance and variety of political forms, but
the essence will inevitably be the same: the dictatorship of the
proletariat.[2] It can thus be seen that it is absolutely not the view of
Marx and Lenin but an invention of the revisionist Khrushchov that the end of
the dictatorship of the proletariat will precede the withering away of the
state and will be followed by yet another stage, "the state of the whole
people".
In arguing for their anti-Marxist-Leninist views, the
revisionist Khrushchov clique have taken great pains to find a sentence from
Marx and distorted it by quoting it out of context. They have arbitrarily
described the future nature of the state [Staatswesen in German]
of communist society referred to by Marx in his Critique of
page 38
the Gotha Programme as the " As it happens, Lenin seems to have foreseen that revisionists
would make use of this phrase to distort Marxism. In his Marxism on the
State, Lenin gave an excellent explanation of it. He said, ". . . the
dictatorship of the proletariat is a The first stage -- in capitalist society, the state is
needed by the bourgeoisie -- the bourgeois state.
The second stage -- in the period of transition from
capitalism to communism, the state is needed by the proletariat -- the state
of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The third stage -- in communist society, the state is not
necessary, it withers away. He concluded: "Complete consistency and clarity!!"
In Lenin's tabulation, only the bourgeois state, the state of
the dictatorship of the proletariat and the withering
page 39
away of the state are to be found. By precisely this tabulation Lenin made
it clear that when communism is reached the state withers away and becomes
non-existent.
Ironically enough, the revisionist Khrushchov clique also
quoted this very passage from Lenin's Marxism on the State in the
course of defending their error. And then they proceeded to make the following
idiotic statement:
In our country the first two periods referred to by Lenin
in the opinion quoted already belong to history. In the Soviet Union a state
of the whole people -- a communist state system, the state of the
first phase of communism, has arisen and is developing.[1] If the first two periods referred to by Lenin have already
become a thing of the past in the Soviet Union, then the state should be
withering away, and where could a "state of the whole people" come from? If
the state is not yet withering away, then it ought to be the dictatorship of
the proletariat and under absolutely no circumstances a "state of the whole
people".
In arguing for their "state of the whole people", the
revisionist Khrushchov clique exert themselves to vilify the dictatorship of
the proletariat as undemocratic. They assert that only by replacing the state
of the dictatorship of the proletariat by the "state of the whole people" can
democracy be further developed and turned into "genuine democracy for the
whole people". Khrushchov has pretentiously said that the abolition of the
dictatorship of the proletariat exemplifies "a line of energetically devel-
page 40
oping democracy" and that "proletarian democracy is becoming socialist
democracy of the whole people".[1]
These utterances can only show that their authors either are
completely ignorant of the Marxist-Leninist teachings on the state or are
maliciously distorting them.
Anyone with a little knowledge of Marxism-Leninism knows that
the concept of democracy as a form of the state, like that of dictatorship, is
a class one. There can only be class democracy, there cannot be "democracy for
the whole people".
Lenin said:
Democracy for the vast majority of the people, and
suppression by force, i.e., exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and
oppressors of the people -- this is the change democracy undergoes during
the transition from capitalism to Communism.[2] Dictatorship over the exploiting classes and democracy among
the working people -- these are the two aspects of the dictatorship of the
proletariat. It is only under the dictatorship of the proletariat that
democracy for the masses of the working people can be developed and expanded
to an unprecedented extent. Without the dictatorship of the proletariat there
can be no genuine democracy for the working people.
Where there is bourgeois democracy there is no proletarian
democracy, and where there is proletarian democracy there is no bourgeois
democracy. The one excludes the other. This is inevitable and admits of no
compro-
page 41
mise. The more thoroughly bourgeois democracy is eliminated, the more will
proletarian democracy flourish. In the eyes of the bourgeoisie, any country
where this occurs is lacking in democracy. But actually this is the promotion
of proletarian democracy and the elimination of bourgeois democracy. As
proletarian democracy develops, bourgeois democracy is eliminated.
