In this article late communist thinker comrade Moni Guha, exposes the revisionist ploy of denigrating Stalin so that the renegade from Marxism like Titos and Khruschevs could tighten their regime at the cost of socialism and revolution.
An extremely important document and equally important analysis.
Other Aspect
Chapter – 1
How and Why Stalin Died – Immediate Cause
Immediately after the 19th Congress of the communist party of the Soviet Union, held in November 1952, only a few months before his death, Stalin was given final touch to the implementation of the Congress decisions. Leningrad organization headed by Khrushchev was severely criticized in Molotov’s political report for “wrong consumer approach to collective farm development” and “attention to economic affairs only, neglecting ideological matters”. The 19th Congress detected a number of ‘shortcomings’, ‘errors’ and ‘inadmissible and moribund features’ in the internal life of many organizations of the CPSU. ‘Evasion and suppression of criticism from below’, ‘pernicious and profoundly anti-party attitude to criticism by subordinates’, ‘concealment by some leading workers of the true state of the affairs in the plants and institutions in their charge’, ‘close coteries who constituted themselves into a sort of mutual insurance society’, ‘bureaucratic degeneration’, ‘filching of collective farm property by some party, Soviet and agriculture officers’ were pin pointed in Molotov’s political report. Marshal Zukhov and Kosygin had already been demoted. Verga’s and Vozenesesky’s ‘theories’ of ‘non-inevitability of war’, ’emergence and development of new elements of socialism in post war capitalist economy’, “peaceful and gradual development of socialism in capitalist countries’ and possibility of development of non-antagonistic relations between the socialist and capitalist countries and stable and permanent peaceful co-existence of the two systems” etc. were already demolished through long debates and polemics organised under the leadership of Stalin and Vozenesesky was taken to task and Varga admitted his “revisionist mistakes”. Malenkov’s political report gave a clarion call to “wage a determined struggle against private property mentality and morality, against ideological corruption of unstable elements and the task of reforming the Central Committee brining into leadership of a large number of new – people was just taken up by Stalin.Economic problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R already demolished the theory of “Market Socialism” and policies of capitulation and restoration of capitalism. A new programme of the CPSU for building communism was under preparation.
Together with all these, in January, 1953, less than two months before Stalin’s death, it was also announced by the Security department that an investigation was proceeding into conspiracy among opposition elements. These elements, it was further said , were linked with British and American intelligence and some arrests had already been made. The investigation had been initiated directly from Stalin’s secretariat. It was also announced that the investigation had arrived at a conclusion that the opposition elements had been responsible for Zdhanov’s death in 1948.
In this connection we would request the reader to direct back their attention to a news item published in the New York Times in December 1948 which said that some leading members of the Soviet Union were interested to end the war of nerves (Cold War) between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. , in opposition to Stalin’s policy of continuing the cold war.
However, who was Zdhanov ? Zdhanov had been the best Marxist theoretician in the Soviet Union after Stalin. In the post war years, he, together with Stalin was engaged in cleansing the Augean stables of the Soviet Union. During the war years entire efforts and energies were concentrated for wining the war and patriotism was the central slogan. As a result much deviations from proletarian ideology was rampant. Zdhanov , together with Stalin , played a leading role to correct these deviations in almost all walks of Soviet life. Zdhanov also had led the Soviet delegation to the inaugural meeting of the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) . Naturally he became the target for the opposition elements, to say nothing of the imperialists.
You can well imagine the condition. As soon as the January, 1953 announcement and the news of arrest of some persons were made the situation was then at the sharpest point. Malenkov’s political report, Zukhov’s and Kosygin’s demotion, Stalin’s Economic problems, proposal for the reform of the Central Committee and last Stalins probing into opposition conspiracy. Either swift and resolute action to prevent the revelation of the opposition intrigue to the full extent or the inevitable dreadful consequences. The opposition elements thought correctly that the probe was obviously coming to close with which their fate is indissolubly connected.
A hectic preparation to remove Stalin was now on the immediate agenda of the opposition elements. Two weeks before Stalin’s death , the news of sudden death of General Kosynkin appeared in Izvestia of February 17, 1953. General Kosynkin was the chief of the department for the security of the Administration of Kremlin and was personally responsible for security of Stalin. On February 28, 1953, four days before the death of Stalin , the personal bodyguard of Stalin was found nowhere. His whereabouts or fate still remains unknown ! If the death of Stalin was unexplained and from natural cause , certainly the prior deaths, in this situation, of the Kremlin security Chief, General Kosynkin and the sudden vanishing of Stalin’s body guard were clearly remarkable coincidences !
It was on the night of March 3, 1953. It was Wednesday. Moscow radio announced that Stalin had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on the previous Sunday , that is on March 1, 1953. It remains still unexplained why the announcement was made after long three days.
Stalin dies on 5th March , 1953.
Undoubtedly, the announcement of the trial of opposition elements hastened Stalin’s death and it was the immediate cause of his death.
It may be noted that all the accused of the “Doctor’s plot” were released on March 6, 1953 with an announcement that the arrests were made due to some misinformation and misunderstanding !
Though detailed medical bulletins were issued, until the announcement of Stalin’s death, there was no report on the cause of his death except the first brief announcement of brain haemorrhage. It is noteworthy to point out that in the very first medical bulletin, the Soviet leaders hastened to emphasis that even in the event of Stalin’s recovery, he would not be able to return to his “leading responsibilities”. It was not ‘normal activities’ but “leading responsibilities”. Obviously, it was of highest importance to them.
At the present point in history, no one as yet, except those directly concerned, can know the exact cause of Stalin’s death. There has been no investigation as yet into the cause of Stalin’s death and no official report on the subject, in spite of the fact that doubtful reports about the cause of his death “leaked” from time to time. Among all those “leakages”, we may mention one. After the 20th Congress of CPSU, Tito, the blood brother of Khrushchev , visited the Soviet Union. After his return from conclusion with the Soviet leaders Tito was reported to have told a senior official of a NATO Country that from his visit to the Soviet Union he had formed the opinion that Stalin was murdered by Soviet Party leadership. This statement of Tito was published in the British press, for example, in Daily Telegraph in July 1956 under the heading “Tito Says Stalin Was Murdered”. In spite of this public statement, the rank and file of the world communist movement, being so lulled by their respective leaderships into illusions of class peace during those three years, had so lost their revolutionary vigilance that this public statement could pass without any out cries in the parties, without any demand for independent investigation as to the cause of Stalin’s death, without any public party comment !
Of course, the statement of Tito a renegade from Marxism, in all probability was made on behalf of Khrushchev another renegade from Marxism as part of ‘leaking’ of information to gauge the reaction of the world communists. Khrushchev became doubly sure that he had won the hearts (if there was any) of the renegades.
Let alone an investigation into cause of Stalin’s death, a decision was pushed through the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, that Stalin’s body be removed from the Lenin Mausoleum to a Kremlin grave. Do you think that this was an act of mere revenge, or of political sadism on the part of Khrushchev or merely the culminating point in a campaign of Stalin’s denigration? If you think in this over-simplistic way, you are gravely mistaken, dear comrades. Recall the event that happened in that Congress. Chou -En – Lai brought to Moscow a wreath for Stalin with an inscription in large golden letters “A GREAT MARXIST – LENINIST”. A powerful speech was delivered by him, in defense of Albania which Khrushchev angrily told the delegates not to applaud when the delegates were already applauding it. Albania had already withdrawn its public support to the Soviet revisionist policies and had launched polemics undermining the revisionist position in the international communist movement. Now Khrushchev had to face the withdrawal of public support from the powerful and most respected Communist Party of China. That was a new and unpleasant prospect for Khrushchev. It is clear that the decision of removing Stalin’s body was an urgent practical necessity for the leading Soviet revisionists and there were rumors that Stalin’s body was reduced to ashes before burial. In advance of any “unfavourable” turn of events Khrushchev wished to prevent any later independent investigation into the cause of Stalin’s death.
