MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM

BASIC COURSE

Published by Christophe Kistlerchris@kistler.red

This basic course was originally published bythe Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Utrecht, 2016

1st printing : 10 copies2nd printing : 100 copies

This book is under license Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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CONTENTSChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: What is Marxism-Leninism-MaoismChapter 3: Socio-economic ConditionsLeading to the Birth of MarxismChapter 4: Early Life of Marx and EngelsUntil They Became MarxistsChapter 5: The Three Sources of MarxismChapter 6: The Basic Foundations of MarxistPhilosophy – Dialectical and HistoricalMaterialismChapter 7: Struggle Against Utopian Socialismand the Establishment of Scientific SocialismChapter 8: Marxist Political EconomyChapter 9: Marxism Fuses Its Links with theWorking ClassChapter 10: The Lessons of the ParisCommuneChapter 11: Spread of Marxism and Rise ofOpportunismChapter 12: Marxism in Russia – Early Life ofLeninChapter 13: Lenin and the Proletarian Party ofa New TypeChapter 14: Russian Bourgeois Revolution of1905 – Development of Proletarian TacticsChapter 15: World War I – Opportunism v/sRevolutionary TacticsChapter 16: Lenin’s Analysis of Imperialism,

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the Highest Stage of CapitalismChapter 17: The Great October SocialistRevolutionChapter 18: The Formation of the ThirdInternationalChapter 19: The National and ColonialQuestionChapter 20: Early Life and RevolutionaryContributions of Stalin up to the 1917RevolutionChapter 21: Socialist Construction – theRussian ExperienceChapter 22: Fight against Trotskyism andOther Opportunist TrendsChapter 23: Tactics During World War IIChapter 24: Mao’s Early YearsChapter 25: Mao’s Fight Against Right and‘Left’ Lines and Victory of the ChineseRevolutionChapter 26: The Path of Revolution for theColonies and Semi-ColoniesChapter 27: Mao on PhilosophyChapter 28: Mao on The PartyChapter 29: Socialist Construction – TheChinese ExperienceChapter 30: The Great Debate – Mao’s FightAgainst Kruschev’s Modern RevisionismChapter 31: The Great Proletarian CulturalRevolutionChapter 32: After The Death of Mao

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Introduction

Most of us revolutionary activists are ‘practical’people. We feel, “Why bother about ideology, andtheory, and such other things, … that is for thescholars and ‘intellectuals’, … the most importantthing is to get on with the job”. The lower levelactivists and members feel that it is sufficient that theCentral Committee and the higher committees dostudy and provide guidance; and often, manymembers in the higher committees also feel that otherwork is too pressing to ‘allow’ much time for theory.

On the other hand, there are a few others who feel itis necessary to know every work of the GreatTeachers in order to work ‘properly’. They spend alarge amount of time in trying to read everything.They also have a tendency to treat everything theyread as dogma.

It is necessary to avoid both these attitudes in ourstudy. All comrades should give sufficient time andattention to study in order to understand the essenceof our ideology — Marxism-Leninism-Maoism(MLM). Rather than knowing by heart a large numberof books, it is necessary to understand deeply theessential and basic aspects of our guiding ideology. Ifwe do this and learn to apply it in our day to daywork we can greatly improve our practice, both, asindividual activists, as well as, of the party as a whole.Very often we understand and analyse the worldaround us only according to our own limited

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experiences and therefore arrive at wrong conclusions.A proper understanding of MLM can help usovercome such errors. At other times a superficialunderstanding can lead to going by only the letter ofcertain party decisions and stands and notunderstanding their essence and spirit. Such mistakescan also be avoided by a deeper grasp of MLM. By ourstudy of MLM, we learn from the positive andnegative experiences of World Revolution; we learn toabsorb the good in it, and we learn to differentiatebetween the good and the bad in our own practice. Wethus learn to recognise, criticise, and fight all types ofopportunism. In short, MLM is a must to mould ourpractice in the light of theory.

This  Basic Course  in MLM is intended to present toactivists an understanding of the principal aspects ofour ideology. Our ideology is, first and foremost, a‘practical’ theory, meant to be implemented and putinto practice. The theory itself emerged in the courseof numerous class struggles. It is therefore essential tounderstand the concrete material conditions and socialpractice through which the Great Teachers of theproletariat – Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao –discovered and formulated its basic principles. Thus,this book has been presented by relating the historicalprocess of the growth and development of MLM. Thebasic concepts have been presented in short by,wherever possible, linking to the socioeconomicconditions, main political events and class strugglesthat gave birth to them. In order to understand any

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particular aspect in detail, more particular studywould be necessary. This Basic Course however ismeant to provide an essential basis for understandingthe dynamic process of the development of ourideology and in what historical conditions andcircumstances certain stands and theory came intobeing.

Come; let’s begin our study.

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Chapter 2

What is MLM?

The party leading the revolution is the Communistparty; and the ideology guiding the thinking andpractice of the Communist party is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This is known to all of us.However many of us are not so sure as to what exactlyis meant by communist ideology or MLM and whatare its various parts or aspects. Quite a few understandit simply as the ideas of Marx, Lenin and Mao. Suchan understanding is incomplete, insufficient andsuperficial. What is needed is to go deeper into thematter and understand the internal essence. Let us firsttherefore try to understand this essence of MLM.

At the time when Marx and Engels were firstdeveloping and propagating the theory ofcommunism, Engels, in 1847, drafted a booklet called“The Principles of Communism”. In this he definedwhat is communism in the following very simplemanner, “Communism is the doctrine of theprerequisites for the emancipation of theproletariat.”  Thus Engels, in this very shortdefinition explains that the essence of communistideology is to provide the theory regarding what isneeded to achieve the ultimate freedom of the workingclass (the proletariat). This freedom would finally beachieved through the establishment of communistsociety.

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Stalin explained the same thing in the followingway, “Marxism is the science of the laws governingthe development of nature and society, the scienceof the revolution of the oppressed and exploitedmasses, the science of the victory of socialism in allcountries, the science of building a communistsociety.”  Here Stalin explains the wide scope ofMarxism.  Firstly,  it is a science, which provides theanswers to the questions concerning not only society,but also the whole of nature. Thus Marxism is an all-encompassing science.  Secondly,  it is a scienceregarding revolution; and this revolution is not of therich (as in earlier bourgeois revolutions of thecapitalist class), but of the poor and toiling masses.And thirdly  it is the science of building socialist andcommunist society.

This science is today given the name of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism after the names of the threeTeachers who played the greatest role in establishingand developing it – Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin andMao Tse-tung. Besides these three, we recognise twoother great Teachers who played a tremendous role –Frederick Engels and Joseph Stalin. Engels was thecomrade of Marx who closely collaborated with himin laying the foundations of Marxism, as well as inadvancing it after Marx’s death. Stalin defended anddeveloped Marxism-Leninism after Lenin’s death.

Marxism was first worked out by Marx, with the helpof Engels, more than 150 years ago. The principal

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parts of Marxism are: the  philosophy  of dialecticalmaterialism and the discovery of the materialistconception of history or historical materialism;Marxist political economy which discovered the lawsof motion of capitalism and its contradictions and thedoctrine of surplus value which uncovered the sourceof exploitation; and the theory of scientificsocialism  based on the doctrine of the class struggleand the outlining of the principles governing thetactics of the class struggle of the proletariat.

Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism andthe proletarian revolution. It was first developed byLenin around the turn of the century during thecourse of the Russian revolution, while fighting theopportunism of the Second International, and whileadvancing the international communist movementthrough the Third International. Leninism, whiledefending and developing Marxism, made thefollowing significant contributions: the discovery ofthe laws of motion of capitalism under imperialismand how they would inevitably lead the imperialistpowers to war; the qualitative development of thetheory and practice of proletarian revolution duringthe bourgeois democratic revolution as well as thesocialist revolution; a clear understanding regardingthe dictatorship of the proletariat, as well as the firstprinciples regarding socialist construction; providingthe theory and direction for the nationalitymovements and the movements in the colonies andlinking the national liberation movements to the

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World Socialist Revolution; the development of theorganisational principles of the Leninist party – theparty of the new type. Stalin, while defending anddeveloping Leninism, particularly contributed to theprinciples and laws governing the period of socialistconstruction.

Maoism  is an extension and development ofMarxism-Leninism applicable to the present era.  Itwas developed by Mao during the course of theChinese Revolution, in the process of socialistconstruction, in the fight against modern revisionismand particularly during the Great Proletarian CulturalRevolution. Maoism’s contributions include: thetheory of contradictions, the development of thetheory of knowledge and the formulation of the massline of ‘from the masses, to the masses’; the theory ofnew democracy, the formulation of the path ofrevolution for the colonies and semi-colonies, and theformulation regarding the three magic weapons of therevolution – the party, people’s army and the unitedfront; the theory of protracted people’s war and thedevelopment of the principles of military warfare; thedevelopment of the organisational principles of theproletarian party through the understanding of two-line struggle, rectification campaigns and criticism andself-criticism; the development of the politicaleconomy of socialism on the basis of the Soviet andChinese experience and the dialectical understandingof the process of socialist construction as the correcthandling of contradictions in the process of transition

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to socialism; and finally and most importantly, thetheory and practice of continuing revolution underthe dictatorship of the proletariat to consolidatesocialism, combat modern revisionism and prevent therestoration of capitalism, and its concrete expressionin the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism are thus notseparate ideologies, but represent the constantgrowth and advancement of one and the sameideology. We shall in the following pages try to tracethe story of the process of its development. Whiledoing this we shall also try to understand the essenceof its various parts and aspects that have been listedabove. The list may appear to be long and difficult,but it need not be so. If we concentrate and try tounderstand the basic essence of each aspect within itshistorical context we will be able grasp a lot.

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Chapter 3

Socio-economic Conditions Leading to The Birthof Marxism

As we will see later, Marxism teaches us that any ideasor theory are always the product of some materialconditions. Whenever new material conditions comeinto being, new ideas and theories too are bound toemerge. This same truth applies also to Marxism itself.Thus in order to understand Marxism better weshould try to know the material conditions, i.e. thesocioeconomic conditions, within which Marx andEngels first gave birth to Marxism.

Marxism was established over 150 years ago, duringthe 1840s. It was established first in Europe, which atthat time dominated the whole world economically,politically and militarily. This world domination wassuch that almost all earlier advanced civilizations likeIndia, China and Persia had been subordinated to it.Marx and Engels were born and lived in some of themost economically advanced parts of Europe whiledeveloping the ideas of Marxism. They observed,participated in and were influenced by all the majorpolitical events of that time. Thus in order tounderstand how Marxism was born we will first haveto take a look at the Europe of that time and see theprincipal factors in the socioeconomic situation then.

1)  The most important factor was the  IndustrialRevolution, which lasted approximately from 1760 to

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1830, and, though it was centred in England,influenced the whole world. The IndustrialRevolution was named as such because it was duringthese seventy years that the world first saw anexplosive and revolutionary upsurge in industrialdevelopment. It was at this time that modern largefactories were first set up and grew at a very rapidpace, particularly in England. Along with this was thetremendous expansion of the world market, whichsent English manufactured goods to all parts of theworld. Though other countries like France, Holland,and parts of Germany and the USA also set up largefactories, this period was heavily dominated byEngland. Its domination was such that it came to becalled the  ‘workshop of the world’  which suppliedmanufactured goods to all countries.

The Industrial Revolution transformed the capitalistclass. This class was earlier economically not so strongand was a middle class (it was called the bourgeoisiebecause bourgeois in French means middle class). But,with the Industrial Revolution, this middle class wastransformed into a class of industrial millionaires – themodern industrial bourgeoisie. The untold riches ofthis new class gave it the strength to more powerfullychallenge the feudal classes, which were, till then, stillthe ruling classes.

Alongside the modern industrial bourgeoisie theIndustrial Revolution also gave birth to another class–  the modern industrial working class, or

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proletariat. This class consisting of workers workingtogether in thousands in large factories was also fardifferent from the earlier workers working in smallgroups in tiny workshops. The modern proletarianspossessed nothing else except their labouring powerand had a strength and confidence not known toearlier generations of workers and toilers. Thisstrength came from their contact with modernindustry, their discipline learnt from the factorysystem, and their superior organisation due to theirlarge numbers assembled together in single factoriesunder one roof. Their position within society madethem the potentially most revolutionary force inhistory.

2)  The other important factor was that whichdominated the political situation in Europe at thattime. It was the spate of  bourgeois democraticrevolutions led by the rising capitalist class, of whichthe most important was the French Revolution  of1789. The French Revolution not only brought aboutvery radical changes in France. It also led to theNapoleonic wars where the armies of the Frenchbourgeoisie conquered almost the whole of Europeand introduced bourgeois reforms abolishingfeudalism wherever they went. They thus dealt adeathblow to the kings and old feudal classes. Thoughthe French armies were later defeated, the old rulingclasses could never recover their old position. Themodern bourgeoisie continued its revolutionary wavewith numerous other bourgeois revolutions, which

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resulted in the conclusive defeat of the feudal classesand the victory of capitalism as a world system.

Thus both at the economic and political levels theperiod of the birth of Marxism was a period of greatadvances and victories for the capitalist class when itwas conclusively establishing its rule in the mostadvanced and dominant countries of the world.

3)  Though this was the period of the greatestadvancement of the bourgeoisie, the principal factorthat gave birth to Marxism during this period was therise of working class consciousness and proletarianorganisations and movements thus signalingthe emergence of the proletariat as an independentand self-conscious force.

This rise of a class-conscious proletariat first tookplace in England and France. This was primarilybecause of the early spread of modern industry inthese two countries. The spread of modern industry,though it brought great wealth to the bourgeoisie, atthe same time meant the most inhumane working andliving conditions for the working class. Almost three-quarter of the workforce was composed of women andchildren because they provided cheaper and moreeasily controllable workers for the capitalists.Children from the age of six onwards were forced towork fourteen and sixteen hours in the spinning mills.As the bourgeoisie amassed greater and greater wealththe workers fell into greater and greater misery. Whilethe cloth mill owners multiplied their capital many

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times over, their weavers’ wages reduced to one eighthof what they earlier obtained.

Thus the conditions of the proletariat were such thatrebellion was not merely possible but almostcompulsory. The first such outbursts werespontaneous, without clear direction. An example wasthe  machine-breaking agitation  of 1810-11 inEngland, where groups of weavers would attack thetextile mills and smash whatever machinery theycould lay their hands on. This was their method ofprotesting against the modern industry that wasdestroying their very livelihood. Such protests havingno clear direction, and being severely repressed,quickly died out.

What followed was  the spread and growth of thelabour movement and labour organisations  thatprovided the answer and direction to the fightingproletariat. Earlier unions, which had been restrictedto skilled workers, started from 1818 uniting alllabouring men together in what were then called‘general trades’ unions. As these unions in Englandstarted growing, a movement to start a national levelunion started building up. This was formed, and by1833-34 reached a membership of 500,000. Along withthe unions, workers also started organising themselvesin cooperatives and mutual benefit societies. In othercountries where unions were largely banned thesewere the main forms of organisations of the workingclass which also grew in numbers and strength.

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As the workers organisations started growing, theworkers in Britain launched the  Chartistmovement  in 1837 demanding electoral rights forworkers. This was  the first broad, truly mass andpolitically organised proletarian revolutionarymovement. It used the method of mass petitions toParliament somewhat similar to the signaturecampaigns sometimes organised today. These petitionsgathered upto 5 million signatures. Some of theChartist demonstrations had 350,000 participantsshowing the organised strength of the working class.However as the movement grew in strength andmilitancy it faced severe repression and was suppressedby 1850. During the early 1840s while Engels wasstaying in Manchester (in England) he was in closecontact with revolutionary Chartist leaders as well asits weekly The Northern Star  and was influenced bythe Chartist movement.

The growing militancy of the workers movement alsooften in this period led to the  first workeruprisings  which were suppressed brutally. Examplesof these were the uprisings in London in 1816 andManchester in 1819, the uprisings of the silk-workersof Lyons (France) in 1831 and 1834, and the uprisingof the handloom linen-weavers of Silesia in PrussianGermany (today part of Poland) in 1844. The last-named struggle had a strong impact throughoutGermany as well as on the young Marx.

Thus, by the time of the 1840s, the proletarian

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movement was growing rapidly in strength andintensity in many industrial countries. However, itwas still very weak and in no position to yet pose athreat to either the dominant big bourgeoisie or theold feudal ruling classes. Nevertheless the emergenceof the proletariat as an independent class force was anevent of world historical significance. The coming intomaterial existence of the proletariat also meant at thesame time the birth of the ideas representing this newrevolutionary class. Many ideas and theories claimingto represent working class interests thus came intobeing. Marxism, when it was first formulated in the1840s was only one among these. However, thoughmany theories had emerged from the same economicconditions,  Marxism alone provided the tools toproperly understand these conditions and also tochange them. Therefore in the years to come it wasMarxism alone that would prove to be the trueproletarian ideology.

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Chapter 4

Early Life of Marx and Engels Until they becameMarxists

Obviously nobody can be born a Marxist – not evenMarx. There has to be a process through which ideasand views are developed and formulated and take abasic shape which can be called an ideology. NaturallyMarx and Engels too had to go through such a processbefore they came to discover and themselves grasp thebasic truths of what we today know as Marxism. Thisprocess of thought was naturally determined to a greatextent by the concrete experiences that both of themwent through. In order therefore to understand this insome depth let us briefly look at the early lifeexperiences of these two great teachers.

Karl Marx was born on 5th of May 1818, in the townof Trier, in what was then called Rhenish Prussia, andwhich is today part of Germany. His father, HeinrichMarx, was one of the top lawyers of the town. Thefamily was well to do and cultured, but notrevolutionary. Both Marx’ parents came from a longline of Jewish priests. Thus, though they wereeconomically well off, they had to face socialdiscrimination in the anti-Jew atmosphere of Prussia.In 1816, Marx’ father was forced to convert toChristianity because the Prussian government hadthen brought out a rule stopping Jews from practicinglaw. Similarly, in 1824, another Prussian law waspassed to prevent non-Christians from being admitted

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to public schools. To overcome this, again HeinrichMarx was forced to baptize his son Karl, along with allhis brothers and sisters. Thus, though he was nobeliever in organised religion, Marx’ father was forcedto adopt a new faith just in order to pursue hisprofession and give his children a good education.

Marx’ hometown,  Trier,  is the oldest town inGermany, which for many centuries had been theresidence of Roman emperors and later the seat ofCatholic bishops, with a religious administration forthe town and surrounding area. In August 1794 theFrench armies captured the town, instituted a civiladministration, and brought in the ideas andinstitutions of the French Revolution. The town onlywent back into the hands of the Prussian king afterthe defeat of France’s Napoleon in 1815. Thus duringthe time of Marx’ birth and youth it still carried thedefinite impact of twenty-one years of Frenchrevolutionary ideas.

Trier was a small town, similar in size to our smallertaluka towns, with a population then of around12,000. It was principally a market town for thesurrounding area, which for centuries has been afamous wine-growing area. Its population wascomposed of occupations typical to a ‘service’ town –civil servants, priests, small merchants, craftsmen, etc.It had remained untouched by the IndustrialRevolution and was thus economically relativelybackward. During Marx’ youth it also had a high

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degree of poverty. Official statistics in 1830 gave anunemployment figure of one in every four, though theactual figure must have been much higher. Beggars andprostitutes were common and the figures of pettycrime like stealing was extremely high. Thus Marxfrom a very young age was witness to the misery ofthe poorer labouring classes.

After attending elementary school, Marx entered theFriedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium (secondary school) in1831, from which he passed out in 1835. Within threeweeks he was sent for further studies at the law facultyof the university  forty miles away from Trier, at thecity of Bonn (an important centre which is today thejoint capital of Germany). Marx, with a desire to learnas much as much as possible, immediately registered innine courses that besides law, included poetry,literature, art, etc. He was at first regular at lecturesbut gradually lost interest, particularly in the lawlectures, which he found dry and unsatisfying. Hereduced his courses first to six and then to four.

He decided to study on his own and soon got involvedin the stormy life of the students of whom he soonbecame a leader. Being deeply interested in writingpoetry he also joined the Poetenbund, a circle ofyoung writers founded by revolutionary students. Inthe constant struggle between the sons of the feudalnobles and the bourgeoisie, he soon became a leader ofthe bourgeois group. He was often involved infistfights and sometimes in sword-duels. He carried a

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stiletto knife (somewhat similar to our gupti knives),for which he was once arrested and had a police caseput on him. He was also sentenced to one day in theuniversity’s student prison on charges of “nightlyuproarious disturbances of the peace anddrunkenness”. Marx, in one sword-duel was eveninjured on his right eyebrow. This led to his fatherwithdrawing him from the Bonn University andbringing him back to Trier in August 1836.

While he was in Trier he got secretly  engaged toJenny von Westphalen, the daughter of Baron vonWestphalen a nobleman and senior Prussiangovernment official. Jenny, who was four years elderto him, and Marx, were childhood loves who haddecided to get married while Marx was still in school.They now got engaged with the approval of Marx’parents, but without Jenny’s parents approval, whichwas only obtained in 1837.

In October 1836 Marx moved to the  University  ofBerlin, which was the capital of Prussia. Theuniversity was much larger than Bonn and wasrenowned as a major centre of learning. Afterregistering for his University courses, Marximmediately jumped into a storm of work. He stayedup night after night, eating irregularly, smokingheavily, reading heavy books and filling up notebooks.Instead of formal classes Marx pursued his studies onhis own. Working at a tremendous pace he movedfrom law to philosophy to poetry to art and then to

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writing plays and stories and then back to philosophyand poetry. His overwork had a bad effect of hishealth, particularly his tobacco affected lungs, and hesometimes was forced to take a break. But he wasalways back to his excessive work habits, reading upeverything, from the ancient to the latest works ofscientists and philosophers. His bent was towardsphilosophy, always trying to find universal meaning;always searching for the absolute in principles,definitions and concepts.

During his second year at the University he joined agroup of philosophy students and teacherscalled Young Hegelians. They were followers of thefamous German philosopher, Frederick Hegel, whohad taught at Berlin University and died in 1830. Theytried to give a radical interpretation to Hegel’sphilosophy and for this were sometimes called  LeftHegelians. One of Marx’ friends in this group, itsintellectual leader, was a professor called Bruno Bauerwho was a militant atheist who constantly attackedthe church’s teachings. Such attacks, along with theradical political views of the  Young Hegelians, madethem a target of the Prussian authorities. Thus whenMarx completed his doctoral thesis he could notobtain his degree from the Berlin University, whichwas dominated by reactionary appointees of thePrussian government. After completing his studies inBerlin, he submitted his thesis and obtained his Ph.D.in April 1841 from the liberal leaning University ofJena that was outside Prussian control.

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After obtaining his degree he had hoped to become alecturer at the Bonn University where Bruno Bauerhad shifted to in 1839. But Bauer himself was introuble because of the student disturbances his anti-religion lectures were causing. Finally the Kinghimself ordered the removal of Bauer from the BonnUniversity. This meant the end to Bauer’s teachingcareer as well as any hope of a teaching job for Marx.

Marx started concentrating on  journalism, which hehad already started immediately after leavingUniversity. This also helped him to participate morethoroughly in the rapidly  growing radicaldemocratic opposition movement then developing inhis Rhineland province and the neighbouring provinceof Westphalia. These provinces which had experiencedthe liberating influence of the French anti- feudalreforms were major centres of opposition to thePrussian king. Industrialisation had also led to thegrowth of the bourgeoisie, particularly in Cologne,the richest city of the Rhineland. This meant strongsupport for this radical opposition movement by theindustrialists, who were fed up with the excessivecontrols of the feudals.

Marx first started writing for, and then, in October1842, became the  chief editor of  The RheinischeZeitung,  a daily newspaper supported by suchindustrialists.  In Marx’ hands the newspaper soonbecame a fighter for radical democratic rights. Thishowever brought Marx into constant conflict with the

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Prussian censors who were very repressive. Finally,when the paper published a criticism of the RussianCzar’s despotism, the Czar himself brought pressureon the Prussian King to take action. The paper wasbanned and had to be closed down in March 1843.Marx then started involving himself in a plan to bringout a new journal The German-French Yearbooks.

During this period, from 1841 to 1843, Marx wasdeeply involved in the stormy political life of thatperiod. However he was basically a radicaldemocrat and did not at that time hold communistviews.  At the level of philosophy his majortransformation during this period was in 1841 afterreading a book The Essence of Christianity by LudwigFeuerbach which presented a criticism of religionfrom the standpoint of materialism. This book playeda major role in shifting Marx’ ideas from the idealismof the Young Hegelian group to materialism. Anotherphilosophical work of 1841 (The EuropeanTriarchy) that influenced Marx was the attempt by hisfriend, Moses Hess, to develop a communistphilosophy by combining French socialist and  LeftHegelian ideas.

However at that time Marx yet had only a limitedknowledge of the ideas of the socialists andcommunists. His first contact was in 1842 when heread with interest the works of many of the leadingFrench socialist theorists.  He was however notconverted to communism or socialism by these

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readings. This change came about more throughhis contact with working class communist groupsand study of political economy, both of which tookplace mainly after moving to Paris at the end of1843.

Seven years after their engagement, Marx and Jennywere married in June 1843. They had a shorthoneymoon in Switzerland during which Marx wrotea booklet where he presented his initial criticisms ofHegel. After the honeymoon he started the study andpreparations for moving to Paris from where theearlier mentioned  German-French Yearbooks  was tobe brought out. This move to Paris was planned inorder to avoid the Prussian censors. However, thoughthe journal was planned as a monthly, it collapsedafter only one issue that came out in February 1844.

Marx’ period in  Paris was however marked by verysignificant new experiences. Of the greatestimportance was direct contact with the varioussocialist and communist groups of which Paris was ahot centre. Besides meeting a large number oftheoreticians and revolutionaries Marx benefitedgreatly by  regular contact with the many workingclass revolutionaries in Paris. At the same time Marxstarted a study of political economy in which he readmost of the works of the famous English economists.The revolutionary contacts and further study hadtheir impact. These were reflected in Marx’ writings.

The only issue of the Yearbooks was of crucial

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importance because it contained  Marx’ first broadgeneralisation of a Marxist materialistunderstanding of history that was contained in anarticle criticising Hegel’s philosophy. It was in thisarticle that Marx made the highly importantformulation regarding the historical role of theproletariat. He also here made his famous formulationthat religion is the opium of the people. The sameissue also contained an article by Engels on politicaleconomy, which also gave a materialistunderstanding regarding the development ofmodern capitalism.

It was Marx’ interest in Engels’ writings that led totheir meeting in Paris between August 28 andSeptember 6 1844.This turned out to be a historicmeeting that helped the two great thinkers toclarify their ideas and lay the first foundations ofMarxism. Though they had both independentlycome to similar conclusions earlier, this meetinghelped them to achieve complete theoreticalagreement. It was at this meeting that they moreclearly came to an understanding regarding thematerialist conception of history, which was thecornerstone of Marxist theory.

Frederick Engels was born on 28th  November 1820in the textile town of Barmen in the Rhine province ofPrussia. His father was the wealthy owner of a cotton-spinning mill and was a fiercely religious ProtestantChristian with a reactionary political outlook.

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Barmen, like Marx’ Trier, also belonged to the part ofPrussia which had seen twenty years of Frenchconquest. It thus also had progressive influences on it.However its main characteristic was that it was one ofthe biggest Rhenish industrial centres. Thus Engelsfrom a very early age saw the severe poverty andexploitation of the working class. To survive againstfactory competition craftsmen were forced to workfrom morning to night. Often they tried to drowntheir sorrows in drink. Child labour and occupationallung diseases were rampant.

Engels attended the Barmen town school till the age of14. He was then sent to the gymnasium at theneighbouring town of Elberfeld (today both Barmenand Elberfeld are merged into one town).This  gymnasium (secondary school)  had thereputation of being one of the best in Prussia. He wasan intelligent student with an early flair for learninglanguages. He was also part of a poetry circle amongthe students and wrote his own poetry and shortstories. He was planning to study economy and lawbut his father was more interested in making his eldestson learn the family business. At the age of 17 he wassuddenly removed from school and made to join as anapprentice in his father’s office.

Though this was the end of Engels’ formal schoolinghe continued to use his free time to study history,philosophy, literature and linguistics and to writepoetry, which he was attracted to. The next year, in

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July 1838, Engels was sent to  work as a clerk  in alarge trading firm in the large port city of Bremen.The big city atmosphere brought Engels in contactwith foreign literature and the press. In leisure hestarted reading fiction and political books. Hecontinued learning new languages and besides Germangot some knowledge of Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish,Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, etc. This abilityto learn languages continued throughout Engels’ lifeduring which he learnt to be quite fluent in over 20languages including Persian and Arabic. Also inBremen, Engels became a good horseman, swimmer,swordsman and skater.

While at school itself Engels had been a fighter againstbureaucracy. Now as a grown youth he was attractedto the radical democratic ideas  of the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution then taking shape in Germany.The first group he was attracted towards wasthe  Young Germany  literary group  that stood forradical political views. He soon started writing for ajournal being brought out by them from the port cityof Hamburg, not far from Bremen. He wrote twoarticles on the situation in his home district. Heexposed the severe exploitation of the workers inBarmen and Elberfeld, the diseases suffered by them,and the fact that half the children of the town weredeprived of school and forced to work in the factories.He particularly attacked the hollowness of thereligiosity of the exploitative industrialists (whichincluded his own father).

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Towards the end of 1839 he started a study of Hegel,whose philosophy he tried to link with his ownradical democratic beliefs. However he only madefurther progress in this when he finished his clerkshipin Bremen in 1841, and, after a few months gap,moved to Berlin for one year’s compulsory militaryservice.

While in  military service  he joinedthe Berlin University as an external student and did acourse in philosophy. He then became closelyconnected with the Young Hegelian group whichMarx had been part of. He, like Marx, was alsoinfluenced greatly by the materialist views inFeurbach’s book that came out in that year. Engels’writings now started to have some materialist aspects.The main thing he always stressed was political action.This was what made him split, in 1842, from hisearlier Young German group, which he felt restricteditself only to empty literary debate. He howevercontinued to strongly be linked with the  YoungHegelians, particularly Bruno Bauer and his brother.

It was this closeness of Engels with the Bauers thatprevented a friendship with Marx, when they met forthe first time in November 1842. Engels at that timehad finished his military service and was on his wayfrom his hometown to join as a clerk in his father’sbusiness in Manchester, in England. On the way hevisited Marx at the newspaper office in Colognewhere Marx was then the chief editor. Marx, by then,

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had however started criticising Young Hegelians, andparticularly the Bauers, for concentrating theirpropaganda too much on religion rather than politics.Hence Marx and Engels, having different politicalaffiliations, could not come close at this, their firstmeeting.

It was Engels’ experiences in England that madehim a communist. He developed  very close linkswith the workers of Manchester, as well as theleaders of the revolutionary workers Chartistmovement.  Manchester was the main centre of theworld’s modern textile industry and soon Engelsundertook an in-depth study of the working andliving conditions of its workers. He would regularlyvisit the working class areas to gain direct knowledge.In this process a  love grew between him and MaryBurns, young Irish factory worker, who wouldlater become his companion and wife. Besidescollecting material for his future book on theconditions of the working class in England, Engelscame to understand the revolutionary potential of theproletariat. His regular participation in the movementconvinced him that the working class was not merelya suffering class, but a fighting class whoserevolutionary actions would build the future.

Besides working class contact, Engels also made a deepstudy of the various socialist and communisttheories  and even met many of the French andGerman leaders and writers who had formulated these

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theories. Though he did not adopt any of thesetheories, he made an analysis of their positive andnegative points. At the same time he started a  deepstudy of bourgeois political economy. This was inorder to help him analyse the economic relations ofsociety, which he had started feeling was the basis ofall social change. The initial results of his study he putdown in his article that was published by Marx in hisjournal brought out from Paris. As we havementioned earlier, this led to correspondence betweenMarx and Engels and their historic meeting in 1844.

Engels was then on his way back from Manchester tohis hometown Barmen, when he stopped on the wayto meet Marx who was then staying in Paris. Theirdiscussions helped Marx to better formulate thematerialist understanding of history which they hadboth started believing in. They also, at this meeting,started work on their first joint book, which was anattack on Bruno Bauer and the Young Hegelian group,which they had both earlier belonged to.

Engels spent the next eight months doing intensivecommunist propaganda and organisational work inGermany. During this period he was in  constantrevolt against his father who opposed his communistwork and tried to get him to work in his factory.After just two weeks at his father’s office Engelsrejected it completely and left Barmen to join Marx.Marx by that time had again become the target offeudal authorities. The Prussian King had brought

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pressure on the French King, who expelled Marx fromParis. Marx was forced to move to Brussels in Belgiumalong with his wife and eight-month-old child. This iswhere Engels came and set up house right next toMarx’s house.

Marx in the meantime had done deep work andhad developed the main features of the new worldoutlook,  which they had discussed at their earliermeeting. In Brussels both Marx and Engels startedintensive joint work. This was, as Engels said, todevelop the new outlook in all possible directions.The result was  the historic book,  The GermanIdeology, which however only got published almost ahundred years later.  The main purpose served thisbook served at that time was for the two greatthinkers to self – clarify regarding their oldunderstanding and set up the pillars of the newworld outlook, which later came to be known asMarxism. Marx and Engels had become Marxists!

