PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW 1970

Translated from the Russian by David Skvirsky

This book was prepared by a group of authors headed by Academician B. N. PONOMAREV, Academician I. I. MINTS, Y. I. BUGAEV, Candidate of History, M. S. VOLIN, Doctor of .History, V. S. ZAITSEV, Doctor of History, A. P. KUCHKIN, Doctor of History, and N. A. LOMAKIN

KPATKAH HCTOPHfl KOMMVHHCTHHECKOft FIAPTHH COBETCKOrO COIO3A

Ha

First printing 1970

Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

CONTENTS

Introduction .................

7

CHAPTER ONE

CREATION OF A MARXIST PARTY

Russia on the Threshold of Imperialism..........

11

The World Enters the Epoch of Imperialism......

11

Russia in the Early Twentieth Century........

13

From Scattered Study Circles to a Marxist Party.......

22

Scientific Communism of Marx and Engels.......

22

Consolidation of Marxism in the Russian Working-Class Movement ....................

26

Lenin's Theory About a Party............

32

Iskra.....................

36

Rise of Bolshevism. The First Party Programme.....

39

The Party Operates Underground..........

43

CHAPTER TWO OVERTHROW OF TSARISM AND CAPITALISM

In the Fire of the First Revolution............

46

The Revolution Becomes Imminent..........

46

The Leninist Science of Revolutionary Leadership .....

49

From a Peaceful Procession to an Armed Uprising ....

56

Unity of All Social-Democrats...........

62

Rearguard Actions................65

Why the Revolution Failed and What It Taught the People . 66

I

The Leninist Road to Socialism............

167

The Soviet State in the Struggle for Peace.......

167

The Party Shows the Way Out of Poverty and Backwardness,

the Road to Socialism.............

169

Formation of the USSR..............

173

``Who Will Win?"................

176

Workers of All Countries and Oppressed Peoples, Unite! .

179

Lenin's Behests................

181

Leader, Friend and Teacher of the Working People of

the World............ ....

185

The Party After Lenin's Death...........

188

Industrialisation Is Started.............

191

Defeat of the Trotskyites..............

192

Collectivisation..................

196

Preparations for the Building of Socialism.......

198

The Working Class---the Leading Force of Socialist Construction ......................

206

Victory of Socialism in the USSR............

209

First Five-Year Plan...............

209

Creation of the Collective-Farm System........

213

Collective Farm as the Basic Type of Co-operative . . . .

218

The Party as the Organiser of Socialist Reconstruction . . .

222

Global Impact of Soviet Achievements........

225

Lenin's Plan of Socialist Construction Is Realised . . . .

227

Between Two Revolutions..............

An Orderly Retreat..............

The Retreat Comes to an End..........

Uniting the Party Forces............

Pravda....................

At the Head of the New Revolutionary Upsurge ....

The Bolshevik Party and the National Liberation Movement

Eve of the First World War...........

First World War. Collapse of the Second International .

The Bolshevik Anti-War Manifesto.........

Internationalism and Patriotism..........

The Bolshevik Struggle to Unite Internationalists . . .

The Bolsheviks at the Head of the Revolutionary Masses .

The Theory of Revolution Developed by Lenin ....

The Second Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution.....

The Great October Socialist Revolution.........

70 70 74 75 78 80 82 84 86 90 92 93 94 96 98

After Tsarism Was Deposed.............

100

Lenin's Plan for the Transition to the Socialist Revolution . .

102

The People Unite Round the Bolsheviks........

106

End of Dual Power...............

108

The Party Decides on Insurrection..........

Ill

The Bourgeoisie Starts a Civil War.........

113

Preparations for an Armed Uprising.........

114

Triumph of the Socialist Revolution...........

122

Significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution . . .

128

CHAPTER FOUR FROM SOCIALISM TO COMMUNISM

The Party's Struggle to Consolidate the Socialist System ....

235

The Soviet Union Enters a New Period of Development . .

235 The Party's New Tasks and the Struggle for Their Realisation .....................

238

The USSR at the Outbreak of the Second World War ...

245

Victory in the Great Patriotic War...........

249

The USSR Enters the War Against Fascism......

249

The Enemy Advance Halted............

252

All for the Front! All for Victory!.........

256

Decisive Battles.................

258

The Enemy Driven from Soviet Soil.........

263

The Soviet Army's Campaign of Liberation.......

265

The Victorious Completion of the Great Patriotic War . . .

267 In the Vanguard of the Struggle for Peace, Democracy and

Socialism...................

271

The Victorious March of Socialism.........

271

Heroic Achievement of the Soviet People on the Labour

Front....................

275

The Party After the War.............

284

The Soviet Union's Struggle for Relaxation of International

Tension....................

287

CHAPTER THREE BUILDING OF SOCIALISM

Creation of a Socialist State..............

130

Tasks Facing the Party After the October Revolution ...

130

Building Up the Soviet State............

131

Democratic Transformations.............

136

Withdrawal from the War.............

137

Socialist Transformations..............

142

The First Soviet Constitution............

147

Defence of the Socialist Motherland...........

150

Imperialists Attempt to Smash the Homeland of Socialism .

150

First Victories at the Front............

151

Second Party Programme.............

156

Victory Over the Interventionists and Whiteguards ....

162 Why the Communist Party Became the Only Party in the

Country....................

165

The Twentieth Congress of the CPSU.........295

The Struggle to Achieve a Fresh Economic Advance . . . 302 The CPSU and the World Communist Movement , , , , 307

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER FIVE THE STANDARD-BEARER OF COMMUNISM

Policy of Full-Scale Construction of Communism......

312

Final Victory of Socialism in the USSR........

312

The New Party Programme.............

316

Fundamental Features of Communism.........

318

The Material and Technical Base of Communism.....

319

Communist Social Relations.............

320

Education of the New Man.......... . .

324

All for the Good of Man.............

326

The Party in the Period of Communist Construction.....

327

The CPSU---Vanguard of the Soviet People......

327

Rights and Duties of Party Members.........

328

Party Structure and Activities............

330

Mainstream of World Development............

332

The CPSU and the World Revolutionary Process.....

332

The USSR on Guard of Peace...........

334

Main Revolutionary Force of the Modern Epoch.....

339

Co-operation Between the USSR and the Developing Countries .....................

343

On the Road to Communism..............

349

Strengthening of Collective Leadership........

349

Economic Reform................

354

Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU.........

360

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution .

367

Fete of All Working People of the World.......

367

Fifty Years of Great Achievements of Socialism.....

371

Communists of the World in the Vanguard of the Struggle

Against Imperialism.................

378

For Greater Solidarity of the Communist Movement . . .

378

International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties .

379

Conclusion.....................

385

The Soviet Union is a mighty socialist state where all forms of exploitation have been uprooted and economic, political and national oppression abolished. All the land, factories, mines, railways, banks, cultural institutions, the medical service, the press, the cinema and the radio are the property of the people's state.

Formed half a century ago, the Land of Soviets has been visited by people of many nationalities and they have seen a new world, the world of socialism which is accomplishing the transition to communism, to the highest stage of social development ruled by the motto: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." The whole world is cognizant of the fact that the Soviet Union is the main bulwark of peace and that the Soviet Government is tirelessly working to avert the threat of another world war.

Every person naturally wants to know how this unprecedented society emerged and grew. Human history embraces many millennia. Under the clan system of the remote past people lived in tiny communities in which they jointly owned the primitive implements of labour, worked collectively and shared the fruits of their labour. After passing through this stage of development, human society began to split up into the rich and the poor, into the

propertied and the non-propertied, and man began to exploit man. The inevitable companions of exploitation were wars of aggrandizement, which sometimes devoured millions of lives.

Thousands of years went by in this way until the workers and peasants of a huge country, the Soviet Union, which today has a population of 230 millions, showed that it was possible to overthrow the most despotic of regimes, such as Russian tsarism, put an end to the capitalist system and build a socialist society of free and equal people. In the course of half a century, i.e., within the lifetime of one generation, the Soviet Union accomplished a gigantic leap from backwardness to progress. Soviet people have turned their country into a great socialist power. All over the world the peoples want to know how this greatest of miracles has been worked. They want to know how industry can be run without industrialists and agriculture without landowners and kulaks, and how the economy develops without private ownership of the means of production.

The achievements of the Soviet Union are truly colossal. The launching of the first man-made satellites and the first manned flights in outer space provide the most striking testimony of the scientific and technological progress achieved by this socialist country. These achievements have opened the eyes of many people---of those who previously knew nothing about the Soviet Union and of those who had no faith in its potentialities. The whole world knows of socialist economy's rapid rates of development, of the successes of Soviet economic planning, of the attainments of Soviet science and technology and of the political, economic and cultural gains of the Soviet people.

Truth breaks down all the obstacles and barriers erected by the lies and slander of the imperialists and their accomplices, by the aspersions they have cast on the Soviet Union's great achievements and on its policy of promoting relations of peace and equality among nations. It is reaching the hearts and minds of working people in all parts of the world. In countries where the capitalist system still exists, the people are beginning to think of taking the road that enabled the peoples of Russia to shake off the chains of slavery and national oppression, put an end to exploitation and win a free and worthy life for themselves.

This road is by no means smooth, but the experience of the USSR, the first land of socialism, shows that there is no other road to freedom and genuine human happiness, that this is the only road to real victory.

The Soviet Union was the first country to build socialism. This development had to be given a scientific foundation and tested in practice. Besides, for nearly three decades the Soviet Union was the only country building socialism and it was completely encircled by hostile capitalist states. World capitalism did everything in its power to strangle the young Soviet Republic. Twice---in 1918-20 and 1941-45--- the Soviet peoples were forced to fight bitter and exhausting ' wars to uphold their freedom and independence and defend the new system.

Socialism triumphed in the USSR primarily because the working class and the whole Soviet people were led by the Communist Party, the Party of creative Marxism. This Party, founded and tempered by the great Lenin, has a history which no other political organisation in the world can parallel, for it is a history of more than half a century of dedicated struggle, of crucial tests, bold decisions and epoch-making triumphs.

Formed at the turn of the century, the Leninist Party entered the arena of history under the banner of scientific communism. Ever since its foundation it has unswervingly upheld the purity of Marxism-Leninism against opportunism, dogmatism, sectarianism and nationalism. It has applied scientific communism creatively and shown its strength and viability. Drawing on the experience gained by the Russian and international liberation revolutions, it has enriched and moved forward Marxist-Leninist theory.