This fundamental Marxist-Leninist thesis is opposed by the
revisionist Khrushchov clique. In fact, they hold that so long as enemies are
subjected to dictatorship there is no democracy and that the only way to
develop democracy is to abolish the dictatorship over enemies, stop
suppressing them and institute "democracy for the whole people".
Their view is cast from the same mould as the renegade
Kautsky's concept of "pure democracy".
In criticizing Kautsky Lenin said:
. . . "pure democracy" is not only an ignorant
phrase, revealing a lack of understanding both of the class struggle and of
the nature of the state, but also a thrice empty phrase, since in communist
society democracy will wither away in the process of changing and
becoming a habit, but will never be "pure" democracy. He also pointed out:
The dialectics (course) of the development is as follows:
from absolutism to bourgeois democracy; from bourgeois to proletarian
democracy; from proletarian democracy to none.[2]
That is to say, in the higher stage of communism proletarian
democracy will wither away along with the
page 42
elimination of classes and the withering away of the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
To speak plainly, as with the "state of the whole people",
the "democracy for the whole people" proclaimed by Khrushchov is a hoax. In
thus retrieving the tattered garments of the bourgeoisie and the old-line
revisionists, patching them up and adding a label of his own, Khrushchov's
sole purpose is to deceive the Soviet people and the revolutionary people of
the world and cover up his betrayal of the dictatorship of the proletariat and
his opposition to socialism.
What is the essence of Khrushchov's "state of the whole
people"?
Khrushchov has abolished the dictatorship of the proletariat
in the Soviet Union and established a dictatorship of the revisionist clique
headed by himself, that is, a dictatorship of a privileged stratum of the
Soviet bourgeoisie. Actually his "state of the whole people" is not a state of
the dictatorship of the proletariat but a state in which his small revisionist
clique wield their dictatorship over the masses of the workers, the peasants
and the revolutionary intellectuals. Under the rule of the Khrushchov clique,
there is no democracy for the Soviet working people, there is democracy only
for the handful of people belonging to the revisionist Khrushchov clique, for
the privileged stratum and for the bourgeois elements, old and new.
Khrushchov's "democracy for the whole people" is nothing but out-and-out
bourgeois democracy, i.e., a despotic dictatorship of the Khrushchov clique
over the Soviet people.
In the Soviet Union today, anyone who persists in the
proletarian stand, upholds Marxism-Leninism and has the courage to speak out,
to resist or to fight is watched,
page 43
followed, summoned, and even arrested, imprisoned or diagnosed as "mentally
ill" and sent to "mental hospitals". Recently the Soviet press has declared
that it is necessary to "fight" against those who show even the slightest
dissatisfaction, and called for "relentless battle" against the "rotten
jokers"[1] who are so
bold as to make sarcastic remarks about Khrushchov's agricultural policy. It
is particularly astonishing that the revisionist Khrushchov clique should have
on more than one occasion bloodily suppressed striking workers and the masses
who put up resistance.
The formula of abolishing the dictatorship of the proletariat
while keeping a state of the whole people reveals the secret of the
revisionist Khrushchov clique; that is, they are firmly opposed to the
dictatorship of the proletariat but will not give up state power till their
doom. The revisionist Khrushchov clique know the paramount importance of
controlling state power. They need the state machinery for repressing the
Soviet working people and the Marxist-Leninists. They need it for clearing the
way for the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. These are
Khrushchov's real aims in raising the banners of the "state of the whole
people" and "democracy for the whole people".
At the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Khrushchov openly raised
another banner, the alteration of the proletarian character of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. He
page 44
announced the replacement of the party of the proletariat by a "party of
the entire people". The programme of the CPSU states, "As a result of the
victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the consolidation of the unity of
Soviet society, the Communist Party of the working class has become the
vanguard of the Soviet people, a party of the entire people." The Open Letter
of the Central Committee of the CPSU says that the CPSU "has become a
political organization of the entire people".