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Chapter 5

The Three Sources of Marxism

From the earlier account of the early life of Marx andEngels it is clear that they were both veryextraordinary and brilliant men. However, it is alsovery clear that Marxism was not some invention thatsuddenly emerged from the thoughts of thesemagnificent brains.  The socioeconomic changes ofthat time provided the basis for the emergence ofthe true proletarian ideology. The actual contentand the form of that ideology, however, were theproduct of the struggles waged in the mostimportant fields of thought of that time. Marx andEngels being deep intellectuals had a wide and deepgrasp of the latest advancement of thought in the mostadvanced countries of the period. They, thus, couldstand on the shoulders of the great thinkers beforethem, absorbing whatever was good, and rejectingwhat was wrong in them. And it was thus that theybuilt the structure and content of Marxism.

Let us see which were the main fields of thoughts onwhich they based their ideas. Thus therefore we canalso understand the main sources of Marxism.

1) The first source of Marxist thought was  GermanClassical Philosophy.  Any ideology has to have itsgrounding in some philosophy and both Marx andEngels, as we have seen, had a strong base in Germanclassical philosophy.

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German philosophy had, during the period 1760 to1830, grown to become the most influential school inEuropean philosophy. It had its base in the Germanmiddle classes. This class was intellectually veryadvanced but had not developed the political strengthto make revolution, or the economic resources tomake an Industrial Revolution. This was whatprobably inclined them towards elaborate systems ofthought.

However, this class, having many civil servants, hadmany contradictory aspects. It sometimes leant to theindustrial bourgeoisie and proletariat on the one sideand sometimes to the feudal classes on the other. Thiswas thus reflected in German philosophy having botha progressive as well as an anti-progressive aspect. Thiswas particularly seen in Hegel’s philosophy uponwhich Marx and Engels largely basedthemselves.  They therefore rejected all the anti-progressive aspects that upheld the existing feudalsociety, and developed upon the progressive andrevolutionary parts, to lay the foundations ofMarxist philosophy.

2)  English Political Economy  was the secondimportant source of Marxism. England being thecentre of the Industrial Revolution it was but naturalthat the study of the economy and its laws shouldreach its peak in this country. It was a new field ofstudy, which basically started with the growth ofmodern capitalism. It had its firm basis in the modern

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industrial bourgeoisie and played the role of justifyingand glorifying capitalism. It also provided theintellectual arguments for the rising bourgeoisie in itsstruggles with the feudals.

In England its period started with the publication in1776 of the world famous book  The Wealth ofNations, by Adam Smith. He basically argued that ifcapitalism were given the fullest freedom to grow itwould lead to the greatest progress of humanity. Hethus provided the argument for the reduction ofcontrols of any sort by the feudals on the capitalistclass. David Ricardo was another famous classicaleconomist who played a crucial role in the battles ofthe bourgeoisie with the landlords. He was the onewho pointed out that as capitalism progressed theaverage rate of profit of the capitalists fell. His verysignificant discovery was the development of thelabour theory of value, which showed that alleconomic value is created by labour. Other latereconomists analysed the causes of economic crisesunder capitalism.

English political economy basically served theinterests of the industrial bourgeoisie. It thereforeplayed a revolutionary role against the feudal classes.However the economists very often did not carryforward their analysis beyond the point where it hurtbourgeois class interests. Thus, for example, Ricardo,though he developed the labour theory of value, didnot expose the exploitation of labour by the capitalist

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class. This was done by Marx. He took ahead thework of the English economists beyond the limitsof the capitalist class and drew the necessaryrevolutionary conclusions from them. It was thusthat Marx developed the principles of Marxistpolitical economy.

3)  The third source of Marxism was thevarious  socialist theories, which mainly originatedfrom France.  These theories represented the hopesand aims of the newly emerging proletariat class. Theywere both a reflection of, as well as a protest againstcapitalist exploitation and oppression of the workingclass. France at that time was the main centre forrevolutionary groups and revolutionary theory, whichinspired the whole of Europe. It was therefore naturalthat socialist theories too mainly came out of France.

Most of these theories had major defects, as they werenot based on a proper scientific analysis of society.Nevertheless, they represented a break with theindividualism, self-interest and competition ofbourgeois revolutionary theory. They also pointed theway forward for the proletariat from capitalist society.Marx thus made a study of these theories of socialismand communism before formulating the Marxistprinciples of scientific socialism. While in Paris, hespent a considerable amount of time with the leadersand members of the numerous French revolutionaryand socialist groups.  Marx took what was best insocialism and gave it the scientific basis of the

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doctrine of class struggle. He thus developed theprinciples of Marxist scientific socialism.

This then is the story of how Marxism emerged fromthe three great sources of ideas in the then mostadvanced countries of the world.  The three Sourcesof Marxism – German philosophy, English politicaleconomy and French socialist theories –corresponded to the three main component parts ofthe new ideology – Marxist philosophy ofdialectical materialism, Marxist political economyand Marxist theory of scientific socialism. In thefollowing pages we will try to understand the essenceof each of these parts.

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Chapter 6

The Basic Formulations of Marxist Philosophy :Dialectical and Historical Materialism

As we have repeatedly seen earlier, Marx and Engelsalways insisted that all  philosophy should bepractical  and linked to the real world. This wasexpressed in the most clear manner by Marx in hisfamous saying, “The philosophers have alwaysinterpreted the world in various ways; the point,however, is to change it.” By this, Marx meant that hedid not want to become a philosopher like our rishisand munnis sitting on some mountain and meditatingregarding supernatural things. He did not see muchpoint in thinking and contemplation unless it waslinked to the practical world. His basic search was totry to understand how the world was changing andthus to participate in actual practice and changetoday’s world and society. He thus was interested in aphilosophy that would be applied in social practice.

In order to do this Marx had to take a stand withregards to the basic division in all philosophy –  thedivision between idealism and materialism.  Thisdivision is regarding the basic question as to, which isprimary – spirit or nature. Those who take the standthat spirit is primary belong to the camp of idealism,whereas those who take the stand that nature isprimary belong to the camp of materialism. Idealismis always connected in one way or other toreligion.  Being men of practice, who were

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absolutely opposed to religious beliefs, it was butnatural that Marx and Engels established Marxistphilosophy firmly in the camp of materialism.

In doing so they were definitely influenced and aidedby the writings of Feuerbach and other materialistphilosophers of that time. However thesephilosophers were  mechanical materialists  whounderstood nature and society to be like a machineturning round and round without any development orreal change.  Marx rejected mechanical materialismbecause it did not give any understanding ofhistorical change and development.

For this Marx had to turn to dialectics, which is thescience of the general laws of motion. The essenceof dialectics is that it understands things in theirinter-connections and contradictions. Dialectics thuswas able to provide the science of development thatMarx knew was necessary to change the world.

At that time Hegel’s philosophy and laws of dialectics(which Marx studied deeply) were the most advancedin Europe. But Hegel had developed his philosophicallaws in an idealist way by only making themapplicable to the field of thought. He belonged to thecamp of idealism and refused to recognise that natureand material social being are primary, and spirit andideas are secondary. He thus did not accept that hissystem of thought itself was a product of thedevelopment of human society to a definite stage. Herefused to understand that his laws of thought were

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themselves reflections of the laws of nature andsociety. Thus, as Marx said, Hegel’s dialectics, bybeing idealist, was standing on its head – that means itwas absurd and illogical. Marx turned Hegel’sdialectics the right side up – that means he made itrational – by putting it on the basis ofmaterialism. Marx took Hegel’s dialectical laws andgave them the approach of materialist philosophy.He thus made Hegel’s laws of thought also intolaws of nature and society. He thus formulatedDialectical Materialism, which is the essence ofMarxist philosophy.

By giving dialectics a rational and materialist basisMarx changed it into a philosophy of revolution.Marx and Engels applied dialectical materialism to thestudy of society and history and thus discovered thematerialist conception of history.  The materialistconception of history was a new and revolutionaryway of understanding society and social change. Itexplained the basis of social changes and politicalrevolutions not as an invention of some brilliantmen’s brains but as the product of the processeswithin society.  It showed all revolutionaries that thepath to social change lay in understanding society andaccordingly formulating the ideas to bring aboutchange.

The starting point of the materialist conception ofhistory is the level of development of  the materialproductive forces i.e. tools, machinery, skills,

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etc.  Marx says that according to the stage in thedevelopment of the productive forces we getdefinite  relations of production i.e. relations ofownership and control over the means ofproduction. Thus, for example, backward productiveforces like the wooden plough, and wind, hand andanimal operated mills give us feudal relations; modernproductive forces like tractors, harvesters, etc., whenthey are widespread, give rise to capitalist relations ofproduction. These relations of production constitutethe economic structure of society, or the economicbase of society.

On top of the economic base of society arises  alegal and political superstructure with definiteforms of social consciousness.  Further, Marx saysthat it is the mode of production (consisting of theproductive forces and relations of production) thatconditions the social, political and intellectual lifein general.  Thus, for example, the feudal mode ofproduction gives rise to very severe oppression onwomen and lower castes and a very undemocraticpolitical system; the capitalist mode of production, onthe other hand, reduces social oppression and bringssome bourgeois democratic rights.

At a certain stage in the development of theproductive forces they come into conflict with theexisting relations of production. These old relations ofproduction start preventing the development of theproductive forces. Unless these production relations

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are changed the productive forces cannotdevelop.  This period when the relations ofproduction start acting as chains on thedevelopment of the productive forces is thebeginning of the epoch of social revolution.Revolution is needed to change the relations ofproduction i.e. the relation between the variousclasses in society. Once this happens and therelations of production or property relations arebroken i.e. the economic base is changed, then thechange in the whole superstructure follows quitequickly.

This materialist conception of history was the firstgreat discovery of Marx, which he accomplished in1844-45. It was the foundation on which the othergreat pillars of Marxist theory were built.

In later years Marx and Engels, and the other MarxistTeachers further developed Marxist philosophy.However its essence remained the basic principles ofdialectical and historical materialism mentionedabove.

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Chapter 7

Struggle Against Utopian Socialism and theEstablishment of Scientific Socialism

Utopian socialism  is the term used to describe themain trends of pre-Marxist socialism, which aroseand became prominent in the first half of thenineteenth century.  The terms ‘utopians’ (derivedfrom the idea of Utopia, which is supposed to be astate of things where everything is perfect) and‘socialist’ became popular first in the 1830s.  Theywere used to describe a group of thinkers whodeveloped theories to transform society on a moreegalitarian basis by removing the individualism,selfishness and competitiveness in humannature. Many of these thinkers or their followers triedto implement their theories by setting up idealcommunities where all the members worked, livedand shared the fruits of their labour on a cooperativebasis. They believed that such ideal communitieswould provide the example that would then befollowed by the rest of society. They thus did not relyon the actual processes in society for building theirschemes of socialism. Rather they thought that therationality of their plans and ideas itself was sufficientto convince people and change society.

Utopian socialism was first and foremost a reaction tothe oppression and exploitation of the working classunder capitalism. The working people had foughtbitterly for the overthrow of feudalism. However the

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bourgeoisie’s slogans of freedom, equality andfraternity had only meant freedom for the capitalistclass and intensified exploitation of the workers. Thevarious socialist doctrines arose as a result of theemerging class contradictions between thecapitalists and workers and as a protest againstexploitation. They attempted to build a system thatwould provide justice to the toilers.

The anarchy of capitalist production was anothercause for the new socialist theories.  The utopiansocialists attempted to build rational systems thatwould provide for the needs of humankind in anorderly and harmonious fashion. Some of them eventried to convince capitalists and government officialsthat their socialist systems where much more rational,planned, and therefore desirable than the existingcapitalist system. They even thus attempted to getfunds from the rich for their projects.

The main defect of pre-Marxist socialist doctrineswas that they did not have a real basis in the classcontradictions and class struggles unfolding insociety.  Though their ideas were themselves theproduct of the class contradictions within society, theutopian socialists did not realise that it was absolutelynecessary to wage the class struggle in order to achievesocialism. Though their ideas were in reality areflection of the aspirations of the infantproletariat,  the utopian socialists did not recognisethe central importance of the revolutionary role of

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the proletariat in bringing about socialism.

When Marx and Engels came into contact with thesocialist and communist groups they started trying toconvince the followers of the utopian socialist theoriesof the incorrectness of their ideas. They participatedintensively in the debates in the various revolutionaryand working class groups where these theories andideas were being discussed. Their main aim was to givea scientific basis to socialist theory. For this they hadto expose the defects and wrong understanding of theearlier socialists and place socialism on the sound basisof the Marxist theory of class struggle.

As Marx himself pointed out the theory of classstruggle was not something new invented by him. Infact the earlier socialists and even bourgeois writerswere quite conscious about and wrote about classesand class struggle. However  the essential differenceof the Marxist theory of class struggle is that itshowed how the class struggle led inevitably tosocialism and communism.

Marx first of all showed that classes are not somethingthat have always existed in human society. He showedthat there was a long period in human history whenthere were no classes at all (i.e. during primitivecommunism). There would also be a period in thefuture when there would again be noclasses.  Secondly  Marx particularly analysed thepresent day class struggle between the bourgeoisie andthe proletariat and showed how this class struggle

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would inevitably lead to revolution by the workersand the establishment of the dictatorship of theproletariat i.e. socialism.  Thirdly, Marx pointed outthat this dictatorship of the proletariat was itself aperiod of transition to a new society. The proletariatcould only develop by destroying itself as a class, byabolishing all classes and establishing a classless societyi.e. communism.

It is this theory of class struggle that Marx and Engelsdeveloped, propagated and brought into practicethroughout their lives.  It is this Marxist theory ofclass struggle that converted socialism into ascience, which laid the basis of scientific socialism.With this, socialism was no longer to be seen as theproduct of some brilliant mind, but it became thenecessary outcome of the struggle between twohistorically developed classes – the proletariat andthe bourgeoisie. Because of scientific socialism thetask of the socialists did not become one of trying todevelop the most perfect, harmonious and rationalsystem of society like the utopian socialists had triedto do. Under scientific socialism the task was toanalyse society, to analyse the history and economicbasis of the class contradictions in society, and fromthis economic basis to find the way to end all classconflict and bring socialism and communism.

The scientific clarity of Marxist socialist theory was sogreat that most sincere elements in the varioussocialist and communist organisations of the 1840s

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soon rejected the pre-Marxist and non-class varieties ofsocialism. Marx and Engels soon became ideologicalleaders within the socialist movement. When a newinternational organisation was formed in 1847 unitingworkers, intellectuals and revolutionary socialistgroups of various countries they at once became itsleaders. They suggested its name,  The CommunistLeague, and it was they who were appointed to draftits programme. This programme is the worldhistoric Communist Manifesto.

The Communist Manifesto was not only the firstprogramme and general line of the internationalproletariat. It also laid down the basic principles ofscientific socialism and the approach to all othertypes of socialism.  With its quick translation intonumerous languages, the Manifesto soon spread thebasic ideas of Marxist scientific socialism throughoutEurope and then throughout the world.  The basicprinciples outlined in this document have inessence remained firm for more than 150 years,upto this day.

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Chapter 8

Marxist Political Economy

As we have seen earlier Marx developed his principlesof political economy in continuation of and inopposition to the bourgeois political economy of theEnglish economists. Most of Marx’ earlier economicwritings from 1844 to 1859 were in the form of acritique of bourgeois political economy. He counteredthe claims of the bourgeois political economists thatcapitalism was a permanent and universal system. Onthe other hand he proved that capitalism could existonly for a limited period and was destined to beoverthrown and replaced by a new and higher socialsystem. His later economic analysis, particularly thevarious volumes of  his main work,  Capital,concentrated on discovering the economic laws ofcapitalism. The in-depth analysis of the relations ofproduction in capitalist society, in their origin,development and decline, thus forms the maincontent of Marx’ political economy.

Bourgeois political economists always made theiranalysis in the form of a relation between things i.e.the exchange of one commodity for another.  Marxhowever showed that economics deals not withthings but with relations between persons, and inthe last resort between classes.

Since under capitalism it is the production ofcommodities that dominates,  Marx started his

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analysis with an analysis of the commodity. Hepointed out that the exchange of commodities wasnot a mere exchange of things but actually anexpression of the relation between individualproducers in society who have been linked by themarket. Though commodity exchange has existed forthousands of years, it is only with the development ofmoney and the birth of capitalism that it reaches itspeak linking up the entire economic life of millions ofindividual producers throughout society into onewhole. Capitalism even converts the labour power ofthe worker into a commodity that is bought and soldfreely in the market place.

The wageworker sells his labour power to the ownerof the means of production, i.e. the capitalist. Theworker spends one part of his working day producingthe equivalent of his wage, i.e. producing what isnecessary to cover the cost of maintaining himself andhis family. The other part of his working day is spentproducing for the maintenance and growth of thecapitalist. The worker gets absolutely no paymentfrom this production which is for the capitalist. Thisadditional value which every worker produces, overand above the value necessary to earn his wage andmaintain himself, Marx called surplus value. It isthe source of profit and the source of wealth of thecapitalist class.

The discovery of the concept of surplus valueexposed the nature of exploitation of the working

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class.  It also brought out the source of theantagonism between the proletariat and thebourgeoisie. This class antagonism was theprincipal manifestation of the fundamentalcontradiction of capitalist society: the contradictionbetween the social character of production and theprivate character of ownership.  This discovery ofsurplus value was referred to by Engels as the secondimportant discovery of Marx  (along with thediscovery of the materialist conception ofhistory). Lenin called the doctrine of surplus valueas the corner stone of Marx’ economic theory.

Marx also analysed in detail the periodic economiccrises that repeatedly affected capitalism.  Heexplained capitalist crises also as anothermanifestation of the fundamental contradiction ofcapitalism. He thus exposed the falsehood of thebourgeois economists who at that time propagatedthat capitalism could not face any crisis, as theoperation of the market would solve all problems.They tried to present that whatever was produced bythe capitalist would automatically be sold in themarket place.

Marx however exposed that the nature of the workingof capitalism itself would lead inevitably to crisis. Heshowed how capitalists in their desperate urge to earnmore and more profits went on madly increasingproduction. However at the same time every capitalisttried to maintain a higher rate of profit by cutting the

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wage rates of his workers and throwing them intopoverty. The working class composes the largestsection in society and the poverty of the working classautomatically means the reduction of their capacity tobuy the goods available in the market. Thus on theone hand the capitalist class goes on increasing theproduction of goods being supplied to the market,whereas on the other hand it goes on reducing thebuying capacity of a large section of the buyers in thevery same market.  This naturally leads to a severecontradiction between the expansion of productionon one hand and the contraction of the market onthe other hand. The result is a crisis ofoverproduction where the market is flooded withunsold goods. Numerous capitalists are thrown intobankruptcy. Lakhs (100,000s) of workers are thrownout of their jobs and forced into starvation at the sameas the shops are filled with goods that remainedunused because there is no one to buy them.

Marx further concluded that the anarchy of thesecrises of capitalism could only be resolved byresolving the fundamental contradiction ofcapitalism between the social character ofproduction and the private character of ownership.This could only be done by overthrowing thecapitalist system and establishing socialism andcommunism, and thus giving a social character tothe ownership of the means of production. Marxshowed that the social force that would bring aboutthis revolution had been created by capitalism

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itself; it was the proletariat class. It was theproletariat alone who had no interest in continuingthe present system of exploitation and privateownership. It alone had the interest and capacity toestablish socialism.

Marx analysed how every crisis intensified thecontradictions of the capitalist system. He describedthe process with each crisis of centralisation of capitalinto the hands of a smaller and smaller handful ofcapitalists. This proceeded alongside the immensegrowth in the misery and discontent of the vast massof workers. As the contradictions of capitalismsharpened, the revolutionary upheavals of theproletariat grew in strength, finally resulting inrevolution, the confiscation of the capital of thecapitalists and the building of a socialist society with asocial character of ownership suited to the socialcharacter of production.

In this way, Marx, starting from the economy’smost basic unit – the commodity – brings out thenature of the economic laws governing capitalism.He thus exposes the scientific economic basis forthe socialist revolution and the road tocommunism.

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Chapter 9

Marxism Fuses Its Links with the Working Class

As we saw earlier Marx and Engels were deeplyinvolved in the revolutionary communist groups ofthe eighteen forties. They thus came to lead theCommunist League which was an international bodyuniting the revolutionaries of various Europeancountries. They also drafted its programme –the  Communist Manifesto  –, which acquired worldhistoric significance. However at that time – in 1848 –the influence of Marxism had yet to reach the vastworking class masses.  The influence ofthe  Communist League  was limited and it consistedmainly of exiled workers and intellectuals. In fact  atthat time Marxism was just one of the many trendsof socialism.

The 1848 Revolution, which spread insurrectionthroughout the European continent, was  the firstmajor historical event where Marxism proved itselfin practice. Marx and Engels were in Brussels whenthe Revolution first broke out in France. The Belgiangovernment fearing the spread of the Revolutionimmediately expelled Marx from Brussels and forcedhim to leave for Paris where he was soon joined byEngels. However as the revolutionary wave spread toGermany, both decided to immediately move there inorder to directly participate in the revolutionaryevents.

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There they tried to consolidate the work of theCommunist League and the workers’ associations.They brought out a daily newspaper, the  NeueRheinische Zeitung,  which served as an organ ofpropagation of the revolutionary line. The newspapertook a line in support of radical bourgeoisdemocracy as the completion of the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution was then the main task inGermany. However the paper simultaneouslyserved as the organiser of the emergingrevolutionary proletarian party in Germany. Marxand Engels even tried to form a mass workers’ partyby uniting the workers’ associations of variousprovinces of Germany. The paper lasted for one year.With the collapse of the revolution in Germany andother parts of Europe, the paper was forced to closedown and Marx was expelled by the Prussian King.He retreated to Paris but had to soon leave from theretoo because of persecution by the French authorities.Engels continued in Germany fighting as a soldier inthe revolutionary armies till the very end. Aftermilitary defeat, he escaped, and towards the end of1849, joined Marx, who had by then settled inLondon. England then continued to be their centre tillthe end of their lives.

The defeat of the 1848 Revolution had spreadconfusion among the revolutionaries and proletarianactivists throughout Europe. Most of the earlierdominant trends of socialism could not provide anyproper understanding regarding the reasons for the

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course of events during the revolution. It was in suchan atmosphere that  Marx took up the task ofexplaining the social forces behind the initialvictory and later defeat of the Revolution.  SinceFrance was the centre and principal starting point ofboth the upsurge and decline of the revolution, Marxconcentrated his analysis on the French events. Thishe did through his brilliant works, The Class Strugglesin France, 1848 to 1850 and the Eighteenth Brumaireof Louis Bonaparte. They were Marx’ first attempts toexplain current historical events by means of thematerialist conception of history. He analysed withcomplete clarity the class forces behind each of themajor turns and twists in the revolution.  He thusprovided the class basis for revolutionaryproletarian tactics. By exposing the role of variousclasses at various stages, he showed who were thefriends and enemies of the revolution and thereforethe approach of the proletariat to each of them.

In the following period, Marx continued his writingson all the major political events throughout the world.In all these writings he presented a clear perspectivefrom a proletarian viewpoint. This distinguished themfrom all other varieties of socialism, which provedincapable of providing real answers to thecontinuously changing world situation. It clearlyestablished the superiority of Marxism over otherbrands of socialism as a practical tool forunderstanding and changing the world.

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Simultaneously, Marx and Engels worked energeticallyto unite the weak and fragmented organisations of theworking class. The Communist League, which had itsmain centre in Germany, faced severe repression fromthe Prussian police. Many of its members in Germanywere put behind bars and the organisation itself wasfinally dissolved in November 1852. During the longperiod of reaction after the failure of the 1848Revolution Marx and Engels tried continuously toreorganise and revive the working class movement.Besides writing and publishing their worksextensively, they maintained constant contact with theworking class organisations in various countries,particularly England, France and Germany. Theirconstant attempt was to form an internationalorganisation of the working class and to set upseparate parties of the proletariat in the industriallydeveloped countries.

The main work in this respect was done by Marx. Heworked throughout this period under very difficultconditions. After having been driven out by thegovernments of various countries, even after Marxsettled in London he was under constant surveillanceof the secret police, particularly of Prussia. Besides thepolitical repression Marx’ economic situation wasalways very bad. Due to the poor and disorganisedstate of the revolutionary working class movement atthat time it was unable to support him as a full-timer.Thus his only source of earnings was the smallpayment per article which he got for writing for a

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large American newspaper  The New York Tribune.This was of course totally insufficient for Marx’ largefamily. They thus faced constant poverty, debt andeven starvation. Many a time things from the househad to be pawned to provide for food. Marx had sixchildren but only three survived beyond childhood.When his baby daughter died the burial had to bedelayed for a few days till some money was collectedfor the burial. Marx himself faced constant seriousillnesses, which he had to struggle against to completehis work.

Throughout all these economic difficulties the mainsupport for the Marx family was Engels. After thefailure of the 1848 Revolution Engels had been forcedto take up a job in his father’s Manchester firm. Heworked there for twenty years, first as a clerk and thenfor the last five years as a partner in the firm till 1869.During this period he had a substantial income, withwhich he would regularly help Marx.

Engels’ help however was not merely economic.Though he did not get much spare time because of hisjob he put in all efforts to continue study and helpMarx. They corresponded very regularly andconstantly exchanged ideas. Marx always consultedEngels on major questions, particularly on decisionsregarding the international working class movement.

Their efforts finally bore fruit in 1864 with theformation of the  International Workingmen’sAssociation – the First International.  Marx soon

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became its leader and was primarily responsible fordrawing up its first programme andconstitution.  The International’s programmehowever did not contain the strong words of theCommunist Manifesto. The First International, unlikethe Communist League, was not an organisationlimited to small groups of revolutionaries. In factmany of the sections of the International, especiallythose of England and France, representedorganisations with a vast mass following of workers.However, most of these organisations did not have aclear and correct understanding. Though they werecomposed predominantly of workers the level ofconsciousness was normally lower than that of theselected revolutionaries of the  Communist League.The programme and constitution thus had to beformulated keeping this in mind. The correct line hadto be presented in a manner acceptable to the memberorganisations of the International. Marx, with hisgreat ideological depth and practical organisationalexperience was at that time the only person capable ofthus drafting these documents and was therefore giventhis task. In subsequent years too, it was he, whodrafted all the most important documents of the FirstInternational.

It was thus Marxism alone that could provide theideological, political and organisational perspectivefor the  First International.  Implementation of thisperspective meant constant struggle against thevarious anarchist and opportunist trends that arose

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within the movement. Among other things theanarchists opposed a strong organisation whereas theopportunists opposed resolute struggle. Fighting bothdeviations, Marx and Engels worked to build theInternational into a mass organisation of struggle,uniting the workers in both Europe and America.This they largely succeeded in, doing leading at thesame time to the formation of independent proletarianparties in many of the industrialised countries of theworld.

By the time of the historic Paris Commune of 1871,Marxism had advanced very far from it’s positionat the time of the 1848 Revolution. Marxism nolonger remained as merely one of the trends ofsocialism. The earlier brands of Utopian Socialismhad been swept away by history and it wasMarxism alone that retained full practicalsignificance. Marxism also was no longer restrictedto small groups but had become a massphenomenon. Its influence extended to theproletarian movements in various industrialisedcountries. It provided the ideological leadership toindependent proletarian parties. It headed amassive proletarian movement, which had begun tochallenge the bourgeoisie. Marxism had fused itslinks with the vast working class masses.

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Chapter 10

The Lessons of the Paris Commune

The  Paris Commune  was the first time in historywhen the proletariat seized power and attempted toset up its own rule. The Commune could notconsolidate its rule and was crushed within a period of72 days. However its experience was of world historicsignificance. During its short existence it had provideda glimpse of the new society. Through both itspositive examples as well as its mistakes it hadprovided immensely valuable lessons for the workingclass of the world. Marx, in his role as leader of theFirst International, summarised the lessons of thisgreat experience for the international proletariat.

The background to the Paris Commune was providedby the Franco-German war of 1870-71. It started inJuly 1870 with the reactionary French EmperorNapoleon III ordering an attack on Prussia (whichwith other smaller provinces became Germany inJanuary 1871) because he mistakenly thought that thePrussians were in a weak position. His armies wererapidly defeated and Napoleon III himself surrenderedand was taken prisoner by the Prussians in September1870. Napoleon III’s surrender was followed by thesetting up of a Republic headed by a politician namedThiers. Thiers in March 1871 signed a peace treatywith the Germans. Paris however, which had beensurrounded by the Prussian army since September1870, did not submit to Thiers. It was in the control of

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the Paris National Guard, which was composedmainly of workers. On March 18th, 1871, Thiers senthis army to disarm the National Guard. There was arevolt in which two of the French army generals wereshot dead and the army was forced to retreat. Powerhad passed over into the hands of the National Guard,who, within a week, held elections and set up aCouncil consisting of 92 members. The Council,which had a large number of workers, became theorgan of government. It introduced numerousprogressive measures for the reorganisation of sociallife and the administration of the city and thus had thefull support of the whole working people. The ParisCommune was however a government under constantattack. Fearing the strength of the working class, theGerman and French oppressors had immediatelyjoined hands to crush the Commune. Germany evendirectly helped the Thiers government by releasing alarge section of the French army who had surrenderedand been taken prisoner in 1870. The Thiersgovernment strengthened by reinforcements thenlaunched a full-scale campaign to conquer Paris. Theworkers fought bravely but they were no match forthe well equipped professional army. After many daysof heroic fighting, resulting in thousands of martyrs,the Commune was crushed on May 28th, 1871. Evenafter the takeover over 30,000 Communards werebutchered in cold blood. Over 45,000 were court-martialed, of whom many were executed and otherssent to prison or to exile. It was as if the bourgeoisie

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was determined to teach an unforgettable lesson to theworkers lest they ever even dream of seizing poweragain.

The First International was at the peak of its popularappeal at the time of the Franco-Prussian war and theParis Commune. It had a wide struggle base amongthe workers and regularly provided guidance onpolitical questions. When the Franco-Prussian warbroke out Marx immediately brought out a documentin the name of the General Council of the  FirstInternational.  This document is one of the firstapplications of the Marxist tactical principlesregarding war. He called for international solidarityof the workers while putting the blame for the war onthe rulers of both France and Prussia. Due to thepropaganda of the International a strong spirit ofinternationalism existed among both German andFrench workers. In fact Bebel and WilhelmLiebknecht, two members of parliament and leaders ofthe German proletarian party who were Marxistmembers of the International were jailed by thePrussian government for voting in parliament againstwar credits.

In the initial period of the war Marx characterised it asa defensive war on the part of Germany because of thereactionary nature of the aggressive Napoleon IIIregime. He however predicted the fall of thisreactionary ruler. When this took place Marximmediately brought out a document which called on

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the German workers to oppose what had now becomea German war of conquest. He called for peace withFrance and recognition of the newly formed Republic.He characterised the Republic as being led by thefinance aristocracy and big bourgeoisie. He howeverfelt it would be premature to attempt to overthrow theRepublic and form a workers’ government. In factMarx firmly opposed any attempt at insurrection inParis. This was because the German enemy hadalready surrounded Paris and there was very littlechance of any insurrection surviving in suchcircumstances.

Despite Marx’ advice the activists of various anarchistand conspiratorial trends who had some following inParis made various attempts at organising an uprising.When the insurrection actually took place Marxdespite all his earlier opposition declared full andmilitant support for the Commune. He immediatelyrecognised its historic significance and sent hundredsof letters throughout the world trying to build upsupport. He through messengers kept contact with theCommunards sending advice to the Internationalistsin the Commune. Consulting Engels, who was anexpert in military matters he also sent adviceregarding the military defence of the Commune.Though the leadership of the Commune was in thehands of the members of other groups and trends, theMarxists within the Commune made all attempts tostrengthen its activities and defence. After the defeatof the Commune  the International  was the principal

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organisation which arranged for shelter and help togain jobs for the Communards who had to flee thebrutal repression of the French bourgeoisie.

Marx, who immediately hailed the Commune as anevent of immense historic significance, made an in-depth analysis trying to draw lessons from itsexperience. This work, The Civil War in France, waswritten during the Commune but could only bebrought out two days after the its fall.  It served topropagate its achievements and build the correctapproach to the Commune among revolutionariesand workers throughout the world.

Marx firstly highlighted the major positive andrevolutionary measures taken by the Commune,which he presented as the incubation of the newsociety. He pointed out the major political decisions asthe separation of the Church and the State, abolitionof subsidies to the Church, replacement of thestanding army by a people’s militia, election andcontrol of all judges and magistrates, upper salarylimit for all government officials and making themstrictly responsible to the electorate, etc. The majorsocio-economic measures were free and generaleducation, abolition of night work in bakeries,cancellation of employer fines in workshops, closingof pawnshops, seizure of closed workshops whichwere to be run by workers’ cooperatives, relief to theunemployed, rationed houses and assistance todebtors. All the above measures showed that there

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being no clear direction to the Commune, all itsdecisions had the clear stamp of the actions of theproletariat. Despite being faced constantly by thedesperate question of its very survival, the Communethrough its actions provided the first glimpse ofwhat type of society the coming proletarianrevolution would bring.  It provided the firstexperience of the proletariat in state power – whatMarx and Engels referred to as the firstdictatorship of the proletariat.