It boldly led the oppressed masses with the working class at their head into battle against tsarism and Russian capitalism. This was at the same time a struggle against international imperialism. The Leninist Party led the masses through two bourgeois-democratic revolutions---the revolution of 1905-07 and the revolution of February 1917, which brought about the downfall of tsarism. It directed the victorious Great October Socialist Revolution, ensuring the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship of Russia and the creation of the Soviet socialist state and leading to socialism the many nations of Russia, with their different

levels of development ranging from the patriarchal clan system to capitalism.

Beginning with small Marxist study circles, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has become a great force, and with the Marxist-Leninist Parties of other countries it is powerfully influencing the course of world development. Its 13 million members are united by Marxist-Leninist ideals, closely linked up with the people and heading the building of communism in the USSR. The Programme of the CPSU, which is one of the most noteworthy documents of our epoch, sums up the experience of the Party and defines its immediate objectives.

``As a result of the selfless labour of the Soviet people and the theoretical and practical activity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union," it states, "mankind now has a really existing socialist society and a time-tested science of socialist construction. The high road to socialism has been blazed. Many peoples have taken that road, and sooner or later it will be taken by all peoples.''

* * *

This book tells briefly how the Communist Party of the Soviet Union emerged, grew and became strong, of its courage in leading the struggle against all the forces of the old world, and of its dedication in championing the interests of the working masses and in directing their struggle for socialism and communism. It tells of the achievements of the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party, in the building of socialism and communism, and shows that these achievements are due to the CPSU's fidelity to the MarxistLeninist teaching, which illumines the road to communism for all peoples.

CHAPTER ONE

CREATION OF A MARXIST PARTY

RUSSIA ON THE THRESHOLD OF IMPERIALISM

The World Enters the Epoch of Imperialism

In Russia, as in other countries, the masses fought oppression for many long centuries. Time and again they rose in rebellion but the chains of exploitation held them tight for they were unorganised and did not have a clear objective. They acquired a leader they could rely on and gained strength only with the emergence of the working class, whom life teaches to be staunch, organised and united. The working class created its own political Party, which consciously directed the struggle of the masses.

In October 1917 the workers and peasants of Russia overthrew the landowners and capitalists and set about building a new society free of exploitation and oppression. A little more than a quarter of a century later the road blazed by the peoples of Russia was taken by one-third of mankind. The twentieth century has become the century of mankind's liberation from exploitation and oppression, a century of struggle for lasting peace and the eradication of the causes of predatory wars.

In order to appreciate the striking changes that have taken place in the world and the part that the Soviet Union has played in accomplishing these changes, one must know what epoch dawned at the turn of the century. It is called the epoch of imperialism and has brought mankind new calamities. Yet this is the epoch that created the conditions for liberating the working people from exploitation.

ll

Imperialism springs from the development of capitalist society and is its highest and last stage. Ruthless competition is the only law of the capitalists. The craving for wealth takes increasing possession of the mind and actions of every capitalist. Like spiders in a tin, the strong capitalists overpower the weak, the big ruin the small and the medium. Production is gradually concentrated in the hands of a few big capitalists, and in their drive for maximum profits they have united in associations known as monopolies. The rulers of these monopolies determine the quantity of output, fix profitable prices and divide among themselves the markets and the sources of raw materials. Step by step they have seized control of almost the entire output of staple commodities and of the markets for them, and their representatives have occupied key posts in the various governments.

Monopoly rule has brought about a deterioration of the position of the working people of the capitalist countries. Commodity prices are soaring and the cost of living is rising. Taxes are growing heavier. The powerful capitalist monopolies have attacked the workers and are wresting from them what they had won in the course of a long and persevering struggle. The state intervenes in the conflicts between workers and exploiters more and more frequently, taking the side of the capitalists. The small proprietors are helpless in face of the onslaught of the monopolies. The peasants are finding themselves more and more dependent on the omnipotent banks, which advance loans and dictate prices. Big capital is relentlessly strangling artisans and small shopkeepers, and where it does not completely ruin them it subordinates them to its will. Monopoly capital has completely deprived intellectuals---teachers, doctors, engineers, white-collar workers, journalists, writers and artists---of independence, and the outlook for the people has become increasingly more bleak.

After amassing fabulous wealth the monopolies found the confines of their own countries much too narrow. With their sights on ever greater profits they pounced on foreign, particularly undeveloped, countries. At the beginning of the twentieth century the major capitalist powers divided up the entire world among themselves. Great Britain became the largest colonial power. Her colonial empire embraced one-fourth of the world. France seized one-third of Africa.

Germany kept close on the heels of Britain and France in pillaging the African nations. The United States of America perfidiously took possession of Cuba and the Philippines and, like a giant octopus, spread its clutching tentacles to the riches of Latin America. The smaller powers kept pace with their big rivals: Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal put their hands on territories 70-80 times larger than themselves.

Imperialism intensified the hardships of the working people in the capitalist countries and harnessed the weak and backward nations to the colonial yoke. But that did not seem to be enough, and it plunged the whole of mankind into the abyss of devastating world wars. Capitalism develops unevenly, with some countries outstripping others. Those leading the race demand a larger share of the loot acquired from plundering the oppressed peoples. But the world was already divided up and new markets and sources of raw materials could be won only by force. The struggle for the redivision of the world was the cause of imperialist wars, and such wars were inevitable as long as imperialism ruled the world.

The monopolies took over control of the entire economy of the capitalist world and began to lay down the policy of the imperialist powers. A handful of powerful states built up a system of colonial oppression and financial strangulation that enveloped the huge majority of the earth's population. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin defined this new stage of capitalist development as imperialism and analysed it exhaustively.

Imperialism was accompanied by reaction in social and political life. The imperialists stamped out revolutions wherever they broke out. In conquered countries they relied on the most reactionary forces, supporting feudal lords and even slave-traders. Capitalism became an obstacle to social progress. Lenin compared it with a belly-worshipping money-baron, who, while rotting himself, seeks to stifle all that is young and growing.

Russia in the Early Twentieth Century

Russia found herself at the hub of world development. Capitalism was in control of Russian economy at the turn of the century, when thousands of workers were concentrated

IS

at huge factories. Railways linked up many of the regions in the country. Large towns had sprung up and become centres of modern economic, political and cultural life, and large industrial areas had taken shape. At the same time, Russia was becoming more and more dependent on foreign capital, which was attracted by the prospect of enormous profits. Monopoly associations of capitalists were formed and developed rapidly in the key industries. They steadily gained control of the country's economic life and drew ever closer to the upper circle of the state machine. Russia was swiftly becoming an imperialist country.

However, she had one very important feature that distinguished her from the capitalist countries of Western Europe and America. In Russia, as in other countries, capitalism had replaced the feudal-serf system, under which peasants were bought and sold as chattel. But survivals of serfdom remained deeply rooted in Russia, and of these the most salient were the tsarist autocracy, the landed estates and national oppression.

The monarchy had unlimited power---the tsar, at his own discretion, passed laws, appointed ministers and officials, and arbitrarily collected and spent the people's money. There was no constitution. The tsarist officials had the authority to arrest, imprison or exile any person they wished, and close any school, newspaper or journal. The tsar acted in the interests of the landed nobility, who enjoyed all political rights, occupied the principal posts in the state and received substantial salaries and allowances. This was the highest estate, whose privileges and rights were hereditary. Essentially, the tsarist monarchy was a dictatorship of feudal landowners. The people had no political rights whatever. There was no freedom of assembly, of speech, of association in unions and organisations, or of the press. The people were not allowed to form political parties, and membership in such parties carried with it the threat of prison, exile or penal servitude.

Monstrous survivals of serfdom remained in the countryside. Their source were the huge landed estates. The tsar was the biggest landowner in the country. The royal family alone had more land than half a million peasant families. The estates of 30,000 of the biggest landowners were equal in size to the land owned by 10 million peasant families

We feed goo

An artist portrays the Russian masses downtrodden by the tsar

Peasants Under Tsarism

In tsarist Russia a landowner had on the average as much land as 300 peasants

Half of the peasant population lived in huts like these

With these implements the peasants cultivated the soil

Workers Under Tsarism

The Urals Iron and Steel Plant where the working day was 13-14 hours long

A miner

Common bedroom in a hostel for several workingmen's families

ruined by serfdom and downtrodden politically. The peasants lived in misery on their tiny plots of poor and exhausted land, which they tilled with wooden ploughs and other primitive implements. Crop failures and starvation were the lot of the countryside. Land-hunger forced the peasants to lease land from the landowners on onerous terms, under which they had to till the landowner's land with their own implements and horses and give him half of the harvest. The peasants were the lowest estate and were completely in the power of the rural superintendents elected from among the nobility. For the slightest misdemeanour or failure to pay taxes they were sternly punished and their property sold by auction.

With semi-serfdom rife in the country, the workers were subjected to particularly ruthless exploitation. They were subjected to dual oppression---by the capitalists and the tsarist administration. Labour protection was unheard of. The working day was officially limited to eleven and a half hours only at the close of the nineteenth century after a long struggle, but in fact the workers were forced to work 12-14 hours as before. The miserable wages, hardly enough for even a slender living, were cut at the slightest excuse. The workers were burdened by fines. Most workers lived in barrack-like premises provided by the factories, with doubletiered bunks.

The autocracy was afraid that the light of knowledge would make the people unsubmissive, and it kept the masses in darkness and ignorance. Four-fifths of Russia's population could not read or write.

Tsarist Russia was one of the largest colonial empires. The non-Russian peoples, who comprised more than half the population, were denied all political rights. They were brutally exploited, humiliated and insulted. The tsarist officials wielded arbitrary power. The non-Russian regions in the East were turned into sources of raw materials and doomed to economic backwardness. Some of the non-Russian peoples were driven from their ancestral homes and their land was turned over to Russian landowners and wellto-do peasants. The national culture of the non-Russian peoples was trampled and suppressed. Many of these peoples were denied the right to publish newspapers and books or to teach their children in the native language. In the eastern

regions the entire population was illiterate. The tsarist government deliberately fomented national strife, setting one nation against another, and provoking Jewish pogroms and massacres between Armenians and Azerbaijanians. In fact, tsarist Russia was nothing less than a prison of nations.

Among the Russian people, however, there were many democrats who were devoted to the cause of revolution. They urged all the revolutionary forces to unite against tsarism, which was the common enemy. The working people of all the nations of Russia drew closer to one another in the course of the revolutionary struggle, which was headed by Russian revolutionaries.

