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The Soviet Union was the first socialist state and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was created by Lenin. Although the leadership of the Soviet Party and state has now been usurped by revisionists, I would advise comrades to remain firm in the conviction that the masses of the Soviet people and of Party members and cadres are good, that they desire revolution and that revisionist rule will not last long.
— MAO TSE-TUNG
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 11, #43, Oct. 25, 1968, pp. 10-12.]
The “Stalin Group” in the Soviet Union recently issued a leaflet entitled “Take the Road of Stalin.” It calls on the proletariat and other working people in the Soviet Union to rise up to overthrow the Soviet revisionist renegade clique’s rule and re-establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The leaflet reads as follows: —Ed.
EVERYBODY can see the profound changes that have taken place in our country in the last 15 years, the years under the rule of the Khrushchov-Brezhnev upper-strata clique. However, not everybody can see the real content of these changes. The nature of political power in the Soviet Union has changed, and so have the country’s politics, ideology and economy. The obvious consequences of these changes are the split in the communist movement, the isolation of the Soviet Union, the complete loss of its prestige, and the grave situation in the country. But the Khrushchov-Brezhnev regime is trying to cover up its bankruptcy by the demagogy of its politicians and by trumpeting about non-existing victories and successes. The discontent and pressure of the workers and peasants have forced the upper-strata ruling clique to hand out some sops to the labouring people so as to maintain its shaky position and to preserve its privileges and luxuries at the expense of the workers and peasants.
Comrades! Get to the Root of the Matter! Do Not Be Deceived by Brezhnev’s Empty Talk And by Kosygin’s Sops!
The fundamental result of the activities of the Khrushchov-Brezhnev regime in its 15 years of existence is the creation of the exploiting ruling clique which represents the interests of the bourgeoisie and is based on the merging of the upper strata of the intelligentsia and the intelligentsia who inherited their status with the top persons in the Party and government organizations who are divorced from the people. This arrogant stratum has become rich at the expense of the working class, but it puts on a false front as though it were struggling for the interests of the working class. For those who are really fighting for the interests of the working class there is no need to enjoy privileges and luxuries by plundering the workers and peasants. The upper-strata ruling clique has long stopped serving the people; it has turned into a tumour on the body of the people and is throttling them.
Workers! Fight Against All Privileges! Fight Against Exploitation by the Ruling Group, the Group of New Bourgeois “Masters”!
The ruling clique is actively encouraging the spread of bourgeois ideology and culture. This is necessary not only for indulging in its own pleasures but, above all, in order to “remould” the ideology of the workers and peasants so as to kill the revolutionary spirit of the working class, thereby “adapting” the working class for effective use by the ruling clique in its own clique’s interest. The ruling clique is using the intelligentsia to spread the corrosive ideology of bourgeois-philistine individualism, egoism and sexuality. Large numbers of intellectuals are following their “vanguard,” that is, the bourgeois exploiting clique in power, and are constantly replenishing this clique. The intelligentsia is today the soil for the emergence of opportunism and bourgeois degeneration. It is the firm base and the sole reliable prop of the ruling clique. This is the reason why instead of instilling proletarian class consciousness into the intellectuals, the revisionist ruling clique is doing its best to “raise” the working class to the ideological level of the bourgeois intellectuals, whose ideology is closely linked with bourgeois ideology. Therefore, our slogan is:
Uproot the Ideology of Bourgeois Intellectuals, Instil the Ideology of the Proletariat!
The revisionist ruling clique does its utmost to instil into the minds of the workers the idea that the interests of the workers seem to lie outside politics, that the workers have nothing to do with politics, that for the workers the main thing is personal happiness, and that politics is allegedly something that concerns those who are on top but not the masses of the workers. This line, which is known as Khrushchov-Brezhnev economism, is a means of negating the political role of the working class, a means for putting into practice the politics of this clique, the kind of politics that has nothing in common with proletarian politics. The working class is a tremendous revolutionary force. It is precisely the working class which is feared by chieftains Khrushchov, Brezhnev and company who have lost the last shreds of proletarian revolutionary spirit, class character and internationalism.
It Is the Glorious Task of the Working Class to Seize the Political Steering Wheel From the Hands of This Clique.
The exploiting clique and the strata around it most of all fear even the mention of support and assistance for and defence of the world revolution. This is because the strengthening of assistance and support for the world revolutionary movement would mean that they would have to give up their own privileges. This clique is not interested in repulsing imperialist aggression, putting an end to the export of counter-revolution, and supporting the armed struggle of the peoples for liberation; instead, it pursues a policy of making “peaceful” compromises and concessions with imperialism. This capitulationist policy towards imperialism has turned the Soviet Union into an obstacle to world revolution.
Down With This Clique’s Policy of Capitulation and Retreat! Long Live the Proletarian Policy of Revolutionary Offensive!
Every political power has its own class nature. The Khrushchov-Brezhnev upper-strata clique has actually liquidated the dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union and “legalized” this liquidation, thereby substituting the dictatorship of the bourgeois degenerates’ clique for the political power of the working class. The only form of political power which counterposes the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Down With the Dictatorship of the Bourgeois Degenerates’ Clique! Plunge Into the Battle to Re-establish the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the Soviet Union!
This ruling clique is characterized by its strenuous efforts to conceal its dirty deals from the people and cover them up with the name of Lenin. For 15 years, this clique has harped on the name of Lenin and besmirched it. It is clear enough that the line of this ruling clique has nothing in common with Leninism.
Be Good at Distinguishing Genuine Leninists From Those Who Camouflage Themselves With Lenin’s Name! Boldly Expose the Betrayal of the Revisionist Ruling Clique—the Clique of Degenerates!
While hiding themselves behind Lenin’s name, the upper-strata clique in authority is vilifying the great Leninist J.V. Stalin. This malicious vilification is in itself not the real aim of the clique. Discrediting Stalin is a convenient pretext for revising Stalin’s revolutionary line and replacing it with a capitulationist policy, with bourgeois ideology and with an exploiters’ economy—this is the real aim of this clique.
For the Smashing of Khrushchov-Brezhnev Revisionism! For the Restoration of Stalin’s Spirit, Stalin’s Cause and Stalin’s Glory!
The modern revisionists—the bourgeois degenerates in the Soviet Union—heap dirty slanders on the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders; they support the pro-Khrushchov opposition to the revolutionary line of the Chinese Communist Party; and they try to stir up a civil war in China.
Hands Off People’s China!
The upper-strata Brezhnev clique hypocritically declares that it wants “the unity of all the revolutionary forces,” while in effect it is excluding all the genuine revolutionary forces from this “unity.” It is quite clear that the Brezhnev elements are working for unity around their capitulationist line, and they try to compel the revolutionary forces to abandon their struggle against imperialism and to convert them from forces fighting against imperialism into forces that “peacefully coexist” with imperialism.
Fight Against the Hegemony of Revisionism, Fight for the Hegemony of Marxism! For the Carrying Out of Revolution All Over the World! Proletarians of All Countries, Unite Under the Banner of Marxism-Leninism! Proletarians and Oppressed People of the World, Unite in the Revolutionary Struggle Against Imperialism!
(“Hongqi,” No. 4, 1968.)
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