The Commune by its weaknesses also provided themost valuable lessons for the future struggles of theproletariat. These were pointed out by Marx. Aserious weakness of the Commune was the lack of theclear and centralised leadership of a single proletarianparty. From this  Marx concluded that  for thesuccess of the revolution it was absolutely necessaryto have the leadership of a strong, clear-sighted anddisciplined proletarian party. The other point,which Marx repeatedly stressed was the need tosmash the earlier state machinery. In order to buildthe new workers’ state it was not possible to rely uponthe earlier state machinery of the bourgeoisie with itsstate officials who were totally committed topreserving the old social order. In fact in order tobuild the workers’ state it was first necessary to smashthe earlier state apparatus and get rid of all the highlevel officials associated with it.

In the period of reaction and repression following the

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Commune, there was considerable confusion amongthe revolutionary forces as to how to assess theexperiences and draw the correct conclusions. Theanarchists, who had participated in large numbers inthe Commune, were particularly at a loss.  Marx’analysis gave a clear-cut position clearing all typesof confusion. Marx also helped propagate the correctunderstanding regarding the Commune throughoutthe world. Following the Commune the bourgeoisieportrayed Marx as the real leader of the Communeand he was therefore even interviewed by the worldpress. Through these interviews he thus was able topresent the correct stand to various countries.Marxism again was providing the correct answers.

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Chapter 11

Spread of Marxism and Rise of Opportunism

The period after the Paris Commune was one ofreactionary offensive by the bourgeoisie on theworking class movement. This had its impact onthe  First International. The French section was theworst hit with most of the members becomingrefugees in other countries and severe factional fightsamong them. The German labour movement alsofaced a setback with the long arrest of the mainMarxist leaders, Bebel and Liebknecht, who hadopposed the war and the annexation of parts ofFrance. This meant that the two of the mostimportant sections in the International werehandicapped. Simultaneously there was a split in theEnglish section with some of the leaders leavingthe International in opposition to the militant stand insupport of the Commune taken by Marx. Thiscoupled with the manipulations by the anarchistsweakened the International. Marx and Engels decidedto transfer the headquarters of the International fromLondon to New York. This decision was taken in the1872 Congress of the  International.  Theweakened  International  however could not reviveand was finally dissolved in 1876.

The dissolution of the First International however didnot stop the onward march of Marxism and the settingup of new proletarian parties. The period after theParis Commune saw a long almost 35 year gap of

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peace, without any major wars between the bigcapitalist countries on the European continent.During this period the labour movement in mostindustrialised countries expanded rapidly. Socialistparties, which had a basically proletarian composition,set up large and elaborate structures. Under theirleadership grew trade unions, daily newspapers,worker cooperatives, etc. Working often under legalconditions they participated quite successfully in thebourgeois parliaments. It was many of these partieswho got together to set up the  SecondInternational  in 1889. This formation of the SecondInternational  gave further encouragement to thegrowth of new proletarian socialist parties in variousparts of the world.

Marx and Engels till the end of their livescontinued to play the role of ideological leaders andpractical organisers of this growing working classmovement. They provided constant theoretical inputsto strengthen the foundations of the growingmovement. Marx concentrated on further study ofpolitical economy and more in-depth study ofcapitalism. The first volume of  Capital  came outin1867. After that Marx continued to struggle againstsevere ill health to try and complete the later volumesof this work. However it remained unfinished rightupto his death on 14th  March 1883. Engels howevercompleted the monumental task of collecting togetherMarx’ notes, editing them and finally publishing thesecond and third volumes of  Capital. Engels in fact

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also did substantial theoretical work after becoming afull-timer in 1869. Along with Marx, and alone, hebrought out various works on philosophy, socialisttheory, evolution, origin of social and politicalinstitutions, etc. After the death of Marx he played thecentral role in guiding and building the movement invarious countries. Through regular correspondence heperformed the role of a centre which was otherwisenon-existent throughout this period. This he did tillhis death on 5th August 1895.

A large part of the work of Marx and Engels was infighting the trends of opportunism that startedgaining strength with the growth of the movement.One important trend was that of Lassalleism whicharose first during the First International but continuedalso in later years. Its originator, Ferdinand Lassalle,was the founder of the first working class socialistparty set up in 1863 in Germany.  The mainopportunist aspects of Lassalleism were adiscouragement of workers struggle for higherwages and making appeals to the state forgovernment aid to set up workers cooperativeswhich Lassalle saw as the main means of reformingsociety and gradually bringing about socialism.  Inorder to fight the wrong understanding on wagestruggles Marx wrote the work, ‘Wages, Prices andProfits’ and presented it in the General Council ofthe  First International  in 1865. The fight againstLassalleism continued in 1875 when Marx wrotethe  Critique of the Gotha Programme. The Gotha

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programme was the programme drafted at the time ofthe unification of the Lassalleist and Marxistproletarian parties of Germany into one party. At thattime the Marxists were so keen on unity that theymade many compromises with the opportunistpolitics of Lassalleism. Marx in his Critique made athorough criticism of the points that had opportunistpolitics. However the Critique was only given to ahandful of the leading Marxist members of theGerman party. It was not circulated and very few ofits suggestions were brought into practice. However in1891 when a new party programme was being draftedEngels insisted on publishing the Critique, despite theprotests of some of the leading members of the party.This time the Lassalleist aspects did not appear in thenew programme.

Other opportunist trends, which appeared, weresimilarly resolutely opposed by Marx and Engels aslong as they were alive. After Engels’ death howeverone of the most major attacks on Marxism appearedfrom within the proletarian movement itself. Sincedirect opposition to Marxism was very difficult thisattack came in the form of an attempt to ‘revise’Marxism. This trend which later came to be calledrevisionism was initiated first by Bernstein, one ofthe leading members of the German party and also ofthe Second International. He first presented his viewsin 1898-99 within the German party.  Bernsteinproposed that because of changed conditions it wasnecessary to change all the basic formulations made

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by Marx. He proposed that it was not necessary tohave violent revolution to bring about socialismand that reform of capitalist institutions wouldgradually bring about socialism.  As opportunismhad been growing in the working class movementBernstein’s revisionism soon found supporters invarious parties. However at the same time manygenuine revolutionaries rallied around in the supportof Marxism. The debate was taken up before theCongress of the  Second International  held in 1904.The Congress strongly condemned revisionism by avote of 25 to 5, with 12 abstentions. There was alsoanother compromise resolution, which did not sostrongly condemn revisionism, which did not getpassed because there was a tie vote of 21 to 21. Thus inboth the resolutions there was a very big section thatsupported or did not want to take a strong standagainst revisionism.  Though the Congress finallycondemned revisionism it was quite clear in 1904itself that opportunism and revisionism had built asubstantial base for itself at the highest levels of theinternational working class movement.  Theopposition to opportunism in many countrieshowever was also strong. A particularly strong centrewas in Russia, where the Bolsheviks under theleadership of Lenin had already waged numerousstruggles against Russian varieties of opportunism.

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Chapter 12

Marxism in Russia – Early Life of Lenin

Russia was one of the countries where Marxism andMarxist literature spread very early. In fact the firsttranslation of Marx’ principal work ‘Capital’ or ‘DasKapital’ was in Russian. An edition brought out in1872 (just five years after the original Germanedition), was an immediate success with good sales andnumerous positive reviews in prestigious journals. Itsimpact was so great that by 1873-74 quotes from‘Capital’ already started appearing in the propagandaof radical student agitations in big Russian cities. Thetranslation into Russian of other Marxist works wasalso taken up quite early by Russian revolutionariesattracted to Marxism.

One such revolutionary was Vera Zasulich, a womanrevolutionary known for her attempt to assassinate thegovernor of St. Petersburg. She started correspondencewith Marx in 1881, which she later continued withEngels after Marx’ death. In 1883 she became a part ofthe first Russian Marxist organisation –the  Emancipation of Labour  group led by GeorgePlekhanov. Plekhanov participated in the 1st Congressof the Second International in 1889 after which he metEngels for the first time. After this meeting Plekhanovcontinued to maintain close links and take guidancefrom Engels.

Plekhanov played the principal role in establishing

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Marxism in Russia. He translated and popularisedmany of Marx and Engels’ works. While combatingthe anarchist, peasant socialist views of the Narodnikshe also made many theoretical contributions toMarxism. Russia at that time was under the tyrannicalrule of the Tsar against whom many revolutionariesand revolutionary groups had started activities. Manyof these groups however had leanings towardsanarchism and terrorism. Plekhanov andthe Emancipation of Labour group played the crucialrole in converting considerable sections toMarxism. Lenin, who joined hands with this groupat a later stage, was however, the outstandingfigure who took ahead Marxism and theproletarian movement.

Lenin was the party name of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov,who was born on 22nd  April 1870, in the city ofSimbirsk, which was the capital of the Simbirskprovince. It was situated on the Volga, which isRussia’s biggest river. Though it was a provincialcapital communication with the outside world werelimited during Lenin’s youth. There was no railwayand the main means of transport was via the steamersthat traveled up and down the Volga. This howeverstopped during the long winter months when the riverfroze into ice and journeys had to be made onhorseback.

Lenin’s father was a well-educated man who throughhard work had risen from the level of poor peasant to

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become teacher, inspector of schools and finally thedirector of elementary schools in Simbirsk province.He was also given the noble rank of  CivilCouncilor  in 1874. He died in 1886. Lenin’s motherwas the daughter of a rural doctor. Though she didnot go to school she was educated at home and evenlearnt many foreign languages, which she later taughther children. She died in 1916. They had eightchildren of whom two died in early childhood and onein her teens. Lenin was the fourth child. All hisbrothers and sisters grew up to be revolutionaries.

Lenin was however the most influenced by his elderbrother, Alexander. Alexander was a brilliant studentand gold medallist of the University of SaintPetersburg (then the capital of Russia). He was amember of the secret revolutionary study-circles ofrevolutionary youth in St. Petersburg and conductedpolitical propaganda among the workers. Heideologically stood between the Narodniks andMarxism. In 1887 Alexander was arrested along withhis elder sister Anna and other comrades for trying toassassinate the Tsar. Anna was later released andbanned from St. Petersburg. Alexander however whowas the leader of the group was hanged on 8th March1887, along with four of his comrades. Lenin who wasthen only 17 years of age vowed to avenge hisbrother’s martyrdom.

Lenin from a very young age was a model studentwith a very systematic method of study.  Unlike

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other students, he never produced his assignments atthe last minute. Rather, he prepared an early outlineand draft, constantly making notes, additions andchanges before producing his final draft. He had avery high level of concentration and did not talk toanyone who disturbed him while studying. He was agreat admirer of his elder brother and at a young agetried to imitate Alexander in everything he did. Amonth after his brother was hanged, Lenin, despitethe severe tension and grief, had to sit for his schoolleaving exams. He received a gold medal as theschool’s best student.

Despite the gold medal, Lenin could not get admissionin either the St. Petersburg University or MoscowUniversity because he was the brother of a knownrevolutionary. He finally gained admission in thesmaller University of Kazan. He was however withinthree months expelled from the city of Kazan forparticipating in a demonstration against newregulations limiting the autonomy of universities andthe freedom of students. The police officer whoescorted him to the city limits tried to convince theyoung Lenin that he was up against a wall. Leninhowever replied that the wall was a rotten one, whichwould crumble with one kick. The next year in 1888Lenin was allowed to return to Kazan but was notgiven readmission into the university. It is here that hestarted attending one of the secret Marxist study-circles.

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During this period and later when the family movedto another province of Samara, Lenin spent a largeamount of his time in reading and study. Besidesreading the works of Russian revolutionaries, Lenin,at the age of eighteen, starting reading many ofMarx and Plekhanov’s works. He startedpropagating his knowledge of Marxism, first to hiseldest sister Anna, and then by organising smalldiscussion groups of his friends. He also took toswimming, skating, mountain climbing and hunting.

  In the meantime his mother made repeated attemptsto get him readmitted to university. He was howeveragain refused at Kazan. He was also refused a foreignpassport to go and study abroad. After manyapplications, Lenin was, in 1890, finally accepted onlyas an external law student at the St. PetersburgUniversity. He could sit directly for the examinationswithout being allowed to attend lectures. Lenin wasdetermined to complete his course at the same time ashis former Kazan fellow students. He thereforestudied on his own and completed the four-year coursewithin a year. In the examinations, held in 1891, hereceived the highest marks in all subjects and wasgiven a first class degree. In January 1892 he wasaccepted as a lawyer and started practice in the SamaraRegional Court.

Lenin however was least interested in his lawpractice.  While giving his exams in St. Petersburghe had developed Marxist contacts there and got a

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supply of Marxist literature. In Samara Lenin spenta large part of his time giving lectures in illegalstudy circles of workers and others. He also formedthe first Marxist study circle of Samara. Samara wasa centre of the Narodniks and Lenin concentrated hisenergies on fighting the Narodnik ideology of thattime which had moved to liberalism. He, at the sametime, had a great respect for the brave, selfless,Narodnik revolutionaries of the 1870s, many of whomwere residing in Samara after retiring frompolitics. Lenin was always eager to learn from themabout their revolutionary work, their secrecytechniques, and about the behaviour ofrevolutionaries during interrogation and trials.  Itwas in Samara that Lenin started his first writings,which were circulated among the study circles. Healso translated the Communist Manifesto intoRussian. Lenin’s activities and influence startedspreading beyond Samara to other provinces of theVolga region.

After developing well formed views Lenin nowwanted to broaden the scope of his revolutionarywork. With this aim, he moved in August 1893 to St.Petersburg, which was a major industrial centre with alarge proletariat. As a cover he took up a job as anassistant lawyer to a senior barrister of St. Petersburg.He however did very little legal work andconcentrated wholly on revolutionaryactivities.  Lenin soon became a leading figurebringing new life to the numerous secret study-

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circles of St. Petersburg. He also influenced theMoscow circles. Besides lecturing in the circles he wasalways interested in learning every minute detail ofthe workers’ lives. In the circles he convinced a bigsection of the revolutionaries to move fromselective propaganda (propaganda in those days wasunderstood as similar to our political educationclasses today) in small circles to mass agitationamong the broad mass of workers.

It was during this period that he met his future wife,Krupskaya, who had already come into contact withMarxism and was teaching without payment at a nightschool for workers. Many of her worker students werepart of a study circle conducted by Lenin. Leninhimself would always be eager to learn from her deepknowledge of the lives and work conditions of the St.Petersburg workers. When Lenin fell ill she used tovisit him and gradually their friendship grew into love.

Meanwhile Lenin continued to expand his contacts inmany more cities of Russia. In February 1895 ameeting of the groups in various main cities decided tosend Lenin and another delegate from Moscow abroadto make contact with the  Emancipation of Labourgroup.  Lenin’s first visit to Europe lasted fromApril to September 1895. He during this periodmet Plekhanov and Axelrod of the  Emancipationof Labour group, and other leaders of the Germanand French working class organisations. He wantedkeenly to meet Engels but could not do so as Engels

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was on his deathbed.

Upon his return to Russia he united all the Marxistcircles of St. Petersburg into one political organisationcalled the League of Struggle for the Emancipation ofthe Working Class. The League immediately startedagitation and organising strikes in large factories of thecity. It also made plans for bringing out an illegalmagazine of the workers. This magazine howevercould not be brought out. The secret police who hadbeen keeping close watch on Lenin finally managedthrough the help of an informer to arrest him alongwith proof. He was picked up in December 1895,along with the manuscript of the first issue of theillegal magazine and was sent to jail.

Even from jail Lenin managed to keep close contactwith his comrades outside. His mother and sisterAnna brought him numerous books and  he sentletters in the books through a code language thathe had taught his sister. He also sent letters writtenin milk, that served as invisible ink that becamevisible later, on being warmed up. He used blackbread as his inkpots so that he could swallow them assoon as any jail-guard came nearby. Thus from the jailLenin could even write pamphlets and directstrikes, which during 1896 were on an upswingthroughout Russia. He came to be known as the realleader of the League. At the same time he also startedintense study and research on his first majortheoretical work,  The Development of Capitalism in

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Russia.  While studying heavily from morning tonight, Lenin kept up his fitness by daily regularexercises before going to bed.

After over one year in jail Lenin was released but wasimmediately sentenced to three years exile in Siberiawhere he reached in May 1897. Krupskaya in themeantime had also been arrested. Lenin proposedmarriage to her from Siberia. She replied simply, “IfI’m to be a wife, so be it.” She was allowed to join himin Siberia where she reached in May 1898. Lenin spentmost of his time in Siberia in theoretical work. WithKrupskaya’s help he translated an Englishbook  Industrial Democracy  into Russian. He alsocompleted his work on the development of capitalismin Russia, which was published legally in 1899.  Healso his started his struggle against the Economists– an opportunist trend linked to the Bernsteinianrevisionism  mentioned in the previous chapter.  Healso wrote extensively on what should be theprogramme and immediate tasks of the Russianrevolution. When he came out of exile in early 1900he immediately started work on those tasks.

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Chapter 13

Lenin and the Proletarian Party of a New Type

The most urgent and pressing task when Lenin cameout of exile was to build the revolutionary proletarianparty. The  Russian Social-Democratic LabourParty  (RSDLP) had been formally established in aCongress held in 1898 attended by 9 delegates.However the Central Committee elected at theCongress was very soon arrested. Though the bannerof the party had been announced this Congress didnot actually succeed in unifying all the groups andbuilding up a single party organisational structure.Thus in 1900 this task remained.

The plan for building up the party had beenworked out in detail while in exile. The key to itLenin felt was the setting up of an All-Russianpolitical newspaper. Lenin proposed that the onlyway of politically and organisationally uniting thescattered Marxist study-circles, groups andorganisations was through a political newspaper. Thisnewspaper would be able to politically link all thevaried cells throughout Russia by presenting thecorrect line and immediately fighting all opportunistdeviations. At the same the most difficult task ofsecretly distributing an illegal paper would by itselfcreate an underground organisation trained in facingthe repressive Russian secret police. Lenin wanted tofirst bring into action this plan before the calling of aParty Congress because it was also first necessary to

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defeat the opportunist and revisionist trends that hadraised their heads in the movement in the precedingyears.

Lenin’s plan was first discussed with and approved bythe Leagues of Struggle in various Russian cities and ata conference of Social Democrats, which he arrangedto discuss this plan. His principal associates in thisplan were Martov and Potresov members of thecentral group of the St. Petersburg who had beenarrested and sent to Siberia at the same time as him.The plan was to bring out the paper from abroad as itwas too dangerous to publish it within Russia. Leninalso planned for this purpose to unite withPlekhanov’s  Emancipation of Labourgroup, whichalready existed abroad. The editorial board was toconsist of six members – three from theEmancipation  group abroad and three from Russia –Lenin, Martov and Potresov. After making allarrangements the first issue of the paper came out inDecember 1900.

It was called Iskra meaning Spark. Its title page carriedthe words of the first Russian bourgeoisrevolutionaries of 1825 –  The Spark Will Kindle aFlame.  Iskra  was printed in various countries atvarious times – Germany, England and Switzerland. Itwas never sent directly to Russia but went byextremely roundabout routes until they reached thesecret  Iskra  committees within Russia. Thedistributors had an extremely difficult task avoiding

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the secret police and if  Iskra  smugglers were caughtthey would be straightaway exiled to Siberia. Iskra wasa major tool for educating the working class withlectures in study circles often consisting in reading outarticles from the paper. Iskra  agents used everyopportunity to distribute the newspaper as well assecret Iskra leaflets. These were distributed not only inthe factories but also on the streets, in theatres, inarmy barracks, and through the post. In large citiesthey were widely scattered through the streets or fromthe balconies in theatres. It worker localities they weredistributed late at night or early mornings by keepingthem in factory courtyards and near water-pumpswhere they would be seen in the morning. After eachsuch operation, which was called sowing, a particularmarking would be made on a nearby wall so that a fullreport could be got in the morning as to the impact ofthe night’s work. In small towns and villages,the Iskra pamphlets would be brought in peasant cartson market days and pasted on walls. All this wasdangerous work as discovery meant immediate arrestand the possibility of banishment to Siberia. Thecomrades involved in this work slowly started buildingup into the team of professional revolutionaries on thebasis of whom Lenin planned to build the proletarianparty.

As to the structure and composition of the partyitself, Lenin considered that it should consist oftwo parts: a) a close circle of regular cadres ofleading party workers, chiefly professional

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revolutionaries, that is, party workers free from alloccupation except party work and possessing thenecessary minimum of theoretical knowledge,political experience, organisational practice and theart of facing and fighting the tsarist police; and b) abroad network of local party organisations and alarge number of party members enjoying thesympathy and support of hundreds of thousands ofworking people. As the process of building such aparty was proceeding through the help of Iskra, Leningave direction to this process through his articles andbooks. Of particular significance were Where ToBegin? What Is To Be Done? and Letter to aComrade on Organisational Questions.  In theseworks he laid down the ideological andorganisational basis of the proletarian party.

Besides the organisational questions  a major battlewaged by Lenin was the fight againstthe Economists, who wanted to restrict the SocialDemocratic Party merely to the economic struggleof the workers. They had grown in strength in Russiaduring Lenin’s period in exile and Lenin realisedthat  Economism  had to be ideologically defeatedbefore the convening of the Party Congress. Helaunched a direct attack on them particularly throughhis book  What Is To Be Done?  Lenin exposed howthe  Economists’  views meant bowing to thespontaneity of the working class movement andneglecting the role of consciousness and leadingrole of the party. He showed how this would lead

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to slavery of the working class to capitalism. Whilemouthing Marxism, the  Economists  wanted toconvert the revolutionary party into a party ofsocial reform. Lenin thus showed howthe  Economists  were actually Russian representativesof the opportunist trend of Bernsteinian revisionism.Lenin’s book, which was widely distributed in Russia,succeeded in decisively defeating Economism. It thuslaid down the principles which later became theideological foundation of the Bolshevik party.

The actual birth of the Bolshevik trend within theRSDLP took place at the second Party Congress,which took place in July-August 1903.  The maindebate at the Congress was regarding what shouldbe the nature of the party and thus who should begiven membership in the party. Lenin who had inmind a tight, effective, professional revolutionarybased party proposed that all party membersshould work in one of the party organisations.Martov, on the other hand, had as his model theloosely functioning legal parties, which had becomecommon in the Second International at that time.He thus proposed loose criteria for membership,which would allow anyone who accepted the partyprogramme and supported the party financially, to beeligible for party membership. He thus was ready togive party membership to any party sympathiser. Inthe vote on this point the majority was with Martov.However later when some opportunist sectionswalked out of the Congress the majority came on

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Lenin’s side. This was reflected in the elections to theCentral Committee and Editorial Board of  Iskra,which went according to Lenin’s proposals. Thedifferences between the two groups however remainedstrong and continued even after the Congress.  Fromthat time Lenin’s followers, who received themajority of votes in the elections at the Congress,have been called Bolsheviks (which means majorityin the Russian language). Lenin’s opponents, whoreceived the minority of votes, have been calledMensheviks (which means minority in the Russianlanguage).

Immediately after the Congress the Mensheviksstarted manipulations and splitting activities. Thiscreated a lot of confusion. In order to clear theconfusion, Lenin, in May 1904, brought out hisfamous book, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.  Itgave a detailed analysis of the intra-party struggle bothduring and after the Congress and on that basisexplained the proletarian party’s main organisationalprinciples which later came to form the organisationalfoundations of the Bolshevik party. The circulation ofthis book brought the majority of the localorganisations of the party to the side of theBolsheviks. However the central bodies, the partyorgan and the Central Committee went into the handsof the Mensheviks who were determined to defeat thedecisions of the Congress. The Bolsheviks were thusforced to form their own committee and start theirown organ. Both groups also started making separate

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preparations for organising their own congress andconference. These were held in 1905. The split in theparty was complete. The foundations however hadbeen laid for the building of the true revolutionaryparty – the proletarian party of a new type.

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Chapter 14

Russian Bourgeois Revolution of 1905 :Development of Proletarian Tactics

The period of the split in the RSDLP came at thebeginning of a period of major changes in the worldsituation. The long 35-year gap of peace in Europebetween the main capitalist countries was broken witha series of wars. The age of imperialism had dawnedand the new imperialist powers started fighting forcapturing and expanding markets. They entered into anumber of regional wars. An important war amongthese was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Theseregional wars were only a way by which theimperialist powers were preparing themselves forthe devastating World War I of 1914-18 for the re-division of the world.

This same period was also a period of a newupsurge of revolutions. The main source of theserevolutions was however now not Europe but Asia.The first of these revolutions was the Russianbourgeois revolution of 1905, which was followed bythe Turkish, the Persian and the Chinese bourgeoisrevolutions.  The most important of theserevolutions, from the point of the role of theproletariat and the development of Marxistrevolutionary tactics, was the 1905 Russianrevolution.  Its starting point was the Russo-Japanesewar.

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The Russo-Japanese war, which started on8th February 1904, ended in defeat for the Tsar and ahumiliating peace treaty on 23rd  August 1905.  TheBolsheviks adopted a clear revolutionarystandpoint to the war, opposed to their owngovernment and opposed to any false notions ofnationalism or patriotism. Their approach was thatthe defeat of the Tsar would be useful, as it wouldweaken Tsardom and strengthen therevolution.  This is actually what happened. Theeconomic crisis of 1900-03 had already aggravated thehardships of the toiling masses. The war furtherintensified this suffering. As the war continued andthe Russian armed forces faced defeat after defeat thepeople’s hatred for the Tsar increased. They reactedwith the great revolution of 1905.

The historic movement started with a big Bolshevik-led strike of the oil workers of Baku in December1904. This was the ‘signal’ for a wave of strikes andrevolutionary actions throughout Russia. Inparticular, the revolutionary storm broke with theindiscriminate firing upon and massacre of ademonstration of unarmed workers on 22nd  January1905, in St. Petersburg. The Tsar’s attempt to crushthe workers in blood only inspired a still more fierceresponse from the masses. The whole of 1905 was aperiod of rising wave of militant political strikes byworkers, seizure of land and landlord’s grain bypeasants, and even a revolt by the Russian Navy sailorsof the battleship Potemkin. Twice the Tsar, in a bid to

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divert the struggle, offered first a ‘consultative’ andthen a ‘legislative’ Duma (Duma is the Russianparliament). The Bolsheviks rejected both Dumaswhereas the Mensheviks decided to participate. Thehigh tide of the revolution was between October andDecember 1905. During this period, the proletariat,for the first time in world history, set up the Soviets ofWorkers’ Deputies – which were assemblies ofdelegates from all mills and factories. These were theembryo of revolutionary power, and became themodel for the Soviet power set up after the SocialistRevolution in 1917. Starting with an all-Russiapolitical strike in October, the revolutionary struggleswent on rising until the Bolshevik-led armeduprisings, in December, in Moscow, and various othercities and nationalities throughout the country, thesewere brutally crushed and after that the tide of therevolution started to recede. The revolution washowever not yet crushed and the workers andrevolutionary peasants retreated slowly, putting up afight. Over a million workers took part in strikes in1906, and 740,000 in 1907. The peasant movementembraced about half of the districts of Tsarist Russiain the first half of 1906, and about one-fifth in thesecond half of the year. The crest of the revolution hadhowever passed. On 3rd June 1907, the Tsar effected acoup, dissolved the Duma he had created, andwithdrew even the limited rights he had been forcedto grant during the revolution. A period of intenserepression under the Tsarist Prime Minister, Stolypin,

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called the Stolypin reaction, set in. It was to last tillthe next wave of strikes and political struggles in 1912.

Though the 1905 Revolution was defeated it shookthe very foundations of Tsarist rule. It also, in theshort space of three years, gave the working classand peasantry a rich political education. It was alsothe period when the Bolsheviks proved in practicethe basic correctness of their revolutionaryunderstanding regarding the strategy and tactics ofthe proletariat. It was in the course of thisrevolution that the Bolshevik understandingregarding the friends and enemies of the revolutionand the forms of struggle and forms oforganisation got firmly established.

The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had an oppositeunderstanding on all the above questions. TheMenshevik understanding was the reformist andlegalist understanding that had by then growncommon in many parties of the Second International.It was based on the understanding that the Russianrevolution, being a bourgeois revolution, had to be ledby the liberal bourgeoisie, and therefore theproletariat should not take any step that wouldfrighten the bourgeoisie and drive it into the arms ofthe Tsar. The Bolshevik understanding on the otherhand was the revolutionary understanding that theproletariat could not rely on the bourgeoisie to leadthe revolution and would have to itself take up theleadership of the revolution. It was on this

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revolutionary basis that the Bolsheviks developedtheir understanding on all the other importantstrategic and tactical questions of the revolution.

Thus the Bolsheviks called for the extension of therevolution and the overthrow of the Tsar througharmed uprising; the Mensheviks tried to control therevolution within a peaceful framework and attemptedto reform and improve Tsardom. The Bolshevikspushed for the leadership of the working class, theisolation of the liberal bourgeoisie and a firm alliancewith the peasantry; the Mensheviks accepted alliancewith and leadership of the liberal bourgeoisie and didnot consider the peasantry as a revolutionary class tobe allied with. The Bolsheviks were ready forparticipation in a provisional revolutionarygovernment to be formed on the basis of a successfulpeople’s uprising and called for the boycott of theDuma offered by the Tsar; the Mensheviks were readyfor participation in the Duma and proposed to make itthe centre of the “revolutionary forces” of thecountry.

The Menshevik understanding was not an isolatedexample of a reformist trend. In fact the Menshevikunderstanding was fully representative of theunderstanding of the main leading parties ofthe Second International at that time. Their stand wasbasically supported by the leaders of the Internationalat that time. Thus Lenin and the Bolsheviks werenot only fighting the reformism of the Mensheviks

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but also the reformist understanding that thendominated the so-called Marxist parties ofthe  International.  Lenin’s formulations werehowever a continuation and development of therevolutionary understanding of Marx and Engels. Itwas a further development of the Marxistrevolutionary tactics applied in the new conditionsbrought about by the growth of capitalism into a newstage – imperialism. Lenin brought out these tactics inhis various writings during the course of therevolution and particularly in his book,  Two Tacticsof Social-Democracy in the DemocraticRevolution. This book written in July 1905 after theBolsheviks and Mensheviks held separated Congresses,brought out the essential differences in the strategyand tactics proposed by the two groups.

The fundamental tactical principles presented byLenin in this and other works were:

1) The main tactical principle running through allLenin’s writings is that the proletariat can andmust be the leader of the bourgeois democraticrevolution. It order to do this two conditions werenecessary. Firstly, it was necessary for the proletariatto have an ally who was interested in a decisive victoryover Tsardom and who might be disposed to acceptthe leadership of the proletariat. Lenin considered thatthe peasantry was such an ally. Secondly, it wasnecessary that the class which was fighting theproletariat for the leadership of the revolution and

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striving to become its sole leader, would be forced outof the arena of leadership and isolated. Leninconsidered that the liberal bourgeoisie was such aclass. Thus  the essence of Lenin’s main tacticalprinciple of the leadership of the proletariat meantat the same time the policy of alliance with thepeasantry and the policy of isolation of the liberalbourgeoisie.

2) As regards the forms of struggle and forms oforganisation, Lenin considered that the mosteffective means of overthrowing Tsardom andachieving a democratic republic was a victoriousarmed uprising of the people. In order to bring thisabout Lenin called for mass political strikes and thearming of the workers. He also called for achievingthe 8-hour working day and other immediate demandsof the working class in a revolutionary way bydisregarding the authorities and the law. Similarly hecalled for the formation of revolutionary peasantcommittees to bring about changes like seizure of landin a revolutionary way. These tactics of disregardingthe authorities paralysed the Tsar’s state machineryand released the initiative of the masses. It led to theformation of revolutionary strike committees in thetowns and revolutionary peasant committees in thecountryside, which later developed in the Soviets ofWorkers’ Deputies and the Soviets of Peasants’Deputies.

3) Lenin further held that the revolution should not

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stop after the victory of the bourgeois revolutionand the achievement of a democratic republic. Heproposed that it was the duty of the revolutionaryparty to do every thing possible to make thebourgeois- democratic revolution pass into theSocialist revolution. He thus giving concrete formto Marx’ concept of uninterrupted revolution.

These tactical principles became the basis for theBolshevik practice during the following period. Itfinally led to the victory of the proletariat in 1917October Revolution and the establishment of the firstworkers’ state.

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Chapter 15

World War I : Opportunism v/s RevolutionaryTactics

The dawn of imperialism from the turn of the centurybrought with it the wars by the imperialist powers forthe capture of colonies. An example was the Russo-Japanese war mentioned in the previous chapter. Thiswar took place because both Russia and Japan wantedcontrol over Manchuria in Northern China andKorea. Similar wars for capturing or recapturingcolonies started breaking out in various parts of theworld. Thus it became of crucial importance for theinternational proletarian movement to adopt thecorrect revolutionary position on the questions ofcolonialism and war. This therefore came up beforethe Congresses of the Second International.