The numerous nations, nationalities and tribes inhabiting Russia were at different stages of social development. Some had reached the stage of capitalism, others were still at the stage of patriarchal-feudal relations, and still others preserved survivals of the clan system. Some were fully established nations, and others were loosely linked-up nationalities and even warring tribes. Some peoples led a settled way of life and had large towns, others were still nomads and wandered about desert regions with their herds of livestock. Some peoples had a highly developed science and literature, while others did not have even a written language.

With the ruthless exploitation of the proletariat, the extreme poverty and tyranny in the countryside, and the harsh oppression of the non-Russian peoples, a picture of the whole world, its contradictions and ulcers, was reproduced, as it were, in Russia's endless expanses in Europe and Asia. The vast majority of the people---four-fifths of the population---was denied justice and enslaved by a handful of landowners and capitalists, who were faithfully served by the tsarist government.

This was approximately how the working people lived throughout the world. Everywhere the overwhelming majority of the population---workers and peasants---was remorselessly exploited and oppressed. The millions of nonpropertied and enthralled working people of town and country constituted a colossal revolutionary force. They had to be organised, politically enlightened, united and given a clear understanding of their interests and how to win a new, happy and free life.

The road to deliverance from poverty, oppression and exploitation was shown to all the working people by Marxism-Leninism.

status differed little from that of slaves. But they nonetheless had a small personal husbandry on the plots of land given to them by the landowner, and for this they had to work for their lord for a certain number of days. The feudal system gave way to capitalism. In capitalist society all the basic means of production belong to the capitalists and the landowners. As distinct from the slave and the serf, the worker is a free man. But he owns nothing except the skill of his hands. To live he is compelled to hire himself out as a worker to the capitalist. Essentially, capitalism is a system of hired slavery.

Why had there been a supplanting of one social system by another? What is the motive force of social development? Slave-owning, feudal and capitalist societies witness the division of people into the rich and the poor, into propertied and non-propertied, into exploiters and exploited. Each of these societies consists of oppressing and oppressed classes, which are constantly at war. The class struggle in exploiting society is thus the motive force of history.

No social system founded on a division into classes is eternal. Both the slave-owning and feudal systems came into being, developed and died. A similar fate awaits capitalism. Having discovered the laws of its development, Marx and Engels proved that capitalism prepares its own destruction. The ownership of the means of production is concentrated in fewer hands, the large enterprises continuously ousting or absorbing the small and medium ones. Labour and production unite on a steadily growing scale, i.e., they become more and more socialised. But the product of social labour is appropriated by a handful of capitalists on the strength of their ownership of the means of production. By giving rise to large-scale socialised production, capitalism thus creates the material prerequisites for socialism. In order to enable socialism to supersede capitalism, private ownership of the means of production must be abolished, i.e., the means of production must become the property of society as a whole.

But the ruling, exploiting classes do not relinquish their property, privileges and power voluntarily. A social force is needed which can, by revolution, sweep away the old, exploiting system and build a new society where man is not exploited by man. This social force is the proletariat, the

FROM SCATTERED STUDY CIRCLES TO A MARXIST PARTY

Scientific Communism of Marx and Engels

A society in which there would be no division into the rich and the poor, into oppressors and the oppressed, a society without wars, has been the dream of countless generations. The greatest thinkers of the past called it a socialist, a communist society. But people could only dream of socialism for they neither knew the road to it nor saw the force leading to it.

In the nineteenth century Marx and Engels, the great teachers of the proletariat and all other working people, turned this dream into a science. They studied the history of man and discovered the force behind social development. Mankind is not immobile. A continuous process is taking place under which one social system is replaced by another. In primitive society people lived in tiny communities and jointly owned the means of production---the land, minerals, forests, waters and implements of labour. There were neither rich people nor poor; all people were equal. But gradually there emerged private ownership of the means of production, and society was divided into the propertied and the non-propertied. The owners of the means of production began to exploit those who had no such means.

Thus, society split up into slaves and slave-owners in remote antiquity. The slave had no rights at all. He was not recognised as a human being and was considered simply a "talking implement" that belonged to the slave-owner. The slave-owning system was replaced by the feudal system, under which society consisted of feudal lords and serf peasants. The peasants were attached to the land and their

modern working class. Marx and Engels showed that the working class is the grave-digger of capitalism and the builder of communist society. Capitalism itself gives birth to the proletariat, which grows and develops together with the growth of capitalism. Compared with the other working people, it occupies a special position in capitalist society. It does not own means of production. It is not interested in preserving a social system founded on exploitation. And in struggle it has nothing to lose save its chains. Joint work at large factories in big towns brings the workers together, disciplines and unites them and teaches them to act in concert. At every turn the worker clashes with his principal enemy---the capitalist class. And the struggle between them mounts steadily.

As the most oppressed class of capitalist society the proletariat is interested in a radical reorganisation of that society, in the complete abolition of private ownership, poverty and oppression. By liberating itself, the working class liberates all the other working people from exploitation of every kind. Consequently, the working class expresses and effectively champions the basic interests of all working people. That is why in the struggle against oppression and violence it is not alone, for capitalism brings suffering to most of the people. Life itself has thus made the proletariat the most revolutionary and most progressive class. It has the great historic mission of being the first to rise in revolutionary struggle against capitalism and rally round itself all the working, exploited people.

When the working class rises against exploitation it clashes not only with the capitalists but also with the state, which protects the interests of the capitalists. History shows that the state always plays an immensely important role in the life of society. It has helped to preserve the old or consolidate a new social system. The state is a machine consisting of officials, police, the army, the courts and prisons. It sprang up when society was partitioned into irreconcilable (antagonistic) classes. It would seem that it should stand above society and serve as the instrument for maintaining law and order. In reality, however, it serves the interests of the class that owns the means of production and all the wealth of society. In slave-owning society the state was ruled by slave-owners, under feudalism the rulers

were the feudal lords, and under capitalism the reins of power are in the hands of the bourgeoisie. These ruling classes have always used state power to oppress slaves, peasants and workers and make it impossible for them to infringe upon the property of the exploiters and the privileges of the wealthy. Naturally, every new class dislodging a class that has had its day always seeks to win political power. Consequently, power is the basic issue of every revolution. The working class, leading ajl oppressed peoples, must accomplish a socialist revolution and establish its own political domination in the form of a proletarian dictatorship with the purpose of crushing the resistance of the deposed exploiters and building the new, socialist society.

The first heroic attempt to overthrow capitalism was made in 1871 by the workers of Paris, capital of France. After toppling the bourgeoisie they set up the Commune, a new, proletarian type of state. The Paris Commune existed for 72 days. One of the reasons for its downfall was that there was no Marxist Party to lead the working-class movement. Despite its failure, this first-ever proletarian revolution has won immortality. On the basis of its experience Marx demonstrated that the proletariat and all other working masses cannot simply take possession of the bourgeois state apparatus. They must break it up and, in its place, build a new, proletarian state which would achieve socialism. The workers of all countries revere the memory of the heroic Paris Commune and draw lessons from its experience.

Marx and Engels taught that the strength of the working class lay in its organisation and political consciousness, in a clear understanding of its purposes and tasks, as well as of the ways and means of struggle. Socialism and the workingclass movement are integrated and the actions against the capitalists develop into a conscious struggle for liberation from capitalist exploitation only when the workers come to understand their interests, which are basically antipodal to those of the capitalists, and become inspired by socialist ideals. To lead this struggle the workers must have their own independent political party. The party merges socialism with the working-class movement and is the spokesman not of individual groups of workers by profession or nationality, but of the common interests of the entire proletariat. It charts the political objectives of the working-class movement

and shows the working class what means of struggle to use in order to achieve its ultimate aim.

In every part of the world the workers of every nationality and colour have one common enemy---capitalism. The working class of every country has one common goal--- socialism and communism. Capitalism is an international force, and to defeat it on a global scale the workers of all countries must unite. Solidarity is, therefore, vital to the working-class movement and the prime condition for its victory. The working class of every country is a national contingent of the international army of labour. The great slogan of proletarian internationalism---"Workers of All Countries, Unite!"---was coined by Marx and Engels.

The founders of scientific communism set forth the fundamental principles of their doctrine in 1848 in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. They devoted their lives to the struggle to set up a party of the working class. In 1864 they founded the First International, which was known as the International Working Men's Association. This association did not last long, and in 1889 Engels directed the work of establishing the Second International.

erroneous views, believing that in Russia development would follow a path of its own in line with what they thought to be a special Russian way of life. They regarded the peasants as the main force of the revolution and looked forward to a transition to socialism through the peasant commune. In Russia the peasant commune was founded on the joint ownership of land: individual peasants received land for their temporary use and an egalitarian redivision of land was effected from time to time.

The Narodniks did not see that the conditions of social life were making not the peasants but the working class the vehicle of socialist ideas. Something they did not understand was that in itself the peasant commune would not protect the working people from capitalism. History illustrates that wherever a peasant commune existed it ultimately split up into the poor (and exploited) and the rich. The same took place in Russia. But Marx and Engels foresaw that in economically undeveloped countries the commune could facilitate progress towards socialism, provided assistance was forthcoming from the victorious proletariat of the more developed countries.

The Russian Narodniks were not alone. Views identical to theirs were expounded in other countries prior to the establishment of capitalism by leading thinkers, who dreamed of socialism. But developments upset these views. The transition to socialism requires that large-scale industrial production should reach a certain level of development, and that people devoting themselves to serving the ideals of socialism should have a knowledge of the fundamentals of the scientific communism of Marx and Engels.

Marx, Engels and Lenin thought highly of the Narodniks, of their revolutionary peasant democratic spirit, of their call for revolution. At the same time they criticised their erroneous theory, a theory that prevented them from seeing the historic force which was destined to head the struggle of the masses against the landowners and the bourgeoisie and lead that struggle to victory. That force was the working class.

Hideous exploitation and denial of political rights awakened the protest of the workers. Unrest and strikes started as early as the 1860s and steadily mounted in the 1870s. But these were spontaneous actions by desperate men who

Consolidation of Marxism in the Russian Working-Class Movement

Marxism first spread in Western Europe where capitalism developed and a modern industrial proletariat took shape earlier than elsewhere. But even there Marxism had at first only a minority following among the workers. Its influence, however, gradually broadened and towards the close of the nineteenth century it became the predominant doctrine in the West European working-class movement.

A long time elapsed before Marxists appeared in Russia. Due to the country's economic backwardness, the absence of a mass working-class movement and the huge preponderance of peasants, the Russian revolutionaries failed to appreciate Marxism, thinking it was inapplicable to Russia. They were called Narodniks, a name derived from their dedication to the people (narod). Indeed, they heroically fought the tsarist autocracy and landowner oppression, sacrificing themselves for the people. But they held

sought an outlet from an unendurable situation, of men who did not know why they were suffering and what to strive for.