Whatever conclusion we reach on the available evidence does not invalidate the undeniable existence of two opposing groups in the Soviet leadership and the equally undeniable conflict between their policies and their basic ideology. That was the basic cause of Stalin’s mysterious death and that was the class struggle on international scale.
What , then, was this conflict ?
Chapter – 2
The Background – Class Against Class
The victory of the Soviet Union and freedom-loving nations in the Second World War radically changed the entire international situation. Above all, it changed the relation of the forces between two social systems – socialism and capitalism – in favour of socialism. Immediately before the Second World War the situation – so far the alignment of the class forces was concerned internationally – was most unfavourable to the world communist movement. Accordingly the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International took a correct defensive path, a path of conscious and organised retreat with a view to retrieve the position in favour of the world proletariat. The victory of the Soviet Union, the emergence of people’s democracies, the upsurge of National Liberation struggle in the oppressed countries and the upsurge of the democratic movement in the capitalist countries changed the international situation in favour of the world proletariat and socialism.
This was a situation which the imperialists did not want. The ruling circle of the United States and Great Britain expected that as a result of the exhausting war, the Soviet Union would be bled-white and enfeebled, would cease to be a great power and would become dependent upon the United States and Great Britain. The hopes of the imperialists proved to be illusory and groundless.
Though, during the war of Soviet Union and the allied countries acted together, in spite of the difference about the war aims, the difference between the two conceptions of the object of war and of the post-war world became exceptionally glaring when the war came to an end. The U.S.S.R., the peoples’ Democracies and other democratic countries launched a determined struggle to liquidate remnants of fascism and to strengthen the democratic order. The ruling circle of the United States and Great Britain, however, began to protect the remnants of fascism to strangle the forces of democracy and national liberation and to prepare for a new war with the object of establishing their own domination of the world. Thus two lines on question of post-war policy became revealed and this led to the formation of two camps – the imperialist camp – and the democratic camp.
Already concerned with the visible world development from capitalism to socialism and developing opposition to imperialism, the imperialist thought that their possession of nuclear weapons, especially in the period of their temporary monopoly and the unprecedented military force would enable them to arrest and if possible reverse the wheel of history. In other words, the imperialists were using all their class power and energy in an attempt to maintain imperialist status quo. That was the role of nuclear weapons for the imperialists. Molotov said , “As we know , a sort of new religion has become widespread among expansionist circles in the U.S.A.; having no faith in their own internal forces they put their faith in the secret of atom bomb although this secret has long ceased to be a secret.”( Speech at the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution , 6th November, 1947: Speeches – Molotov , vol. II , F.L.P.H. Moscow, 1949 )
The attitude towards the nuclear weapons become the central issue in the determination of foreign and home policy of the Soviet Union in the leadership of the CPSU.
Despite the temporary imperialist nuclear monopoly, Stalin continued to carry forward a consistent proletarian internationalist foreign policy without any concession or ideological retreat, knowing that the answer to the perennial imperialist threat lay in unwavering opposition to imperialism and mobilization of socialist camp and all anti-imperialist forces. The launching of international peace offensive in Stalin’s days had the aim of carrying this policy forward on a board front, again, as principled and practical answer to imperialist pressure.
The opposition elements, the revisionist section of the leadership of the Soviet party believed that Stalin’s through-going opposition to imperialism, specially in the “nuclear age” was becoming highly dangerous to Soviet national interest. They believed that the Soviet Union must at all cost buy off the threat of nuclear destruction by concessions to imperialism – easing the tension between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. The threat of nuclear weapons gave rise to fear in a section of the communists of the world including a section of the Soviet leadership and this was the international basis of modern revisionism. For the revisionists nuclear weapons are a force in themselves, outside objective social laws, the threatened use of which can act as some kind of the catalyst in international politics to compel the basic social forces to forego the historically necessary world mission of emancipating the people as well as themselves! So, to them Marxism became outdated in the ‘nuclear age’ and that required thorough revision. The essence of Khrushchev’s position in this respect was long ago publicly recognized by a leading capitalist politician, Harold Macmillan , who described Khrushchev approvingly as the “first Soviet statesman to recognize that Karl Marx was a pre-atomic man.” This deflection from dialectical and historical materialism promoted fear in them and the fear led them to opportunism, capitulation and bourgeois nationalism. Thus the revisionist section of the leadership of the Soviet party demanded a line of “least resistance” and “smooth-sailing” – to which Stalin did not pay any heed.
It may be noted in this connection that this line of “least resistance” and “smooth sailing” was persisting in the Soviet party since its very birth in a section of diplomats of foreign commissariat (Ministry), but could not come as a party line due to Stalin’s unflinching Marxist leadership for more than 25 years, from Lenin’s death to the victory over fascism. Stalin had personified the firm Soviet opposition to the class enemies of socialism with marked clarity and theoretical foresight.
Let us recapitulate the past to understand the position of Stalin vis–vis the revisionists. In 1925, in a talk to the students of Sverdlov University Stalin analysed the opposition of certain Soviet diplomats to proletarian internationalist foreign policy:
“Support the liberation movement in China? But why? Wouldn’t that be dangerous? Wouldn’t it bring us into conflict with other countries? Wouldn’t it be better if we established “spheres of influence” in China in conjunction with other “advanced” powers and snatched something from China for our own benefit? That would be both useful and safe
“Such is the now new type of nationalist “frame of mind” which is trying to liquidate the foreign policy of the October Revolution and is cultivating the elements of degeneration.”
Stalin said further, “That is a path of nationalism and degeneration, the path of complete liquidation of the proletariat’s international policy, for people afflicted with this disease regard our country not as a part of the whole that is called the world revolutionary movement, but as the beginning and the end of the movement believing that the interests of all other countries be sacrificed to the interests of our country(Stalin : Works, vol. VII, F.L.P.H. Moscow , 1954, Proletarian Path. 69 and 70, emphasis added)”
In a later work Stalin contrasted opposite lines of foreign policy for the Soviet Union. Stalin said: “either we continue to pursue a revolutionary policy rallying the proletarians and oppressed of all countries around the working class of the U.S.S.R. Or we renounce our revolutionary policy and agree to make a number of fundamental concessions to international capital”
“Britain for instance, demands that we join her in establishing predatory spheres of influence somewhere or other in Persia, Afghanistan or Turkey, say, and assures us that if we made this concession, she would be prepared to establish “friendship” with us
“America demands that we renounce in principle the policy of supporting the emancipation movement of the working class in other countries and says that if we made this concession everything would go smoothly
“… We cannot agree to these or similar concessions without being false to ourselves…”(Stalin – works, vol. XI; pp.58-60)
It is clear that both in this and above example , Stalin is not arguing in the abstract but resisting a tendency in a Soviet leadership. It appears rather as if Stalin was arguing with the Khrushchevite revisionists.