Opportunism had however, by then, spread quiteextensively within the parties of the  SecondInternational. Many leading sections of the partiesin the imperialist countries had in fact startedtaking the standpoint of the bourgeoisie on manyof the crucial political questions. This was seen veryclearly at the 1907 Congress of the SecondInternational  where the questions of colonialismand war were first taken up.

On the question of colonialism, the leading body ofthe Congress – the Congress commission – adopted aresolution on colonial policy and placed it before the

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general body for approval. This resolution whilecriticising the bourgeoisie’s colonial policy fornamesake did not reject totally the principle ofcapturing colonies. It in fact argued that under asocialist regime it could be in the “interests ofcivilization” to capture colonies. Such an openlyimperialist position of these so-called Marxists wasstrongly opposed by the revolutionaries in the generalbody and the resolution was finally defeated, but onlyby a small margin of only 127 votes to 108.

Similar opportunism of the leadership was seen in thecase of the stand on the question of war. Bebel, aknown leader and a close follower and associate ofMarx and Engels prepared the resolution. Theresolution however was left vague without any specificdirection or course of action to be taken by themembers in the event of war. This again was opposedstrongly by the revolutionaries – particularly RosaLuxembourg of Germany and Lenin. They thenproposed an amendment which gave a clear-cutdirection to the members of the  International  tofight to prevent war, to fight to end the warquickly in case it started, and to make full use ofthe economic and political crisis in the case of warto arouse the people and bring about revolution.This was a continuation of the revolutionaryproletarian position on war that Marx had alreadyclearly laid down.  Since the opportunists could notopenly oppose this understanding, this resolution waspassed by the Congress. As the war danger grew

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nearer the 1910 and 1912 Congresses of theInternational again discussed and adopted resolutionsregarding war. They decided that all socialists inparliament should vote against war credits. They alsorepeated in their resolutions the wording of theamendment proposed in 1907 by Luxembourg andLenin.

However the hold of opportunism over the  SecondInternational  was so great that most of the leaderswho passed these resolutions had absolutely nointention of standing by these decisions. This was seenwhen the World War I actually broke out in July-August 1914. The  German Social-Democratic Party,which was the undoubted leader of the  SecondInternational, led the way. The trade-unionbureaucrats, instead of trying to rouse the workersagainst the war and for revolution, immediatelyentered into a no-strike agreement with theemployers. In the party caucus (fraction) meeting thatwas held before the parliamentary vote on war credits,a large majority voted in support of the war. Only ahandful of revolutionaries led by Karl Liebknecht andRosa Luxembourg opposed. Kautsky, who was at thattime the main ideological leader of the SecondInternational, voted to abstain. Thus on 4th August1914 the  German Social Democratic Party  threwaside all the previous Congress resolutions andvoted unanimously in parliament to support theimperialist war. For the revolutionary proletariat,the Second International ceased to exist from that

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date. The German party was immediately followed bythe majority of socialists in France, Britain, Belgiumand other countries. The  Second International  brokeup into separate social-chauvinist parties warringagainst each other.

The Bolsheviks were almost the only party to standby the anti-war resolutions. In the context ofthe Second International leaders falling totally intoopportunism, it was left to Lenin and theBolsheviks to uphold and implement the correctMarxist position regarding the World War.  Leninimmediately brought out writings presenting thiscorrect understanding.  The Central Committee ofthe RSDLP (B) gave a call to “turn the imperialistwar into civil war” and to build a new  ThirdInternational  in place of the  SecondInternational.  Lenin started the process of buildingthe Third International by uniting all the leftist anti-war forces. Though these forces started holdingconferences from 1915 onwards much confusioncontinued. Lenin had to take up the task of clearingthis confusion and establishing among these elementsthe correct revolutionary position on the principles ofsocialism in relation to war and also the tasks ofrevolutionary social democrats at the internationallevel and in Russia. Lenin did this through his variouswritings propagated both within Russia as well as theinternational level.

The principles and tasks Lenin outlined can be

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presented in the following manner:

Firstly, socialists are not pacifists who areopponents of all war.  Socialists aim at establishingsocialism and communism, which by eliminating allexploitation will eliminate the very possibility of war.However in the fight to achieve the socialist systemthere will always be the possibility of wars whichare necessary and are of revolutionary significance.

Secondly, while deciding the attitude to be adoptedtowards a particular war, the main issue forsocialists is this: what is the war being waged for,and what classes staged and directed it. Thus Leninpointed out that during the period of the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution, Marx had supported the warswaged by the bourgeoisie, which were againstfeudalism and reactionary kings. Because these warswere aimed at abolishing feudalism and establishing orstrengthening capitalism, they were progressive or justwars. Adopting similar criteria Lenin points out thatin the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutionsocialists will support all such wars that take ahead theWorld Socialist Revolution.  According to such anunderstanding Lenin gave examples of the types ofwars that may be called just or progressive wars: –1) national wars waged by a colonial or semi-colonial country against its imperialist exploiter, 2)civil wars waged by the proletariat and otheroppressed classes against their feudal or capitalistruling classes, 3) socialist wars for the defence of

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the socialist fatherland.

Thirdly, Lenin pointed out that on the basis of theabove understanding there was nothing just orprogressive about the World War I.  He comparedthe imperialist war to a war between a slave-holderwho owns 100 slaves and a slave-holder who owns 200slaves for a more ‘just’ redistribution of slaves. Theessential purpose of the World War I was forredistribution of the colonial slaves. Thus there couldnot be anything progressive or defensive or just war. Itwas an unjust, reactionary war. The only standtowards it could be the call to convert theimperialist war into civil war. The only use thus ofsuch a war was to take advantage of this war tomake revolution. In order to do this, Lenin pointedout that it was advantageous that one’s own country isdefeated in the war. Defeat would weaken the rulingclass and facilitate the victory of revolution. Thus anysocialist revolutionary must work for the defeat ofhis own government in the war.

Finally, Lenin pointed out that it was the duty ofsocialists to participate in the movement for peace.Nevertheless while participating in the movementfor peace, it is their duty to point out that no realand lasting peace is possible without arevolutionary movement. In fact, whoever wants ajust and democratic peace must stand for civil waragainst the governments and the bourgeoisie.

Though these principles and tactics were propagated

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among all the parties of the Second International, theonly ones to implement them in practice were theBolsheviks. It was this approach to the war that helpedthem to make use of the revolutionary crisis situationcreated by the war and within three years achieve thevictory of Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917.

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Chapter 16

Lenin’s Analysis of Imperialism, the Highest Stageof Capitalism

Marx’ analysis of the laws of motion of capitalismbelongs to the stage of free competitive capitalismwhere a large number of capitalist producerscompeted in the market. He analysed to some extentthe process of centralisation of capital. He howeverdid not live long enough to see the start of a new stagein capitalism — the stage of imperialism. Thishappened at the start of the 20th  century and it wasleft to Lenin to analyse this process. In 1897-98 Leninmade some initial analysis of the development of thecapitalist world market but did not analyse in full thesubject of imperialism. However with the start of theWorld War I which was a war caused by imperialism itwas necessary to do a full analysis of imperialism tounderstand the economic basis of the war and thepolitical consequences for the proletariat.

This question became all the more urgent in 1915when the opportunist and revisionist leader ofthe Second International, Karl Kautsky, wrote a bookon imperialism where he argued that the worldeconomic system was moving towards ‘ultra-imperialism’ where there would be stability and norisk of war. His argument was similar to some peoplewho analyse globalisation today and argue that,because of the growth of multinational groups andcorporations and the spread of their capital to all

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countries, these multinationals will be opposed to warand there is therefore no danger of a world war. Thistheory presented during the World War I gave a falsepicture of imperialism. Since such a false theory waspresented by Kautsky who was then recognised as themain theoretician of Marxism it was absolutelynecessary to oppose this theory and present thecorrect understanding. It was necessary to clear theconfusion created by the Second Internationalists andgive the correct analysis and present the correct tacticsbefore the international working class movement. Inorder to do this Lenin, in 1916, did extensive researchand produced his famous work,  Imperialism, theHighest Stage of Capitalism.  Besides this main workhe also wrote many other articles linking this basiceconomic analysis to the tactics of the proletariat.

In the first place, Lenin tried to clear the confusioncreated by Kautsky and other opportunists as to‘What is Imperialism?’ In order to answer this, hepointed out that imperialism is a specific historicalstage of capitalism. Its specific character is three-fold:  imperialism is (1) monopoly capitalism; (2)parasitic, or decaying capitalism; (3) moribundcapitalism or capitalism on its deathbed. Thereplacement of free competition by monopoly is thefundamental economic feature, the essence ofimperialism.

Monopoly Capitalism  manifests itself in fiveprincipal forms: (1) Cartels, syndicates and trusts —

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The concentration of production has reached a degreewhich gives rise to these monopolistic associations ofcapitalists who join together to crush othercompetitors. They fix prices, allot production amongthemselves and make other arrangements andagreements to prevent others from entering andsucceeding in the market. They play a decisive role ineconomic life.  (2) The monopolistic position of thebig banks and the creation of finance capitalthrough the merger of monopoly industrial capitaland bank capital –  During Lenin’s time this hadalready reached the level where three, four or fivegiant banks manipulated the whole economic life inthe main industrialised counties.  (3) The export ofcapital which gains particular importance –  thisfeature that is different from the export ofcommodities under non-monopoly capitalism isclosely linked to the economic and political partitionof the world. (4) The economic partition of theworld by the international cartels – At Lenin’s timethere were already over one hundred suchinternational cartels, which commanded the entireworld market and divided it among themselves in a‘friendly’ manner. Of course this ‘friendliness’ wouldonly be temporary and would last until war took placefor a redivision of markets.  (5) The territorial(political) partition of the world (colonies) amongthe biggest capitalist powers –This process ofcolonisation of all the backward countries of theworld was basically completed at the time of the dawn

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of imperialism. Any further colonies could only begot through redivision of the world, through war.

On the basis of the above features, Lenin definesimperialism in the following way:  “Imperialism iscapitalism in that stage of development in whichthe dominance of monopolies and finance capitalhas established itself; in which the export of capitalhas acquired pronounced importance; in which thedivision of the world among the internationaltrusts has begun; in which the division of allterritories of the globe among the biggest capitalistpowers has been completed.”

The fact that imperialism is parasitic or decayingcapitalism is manifested first of all in the tendencyto decay, which is characteristic of every monopolyunder the system of private ownership of themeans of production.  As compared the rapidexpansion under free competition, there is a tendencyfor production as a whole to decline under monopoly.Technological progress is discouraged and newinventions and patents are deliberatelysuppressed.  Secondly, the decay of capitalism ismanifested in the creation of a huge stratum ofrentiers, capitalists who live without working butmerely on the basis of the interest or dividend theyearn on their investments.  Thirdly, export ofcapital is parasitism raised to a high pitch as itmeans the open exploitation of the cheap labour ofthe backward countries. Fourthly, finance capital

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strives for domination, not freedom.  Politicalreaction all along the line is a characteristic feature ofimperialism. Corruption, bribery on a huge scale andall kinds of fraud become common. Fifthly, theexploitation of oppressed nations and especially theexploitation of colonies by a handful of “Great”Powers, increasingly transforms the imperialistworld into a parasite on the body of hundreds ofmillions in the backward nations. It reaches thestage where a privileged upper stratum of theproletariat in the imperialist countries also livespartly at the expense of hundreds of millions in thecolonies.

Imperialism is moribund capitalism, because it iscapitalism in transition to socialism. Monopoly, whichgrows out of capitalism, is already dying capitalism,the beginning of its transition to socialism. Thetremendous socialisation of labour by imperialismproduces the same result. The basic contradiction ofcapitalism between the social character of productionand the private character of ownership only getsfurther intensified under imperialism. Thus Leninsays, “Imperialism is the eve of the social revolution ofthe proletariat.”

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Chapter 17

The Great October Socialist Revolution

As mentioned earlier, in Chapter 14, the period afterthe defeat of the 1905 Revolution was a period ofextreme repression and reaction under theleadership of the Tsar’s Prime Minister, Stolypin.The working class was made the main target of attack.Wages were reduced by 10 to 15 per cent, and theworking day was increased by 10 to 12 hours. Blacklists of worker activists were drawn up and they werenot given jobs. Systems of fines on workers wereintroduced. Any attempt to organise was met withsavage attacks by the police and goondas organised bythe Tsar’s agents. In such a situation many intellectualsand petty bourgeois elements started retreating andsome even joined the camp of the enemy.

In order to face this new situation, the Bolshevikschanged over from offensive tactics (like generalstrike and armed uprising used during the periodof the 1905 Revolution) to defensive tactics.Defensive tactics meant the tactics of gatheringtogether of forces, the tactics of withdrawing thecadres underground and of carrying on the work ofthe party from underground, the tactics ofcombining illegal work with work in the legalworking-class organisations. Open revolutionarystruggle against Tsardom was replaced byroundabout methods of struggle.

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The surviving legal organisations served as a cover forthe underground organisations of the party and as ameans of maintaining connections with the masses. Inorder to preserve their connections with themasses, the Bolsheviks made use of he trade unionsand other legally existing people’s organisations,such as sick benefit societies, workers’ co-operativesocieties, clubs, educational societies and evenparliament. The Bolsheviks made use of the platformof the State Duma to expose the policy of the Tsaristgovernment, to expose the liberal parties, and to winthe support of the peasants for the proletariat. Thepreservation of the illegal Party organisation enabledthe party to pursue a correct line and to gathertogether forces in preparation for a new rise in the tideof the revolution.

In implementing these tactics the Bolsheviks had towage struggle against two deviations within themovement – the Liquidators and the Otzovists(Recallists). The Liquidators, who were Mensheviks,wanted to close down the illegal party structure andset up a legal ‘labour’ party with the consent of thegovernment. The Recallists, who were from amongthe Bolsheviks, wanted to recall all the Bolshevikmembers of the Duma, and also withdraw from thetrade unions and all other legal forms of organisation.They wanted only the illegal form of organisation.The result of both sets of tactics would have been toprevent the party from gathering together the forcesfor a new advance of the revolution. Rejecting both

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deviations, the Bolsheviks used the correct tacticsof combining both legal and illegal methods andwere able to gain a strong presence in manyworkers’ organisations and also win over a numberof Menshevik worker organisations. Thisstrengthened the party and prepared it for the nextupswing in the revolutionary movement, whichstarted from 1912.

The Bolsheviks held a separate Party Conference inJanuary 1912 and constituted themselves as a separateparty – the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party(Bolsheviks)  [RSDLP (B)]. At this conference itselfthey assessed the rise in the revolutionary movementwhich was seen from the rise in the number of strikersin 1911. At this conference and at later meetings of theCentral Committee, new tactics were decided uponaccording to the new situation. This involvedextending and intensifying the struggles of theworkers.

An important aspect of the tactics during thisperiod was the starting of the dailynewspaper,  Pravda  (Truth), which helped tostrengthen the Bolshevik organisations and spreadtheir influence among the masses.  Earlier theBolsheviks had a weekly paper, which was meant foradvanced workers. Pravda, however, was a daily masspolitical newspaper, aimed at reaching out to thebroadest sections of the workers. Started on 5th May1912, it lasted for two and a half years. During this

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period it faced numerous problems and heavy finesfrom the government’s censors. It was suppressedeight times but reappeared again each time under aslightly changed name. It had an average circulation of40,000 copies. Pravda was supported by a largenumber of advanced workers – 5600 workers’ groupscollected for the Bolshevik press. Through Pravda,Bolshevik influence spread not only among theworkers, but also among the peasants. In fact duringthe period of the rise of the revolutionary movement(1912-14) the solid foundation was laid for a massBolshevik party. As Stalin said, “The Pravda of 1912was the laying of the corner-stone of the victory ofBolshevism in 1917.”

With the outbreak of war in 1914, the revolutionarysituation further ripened. The Bolsheviks didextensive propaganda among the workers against thewar and for the overthrow of Tsardom. Units and cellswere also formed in the army and the navy, at thefront and in the rear, and leaflets distributed callingfor a fight against the war. At the front, after theParty’s intensive agitation for friendship andbrotherhood between the warring armies’ soldiers,there were increasing instances of refusal of army unitsto take the offensive in 1915 and 1916. Thebourgeoisie and landlords were making fortunes outof the war, but the workers and peasants weresuffering increasing hardships. Millions had dieddirectly of wounds or due to epidemics caused by warconditions. In January and February 1917, the

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situation became particularly acute. Hatred and angeragainst the tsarist government spread. 

Even the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie, were waryof the Tsar, whose advisers were working for aseparate peace with Germany. They too, with thebacking of the British and French governments,planned to replace the tsar through a palace coup.However the people acted first.

From January 1917 a strong revolutionary strikemovement started in Moscow, Petrograd, Baku andother industrial centres. The Bolsheviks organised bigstreet demonstrations in favour of a general strike. Asthe strike movement gained momentum, on March 8,International Women’s Day, the working women ofPetrograd were called out by the Bolsheviks todemonstrate against starvation, war and Tsardom. Theworkers supported the working women with strikesand by March 11, the strikes and demonstrations hadtaken on the character of an armed uprising. TheBureau of the Central Committee on March 11 issueda call for continuation of the armed uprising tooverthrow the tsar and establish a provisionalrevolutionary government. On March 12, 60,000soldiers came over to the side of the revolution, foughtthe police and helped the workers overthrow the Tsar.As the news spread, workers and soldiers everywherebegan to depose the Tsarist officials. The Februarybourgeois-democratic revolution had won. (It is calledFebruary Revolution because the Russian calendar at

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that time was 13 days behind the calendar in otherparts of the world and the date of the victory of therevolution was February 27th  according to theRussian calendar).

As soon as Tsardom was overthrown, on theinitiative of the Bolsheviks, there arose Soviets ofWorkers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. However, while theBolsheviks were directly leading the struggle of themasses in the streets, the compromising parties, theMensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries (a petty-bourgeois party which was a continuation of theearlier Narodniks) were seizing the seats in the Soviets,and building up a majority there. Thus they headedthe Soviets in Petrograd, Moscow and a number ofother cities.  Meanwhile the liberal bourgeoismembers of the Duma did a backdoor deal with theMensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries andformed a Provisional Government. The result wasthe formation of two bodies representing twodictatorships: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie,represented by the Provisional Government, andthe dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry,represented by the Soviets of Workers’ andSoldiers’ Deputies. Lenin called this dual power.

Immediately after the bourgeois revolution Leninwhiled still in Switzerland, wrote his famous  Lettersfrom Afar, where he analysed this dual power. Heshowed how  the Soviets were the embryo of theworkers’ government, which had to go ahead and

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win victory in the second stage of therevolution—the socialist revolution. Their allies inthis would be the broad semi-proletarian and smallpeasant masses and the proletariat of all countries.

On April 16, 1917, Lenin arrived in Petrograd after along period of exile, and the very next day presentedhis famous  April Theses  before a meeting ofBolsheviks.  He called for opposing the ProvisionalGovernment and working for a Bolshevik majorityin the Soviets and transferring state power to theSoviets. He presented the programme for ensuringpeace, land, and bread. Lastly, he called for a newparty Congress with a new party name, theCommunist Party, and for building anew  International, the  Third International.  TheMensheviks immediately attacked Lenin’s Theses andgave a warning that ‘the revolution is in danger’.However within three weeks, the first openly heldAll-Russia Conference (Seventh Conference) of theBolshevik Party, approved Lenin’s report based onthe same Theses. It gave the slogan, ‘All Power tothe Soviets!’ It also approved a very importantresolution, moved by Stalin, declaring the right ofnations to self-determination, including secession.

In the following months, the Bolsheviks workedenergetically according to the Conference line,convincing the masses of workers, soldiers andpeasants of the correctness of their position.  TheSixth Party Congress was also held in August 1917

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after a gap of ten years. Due to the danger of attackfrom the Provisional Government, the Congress hadto be held in secret in Petrograd, without the presenceof Lenin.  Stalin presented the main politicalreports, which called for the preparation for armeduprising. The Congress also adopted new PartyRules which provided that all Party organisationsshall be built on the principles of DemocraticCentralism. It also admitted the group led by Trotskyinto the Party.

Soon after the Congress, the Commander-in-Chief ofthe Russian Army, Gen. Kornilov, organised a revoltof the army in order to crush the Bolsheviks and theSoviets. However the soldiers of many divisions wereconvinced by the Bolsheviks not to obey orders andthe revolt failed. After the failure of this revolt  themasses realised that the Bolsheviks and the Sovietswere the only guarantee for achieving peace, land,and bread, which were their urgent demands.Rapid Bolshevisation of the Soviets took place, thetide of the revolution was rising, and the Partystarted preparing for armed uprising.

In this period, Lenin, for security reasons, was forcedto stay in Finland, away from the main arena of battle.During this period, he completed his book, The Stateand Revolution, which defended and developed theteachings of Marx and Engels on the question of thestate. While particularly exposing the distortions onthis question by opportunists like Kautsky, Lenin’s

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work then had tremendous theoretical and practicalsignificance at the international level. This wasbecause, as Lenin saw clearly at that time itself, theRussian February bourgeois revolution was a linkin a chain of socialist proletarian revolutions beingcaused by the World War I.  The question of therelationship between the proletarian revolution andthe state was no longer merely a theoretical question.Because of the revolutionary situation created by thewar it was now a question of immediate practicalimportance and it was necessary for the internationalproletarian movement and the masses to be educatedas to correct understanding regarding this.

As the revolutionary tide rose Lenin again landed inPetrograd on October 20, 1917. Within three days ofhis arrival, a historic Central Committee meetingdecided to launch the armed uprising within a fewdays. Immediately representatives were sent to allparts of the country and particularly to the armyunits. On becoming aware of the plan for the uprising,the Provisional government started an attack on theBolsheviks, on November 6, 1917, the eve of theholding of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets.The Red Guards and revolutionary units of the armyretaliated and by November 7, 1917, state power hadpassed into the hands of the Soviets.

Immediately the next day the Congress of Sovietspassed the Decree on Peace and the Decree onLand. It formed the first Soviet government—the

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Council of People’s Commissars—of which Leninwas elected the first Chairman. The Great OctoberSocialist Revolution had established thedictatorship of the proletariat.

It was however a long battle before the workers’power was consolidated. Firstly the war withGermany had to be ended. This was finally done bysigning the Brest-Litovsk Treaty in February 1918.This too however did not bring a lasting peace. Assoon as the World War I ended, the victoriousimperialist powers of Britain, France, Japan andAmerica started direct and indirect intervention andhelp to the old ruling classes of Russia to wage a civilwar against the Soviet state. This civil war lasted tillthe end of 1920. The Soviet state emerged victoriousbut at the end of the war the economy was in ruins.

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Chapter 18

The Formation of the Third International

The end of the World War I was a period ofrevolutionary upsurge throughout the world. Thesuccess of the October Revolution had an impact innumerous countries, even where Marxism had little orno influence. Europe, the main battlefield of the War,was in the deepest revolutionary crisis. The war hadresulted in the overthrow of four emperors and thebreak-up of their four great empires – the Russian,German, Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg), and Turkish(Ottoman). The state structures were in shambles andthe masses were in the mood for revolt. The massprotests started even before the completion of the war.In January 1918, a wave of mass political strikes andanti-war demonstrations swept throughout centralEurope. This was followed by revolts in the armedforces of various countries. There was also a nationalupsurge, which led to the formation of many newstates after the break-up of the old empires.

In Germany and Hungary however the crisis led torevolution. In November 1918 the German sailorsmutinied and this immediately spread a wave of revoltthroughout Germany resulting in the overthrow ofthe emperor and the establishment of a republic underthe leadership of the Social-Democrat Party. Sovietswere immediately established in Berlin and othercities. These were however crushed in January 1919after two weeks of street fighting against the

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reactionary military forces, which had beenreorganised by the Social-Democrat government. Latera Soviet Republic was formed in Bavaria (a province ofGermany) in April 1919. But this too was crushed. 

In Hungary the Communists led a coalition with theSocial-Democrats and took control of the governmentin March 1919. They were however thrown out withinfive months by military pressure from Alliedgovernments. The struggles of the workers continuedfor at least four more years but both these revolutionsfinally ended in failure.

Nevertheless the rising tide of revolution and thesuccess of the revolution in Russia had led toformation of Communist Parties in manycountries. A real basis now existed for a union ofthe Communist Parties, for the formation ofthe  Third, Communist International.  Asmentioned earlier, Lenin and the Bolsheviks hadgiven the call for the formation of the  ThirdInternational  in 1914 itself. Now they took theinitiative for actually setting it up.

In January 1919 Lenin addressed an open letter to theworkers of Europe and America urging them to foundthe Third International. Soon after invitations for aninternational congress were sent out. In March 1919,the First Congress of the Communist Parties ofvarious countries, held in Moscow, foundedthe Communist International.The Congress set upan Executive Committee of the  Third, Communist

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International.

Just a month after the First Congress, Lenin explainedthe historical significance of the Third International inthe following way: “The First International laid thefoundation of the proletarian, internationalstruggle for socialism. The  SecondInternational marked a period in which the soil wasprepared for the broad, mass spread of themovement in a number of countries. The  ThirdInternational has gathered the fruits of the work ofthe Second International, discarded its opportunist,social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petty-bourgeoisdross, and has begun to implement the dictatorshipof the proletariat.”  He thus pointed out that themost significant aspect of the Third International wasthat it now represented the proletariat that hadsucceeded in seizing state power and now had begunto establish socialism.

After intense preparatory work, the Second Congressof the Communist International held in July 1920 wasa major success with a wide representation from 41countries.  Lenin made major contributions toMarxist theory in connection with this Congress.He prepared what he intended as a handbook ofCommunist party strategy and tactics, which wasdistributed among the delegates of the Congress. Itwas called  “Left-Wing” Communism, an InfantileDisorder,  and concentrated on correcting the‘leftist’ errors then prevalent in many parties who

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had joined the International. Lenin also preparedthe  Theses on the National and ColonialQuestion  adopted at the Congress. It was alandmark document which laid the Marxist-Leninist theoretical foundations for understandingand leading the national liberation struggles thengathering momentum in all the colonies and semi-colonies. Besides, Lenin outlined the basic tasks ofthe  Communist International  and the  Theses onthe Agrarian Question  adopted at this Congress.The Congress also adopted theses on the role of theCommunist Party in the proletarian revolution, onthe trade union movement, on Communist Partiesand parliament, and the Statutes and Conditions ofadmission of the Communist International. In itsstatutes the Comintern (Communist International)clearly declared that it “breaks once and for all withthe traditions of the  Second International, forwhom only white-skinned people existed”.

Besides theoretical formulations, the  International,through its Executive Committee started playing aprominent role in guiding the parties and movementsin the various member countries. In particular, it triedto make the utmost of the post-war revolutionarysituation in the capitalist countries, which continuedtill 1923. However due primarily to the betrayal ofthe Second International Social-Democrats, as also theideological and organisational weaknesses of theCommunist Parties in these countries, revolutioncould not be successfully completed in any other

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capitalist country.

The Comintern however played an important role inestablishing, developing and guiding the newly formedCommunist parties in the colonies and semi-colonies.During the nineteen twenties as the national liberationmovements in these countries advanced rapidly, theComintern attempted to guide and train theCommunist Parties to provide the leadership to thesemovements. It was for the first time that Marxism wasbuilding a base among the people of the backwardcountries of the world.

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Chapter 19

The National and Colonial Question

The earliest national movements arose in WesternEurope.  These national movements were mainly ledby the bourgeoisie in their fight against feudalism. Themain aim of these national movements was to uniteinto one nation and state a large territory, which wasunder the rule of numerous feudal lords. This wasnecessary for the bourgeoisie to get a single largemarket and to avoid the harassment and dominationof the various feudal lords. Thus the bourgeoisrevolution against feudalism and the nationalmovement to establish a single nation-state oftencombined into one. Thus the national movement wasnot normally a struggle for independence fromoppression by another nation. In the whole ofWestern Europe, the only place where a nationalmovement for independence took place was whenIreland fought to free itself from Britain.

Marx and Engels lived in this period, when thelater national liberation struggles were yet to breakout in a major way. They thus did not devote muchattention to developing Marxist theory on thenational question. Marx however formulated thebasic stand in relation to the Irish Question bycalling on the English proletariat to support thenational struggle of the Irish people and oppose itsnational oppression.

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The next phase of nationality movements came inEastern Europe,  with the spread of capitalism, andthe weakening of the Austro-Hungarian and Russianempires. Nationality movements and organisationsstarting growing in the whole of East Europe,including Russia. It was necessary for the internationalproletarian movement and the RSDLP to have aproper understanding and stand on the question. Itwas during this period that Stalin, in 1913, made thefirst systematic Marxist presentation on the nationalquestion. Stalin himself was a Georgian, a member ofan oppressed nationality in Russia, where a nationalmovement was rapidly developing. In Georgia it wastherefore doubly necessary to present the correctMarxist understanding and take the correct politicalstand. This is what Stalin attempted to do in hispioneering work,  Marxism and The NationalQuestion.

In his work Stalin started by defining what is anation.  He defined a nation as “a historicallyevolved, stable community of people, based uponthe common possession of four principal attributes,namely: a common language, a common territory,a common economic life, and a commonpsychological make-up manifesting itself incommon specific features of nationalculture.”  Stalin rejected the concept of nation basedmerely on religion or culture, like the Jews. Heinsisted that a community should have all the abovecharacteristics to be called a nation. Stalin proposed

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that all such nations should have the right to self-determination.  This right of self-determinationhowever cannot be limited to autonomy, or to linkingup in a federation, as some other parties of that timewere proposing. The right of self-determination hadto include the right of secession, i.e. to separate andexist as an independent state.  However Stalinpointed out that how to exercise the right dependedon the concrete historical circumstances at a particularpoint of time. It was up to the revolutionaries to tryand influence the nation’s decision regarding self-determination. The decision of the revolutionaryparty would be based on whether autonomy, orfederation, or secession, or any other course would bein the best interests of the toiling masses, andparticularly the proletariat.

Though Stalin’s presentation clarified many questions,it was still incomplete because it did not link thenational question to imperialism and the question ofcolonies. This was only done after Lenin’s analysis ofimperialism in 1916. On the basis of an analysis ofimperialism, Lenin linked the question of self-determination of nations to the national-liberationstruggles being waged in the colonialcountries. Thus it came to cover the vast majority ofthe world’s peoples. It did not remain merely aninternal state problem of a few countries, which hadoppressed nationalities within their boundaries.  Thenational question became a world problem, aquestion of the liberation of the oppressed peoples

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of all dependent countries and colonies from theburden of imperialism.

Thus when Lenin, in 1916, presented his  Thesis onThe Socialist Revolution and The Right of Nations toSelf-Determination,  he included all the countries ofthe world in his analysis. He divided the countries ofthe world into three main types:

First, the advanced capitalist countries of WesternEurope and the United States of America. Theseare oppressor nations who oppress other nations inthe colonies and within their own country. The taskof the proletariat of these ruling nations is tooppose national oppression and support thenational struggle of the peoples oppressed by theirimperialist ruling classes.

Secondly, Eastern Europe and particularly Russia.The task of the proletariat in these countries is touphold the right of nations to selfdetermination.  In this connection the most difficultbut most important task is to merge the class struggleof the workers in the oppressing nations with the classstruggle of the workers in the oppressed nations.

Thirdly, the semi-colonial countries, like China,Persia, Turkey, and all the colonies, which then hada combined population amounting to a billion.With regard to these colonial countries, Lenin tookthe stand that socialists must not only demand theunconditional and immediate liberation of the

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colonies without compensation, but must also givedetermined support to the movement for nationalliberation in these countries and assist rebellionand revolutionary war against  the imperialistpowers that oppress them.

This was the first time within the internationalsocialist movement that such a clear stand had beentaken on the national and colonial questions. Therewas naturally thus some debate and confusions. Onesuch argument was that support to self-determinationand national liberation went against proletarianinternationalism. It argued that socialism aimed at themerger of all nations. Lenin agreed that the aim ofsocialism is to abolish the division of mankind intosmall states, to bring nations closer together, and toeven merge them. However he felt it would beimpossible to achieve this by the forced merger ofnations.  The merging of nations could only beachieved only by passing through the transitionperiod of complete liberation of all oppressednations i.e. their freedom to secede. Whilepresenting the party programme in 1917 Leninsaid, “We want free unification, that is why wemust recognise the right to secede. Withoutfreedom to secede, unification cannot be calledfree.” This was the proletariat’s democratic approachto the national question, which stood opposed to thebourgeoisie’s policy of national oppression andannexation.

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Chapter 20

Early Life and Revolutionary Contributions ofStalin upto the 1917 Revolution

In the initial years after the October Revolution,Lenin directly guided all the affairs of state and theparty. In August 1918 there was an attempt on his lifeby a women member of the Socialist RevolutionaryParty, which left two bullets in his body. Lenin wasweakened by this attempt, but continued his rigorouswork schedule, which only left him three to fourhours sleep. This overwork soon started having aserious impact on his health, particularly his brain.From end 1921 he started getting severe headaches andspells of vertigo (an illness which causes giddiness)which affected his work. In May 1922 he suffered aparalytic stroke which affected his right hand and legand his power of speech. From that time on till hisdeath despite Lenin’s many efforts to recover and getback to work, he could not play any effectiverole.  Just before Lenin’s stroke, the CentralCommittee had in April 1922, elected Stalin as theGeneral Secretary. It was thus Stalin who took overthe leadership of the Party during Lenin’s illnessand after his death on 21st January 1924.

