p By the strategy of Leninism we mean the difinition of the general line or the principal direction of the workers’ revolutionary struggle and their relation to other social forces.

p One of the biggest questions of strategy is that of drawing into the revolutionary struggle those people who are destined to accomplish the chief aim of the struggle at each given stage of its development. Under capitalism, this question is basically solved in the following way: first, the majority of the working class is won over to the side of the revolutionary party of the 174 working class and, second, the broad non-proletarian sections of the people are brought into alliance with the working class.

p Leninism sets great store by winning the majority of the proletariat to the side of the Party. It teaches that every proletarian party, from its inception to its assumption of political power, is bound to pass through two stages. The first stage is that of the formation of the Party, of winning the vanguard of the proletariat for communism. The second stage is that of winning the majority of the working class and the working peasantry to the side of the Communist Party. Unless this majority is won to the side of the Party, unless it is ready to follow Communists in a selfless heroic struggle, it is impossible to form a mass political army of the revolution and to ensure a successful outcome to the struggle for socialism. Lenin wrote that it would be both foolish and criminal to engage in a showdown before the majority of the proletariat and the non-proletarian masses as a whole had given their direct support to the Party or at least adopted an attitude of neutrality towards it.

p In 1917, the Bolshevik Party took the course of overthrowing the bourgeoisie through armed uprising only after it had solved the task of winning over the majority of the proletariat and when it realised that a peaceful path had become impossible. Later Lenin wrote in his article "The Constituent Assembly Elections and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat": "The Bolsheviks were victorious, first of all, because they had behind them the vast majority of the proletariat, which included the most class-= conscious, energetic and revolutionary section, the real vanguard, of that advanced class."  [174•1 

p Communist Parties strive to win over the majority of the proletariat while uniting it. Unity is the most powerful and reliable weapon that the working class can use against imperialism. As Lenin put it, "such a unity is infinitely precious, and infinitely important to the working class. Disunited, the workers are nothing. United, they are everything."  [174•2 

p Leninism teaches us that capitalism continues to exist only because the capitalists are still able to split the working-class movement by planting their agents in it. This splitting policy is the chief weapon in the tactical arsenal of the bourgeoisie in its struggle against the forces of democracy and socialism. Never before in the history of the world labour movement has the 175 unity of the working class been of such decisive importance as it is now. Without proletarian unity there can be no unity of other revolutionary forces and no decisive victories for them in their struggle for peace and socialism. The Communist and Workers’ Parties thus regard the all-round consolidation and expansion of working-class unity as a task of overriding importance. Attaching cardinal importance to the unity of proletarian forces, the 1969 Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties stated: "Communists will improve their political and ideological work with an eye to securing working-class unity."

p Of course, while struggling to win over the working class, the Marxist Party should not forget about the non-proletarian sections of the people. Lenin often pointed out that the proletariat could never defeat its exploiters with its own forces alone; to achieve victory it needs, first and foremost, a revolutionary alliance with the peasantry and the oppressed nations. For this reason the peasant and national questions involve major points of strategy concerning the main allies of the working class in the struggle for democracy and socialism.

p Nowadays there are more favourable conditions than ever for increasing the influence of the working class among all working people, for rallying around it the broadest possible sections of the peasantry, the middle townsfolk, intellectuals and the youth. All this is linked to the broadened mass base of the struggle for socialist transformations and is engendered primarily by the deepening of the antagonism between the handful of monopolists, the financial oligarchy, and the rest of the people.

p The changed world balance of class forces has accordingly affected the strategy of the Communist and Workers’ Parties. Whereas in 1920 Lenin set the Communist Parties the task of winning over the majority of the proletariat,  [175•1  today, because the mass base of the socialist revolution has been extended, the Communist and Workers’ Parties are faced with the task of uniting not only the majority of the working class, but the majority of the whole working population on the platform of struggle for socialism.