During the Spanish Civil War in 1936-37, a section of the foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union wanted to follow the same line of “least resistance” and the line of nationalism giving concession to imperialism. Litvinoff wanted to accept the British plan but Stalin stuck to his guns and the Soviet Union refused to grant Franco international status as a combatant as per with the international Brigade insisting that it had every right in the world of continue aiding the duly elected Republican Government, which it did until the bitter end. The controversy in the Soviet leadership “leaked” and the New York Times of October 29, 1937 described how the “unyielding Stalin ” representing “Russian stubbornness” refuse to go along. It wrote, “A struggle has been going on all this week between Joseph Stalin and foreign minister Maxim Litvinoff.”
Stalin said, ” the danger of nationalism, must regarded as springing from the growth of bourgeois influence on the party, in the sphere of the foreign policy, in the sphere of struggle that the capitalist states are waging against the state of the proletarian dictatorship. There can scarcely be any doubt that the pressure of the capitalist states on our state is enormous, that the people who are handling our foreign policy do not always succeed in resisting this pressure, that the danger of complications often gives rise to temptation to take the path of least resistance, the path of nationalism.
“On the other hand it is obvious that the first country to be victorious can retain the role of standard bearer of the world revolutionary movement only on the basis of consistent internationalism, only on the basis of foreign policy of October Revolution, and that the path of least resistance and of nationalism in foreign policy is the path of the isolation and the decay of the first country to be victorious.”( Stalin – Works, pg. 170-71)
In connection with the role of standard bearer of the world revolutionary movement of the first victorious country following is the attitude and stand of the modern revisionist. In a speech to the delegates from the fraternal “socialist” countries on February, 1960, Khrushchev declared : “What does ‘at the head’ gives us? It gives us neither milk, nor butter, neither potatoes nor vegetables, nor flats. Perhaps it gives us something morally? Nothing at all.” Again in a speech to the fraternal delegates on June 24, 1960 he declared : “What is the use of ‘at the head’ for us? To hell with it.” Khrushchev treated the role of standard bearer as cash-crop.
The starting point of the argument of the modern revisionist section of the CPSU leadership was that the existence of the nuclear weapons cancels out Marxism and makes any principled policy “out of date”. They basically retreated from Lenin’s analysis of imperialism and departed from the Leninist position that imperialism was the source of war. Instead they argued that the source of war was the conflict between the two camps of imperialism and socialism. Reducing this theory further they said that the conflict between the Soviet Union and Anglo-U.S. imperialisms was the direct source of conflict and war and the Soviet Union’s all sorts of support to the liberation war, especially of Korea and Vietnam was the source of intensification of the world tension. Hence they demanded the betrayal of the cause of the Korean and Indo-Chinese people for the relaxation of the international tension. They demanded to change the thorough-going opposition to imperialism for the replacement of this policy with a policy of ‘deal’ with imperialism sitting around the table.
From this basis perspective of deal with imperialism stemmed all other revisionist policy. The revisionist section of the leadership of the CPSU opposed all the formulation of Stalin contained in his Economic Problems of Socialism In The U.S.S.R. We have seen how the revisionists opposed the Leninist theory that imperialism is the source of war. They also opposed Stalin’s formulation of two parallel world markets – socialist and capitalist which we will discuss now, as this is one of the cardinal question of building socialism in the period when socialism is one country was replaced by socialism in many countries and orthodox colonialism was replaced by neo-colonialism.
Two Parallel World Market : Stalin said, “The disintegration of the single, all-embracing world market must be regarded as the most important economic sequel of the Second World War . The economic consequence of the existence of the two opposite camps was that the single all-embracing world market disintegrated, so that now we have to parallel world markets also confronting one another.
” It follows from this that the sphere of exploitation of the world’s resources by the major capitalist countries will not expand but contract; that their opportunities for sale in the world market will deteriorate and their industries will be operating more and more below capacity. That .. is what is meant by the depending of the general crisis of the world capitalist system in connection with the disintegration of the world market.”( Stalin : Economic Problems of Socialism In The U.S.S.R.)
We are told by the revisionists that it is another of “Stalin’s error”. They refute Stalin by saying :
“In no way whatever does the socialist international division of labour imply autarchy [Economic self-sufficiency – Moni.Guha] on the side of socialist camp. it follows from the Leninist principle of peaceful co-existence that the socialist and capitalist economic system together form the world economy. And this entirely forms the economic base for the peaceful co-existence of two world systems. The more developed the socialist division of labour, the greater the opportunities for exchange between two systems.
“The fact that world prices are used as the first basis for price formation on the socialist world market indicates that the socialist and capitalist markets are part of a single world market. ” (World Marxist Review: “The International Division of Labour” – December, 1958. )
We will briefly discuss this question here.
It has always been held by Marxist – beginning from Marx down to Stalin – that socialism would abolish the division of labour. Marx said, with the division of labour in which all these contradictions are implicit – is given simultaneously the distribution and indeed unequal distribution, both quantitative and qualitative, of labour and its products, hence property the division of labour implies the possibility, nay the fact, that intellectual and material activity – enjoyment and labour, production and consumption – devolve on different individuals, and that the ONLY POSSIBILITY OF THEIR NOT COMING INTO CONTRADICTION LIES IN THE negation IN ITS TURN of the division of labour.”( K. Marx : “Germaldeology” F.L.P.H., Moscow 1949 pg. 44; Emphasis in italics are original while the emphasizes in capital letters and bolds of the last sentence supplied.)
While Marx said that in order to end the contradictions inherent in the division of labour it was necessary to negate the division of labour itself, the revisionist say “more developed the socialist division of labour, the greater the opportunities for exchange between the two system”! Not only that. The revisionist “theory” further says that the “socialist international division of labour” “frees the division of labour from the antagonistic form”! ( World Marxist Review – “International division of labour”, December 1958) Why, then, you are not bold enough, my dear revisionists, to say that Marx was wrong, he could not understand that the socialist international division of labour frees the division of labour from all antagonism? Why, then don’t you say that it was wrong for Marx to conclude that the negation of division of labour can only resolve the contradiction inherent in it? Here you see, the revisionists are not prepared to create a material basis for the abolition of division of labour, on the contrary, they are interested in creating a material basis for the emancipation of the division of labour from its antagonistic form through greater development of international division of labour with a view to “facilitate greater exchange between the two system”. And it is called by them socialism!
Indeed “Stalin’s error” on this point dates back to Marx.
The revisionists prove their “single world market” theory by saying that since the “world prices are used as the first basis for price formation on the socialist world market price” the socialist world market must be “a part of a single world market”. But who said that the world prices would be used as the first basis for the price formation of the socialist world market? There cannot be any basis for socialist competition if the imperialist world prices are used as the first basis for the price formation of the socialist world market. It is a capitalist competition not socialist competition if the socialist countries trade in international arena on the basis of the imperialist world prices as all the vices inherent in the imperialist world prices will gobble up “socialism.” In speaking of two parallel world markets – capitalist and socialist – Stalin did neither mean nor say that the socialist world market will use imperialist world price as its first basis for its price formation.
After all what are the world prices?