Stalin  (meaning man of steel), was the most popularof many party names of Joseph VissarionovichDzhugashvili who was born on 21st December 1879,in Gori, a small town of Georgia, which was then anoppressed nationality within the Russian Empire

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(today Georgia is an independent country). Hisparents were poor and illiterate, descendants of serfs.His father, a few years after being released fromslavery to his landlord, had shifted, in 1875, from hisvillage near Tiflis, the capital of the Caucasus (abackward region of the Russian Empire, which washome to Georgia and several other oppressednationalities). He set up a small shoemaker’s shop inGori, which was the equivalent of a district town. Hewas however not able to earn much and left his wifeand child in Gori to go and take up a job in a shoefactory in Tiflis, where he died in 1890.

Since Stalin’s father did not contribute much to thehousehold, his mother, Ekaterina was the one wholooked after him and brought him up. She workedlong hours as a washerwoman and it was her earningsthat paid for all the expenses of the household. Shehad three children before Stalin, who all died soonafter birth. Stalin being her only surviving son, shemade all efforts to give him a proper education.Despite her poverty, she did not send her son to workas would have been normal. She sent Stalin, at the ageof nine, to the local church school. She herself put in alot of effort and learnt to read and write later in oldage. Ekaterina was thus a remarkable example of thegrit and determination of the working masses.

Stalin personally experienced poverty from hisearliest childhood days. His house consisted of twoextremely small rooms, which served as shop,

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workshop and home. Though Stalin was strong andhardy, he suffered an attack of smallpox when six orseven years of age that left lifelong pock marks on hisface. He also had a blood infection, which broughthim near death and permanently handicapped his leftarm.

During his five years at the Gori School, Stalin wasnoted for his intelligence and his exceptional memory.It was here that Stalin came first into contact withrationalist ideas and went against religion. He startedwriting poetry and was himself influenced byGeorgian literature and poetry, which had strongnationalist trends. It was during these years itselfthat  Stalin was filled with strong feelings offighting against social injustice and against theoppression of his people.

Due to his poverty it would have been impossiblefor Stalin to go for higher education. However hewas recommended as the ‘best student’ for ascholarship, by the school headmaster and the localpriest. This enabled him to continue his studies fromOctober 1894 at the topmost institution of higherlearning in the Caucasus. This was the TheologicalSeminary (a college for training to become a Christianpriest) at Tiflis.  Stalin’s five years at the Tiflisseminary were crucial formative years when hebecame a Marxist.

Georgia, in Stalin’s youth was in a constant state ofunrest. One of the sources of unrest was the rebellious

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mood of the peasantry, where the abolition ofserfdom had been delayed even after it had beenabolished in Russia. The other source was the constantinflow of revolutionary ideas from Russia. This wasbecause the Tsarist government had a long history ofdeporting to the Caucasus, many of its rebels andbourgeois revolutionaries. Later these deporteesincluded even Marxist worker revolutionaries likeKalinin, the future President of the Soviet Union, andAlliluyev, Bolshevik organiser and later Stalin’s father-in-law.

The Tiflis seminary was one such centre of unrest. Itwas the main breeding ground of the localintelligentsia and also the main centre of opposition tothe Tsar. In 1893, just a year before Stalin joined theseminary there was a strike, which led to the dismissalof 87 students. The main leaders of the strike laterbecame prominent Marxists and revolutionaries. Oneof the leaders, Ketskhoveli, was also from Stalin’s Gorischool, just three years his senior. He soon becameStalin’s first political mentor.

Stalin, in the first year itself immersed himself inreading all sorts of radical literature. This he had todo secretly, because most books of non-religious andpolitical nature were strictly banned in the seminary.His poetry, radical and political in nature, waspublished for the first time, under another name, in aleading Georgian magazine. This was also the timewhen Stalin, at the young age of fifteen, came into

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contact with secret Marxist study circles. SoonStalin came under the vigilance of the seminaryauthorities and was even sent to the punishment cellfor reading forbidden literature. Around this time hejoined a secret debating circle in the seminary itself.This further increased his activities, which broughthim more often into conflict with the seminaryauthorities.

At the age of eighteen, in August 1898, hejoined  Messame Dassy (meaning The ThirdGroup), the first group of Socialists inGeorgia,  whose leaders later became prominentMensheviks. Later  Stalin would say, “I became aMarxist because of my social position (my fatherwas a worker in a shoe factory and my mother wasalso a working woman), but also …because of theharsh intolerance and Jesuitical discipline thatcrushed me so mercilessly at the Seminary…. Theatmosphere in which I lived was saturated withhatred against Tsarist oppression.”  Outside theSeminary, in the city of Tiflis, the workers during thisperiod were on the move. These years saw the firststrikes in the Caucasus.  As soon as Stalin joinedthe  Messame Dassy  he was given the task ofrunning a few workers’ study circles. This he did byholding secret meetings in the workers’ bastisduring the short free time that he got from theseminary.  Meanwhile the seminary authorities werelooking for an opportunity to deal with Stalin. Finallyhe was expelled from the seminary in May 1899, on

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grounds of not having appeared for his examinations.

Expulsion from the seminary however did not seemuch change in Stalin’s revolutionary activities. Aftera short stay with his mother in Gori, he was back inTiflis, organising and educating, while staying amongthe workers. In December 1899, he took up a job asa clerk with the Tiflis geophysical observatory. Thisjob though paying very little, took very little timeand provided an ideal cover from the Tsarist secretpolice.

Under this cover, Stalin continued to expand hisactivities. The next year, in 1900, he organised andspoke at the first May Day celebration to be held inthe Caucasus. Due to Tsarist repression, this 500strong meeting had to be held, not in the city but inthe mountains above Tiflis. The meeting was aninspiring event which led to strikes in the factories andrailways in the following months. Stalin was one ofthe main organisers. The next year it was decided tohold the May Day demonstration openly in themiddle of Tiflis, but the main leaders were arrested inMarch 1901 itself. Stalin’s room too was raided but hemanaged to escape. From that day onwards till thesuccess of the revolution in 1917, Stalin led the lifeof an underground professional revolutionary. Hisfirst task was to take over the leadership of theorganisation and go ahead and organise the May Dayevent despite the loss of the main leaders. This he didsuccessfully, and despite arrests and violent attacks by

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the police, a historic 2000 strong demonstration washeld.

These first years of Stalin in the Socialist organisationwere also days of intense debate on Economism andother issues.  Within the Georgian organisation,Stalin always opposed the opportunists and stoodwith the left wing. When Iskra started, Stalin’s groupwas the first to become its enthusiastic supporters anddistribute it in Tiflis. They soon started an illegalpaper in the Georgian language, in September 1901,called Brdzola (meaning The Struggle). Stalin who wasone of its principal writers with many articlesbasically upholding the  Iskra  line. Of particularimportance was a detailed article  The Russian SocialDemocratic Party and Its Immediate tasks, whichcame out in December 1901.

In November 1901, Stalin was elected to the Social-Democratic Committee of Tiflis, which was theeffective leading body then for the whole of theCaucasus. He was immediately sent to Batum,  asmall town of 25,000 population, which was a newcentre of the oil industry linked by oil pipeline to thebigger and older oil-town Baku.  He soon formed atown committee there under cover of a New Year’sparty. He also set up a secret press in the single roomwhere he was staying. Many leaflets were brought outwhich led soon to struggles of the workers. One suchstruggle led to police firing in which fifteen workerswere killed. All these activities were done despite

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opposition by the local Socialists who later becameMensheviks. Finally after just four and a half monthsin Batum, Stalin was arrested in April 1902 at a secretBatum committee meeting. The secret press howeverremained undiscovered.  It was during the Batumperiod that Stalin took one of his many partynames, by which he remained famous for the manyyears he worked in the Caucasus. He wascalled  Koba,  which meant the indomitable orunconquerable in Turkish, and was the name of thepeople’s hero of one of the poems of Stalin’sfavourite writers of his youth days.

Stalin spent one and a half years in various jails. Injail he maintained a strict discipline, rose early,worked hard, read much, and was one of the chiefdebaters in the prison commune. He was alsoknown as a patient, sensitive and helpfulcomrade. After his jail period when no charges couldbe proved against him he was still banished inNovember 1903 to eastern Siberia.  While in prison,he was, in March 1903, elected to the Executive ofthe newly formed All-Caucasian Federation ofSocial-Democratic groups. Since it is very rare foran imprisoned comrade to be elected to acommittee, this action gives an idea of theimportance of Stalin in the Caucasian organisation.Stalin’s banishment to Siberia coincided with the buildup to the Russo-Japanese war. Stalin and his comradesmade use of the confusion to escape almostimmediately on arrival in Siberia. By end January

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1904 he was back in Tiflis.

As soon as Stalin returned he was called upon to take astand on the issues that had led to the split betweenthe Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The majority of theSocialists in the Caucasus were Mensheviks and evenmany of the Bolsheviks were for compromise. Despitethis large majority for the Mensheviks,  Stalin soontook a stand with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Hestarted writing in the Georgian party press invigorous support of the Bolshevik line. In his firstarticle he wrote that the party is “the militantgroup of leaders” and “must be a coherentcentralised organisation”. His strong politicalposition brought him into contact with Lenin who,from abroad, asked for copies of Stalin’s articles.Along with his ideological battle against theMensheviks, Stalin, at the same time, was deeplyinvolved in the revolutionary struggles that werebuilding up throughout the country as part of the1905 Revolution. Stalin’s centre was the Caucasus.

Besides participating in organising the workers’strikes, Stalin immediately started the practicalimplementation of the Bolshevik call for preparationfor armed uprising. He became the main organiser,inspirer and guide of the military organisation inthe Caucasus. An efficient and secret laboratory forexplosives was also set up. Through the struggles anumber of fighting squads were set up. Theyparticipated in the numerous revolts, in attacks on

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ruling class goonda gangs, and kept contact withpeasant guerrillas. In the later period ofdownswing of the revolution, when the party faceda serious shortage of funds, some of the bestfighting squads were used for major and daringmoney actions. Stalin played the principal role inbuilding up and directing this very secret Technicalbranch of the Party. He also wrote articles duringthis period explaining the Marxist approach toinsurrection.

In December 1905, Stalin attended his first All-RussiaConference of the Bolsheviks, where it was decided tobuild unity with the Mensheviks. It is here that hemet Lenin for the first time. He also attended theApril 1906 Unity Congress where he was the onlyBolshevik out of eleven delegates from the Caucasus.The rest were all Mensheviks. He was also the onlyBolshevik from the Caucasus who attended the 1907Congress. At both Congresses one of the points ofdiscussion were resolutions led by the Mensheviks andTrotsky, calling for bans on armed actions and moneyseizures. However the Caucasus continued to be themain centre for such actions with an estimate of 1150such actions taking place there between 1905 to 1908.

Towards the end of 1907 Stalin was elected on theBaku committee. This oil-town of 50,000 workers hadworkers of various nationalities and religions facingsevere exploitation. Stalin soon united the workersand developed the lone centre of struggle during the

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dark period of the Stolypin reaction. Adopting a newidentity he set up residence and a secret printing pressin the Muslim part of the city. It was in this periodthat Stalin started writing for the first time in Russian.In 1908, Stalin was arrested, but continued to writearticles and guide party activities from inside the jail.In 1909, he was again banished, but again escapedwithin four months.

Stalin returned via St. Petersburg and found thedisorganised state of the party headquarters in thecapital. On returning to Baku he wrote stronglyregarding the state of affairs and called for an All-Russia paper brought out from Russia. He also latercalled for the practical directing centre to betransferred to Russia. After many months of intensivework in Baku and articles for the party organ abroad,Stalin was again arrested in March 1910. After somemonths in jail he was again banished where heremained till June 1911. This time being forbidden toreturn to the Caucasus or any big city he settled in atown near St. Petersburg and Moscow. He washowever again arrested within two months. After afew months in jail he was again released but had to liveoutside the big cities.

It was during this period that the first BolshevikCentral Committee, elected by the January 1912Bolshevik Conference, coopted Stalin on to theCommittee, in its very first meeting. One of Stalin’sfirst tasks after becoming CCM was to bring out

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the first issue of the Bolshevik daily paper Pravda.He was however almost immediately arrested again.After three months in prison and two monthsbanishment in Siberia he escaped again. He reached St.Petersburg in time to lead the campaign for theelections to the Duma. Though the Bolsheviks wononly six seats, it represented eighty percent of theindustrial workers.

At the end of 1912 and beginning of 1913, Stalinspent a few weeks abroad where he met and haddetailed discussions with Lenin and othercomrades. It was during this period that he wrotehis famous theoretical book onthe NationalQuestion.  He returned to St. Petersburg inFebruary 1913, but was betrayed within a week byanother member of the Central Committee,Malinovsky, who was an agent of the Tsarist secretpolice. This agent also betrayed another CCM,Sverdlov. Both Stalin and Sverdlov were banished tothe remotest parts of Siberia from where escape wasthe most difficult. Lenin during this period madeelaborate plans to arrange for their escape but theescape plans themselves were made through the samesecret agent. Rather than arrange escape this agentonly arranged for closer watch to be kept on theCCMs. Thus Stalin was forced to remain this timein exile for four long years until the Februarybourgeois Revolution of 1917 resulted in theoverthrow of the Tsarist regime. It was then thathe was allowed to return to St. Petersburg, where

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he arrived on 12th March 1917. From then tillLenin’s arrival in April, he led the party centre.

Looking back over Stalin’s political life of aroundtwenty years before the Revolution, it stands out asa model of courage, self-sacrifice, dedication anddevotion to the cause of revolution. Besides thelong years in prison and banishment, Stalin’s lifewas almost throughout in the underground in closeand living contact with the masses. In such adifficult life of total dedication there was hardlyany time for Stalin to have much of a ‘private life’.His first marriage was in his youth to EkaterinaSvanidze, the sister of one of his Socialist comradesat the Tiflis Seminary. They had one son, who afterEkaterina’s death, during the 1905 Revolution, wasbrought up by her parents. Stalin second marriagewas to Nadezhda Alliluyeva, the daughter of one ofStalin’s close worker comrades. He had had closelinks with the family and it was they who always sentparcels of food, clothing and books during hisbanishment days.  This second marriage howeveronly took place when both were assigned toTsaritsyn (later renamed Stalingrad) during theCivil War. This was after the October Revolution.

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Chapter 21

Socialist Construction – the Russian Experience

Around the time of the October Revolution therewere two types of so-called Marxist views with regardto the building of socialism.

One was the view represented by the Mensheviks andothers like them. These people were opposed to goingahead to the socialist revolution and wanted power toremain in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Theirargument was that since capitalism had not advancedsufficiently and concentrated the means ofproduction, particularly in agriculture, the time wasnot appropriate for the proletariat to capture power.They proposed that the proletariat should wait forsome time till capitalism had been advanced to someextent under the rule of the bourgeoisie. This wouldcreate the conditions for the nationalisation of all themeans of production and for the construction ofsocialism. The Mensheviks were thus altogetheragainst the proletariat seizing power and going aheadwith a programme of socialist construction.

The other view was represented by a group within theBolshevik party called ‘Left’ Communists. Their standwas that power should be captured and all the meansof production immediately nationalised even by meansof seizing the property of the small and middlepeasants and other producers. These ‘Left’Communists thus wanted to take an antagonistic stand

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to the peasantry and thus drive away the main ally ofthe revolution.

Lenin, in a struggle against these two trends, drewup the correct path for socialist construction. Themain aspects of Lenin’s path of socialistconstruction can be outlined as follows:

a)  The proletariat should not lose the chance butmake full use of the favourable conditions to seizepower. Waiting will only mean that capitalism willgo ahead and ruin millions of small and mediumindividual producers.

b) The means of production in industry should beconfiscated and converted into public property.

c)  The small and medium individual producersshould gradually be united in producers’ co-operatives, i.e., in large agricultural enterprises,collective farms.

d) Industry should be developed to the utmost andthe collective farms should be placed on themodern technical basis of large-scale production.The property of the collective farm should notconfiscated, but on the contrary they should begenerously supplied with first-class tractors andother machines;

e)  Exchange through purchase and sale, i.e.commodity production should be preserved for acertain period, because the peasants would not

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accept any other form of economic tie betweentown and country. However trade should only bethrough Soviet trade—between the state, co-operative, and collective farm. This should bedeveloped to the full and the capitalists of all typesand descriptions should be ousted from tradingactivity.

Of these five points, the first two steps, the seizure ofpower and the nationalisation of big industry werecompleted in the first few months itself. However thefurther steps in the process of socialist constructioncould not be taken up immediately because of theextremely difficult conditions of all-sided enemyattack faced by the first proletarian state. Due to thecivil war the very survival of the state was in question.In order to face this all-round attack, the Party had tomobilise the whole country to fight the enemy. A setof emergency measures called ‘War Communism’ wasintroduced.

Under War Communism the Soviet government tookover control of middle and small industries, inaddition to large-scale industry; it introduced a statemonopoly of the grain trade and prohibited privatetrading in grain; it established the surplus-appropriation system, under which all surplusproduce of the peasants had to be handed over to thestate at fixed prices; and finally it introduced universallabour service for all classes, making physical labourcompulsory for the bourgeoisie, thus releasing

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workers required for more important responsibilitiesat the front. This policy of ‘War Communism’ washowever of a temporary nature to fulfil the needs ofwar. It helped mobilise the whole people for the warand thus resulted in the defeat of all the foreigninterventionists and domestic reactionaries by the endof 1920 and the preservation of the independence andfreedom of the new Soviet Republic.

From 1921 there was another turn in the situation inRussia. After completing victory in the civil war, thetask had to shift to the peaceful work of economicrestoration. For this a policy shift was made from WarCommunism to the  New Economic Policy (NEP).According to this, the compulsory surplusappropriation from the peasants was discontinued,private trade was restarted and private manufacturerswere allowed to start small businesses. This wasnecessary because the War Communism measures hadgone too far ahead and were being resented by certainsections of the mass base of the party—particularly thepeasantry. However the Trotskyites strongly opposedthe NEP as nothing but a retreat. Lenin, at the TenthCongress of the Party, in March 1921, countered theTrotskyites and convinced the Congress of the policychange, which was then adopted. He further gave atheoretical substantiation of the correctness of theNEP in his  Report on the Tactics of the RussianCommunist Party  presented before the ThirdCongress of the  Communist International  in July1921. The NEP continued till end 1925, when the

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Fourteenth Party Congress took the decision ofmoving to the next phase of socialist construction,that of socialist industrialisation.

Socialist Industrialisation: The Soviet Union was atthat time still a relatively backward agrarian countrywith two-thirds of the total production coming fromagriculture and only one-third from industry. Furtherbeing the first socialist state, the question of beingeconomically independent of imperialism was ofcentral importance. Therefore the path of socialistconstruction had to firstly concentrate on socialistindustrialisation. In Stalin’s words, “The conversionof our country from an agrarian into an industrialcountry able to produce the machinery it needs byits own efforts—that is the essence, the basis of ourgeneral line.” Thus the main focus was on heavyindustry which would produce machines for otherindustries and for agriculture.

This policy succeeded in building a strong industrialbase independent of imperialism. It also enabled thedefence of the socialist base in the World War II. Alsoindustry expanded at a pace several times faster thanthe most advanced imperialist countries thus provingthe immense superiority of the socialist system. Theprincipal factor in this was the wholeheartedparticipation in increasing production by the wholeworking class. At a time when the whole capitalistworld was reeling under a very severe economiccrisis socialist industry was marching ahead

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without any problems whatsoever.

However, due to special emphasis on prioritydevelopment of heavy industry, agriculture wasneglected in the plans. Thus in the period whenindustrial production went up by over nine times,grain production did not even go up by one-fifth. Thisshowed that the growth of agriculture was very low ascompared to industry. This was also the case withinindustry with heavy industry growing at a much fasterspeed than light industry.  Mao, in his  Critique ofSoviet Economics, criticised this emphasis andcalled for simultaneous promotion of both industryas well as agriculture. Within industry he called forthe development of both light and heavy industryat the same time.

Collectivisation of Agriculture: The first step in thisprocess was taken in the NEP restoration period itselfwith the formation of the first co-operatives amongsmall and medium peasants. However due to theresistance of the kulaks (rich farmers) there was notmuch progress. Further the kulaks had taken aposition of active opposition and sabotage of thesocialist construction process. They refused to sell tothe Soviet State their grain surpluses. They resorted toterrorism against the collective farmers, against Partyworkers and government officials in the countryside,and burned down collective farms and state granaries.In 1927, due to this sabotage, the marketed share ofthe harvest was only 37% of the pre-war figure. Thus

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the Party, in that year took the decision to launch anoffensive to break the resistance of the kulaks. Relyingon the poor peasants and allying with the middlepeasants, the Party was able to achieve success in grainpurchasing and take ahead the collectivisation process.However the major advance came from the end of1929.

Prior to 1929, the Soviet Government had pursueda policy of restricting the kulaks. The effect of thispolicy was to arrest the growth of the kulak class,some sections of which, unable to withstand thepressure of these restrictions, were forced out ofbusiness and ruined. But this policy did not destroythe economic foundations of the kulaks as a class, nordid it tend to eliminate them. This policy was essentialup to a certain time, that is, as long as the collectivefarms and state farms were still weak and unable toreplace the kulaks in the production of grain.

At the end of 1929, with the growth of thecollective farms and the state farms, the SovietGovernment turned sharply from this policy to thepolicy of eliminating the kulaks, of destroyingthem as a class. It withdrew the laws on the rentingof land and the hiring of labour, thus depriving thekulaks both of land and of hired labourers. It liftedthe ban on the confiscation of the kulaks’ property.It permitted the peasants to confiscate cattle,machines and other farm property from the kulaksfor the benefit of the collective farms. The kulaks

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thus lost all their means of production. They wereexpropriated just as the capitalists had beenexpropriated in the sphere of industry in 1918. Thedifference, however, was that the kulaks’ means ofproduction did not pass into the hands of the state,but into the hands of the peasants, united in thecollective farms.

A step-by-step plan was adopted for theimplementation of this policy. Depending on theconditions in various regions, different rates ofcollectivisation were established and the targeted yearfor completion of the collectivisation was fixed. Theproduction of tractors, harvesters and otheragricultural machinery was increased manifold. Stateloans to collective farms were doubled in the first yearitself. 25,000 class-conscious industrial workers wereselected and sent to the rural areas to help implementthis plan. The process of collectivisation despite someerrors, advanced rapidly towards success.  By 1934ninety percent of the total crop area of the countryhad been brought under socialist agriculture, i.e.state farms or collective farms.

The whole process of the collectivisation ofagriculture was nothing less than a revolution inwhich the proletariat had allied with the poor andmiddle peasants to break the hold of the kulaks.

This revolution, at one blow, solved threefundamental problems of Socialist construction:

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a)  It eliminated the most numerous class of exploiters in the country, the kulak class, themainstay of capitalist restoration;

b) It transferred the most numerous labouring classin the country, the peasant class, from the path ofindividual farming, which breeds capitalism, to thepath of co-operative, collective, Socialist farming;

c)  It furnished the Soviet regime with a Socialistbase in agriculture—the most extensive and vitallynecessary, yet least developed, branch of nationaleconomy.

With the victory of the collectivisation movement, theParty announced the victory of socialism. In January1933, Stalin announced that, “The victory of Socialismin all branches of the national economy had abolishedthe exploitation of man by man.” In January 1934, the17th  Party Congress Report declared that, “thesocialist form of social and economic structure—nowholds undivided sway and is the sole commandingforce in the whole national economy.” The absence ofany antagonistic classes was later repeatedly stressedwhile presenting the Constitution in 1936 and in laterPolitical Reports.

Errors in Russian Experience:  The Russianexperience in socialist construction was of centralimportance to the international proletariat, andparticularly to all countries where the proletariatseized power. Stalin in his workEconomic Problems

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of Socialism in the USSR  tried to theoriseregarding the process of socialist construction andthe economic laws of socialism. He however did notmake a self-critical analysis of the Russian experience.Later Mao made an analysis of the Russian experienceand pointed certain errors in the practice, as well as inStalin’s formulations.

Mao pointed out the following principal errors inthe Russian experience: -

1) Not giving due importance to the contradictionbetween the production relations and productiveforces. This was reflected in the prolonged coexistenceof two types of ownership – on the one handownership of the whole people, as represented in thenationalised industries and the stated farms and on theother hand ownership by the collectives. Mao felt thatprolonged coexistence of ownership by the wholepeople with ownership by the collectives was boundto become less and less adaptable to the developmentof the productive forces. Essentially a way had to befound to make the transition from collective to publicownership.

2)  Not giving importance to the mass-line duringsocialist construction.  Mao pointed out that in theearlier period mass-line was adopted, but afterwards,the Soviet party became less reliant on the masses. Thethings emphasised were technology and technicalcadre, rather than politics and the masses. 

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3) Neglecting the class struggle. After the success ofthe collectivisation process not enough importancewas given to continuing the class struggle. 

4)  Imbalance in the relation between heavyindustry on one side and light industry andagriculture on the other.   

5)  Mistrust of the peasants. Mao criticised theRussian policy for not giving due importance to thepeasantry. 

Besides drawing these lessons from Stalin and theRussian experience, Mao learnt from the Chineseexperience. He thus made an at tempt to develope theMarxist theory of socialist construction.

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Chapter 22

Fight against Trotskyism and  Other OpportunistTrends

Throughout the period of the Russian Revolution andeven after the seizure of power the Bolshevik line hadto wage struggle against various opportunistlines.  One of the most important of these anti-Marxist trends was Trotskyism, named after itsoriginator, Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was a member ofthe RSDLP who at the time of the split betweenBolsheviks and Mensheviks, sided with theMensheviks. Later he tried to form a bloc separatefrom both the Bolshevik and Menshevik trends andeven presented himself as the ‘centrist’ who wouldunite the two groups. After the success of theFebruary Revolution he self criticised for his errorsand was admitted into the Bolshevik party and takeninto the Central Committee. After the OctoberRevolution he was Commissar of Foreign Affairs(1917-1918) and Commissar of Military and NavalAffairs (1918-1924) from which post he was removedfor his opportunist and factional activities.

In the period of socialist construction in particular,Trotskyism played a very disruptive and factionalrole. Stalin led the Party in a firm struggle againstTrotskyist opportunism. The three specific featuresof Trotskyism, which were outlined by Stalin, inhis speech on Trotskyism or Leninism are:

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1) The theory of permanent revolution:– According to this theory, Trotsky proposed thatthe proletariat should quickly move from thebourgeois democratic stage to the socialist stage ofthe revolution without the help of the peasantry.He thus was opposed to any talk of dictatorship ofthe proletariat and peasantry. He thus rejected therole of the peasantry, the strongest ally of theproletariat. This theory which looks very ‘Left’,actually in essence meant the betrayal of therevolution because without the peasantry there wasno hope of success for the proletariat and therevolution was bound to end in failure. Anotheraspect of this theory was that revolution in theadvanced capitalist countries was necessary for thebuilding of socialism. His theory of permanentrevolution was also a theory of world revolution,which proposed that though revolution would starton a national basis, the revolutionaries shouldimmediately work to spread it in other countries.Again this proposal appears very ‘Left’ but actualmeant a very defeatist understanding that opposedthe possibility of building of socialism in onecountry.

Lenin opposed this anti-Marxist theory as soon as itappeared in the period immediately following the 1905Revolution, when Trotsky was not part of theBolshevik trend. However it appeared in various waysand had to be fought against at various points after theOctober Revolution, when Trotsky had joined the

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Bolshevik Party and become one of its leadingmembers.

The first instance was immediately after theRevolution, during the negotiations for peace withGermany. Trotsky on the basis of his theory wantedwar to continue as he felt that it would help therevolutionary situation in Germany and the success ofthe revolution in Germany, an advanced capitalistcountry was more important than the consolidationof the Russian Revolution. Lenin and Stalin forcefullyopposed this argument, but a special Seventh Congresshad to be held to discuss and defeat thisunderstanding.

Another example of this theory was Trotsky’sOpposition’s fight against the introduction of theNEP (New Economic Policy). Being an opponent ofthe alliance with the peasantry, he felt that the NEPwas nothing but a retreat. He did not accept the needof preserving this alliance and preparing the groundfor socialist construction. Again this understandinghad to be fought against and defeated at the TenthParty Congress.

A third example was at the time of turning from theNEP to Socialist Industrialisation. At that timeTrotsky united with other elements to propose that itwas not possible to build socialism in one country.This proposal based on Trotsky’s ‘permanentrevolution’ and ‘world revolution’ understandingwould have meant a defeatist and opportunist

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approach towards socialist construction which wouldsupposedly base the success of socialism in Russia onthe success of revolution in the developed capitalistcountries. Stalin united the Party against thisunderstanding at the Fourteenth Party Congress in1925.

2) The second feature of Trotskyism is itsopposition to Bolshevik party principles. Trotsky’sopposition to democratic centralism and theconcept of the Leninist party was apparent fromthe very beginning in his support to theMensheviks during the split with the Bolsheviks.Even later in 1912 he united all the opportunist trendslike the Liquidators and Recallists to form a factioncalled the August bloc. While pretending to be a‘centrist’ who was going to unite the Bolsheviks andMensheviks, Trotsky actually totally supported theMensheviks and was working jointly with them.Lenin, supported by Stalin and others, opposed andfought against this opportunist bloc.

In 1923, when Lenin was grievously ill, Trotskytook advantage of the gap in leadership to demandthe withdrawal of all norms of democraticcentralism in the party. He united all variedopposition elements to formulate a Declaration ofthe Forty-Six Oppositionists,  which demandedfreedom of factions and groups in the CommunistParty. This factionalist demand was also defeated.

However Trotsky’s demand for ‘freedom’ and

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‘democracy’ was totally opportunist and dependedwhether he was in a position of decision-making ornot.  Thus when he was at the centre of decision-making in 1920, Trotsky proposed the ‘militarisation’of the trade unions and subjecting them to thediscipline of the army. He opposed democracy beingextended to the trade unions and the election of tradeunion bodies. Lenin, Stalin and other comrades led thestruggle against this understanding and asserted thatthe trade unions should base all their activities onmethods of persuasion.

3) The third feature of Trotskyism was its repeatedfalse propaganda against the Bolshevik leadership.In the initial period Trotsky concentrated all hisattacks on Lenin. In the later period Stalin becamethe focus of all manner of defamation.

After Trotsky could not succeed in winning over theparty to his side in open debate, he started secretmanipulations. In 1926 he started a secret faction withan illegal press and secret propaganda. This wasdiscovered and he was finally expelled from the Party.He moved abroad but continued to maintain linkswith other factionalists within the Party. In 1929another group (the Right Opposition) was formedunder the leadership of Bukharin, a Polit Bureaumember, which opposed the fight against the kulaksand the advance of the process of collectivisation ofagriculture. This line too was defeated.

In the thirties however Trotskyism ceased to be a

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political trend within the working class. It gave upattempts at open propagation of its anti-Marxist linebut shifted to secret planning and manoeuvring.Trotsky and the top Trotskyists in the Soviet Uniondeveloped links with foreign intelligence services andstarted working on plans to assassinate leadingelements in the Party and take over the leadership ofthe party. It was as part of this plan that ComradeKirov, at that time second after Stalin in the Partyleadership, was murdered in 1934. In the investigationsthat followed, the main conspirators, many of whowere Central Committee members, were discovered.Open trials were held where they admitted to theircrimes. Many were sentenced to death and executed.

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Chapter 23

Tactics During World War II

During most of the period between World War Iand World War II the world capitalist economy wasin a state of collapse. World industrial productiongrew at a very slow pace and world trade remainedstagnant. In fact the total world trade in 1948 (threeyears after the end of World War II) was the same asthat in 1913 (the year before World War I started. Theworst phase was what was called the Great Depressionof 1929-33, from which capitalism did not reallyrecover, even upto the start of World War II in 1939. Itwas a crisis that affected practically the whole world,from the most industrialised to the most backward.Industrial production fell and unemployment reachedthe highest levels ever. In Germany almost half theworking class remained unemployed. Prices crashedaffecting the economies of almost every country.

As economic hardships increased, contradictionssharpened and there was widespread social andpolitical unrest in many countries. In Latin Americathere were attempts to overthrow the government inalmost all the countries, many of which weresuccessful. There was also an upsurge in theindependence movements in many countries,including India. Thus throughout the colonies andsemi-colonies there were struggles and a shift towardsthe left. In the imperialist countries, the ruling classestried desperately to control the social effects of their

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crisis. Some of them introduced social welfare schemesto divert the masses from struggle. Most of the rulingclasses however used repressive means to suppressthe people. Many countries brought in rightist andfascist regimes. Italy was the first to turn to fascism.Japan shifted from a liberal to a national-militaristregime in 1930-31. Germany brought the Nazis topower in 1933. In many other imperialist countriesalso there was a rise of rightist parties and a retreat ofthe reformist parties.