How absurd!
Elementary knowledge of Marxism-Leninism tells us that, like
the state, a political party is an instrument of class struggle. Every
political party has a class character. Party spirit is the concentrated
expression of class character. There is no such thing as a non-class or
supra-class political party and there never has been, nor is there such a
thing as a "party of the entire people" that does not represent the interests
of a particular class.
The party of the proletariat is built in accordance with the
revolutionary theory and revolutionary style of Marxism-Leninism; it is the
party formed by the advanced elements who are boundlessly faithful to the
historical mission of the proletariat, it is the organized vanguard of the
proletariat and the highest form of its organization. The party of the
proletariat represents the interests of the proletariat and the concentration
of its will.
Moreover, the party of the proletariat is the only party able
to represent the interests of the people, who constitute over ninety per cent
of the total population. The reason is that the interests of the proletariat
are identical with those of the working masses, that the proletarian party can
approach problems in the light of the historical role as the proletariat and
in terms of the present and
page 45
future interests of the proletariat and the working masses and of the best
interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and that it can give
correct leadership in accordance with Marxism-Leninism.
In addition to its members of working-class origin, the party
of the proletariat has members of other class origins. But the latter do not
join the Party as representatives of other classes. From the very day they
join the Party they must abandon their former class stand and take the stand
of the proletariat. Marx and Engels said:
If people of this kind from other classes join the
proletarian movement, the first condition must be that they should not bring
any remnants of bourgeois, petty-bourgeois, etc., prejudices with them but
should whole-heartedly adopt the proletarian outlook.[1] The basic principles concerning the character of the
proletarian party were long ago elucidated by Marxism-Leninism. But in the
opinion of the revisionist Khrushchov clique these principles are "stereotyped
formulas", while their "party of the entire people" conforms to the "actual
dialectics of the development of the Communist Party".[2]
The revisionist Khrushchov clique have cudgelled their brains
to think up arguments justifying their "party of the entire people". They have
argued during the talks between the Chinese and Soviet Parties in July 1963
and in the Soviet press that they have changed the Communist
page 46
Party of the Soviet Union into a "party of the entire people" because:
1. The CPSU expresses the interests of the whole
people.
2. The entire people have accepted the
Marxist-Leninist world outlook of the working class, and the aim of the
working class -- the building of communism -- has become the aim of the
entire people.
3. The ranks of the CPSU consist of the best
representatives of the workers, collective farmers and intellectuals. The
CPSU unites in its own ranks representatives of over a hundred nationalities
and peoples.
4. The democratic method used in the Party's
activities is also in accord with its character as the Party of the entire
people. It is obvious even at a glance that none of these arguments
adduced by the revisionist Khrushchov clique shows a serious approach to a
serious problem.
When Lenin was fighting the opportunist muddle-heads, he
remarked:
Can people obviously incapable of taking serious problems
seriously, themselves be taken seriously? It is difficult to do so,
comrades, very difficult! But the question which certain people cannot treat
seriously is in itself so serious that it will do no harm to examine even
patently frivolous replies to it.[1] Today, too, it will do no harm to examine the patently
frivolous replies given by the revisionist Khrushchov clique to so serious a
question as that of the party of the proletariat.
page 47
According to the revisionist Khrushchov clique, the Communist
Party should become a "party of the entire people" because it expresses the
interests of the entire people. Does it not then follow that from the very
beginning it should have been a "party of the entire people" instead of a
party of the proletariat?
According to the revisionist Khrushchov clique, the Communist
Party should become a "party of the entire people" because "the entire people
have accepted the Marxist-Leninist world outlook of the working class". But
how can it be said that everyone has accepted the Marxist-Leninist world
outlook in Soviet society where sharp class polarization and class struggle
are taking place? Can it be said that the tens of thousands of old and new
bourgeois elements in your country are all Marxist-Leninists? If
Marxism-Leninism has really be come the world outlook of the entire people, as
you allege, does it not then follow that there is no difference in your
society between Party and non-Party and no need whatsoever for the Party to
exist? What difference does it make if there is a "party of the entire people"
or not?