According to the Marxist economics world prices pattern put only developed country in a position of exploiting less developed ones. The totally of exchange relations between a developed country, which exchanges manufactured goods and underdeveloped country which exchanges primary products has been organised by the imperialists in such a way as to work systematically to the disadvantage of the undeveloped country and to the advantage of the developed country. The difference in level of productivity between two types of countries – less productive and less skilled on the part of undeveloped country and more skilled and more productive on the part of developed country is a fact. As a result more labour of undeveloped country is exchanged with less labour of the developed country. This is what is called “unequal exchange”. It is unequal exchange between the developed and underdeveloped country by which the capitalist class (and the “socialist” of single world market) of the developed country gains at expense of the people of undeveloped territory, even if it is sold cheaper by one of the developed countries than other developed countries. It is capitalist competition.
Marx drew the attention to such unequal exchange:
“Capital invested to foreign trade are in a position to yield a higher rate of profit , because , in the first place, they come in competition with commodities produced in other countries with lesser facilities of production, , so that an advanced country is enabled to sell its goods above their value even when it sells cheaper than the competing countries.”(K. Marx, Capital, vol.3; emphasis added)
The Soviet Union, rejecting and repudiating Stalin’s theory of two parallel world markets and following the revisionist “theory” of single world market and “international division of labour” based on imperialist world prices as the first basis for the price formation is gaining at the expense of Comecon countries and the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America capitalistically competing with the imperialist competitors. The “higher rate of profit” which they earn are invested as capital in the Soviet Union and hence the Soviet Union is no longer a socialist country.
Che Guevara, then the Finance Minister of “socialist” Cuba strongly criticized the practice of world market prices and argued, ” How can it be ‘mutually advantageous’ to sell at world market prices the primary materials which cost the under-developed countries boundless sweat and suffering and to buy the world market prices the machines produced in the great automatized factories of the present day?” He further said, “If we establish this sort of relation between two groups of nations, it must be admitted that the socialist countries are, in a certain way, accomplices of imperialist exploitation. The socialist countries have the moral duty to liquidate their tacit complicity with the exploiting countries of the west.”( Che Guevara : Speech at the “”2nd Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity” on 24th February ,1965)
China, Rumania, Hungary and the other “socialist” countries said almost the same thing like Che Guevara. They felt the sting of Soviet Union’s exploitation, but failed to go beyond bourgeois nationalist protest. None of them demanded a parallel world socialist market based on socialist pricing system. On the contrary, these countries also trade on the basis of imperialist world prices. India, U.A.R. and other countries also protested against the unequal exchange of the “socialist ” Soviet Union. They do not find any fundamental or radical difference between the capitalist competition and “socialist” competition.
Stalin envisaged a parallel socialist world market on the basis of a socialist theory of international trade based on un-exploitative socialist pricing policy which would socialistically compete with the ever shrinking capitalist world market and thus would draw the undeveloped countries towards socialist camp, which would in turn intensify the general crisis of capitalism more and more.
The single world market theory based on imperialist world prices and capitalist nature of competition in the world market by the revisionists has brought the “socialist” countries in the orbit of the capitalist crisis. The Economist of London in its January, 1976 issue writes: “western inflation is pushing up the price of Comecon’s imports while western recession is making it increasingly difficult for Comecon members to maintain, let alone expand.” It is not only the London Economist but Soviet prime minister also had to admit this fact. In his speech to the 29th Comecon Council meeting, in June 1975, he openly admitted that the inflation in the west has certain effect on the Soviet bloc.
The tremendous and increasing indebtedness of the Comecon countries, including the U.S.S.R. to west European, Japanese and U.S. banking interest is noteworthy. The U.S. imperialism is gaining an ever greater economic and political foothold in the Comecon countries at the expense of peaceful co-existence on the basis of peaceful competition in capitalist way in a single world market. We are neither opposed to peaceful co-existence nor to peaceful competition with capitalism, but we like to follow that line on the basis of socialist pricing system of the parallel world socialist market competing capitalismSocialistically. Herein lies the fundamental ideological and political difference between Marxism and revisionism.
The revisionist section of the leadership of the CPSU did not find any other suitable alternative to save the situation in their favour but Stalin’s death and that was why Stalin “died”.
Chapter – 3
What Happened After The Death of Stalin?
To understand clearly what happened after the death of Stalin, it is necessary to know the situation when Stalin died.
Stalin died in March 1953. He died at a time when the relative stability of capitalist markets had become a thing of the past and the ‘disintegration of the single all-embracing world market’ had already set in and two parallel world markets – the socialist and capitalist – confronting one another, contracting the capitalist world market more and more further deepening the general crisis of capitalism – was in the process of offing.
Stalin died at a time when the “theories expounded by Lenin in the spring of 1916, namely that in spite of the decay of capitalism “on the whole capitalism is growing far more rapidly than before” had lost its validity”(Stalin : Economic Problems of socialism in the U.S.S.R.), at a time when, capitalism had even lost its tendency to relative growth in the framework of all-round absolute decay.
Stalin died at a time when, the development of social contradiction had been moving the world proletariat towards revolution and the imperialist towards a new war; at a time when, the fight for peace ‘the peace offensive’ had become the fight against the social forces that were conspiring a war; at a time when, the whole world had become a single field of social battle in which the forces of socialism and national liberation on the one hand and the forces of capitalism and national reaction on the other, confronted one another eye ball to eye ball as two organised forces, the former headed by STALIN, socialist camp and the Cominform and the latter by Anglo-American imperialisms together with modern revisionism; at a time when, every local crisis had assumed a world-wide importance.
Stalin died at a time when, the national liberation struggle of the oppressed people had become not only objectively, but also subjectively, the part and parcels of the world proletarian socialist revolution on the one hand and at a time when, the imperialist vultures, through neo-colonial policy had been buying off, in addition to the feudal class, national reformists and had been engineering a policy of localized civil warin an attempt at crushing the national liberation struggle one by one on the other; at the time when, the unified and joint intervention by the world socialist forces and the forces of national liberation struggle had been foiling the conspiracy of localized civil war by imperialism as in Korea.
Stalin died at a time when, the development of socialism in the Soviet Union had reached crucial turning point demanding transformation of the collective farmers into the property of the whole people – replacing group ownership – by an “all-embracing production sector” and ‘products-exchange’ thus doing away with the commodity-money relations and market economy, opening the floodgates of the second, higher phase of socialism, viz., communism.
Stalin died at the time when the ‘theories’ of peaceful growing of socialism, ‘structural reform of capitalism’ form within the framework of Yalta and UNO on the one hand and ‘sudden nuclear attack as the decisive factor in the out come of war’ and ‘peace at any price’ on the other giving right to opportunism had been rising their ugly heads in the international communist movement, in the Soviet Union and countries of People’s Democracies; at a time when Stalin had already launched a bitter ideological as well as political struggle against the liquidationism of Verga, Vozenesesky, Browder and Tito.
Stalin died at a time when the deviations and errors of the wartime had already been detected and pin-pointed and the investigation of the crimes of the opposition elements had been undertaken; at a time when the reforms of the Central Committee, purging out the weak-nerved and wavering elements had been undertaken.
In fine, Stalin died at a time when, on the one hand, under his far-sighted leadership the world imperialist system had been brought to the brink of precipice ushering the world system of socialism – replacing socialism in one country, at a time when the material basis of exerting a decisive influence on world politics as a whole by the international dictatorship of the proletariat exercised through the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) had already emerged and on the other hand, when Anglo-American imperialisms, in league with the modern revisionists had already infiltrated deeply into the international communist movement; at a time, when the world proletariat had stood against the world bourgeoisie as class against class and eye to eye.