This struggle brought to the fore politically conscious workers. They earnestly looked for the cause of the proletariat's misery and for ways of emancipating the workers, and began setting up working-class organisations. The first workers' unions appeared in the latter half of the 1870s. The Narodniks, however, held undivided sway in the revolutionary movement. The working-class movement had to rid itself of the Narodnik doctrine and espouse Marxism as its ideology.

In 1883 a small group of Russian revolutionaries, who had been forced to flee abroad from persecution, published a statement in which they proclaimed their rupture with the Narodniks and declared that it was necessary to organise a political party of the Russian working class. This group, led by Georgi Plekhanov, a talented theoretician and exponent of Marxism, founded the first Russian Marxist organisation which called itself Emancipation of Labour.

The Emancipation of Labour group cleared the way for a Marxist workers' party in Russia. Soon Marxists appeared in Russia proper---first in St. Petersburg and then in other towns and cities. But old, dying views never leave the stage without putting up a stubborn and savage resistance. An acute struggle between Social-Democrats (the name adopted by the Marxist revolutionaries) and the Narodniks raged in revolutionary circles. The Social-Democratic movement grew slowly and painfully. In the course of a decade only about ten small secret Marxist groups and study circles were formed in the large towns. They confined themselves to explaining the ideas of scientific socialism to front-rank workers and revolutionary-minded intellectuals. No political activities were conducted by them among the masses, for Marxism was as yet only an ideological trend with no contact with the working-class movement and Social - Democracy was only at its embryonic stage.

Though this movement grew slowly it prepared the ground for a major step forward---for the integration of the teaching of socialism with the working-class movement. Now the task was to unite the scattered study circles into a centralised and disciplined party, welded together by a community of purposes and means of struggle, and to arm

it with a programme enabling it to become the political leader of the working class.

This task was advanced by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. His real surname was Ulyanov, but like other Russian revolutionaries working illegally he adopted the pseudonym--- Lenin, a name that has become known throughout the world. Becoming a revolutionary at the age of seventeen, he devoted the rest of his life to the struggle for the liberation of the working people from oppression and exploitation, to the struggle for communism, for a happy future for mankind. He carried on in the heroic traditions of the first Russian revolutionaries, but went by a different road that was free of their errors, by the road of revolutionary Marxism.

In Marxism Lenin saw a mighty vehicle for the revolutionary transformation of the world, for the liberation of the working people from economic, political and spiritual slavery. To him Marxism was not an abstract theory. He accepted it not as a dogma but as a guide to revolutionary action. As early as the close of the 1880s Lenin was prominent in spreading Marxism. In the autumn of 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg, capital of the tsarist empire and centre of the revolutionary movement in Russia. Soon afterwards he became the recognised leader of the St. Petersburg Marxists.

The setting up of a Marxist workers' party in Russia was attended by many difficulties. It had to be built up illegally, in face of brutal police persecution. The Narodniks were still influential in revolutionary circles, and the many sceptics were of the opinion that it was much too early for the Russian workers to think of having a party of their own.

The Russian Marxists were not daunted by the difficulties. Lenin's book What the "Friends of the People" Are and How ^fThey Fight the Social-Democrats, which was printed secretly in the summer of 1894, served them as a reliable compass in their dedicated struggle. Lenin wrote that the true friends of the people were not the Narodniks but the Marxists and proved that only the working class of Russia could be the political leader of the people in the struggle against tsarism and capitalism. But to lead this struggle the working class had to have a militant revolutionary party. The founding of such a party was the immediate task of the Russian Marxists. When the Marxists, Lenin

burg united to form the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Marxists took part in strikes and put out leaflets setting forth the demands of the workers. This marked a turn from propaganda in small study circles of foremost workers to agitation among the workingclass masses. The League of Struggle was the first political organisation in Russia to integrate scientific socialism with the working-class movement and thereby link up the economic demands of the workers with the political struggle against tsarism and capitalist exploitation. The League was the embryo of the party of the working class and strikingly mirrored the basic features of the future Marxist Partyits revolutionary nature, its close link with the workers and its leadership of the proletarian class struggle and of the struggle for democracy and socialism.

The Social-Democratic organisations in the other cities began to reorganise themselves on the model of the St. Petersburg League of Struggle, setting themselves the objective of turning every strike into a school of proletarian class struggle. Social-Democracy became wedded to the life of the workers. The revolutionary struggle brought to the fore many front-rank workers, who subsequently became outstanding leaders of the Party and the Soviet Government. For example, Mikhail Kalinin, a St. Petersburg turner, became President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and Grigory Petrovsky, a Yekaterinoslav fitter, became President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine.

The Leninist League of Struggle prepared the ideological ground for the amalgamation of Social-Democratic organisations into a party. The decision to form a party was taken at the First Social-Democratic Congress, which was held in secret in Minsk in March 1898. The name Russian SocialDemocratic Labour Party was adopted to underline the continuity of the struggle for democracy and socialism and also to emphasise that it united not only Russian workers but also the front-rank workers of all the other peoples of Russia. In a Manifesto issued on behalf of the congress the Party openly proclaimed that the aim of the Russian proletariat was to overthrow the autocracy in order to devote more energy to the struggle against capitalism for the complete triumph of socialism.

Lenin (at the table in the centre) among leaders of the St. Petersbur? League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, 1895

wrote, form a strong organisation, a party capable of transforming the scattered revolts and strikes of the workers into a conscious proletarian class struggle, "then the Russian WORKER, rising at the head of all the democratic elements, will overthrow absolutism and lead the RUSSIAN PROLETARIAT (side by side with the proletariat of ALL COUNTRIES) alone the straight road of open political struggle to THE VICTORIOUS COMMUNIST REVOLUTION".*

Lenin's foresight opened up far-reaching prospects for the small underground revolutionary study circles, which militated against the powerful tsarist police apparatus.

The Russian Marxists began introducing Lenin's ideas into the practice of the revolutionary movement. In 1895, on Lenin's initiative, the Marxist study circles in St. Peters-

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 300. 30

The Social-Democratic organisations in the various localities gave their whole-hearted support to the congress and became known as committees of the RSDLP. Tsarism dealt the new Party a series of blows before it could gain strength. The police tracked down and took into custody many prominent Social-Democrats, including members of the newly elected Central Committee, which thereby ceased to function. The Social-Democrats had not yet co-ordinated their tactics and had not drawn up an agreed programme and Party Rules. To all intents and purposes, no centralised organisation existed.

faithful pupil and continuer of the cause of Marx and Engels.

Diverse organisations existed at the time in the world and Russian revolutionary movement. A political organisation of a new type, a party of the working class, had to be given shape on the basis of the Marxist teaching and a critical analysis of historical experience. This was undertaken by Lenin, who formulated his views about the Party, its role in the working-class movement and the principles underlying its activity and organisation in a number of works, chiefly in What Is To Be Done? and One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, written in 1902 and 1904 respectively.

Lenin's study of history led him to the important conclusion that no class had ever seized the reins of power without producing people capable of organising and leading the movement. In the case of the working class its political leader is the Marxist Party.

The Party is part of the working class, its vanguard contingent. It cannot embrace all workers, all working people. The proletariat is heterogeneous, consisting of sections with different levels of political consciousness. It is constantly augmented by peasants and artisans ruined by capitalism. A distinction exists between foremost elements and the mass of workers. The Party grows by enlisting into its ranks the finest representatives of the working class---politically conscious, organised and courageous people who are devoted to the cause of the revolution.

Its mission is to forge ahead of the spontaneous workingclass movement, show it the right road, answer all the questions encountered by the proletariat in the course of the struggle, organise the working class and raise the backward sections to the level of those in the front ranks. Lenin wrote: ".. .the role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory."* This advanced theory and reliable guide to revolutionary action is Marxism. The Party knows the laws of social development and the class struggle, and is thereby able to lead the working-class movement.

The working class wages an unremitting struggle for socialism. It is called upon to liberate mankind from all

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 5, p. 370.

Lenin's Theory About a Party

During this difficult period it was said that what the working class needed was not a political party but mutualaid funds and trade unions, and that if a party were at all needed its only use would be to help the workers in their economic struggle against employers and the government. The exponents of these views held that Social-Democrats should preoccupy themselves not with some remote socialism but with the ways and means of securing an immediate shortening of the working day and a rise of wages. The political struggle, they insisted, was the business not of the "politically undeveloped" workers but of the bourgeoisie. These were opportunist views and their exponents were called Economists.

A bitter ideological struggle broke out in the Social-- Democratic movement between revolutionaries and opportunists. The revolutionaries pressed for the remaking of exploiter society into a socialist society, while the opportunists adapted themselves to capitalism and urged the workers to come to terms with the bourgeoisie. The Russian opportunists were not alone. In that period---close of the nineteenth century--- the international working-class movement as a whole was studded with opportunists, who were called revisionists because they demanded a revision of Marxism, declaring that it had grown obsolete and rejecting the class struggle, the revolution and the proletarian dictatorship. At this crucial moment for the international working-class movement Lenin came forward in his full stature as a

3-1359

forms of social and national oppression. The ruling, exploiting classes are fully aware of the menace to them from socialist-minded workers, who rally all working people round themselves. Everywhere the working people constitute the majority, and the exploiters---the minority. But this minority compels the majority to submit not only by force. The bourgeoisie has a large arsenal of means of enslaving the people spiritually, spreading its influence through the school, the church, the newspapers, literature and art.

It goes to all ends to enfeeble the working class, split it and direct it to a false path. In this sinister work it is aided and abetted by the opportunists, who peddle the idea that socialism can be achieved by reforms, without revolution and that, therefore, the workers should cease their revolutionary struggle. The propertied classes seek to sow discord among the working people, to precipitate a quarrel between peasants and workers. The colonialists make use of racial, national, tribal and religious distinctions to drive a wedge between peoples. In exploiting society the policy of "divide and rule" has always guided the actions of the ruling classes. This policy is pursued to this day by the exploiting classes in an effort to split the working class into national, racial and religious groups within each country and on a global scale. The struggle against bourgeois ideology and policy is vital to the working class. This struggle is waged by the Marxist Party, which vigilantly safeguards the independence of the proletarian movement and tirelessly spreads socialist awareness in the working class.