According to the revisionist Khrushchov clique, the Communist
Party should become a "party of the entire people" because its membership
consists of workers, peasants and intellectuals and all nationalities and
peoples. Does this mean then that before the idea of the "party of the entire
people" was put forward at its 22nd Congress none of the members of the CPSU
came from classes other than the working class? Does it mean that formerly the
members of the Party all came from just one nationality, to the exclusion of
other nationalities and peoples? If the character of a party is determined by
page 48
the social background of its membership, does it not then follow that the
numerous political parties in the world whose members also come from various
classes, nationalities and peoples are all "parties of the entire people"?
According to the revisionist Khrushchov clique, the Party
should be a "party of the entire people" because the methods it uses in its
activities are democratic. But from its outset, a Communist Party is built on
the basis of the principle of democratic centralism and should always adopt
the mass line and the democratic method of persuasion and education in working
among the people. Does it not then follow that a Communist Party is a "party
of the entire people" from the first day of its founding?
Briefly, none of the arguments listed by the revisionist
Khrushchov clique holds water.
Besides making a great fuss about a "party of the entire
people", Khrushchov has also divided the Party , into an "industrial Party"
and an "agricultural Party" on the pretext of "building the Party organs on
the production principle".[1]
The revisionist Khrushchov clique say that they have done so
because of "the primacy of economics over politics under socialism"[2] and because they want to place "the economic and production
problems, which have been pushed to the forefront by the entire course of the
communist construction, at the centre of the activities of the Party
organizations" and make them "the cornerstone
page 49
of all their work".[1] Khrushchov
said, "We say bluntly that the main thing in the work of the Party organs is
production."[2] And what
is more, they have foisted these views on Lenin, claiming that they are acting
in accordance with his principles.
However, anyone at all acquainted with the history of the
CPSU knows that, far from being Lenin's views, they are anti-Leninist views
and that they were views held by Trotsky. On this question, too, Khrushchov is
a worthy disciple of Trotsky.
In criticizing Trotsky and Bukharin, Lenin said:
Politics are the concentrated expression of economics. . .
. Politics cannot but have precedence over economics. To argue differently
means forgetting the A B C of Marxism. He continued:
OF THE PROLETARIAT
according to the amount of labour
performed (and not according to needs)",[3] and
therefore differences in wealth still exist. The disappearance of these
differences, phenomena and bourgeois rights can only be gradual and long drawn
out. As Marx said, only after these differences have vanished and bourgeois
rights have completely disappeared, will it be possible to realize full
communism
[1] Marx, "Critique of the Gotha
Programme", Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Foreign Languages
Publishing House, Moscow 1958, Vol. 2, p. 23.
[2] Lenin, "The State and Revolution",
Selected Works, FLPH Moscow, 1952, Vol. 2, Part 1, p. 302.
[3] Ibid., p. 296.
ment by international capitalism, the imperialists' threat of armed
intervention and their subversive activities to accomplish peaceful
disintegration. Life has confirmed these conclusions of Lenin's.
[1] Lenin, "The Proletarian Revolution and
the Renegade Kautsky", Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part
2, p. 61.
[2] Lenin, "Greetings to the Hungarian
Workers", Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 210-11.
[1] "Marx to J.
Weydemeyer, March 5, 1852", Selected Works of Marx and Engels, FLPH,
Moscow, Vol. 2, p. 452.
[1] Marx,
"Critique of the Gotha Programme", Selected Works of Marx and Engels,
FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, pp. 32-33.
[2] Marx, "The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850",
Selected Works of Marx and Engels, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 1, p. 223.
has not vanished, not ceased to offer resistance, but that has
intensified its resistance.[1]
[1] Lenin, "Foreword to the Speech 'On
Deception of the People with Slogans of Freedom and Equality'",
Alliance of the Working Class and the Peasantry, FLPH, Moscow, 1959, p.