Stalin died at such a crucial point of history when the brightest unique prospect and greatest black danger – a prospect of revolution and the danger of counter-revolution – at the highest of the greatest class battle of history-confronted each other. It demanded a dynamic subjective leadership at least equal to Stalin.
Frederic Engles wrote to F. Sorge, just immediately after the death of Karl Marx ” mankind is shorter by a head and the greatest head of our time at that. The proletarian movement goes on, but gone its central figure to which Frenchmen, Russian, Americans and Germans spontaneously turned at critical moments to receive always that clear, incontestable counsel which only genius and perfect understanding of the situation can give. Local and lesser minds, if not humbugs will now have free hands. The final victory is certain, but circuitous path, temporary and local errors, things even now are so unavoidable,will become more common than ever. Well , we must see it through. What else are we here for?”(Marx Engles Correspondance : National Book Agency , 1946, Emphasis supplied)
It was more true after the death of Stalin. After his death we have not only “local and lesser minds” but also “humbugs”. The darkest period in the international communist movement descended after the death of Stalin.
What happened after the death of Stalin?
Stalin died in March 1953, and abruptly the high tide of revolution so far the subjective role of the leadership was concern reversed. In July, 1953, within less than four months of Stalin’s death, the leaders of the Soviet Union and China capitulated to U.S. imperialism and forced the Korean people to accept division of their nation and a permanent occupation of the southern half by U.S. forces. It was declared that the era of the cold war between socialism and capitalism was ended replacing it by an era of mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence between capitalism and socialism based on ‘relaxation of international tension’ as it the struggle for socialism and national liberation were the sources responsible for the intensification of international tension and war conspiracy ! The struggle against the threat and danger of the third world war was arbitrarily separated from the struggle against imperialism implying that classes and nations oppressed by imperialism should abandon revolutionary struggles in the interest of “preserving peace”. The problem of peace was isolated from the problem of human emancipation, from all kinds of exploitation, placing “peace” in abstract way. It meant the repudiation and rejection of the thorough-going struggle against the social forces that conspire and make war, it meant the repudiation and rejection of the differentiation between Revolutionary war and the war of aggression, it meant the repudiation and rejection of Marxism and class struggle. (See explanatory Note.)1
Stalin died in March 1953 and by July of that year the socialized means of production of agriculture sector of Soviet Union – the Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) were desocialized and were sold to those collective farms which were financially capable of outright purchasing it, thus laying the foundation of differentiation and inequality among the collective farm peasantry and making a tiny section of the peasants group owners of one of the most vital economic sectors, of the means of production doing away with the very economic basis of socialism in agriculture thus laying the foundation of the restoration of capitalism. Collective farms were allowed to sell their kitchen garden products together with their hens, pigs, milk, butter, eggs and meat in the ‘free market’ as commodity, thus extending the scope and range of the operation of the law of value , commodity – money relations and market economy intensifying the instincts and morality of the private property thus opening widely the gates for capitalism to enter into, guaranteeing the consumer approach to collective farm production for which Khrushchev was criticized at the 19th Congress of the CPSU in November, 1952. (See explanatory Note.)2
Stalin died in March 1953 and in September of that year Soviet Red Army General Talensky rejecting Stalin’s formula of “permanently operating factors” in war (See explanatory Note.)3 introduced the ‘theory’ that in the ‘nuclear age’ atom bomb can determine the fact and outcome of war at the very first phase of war by attacking suddenly(See explanatory Note.)4, once more providing Stalin’s prophetic words that “Atom bombs are intended for intimidating the weak nerved(See explanatory Note.)5“.
Stalin died in March 1953, and in November of that year – the World Peace Council – a creation of Stalin – planned for a world conference for the “relaxation of international tension” renouncing the struggle for peace against the source of war and the conspirators of war, under the cloak of “saving the world from the war”, forgetting that appeasement of imperialist aggression and aggressive designs cannot preserve peace, on the contrary, makes the war inevitable.
Stalin died in March 1953 and in 1954 when Dulles – the U.S. state secretary – threatened mass retaliation with atom bomb should the Vietnamese proceed further beyond Dien-bein Phu and the Chinese overtly intervene in Indo-China, the Soviet Union and China, in the name of ‘preserving peace’ ‘preventing another world war’ forced the Vietnamese army and the indo-Chinese people to end the war of liberation short of gaining complete independence. The Geneva capitulation(See explanatory Note.)6 was the continuation of the Korean capitulation translating the ‘peace at any price’ into reality in the name of averting atomic disaster.
In the same year, 1954, Afro-Asian Bandung conference was held under the joint leadership of Pandit Nehru and Chou-En-Lai virtually denouncing the two world theory of Lenin and Stalin, with a view to create a ‘Third Neutral Force’ comprising of the ruling classes of the colonial type countries – who would be neither in the socialist camp nor in the imperialist camp and who would purse a ‘third path’ which would neither be proletarian nor be imperialist, thus, in the name of erecting a ‘Chinese wall against imperialist penetration’ erected a real Chinese wall between the world proletarian socialist revolution and the national liberation struggle as well as between the democratic (agrarian) revolution and struggle for national independence, surrendering the interest of the peasantry in particular and workers in general at the feet of national-reformist-feudal alliance, making the national liberation struggle pawn of power politics and appendage of this or that great power bloc.(See explanatory Note.)7
Stalin died in March 1953, and in may 1955 Warsaw Military bloc was formed with the blessing and participation of China as fraternal observer, basing on power politics – minus the people. Khrushchev declared that the maintenance of peace or unleashing of war depended on the two super powers – the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R., rejecting and repudiating the inexorable social law of war and peace and following the imperialist logic of ‘force theory’(See explanatory Note.)8. Rejecting Stalin’s line of relying on people and mobilizing them against war preparation and war conspiracies of the imperialist(See explanatory Note.)9 the leader of the ‘socialist’ countries relied on power politics and power diplomacy, creating the illusion of false peace thus disarming the people ideologically, politically and organizationally.
In the same year in June 1955, the gang of Tito was rehabilitated in complicity with China and modern revisionism in the shape of ‘national communism’ was recognized as Marxism-Leninism by the leaders of the Soviet Union and China denouncing Stalin as ‘big nation Chauvinist’ and embracing Tito as ‘Great Comrade.’(See explanatory Note.)10
Thus the stage was set for the drama of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and denunciation of the Marxism-Leninism in the name of denunciation of the ‘cult of personality’ and Stalin.
Stalin was again murdered, in February in 1956, in the secret chamber of Khrushchev, in presence of the fraternal delegates from all countries(See explanatory Note.)11, without a single voice of protest.
In 1956, in July, the Cominform, the embryonic Communist International was winded up with the support of China, thus burying the disciplined proletarian internationalism in the shape of international democratic centralism, giving everybody the right to interpret proletarian internationalism as it thinks fit.(See explanatory Note.)12
The April and December 1956 articles On the historical experience and More on historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the deliberations of the 18th Congress of the CPC held in September, 1956, including Mao – Tse – Tung’s opening speech in which he said “At its 20th Congress held not long ago, the Communist Party of Soviet Union formulated many correct policies and criticized shortcomings which were found in the party “, were nothing but the loyal echo of the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
The capitulation and sellout that began in Korea failed to produce desired result. Nuclear threat gave rise to fear and fear led the revisionist capitulation for the preservation of national interest at the expense of others but even such capitulation failed to preserve nationalist interest, more capitulation was demanded by imperialism. As a result, first the revisionist Soviet leadership tried to pacify U.S. imperialism at the expense of China and then the policy of threat against threat emerged. By this process the Soviet Union transformed itself into Russian neo-imperialist super power.