Lenin regarded the socialist revolution as a deep-going upheaval in which the working class leads all working, exploited people in the last battle against the world of oppression and injustice. One of the Party's major tasks is to educate the workers in a revolutionary spirit. It is not enough for the Party to call itself the vanguard of the people, Lenin said. Universal recognition of this must be won by deeds. The Party must teach the workers to respond to all cases of arbitrary rule and oppression no matter what class or section of society is affected. The proletarian revolutionary, Lenin said, becomes the spokesman of the people when he uses every opportunity to speak of his socialist beliefs and democratic demands and explain the epoch-making significance of the liberation struggle of the proletariat.

More than anyone else he appreciated the importance of organisation for the proletariat, which remakes society by revolution. He wrote: "In its struggle for power, the proletariat has no other weapon but organisation."* Through experience the working class learns to understand that its strength lies in organisation, that united the workers are everything and disunited they are nothing. Lenin formulated the Party's great mission in the following famous words: "Give us an organisation of revolutionaries, and we will overturn Russia!"*"" The experience gained in preceding revolutions eloquently pointed to the need for such an organisation. The working class was opposed by the state of exploiting classes with its powerful apparatus of suppression and no less powerful means of spiritual enslavement. The proletariat could not be victorious without a strong centralised Party.

Lenin held that the nucleus of the Party should consist of professional revolutionaries, of staunch people with firm ideological beliefs and a broad political outlook, of people who are dedicated to the revolution and utterly devoted to the working class. Under illegal conditions it was particularly important to be able to fight the police and work in secrecy. The professional revolutionary of the Leninist type had nothing in common with a conspirator isolated from the people. Such a revolutionary is always in the thick of the masses, knows their needs, responds to their sentiments and does everything in his power to promote the political consciousness and revolutionary initiative of the working people and raise their level of organisation.

A party whose objective is to remake society by revolution must be organised along the corresponding lines. Lenin regarded democratic centralism as the main principle underlying the Party's organisation and its inner life. Scattered action by individual groups have never brought victory, and only a centralised leadership can bring all the forces together, direct them towards a single objective and unite the actions of individuals as well as of separate groups and organisations. People join a revolutionary party voluntarily, because of their political convictions. Therefore, their

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 7, p. 415. ** Ibid., Vol. 5, p. 467.

organisation, their unity of will and action can only be built up democratically, i.e., through collective, joint discussion of the Party's policy, plans and aims.

A united and centralised Party is inconceivable without discipline, without the subordination of the minority to the majority, without collectively adopted decisions being binding on all its members. Discipline gives the Party the necessary organisation and purposefulness. Genuine unity implies not only ideological unity but also unity of organisation, which cannot be achieved without unity of discipline, which must be compulsory for every Party member no matter what post he occupies. The strength of Party discipline lies in the fact that it is conscious and not blind or mechanical. In a workers' Party, Lenin said, discipline signifies unity of action and freedom of discussion and criticism. All members of the Party actively participate in the discussion and drawing up of decisions. After a decision is adopted they must carry it out conscientiously, acting as one man.

The merit of democratic centralism is thus that it combines strict centralism with broad Party democracy, the indisputable authority of the Party leadership with electivity and accountability to the Party membership, Party discipline with the creative activity of the Party masses.

Lenin's views about the Party may be summed up as follows: the Party is the organising, leading and guiding force of the revolutionary working-class movement. Lenin laid down the principles of his teaching about the Party in the period when the Party was being built up. This teaching was developed and enriched by the experience gained during the revolution and during the building of socialism.

MCKPA

Ml.

Mt.

MCKPA

Iskra

What is the first step towards the creation of such a party? The answer to this had to take the situation obtaining in Russia into account---the Social-Democratic organisations were isolated from each other and were absorbed in local affairs. Lenin's reply to this question was, therefore, that the first step was to start a newspaper, which would rally all Marxists and all foremost workers round itself. This newspaper was Iskra, which was founded by Lenin.

*v pj-«T* *t»M »»»- i » • f ta'* 1***-^ -"• >»«*•

,

Lenin's Iskra

The first all-Russia Marxist newspaper, it started publication in December 1900. It was printed abroad in secret and smuggled into Russia.

This militant organ of the Russian Marxists became a school for the revolutionary education of workers. It dealt broadly with all aspects of life, led the worker out of his narrow range of local interests and widened his outlook and his cultural and political interests. On the basis of the simplest and universally known facts, Iskra explained the ideas of Marxism and the basic interests of the proletariat. Consistently and perseveringly it cultivated a socialist consciousness in the proletarian masses and secured the merging of their struggle with the ideal of socialism.

Iskra exposed the autocratic regime, stigmatising and denouncing every manifestation of oppression and arbitrary rule---reprisals against workers, outrages committed against the peasants, the baiting of non-Russian peoples, the taunting of intellectuals, and the persecution of people not belonging to the official church. The newspaper awakened hatred for the tsarist autocracy, police arbitrary rule and capitalist exploitation, and called for the destruction of the unjust social system. Workers were taught to respond to all cases of coercion and oppression, and the broad masses were taught to regard the proletariat as their leader.

The newspaper pressed for proletarian internationalism. It made the Russian workers feel that the actions taken by the proletariat of other countries were their own and cultivated a spirit of international proletarian solidarity. It explained that it was the internationalist duty of the Russian proletariat to overthrow tsarism, which was a bulwark of reaction in Europe and Asia. Every case of national oppression was condemned by Iskra, which militated against colonial seizures and oppression.

It urged the Social-Democrats to go to all classes and strata of the population. Under its influence the RSDLP committees, formerly confined to factory districts, took the first steps towards other strata of working people. Leaflets were printed and groups set up to conduct propaganda among the peasants. Revolutionary agitation was started in military barracks. Social-Democratic groups appeared among students and secondary-school pupils. The SocialDemocrats penetrated the ecclesiastical seminaries. They

used bourgeois liberals and even opposition-minded sections of the landed nobility.

The revolutionary forces of the Social-Democratic movement rallied round Iskra. Its representatives acted with great courage and energy. Prominent among them were Ivan Babushkin, a worker, and Nikolai Bauman, an intellectual, who did much for the coming revolution. Neither of these men lived to see the revolution: Babushkin was shot by a firing squad, and Bauman was murdered by a hired thug.

The newspaper rallied its supporters into a single allRussia organisation, which set the scattered Social-- Democratic groups an example of unity in Party work. The Iskra organisation of professional revolutionaries played an outstanding role in forming and building up the Party.

This was a Party of struggle against all social and national oppression. For almost three years it conducted its activities in an atmosphere marked by ideological wavering and organisational chaos in the Social-Democratic movement, in which Economism was predominant. Thanks to its activities, ideological and organisational unity was achieved in the Social-Democratic movement on the basis of revolutionary Marxism. This achievement had to be consolidated at a Party congress.

Rise of Bolshevism. The First Party Programme

The Second Congress of the RSDLP was convened in secrecy in August 1903, first in Brussels and then in London. It was attended by representatives of the SocialDemocratic organisations of all the large towns and industrial districts of Russia.

After long discussion and heated debates ^ this congress adopted a programme, which stated the Party's aims clearly and precisely. Opening with the statement that the Party of the Russian proletariat is one of the contingents of the international working-class movement, it consisted of two sections---a minimum programme of immediate democratic objectives---and a maximum programme, which declared that socialism is the Party's ultimate goal.

The Party proclaimed that its principal, immediate political objective was to overthrow the tsarist monarchy

by revolution and replace it with a democratic republic. The following demands were advanced:

---universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot for all citizens, men and women;

---broad local self-government;

---inviolability of the person and the home;

---unrestricted freedom of conscience, speech, the press, assembly, strikes and associations;

---electivity of the courts by the people;

---separation of the church from the state and of the school from the church;

---free and compulsory general and vocational education for all children of both sexes under the age of 16.

Special attention was given to demands designed to protect the working class from physical and moral degeneration, and ensure the development of its liberation struggle. These were:

---an eight-hour working day;

---banning the employment of children of school age;

---banning the employment of women in unhealthy occupations, the granting of paid maternity leaves and the setting up of nursery schools;

---state insurance of workers against old age and loss of the capacity for work;

---the institution of factory inspectorates in all branches of the economy, sanitary inspection and free medical attention at the expense of employers.

It was the first workers' Party to show concern for the needs of the peasants. The Party agrarian programme demanded putting an end to serfdom and facilitating the class struggle of the peasants. The Party Programme demanded:

---the return to the peasants of the land cut away from them when serfdom was abolished;

---the annulment of compensation payment for the land left to them and the return of the money paid by them to the state;

---the abrogation of all laws hampering the peasant in the disposal of his land;

---granting courts the right to reduce high rents and declare one-sided transactions null and void.

Peasant committees had to be set up to enable the peasants to resolve their pressing requirements by themselves. The

agrarian programme called upon the peasants to rise in revolutionary struggle against the landowners and the tsar.

The Party improved its agrarian programme after closely studying rural life and the development of the peasant movement. During the revolution of 1905 the Bolsheviks demanded the confiscation of all the landed estates and the nationalisation of all land, i.e., the abolition of private ownership of land and its transfer to the hands of the democratic state. In Russia this was the only effective solution of the agrarian problem.

The Party put forward the most democratic programme for resolving the national question. It contained the following demands:

---the right of all the nations in the state to selfdetermination;

---complete equality for all citizens, irrespective of race or nationality;

---self-government (autonomy) for regions with a way of life and population composition of their own;

---education in the native language at schools opened by the state;

---the right to use the native language in all local public and state institutions.

This, programme wholly conformed to the interests of the oppressed peoples. Its main demand---the right of nations to self-determination---signified that every nation had the right to arrange its life as it liked: to set up an independent state or remain as part of Russia. This problem had to be resolved in accordance with the interests of the working class and all working people. Under all conditions, the Party advocated only the voluntary union of peoples in a single state.

The minimum programme as a whole demanded the complete democratisation of state and social life. Its implementation ensured the optimal conditions for the struggle for socialism, as stated in the maximum programme.

The idea underlying the entire programme was that being the most revolutionary class in history, the proletariat had a liberation mission of epoch-making significance. The transition from capitalism to socialism was historically inevitable, the programme noted, and the working class would carry out the great task of building a society free of all forms

direction. It would seem that a requirement ensuring due organisation and discipline in the Party should not have given rise to a dispute. But this was exactly what did not suit the opportunists. They said that the Party should also admit people who did not care to belong to any Party organisation, found Party discipline burdensome and wished to limit themselves to sympathy and assistance.