The  Communist International  analysed thisgrowth of fascism. It showed how three factors inthe post-World War I situation had affected theimperialist classes and was leading to the rise offascism. Firstly the success of the OctoberRevolution and the victory of socialism had madethe bourgeoisie fearful of the advance of theproletariat and the success of the revolution intheir own countries. Secondly they were facing themost severe economic crisis in the history ofcapitalism. Thirdly, the first two factors weremaking the toiling masses throughout the worldturn towards revolution. The response of theimperialist ruling classes to all these three factorswas to bring in fascism.

At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, which washeld in 1935, fascism and the danger of war wereanalysed in detail. Fascism was defined as the open,terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the

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most chauvinist and the most imperialist elementsof finance capital. It was explained how theimperialists were planning to drastically increase theloot of the toiling masses. They were preparing towage a new imperialist world war, to attack the SovietUnion, to divide up China among the imperialistpowers, and thus to stop the advance of therevolution. As major imperialist countries startedsetting up fascist governments, they aggressivelystarted local wars in preparation for a new world warfor the re-division of the world. As Germany andJapan started attacking and invading new areas, theother imperialist powers like Britain, France and theUSA started a policy of compromise and concessionstowards the fascist aggressors and attempted to usethem to destroy the Soviet Republic. It was in thecontext of such dangerous tactics by the imperialiststhat the international proletariat had to work out andimplement its tactics.

The tactics of the proletariat were directly opposedto the tactics of the imperialists. The aims of theinternational working class were the defence of theSoviet Union, the defeat of fascism and theinstigators of war, the victory of the nationalliberation struggles and the establishment of Sovietpower in as many countries as possible.

In order to achieve these aims the  ThirdInternational  adopted tactics as per Marxistprinciples of war tactics. As during the World War

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I, the International called on all communists to tryand prevent the outbreak of war and in case a waractually broke out, the  International  gaveinstructions that all communists should work toconvert the unjust, imperialist war into civil warand thus complete the revolution. However themain difference from the World War I situationwas that now there was a single socialist base – theSoviet Union. It was the duty of every communistto defend this socialist base. Thus in case the SovietRed Army was forced to enter the war in thedefence of the Soviet Union, then the nature of thewar would change. It would become a just war forthe defence of socialism and it would become thetask of every communist to mobilise the workersand toiling masses of all countries for the victory ofthe Red Army over imperialism. Thus theCommunist approach to the war and the tasks ofthe Communist Parties of the world was made clearin 1935 itself, four years before the actual outbreakof war.

The Third International  further drew up detailedunited front tactics in order to fight fascism andimplement the above understanding. In thecapitalist countries two types of fronts were to beformed. One was the anti-fascist workers’ fronts,which were to be formed along with the Social-Democrat parties. The other was the anti-fascistpeople’s fronts, which were to be formed wherenecessary along with other anti-fascist parties

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besides the Social-Democrats. In the colonies andsemi-colonies, the task was to form anti-imperialistpeople’s fronts including the national bourgeoisie.The final aim of the communists in participating inall these fronts was to achieve the victory ofrevolution in their own country and the worldwidedefeat of capitalism.

In the years leading up to the war most of theCommunist Parties tried to implement the abovetactics. United fronts were formed and movementsdeveloped in many countries. However during thevarious twists and turns in the situation, and in thediffering concrete conditions in various countries,some of the parties were not successful inimplementing the correct tactics.

The Soviet government however, which faced themost dangerous situation, was able, under Stalin, toemploy the correct tactics in the concrete situation ofWorld War II. In the pre-war years all attempts weremade to build up a united front of the non-fascistgovernments against the group of fascist aggressorcountries. However it soon became clear that thesecountries were not interested in a united front butwere trying their best to use Germany to crush theSoviet Union. In order to defeat such tactics, Stalinentered into a no-war pact with Germany inAugust 1939, forcing the first part of the War to bea war between the imperialist powers. ThusCommunist parties throughout the world worked

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according to the tactics of ‘turning the war intocivil war’ during the first two years of the war. TheSoviet Union used this period to make all possiblepreparations for its defence in case any of theimperialist countries launched an attack.

This happened in June 1941, when Germanyattacked the socialist base. With this attack the RedArmy was forced to respond and the character ofthe war changed to that of an anti-fascist people’swar and the tactics as envisaged earlier bythe Third International became applicable. Some ofthe parties, employing the correct tactics andmaking use of the severe revolutionary crisis, couldachieve revolution. In particular, the CommunistParty of the Soviet Union (CPSU), was able to leadthe Red Army and the whole Soviet people to aheroic victory in the war. It defeated the mightyGerman army and joined hands with theCommunist parties and fighters of the EastEuropean countries to liberate them from Germanoccupation. Thus, utilising these tactics, theinternational proletariat not only succeeded inprotecting its Socialist Base, but by 1949, couldbreak the imperialist chain at several places, comeout of the imperialist world system and build aSocialist Camp covering one third of humanity.Thus the strategy and tactics charted out bythe  Third International, during the period ofSecond World War were proved in practice to bebasically correct.

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However there were also serious failures. This wasmainly due to incomplete education by the ThirdInternational leadership on the correct approach inimplementing these tactics, and the strongremnants of the  Second International  reformistapproach in many of the European parties and theparties formed by them—like the Communist Partyof India. Parties like the CPI and the CommunistParty of Great Britain spent most of its time in thepeople’s war period trying to increase production.Many such parties did a lot of strike breaking activityand got alienated from the working class. Some otherslike the Communist Party of France, who joined inunited fronts with ruling class parties, did not even tryto maintain any difference between communists andother reactionaries in the united front. Such anapproach led to  these parties becoming tails of theruling classes in the united fronts that theyparticipated in. It also led to the development ofrightist tendencies, which in the following periodwould result in the leaderships of almost all theseparties taking the path of revisionism.

The  Third International, while not being able tocombat these revisionist tendencies, had also lost itseffectiveness in providing guidance in the vastlydiffering conditions faced by the various memberparties. Except for the regular publication of itsperiodicals, Comintern activity had greatly reducedfrom 1940 and even the customary May Day andOctober Revolution Manifestos were discontinued

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between May 1940 and May 1942. It was finallydecided to dissolve the Comintern. Since a Congresscould not be convened in the conditions of war thePresidium of the Executive Committee of theCommunist International (ECCI) sent out aresolution recommending the dissolution of theInternational to all its sections.  After receivingapproval from most of the sections, including allthe important sections, the Comintern wasdissolved on 10th June 1943.

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Chapter 24

Mao’s Early Years

Mao Tse-tung was born on 26th  December 1893, inthe village of Shaoshan Chung in the fertile valley ofShaoshan in the Hunan province of China. Thedistrict where Mao was born was a wealthyagricultural area. It was also a strategic area with allmajor routes by road or river passing through theHunan province. Being at the crossroads of commercethe Hunan people were known for their peasanttraders. In the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury Hunan also became an intellectual centre anda centre of dissidence and revolt, producing many ofChina’s best scholars. It produced both the militarygenerals who helped the Chinese Emperors, as well asthe revolutionaries who overthrew their rule. It wasalso a major centre of the biggest peasant revolt of thenineteenth century – the great Taiping peasantuprising. Hunan provided lakhs of fighters for therebellion, which lasted for 14 years from 1850 to 1864.This vast support for the peasant revolt was because ofthe severe poverty of the peasantry due to exploitationby the landlords and excessive taxation. Though theuprising had been brutally crushed,  the memory ofthe revolt remained strong in the villages aroundwhere Mao spent his childhood and youth.

Mao’s father, Mao Jen-shen, was born a poorpeasant and was forced to become a soldier for sevenyears in order to pay off his father’s debts. Later

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through hard work and careful saving he was able tobuy back his land. He grew to become a middlepeasant and petty trader. The standard of living of thefamily however remained very poor. Even at the ageof sixteen, Mao only ate one egg a month and meatabout three or four times a month. Mao’s father puthis children to work as soon as possible. Thus  Maostarted work in the fields at the age of six. Mao’smother, Wen Chi-mei, was from Xiangxiang districtjust sixteen miles from Shaoshan. Mao was the eldestson. He had two younger brothers and an adoptedsister. All three were among the members of thefirst peasant Communist party branch that Maoformed. All became martyrs in the Revolution.

Mao was a rebel from a very young age. He calledhis father the Ruling Power. He often united with hismother, brother and the labourer against the authorityof his father. This was the opposition. At school toohe opposed the old customs. Once in protest againsthis schoolteacher he, at the age of seven, ran away forthree days and stayed in the mountains surroundinghis village. After this protest – which Mao calls hisfirst successful strike – he was not beaten in school.

Mao’s first school was the village primary school,which he joined at the age of seven.  As soon as helearnt to read sufficiently, he developed a passionfor reading. He preferred romantic books of rebellionand adventure. Very often he would read the wholenight by the light of an oil lamp. Mao’s father, who

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himself had very little schooling, was not interested inMao continuing his education for too long. He neededsomebody to work in the fields and to maintain hisaccounts. So in 1906, he removed Mao from the villageschool.

Mao however continued his interest in reading andconstantly demanded to be sent for further education.His father could not understand this interest of his sonand thought the solution was in marriage. At the ageof fourteen, Mao was married to a girl from thesame area. Mao however refused to complete themarriage.

Meanwhile  the revolutionary atmosphere wasrapidly growing in the surrounding areas. Tworebellions took place in this period, which had alasting impact on Mao. One was the revolt in Hunanin 1906 led by the revolutionaries of the party of thenationalist Sun Yat-sen. The other was a rebellionagainst a landlord by a group of peasants of Shaoshanitself. Both were crushed and the leaders werebeheaded. Mao was very much affected by theinjustice and longed to do something radical for thecountry and its people. He also longed to continue hiseducation. Finally in 1910, he was sent to a HigherPrimary School, in his mother’s home district,Xiangxiang.

The students in this school were all from landlordand rich background who initially looked downupon Mao. Mao however had soon outshone all the

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other students by his superior intellect and hardwork and study. He would sit reading for long hoursin the classroom after everyone had left. His teacherswere highly impressed by his ability. Within a fewmonths however he was restless to move on to ahigher level. After a year he easily passed the examsfor admission to Middle School which was situatedin Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan. InSeptember 1911, Mao walked the forty miles toChangsha. Mao, who was almost eighteen, was seeinga city for the first time.

Changsha, a city of scholars, was in extremeturmoil at the time of Mao’s arrival there.Revolutionary associations under various nameshad been formed by teachers and students.Underground literature was being circulated andan explosion was expected at any moment. Mao,who had already developed some radical thinking,was eager to participate in the events. Within amonth of Mao’s arrival the 1911 bourgeoisrevolution broke out under the leadership of SunYat-sen. Mao immediately decided to join therevolutionary army.  The revolution however wassoon betrayed and landed in the hands of counterrevolutionaries. Mao, after five months, resigned fromthe army and landed back in Changsha.

On his return, Mao was in search of what to do andwhat direction to take in life. Looking upadvertisements in newspapers, he registered for a

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number of courses in schools ranging from a soap-making school and a police school to a law school anda commercial school. He finally sat for the entranceexamination for the First Provincial Middle Schoolin Changsha and stood first. After six monthshowever he left the school and arranged a scheduleof education of his own, which consisted of readingevery day at the Hunan Provincial Library. For sixmonths, he would spend the whole day frommorning to night at the library with just a smalllunch of two rice cakes. This period of intensivereading covered a very wide range of social andscientific topics of Western as well as Chineseauthors. It laid the foundation of Mao’seducation.  Six months of such study however leftMao totally penniless. His father, who could notunderstand his son’s desire to just go on reading on hisown, refused to support him unless he joined a realschool.

Thus in 1913, Mao joined the Hunan First NormalCollege which was a Teachers’ College. Heremained there for five years from 1913 to1918. The collapse of the central Chinese governmentand the outbreak of World War I had createdconditions of extreme upheaval throughout China andthe world. In China wars between provincial armies ofwarlord generals became a common occurrence. It wasalso the period when Japan, making use of theinvolvement of the other imperialist powers in war,tried to achieve total domination over China. This led

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to strong opposition from Chinese intellectuals andrevolutionary sections.

It was during these years that Mao’s political ideastook shape. In 1915 he became secretary of theStudents’ Society at the Normal College, andcreated the Association for Student Self-Government. This organisation organised numerousagitations against the college authorities for studentdemands. Mao also led this organisation in streetdemonstrations against Japanese domination and theirChinese puppets.  This organisation was later tobecome the nucleus for future studentorganisations in the Hunan province.

As the attacks of the warlord generals grew thestudents in many places formed self-defence corps.In 1917 Mao became the head of his collegebattalion. He obtained some arms from the localpolice and led the students in guerrilla attacks onwarlord groups to collect more arms. Using hisknowledge of guerrilla tactics used by earlierHunanese fighters as well as study of militarytheory, Mao build up the college battalion into anefficient fighting force. Mao also took a keeninterest in all the major military campaigns of theongoing World War I. He lectured and wrotearticles on strategy and tactics.

Mao also involved himself in various other activities.He fought against social evils like opium taking andprostitution. He fought against oppression of women

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and tried to ensure the maximum participation ofwomen in the students’ movement. He wrote andencouraged swimming, sports and intensive physicaltraining among the students and youth. He himselfmaintained extreme physical fitness – took cold bathsthroughout the year, swam in cold water, wentbarefoot and bare-chested for long walks in the hills,etc. In 1917 he started an evening school where he andother students and teachers taught the workers ofChangsha’s factories free of charge.

In 1918, Mao inaugurated the New People’s StudySociety, which he had been planning for about ayear. It was one of many such student groups, butgrew into something else, the core of a politicalparty. From the start it insisted on action as well asdebate. It would not only talk revolution, butpractise it, first of all revolutionising its ownmembers, turning them into ‘new men’. It had girlmembers and took up among other issues, theoppression of women in the traditional marriagesystem.  Its activities went according to aprogramme of debate, study and socialaction.  Social action included night schools forworkers, visiting factories, demonstrating againstJapanese imperialism, writing articles, fighting fornew ideas and the use of the vernacular language.  Inlater years all thirteen of the original members ofthe society joined the Communist Party of China(CPC), founded in 1921. By 1919 there were eightymembers, of whom over forty were to join the

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Party.

Around the time of Mao’s graduation from theNormal College in 1918 he was joined in Changsha byhis mother who came there for treatment. Shehowever could not be cured and died in October 1918.After her death Mao moved to Peking, the capital ofChina, where he for six months took up a very lowpaying job as an assistant librarian in the PekingUniversity. This job was obtained through Li Ta-chaothe university librarian, who was the first Chineseintellectual to praise the Russian Revolution and oneof the first to introduce Marxist thought toChina.  Under Li Ta-chao, Mao rapidly developedtowards Marxism. He started reading those worksof Lenin, which had been translated into Chinese.Towards the end of 1918 he joined the MarxistStudy Group formed by Li. He also met manyintellectuals and Marxists. One who had an impactthen on him was Chen Tu-hsiu, who was later tobecome the first Secretary of the CPC. Chen at thattime was editor of the radical magazine,  NewYouth, which Mao had already written for and whichhad had an influence on him.

Mao spent only six months in Peking. During thisperiod however  he fell in love with Yang Kai-hui,the daughter of one of his Changsha Collegelecturers,  who was now a Professor at the PekingUniversity. She was then a student, doing a course injournalism at the university. For both it was their first

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love. Their love was of the type that was then called‘new’ love where the partners made their own choicegoing against the traditional system of arrangedmarriages. For some time their love remained secret.They were not sure whether there was time for lovewhen the country needed them so much. Theydecided to wait some time before taking a finaldecision.

In April 1919 Mao returned to Changsha just beforethe outbreak of the historic May 4th  movement of1919. This anti-imperialist democratic movementshook the whole of China. Though initiated by thestudents, it rapidly covered vast sections of workers,merchants, shopkeepers, artisans and othersections.  Mao immediately involved himselfwholeheartedly in political agitation. On hisarrival he had immediately taken up a low payingjob as a primary school teacher. All his spare timehowever was spent in organising agitations andspreading Marxism.  He encouraged the study ofMarxism in the New People’s Study Society and otherstudents’ societies that he was in contact with. At thesame time he built up the United Students Associationof Hunan which encompassed even young schoolstudents and girls students in a big way. Uniting allsections Mao organised a movement for the seizureand burning of Japanese goods.  He brought out aweekly magazine the  Xiang River Review, whichquickly had a great influence on the studentsmovement in South China. When the weekly was

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banned in October 1919, Mao continued to write inother journals. Soon he got a job as a journalist forvarious Hunan papers and set out for the big citiesof Wuhan, Peking and Shanghai to win support forthe Hunan movement.

However  when he landed in Peking in February1920, he soon got involved with the plans to buildthe Communist Party of China. He held discussionswith his university librarian, Li Ta-chao and otherintellectuals. He visited the factories and railway yardsand discussed Marxism with the workers. He didfurther study of the works of Marx and Engels andother socialists. He also met Yang Kai-hui, who hadbeen studying Marxism. They discussed theirdedication to each other and to the revolution.They got engaged.

After Peking, Mao spent four months in Shanghai,China’s biggest city and its biggest industrial andcommercial centre. Here he held discussions withChen Tu-hsiu and other Shanghai Marxists. Tosupport himself he took a job as a labourer,working twelve to fourteen hours in a laundry. Itwas during this period, in May 1920, that China’s firstCommunist group was set up in Shanghai.

When Mao moved backed to Hunan in July 1920,he started working to set up a similar Communistgroup there. His father had died in the beginning ofthe year and Mao made his home in Shaoshan thereinitially.  His two brothers and adopted sister were

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among his first recruits. He then moved back toChangsha where he continued recruiting. There hetook up a job as the director of a primary schooland also taught one class at the Normal College forwhich he received a comfortable salary for the firsttime.

Towards the end of 1920, Mao got married to YangKai-hui and they lived together for the one and ahalf years that Mao was in Changsha as primaryschool director. They were regarded as an idealcouple with Yang being also involved with thework of the Party of which she became a memberin 1922. They had two sons, one of whom died in1950 as a volunteer in the Korean War against USimperialism. The other became an accountant.Yang who performed secret work for the Party wasarrested in 1930 and executed.

Though Mao participated in various agitationsduring this period, the main focus of his work wasthe formation and building up of the CPC. Afterforming a Communist group in Hunan, Mao wentto Shanghai to attend the secretly held FirstNational Congress of the CPC in July 1921. He wasone of twelve delegates who represented only 57 partymembers at that time.

After the Congress, Mao became the ProvincialParty Secretary of Hunan Province. From the verybeginning he paid particular attention of building theparty in Hunan on the basis of Leninist party

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principles. He recruited youth from the existingrevolutionary organisations as well as advancedworkers who were won by extending the workers’movement. He started two monthly magazines toraise the ideological and political level of the Partymembers and Youth League members and to helpthem to carry on Communist education among themasses.

It was during this period upto 1923 that Maoconcentrated a great deal on the organising ofworkers in Changsha, the Anyuan Colliery (in theneighbouring Kiangsi Province) and in theShuikoushan Lead Mine. By August 1921 he set upthe first Communist trade union. In 1922 he formedthe Hunan branch of the All-China LabourFederation, of which he was made the chairman. TheAnyuan Colliery movement and organisation inparticular was an excellent example of Communistorganising. The Party at first ran spare-time schoolsfor the workers of the colliery to carry on Marxisteducation. It then organised a trade union. Meanwhile,a branch of the Socialist Youth League was formedamong the workers, the best members of which werelater absorbed into the Party. The Anyuan Collierysaw major strikes, which had country widerepercussions. It had a strong organisation, whichsurvived even during the repression periods. Theworkers provided valuable support and participationat various stages in the revolutionary war. Anyuan wasthe liaison centre for the first Communist base area in

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the Chingkang Mountains.

Mao did not participate in the Second NationalCongress of the CPC, held in July 1922, as he missedhis appointment.  He participated in the ThirdNational Congress of the CPC, held in June 1923,at which he was elected on the CentralCommittee.  This Congress decided to promote ananti-imperialist, anti-feudal national front in co-operation with the Kuomintang Party led by SunYat-sen. It directed Communist Party members tojoin the Kuomintang Party as individuals. Mao didso and was elected as an alternate member of theKuomintang Central Executive Committee at itsFirst and Second National Congresses held in 1924and 1926. He worked as Head of the CentralPropaganda department of the Kuomintang, editedthe Political Weekly and directed the Sixth class atthe Peasant Movement Institute.

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Chapter 25

Mao’s Fight Against Right and ‘Left’ Lines andVictory of the Chinese Revolution

The First Revolutionary Civil War  : From 1924 tillthe beginning of 1926 the Chinese Revolutionadvanced rapidly with the proletariat and peasantry ingreat ferment. In 1925 the protest against the30th  May massacre of demonstrators by the Britishpolice in Shanghai turned into an anti-imperialistpeople’s movement involved all sections of the massesthroughout the country. The country was on theverge of a decisive battle between revolution andcounter-revolution.

However two deviations then plagued the CPC. Thedominant Right opportunist clique was led by thethen party General Secretary, Chen Tu-hsiu. Hetook the stand that the bourgeois-democraticrevolution must be led by the bourgeoisie  and theaim of the revolution should be to form a bourgeoisrepublic. According to his line the bourgeoisie was theonly democratic force with which the working classshould unite. He did not consider any possibility ofbuilding an alliance with the peasantry. On theother hand, were  the ‘Left’ opportunists who wererepresented by Chang Kuo-tao, the leader of theAll-China Federation of Labour. He saw only theworking-class movement. He argued that theworking class is strong enough to make revolutionalone. Thus his clique also ignored the peasantry.

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While fighting these two deviations, Mao made hisfirst major contributions to the development ofMarxist theory.In March 1926, he brought out hisfamous Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society andin March 1927, he presented his  Report on anInvestigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan.  Inthese works he tried to answer the most basicquestions of the Chinese revolution. Who are thefriends and enemies of the revolution, who is theleading force and who are the reliable and vacillatingallies? He argued that it was the proletariat and notthe bourgeoisie who would have to lead therevolution. However the proletariat would not beable to win by fighting alone. He stressed the roleof the peasantry, which was the closest and mostnumerous ally of the proletariat. He also pointedout that the national bourgeoisie was a vacillatingally with the possibility of the Right wingbecoming an enemy and the Left wing remaining afriend of the revolution. Mao also presented hisideas on how the masses were to be mobilised, arevolutionary government established and thepeasant armed forces organised. This was Mao’sclear perspective for the direction the revolutionaryforces should take.

This was the time of  the Northern Expedition,which was a critical part of the first phase of theChinese Revolution – the First Revolutionary CivilWar.  It was a march by the Revolutionary Armyunder the leadership of the revolutionary national

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united front (the Kuomintang-CPC united front).Starting in July 1926 from Kwantung in the southof China its aim was to smash the reactionarygovernment of the imperialist-backed Northernwarlords in a revolutionary war and achieve theindependence and unity of China.  The NorthernExpedition was initially a major success with thewhole of South China and many of the Southernwarlords being defeated or won over. Under theinfluence of the Northern Expedition there was anupsurge among the peasantry. The proletariat stagedmany armed uprisings in cities to coincide with theadvance of the Revolutionary Army. Even Shanghaithe largest industrial and commercial city of Chinawas liberated in March 1927 after three attempts atarmed workers’ uprising.

After achieving major victories however the bourgeoisclique represented by Chiang Kai-shek (the mainKuomintang leader after Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925),broke the united front. In April 1927 massacres,backed by the imperialists, were launched on theCommunist cadre in various parts of the country. TheRight opportunist Chen Tu-hsiu leadership of theCPC however, instead of mobilising the workers andpeasants against the Kuomintang reactionaries,submitted to them. In July 1927 another Kuomintangclique launched massacres against the Communists.This resulted in the breaking up of the united frontand defeat of the First Revolutionary Civil War.

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The Right line of Chen Tu-hsiu, which dominatedthroughout the period of the First RevolutionaryCivil War was one the important reasons for thefailure of the revolution during this period.Though Mao struggled against this Right Line, hecould not win the support of the majority in theParty. In fact at the Fifth National Congress heldduring this period, in April 1927, Chen succeededin removing Mao from the Central Committee.

 The Second Revolutionary Civil War Period : InAugust 1927, at the start of the next period—theSecond Revolutionary Civil War Period—Chen Tu-hsiu was removed as General Secretary after a firmcriticism of his Right opportunism. Mao wasbrought back on the Central Committee and madean alternate member of the Provisional PolitBureau that was set up. However the correctcriticism of the Right line gave way in November1927 to the domination of a ‘Left’ line in theCentral Committee, under the leadership of ChuChiu-pai, an intellectual comrade returned aftertraining in Russia. This line made the wrongassessment that the Chinese revolution was on a‘continuous upsurge’, and therefore called forarmed uprisings in many cities. The leadershipcriticised Mao for advocating and leading a peasantuprising and opposing uprisings in big cities. Hewas again removed from his Central posts. He wasalso removed from membership of the HunanProvincial Committee. The ‘Left’ Line led to heavy

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losses and the abandonment of this line by April1928.

The Sixth Congress of the CPC held in Moscow inJune 1928 rectified this first ‘Left’ line and adopteda basically correct understanding, repudiating boththe Right and ‘Left’ positions. Though Mao did notattend the Congress it basically upheld his positionon many points. In his absence he was again electedon to the Central Committee. It was whileimplementing this understanding, and while buildingup the Red Army after the failures of the NorthernExpedition and the city uprisings, that Mao made hisfurther contributions to the development of Marxist-Leninist theory.  He wrote  Why is it that RedPolitical Power can exist in China?  in October1928, and  The Struggle in the ChingkangMountains  in November 1928. These historicalworks provided the theoretical basis for the historicprocess of building and developing the Red Armythen under way. Mao, starting from a small groupof worker and peasant fighters had after the failureof the peasant uprising in 1927 set up the first basein the Chingkang mountains in October 1927.Through the period from 1927 to the beginning of1930 the area of armed peasant uprisings and ruralrevolutionary bases grew steadily. Many of thefighting sections under Communist leadership joinedMao’s forces. The Red Army grew to 60,000 soldiersand, a little later to 1,00,000 soldiers.

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However ‘left’ ideas again started gainingascendancy and from 1930 took over the leadershipof the party. Two ‘Left’ lines led by Li Li-san in1930 and Wang Ming in 1931-34 dominated theparty and caused incalculable harm. Li Li-san inJune 1930 drew up a plan for organising armeduprisings in the major cities throughout thecountry and for concentrating all the units of theRed Army for attacking these major cities. Theattempt to implement this plan between June andSeptember 1930 led to severe losses and a demandfrom cadres for its rectification. During this periodMao led an attack on Changsha but withdrew toprevent heavy losses in the face of superior imperialistand Kuomintang forces. After the withdrawal therewas brutal repression in Changsha during which YangKai-hui, Mao’s wife, who was doing undergroundwork there, was executed.  Li Li-san did self-criticism at a plenum held in September 1930 andstepped down from leadership positions. Mao andChu Teh (Commander of the Red Army) weretaken on to the newly formed Polit Bureau.

This Polit Bureau was however bypassed by a plenumcalled in January 1931 by Wang Ming one of thegroup of twenty-eight so-called ‘Bolsheviks’ who hadreturned after training in Russia. They did not callMao and Chu Teh for the plenum but removed themand others from the Central Committee. In August1932 Mao was also removed from his posts assecretary of the Front Committee and political

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commissar of the Red Army.  With the Party andRed Army in their full control the Wang Ming cliquecommitted numerous errors which led to severe losses.Throughout, their main attack was on Mao, who wasthe representative of what was according to them rightopportunism and the main danger within the Party.Mao’s correct line was called a ‘rich peasant line’.Sectarian and factional methods were used by the‘Left’ Line leadership to attack not only Mao but alsothe leaders of the earlier ‘Left’ Lines, Li Li-san andChu Chiu-pai. While the Wang Ming clique wascreating havoc in the Party, Chiang Kai-shek wasorganising repeated campaigns of encirclement andsuppression against the Red base areas. The first fourcampaigns were defeated because of Mao’s leadershipand the influence of his strategic principles before the‘Left’ leadership acquired full control over the Partyand Red Army in the base areas. However when the‘Left’ leadership actually moved into the base areatheir direct leadership led to serious errors anddefeat of the Communist forces in the fifthcampaign of the Kuomintang forces. In order tobreak through Chiang Kai-shek’s encirclement andwin new victories it was decided from October1934, to undertake the world-shaking strategic shiftof the Red Army, known as the Long March. Maowas accompanied by his next wife, Ho Tzu-chen, aParty cadre from a local peasant family of the Kiangsibase area. They had married in 1931, after the death ofMao’s earlier wife, Yang Kai-hui. They had two

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children who were left behind with peasants in theKiangsi base area at the start of the Long March.

It was during the Long March, at the TsunyiPlenum of the CPC, in January 1935, thatleadership of the party moved into the hands ofMao and his policies. This was a turning point forthe Long March as well as for the ChineseRevolution. It was then decided to continue the LongMarch in the northward direction to be able to betterco-ordinate the nation-wide anti-Japanese movement,which had been growing continuously since theJapanese attack and occupation of North-easternChina in 1931.

During the Long March, besides the repeatedattacks of the Kuomintang troops, the Party hadalso to face the line of flightism and warlordism ledby Chang Kuo-tao. Two conferences of the CentralCommittee held during the Long March defeatedChang Kuo-tao’s proposal to retreat to nationalminority areas of Sinkiang and Tibet. He howeverrefused to follow the Party decision and tried to forma new Party Centre. He led a section of the Red Armyin a different direction during which they wereattacked and finished off by the Kuomintang forces.Chang himself became a traitor and joined theKuomintang. The main force of the Red Armyreached their destination in the Shensi province inNorthern China in October 1935, one year after theyhad started the Long March. The Red Army which

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numbered around 3,00,000 just before the beginningof the fifth encirclement campaign had now beenreduced to just over twenty thousand. It was this corethat set up the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghshia (on the borderareas of these three provinces of Northern China) basearea. It became famously known as Yenan, the nameof its capital. This was the base from which Mao ledthe Party and Red Army to victory by 1945 in the waragainst Japan.

It was during this period that Mao and Ho Tzu-chenwere divorced in 1938. In April 1939 he marriedChiang Ching. Chiang Ching was the party name ofLan Ping, a theatre and film actress, who had joinedthe Party in 1933 and moved to Yenan in1937 to teachdrama at the Art Academy there and participate in thepropaganda teams who went among the peasantry.Mao who took a keen interest in art and literature mether in the course of this work and they fell in love anddecided to get married.

The Period of the War of Resistance AgainstJapan:  Immediately after the completion of the LongMarch, Mao concentrated on the adoption andimplementation of a new tactical orientation in orderto end the Civil War and unite the maximum forcesfor a War of Resistance against Japan. His presentationOn Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism was a majordevelopment of Marxist-Leninist United Front tactics.This was later further developed in his May 1937Report on  The Tasks of the Chinese Communist

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Party in the Period of Resistance to Japan. Giving abrilliant exposition of the stage of development ofChina’s internal and external contradictions, Maoexplained the change in the principal contradictioncaused by Japan’s aggression and therefore thechange in the United Front tactics necessary to facethe new situation. He called for a united front withthe Kuomintang in order to drive away theJapanese aggressors.  Chiang Kai-shek however didnot agree to enter a united front until he was forced todo so by the CPC’s propaganda and by the pressure ofcertain factions in his own party. He finally agreed,when he was arrested in December 1936 by two of hisown generals who insisted that a united front shouldbe built with the CPC. The Anti-Japanese UnitedFront was set up in August 1937.

During the period of the War of Resistance, Maohad again to fight wrong trends though these didnot grow to capture leadership over the Party andthe struggle.  One was a pessimistic trend ofnational subjugation  present in some Kuomintangsections of the United Front. These people after somedefeats at the hands of the Japanese felt that theChinese was bound to be suppressed and ruled by theJapanese and other imperialists. One faction evenprepared for surrender. On the other hand there wasthe trend in some sections of the CPC, who feltthat since the united front had been formed therewould be quick victory over the Japanese. Thesecomrades overestimated the strength of the United

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Front and did not see the reactionary side of theChiang Kai-shek clique. In order to correct thesemistaken theories and to point out the correct courseof the war, Mao in May 1938 brought out hisbook On Protracted War which pointed out that theWar would finally end in victory but the victorywould not be quick. He also in this and other writingslaid down the military principles of the war.

Mao also wrote various philosophical works to helpeducate the Party cadre and remove the damagingeffects of the earlier Right and ‘Left’ Lines. Basing onthese writings, between 1941 and 1944, alengthy Rectification Campaign was held to fight themain errors in the Party. This was combined with in-depth discussions to review the history of the Party.Chou En-lai, who had been a leading comradethroughout the period, particularly participated in thisprocess. This led finally to an open and completerepudiation of the earlier wrong Lines. Thisunderstanding was adopted in the  Resolution onCertain Questions in the History of Our Party  atPlenum of the CPC held in April 1945.