The two world parallel markets – socialist and capitalist – are today again a thing of the past, the material basis of exerting decisive influence in world politics as a whole by the socialist camp no longer exist today as there is no longer socialist camp. Instead of contracting the imperialist world market, it is extending and even successfully penetrating in all ‘socialist’ countries including the Soviet Union and China. The ‘socialist’ countries are fighting one against other – one calling the other “expansionist”. The Soviet Union, the Comecon countries and China are today partners of joint enterprise and joint exploitation with the imperialists in a single one market. Moscow and Beijing both are providing more and more breathing space to the imperialists and are busy in building fence after fence around the brink of the precipice where Stalin had driven the imperialists – so that imperialists may not fall tumbling down into the very precipice and may gather strength and overcome the danger of falling straightaway.
Stalin’s death was a dire necessity for the bourgeoisie and their henchmen, the revisionists and so Stalin had to die and the capitalist world was made safe, at least for some decades.
It is no use to chant like ‘mantras‘ was what splendid things Stalin did in his life time, it is of no use to celebrate Stalin’s birth centenary as rituals. It is necessary and imperative to discuss and judge how and why the post-Stalin leadership of the international communist movement betrayed Stalin, the world proletariat, the oppressed people and Marxism-Leninism and that only can enable us to resurrect Marxism-Leninism and help us to find out the root as to WHY WAS STALIN DENIGRATED AND MADE A CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE. Otherwise “What else we are here for?”
Explanatory Notes of Chapter 3
Explanatory Note : 1
Korean capitulation :Since the U.S. intervention of Korea under the flag of United Nation, Stalin was urging for a peaceful settlement of the Korean issue on the basis of complete withdrawal of foreign troops Korea to enable the Korean people to settle it by themselves. In response to Nehrus appeal to Stalin for peaceful settlement of the Korean issue, Stalin re-iterated the same thing. Even in the Armistice Agreement in June 1953, after the death of Stalin, it was stipulated that the forthcoming political conference will discuss the question of withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea. Kim II Sung said in the 6thPlenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea on 5th August 1953:
The armistice signifies a great victory for us. Through the armistice did not bring complete peace to Korea, the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement marked an initial step towards the peaceful settlement of the Korean issue, – a first exemplary contribution to the relaxation of international tension. By concluding the Armistice Agreement we have come to open up the possibilities for the peaceful settlement of the question of our countrys unification.
The forthcoming political conference should naturally reflect and defend the just claims, desire, will and fundamental interests of the Korean people. Therefore, our people will under no circumstances tolerate and thoroughly reject any attempt or plot of the imperialist interventionists contrary to them.
The basis aim of the political conference is to get all the troops of the United States and its satellite countries to withdraw from South Korea and to enable the Korean people to settle the Korean issue by themselves and to prevent foreigners from interfering in the internal affairs of our country.
We do not find any difference in the basis aim of proposed political conference to be held between the representative of the United States on the one hand and Korea, the Soviet Union, China and etc. on the other side as it corresponds with the policy declared by Stalin, before his death.
But after stating the basic aim of the political conference Kim II Sung went on :
With the political conference approaching the U.S. imperialist are already making a fuss behind the scenes. Notwithstanding the singing of Armistice Agreement in which it was stipulated that the chief aim of the political conference is to discuss the question of withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea, the notorious war monger Dulles U.S. Secretary of state concluded the so-called ROK-U.S. Mutual defense pact(ROK: Republic of Korea,South) with Syngman Rhee. This pact is aimed at stationing aggressive forces of the United States in south Korea indefinitely, and whenever necessary, unleashing another criminal war of aggression in Korea, in violence of the Armistice Agreement. The ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Pact is an aggressive pact which allows U.S. imperialism to obstruct peaceful reunification of our country and interfere in our domestic affairs. It is a glaringly country selling pact under which Syngman Rhee clique sell the southern half of our country to the U.S. bandits. To conclude such a pact at a time when the political conference is in the offing is an act of hindering a reasonable solution of the Korean question at the political conference(Kim II Sung : Selected Works. Vol. 1; F.L.P.H. ; Pyogyang, Korea, 1976, pp 416-18, emphases supplied)
In spite of this categorical statement about the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Pact on the eve of the political conference, the leaders of the Soviet Union and China did not hesitate to hatch a Korea-selling conspiracy with the U.S. imperialists. They made a treaty of peace with the U.S. imperialists and allowed to remain U.S. military force in South Korea agreeing to the partitioning of the country indefinitely. Even today Korea remains divided and U.S. military base remains in South Korea. The declared basic aim of political conference and the stipulations of the Armistice Agreement were smoke screens with a view to lull the Korean and world people.
The question is : Was a capitulation or compromise or a tactical retreat necessary from the military and political position on the part of North Korea, China and the Soviet Union? Was the continuation of war and settlement of it by military means really quite unfavourable to the position of the socialist camp? Let us quote Mao – Tse Tung, who was one of the architects of this ignominious betrayal to the cause of Korean as well as world people. Mao – Tse – Tung said the following in September 1953, immediately after Peace Treaty was signed :
After three years we have won a great victory, in the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea
We fought U.S. imperialism, an enemy welding weapons many times superior to ours and yet we were able to win and compelled it to agree to a truce. Why was the truce possible?
First, military, the U.S. aggressors were in unfavourable position and were on receiving end. If they have not accepted truce, then the whole battle line would have been broken through and Seoul would have fallen into the hands of Korean people. The situation became evident in the summer of the last year.
Second, politically, the enemy had many internal contradictions and the people of the world demanded peace.
Third economically, the enemy spent vast sum of money in the war of aggression against Korea and his budgetary revenue and expenditures were not balanced. (Mao – Tse – Tung: Selected Works, vol. V, Peking, 1977, pp. 115, emphasis supplied)
May we then ask, why, in spite of such a favourable situation the Soviet Union and China did not compel the U.S. imperialist for the abrogation of ROK-U.S. Mutual Defence Pact and for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from South Korea which was the declared aim of the political conference as stipulated in the Armistice Agreement? May we then, ask, who compelled whom? Obviously, the peace Treaty was neither a military necessity nor a tactical retreat, Mao – Tse – Tung said, that it was a great victory. May we ask, on whose terms the peace treaty was drafted and signed? The U.S. forces remained in South Korea, Korea remained partitioned, not a single item of the declared basic aim of the political conference was agreed by the U.S., then how can it be said that the U.S. was compelled to make a truce? How can it be said that it was a great victory? Whose position was made advantageous by the peace treaty?
In fact, it was a great betrayal and sell out so far the interests of the Korean people and world proletarian interest were concerned. It was the fear of nuclear threat and peace at any price which compelled the modern revisionists to sell out Korean people for the sake of narrow bourgeois nationalist interests of the Soviet Union and China.