The congress completed its work with the election of a leadership that could ensure consistent revolutionary activity by the entire Party. This caused a rift with the opportunists, who declared they would not accept the congress decisions. At that congress, Lenin's supporters, who won the majority in the elections to the Party's central organs, became known as Bolsheviks, and their opponents were called Mensheviks. Born in the battles at the congress the word ``Bolshevik'' has become a synonym for a consistent Marxist revolutionary, who is utterly devoted to the cause of the working class, to the cause of communism.

The foundation of a revolutionary Marxist Party of the working class was the main outcome of the Second Congress of the RSDLP, which has occupied an honourable place in the heroic chronicle of mankind's struggle for liberation. The pressing problems dealt with at that congress concerned the working people not only of Russia but also of the whole world.

Lenin speaks at the Second Congress of the RSDLP at which the revolutionary Marxist Party was founded in Russia

of exploitation and oppression. The road to the remaking of society lay through the revolutionary destruction of capitalism, a socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Party called upon all working people to move towards this lofty aim, explaining to them the hopelessness of their position in exploiting society and the need for a revolution as the only means of liberation from capitalist oppression.

This congress of Russian Marxists adopted the most revolutionary programme the world had ever seen. No other political party had ever put forward demands which accorded so well with the interests of the people and of the country's progressive development. Russia was vegetating in poverty and ignorance, but Lenin and the other Russian Marxists looked far ahead.

In order to fulfil the Party Programme there had to be the corresponding organisation. A sharp struggle flared up at the congress between the revolutionaries and the opportunists over the issue of who could be a Party member. Lenin and his supporters insisted that every Party member had to belong to a Party organisation and work under its

The Party Operates Underground

In those days the Party had only a few thousand members. It was a mere drop in the human ocean, but its strength lay in the fact that better than any other political organisation it understood the vital needs of the country and the prospects of its development. It knew that alone it could not accomplish the revolution. It needed the support of the working class, the peasants and all other progressive forces in the country. It therefore regarded that its principal task was to persuade the masses that its programme demands were correct and secure the support of the workers and peasants for these demands. In countries with a democratic system, political parties make wide use of newspapers, journals, rallies and meetings to explain their policy. This was

not possible in Russia and the RSDLP had to operate underground.

Life was difficult for the revolutionary in tsarist Russia, where danger dogged every step he made. The menace of prison and exile constantly hung over him. For the revolutionary who had to work underground because of the threat of arrest or after escaping from prison or exile, life was doubly severe. He carried on his day-to-day Party work without having a permanent home and frequently with a forged passport or with no passport at all. But hardship and privation could not stop revolutionaries, who found access to the masses wherever they went. Theirs was the heroism of modest, day-to-day, painstaking revolutionary activity. This sort of life required skill in combating the police and their agents and strict adherence to the rules of secrecy.

In the Party organisations there was a division of labour. Some people became propagandists, some agitators and some organisers, depending on their inclination. To organise a study circle and conduct it regularly, arrange a meeting in some out-of-the-way place, make a short speech to workers near the gates of a factory or organise a street demonstration required careful preparation, the mobilisation of strength and nerves, self-sacrifice and conspiratorial skill. Special groups were formed to keep a watch on police spies, and to produce or acquire passports or other documents.

A great deal of attention was paid to the Party's technical facilities---underground print-shops, storehouses for literature, and secret meeting places. These meeting places were needed for study circles, committee sittings and Party meetings. Some of them were known only to a few people, for they were used for passing on communications or assignments, and for meetings with comrades from the centre or other towns. Usually these addresses were a surgery, a lawyer's office, a shop, a canteen or some other place where people gathered and the appearance of a stranger did not excite comment. Passwords were agreed on and used at these addresses.

The location of underground print-shops was kept a most closely guarded secret. The people working in them lived the life of hermits---if they left their secret premises at all it was only to take a walk under cover of darkness. Some of these print-shops won fame, for example, the Nina print-

shop in Tbilisi, which successfully evaded police detection and served the Party for many years.

Many barriers had to be surmounted before Party literature could reach the workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals. Much of it was printed abroad and had to be smuggled into the country past an army of gendarmes. But even after it was brought into the country it had to be delivered to secret distributing centres from where couriers took it to all parts of Russia. Tremendous risk attended the distribution of the newspapers and proclamations printed in Russia. Special distribution groups were organised.

Permanent contact with the Party centre and its organisations in various parts of the country was maintained with great difficulty, frequently by the thin thread of correspondence, which kept breaking through arrests and forced changes of addresses. Letters were written in code and mailed to addresses that did not arouse the suspicion of the police.

If, in spite of precautions, a revolutionary fell into the hands of the police and was arraigned before a court he sought to use his trial to further the cause of the revolution and indict the tsarist autocracy.

CHAPTER TWO

OVERTHROW OF TSARISM AND CAPITALISM

strikes in support of them. In the summer of 1903 the struggle covered the whole of South Russia---general political strikes broke out in the Transcaucasus and the Ukraine.

When the first demonstrations were held in 1901 the Social-Democrats could not tell how many months or years separated them from the revolution. But it was clear to them that they had to be with the masses and rouse them to the struggle. On the other hand, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, formed by exponents of Narodnik ideas, preached individual terrorism against the tsar and the tsarist bureaucracy as the main means of achieving its goal. This confused the people. The Social-Democrats vigorously opposed the revolutionary adventurism of the SocialistRevolutionaries. They argued that individual terrorism was distracting revolutionaries from preparing the masses for an onslaught against tsarism, and called for the use of mass means of struggle such as strikes and demonstrations, organising these actions and teaching the masses on the lessons drawn from the struggle. The RSDLP committees gradually learned to lead the masses.

The news of the workers' actions in the towns spread rapidly throughout the country, awakening enthusiasm among the people. The peasants began to heed the workers sent back to their native villages by the police for participation in strikes and demonstrations. Besides, the peasants who came to the towns keenly followed the actions taken by the proletariat and spoke of these actions when they returned home. By rising against their oppressors, the workers helped the peasants to straighten their backs. Peasant uprisings swept across southern Russia in the spring of 1902. More than 10,000 troops were sent to suppress these uprisings and the affected districts began to resemble battlefields. But these were not conscious actions. The peasants did not make any clear political demands, i.e., they did not demand a change of the political system. The uprisings broke out spontaneously and the peasants had no alliance with the urban workers. This doomed them to defeat.

The situation was sharply aggravated by the RussoJapanese War, which began in January 1904. It was a predatory war, a war of aggrandizement on both sides. The poorly trained Russian army, which was led by dull-witted and ignorant generals and officers, sustained defeat after

IN THE FIRE OF THE FIRST REVOLUTION

The Revolution Becomes Imminent

In Russia the Marxist Party grew and matured in class battles. A revolutionary situation took shape in the country early in the twentieth century. The contradictions between the peasants and the landowners, between the workers and the capitalists, between the oppressed nationalities and the Russian landowners and capitalists and between the arbitrarily ruled people and the tsar, which had accumulated in the course of long decades, now broke through to the surface.

The world economic crisis of 1900-03 had a particularly devastating effect in Russia. Many factories were closed and workers were thrown out of jobs. On top of that in 1901 a famine hit the countryside. The unemployed returned to the villages in their thousands, while famine drove people from the villages to the towns. The suffering of the working people reached bursting point.

At the beginning of 1901 workers and students held demonstrations in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other large cities. The call "Down with the autocracy" reverberated during these demonstrations. The demonstrators were dispersed by force and the streets were stained with blood. But the demonstrations continued, and the workers staged

defeat. The war brought the people further suffering. It cost many lives, shook the economy and depleted the Treasury. The soaring prices made the life of the workers unbearable. Conscription into the army deprived peasant families of their bread-winners and gave rise to unrest and dissatisfaction in the countryside. The war was the last drop that filled the people's cup of patience to overflowing, and it brought Russia to the threshold of revolution.

All that was needed was a push, and this push was given by the events of January 9, 1905. At the beginning of January a strike was called at the Putilov Works, one of the largest industrial enterprises in St. Petersburg. The workers went on strike as a protest against the sacking of some of their work-mates, and were supported by the workers of other factories. Feelings ran high in St. Petersburg.

Long before this strike was called, a priest by the name of Gapon, acting, on instructions from the police, set up an organisation whose aim was to divert the workers from the revolutionary struggle. He suggested arranging a procession to the Winter Palace, the royal residence, with the purpose of presenting a petition to the tsar, and gave the assurance that the tsar would meet the demands in the petition. The workers yielded to this provocation. Many still naively trusted the ``benevolent'' tsar, who, so they were made to believe, was being deceived by officials who were robbing the people. The Bolsheviks warned them that there would be bloodshed but were unable to thwart this police conspiracy.

On Sunday, January 9, more than 140,000 workers with wives and children, dressed in their holiday best and carrying icons, crosses and portraits of the tsar, marched in procession to the Winter Palace. On orders from the tsar, troops met this peaceful demonstration with bullets, swords and whips. Thousands of people were killed or wounded.

That day has become known as Bloody Sunday, and it opened the eyes of the workers of Russia, who now understood whose interests the tsar and his government were championing. Their faith in the tsar was shattered, and in a single day the revolutionary education of the proletariat made tremendous headway.

A wave of protest strikes rolled across the country in response to this criminal act of tsarism. In January alone 440,000 workers went on strike, a number larger than the total for the preceding decade. These strikes set the peasant masses in motion.

And revolution broke out in Russia.

The Leninist Science of Revolutionary Leadership

The Party of the proletariat had to determine its line of conduct in the revolution. But before it could do that it had to elucidate the nature, the driving forces and the prospects of the revolution taking place in Russia, and also have a clear idea of the tasks confronting the working class in that revolution.

The line to be taken by the Party in the revolution was laid down by the Third Congress of the RSDLP, which was held in the spring of 1905 in London. Two other congresses, the Fourth in 1906 and the Fifth in 1907, were held in the course of the revolution. These congresses specified and developed the Party's tactics with due account for the changing conditions of struggle. The position of the Bolsheviks in the revolution was explained and substantiated by Lenin in a number of works, particularly in Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, which came out in print in the summer of 1905.

Lenin explained that a bourgeois revolution aimed at bringing down the tsarist autocracy and eradicating survivals of serfdom was taking place in Russia. It would be wrong to expect that its immediate objective was to abolish the capitalist system and establish socialism. The character of a revolution was determined by objective causes and not by the desires of individuals, groups of people or parties. The most disastrous course was to confuse what was desired with reality. The workers had not reached the necessary level of political consciousness and they were poorly organised. Most of them knew little about the aims of or how to achieve socialism. The peasants were not yet ready to accept the socialist doctrine. In the countryside the landowner was still the main enemy, and all the peasants, rich

•is

4-1359

geois, but a bourgeois peasant revolution, because the agrarian problem was its basic issue and the abolition of the landed estates its principal objective. Moreover, it was a people's, bourgeois-democratic revolution because it conformed to the vital interests of the people and involved the overwhelming majority of the masses whose demands made an imprint on its entire course.