Armed with the correct line and correct tactics, theCPC led the Chinese people to victory, first in theWar of Resistance against Japan and then against thereactionaries led by Chiang Kai-shek. From a fightingforce of just over twenty thousand at the end of theLong March, the Red Army grew to a strength of onemillion towards the end of the anti-Japanese war in

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1945. At that time, at the Seventh Congress of theCPC in April 1945, Mao in his Report  OnCoalition Government, presented a detailedsumming up of the anti-Japanese war and ananalysis of the current international and domesticsituation. He gave a specific programme for theformation of a coalition government with theKuomintang after the victory over the Japaneseforces.

The Third Revolutionary Civil WarPeriod: However after the victory over the Japanese,Chiang Kai-shek, because of the support of U.S.imperialism and the superior strength of his militaryforces, refused to agree to the formation of a coalitiongovernment on any reasonable terms. At that timeeven Stalin wanted the CPC to come to an agreement,saying that they should not have a civil war andshould co-operate with Chiang Kai-shek, otherwisethe Chinese nation would perish. Nevertheless theCPC under Mao went ahead and fought what came tobe known as the Third Revolutionary Civil War.Relying on the full support of the masses andparticularly the peasantry, the Red Army was able tochange the military balance of forces and move inJuly 1947 from the strategic defensive to thestrategic offensive. By October 1949 the CPC had,within a period of four years, won nation-widevictory over the U.S. backed Kuomintang.

As China gained victory, Marxist-Leninists and the

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proletariat throughout the world were filled with joyand pride at the formation of a seemingly invinciblesocialist camp encompassing one-third of humanity.Mao however gave an idea of the challenges ahead anddangers of the coming period. In 1949, on theoccasion of the twenty-eighth anniversary of thefounding of the CPC, in his speech ‘On the People’sDemocratic Dictatorship’, he said, "Twenty- eightyears of our Party are a long period, in which we haveaccomplished only one thing—we have won basicvictory in the revolutionary war. This calls forcelebration, because it is the people’s victory, becauseit is a victory in a country as large as China. But westill have much work to do; to use the analogy of ajourney, our past work is only the first step in a longmarch of ten thousand."

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Chapter 26

The Path of Revolution for the Colonies and Semi-Colonies

Immediately after the establishment of the ChinesePeoples’ Republic the international communistmovement gave open recognition to the significance ofthe Chinese path of revolution, for the colonies andsemi-colonies.  In the 27 January, 1950, editorial ofFor a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy, theorgan of the Cominform, it was stated, “The pathtaken by the Chinese people… is the path thatshould be taken by the people of many colonial anddependent countries in their struggle for nationalindependence and people’s democracy.

“The experience of the victorious national-liberationstruggle of the Chinese people teaches that theworking class must unite with all classes, parties,groups and organisations willing to fight theimperialists and their hirelings and to form a broad,nation-wide united front, headed by the working classand its vanguard—the communist party…

“A decisive condition for the victorious outcome ofthe national-liberation struggle is the formation, whenthe necessary internal conditions allow for it, ofpeople’s liberation armies under the leadership of thecommunist party.”

Thus, the universal applicability of Marxist-Leninisttheory developed by Mao—i.e. Maoism—was

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recognised, and began to become the guideline forgenuine revolutionaries throughout the world,particularly in the colonies and semi-colonies.

Mao’s formulation of the Chinese Path of Revolutionhad been developed in his numerous writings duringthe advance of the Revolution. Lenin had alreadypointed out that in the era of imperialism andproletarian revolution it was the proletariat and notthe bourgeoisie that would lead the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution.  Mao in his work  On NewDemocracy,  carrying this understanding ahead,further pointed out that in this era, any revolutionin a colony or semi-colony that is directed againstimperialism, no longer comes within the oldcategory of the bourgeois-democratic worldrevolution, but within a new category; it is nolonger part of the old bourgeois, or capitalist,world revolution, but is part of the new worldrevolution, the proletarian-socialist worldrevolution. Such revolutionary colonies and semi-colonies can no longer be regarded as allies of thecounter-revolutionary front of world capitalism;they have become allies of the revolutionary frontof world socialism. Thus, in order to differentiatefrom the old bourgeois democratic revolution, hecalled the revolution in the colonies and semi-colonies a New Democratic Revolution.  On thisbasis he elaborated the politics, economy and cultureof New Democracy.

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Mao also developed on the understanding of theunited front that Lenin and Stalin had given. Heshowed that the bourgeoisie in the colonies and semi-colonies was divided into two parts – the compradorbourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. Thecomprador bourgeoisie, who depended on imperialismfor its existence and growth, was always an enemy ofthe revolution. The national bourgeoisie was avacillating ally who would sometimes help therevolution and sometimes join the enemies. Thus theunited front under the leadership of the proletariatwould consist of a four class alliance – theproletariat, the peasantry, the urban pettybourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. Theenemies of the revolution were imperialism, thecomprador bourgeoisie and the landlords.

According to Mao the revolution in the colonies andsemi-colonies would not follow the path ofinsurrection followed by the Russian Revolutionwhere the main cities were captured first and thencontrol taken over the countryside.  He showed theChinese path of protracted people’s war whichinvolved the areawise seizure of power in thecountryside, the building of guerrilla zones andbase areas and the final encircling and capturing ofthe cities. To achieve this Mao laid down the militaryprinciples of revolutionary war. He taught how tobuild up the Red Army, which was an absolutelynecessary weapon of the revolution. Starting fromguerrilla warfare and then moving to mobile warfare

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and finally to positional warfare, Mao showed the wayhow a small force can rely on the vast masses to buildup the forces needed to defeat a formidable enemy.

Finally, basing himself on the Marxist-Leninistunderstanding of the state and the dictatorship of theproletariat, Mao elaborated the theory regarding theform of the state in the revolutions in the colonialcountries.  On the basis of the theory of NewDemocracy, he formulated the understanding ofthe new- democratic republic.

This new-democratic republic he said would bedifferent from the old European-American form ofcapitalist republic under bourgeois dictatorship whichis the old democratic form and already out of date. Onthe other hand, it would also be different from thesocialist republic of the Soviet type under thedictatorship of the proletariat. For a certain historicalperiod, this form too was not suitable for therevolutions in the colonial and semi-colonialcountries. During this period, therefore, a third formof state was necessary to be adopted in the revolutionsof all colonial and semi-colonial countries, namely, thenew-democratic republic under the jointdictatorship of several anti-imperialist classes. Sincethis form suits a certain historical period it is thereforetransitional. Nevertheless, according to Mao, it is aform that is necessary and cannot be dispensed with.

This state was established after the victory of theChinese Revolution in the form of the  People’s

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Democratic Dictatorship.  Mao explained theessence of the people’s democratic dictatorship asthe combination of two aspects – democracy for thepeople and dictatorship over the reactionaries. Thepeople are the working class, the peasantry, the urbanpetty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. Theseclasses, led by the working class and the CommunistParty, unite to form their own state and elect theirown government; they enforce their dictatorship overthe running dogs of imperialism—the landlord classand bureaucrat-bourgeoisie, as well as therepresentatives of those classes.

Mao further pointed out that the Communist Partyhad to lead the process of transformation of thePeople’s Democratic Dictatorship into a SocialistState. The people’s democratic dictatorship, led by theproletariat and based on the worker-peasant alliance,required that the Communist Party should unite theentire working class, the entire peasantry and thebroad masses of revolutionary intellectuals; these arethe leading and basic forces of the dictatorship.Without this unity, the dictatorship cannot beconsolidated. It is also required that the Party unitewith as many as possible of the representatives of theurban petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie whowere ready to co-operate and with their intellectualsand political groups. This was necessary to isolate thecounter-revolutionary forces. If this were done itwould be possible, after the victory of the revolution,to speedily restore and develop production, cope with

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foreign imperialism, steadily transform a backwardsemi-colonial agricultural economy into an industrialcountry and build up a socialist state.

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Chapter 27

Mao on Philosophy

Mao’s writings on philosophy are directed toeducating the Party cadre and masses in Marxism-Leninism so as to change the mode of thinking andpractice. Mao himself was an ardent student ofphilosophy. When he got hold of books onphilosophy he would consume them in intenseconcentrated reading. Because of the earlier influenceof the dogmatists who had returned after study inRussia and could not relate their knowledge to reality,Mao was continuously eager to make the Party’s studyand teaching linked to practice. He wanted to makeMarxist philosophy and particularly the Marxistdialectical method of use to all Party cadre andactivists and to the common masses.

The Theory of Knowledge: Of prime importancewas Mao’s teaching on the theory of knowledge. Animportant work was his essay  On Practice – On theRelation Between Knowledge and Practice, BetweenKnowing and Doing.Though it took only two hoursof lectures, Mao said it had taken weeks to write. Thecentral point, which Mao explains is thatknowledge does not drop from the skies, it comesfrom social practice and from it alone. Trueknowledge, or correct ideas, come from three kindsof social practice – the struggle for production, theclass struggle and scientific experiment.

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Theory depends on practice. It is unthinkable, saidMao, that it should not be measured and checked bypractice. In turn, theory changes practice, changes ourmethod of work and thinking. Through this isbrought about the transformation and gaining of moreknowledge. No one is born wise, or born stupid.Knowledge cannot come before material experience;nobody can become an expert before practically doinga thing.

Mao explained the process of obtaining knowledge.It starts from perceptual knowledge, the stage ofsense perceptions and impressions,  where man atfirst sees only the separate aspects, the externalrelations of things.  As social practice continues,things that give rise to man’s sense perceptions andimpressions in the course of his practice arerepeated many times; then a sudden change (leap)takes place in the brain in the process ofunderstanding, and concepts are formed. Conceptsare no longer the phenomena, the separate aspects andthe external relations of things; they grasp the essence,the totality and the internal relations of things.Between concepts and sense perceptions there is notonly a quantitative but also a qualitativedifference.  Conceptual or logical or rationalknowledge is a higher stage than the stage ofperceptual knowledge.

There are two important aspects to this. One isthat  rational knowledge depends upon perceptual

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knowledge. It is foolish to think that rationalknowledge can be developed without someone firstexperiencing and obtaining perceptual knowledge.The second important aspect is that perceptualknowledge remains to be developed into rationalknowledge. This means that  perceptual knowledgeshould be deepened and developed to the stage ofrational knowledge.

The acquiring of rational knowledge is howevernot an end in itself. As Marxism has always held,the essential point of all knowledge is to bring itinto practice. Thus as Mao says, “Discover the truththrough practice, and again through practice verifyand develop the truth. Start from perceptualknowledge and actively develop it into rationalknowledge; then start from rational knowledge andactively guide revolutionary practice to change boththe subjective and the objective world.  Practice,knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge.This form repeats itself in endless cycles, and witheach cycle the content of practice and knowledgerises to a higher level. Such is the whole of thedialectical-materialist theory of knowledge, andsuch is the dialectical-materialist theory of theunity of knowing and doing.”

On Contradictions: The other importantcontribution of Mao to Marxist philosophy was indialectics and particularly relating to theunderstanding and application of

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contradictions.  The understanding and use ofcontradictions appears at various points and almostthroughout Mao’s analysis and writings. His mainwork is  On Contradictions, which is an essay onphilosophy written in August 1937 by Mao after hisessay “On Practice” and with the same object ofovercoming the serious error of dogmatist thinking tobe found in the Party at the time. Originally this essaywas presented as two lectures at the Anti-JapaneseMilitary and Political College in Yenan.

Mao’s work was in a sense the continuation of workby Lenin who particularly made a deep study ofcontradictions. Lenin called contradiction ‘the salt ofdialectics’ and stated that ‘the division of the One andthe knowledge of its contradictory parts is the essenceof dialectics.’  Lenin further in his  PhilosophicalNotebooks  asserted, “In brief, dialectics can bedefined as the doctrine of the unity of opposites.This embodies the essence of dialectics, but itrequires explanations and development.”

These ‘explanations and development’ was done sometwenty years later by Mao. Mao work was a leap inthe understanding of contradictions. He examinedthe question of contradictions in great detail andclarified them in such a manner as to make them easilyunderstandable and easily useable by anybody.

Firstly he asserted that the law of the unity ofopposites, is the fundamental law of nature and ofsociety and therefore also the fundamental law of

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thought.

Following from this he explained the principle of theuniversality and absoluteness ofcontradiction.  According to this principle,contradiction is present in all processes of every objectand of every thought and exists in all these processesfrom beginning to end.

Next he gives the principle of the particularity andrelativity of contradiction. According to thisprinciple, each contradiction and each of its aspectshave their respective characteristics. 

A very important concept given by Mao in thisrespect is regarding the unity and struggle between theopposites in a contradiction. Mao points out  theunity or identity of opposites is conditional; it isthus always temporary and relative. On the otherhand the struggle of opposites is unending; it isuniversal and absolute.

Another important principle, which Mao gave anduses very often in his analysis, was the understandingof the principal contradiction and the principalaspect of a contradiction. According to thisprinciple,  there are many contradictions in theprocess of development of a complex thing, andone of them is necessarily the principalcontradiction whose existence and developmentdetermines or influences the existence anddevelopment of the other contradictions. Hence, if

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in any process there are a number of contradictions,one of them must be the principal contradictionplaying the leading and decisive role, while the restoccupy a secondary and subordinate position.Therefore, in studying any complex process in whichthere are two or more contradictions, we must devoteevery effort to finding its principal contradiction.Once this principal contradiction is grasped, allproblems can be readily solved.

Similarly, in any contradiction the development of thecontradictory aspects is uneven. Sometimes they seemto be in equilibrium, which is however onlytemporary and relative, while unevenness is basic. Ofthe two contradictory aspects, one must beprincipal and the other secondary. The principalaspect is the one playing the leading role in thecontradiction. The nature of a thing is determinedmainly by the principal aspect of acontradiction,  the aspect that has gained thedominant position.

Mao always gave central importance to understandingthe principal contradiction in his analysis. Thus in hisanalysis of Chinese society he always analysed theprincipal contradiction. This was an advance overearlier Marxist-Leninist analysis, which did notparticularly go into an analysis of the principalcontradiction in a country or revolution. Maohowever asserted that unless we examine two aspects –the principal and the non-principal contradictions in a

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process, and the principal and the non-principalaspects of a contradiction – we shall get bogged downin abstractions, be unable to understand contradictionconcretely and consequently be unable to find thecorrect method of resolving it. The importance ofunderstanding the principal contradiction and theprincipal aspect of a contradiction was because theyrepresented the unevenness of the forces that are incontradiction. Nothing in this world developsabsolutely evenly and therefore it was necessary tounderstand the change in the position of the principaland non-principal contradictions and the principal andnon-principal aspects of a contradiction. It is only byunderstanding the various stages of unevenness in thecontradictions and the process of change in thesecontradictions that a revolutionary party can decideon its strategy and tactics, both in political andmilitary affairs.

Lastly Mao clarified regarding  the question ofantagonism in a contradiction.  According toMao  antagonism is one form, but not the onlyform, of the struggle of opposites; the formula ofantagonism therefore cannot be arbitrarily appliedeverywhere. Some contradictions are characterised byopen antagonism, others are not. In accordance withthe concrete development of things, somecontradictions, which were originally non-antagonistic, develop into antagonistic ones, whileothers which were originally antagonistic develop intonon-antagonistic ones.  Forms of struggle differ

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according to the differences in the nature of thecontradictions. Non-antagonistic contradictionscan be solved by peaceful and friendly means.Antagonistic contradictions require non-peacefulmeans.

Mao came back to the question of antagonistic andnon-antagonistic contradictions during the period ofsocialist construction and during the CulturalRevolution. He stressed that despite the victory of therevolution it was wrong to think that contradictionsno longer existed in Chinese society. He showed thatthere were two different types of contradictions stillexisting – the contradictions with the enemy and thecontradictions among the people. The contradictionswith the enemy are antagonistic and had to bedealt with by suppression. On the other hand thecontradictions among the people which are non-antagonistic had to be dealt with in such a way thatthey did not become antagonistic. Mao alwaysstressed the need for the correct handling ofcontradictions. He pointed out that ifcontradictions were not understood and handledcorrectly there was always the danger of restorationof capitalism.

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Chapter 28

Mao on The Party

From the time that Mao took over the leadership ofthe CPC he made all efforts to develope the Party ontrue Leninist lines. Due to the domination of theearlier incorrect lines, particularly the third ‘Left’ Lineof Wang Ming there were many deviations in partyfunctioning. Due to the sectarian understanding therewere no proper norms of democratic centralistfunctioning and a totally wrong approach to the twoline struggle. Decisions were taken withoutconsultation and without involving the Party cadreand by manipulating the holding of plenums andother meetings. Two line struggle was not conductedopenly and representatives of another point of viewwere harassed and punished. Also due to dogmatismthere was no implementation of mass line. Mao madeall attempts to rectify these deviations as well as buildup proper forums and bodies. In the process Mao alsoclarified and developed many organisational concepts.He also tried to correct certain wrong understandingthat had grown in the international communistmovement and also in the CPSU under the leadershipof Stalin.

Democratic Centralism:  Mao’s attempt to correctsectarian and bureaucratic deviations is seen in hisexplanation regarding democratic centralism.  Mao’sunderstanding of democratic centralism is clearly‘first democracy, then centralism’. He explained this

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in many ways – ‘if there is no democracy there won’tbe any centralism’, ‘centralism is centralism built onthe foundation of democracy. Proletarian centralismwith a broad democratic base’.

This view of Mao was based on his understandingthat centralism meant first of all the centralisationof correct ideas. For this to take it was necessary forall comrades to express their views and opinions andnot keep it bottled up inside them. This would onlybe possible if there was the fullest possible democracywhere comrades would feel free to state what theywant to say and even vent their anger. Thereforewithout democracy it would be impossible to sum upexperience correctly.  Without democracy, withoutideas coming from the masses, it is impossible toformulate good lines, principles, policies ormethods. However with proletarian democracy itwas possible to achieve unity of understanding, ofpolicy, plan, command and action on the basis ofconcentrating of correct ideas. This is unitythrough centralism.

Mao did not restrict the understanding of democraticcentralism only to party functioning. He broadenedthe understanding to the question of running theproletarian state and building the socialist economy.Mao felt that, without democratic centralism, thedictatorship of the proletariat could not beconsolidated. Without broad democracy for thepeople, it was impossible for the dictatorship of the

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proletariat to be consolidated or for political power tobe stable. Without democracy, without arousing themasses and without supervision by the masses, itwould be impossible to exercise effective dictatorshipover the reactionaries and bad elements or to remouldthem effectively. Mao was making these observationsafter the rise of modern revisionism in the SovietUnion and saw that the masses had not been mobilisedto exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat. He alsosaw the rise of revisionist tendencies within the CPCat the highest levels and recognised that the onlysafeguard against such trends was the initiative andvigilance of the lower level cadre and the masses.

Thus Mao said in his talk in January 1962, “Unless wefully promote people’s democracy and inner-Partydemocracy and unless we fully implementproletarian democracy, it will be impossible forChina to have true proletarian centralism. Withouta high degree of democracy it is impossible to havea high degree of centralism and without a highdegree of centralism it is impossible to establish asocialist economy. And what will happen to ourcountry if we fail to establish a socialist economy?It will turn into a revisionist state, indeed abourgeois state, and the dictatorship of theproletariat will turn into a dictatorship of thebourgeoisie, and a reactionary, fascist dictatorshipat that. This is a question, which very much deservesour vigilance, and I hope our comrades will give it agood deal of thought.”

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The Two-Line Struggle  is another aspect of partyorganisational principles, regarding which Maodeveloped Marxist understanding and theory. Mao’sapproach, based on dialectical materialism was to seeincorrect opinions within the Communist Party as thereflection of alien classes in society. Thus  as long asthe class struggle continued in society there wasbound to be its reflection in the ideologicalstruggle within the Party.  His approach towardsthese contradictions too was different. He saw themas non-antagonistic contradictions initially whichthrough ‘serious struggle’ we should try torectify. We should give ample opportunity to rectifyand only if the people committing errors ‘persist’ or‘aggravate them’, then there was the possibility of thecontradiction becoming antagonistic.

This was a correction of Stalin’s understanding, whichhe had presented in  Foundations of Leninism.  Stalinwas opposed to any attempt to rectify wrong trendsthrough inner-party struggle. He called such attemptsas a “theory of ‘defeating’ opportunist elements byideological struggle within the Party”, whichaccording to him was “a rotten and dangerous theory,which threatens to condemn the Party to paralysis andchronic infirmity”. Such a presentation refused toaccept the possibility of a non-antagonisticcontradiction and treated the struggle againstopportunism as an antagonistic contradiction fromthe very beginning.

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Drawing lessons from the same historical experience,Mao presented the methods of inner-Party struggle inthe following manner. “All leading members of theParty must promote inner-Party democracy and letpeople speak out. What are the limits? One is thatParty discipline must be observed, the minoritybeing subordinate to the majority and the entiremembership to the Central Committee. Anotherlimit is that no secret faction must beorganised. We are not afraid of open opponents, weare only afraid of secret opponents. Such people donot speak the truth to your face, what they say is onlylies and deceit. They don’t express their real intention.As long as a person doesn’t violate discipline anddoesn’t engage in secret factional activities, we shouldallow him to speak out and shouldn’t punish him if hesays wrong things. If people say wrong things, theycan be criticised, but we should convince them withreason. What if they are still not convinced? As longas they abide by the resolutions and the decisionstaken by the majority, the minority can reserve theiropinions.”

Mao’s understanding thus was on the clear basisthat as long as class struggle existed in society therewas bound to be the class struggle in theParty—i.e., the two-line struggle. Therefore it wasonly correct that this struggle should be fought outopenly according the principles of democraticcentralism. Thus Mao, through his understanding andimplementation of the concept of two-line struggle,

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attempted to bring about a correct dialectical approachto classes, class struggle and inner-party struggle.

Mass-Line:  Another area where Mao advancedMarxism was regarding Mass-Line.  Starting from thebasic Marxist-Leninist understanding of the partymaintaining the closest possible links with the masses,Mao developed the concept of mass-line to aqualitatively new level. At the philosophical levelhe showed how it was an essential aspect of theMarxist theory of knowledge. At the political andorganisational levels, he showed how it was thebasis of a correct political line and also how it wasthe essential organisational line of inner-partyrelations.

Mao explains that in the practical work of theParty, all correct leadership is necessarily ‘from themasses, to the masses’. This means: take the ideas ofthe masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) andconcentrate them (through study turn them intoconcentrated and systematic ideas), then go to themasses and propagate and explain these ideas until themasses embrace them as their own, hold fast to themand translate them into action, and test the correctnessof these ideas in such action. Then once againconcentrate ideas from the masses and once again goto the masses so that the ideas are persevered in carriedthrough. And so on, over and over again in an endlessspiral, with the ideas becoming more correct, morevital and richer each time. This, as Mao says, is the

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Marxist theory of knowledge.

In order to bring into practice the principle ‘from themasses, to the masses’, Mao explains that it isnecessary to have a correct relationship between theleading group and the masses in an organisation or in astruggle.  It is necessary that the party drawstogether the activists to form a nucleus ofleadership and links this nucleus of leadershipclosely with the masses.  If this is not done theleadership of the party becomes bureaucratic anddivorced from the masses. It is also necessary that theleadership does not remain content with merely givinggeneral calls. General calls must be followed up byparticular and concrete guidance if they are to beproperly implemented. “Take the ideas of the massesand concentrate them, then go to the masses, perseverein the ideas and carry them through, so as to formcorrect ideas of leadership—such is the basic methodof leadership.” In this way Mao explains the mass-lineas the basic method of leadership of the Party over themasses.

Lastly Mao says that the mass-line should not only beseen in the context of leadership of the Party over themasses. In fact Mao stresses on the application of themass-line to inner-party relations also. He thus alsosaw it as an organisational line.  Mao points outthat to ensure that the line really comes from themasses and particular that it really goes back to themasses, there must be close ties not only between

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the Party and the masses outside the Party(between the class and the people), but above allbetween the Party’s leading bodies and the masseswithin the Party (between the cadres and the rankand the file). Thus Mao shows that it was of crucialimportance that close ties be maintained betweenhigher and lower levels of the Party. Any break up ininner-party ties would result in a gap in the relationbetween the party leadership and the masses. It wouldgo against the implementation of the mass-line.

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Chapter 29

Socialist Construction – The Chinese Experience

The implementation of the new democratic economicprogramme started even before nation-wide victory ofthe revolution. Soon after the Red Army and theChinese Revolution entered the strategic offensive in1947, Mao announced and started implementing whatwas called the three major economic policies of thenew-democratic revolution. These were 1) theconfiscation of the land of the feudal class and itsdistribution among the peasantry, 2) theconfiscation of the capital of the compradorbourgeoisie and 3) protection to the industry andcommerce of the national bourgeoisie.  Thesepolicies were immediately taken up forimplementation in the vast areas of Northern Chinawhich were under revolutionary control and theagrarian reform was completed there by mid-1950.Subsequently the agrarian reform programme wascompleted in the remainder of the country.

General Line and Step-by-Step Collectivisation:  In1951, the party adopted what came to be knownas the general line for socialist construction, for theperiod of transition from capitalism to socialism.The basic aim set for this period was to accomplishthe industrialisation of China together with thesocialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts,and capitalist industry and commerce. The targetset to complete this process was roughly eighteen

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years. This was divided into three years ofrehabilitation for recovering from the damage anddestruction of the civil war plus fifteen years coveringthree five-year plans for planned development of theeconomy.

In accordance with this general line,  a ‘step-by-step’plan was drawn up for the socialist transformationof agriculture. The first step was to call on thepeasants to organise agricultural producers’mutual-aid teamsconsisting of only a few to a dozenor so households each. These teams had only certainbasic elements of socialism like help and co-operationamong the members of the team.  The second stepwas to call on the peasants to organise smallagricultural producers co-operatives on the basis ofthese mutual-aid teams. These co-operatives weresemi-socialist in nature and were characterised by thepooling of land as shares and by unifiedmanagement.Then the third step was to call on thepeasants to combine further on the basis of thesesmall semi-socialist co-operatives and organise largefully socialist agricultural producers’ co-operatives.  The basic principles underlying thisstep-by-step plan were voluntary participation andmutual benefit. The peasants were to be persuadedto voluntarily participate in this process ofcollectivisation.

The first step of mutual-aid teams had started in therevolutionary bases even before the nation-wide

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victory of the Revolution. The second step towardselementary co-operatives took place in the years 1953-55. The third step of transition to advanced co-operatives came about in 1956. There was a literalupsurge of socialist transformation in the countryside.Simultaneously, in the early months of 1956, a relatedmovement rapidly took ahead and completed theprocess of nationalisation of businesses. Thus China’sindustry and commerce was transferred from privateownership to ownership by the whole people farahead of schedule.

Mao’s Dialectical Approach to the Process ofSocialist Construction: The general line was basicallyreliant on the Soviet model of socialist construction.The emphasis on industry and particularly on heavyindustry was the central direction of the First FiveYear Plan of 1953-57. Further there was a tendency touncritically adopt all Soviet policies. With the rise ofmodern revisionism in the Soviet Union (andparticularly after the revisionist 20th Congress of theCPSU in February 1956), the revisionist tendencies inthe CPC were immediately strengthened. In 1956 acampaign was started from within the party to‘oppose rash advances’—i.e., to stall the process ofsocialisation. At same timethe revisionist theory ofproductive forces gained ascendancy within theparty, with the prime representative being theparty general secretary, Liu Shiao-chi. Therepresentatives of this trend upheld the Kruschevites,negated the class struggle and concentrated attention

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towards building modern productive forces, primarilythrough heavy industry.  Their argument was thatthe productive forces are the main motor of changeand it was the backward productive forces in Chinathat were the main factor holding back thedevelopment of the country. Changes inproduction relations should wait till after theproductive forces had been developed enough. Thecooperativisation of agriculture should wait untilindustries had developed enough to providemachinery for the rural mechanisation. All theseproposals negated the importance of productionrelations and the class struggle. It would lead togrowth of revisionist and bureaucratic trends andthe growth of a new exploiting class.

Seeing  the Soviet experience and realising therevisionist danger Mao immediately launched astruggle to defeat these trends which at that timecontrolled the party. His first step in this strugglewas his speech of April 1956,  On the Ten MajorRelationships. In this speech, Mao for the first timemade a clear-cut critique of the Soviet pattern ofsocialist economic construction. While referring tothe relationship between heavy industry on the onehand and light industry and agriculture on the other,Mao stressed that “We have done better than theSoviet Union and a number of East Europeancountries. …Their lop-sided stress on heavy industryto the neglect of agriculture and light industry resultsin a shortage of goods on the market and an unstable

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currency.” Similarly he criticised the Soviet policy of“squeezing the peasants too hard”. He also attackedthe dogmatists within the CPC who “copy everythingindiscriminately and transplant mechanically” whilelearning from the experience of the Soviet Union andother socialist countries. He also criticised those whowere following the example of Kruschev inindiscriminately criticising Stalin. He upheld Stalin asa great Marxist with 70% achievements. Thus throughthis extensive critique of the Soviet revisionists and themistakes in Soviet socialist construction, Mao led thestruggle against the then dominant revisionist line ofproductive forces within the CPC.

However the biggest contribution of Mao’s speech wasits major advancement of the understanding of theprocess of socialist construction and socialist planning.By presenting the problems of socialist construction asten major relationships, Mao brought dialectics andcontradictions to the centre of the process ofbuilding socialist society. He showed how socialistconstruction involved not merely the mechanicalimplementation of targets of production anddistribution, but a dialectical understanding of themain contradictions in the process, and themobilising of all the positive forces to achievesocialism. Thus he said, “It is to focus on one basicpolicy that these ten problems are being raised, thebasic policy of mobilising all positive factors, internaland external, to serve the cause of socialism… Theseten relationships are all contradictions. The world

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consists of contradictions. Without contradictions theworld would cease to exist. Our task is to handle thesecontradictions correctly.”

Mao followed it up the next year with his work  Onthe Correct Handling of Contradictions Among thePeople.  In it he continued the development of thedialectical understanding of the process of socialistconstruction. Primarily he also placed the classstruggle at the very core of the process. He assertedthat the  “class struggle is by no means over…thequestion of which will win out, socialism orcapitalism, is not really settled yet.” With this hebegan the struggle against the revisionist sectionsin the Party who were saying that class struggle nolonger existed under socialism.  This marked thebeginning of  a country-wide RectificationMovement, the Anti-Rightist Movement. Duringthis period many high-level cadre had to present theirself-criticism before the masses, millions of studentsinvolved themselves in manual labour to integratewith the workers and peasants, all party cadres in thefactories and agricultural co-operatives had toparticipate in manual labour, workers began toparticipate in decision making in their factories, asocialist education campaign started among thepeasantry. Through this process the Party was broughtcloser to the people and rightist trends that weregrowing, both within the Party and outside werechecked.

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Great Leap Forward and the Birth of People’sCommunes:  With the progress of the rectificationmovement, the rightists in the party were thrown onthe defensive. This led, in 1958, to a rectification ofthe erroneous productive forces theory which haddominated the Eighth Party Congress in1956. Theprime mover of this theory, Liu Shiao-chi, was forcedto admit before the Second Session of the EighthParty Congress in May 1958, that, throughout theperiod before completion of the building of asocialist society, the principal contradiction wasbetween the proletariat and the bourgeoisie,between the socialist road and the capitalist road.His report also mentioned the Great Leap Forward,which had then begun. There had been majoradvances on every front in socialist construction.Industry, agriculture and all other fields of activityhad registered greater and more rapid growth.

Aside from rapid growth however,  the Great LeapForward was a major change in the priorities of theearlier plans and general line. The general line of theGreat Leap Forward had been formulated at a CentralCommittee meeting held at the end of November1957.  It changed the emphasis on heavy industryand aimed at the simultaneous development ofagriculture, heavy and light industry.  It aimed atreducing the gap between town and countryside,between worker and peasant, and between workerand peasant on the one hand and the intellectualand manager on the other hand. It aimed at not

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merely an economic revolution but a technological,political, social and cultural revolution totransform the city and countryside.

In 1958 started the building of the people’scommunes. The process first started spontaneouslywhen neighbouring peasant associations in a droughtaffected area made a plan to merge together theirlabour and other resources to implement an irrigationproject. Their merger was given the name communeby Mao. Mao encouraged such formation and thisimmediately led to a rapid spread of communesthroughout the country. They were formed by themerger of neighbouring co-operatives in order toundertake large-scale projects such as flood control,water conservancy, afforestation, fisheries, andtransport. In addition, many communes set up theirown factories for making tractors, chemical fertilisers,and other means of production. The movement to setup people’s communes grew very rapidly. The CC ofthe CPC announced in its famous Wuhan Resolutionof December, 1958 that “Within a few months startingin the summer of 1958, all of the more than 740,000agricultural producers’ co-operatives in the country, inresponse to the enthusiastic demand of the mass ofpeasants, reorganised themselves into over 26,000people’s communes. Over 120 million households, ormore than 99 percent of all China’s peasanthouseholds of various nationalities, have joined thepeople’s communes.” Summing up the politicalessence, the CC went on to say: -

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“The people’s commune is the basic unit of thesocialist social structure of our country, combiningindustry, agriculture, trade, education, andmilitary affairs; at the same time it is the basicorganisation of the socialist state power. Marxist-Leninist theory and the initial experience of thepeople’s communes in our country enable us toforesee now that the people’s communes willquicken the tempo of our socialist construction andconstitute the best form for realising, in ourcountry, the following two transitions.