Elsewhere Mao – Tse – Tung said that Korean peace treaty was a compromise. There he did not say it as great victory. Did not we compromise with the Americans on the 36th parallel in Korea? (Ibid, pp.575, written on November 18, 1957). Of course, the peace treaty was both a great victory and compromise to Mao – Tse – Tung and the modern revisionists. It was a great victory for nationalist China, because the threat against China remained no more after the withdrawal of imperialist forces from North Korea, especially from the banks of Yulu River. It may be noted in this connection that China did not involve herself in Korean War before Pong yang, the capital of North Korea, fell to the U.S. hands, before the U.S. forces were near the Yulu River, in spite of the repeated requests from Stalin. China join the Korean War only when she was directly threatened. Apparently the volunteer action of China in Korea would appear like proletarian internationalism, though in fact, it was bourgeois nationalism. In spite of that it was objectively anti imperialist. It may also be noted that, in spite of the military support of the Korean cause by China, China did not confiscate and nationalize U.S. owned enterprises, in spite of the fact that the U.S. imperialist imposed economic blockade against China and freezed Chinas overseas assets. The U.S. enterprises were only placed under the state control.
When the United States used the Korean War as a pretext to freeze our overseas assets and impose on economic blockade and embargo on us, our government retaliated with the announcement, on December 28, 1950, that control would be exerted over property belonging to the United States imperialists. (Liao Kai-lung : From Yenan To Peking ;1954, pp.154)
So, withdrawal of the U.S. forces from North Korea was a great victory from the point of bourgeois nationalist interest of China and a compromise from the point of interest of the Korean people.
Now it is up to the readers to judge whether it was a betrayal and capitulation to imperialism.
Explanatory Note : 2
Marx said, The fact that (capitalism) produces commodity does not differentiate it from other mode of production ; but rather the fact that being a commodity is dominant and determining characteristic of its products.Furthermore, already implicit in the commodity.is the materialization of the social features of production, which characterise the entire capitalist mode of production. (Marx , Capital ; vol. 3 ; pp.858)
That is why it has been fundamental to Marxism that the abolition of cap meant abolition of the commodity system.
The seizure of the means of production by society puts an end to commodity production, and therewith to the domination of the product over the producer (Engles , Anti-Duhring; pp.311).
Socialism, as is known, means the abolition of the commodity economy. (Lenin ; The Agrarian Questions vol.15)
Now after the October Revolution commodity production was not abolished all at once in the Soviet Union. In fact, commodity production grew rapidly for some years after 1921. This was made necessary by the destruction of productive forces in the civil war. To get production going it was necessary to free commodity production and exchange for a period – (Lenin told it a temporary retreat). while at the same time building up the productive forces owned by the dictatorship of the proletariat.
For a certain period in the development of socialism commodity production and circulation could play a positive role provided that the dictatorship of the proletariat was upheld and strengthened, that the level of consciousness of the masses was being raised, that the area of socialist production for area was strengthened and expanded contracting simultaneously the area of commodity circulation through the medium of money. But, in the long run, socialism and commodity production and circulation were incompatible. This Marxist-Leninist position was clearly stated by Stalin in 1952 in his Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R., especially, in Reply to Comrades Sanina and Venzher.
The argument of the opposition elements of the CPSU leadership was as follows, which revealed after the triumph of modern revisionism in the CPSU after the death of Stalin:
The idea gained wide currency in recent years that commodity circulation is allegedly incompatible with the prospect of going over from socialism to communism. Such a formulation of the question is wrong. The dialectics of the socialist economy consists precisely in the fact that we shall arrive at the withering away of commodity production and money circulation in the phase of communism as a result of the utmost development of commodity-money relations in the socialist stage of development. ( Ostrovityanov, Marxism today; August, 1958 issue)
We have seen in the question from Marx above that the capitalist production in the heighest form of commodity production. Besides that question, Marx made it more clear when he said , the production, untilcapitalist production serves as it basis. (Marx , Capital , vol.2;pp.31)
We have also seen that socialism involve abolition of the commodity economy from the question of Engles and Lenin. But to the modern revisionists it was Stalins another mistake. They say, it is not capitalism, but socialism which is the heighest form of commodity economy. Indeed, to them, the bad thing about capitalist production is not commodity production, production for sale and profit, but that it hinderscommodity production and hence the task of socialism is to remove this hindrance and make socialism the heighest form of commodity production!
It is necessary to mention here that the communist party of China and the communist party of India (then undivided) supported Khrushchev when Khrushchev desocialized the MTS. The CPC appealed to the world communists to support it and rally around Khrushchev while the CPI through the article of Bhowani Sen (Who came back from Moscow) in Swadhinata, paid a glowing tribute to the Unique Silent Revolution in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev leadership! Subsequently Mao wrote:
My view is that the last of the three appended letters is entirely wrong. It expresses a deep uneasiness a belief that the peasantry cannot be trusted to release agriculture machinery but would hang on it (Mao – Tse – Tung ; Comments on Stalins Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. Monthly Review Publication. 1979, Emphasis supplied; For a reply on Mao – Tse – Tungs comment see Revisionism Against Revisionism by Moni Guha.)
Explanatory Note : 3
Stalins Permanently operating factors in war :Stalin said : The element of the surprise and suddenness, as a reserve of German fascist troops is completely spent. This removes the inequality in fighting conditions created by the suddenness of the German fascist attack. Now the outcome of the war will be decided not by such fortuitous elements as surprise, but the permanently operating factors: stability of the rear; morale of the army, quantity and quality of divisions, equipment of the army and organizing ability of the commanding personel of the army. (Stalin: On the great patriotic war of the Soviet Union,Moscow, 1946, pp.45; emphasis supplied.)
What are stability of rear and morale of the army?
The Pravda correspondent asked Stalin during the Korean war Are the American and British General and officers inferior to Chinese and Korean? In reply Stalin said : No they are not. The American and British Generals and officer are not a whit inferior to the generals and officers of any other country. as to the soldiers of U.S.A. and Great Britain , they, as we know gave a good account of themselves in war against Hitler and militarist Japan. What, then, is the reason (of the defeat of the interventionists)? The reason is that the soldiers regard this war against Korea and China as unjust, whereas the war against Hitler and militarist Japan they regarded as fully just. The fact is that this war is extremely unpopular with the American and British soldiers. (Stalin : Interview with Pravda, February, 17, 1951)
So war aim is another factors in the permanently operating factors, which is the secret of the morale of the people in rear and the army in front.
Explanatory Note : 4
General Telensky in September 1953, issue of the Military Thought – a journal for the officer of the Red Army opened a debate questioning the validity of the Stalins permanently operating factors in the outcome of the war in Nuclear age. Marshal Rotmistov of the Red Army, also, supporting General Talensky wrote that surprise and sudden atomic attack can determine the outcome of the war. Stalin called this factor of suddenness as fortuitous and emphasized on permanently operating factors. However in April 1955, Talenskys thesis was accepted officially and Stalins permanently operating factors were rejected saying it as outdated. Thus the force theory minus the people came into being, Malenkov upheld Stalins permanently operating factors and as a result Malenkov was forced to resign from the Premiership !