302.
[2] Lenin, "Left-Wing Communism, an
Infantile Disorder", Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part 2,
p. 367.
EXIST IN THE SOVIET
UNION
[1] Stalin, "On the Draft Constitution of
the U.S.S.R.", Problems of Leninism, FLPH, Moscow, 1954, p.
690.
[2] Stalin, "Report to
the Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) on the Work of the Central
Committee", Problems of Leninism, FLPH, Moscow, p. 777.
[1] Krasnava
Zvezda, May 19, 1962.
.<FONT size=-2>[<A
href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/KPC64.html#fnp17">1</A>]</FONT>
<P> The manager of a furniture factory in Kharkov set up an
"illegal knitwear workshop" and carried on secret operations inside the
factory. This man "had several wives, several cars, several houses, 176
neck-ties, about a hundred shirts and dozens of suits". He was also a big
gambler at the horse-races.<FONT size=-2>[<A
href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/KPC64.html#fnp17">2</A>]</FONT>
<P> Such people do not operate all by themselves. They invariably
work hand in glove with functionaries in the state departments in charge of
supplies and in the commercial and other departments. They have their own men
in the police and judicial departments who protect them and act as their
agents. Even high-ranking officials in the state organs support and shield
them. Here are a few examples.
<P> The chief of the workshops affiliated to a Moscow
psychoneurological dispensary and his gang set up an "underground enterprise",
and by bribery "obtained fifty-eight knitting machines" and a large amount of
raw material. They entered into business relations with "fifty-two factories,
handicraft co-operatives and collective farms" and made three million roubles
in a few years. They bribed functionaries of the Department for Com- <A
name=fnp17>
<HR align=left width="12%" noShade SIZE=1>
<FONT size=-1> <SUP><FONT size=-2>[1]</FONT></SUP> <I>Pravda
Vostoka</I>, Oct. 8, 1963.<BR> <SUP><FONT
size=-2>[2]</FONT></SUP> <I>Pravda Ukrainv</I>, May 18, 1962. </FONT>
<P><FONT size=-2><B>page 18</B></FONT>
<P>bating Theft of Socialist Property and Speculation, controllers,
inspectors, instructors and others.<FONT size=-2>[<A
href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/KPC64.html#fnp18">1</A>]</FONT>
<P> The manager of a machinery plant in the Russian Federation,
together with the deputy manager of a second machinery plant and other
functionaries, or forty-three persons in all, stole more than nine hundred
looms and sold them to factories in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus and
other places, whose leading functionaries used them for illicit
production.<FONT size=-2>[<A
href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/KPC64.html#fnp18">2</A>]</FONT>
<P> In the Kirghiz SSR, a gang of over forty embezzlers and
grafters, having gained control of two factories, organized underground
production and plundered more than thirty million roubles worth of state
property. This gang included the Chairman of the Planning Commission of the
Republic, a Vice-Minister of Commerce, seven bureau chiefs and division chiefs
of the Republic's Council of Ministers, National Economic Council and State
Control Commission, as well as "a big kulak who had fled from exile".[3]
[1]
Izvestia, Oct. 20, 1963, and Izvestia Sunday Supplement, No. 12,
1964.
[2] Komsomolskaya
Pravda, Aug. 9, 1963.
[3]
Sovietskaya Kirghizia, Jan. 9, 1962.
[1] Selskaya
Zhizn, June 26, 1962.
[2]
Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, No. 35, 1963.
[1] Selskaya
Zhizn, Aug, 14, 1963.
[2]
Pravda, Jan. 14, 1962.
[3] Pravda, Feb. 6, 1961.
[1]
Izvestia, April 9, 1963.
[2] Sovietskaya Rossiya, Oct. 9, 1960.
[1]
Izvestia, Oct. 18, 1960.
