MAO TSE-TUNG
(July 1964)
On Khrushchov's Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World: Comment on the Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU (IX)
By the Editorial Departments of Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) and Hongqui
(Red Flag), China, of 14 July 1964. The source is a pamphlet published by
Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1964.
INTRODUCTION
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 Congress 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" 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 people" 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.
SOCIALIST SOCIETY AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
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 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-Lenin-
ism 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 a 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 practices
the broadest democracy among the masses of the working people, a democracy
that is impossible in capitalist society. The nationalisation 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 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,
economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the birth
marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.
[Marx, "Critique of the Gotha Programme", Selected Works of Marx and Engels,
Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1958, Vol. 2, p. 23.]
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".
[Lenin, "The State and Revolution", Selected Works, FLPH, Mos- cow, 1952,
Vol. 2, Part 1, p. 302.]
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 'according to the amount of labour performed' (and
not according to needs)", and therefore differences in wealth still exist.
[Ibid., p. 296.]
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 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
restoration of capitalism.
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 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 influence of
the petty bourgeoisie.
d) The external conditions for the continuance of class struggle within
a socialist society are encirclement 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.
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 ...
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