Explanatory Note : 5
Stalin, in reply to the question of the Moscow correspondent of the Sunday Times Alexender Werth, on September 17, 1946 said :
I do not consider the atom bomb to be serious a force as some politicians are inclined to consider it. Atom bombs are intended for intimidating the weak nerved, but they cannot decide the outcome of the war, since for this atom bombs are not entirely sufficient. Of course, the monopolist possession of the secret of the atom bomb creates a menace, but against this, there are at least two remedies : (a) the monopolist possession of the atom bomb cannot last long ; (b) the use of atom bomb will be prohibited. (Interview with Stalin; emphases added)
Explanatory Note : 6
Geneva Capitulation : According to the account given by the General Giap in his Dien-bien Phu, at the time of victory at Dien-bien Phu, the Pathet Lao guerrilla forces in Laos were consolidating its power and rule in a considerable area in the alliance with the Vietnamese forces, the Khmer rouge revolutionary forces of Cambodia were organizing themselves under the instruction of the communist party of Indo-China and military defeat of Franco-U.S. forces throughout Indo-China were more than certain. Giap also said that after the spectacular victory at Dien-bien Phu the Franco-U.S. forces were taking shelters and mobilizing their forces in South Vietnam.
Giap said that the victory of the revolutionary forces throughout Indo-China was more than certain after the victory at Dien-bien Phu. Why, then, the Geneva agreement? Immediately after the ignominious defeat at Dien-bien Phu, Dulles, the U.S. secretary of state released a bellicose statement saying that should the Vietnamese proceed further beyond Dien-bian Phu and should the Chinese overtly intervene in Indo-China, U.S. will retaliate with atom bomb. This threat un-nerved Khrushchev, Chou-Engles-Lai, Jawharlal Nehru, Tito and Nasser equally. All of them put their brains together to find out a path to avert the danger of another world war and atomic disaster on the basis of the prescription of relaxation of international tension. It was the continuation of the same policy of capitulation to atomic threat that started in Korea.
What were the stipulations of the Geneva agreement? The North Vietnam up to the north of 18th parallel would be recognized as Democratic Republic of Vietnam and America, France and other powers will not interfere in the internal affairs of DRV and the DRV will have sovereign rights to organize their territory as they like. Secondly, the South Vietnam, south of 18th parallel (where, it may be noted, the Franco-U.S. force have taken shelter and were mobilizing their forces, according to General Giap), will constitute a government with Ngo Dinh Diem as head of the government (please also note the revisionist leaderships did not learn from the bitter experience of the ROK-US Mutual Defense Pact in South Korea ) and an election would be held there after one year to decide the question of reunification of both the North and South Vietnam. Thirdly, Indo-China will be partitioned into three distinct sovereign states viz. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Laos and Cambodia will be ruled by their respective kings and Vietnam must not interfere in their internal affairs. Fourthly, the DRV will ask the people of the South Vietnam to lay down and surrender their arms to carry out only open, legal and peaceful propaganda for peaceful reunification. A neutral observer commission will be formed to observe that the stipulation of the Geneva agreement were strictly followed. The Soviet Union, China and other members of the socialist camp, at once, withheld proletarian internationalist support to become members of the neutral objective observer and enforcers commission, thus becoming arbiter between imperialism and the oppressed peoples !
It is also to be noted that the U.S.A. did not sign the Geneva agreement. It only gave a gentlemens (?) assurance that it will respect the stipulations of the agreement. U.S. imperialism entered into South Vietnam no sooner the French troops pulled out and tore up the agreements, established puppet Diem in power, massacred thousands of people. In Indo-China,… both the Chinese and Soviets actually put pressure on the Vietminh to accept far less territory than they had liberated by force of arms and drop claims on Cambodia and Laos. (Vietnam : History, document and opinions on a major world crisis Editor, Marvin E. Gelleman, New York, 1965). The promised election in South Vietnam was never held.
Explanatory Note : 7
The false idea on which Khrushchev and all modern revisionists based their incorrect attitude to imperialism that imperialist politician like Kennedy and Johnson can alter the very nature of imperialism by their good intentions, can decide to remove from imperialism its drive towards war if certain concessions were given, proved to be wrong in course of time. The more the policy of appeasement failed, the more Khrushchev was compelled to brandish nuclear weapons at the imperialists in an effort to compel them meet half-way and thus Khrushchev who surrendered to nuclear threat-resorted to nuclear threat and joined the imperialists by adopting same imperialist attitude to nuclear weapon-threat against threat. Thus Khrushchev organised the Warsaw Military Pact against NATO. The force theory naturally disregarded the internal basic social forces and relied on force. The process of becoming a super power with force theory began and the socialist Soviet Union degenerated into a Russian neo-imperialist.
Explanatory Note : 8
In reply to the question Do you consider another world war inevitable? By the Pravda correspondent on February 17, 1951, Stalin said the following :
No, at the present time, at any rate, it cannot be considered inevitable.
Of course, there are in the United States of America and Great Britain, as well as in France, aggressive forces, who are thirsting for another war. They need war in order to rake in super-profits and to plunder other countries. These are billionaires and millionaires, who regard war as a paying proposition yielding gigantic profits.
The aggressive forces hold the reactionary governments in their grip and direct them. But at the same time they fear their people, who do not want another war and stand for the maintenance of peace. They are, therefore, trying to use the reactionary governments to enmesh their people in a web of lies, to deceive them and represent another war as a defensive war and the peaceful policy of the peace-loving countries as an aggressive policy. They are trying to deceive their people in order to foist their aggressive plans upon them and inveigle them into another war.
It is for this reason that they are scared of the peace campaign, fearing that it might expose the aggressive designs of the reactionary governments.
How will this struggle between aggressive and peace loving forces end?
Peace will be preserved and consolidate if the people take the cause of preserving peace into their own hands and uphold it to the end. It may become inevitable if a web of lies, deceiving them and inveiling them into another world war.
Hence a broad campaign for the preservation of peace, as a means of exposing the criminal machinations of the warmongers is now of paramount importance (Interview with Pravda correspondent;Moscow, 1951, emphasis added)
In another place, in February, 1952, Stalin said :
The object of the present-day peace movement is to rouse the masses of the people to fight for the preservation of peace and for the prevention of another world war. Consequently the aim of this movement is not to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism it confines itself to the democratic aim of preserving peace. In this respect, the present-day peace movement differs from the movement of the time of the First World War for the conversion of the imperialist war into Civil War, since the latter movement went further and pursued socialist aims.
Stalin did not stop here. He viewed the peace movement dialectically and dynamically. He did not restrict the peace movement into the boundaries of four walls of bourgeois democracy. Stalin further said :
It is possible that in a definite conjunction of circumstance the fight for peace will develop here or there into a fight for socialism. But then it will no longer be the present-day peace movement; it will be a movement for the overthrow of capitalism.
Regarding the peace movement itself Stalin further said :
But, all the same, it will not be enough to eliminate the inevitability of wars between capitalist countries generally. It will not be enough, because, for all the success of the peace movement, imperialism will remain, continue in force and consequently, inevitability of wars will also continue in force.
To eliminate the inevitably of war, it is necessary to abolish imperialism.(Stalin, Economic Problem of Socialism in the U.S.S.R.)
Thus we see how Stalin linked the problem of peace with the aim of socialism.
Explanatory Note : 9
See, Yugoslav Revisionism and the Role of the CPC and CPSU by Moni Guha.
Explanatory Note : 10
Roger Garudy was one of the fraternal delegates to the 20th Congress of the CPSU from France. He wrote in his revisionist book The turning point of socialism:
True, the manner of self criticism [meaning Khrushchevs secret report Moni Guha] was strange, having made in camera and ON CONDITION THAT FRATERNAL PARTIES SHOULD NOT DIVULGE ITS TERMS.
Explanatory Note : 11
Opening address of Mao – Tse Tung, at the 18th National Congress of the CPC.
Other Aspect 