Lenin analysed the features of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia and on that basis suggested the key thesis that the working class had to be the leader of that revolution.

Why was the leadership of the proletariat possible and indispensable in the revolution?

The working class of Russia was vitally interested in completely uprooting all the survivals of serfdom, over-

Tsarist troops shoot down a peaceful procession of workers in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, January 9, 1905

and poor, were rising against landowner oppression. But this was only the first step, and had to be followed up by a long struggle before the countryside would take the next step towards socialism. Those who said that the peasants could take the first and last step at one and the same time were only misleading the peasants and ignoring the struggle in the countryside between the poor sections of the peasants and the village rich.

A bourgeois revolution, such as had been accomplished in Western Europe, was now taking place in Russia, but it also had its own distinctive features. It was taking place in a situation where world capitalism had attained a high level of development and entered the stage of imperialism, where the working class in the advanced countries was confronted with the task of effecting a socialist revolution. The Russian revolution triggered a wave of political upheavals and revolutions throughout the world. It was not simply a bour-

Mounted police disperse strikers

throwing the tsarist autocracy and establishing a democratic republic. A smashing victory would ensure the best conditions for the proletarian struggle for socialism. This deep-going interest in the bourgeois-democratic revolution bound the proletariat to participate in it most energetically. Moreover, it made it imperative for the working class to head the revolution. That was the only condition that could ensure a decisive victory.

The working class had all it took to assume the leadership. Large-scale production had accustomed it to organisation and discipline. The strike struggle had united, tempered and enlightened the workers, bringing out their militant spirit. This was facilitated by the huge concentration of workers at large factories and mills. Compared with the other classes, the proletariat was more militant and selfsacrificing, and possessed more revolutionary energy. In fact, it was already the leading force of the revolutionary movement. It had its own independent revolutionary Marxist Party, whose programme conformed to the interests of the people and the country's democratic development.

But alone, single-handed, the proletariat could not win. It needed allies, and one of these allies was the peasantry with its unquenchable desire to confiscate the landed estates and sweep away all vestiges of serfdom. The peasantry, too, could not single-handedly consummate the revolution. It was disunited and scattered by the very conditions of its existence, by the small-commodity economy, under which each husbanded his own tiny plot of land. The peasant was a toiler and a proprietor rolled into one, and for that reason he was politically unstable. His outlook was limited to the tiny world of his village, and politically he was less developed than the worker. The peasantry, therefore, needed the leadership of another class, a class that was well-- organised, politically enlightened and steeled in battle. The peasants acquired a genuine leader in the person of the urban industrial proletariat. The alliance of the working class and the entire peasantry with the proletariat playing the leading role was the decisive condition for the victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.

The Russian bourgeoisie proved to be incapable of committing itself irrevocably to the revolution. It feared the revolutionary proletariat, afraid that democratic reforms

would not satisfy the workers and they would demand socialist changes. Moreover, it was afraid that with the abolition of the landed estates it would lose its factories and mills, its capital. It did not want a complete rupture with the tsarist bureaucracy, to which it was tied by thousands of strings. Therefore, while being opposed to the autocracy the bourgeoisie sought not to depose tsarism but to share power with it. It wanted to seize the leadership of the revolution solely for the purpose of ending it as soon as possible by a bargain with tsarism at the expense of the workers and peasants.

Consequently, a struggle for the leadership of the masses in the revolution was inevitable between the working class and the bourgeoisie. The destiny of the revolution, i.e., whether it would end in a people's victory or in a bargain between the bourgeoisie and tsarism, depended upon the outcome of this struggle. The task of the proletariat was to push aside and isolate the bourgeoisie from the masses, to give it no opportunity of strangling the revolution.

A decisive victory over tsarism would bring into the limelight the basic problem of every revolution, that of state power. Lenin answered the question of what type of government would emerge as a result of the overthrow of tsarism and what the attitude of the working class should be to this government. A victorious revolution, he said, would spark far-reaching changes that would benefit the workers and peasants. It was therefore inevitable that the landowners and big bourgeoisie would put up a desperate resistance. Only a dictatorship of the revolutionary classes could break this resistance, repulse the attempts of the counter-revolution to restore the deposed regime, complete the bourgeois-- democratic revolution, uphold its gains and clear the road for socialism. This would be a revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. Its political organ, Lenin said, should be a revolutionary government supported by the armed masses. Given favourable conditions, it was necessary that representatives of the Party of the working class should hold portfolios in such a government.

Lenin explained that the mission of the working class was to lead all the working people through the bourgeois revolution and the establishment of a democratic republic

to a proletarian revolution, which would overthrow capitalism. This meant that the bourgeois-democratic revolution would grow into a socialist revolution. In the course of the revolution the working class matured and gained experience as the leader of the people. The masses would have increasing trust in the proletariat. Concrete facts would enable the people to compare the different classes and parties, their declarations and deeds, and become convinced that the proletariat and its Party were the only force that consistently and unfailingly protected their interests.

In the course of bitter class battles the revolutionary education of the people proceeds with incredible speed. In the democratic revolution the entire peasantry comes out against the landowners, but once victory is achieved definite lines of demarcation appear separating the peasants into opposing sections, and a fierce struggle begins for land. The rich peasants (kulaks) dissociate themselves from the revolution, while the poor peasants, the rural proletarians and semi-proletarians rally round the working class, which leads them into battle against the bourgeoisie of town and country, for socialism, for the complete eradication of exploitation.

The intricate relationship between the bourgeois-democratic and socialist revolutions, and the transition from the former to the latter, was illustrated by Lenin with a simple and understandable example. Let us assume, he said, that in a courtyard there are two heaps of rubbish and only one cart, big enough for only one heap. Those who really desire to clear the courtyard cart away first one heap and then the other. That was the situation in the Russian revolution. The people first had to cart away the rubbish called serfdom and landowner exploitation and then return for the second heap, the rubbish of capitalist exploitation.

The success of the revolution largely depended on the political consciousness and organisation of the working class. The masses do not immediately appreciate the necessity for a proletarian Party and its role in the revolution. The inexperience and credulity of the masses can be taken advantage of by some astute politician, adventurist, or rogue like the priest Gapon. The Party, which is constantly with the people and wins their confidence through its activities, guards against this danger. Lenin saw the vitality

and invincibility of the revolution in the revolutionary activity of the masses. In the revolution the Party's principal task is to promote the revolutionary initiative and activity of the workers and all working people. Its slogans call upon the people to move forward, skow the shortest and most direct road to victory and redouble the revolutionary activity of the workers and peasants a hundred-fold. Naturally, the people learn through personal experience. But only the Party can help them to draw the necessary conclusions, especially in view of the fact that other parties peddle views about the revolution that suit only themselves. The Marxist Party had to do everything it could to make sure that the masses drew the proper lessons from life.

Another factor enhancing the role of the Party was that it introduced organisation into the revolution. A revolution could not be decreed; it sprang from deep-rooted social causes and conditions. But the decisive battle in the revolution could and had to be organised when all the necessary conditions obtained, when the Party was able to influence the people and correctly assess when dissatisfaction and indignation had reached their peak.

Such were the tactics of the Bolsheviks. They showed the proletariat the correct path of struggle based on a sober assessment of the class forces and permeated with the determination to win.

The Mensheviks adopted a different stand. Their approach to the revolution was that of opportunists and dogmatists, who turned a blind eye to reality and feared the victory of the working class. In their opinion, the revolution in Russia, as had been the case with the revolutions in West European countries, had to be led by the bourgeoisie and, in the event of victory, it had to bring the bourgeoisie into power. Some of them adopted an ultra-Left stand, which was completely unrealistic. Trotsky advanced the adventurist slogan "No tsar, but a workers' government". In other words, he demanded skipping the bourgeois-democratic revolution going over directly to a socialist revolution. This would have been fatal to the revolution because the peasants would have withheld their support. At the root of the views of both the Right and the Left opportunists was their scepticism of the ability of the working class to enlist the backing of the peasants.

From a Peaceful Procession to an Armed Uprising

The Bolsheviks went to the masses with Lenin's theories and slogans. But there were other political organisations wooing the people. The landowners, the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie formed their own parties in the course of the revolution, particularly in the autumn of 1905. Political parties also appeared in the non-Russian regions. The Constitutional-Democrats were the leading bourgeois party. The liberal bourgeoisie used a democratic signboard to screen their monarchist aspirations. The Mensheviks, the SocialistRevolutionaries, the Popular Socialists and some of the national socialist parties waved the flag of socialism.

Three main social forces---the landowners headed by the tsar, the liberal bourgeoisie and the democratic movement (of the working class and the petty bourgeoisie)---clashed in the revolution. The Bolsheviks closely followed the manoeuvres of tsarism and the actions taken by the bourgeoisie. They reminded the masses of the lessons of past revolutions ---"while the people fight, the bourgeoisie steals to power". From the very outset of the revolution the Bolsheviks urged all the democratic forces to come to a militant agreement on an uprising against tsarism. This determined their attitude to the Socialist-Revolutionary party. The SocialistRevolutionaries considered themselves socialists, but they did not have a clear idea of socialism or an understanding of how to achieve it. They rejected the thesis that the working class should play the leading role in the revolution and failed to understand that in themselves victory over the landowners and the transfer of all the land to the peasants would not lead to socialism, that this transition depended upon the political consciousness and organisation level of the proletariat and on its links with the poor sections of the peasants. The Bolsheviks criticised their erroneous views. But inasmuch as the Socialist-Revolutionaries were peasant democrats the Bolsheviks were in favour of reaching agreement with them in the struggle against the autocracy.

The course of the revolution showed that the Bolsheviks were right.

The struggle mounted steadily. Strikes spread throughout the country, involving more and more workers and becora-

ing increasingly dogged and unremitting. There were cases of workers engaging the police and troops in armed battle.

These huge political strikes set the people in motion. The countryside was awakened. In the spring and summer of 1905 peasant revolts swept across nearly one-fifth of the European regions, and in the autumn they spread to half of these regions. The peasants attacked the landowners, burning down mansions, seizing grain, killing police and demanding the transfer of the landed estates to the people.