[2] Selskaya Zhizn, July 17, 1963.
[3] Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, No.
27, 1963.
[4]
Literaturnaya Gazeta, July 27 and Aug. 17, 1963.
[1] Sovietskaya
Rossiya, Jan. 27, 1961.
THE REVISIONIST KHRUSHCHOV
CLIQUE
[1] Lenin, "Plan
of the Pamphlet 'On the Food Tax'", Collected Works, 4th Russian ed.,
Moscow, Vol. 32, p. 301. [Transcriber's Note: In
the 4th English edition of Lenin's Collected Works the title is given
as "Plan of the Pamphlet The Tax in Kind", Vol 32, pp. 320-28. The
relevant passage therein is as follows: "The appropriation system and the
apparatus. We should have perished long ago but for the apparatus. Unless
we wage a systematic and persevering struggle to improve it we shall perish
before we manage to lay the foundation of socialism" (pp. 321-22). -- DJR]
[1] N. S.
Khrushchov, Interview with Foreign Correspondents at Brioni in Yugosavia, Aug.
28, 1963.
THE WHOLE PEOPLE
[1] Lenin, "The Economic Content of
Narodism and the Criticism of It in Mr. Struve's Book", Collected
Works, FLPH, Moscow, 1960, Vol. 1, p. 419.
[1] Pravda
editorial board's article, "Programme for the Building of Communism", Aug. 18,
1961.
[1] Lenin, "The Discussion on
Self-Determination Summed Up", Collected Works, International
Publishers, New York, 1942, Vol. 19, pp. 269-70.
[2] Lenin, "The State and Revolution",
Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part 1, p. 234.
[1] Ibid.,
pp. 256-57.
[2] Ibid.,
p. 234.
state of communist society [[. . . -- DJR] in Russian], which is no longer a
dictatorship of the proletariat".[1] They
gleefully announced that the Chinese would not dare to quote this from Marx.
Apparently the revisionist Khrushchov clique think it is very helpful to them. political transition period. . . . But
Marx goes on to speak of the future <I>nature of the state</I> [<FONT
size=-2>[. . . -- <I>DJR</I>]</FONT> in Russian, <I>Staatswesen</I> in German]
of communist society!! Thus, there will be a state even in communist
society!! Is there not a contradiction in this?" Lenin answered, "No." He
then tabulated the three stages in the process of development from the
bourgeois state to the withering away of the state:
[1] M. A. Suslov,
Report at the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, February
1964. (New Times, English ed., No. 15, 1964, p. 62.)
[1] "From the
Party of the Working Class to the Party of the Whole Soviet People", editorial
board's article of Partyinaya Zhizn, Moscow, No. 8, 1964.
[1] N. S.
Khrushchov, "Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU", and "On the
Programme of the CPSU", delivered at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, October
1961.
[2] Lenin, "The State
and Revolution", Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part 1, p. 291.
[1] Lenin, "The Proletarian Revolution and
the Renegade Kautsky", Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, Vol. 2, Part
2, p. 48.
[2] Lenin,
Marxism on the State, Russian ed., Moscow, 1958, p. 42.
OF THE ENTIRE PEOPLE
[1]
Izvestia, Mar. 10, 1964.
[1] "Marx and
Engels to A. Bebel, W. Liebknecht, W. Bracke and Others ("Circular Letter"),
Sept. 17-18, 1879", Selected Works of Marx and Engels, FLPH, Moscow,
Vol. 2, pp. 484-85.
[2] "From
the Party of the Working Class to the Party of the Whole Soviet People",
editorial board's article of Partyinaya Zhizn, Moscow, No. 8, 1964.
[1] Lenin,
"Clarity First and Foremost!", Collected Works, FLPH, Moscow, 1964,
Vol. 20, p. 544.
[1] N. S.
Khrushchov, Report at the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the
CPSU, November 1962.
[2]
"Study, Know, Act", editorial of Economicheskaya Gazeta, No. 50, 1962.