p Leninism considers the main task of a Marxist party’s political strategy to be that of defining its general line, and setting the fundamental aim of the revolutionary working-class struggle at a given historical stage. Correct strategy enables it to 176 achieve its goals with the least pain and at the greatest speed. Errors made in the definition of strategic goals cost the working class a great deal, involving heavy losses and serious setbacks. The proletariat then either loses sight of the ultimate aim of the revolutionary struggle or else it begins to display Leftist tendencies, making adventuristic leaps over untrodden stages of development.

p Lenin showed that the uneven economic and political development of capitalism in the epoch of imperialism results in the maturing of the conditions for social revolution in different countries at different times, i.e., in the uneven development of the liberation struggle. This unevcnncss is expressed in the different strategic stages which the struggle has reached in individual countries.

p Lenin worked out the strategy for the period of the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into the socialist revolution in Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution and The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution. He further developed the strategy of the proletariat after it had come to power in the Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, in his report on the Party’s work in the countryside to the Eighth Party Congress, in “Left-Wing” Communism—an Infantile Disorder, and in other works.

p Lenin demonstrated, and the experience of the CPSU and of the entire liberation movement of today has confirmed, the existence of three strategic stages in the working people’s revolutionary struggle.

p The first strategic stage is the struggle for the abolition of feudal and national oppression, for the victory of the people’s democratic revolution. This stage of the struggle was passed through by Russia before the February revolution of 1917, and is now being passed through by many of the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The basic points of the strategy of the proletariat at this stage are: securing the victory of the anti-feudal, anti-imperialist democratic revolution, unifying all anti- imperialist forces into a broad national front, and taking the non-= capitalist path of development.

p The victory of the democratic revolution is not an end in itself for the proletariat; it is merely a major step towards a socialist revolution, for even the realisation of a radical democratic programme in no way implies the transition to socialism. Subjecting Zinoviev to criticism for his claim that the implementation of a minimum programme signifies in toto the 177 transition to socialism, Lenin wrote: "That is quite wrong!!. . . To think so is to move over to the reformist position in principle and to abandon the standpoint of the socialist revolution."  [177•1 

p Leninism sets the revolutionary proletariat the task of doing everything possible to ensure that the revolution should not get “stuck” at the democratic stage and that it should develop into a socialist revolution.

p As the proletariat grows in numerical strength, as it becomes more conscious and organised, as its leadership is consolidated and expands, as it wins over the semi-proletarian masses of town and country, and as the political army of the socialist revolution is formed, the liberation struggle enters the second strategic stage.

p The second strategic stage is the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution. This stage is now being passed through by the working class of the developed capitalist countries. The main strategy at this stage is the struggle against monopoly rule, the omnipotence of the financial oligarchy, and the main tactical method is that of forming broad anti-monopoly alliances and anti-imperialist fronts—winning over, on this basis, new sections of the population—using every opportunity to effect a peaceful transition to socialism. At the same time the proletariat cannot reduce its readiness to take up arms in the event of its being forced to do so by the bourgeoisie.

p Russia passed through this strategic stage in the period between February and October 1917; and many socialist countries of Europe and Asia, along with Cuba, have passed through it since the Second World War.

p By strictly differentiating between the democratic and the socialist stage of the liberation struggle, the proletariat safeguards itself from skipping over vital stages of the revolution in an adventuristic manner, and this helps it to combine militant revolutionary enthusiasm with patient, persevering educational work among the working people in order to raise their consciousness and organisation. It also enables it to keep in step with the people, and to advance in the course of the revolution only those tasks which are warranted by the people’s experience as correct. This strategy makes it possible for the proletariat, acting as their leader, to use to the full the revolutionary energy and potentialities of various classes and social groups, primarily the peasantry, in the struggle for socialism.