“Firstly, the transition from collective ownership toownership by the whole people in the countryside;and,

“Secondly, the transition from socialist tocommunist society. It can also be foreseen that inthe future communist society, the people’scommune will remain the basic unit of our socialstructure.”

Thus the commune movement represented atremendous advance which basically completed theprocess of collectivisation of agriculture. However theexpectation of the commune taking ahead the processof the transition to full public ownership andcommunism could not be fulfilled to that extent. Alsoattempts at setting up urban communes could not beconsolidated.

In the earliest period of the commune movement

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during the Great Leap, there were certain ‘left’ errors.Mao in his speech in February 1959 called it a‘communist wind’. These  ‘left’ errors, which Maoidentified, were mainly of three types. The first wasthe levelling of the poor and the rich brigadeswithin the commune  by making the wholecommune into one accounting unit. This meant thatshares of the peasant members of richer brigades (theformer advanced co-operative) would be smaller thanthe share they would receive soon after the communewas formed. They would thus resent the formation ofthe commune and their participation would not bevoluntary.  The second error was that capitalaccumulation by the commune was too great andthe commune’s demand for labour withoutcompensation was too great. When larger amountsare kept aside for capital accumulation the share thatthe peasant gets is lower. Similarly more labourwithout compensation can only come where theconsciousness has been raised to that extent.  Thethird error was the ‘communisation’ of all kinds‘property’. In some areas attempts were made to evenbring minor property of the peasant like hens and pigsunder the commune. This too was opposed. 

These errors were soon corrected. The productionbrigade (former advanced co-operative), was kept asthe basic accounting unit, and in 1962, this wasbrought to an even lower level, that of the productionteam. However, though the perspective remainedalways of raising the level of ownership and

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accounting to higher levels, as a process of greatersocialisation and transition towards communism, thisdid not achieve success. The basic accounting andownership unit continued till 1976, to remain at thelowest level—the production team.

Struggle against the Capitalist Roaders: Though the‘left’ errors were soon corrected, the hold of thecapitalist roaders, led by Liu Shiao-chi, remainedstrong within the party’s higher levels. The two-linestruggle was represented in direct and indirect ways. InJuly 1959, Peng The-huai, then Defence Minister,launched a direct attack on the Great Leap Forward,criticising what he called its “petty-bourgeoisfanaticism” and desire “to enter into communism atone step” Mao repulsed these attacks and defended thepolitics of the Great Leap. However, though Peng wasdefeated, the other capitalist roaders continued theirattacks through indirect means.

One method was through veiled defence of Peng andattacks on Mao in the media. This was througharticles and also through plays and culturalperformances intending to show how Peng was anupright comrade who had been victimised. The othermethod was to stall or divert the implementation ofkey policies decided at the highest levels. A principalexample was sabotage of the programme of socialisteducation and the decision to launch a CulturalRevolution, taken by the Tenth Plenum of the CC in1962. Though this was formally agreed to by the

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capitalist roaders, they ensured through their controlwithin the party structure, to ensure that there was nomass mobilisation. They tried to turn the CulturalRevolution in the direction of academic andideological debate rather than class struggle. 

Mao, throughout this period (1959-65), fought thebattle at various levels. He realised on the basis of theRussian experience, the very real danger of therestoration of capitalism. He, therefore, on the basis ofa major study of the politics and economics ofKruschevite revisionism, drew the theoretical lessonsof this experience for the education of the Chinese andthe international proletariat.  Through the struggleof the Great Debate against Kruschev’s modernrevisionism Mao tried to rally around therevolutionaries around the world and inChina.Through his works like  Critique of SovietEconomics  and the CPC’s analysis of  Kruschev’sPhoney Communism and its Historical Lessons forthe World, he tried to inculcate in the party cadre thetheoretical foundations for a fight against revisionismand restoration.

However he mainly tried to draw the masses intothe struggle to defend and develop socialism andprevent restoration of capitalism. Besides his earliermentioned programme for socialist education, he alsogave slogans for socialist emulation of the Tachai andTach’ing experiences as model experiences in buildingsocialism.  But when all attempts to mobilise the

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masses were diverted by the party bureaucracy,Mao succeeded after tremendous efforts inunleashing the energies of the masses through theGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It was theculmination in practice of Mao’s development ofthe Marxist principles of socialist construction.

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Chapter 30

The Great Debate – Mao’s Fight AgainstKruschev’s Modern Revisionism

In 1953, after the death of Stalin, a revisionist cliqueled by Kruschev, performed a coup, and took over thecontrols of the CPSU, then the leading party of theinternational proletariat. They threw out or killed therevolutionaries in the party, started the process ofrestoration of capitalism in the first land of socialismand proceeded to develop ties with the imperialistcamp, particularly U.S. imperialism. By 1956, aftersecuring firm control over the CPSU, they, at  the20th Congress of the CPSU, started spreading theirrevisionist poison among other communist parties.They simultaneously attacked the so-called Stalinpersonality cult and introduced their revisionisttheory of the three peacefuls—peaceful transition,peaceful coexistence and peaceful competition.

Peaceful transition  meant peaceful transition tosocialism by the parliamentary road.  Kruschevproposed that in the present era it was possible toachieve socialism by peacefully winning a majority inparliament and then bringing about reforms to bringin socialism. He thus denied the need forrevolution. This theory was thus a repetition of therevisionism of Bernstein and other social-democrats.

Peaceful co existence  between states having

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different social systems was proposed by Kruschevas the general line of the foreign policy of thesocialist state. He thus distorted Lenin’s policy ofpeaceful co existence with capitalist states, which wasjust one aspect of the socialist state’s foreign policy ofproletarian internationalism. Kruschev subordinatedall other things to his desire to maintain a peacefulexistence with imperialism. He made relations withand aid to other socialist countries and the policy ofhelp to the struggles of oppressed nations dependentupon the requirements of peaceful co existence withthe imperialist powers. This was thus nothing but apolicy of collaboration with imperialism.

Peaceful competition  was the theory that thecontradiction between imperialism and socialismwould be resolved through economic competitionbetween the capitalist and socialist systems.  Thistheory thus refused to recognise the reactionaryand war mongering character of imperialism. Itcreated the illusion that the contradiction between thesocialist and imperialist camp was a non-antagonisticcontradiction, which would be resolved throughpeaceful forms of struggle.

Kruschev’s theory of the three peacefuls was thus afull-fledged revisionist theory, which he wanted toimpose on the international communist movement. Itwas directed towards building up close relationshipwith imperialism.  In order to implement hisschemes and gain the acceptance of the imperialist

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powers, Kruschev simultaneously launched avicious attack on Stalin in the name of personalitycult. In order to demolish the revolutionaryprinciples that Stalin had stood and fought for itwas first necessary to destroy the image of Stalinamong the revolutionaries and the massesthroughout the world. This was done through acampaign of lies and degenerate propaganda.

Many of the leaderships of the communist parties ofthe world backed the revisionist Kruschevite line.Many prominent leaders and parties had alreadystarted taking the revisionist line in their owncountries. Browder in the USA had already putforward theories of collaboration between socialismand capitalism and moved out of the internationalcommunist movement; Thorez, the former ThirdInternational leader from France, who developed closerelations with the bourgeoisie following the period inthe anti-fascist front, had in the post-war years takennational chauvinist positions towards the peoples ofthe French colonies and become a servant of theFrench imperialist bourgeoisie; Togliatti of Italy,another major Third International leader, had wantedto ‘reform’ and ‘restructure’ capitalism into socialismthrough ‘structural reforms’ through the bourgeoisparliament ; the Communist Party of India leadershiphad already changed their tactical line to recognise thepeaceful path. Thus these revisionist forces, who hadnot been sufficiently criticised and defeated in theearlier period, quite happily collaborated with

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Kruschev.

Where however such parties tried in any seriousmanner to implement ‘peaceful transition’ through theelectoral system and where such efforts sufficientlythreatened the social order, they were eliminatedthrough military coups and savage repression, as inBrazil (1964), Indonesia (1965), and Chile (1973).

Among the newly formed People’s Democracies, theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia, led by Tito, hadalready, from 1948, started on the revisionist road andbroken off from the socialist camp. Kruschev howeversoon started making friends with him. Most of theremaining leaderships also aligned with Kruschev.Within the socialist camp it was only the CPC and theAlbanian Party of Labour who identified andrecognised Kruschevite revisionism and made a valiantand determined defence of Marxism-Leninism.

The CPC, under Mao’s guidance was in the vanguardof this struggle. Within two months of the 20th CPSUCongress the CPC published an article  On theHistorical Experience of the Dictatorship of theProletariat, which upheld Stalin as an outstandingMarxist-Leninist. This was followed by another articlein December 1956, More on the Historical Experienceof the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which insistedthat the socialist camp should clearly demarcate whoare its friends and enemies. This was combined with aseven year long attempt to struggle with and defeatthe Kruschevite revisionist line within party

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forums, particularly at the meetings of 60 fraternalparties in 1957 and of 81 fraternal parties in 1960,and at meetings with the CPSU leadership.

As the struggle sharpened the Soviet Revisionists inJune 1959 withdrew technical assistance in the field ofdefence, and in July 1960 withdrew suddenly all theSoviet technical experts that were working in China.The same was done with Albania. In April 1960 theCPC published  Long Live Leninism  and two otherarticles upholding the basic principles of Leninism onimperialism, war and peace, proletarian revolution andthe dictatorship of the proletariat. These articlesopposed the revisionist positions of the CPSUwithout mentioning it by name.

The revisionists however continued with theirattempts to further systemise their revisionistpositions. Thus in the 22nd  Congress of the CPSUheld in 1961, the Programme adopted there revised theessence of Marxism-Leninism, namely, the teachingson proletarian revolution, on the dictatorship of theproletariat and on the party of the proletariat. Itdeclared that the dictatorship of the proletariat was nolonger needed in the Soviet Union and that the natureof the CPSU as the vanguard of the proletariat hadchanged. The Congress advanced absurd theories of a“state of the whole people” and a “party of the entirepeople”. At the Congress Kruschev launched an openand public attack on the Albanian Party and even gavea call to overthrow its leader, Enver Hoxha. This was

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opposed by the CPC delegation led by Chou En-lai.

Kruschev also started encouraging other CommunistParties to launch public attacks on the CPC.Numerous articles in the Soviet also attacked theChinese leadership. The CPC finally started replyingto some of the attacks of Togliatti of the Italian Party,Thorez of the French Party, Gus Hall of the CPUSAand others in series of seven articles which came out atthe end of 1962 and the beginning of 1963.

A summary of the main views of the CPC were putdown in the famous June 14th  Letter of 1963,which was titled as  A Proposal Concerning theGeneral Line of the International CommunistMovement. This was replied to by an Open Letter tothe CPC by the CPSU. Since the whole issue was nowin the open, the CPC decided to conduct the debatethrough the open press. It brought out ninecommentaries on the CPSU’s Open Letter andclarified all issues before the masses.

This struggle, which came out in the open in 1963and continued through 1964, came to be known asthe Great Debate. The Great Debate was of immensehistoric significance. It was a principled andcomprehensive struggle against modern revisionism. Itprovided the rallying point for all proletarianrevolutionary forces throughout the world. It was alsoa scientific development of Marxism-Leninism, whichgave the international communist movement itsrevolutionary general line for that period. Mao was

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the driving force behind the struggle. It was throughthe Great Debate that Mao advanced the science ofMarxism-Leninism by providing the answers to themost significant questions before the internationalproletariat—the fundamental contradictions in theworld, who are friends and enemies, the aims of themovement, and the path for achieving the victoryof World Socialist Revolution. These formulationswere mainly contained in the June 14th  Letter.  Thenine commentaries outlined and elaborated therevolutionary position on various crucial issuesfacing the international communist movementafter the World War II—neo-colonialism, war andpeace, peaceful existence, Yugoslavia, Kruschev’srevisionism and the historical lessons to be drawntherefrom. It was through the Great Debate thatMaoism gained further acceptance as the guidingideology of the revolutionary sections of theinternational proletariat.

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Chapter 31

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR)was the answer of Marxism to the obstacles andsabotage of the process of socialist constructioncreated by the Kruschevites and the capitalist roaders.Particularly after the rise of revisionism in the SovietUnion, Mao had realised that one of the biggestdangers of the restoration of capitalism came fromwithin the Party itself. Throughout the Great Debate,Mao, while fighting revisionism, tried to find theanswer to the question of how to prevent therestoration of capitalism. He was at the same timedeeply involved in the fight with the ChineseKruschevites, like Liu Shiao- chi and Deng Tsiao-ping.Thus  while concluding the Great Debate in theCPC’s last document, which was called  OnKruschev’s Phoney Communism and its Historicallessons for the World, Mao stressed certain pointson the question of prevention of the restoration ofcapitalism.

Mao firstly stressed the recognition of the need tocontinue the class struggle throughout the periodof socialist society, right to the end. He explainedthat change in the ownership of the means ofproduction, i.e. socialist revolution on the economicfront is insufficient by itself.  He insisted that wemust have a thorough socialist revolution on thepolitical and ideological fronts in order to

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consolidate the revolution. And this revolution mustbe continued under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Another point that Mao repeatedly stressed wasthat in order to carry out this revolution it wasnecessary to stick to the mass line, and to boldlyarouse the masses and to unfold mass movementson a large scale. For this the Party would have to relyon, win over and unite with the masses of the people,who constitute 95 per cent of the population, in acommon struggle against the enemies of socialism.Mao also stressed the need “to conduct extensivesocialist education movements repeatedly in the citiesand the countryside.” In these continuous movementsfor educating the people Mao again stressed the needto organise the revolutionary class forces, and “towage a sharp, tit-for-tat struggle against the anti-socialist, capitalist and feudal forces”. Thus  Maoclearly saw that the extensive participation of themasses was an essential precondition to prevent therestoration of capitalism. This came from Mao’sexperience of how it was the revisionists from withinthe leadership of the Party itself who were the mainelements bringing about the restoration of capitalism.

However within the CPC itself there was strongresistance from the highest levels, led by Liu Shiao-chi,to the implementation of these theories and theconcrete programme being proposed by Mao. Thusthough the ‘socialist cultural revolution’ was officiallyaccepted at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth

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Central Committee in 1962, the implementation washalf-hearted and in a direction counter to the linegiven by Mao. In fact the Party bureaucracy, underLiu’s control, started criticising Mao for the actions hewas trying to take and opposing the action taken oncapitalist roaders like Peng Te-huai. This criticism theyconducted through articles in the press and plays andother cultural forums which were in their full control.Their control was such that Mao could not even get anarticle defending himself printed in the press inPeking. Such  an article defending Mao and hispolicies was finally published in November 1965 inthe Shanghai press, which was a much more radicalcentre than Peking. This was what Mao later called‘the signal’ for the GPCR which started a flow ofcriticism of the party bureaucracy an support ofMao’s Line in the media and the field of culture.There also arose demands for self-criticism by themain culprits. The Party bureaucracy however did allthey could to prevent this movement from taking on amass character. The Cultural Revolution Group,which was supposed to initiate and direct it actuallytried to control the dissent and channelise it alongacademic lines.

Finally the CC under the direction of Mao, issued acircular of 16th  May, 1966, dissolved the ‘Group ofFive’, under whose charge the Cultural Revolutionwas being sabotaged, and set up a new ‘CulturalRevolution Group’ directly under the PolitburoStanding Committee.  This May 16th Circular gave

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the call to criticise and break the resistance of thecapitalist roaders, particularly those within theparty. This action led to the actual initiation of theGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and madeit a mass phenomenon involving millions of people.

On May 25th the first big character poster was put upat the Peking University criticising its vice-chancellorand the education system. This was only the first ofthousands of such massive posters put up by thestudents and masses throughout the country wherethey expressed their opinion and criticised what theyfelt was wrong in society. Demonstrations and masscriticisms were held criticising professors, partybureaucrats and others for their wrong policies. Soonthere was a demand from a section of students for theabolition of entrance examinations. The CentralCommittee in June passed an order suspending newadmissions to colleges and universities for six monthsso that the students and youth could more fullyparticipate in the GPCR. However the six monthperiod proved too short and the universities onlyopened again after four years.

Mao too started personally participating in theGPCR. On July 17th  he participated along with tenthousand other swimmers in a mile long swim whichacross the river Yangtze. This was his symbolic actsignifying that he was participating in the flowingstream of the GPCR. Again on August 5th, duringthe Eleventh Plenum meeting of the CPC, Mao

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gave a much more straightforward signal. He putup his own big character poster. His main sloganwas “Bombard the Headquarters!” This was a clearcut call to attack the capitalist headquarters of thecapitalist roaders in the Party headed by Liu Shiao-chi. Mao’s call gave a further push to actions andmilitancy of the movement.

On August 18th Mao was present at the first rally ofRed Guards in Peking – it was a million strong. TheRed Guards were the members of the thousands ofmass organisations that had sprung up throughout thecountry for participation in the GPCR. The first massorganisations were composed mainly of students andyouth, but as the movement grew such organisationsgrew among the workers, peasants and officeemployees. The August 18th  rally was the first ofnumerous such rallies. At some times there were overtwo million Red Guards from all over the countryassembled in the capital.

 The Eleventh Plenum defined the GPCR as “a newstage in the development of the socialist revolutionin our country, a deeper and more extensive stage.”Mao, in his closing speech at the Plenum said, “Thegreat proletarian Cultural Revolution is in essencea great political revolution under socialistconditions by the proletariat against thebourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes. It is thecontinuation of the long struggle against theKuomintang reactionaries waged by the CPC and

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the broad revolutionary masses under itsleadership. It is continuation of the strugglebetween the proletariat and bourgeoisie.”

The Eleventh Plenum adopted what came to beknown as the  Sixteen Articles of the CulturalRevolution. They repeated what had been said by theMay 16th  Circular that the present revolution is totouch people’s souls, to change man. Old ideas,culture, customs, habits of the exploiting classes stillmould public opinion, offering fertile ground for therestoration of the past. The mental outlook must betransformed and new values created.

It identified the main target as “those within theparty who are in authority and are taking thecapitalist road.” It identified the main forces of therevolution as “the masses of the workers, peasants,soldiers, revolutionary intellectuals andrevolutionary cadres”.

The objective of the revolution was “to struggleagainst and crush those persons in authority whoare taking the capitalist road, to criticise andrepudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic‘authorities’ and the ideology of the bourgeoisieand all other exploiting classes and to transformeducation, art and literature and all other parts ofthe superstructure that do not correspond to thesocialist economic base, so as to facilitate theconsolidation and development of the socialistsystem.” The form of the revolution was to arouse

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the masses in their hundreds of millions to air theirviews freely, write big-character posters, and holdgreat debates so that the capitalist roaders in powerwould be exposed and their plans to restorecapitalism could by smashed.

The essential aspect of the Cultural Revolution wasthe advancement and practical implementation ofMao’s mass line. It was aimed, not merely ateliminating the elements hostile to socialism, but toenable the working class to ‘exercise leadership ineverything’, to ‘place politics in command ofadministration’, and to ensure that everyone serving asan official should ‘remain one of the common people’.In order to achieve these aims it was necessary tolaunch an all-out offensive against bourgeois ideologyin such a way that the masses would be activelyinvolved.

Thus, the Eleventh Plenum resolution instructed

“In the great proletarian Cultural Revolution, theonly method is for the masses to liberatethemselves, and any method of doing things ontheir behalf must not be used.

“Trust the masses, rely on them and respect theirinitiative. Cast out fear. Don’t be afraid of disorder.… Let the masses educate themselves in this greatrevolutionary and learn to distinguish right andwrong and between correct and incorrect ways ofdoing things.”

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As the masses entered in full strength in therevolution they even created a new organisationalform—the revolutionary committee. It was basedon the ‘three-in-one’ combination: that is, itsmembers, who were elected, subject to recall, anddirectly responsible to the people, were drawn fromthe Party, the People’s Liberation Army, and themass organisations  (the Red Guards whosemembership reached thirty million in number). Theysprung up at all levels, from the factory or communeto the organs of provincial and regional government,and their function was to provide the link throughwhich the masses could participate directly in therunning of the country.

This three-in-one organ of power enabledproletarian political power to strikes deep rootsamong the masses. Direct participation by therevolutionary masses in the running of the countryand the enforcement of revolutionary supervisionfrom below over the organs of political power atvarious levels played a very important role inensuring that leading groups at all levels adheredto the mass line. Thus this strengthening of thedictatorship of the proletariat, was also the mostextensive and deepest exercise in proletariandemocracy yet achieved in the world.

Under the initial sweep of the Cultural Revolution in1966-67, the bourgeois headquarters within the Partywas effectively smashed, and most of the leading

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capitalist roaders like Liu Shiao-chi and Deng Hsiao-ping and their supporters were stripped off their partyposts and forced to do self-criticism before the masses.It was a great victory, which not only inspired theChinese masses, but also created a wave ofrevolutionary enthusiasm among communistrevolutionaries throughout the world.

During the Great Debate many revolutionaryforces had gathered around the revolutionary lineof the CPC led by Mao, but it was mainly duringthe Cultural Revolution that these forcesthroughout the world came to accept that it wasMaoism that could provide the answers to theproblems of World Socialist Revolution. The GreatProletarian Cultural Revolution had shown thatMarxism had an answer to the enemy of capitalistrestoration. This advance in Marxism, led to theconsolidation of numerous revolutionary groupsand parties throughout the world on the basis ofMarxism-Leninism-Maoism, and the launching ofrevolutionary struggles under their leadership.

However Mao warned, “The present Great ProletarianCultural Revolution is only the first; there willinevitably be many more in the future. The issue ofwho will win in the revolution can only be settledover a long historical period. If things are not properlyhandled, it is possible for a capitalist restoration totake place at any time in the future.”

Further he reminded the Ninth Party Congress in

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1969, “We have won a great victory. But the defeatedclass will continue to struggle. Its members are stillabout and it still exists, therefore we cannot speak ofthe final victory, not for decades. We must not loseour vigilance. From the Leninist point of view, thefinal victory in one socialist country not only requiresthe efforts of the proletariat and the broad masses athome, but also depends on the victory of the worldrevolution and the abolition of the system ofexploitation of man by man on this earth so that allmankind will be emancipated. Consequently, it iswrong to talk about the final victory of the revolutionin our country light-heartedly; it runs counter toLeninism and does not confirm to facts.”

Mao’s words proved true within a short time. First in1971 Lin Piao, then vice-chairman, who in the NinthCongress of the CPC had been appointed as asuccessor to Mao, conspired to seize power throughassassinating Mao and staging a military coup. Thiswas foiled through the alertness of the revolutionariesin the party.

After this however, arch revisionists like Deng wererehabilitated back to high positions within the partyand state apparatus.  During the last period of theCultural Revolution, there was again a struggleagainst these capitalist roaders and Deng was againcriticised and removed from all posts a few monthsbefore Mao’s death on 9th  September 1976.  Hehowever had many of his agents in positions of power.

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It was these renegades who engineered the coup totake over the party and lead it on the path of capitalistrestoration very soon after the death of Mao. It wasthey who sabotaged the Cultural Revolution and thenformally announced its end in 1976.

This coup and capitalist restoration however cannotrepudiate the validity of the truth of the CulturalRevolution. Rather it, in a way, confirms Mao’steachings on the nature of socialist society and theneed to continue the revolution under the dictatorshipof the proletariat. The Cultural Revolution is ascientific tool developed in the struggle againstcapitalist restoration and in the theoretical struggle todevelop Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Its scientificvalidity has been established in the test of practice ofthe Chinese Revolution. Its effectiveness as a weaponto mobilise the vast masses in the struggle against thedanger of capitalist restoration in a socialist countryhas also been proved. However, as Mao himselfpointed out, no weapon can provide a guarantee offinal victory. Thus, the fact that the capitalist roadershave achieved a temporary victory does not in anyway diminish the objective truth of the necessity andeffectiveness of this weapon in the fight for socialistconstruction and the defence of socialism.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is oneof the foremost contributions of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the arsenal of theinternational proletariat. It represents the

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implementation in practice of Mao’s greatestcontribution to Marxism—the theory ofcontinuing revolution under the dictatorship of theproletariat to consolidate socialism, combatmodern revisionism and prevent the restoration ofcapitalism.  Its significance for the internationalproletariat is immeasurable in today’s world where allthe socialist bases have been lost due to themanipulative schemes of the bourgeoisie within thecommunist party itself. Therefore the time has cometo revise Lenin’s definition of a Marxist.

Lenin while defining a Marxist had said that it was notenough to accept the class struggle to be called aMarxist. He said it that only those who recognise boththe class struggle and the dictatorship of theproletariat can be called Marxists. Today it notsufficient to only recognise the class struggle and thedictatorship of the proletariat to be a Marxist. AMarxist has to accept the basic understanding of theGPCR. Thus, only he is a Marxist who extends therecognition of the class struggle and thedictatorship of the proletariat to the recognition ofthe continuous revolution in the super structurewith the aim of the completion of the worldrevolution and building communist society as earlyas possible.

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Chapter 32

After The Death of Mao

The late 60s – the period of the GPCR and theestablishment of Maoism as a new stage ofMarxism-Leninism – was a period of revolutionaryferment in many parts of the world. Therevolutionary war in Indo-China (the area coveringVietnam, Kampuchea and Laos) was dealing severeblows to the tremendous military might of the USimperialists. Simultaneously revolutionaries breakingaway from the hold of the modern revisionistslaunched armed struggles under the guidance ofMaoism in many parts of the Third World during thisperiod –the ongoing armed struggles in thePhilippines and India are a continuation since then.National liberation struggles waging guerrilla warwere also raging in various parts, as well as armedstruggles under Guevarist ideology (ideologyfollowing the views and practice of Che Guevara, whoplayed a leading role in the revolutionary struggles inCuba and Bolivia) in parts of Latin America.

The Indo-China war, the sharpening struggles in theThird World, and the GPCR were among the majorfactors for the vast out break of students and anti-warmovements throughout the capitalist world at the endof the sixties. The Paris student revolt of May 1968was the most significant but only one of a wave ofstudent revolt ranging from the USA to Italy and evento Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. It also had

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its impact on student movements in various parts ofthe Third World. At the same time the anti-Vietnamwar protests started picking up in the USA and otherparts of the world with massive peace movementsagainst war and the nuclear arms race in major citiesof Europe. The US imperialists were effectivelyisolated as not even one of their allies agreed to sendtroops to fight in Vietnam. Following the studentsmovement there was also a major growth of strugglesof the industrial working class in the West Europeancountries particularly Italy and France, though largelyon economic demands. Huge waves of strikes withmajor wage demands often paralysed entire economiesof the imperialist countries.

The mid-70s saw the final overthrow of many longstanding colonial regimes after long guerrilla wars.Thus the US and their puppets were thrown out ofVietnam, Kampuchea and Laos in1975. In Africa therepublics of Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Congo,and Benin were formed in this period. However mostof these countries were taken over by puppets orsatellites of the new imperialism – Soviet socialimperialism. A prominent exception was Kampuchea,where genuine communist revolutionaries – theKhmer Rouge – remained independent until invadedin 1978 by Vietnam on the behest of the Sovietimperialists.

In the following period too there has continued tobe an excellent revolutionary situation with the

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sharpening of all the fundamental contradictionsand the further weakening of imperialism. Inparticular the colonies and semi-colonies havecontinued to be the storm centres of worldrevolution. At the beginning of this period guerrillastruggles continued in Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Eritreaand other countries. The People’s War started in Peruin 1980 under communist revolutionary leadership.The Shah of Iran was overthrown and an anti-American Islamic Republic came into existence.National liberation war broke out in Afghanistan afterthe installation of a Soviet puppet regime in 1978 andoccupation by the Soviet social imperialist army in1979. The heroic struggle of the Afghan people dealt aserious deathblow to the Soviet regime and proved tobe a major factor in the final collapse of the USSR.

The epochal significance of the struggles of thepeoples of the colonies and semi-colonies has beenthat it has forever changed the nature of therelations between imperialism and the oppressednations. Both the Vietnam and Afghan wars provedthat even a superpower could not occupy even a smalland weak country. This truth was brought out evenmore starkly in the 90s in the numerous spots whereUN peacekeeping forces tried to intervene.Somaliland, which had been controlled for numerousyears without major difficulty by British and Italiancolonialists, had in the 90s become the Somalia wherethousands of American and other troops were forcedto retreat in disgrace, when attacked by the people.

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Even the large scale and continuous bombing of Iraqand Yugoslavia without the commitment of groundtroops is the recognition by imperialism that nocountry, nation or people would in this period beprepared to accept an occupation army.

Ever since the collapse of the bureaucratic regimes inEast Europe and the various republics of the formerSoviet Union, there has been a continuousrevolutionary crisis there too. Even in the Westernimperialist countries the worsening of the crisis hasled to the intensification of the contradiction betweenlabour and capital and repeated waves of strikestruggles by the industrial working class.  Therevolutionary forces however have not beenorganisationally strong enough to utilise theexcellent world-wide revolutionary situation toadvance the World Socialist Revolution

After the death of Mao in1976, the capitalistroaders who had remained in the party staged acoup under the leadership of the arch revisionistDeng Tsiao-ping  and took over the control of theparty under the nominal leadership of Hua Kuo-feng,a so-called centrist. As Mao had often taught, withpolitical control going over to the hands of therevisionists the socialist base had gone out of thehands of the proletariat.  At the same time theleadership of the Albanian Party of Labourswitched over to an opportunist line attackingMaoism and projecting Mao as a petty bourgeois

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revolutionary. Though the Khmer Rouge continuedto hold power in Kampuchea they were waging aconstant struggle against the internal and externalenemies of the Revolution and were yet to emergefrom the economic ravages of war and consolidatetheir rule when they were defeated by the Sovietbacked Vietnamese Army.  Thus there was nocountry anywhere in the world where theproletariat had consolidated its hold on state powerand could play the role of a socialist base for theinternational proletariat.

In the years immediately after the death of Mao,there was a considerable amount of ideologicalconfusion in the international communistmovement, with the Deng revisionists, throughHua Kuo-feng, attempting to project themselves asupholders of Maoism. In particular  they falselypeddled the revisionist Three World Theory asMao’s general line for the international proletariat.Many revolutionary sections accepted these positionsand it was only after the very openly revisionistHistory Resolution of the CPC in 1981 and theTwelfth Congress in 1982 that most revolutionaryforces throughout the world started coming outopenly against Deng revisionism. However somesections continued to follow the Dengist revisionistline and abandoned Mao’s revolutionary teachings.Certain other sections allied themselves with theopportunist attack by the Albanian Party of Labouron Maoism. However these parties later either

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disintegrated or openly revealed their revisionistnature.

Those that resolutely opposed Deng revisionismand upheld Maoism in practice could howevermake considerable advances. Today these forcesform the core of the revolutionary internationalproletariat.  They are leading armed struggles inPeru, Philippines, Turkey, Nepal and India.Though these forces are organisationally yet veryweak, they continue to grow in strength.

The principal source of their growth in strength isthe correctness of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. The chain of main historicalevents in the last twenty odd years has confirmedmost of the assessments of Maoism. In particularthe collapse of the Soviet Union and its retreatfrom super power status in the face of people’sstruggles and the serious weakening of theAmerican super power in the face of the strugglesof oppressed peoples of the world, have confirmedthe assessment by Mao that these imperialists wereonly paper tigers who would be taught a lesson bythe people.

Similarly Maoism has remained the best tool in thehands of the international proletariat andoppressed peoples to formulate and implement theprogramme for revolution in their own respectivecountries. It has also had a major influence overthe armed struggles for national liberation being

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waged in various corners of the globe. Though inthis period there has not been any major or significantdevelopments in Marxist science and theory, MLMcontinues to be adaptable to the changing conditionsin the world. It yet provides the only scientific andcorrect theory for the international proletariat.

The international communist movement is goingthrough the process of victory-defeat-victory on theroad to ultimate victory in the World SocialistRevolution. For those who would get despondent dueto the ups and downs of this process it would help toremember the understanding given by Mao during theGreat Debate and also during the CulturalRevolution, “Even the bourgeois revolution, whichreplaced one exploiting class by another, had toundergo repeated reversals and witness manystruggles—revolution, then restoration and thenthe overthrow of restoration. It took manyEuropean countries hundreds of years to completetheir bourgeois revolutions from the start of theideological preparations to the final conquest ofstate power. Since the proletarian revolution is arevolution aimed at completely ending all systemsof exploitation, it is still less permissible to imaginethat the exploiting classes will meekly allow theproletariat to deprive them of all their privilegeswithout seeking to restore their rule.”

Temporary defeats are therefore but to be expectedon the long and tortuous path of the WorldSocialist Revolution. The history of 150 years of

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the development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism hashowever conclusively proved that it is the historicaldestiny of this doctrine alone to lead and guide theinternational proletariat to final victory.