p The Leninist strategy suggests that the proletariat can employ 178 in its own interests even its class enemies under certain conditions; in particular, it can enlist rich peasants in the struggle against the survivals of feudalism or the national bourgeoisie in the anti-feudal, anti-imperialist revolution. At the same time the proletariat must work to defeat its enemies one after another, first in the course of the bourgeois-democratic and then the socialist revolution. In his article entitled "Draft for a Speech on the Agrarian Question in the Second Duma”, Lenin explained this idea as follows:

p "Imagine, gentlemen, that I have to remove two heaps of rubbish from my yard. I have only one cart. And no more than one heap can be removed on one cart. What should I do?" Anyone who really wants to clean out his yard completely, Lenin himself replied to this question, will remove first the one heap and then the other.

p "To begin with, the Russian people have to carry away on their cart all that rubbish that is known as feudal, landed proprietorship, and then come back with the empty cart to a cleaner yard, and begin loading the second heap, begin clearing out the rubbish of capitalist exploitation!"  [178•1 

p With the victory of the socialist revolution the liberation struggle enters a new strategic stage, the stage through which the Soviet Union and other socialist countries are passing at present. At this stage, the working class and the Communist and Workers’ Parties set themselves the task of rapidly developing the productive forces, in this way doing the maximum possible in one country to further the cause of democracy, socialism and communism in all countries. The 1969 Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties declared: "Successful development of the national economy, improvement of social relations and the all-= round progress of each socialist country conform both to the interests of each people separately and the common cause of socialism.” The countries that were the first to embark upon the path of socialist transformations bear the main brunt of the struggle against world imperialism.

p As Lenin pointed out, the revolutionary impact of the countries where socialist revolutions have triumphed mainly derives from their achievements in economic construction, since socialist construction is a great internationalist cause. Therefore, the Communists of the socialist countries, true to Marxism-Leninism, regard the promotion of the socialist community of nations, the 179 multiplication of its achievements on the economic front, and the defeat of capitalism in peaceful economic competition as their basic strategic task.

p "Relying on its steadily growing economic and defence potential,” the Main Document of the 1969 Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties noted, "the world socialist system fetters imperialism, reduces its possibilities of exporting counter-= revolution, and in fulfilment of its internationalist duty, furnishes increasing aid to the peoples fighting for freedom and independence and promotes peace and international security."

p The socialist system is the leading force of the world revolutionary movement. The outcome of the struggle between socialism and imperialism depends largely on the success of its further development. "This means,” said the resolution of the Plenary Meeting of the CC, CPSU, held in June 1969, "that the concern for strengthening the world socialist system is at the same time concern for the development of the world revolutionary process and for an effective struggle against imperialism."  [179•1 

p The steady growth of the economic potential of the socialist countries is a major factor of the victory of the world socialist revolution. The Soviet example eloquently demonstrates how effective is the impact of economic construction in a country of the victorious working class on the world revolutionary movement. "It was largely thanks to the CPSU correct guidance of the building of socialism,” said Gomulka at a Kremlin reception of the participants in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, "that the Soviet Union could give a shattering rebuff to the nazi invasion, decide the outcome of the Second World War, and make the decisive contribution to the rout of nazism. This, as we are well aware . . . has determined the general trend of world development in the post-war period. It was largely thanks to this victory that the world socialist system was able to arise. The successes scored by socialism precipitated the collapse of colonialism. A new alignment of forces has taken shape in the world."

p But though they strengthen the might of the revolutionary forces, and help to bring about their final victory and the complete demise of capitalism, the economic achievements of the socialist countries do not, of course, rule out the need for socialist revolutions in the capitalist countries.

p The fight for peace and against imperialist aggression is of 180 first importance in the present-day strategy of the world communist movement. The Communist and Workers’ Parties are in no doubt that if, against the will of progressive mankind, the imperialists dared to unleash a new world war, the inevitable result would be the world-wide downfall of capitalism and the eventual world-wide victory of socialism. Communists, however, are absolutely opposed to the idea that the final victory of socialism should be achieved at the excessive price of the destruction of millions of people and of the greatest material and spiritual products of the labour and mind of man in a thermo-= nuclear war.

The victory of socialism on a world scale can be achieved without a new world war, in the conditions of the peaceful coexistence of states with a different social system. More and more countries are bound to drop away from imperialism and pass over to socialism.