The revolutionary struggle of the proletariat stirred the oppressed nations to action. The proletarian movement developed turbulently in Poland and Latvia, where street fighting broke out. An armed struggle flared up in the Transcaucasus, particularly in Georgia. The revolution reached even remote regions in Siberia. The Yakut Republic was set up and the people there ceased to pay taxes and obey the tsarist authorities. The merging of the proletarian struggle with the peasant revolts shook the Army and Navy. The growing discontent in the Navy was strikingly illustrated by the mutiny in the battleship Potemkin.

Tsarism sought to divert the people from the revolutionary struggle with concessions and promises. In August 1905 the tsar issued a Manifesto promising to convene a State Duma, which was to be a kind of parliament. It was planned that the Duma, consisting of landowners and capitalists, with a sprinkling of rich peasants, would be a consultative body under the tsar with no legislative rights. The workers and the majority of the peasants continued to be denied political rights. This was a flagrant travesty of popular representation.

The Bolsheviks urged the people to boycott the antipopular Duma and turn the election meetings, demonstrations and political strikes into means of struggle against tsarism. The Mensheviks, on the contrary, preached co-operation with the bourgeoisie in the elections to the Duma. The Bolsheviks were supported not only by the workers, but also by the peasants and the foremost section of the intelligentsia, and they tirelessly worked to unite all the forces for a concerted blow at tsarism. They did not refuse to co-operate with the Mensheviks, but at the same time they implacably opposed them on questions of principle. They concluded militant agreements with the Socialist-- Revolutionaries, and supported the Peasant Union (which was formed

The People Rise Against Tsarism

Mutiny in the battleship Potemkin in the Black Sea, June 1905

Workers' detachments fighting at barricades in Moscow, December

Peasant uprising in the autumn of 1905

in the course of the revolution) while criticising their illusions and wavering. Under Lenin's leadership they preserved their class political independence and, at the same time, co-operated with all revolutionary elements of the democratic movement with the purpose of overthrowing tsarism.

New Party cadres gained experience in organising the masses during the revolutionary battles. Outstanding among them were Mikhail Frunze, organiser of a strike in IvanovoVoznesensk, and Yakov Sverdlov, leader of the proletariat in the Urals. Sentenced to death by a tsarist court, a sentence that was commuted to hard labour for life, Frunze later won fame as a Soviet military leader. Sverdlov, who was exiled to Siberia, subsequently became Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and the first President of Soviet Russia. Many of the men who were active in the revolution became prominent leaders of the Party and the Soviet Government: Valerian Kuibyshev and Grigory Orjonikidze---organisers of socialist economy; Maxim Litvinov and Vajlav Vorovsky---Soviet diplomats who propounded the Leninist policy of peace; Stepan Shahumyan---leader of the Baku Commune; Fyodor Sergeyev (Artyom)---one of the leaders of Soviet Ukraine. Many workers who hailed from the Eastern countries underwent revolutionary training in Russia, one of them was Khaidar, who subsequently founded and led the Communist Party of Iran.

The tide of revolution rose steadily higher. A nationwide strike was staged in October 1905, involving factories, the railways and the post and telegraph services. The strikers were joined by junior office employees, students, lawyers, doctors and engineers. They demanded the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic.

This turbulent period witnessed the setting up of history's first-ever Soviets of Workers' Deputies. In the course of the struggle they became the organisers of the preparations for the uprising and the embryo of the new power. Disregarding the tsarist authorities, the Soviets published decisions, instructions and orders, introduced an eight-hour working day without permission and established democratic freedoms. Lenin far-sightedly saw in the Soviets an organ of struggle for the triumph of the revolution and socialism,

an organ of the dictatorship of the working class and the peasantry.

Frightened by the growth of the revolution, the government hastily made further concessions to the people in order to save the autocracy. On October 17, 1905, the tsar published a Manifesto containing many false promises about freedom and the setting up of a State Duma with legislative powers. The temporary equilibrium of forces made it possible to issue this Manifesto. The workers and peasants were not strong enough to overthrow tsarism, and tsarism, for its part, could no longer rule in the old way.

The bourgeoisie joyously accepted this sop from the tsar. The big capitalists and the landowners, who ran their estates on capitalist lines, sided with the tsarist government but continued to bargain for a share of power. The bourgeoisie regarded the Manifesto as a means of steering the revolution towards a peaceful, constitutional conclusion and thereby saving the monarchy. The Bolsheviks showed the hollowness of the Manifesto and urged the workers and peasants to continue the revolutionary struggle until tsarism was overthrown. While this storm was raging, Lenin returned to Russia in order to take a direct part in the revolution.

The general strike brought the working class to the threshold of an insurrection. To retain power in the hands of the landowners, tsarism ruthlessly shot down the workers and peasants. This left the revolutionary masses with no alternative but to respond to violence with violence. As soon as the revolution broke out the Bolsheviks started preparing for an armed uprising. They worked among the soldiers, and formed combat groups of workers, teaching them to handle weapons and training them in street fighting. The Bolsheviks drew all honest democrats, everybody who proved his willingness to fight for freedom, into the preparations for the uprising.

The first banner of insurrection was raised by the Moscow proletariat in December 1905. The world tensely watched the selfless struggle of the Moscow workers, who shook the foundations of one of the most powerful monarchies. They fought heroically for nine days, but they had no experience of armed struggle and were short of weapons. The Moscow garrison wavered, and the revolutionaries missed their op-

portunity when they failed to take advantage of this wavering. The organisers of the insurrection were quickly arrested and the insurrection itself degenerated into scattered actions. Instead of going over to the offensive, defensive tactics were adopted, and this doomed the insurrection to defeat. The uprising in Moscow was followed by uprisings in other towns and regions. Although they were large-scale actions, they were not synchronised, and they were suppressed by the tsarist government with incredible brutality.

The December armed uprising of the Russian workers has entered the chronicle of the liberation struggle of mankind as a major action after the Paris Commune. The experience gained in it was used to train new fighters for the freedom and happiness 0f the people.

The Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks disagreed entirely in their appraisal of the insurrection. The Mensheviks condemned the heroic struggle of the proletariat of Russia, and this strikingly showed their opportunism and their political cowardice. Georgi Plekhanov, their leader, said that the people should not have taken up arms. The Bolsheviks, on the contrary, said that the people were right in taking up arms but that they should have acted with greater resolution and organisation.

Many workers, who took an active part in the revolutionary struggle for the first time, joined the Bolshevik Party. But not all of them could correctly analyse the political situation. Some followed the lead of the Mensheviks. The Bolshevik organisations predominated in the industrial centres, where they united foremost, class-conscious proletarians. The Menshevik influence was strongest among politically ignorant workers and artisans. Young SocialDemocrats learned only gradually that the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had different views and political platforms. The existence in the various localities of separate Bolshevik and Menshevik organisations, that acted under one and the same name, the RSDLP, and officially had one and the same programme, bewildered the workers. Their class feeling made them see that this was undermining the Party and the revolution. Many Social-Democratic workers, both Bolshevik and Menshevik, demanded unity. The movement from below for a united party mirrored the concern for strengthening the Party, for uniting all forces for the triumph of the revolution.

The Bolsheviks supported the desire of the working class for unity. They realised that time was required to make the workers influenced by the Mensheviks to see the opportunism of their leaders and that the Bolsheviks alone were the spokesmen of the proletariat and the true fighters for socialism. The Bolsheviks were firmly convinced that revolutionary Marxist principles would ultimately triumph in the RSDLP, that the Menshevik leaders would be isolated and that the workers would accept Bolshevism.

The Menshevik leaders took the line of splitting the Party. They did not attend the Third Party Congress, held their own conference and refused to co-operate in a single party. But to prevent themselves from being completely isolated they were compelled to reckon with the desire of the workers for unity.

The Fourth Congress of the RSDLP was held in Stockholm in the spring of 1906. It was called the Unity Congress because it was attended by representatives of the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and non-Russian Social-Democratic organisations. The basic tasks springing from the course of the revolution were debated at this congress. The Bolsheviks urged recognition for the hegemony of the proletariat and an alliance between the working class and democratic forces

Unity of All Social-Democrats

The revolution brought huge sections of the people into political life. The Bolshevik influence grew rapidly among the workers, but it was not fixed organisationally. The conditions for the Party's activities changed. When, in a situation marked by ideological chaos, the Party was being formed it had been necessary, first and foremost, to unite all consistent revolutionaries. Now there was a Party which had its own Programme and Rules and a membership consisting of the finest people from the working class. This Party had to be turned into a mass political organisation. It had to open wide its doors to the workers and set up hundreds of new organisations. This was the only condition under which it was possible to extend the Party's influence over the people and ensure firm leadership of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.

63

in the struggle against the tsarist autocracy. The Mensheviks, on the other hand, sought to place the leadership of the revolution in the hands of the bourgeoisie. They were in the majority at the congress because many Bolshevik organisations had been repressed after the insurrection and, consequently, could not send their delegates. The Menshevik influence had its effect on the decisions passed by the congress. The Bolsheviks considered it necessary to amend the Party's agrarian programme. Lenin proposed that it should feature the nationalisation of the land, which implied the alienation of all the landed estates without compensation and their transfer to the peasants. But the Mensheviks took advantage of their majority and rejected Lenin's proposal. They also turned down other Bolshevik proposals aimed at promoting the revolution. However, this did not discourage the Bolsheviks. Without concealing their principled differences with the Mensheviks, they pressed for unity among the proletariat under the banner of revolutionary Marxism.

The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was the main but not the only workers' party in Russia. Its members included foremost workers from among all the peoples of Russia. But the proletariat's multi-national composition led to the emergence of several other Social-Democratic parties: the Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian and so forth. These parties functioned separately and this weakened working-class unity of action. The revolution made it clear that the nonRussian Social-Democratic organisations had to merge with the RSDLP. This merger took place at the Fourth Party Congress.

This act helped to unite the proletariat and augment its revolutionary force. It increased the Bolshevik ideological influence among broad sections of workers of all nationalities, and was instrumental in exposing and isolating opportunists and nationalists. In the united organisations the workers were educated in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, fraternal trust and close militant co-operation.

The Bolsheviks were sure that developments would show them to be right. And that is exactly what happened. Their influence grew and a year later, in the spring of 1907, they were victorious at the Fifth Party Congress, which was held in London. The majority of the Social-Democratic workers saw that truth was on the side of the Bolsheviks.

In 1907 the united Party had nearly 150,000 members, thus becoming a mass organisation. But organisational unity did not at once lead to genuine militant unity. Time was needed to rally all Social-Democrats into a single unconquerable force.

Rearguard Actions

The revolution gradually declined after the defeat of the December uprising. Tsarism took fearful reprisals against revolutionary workers and peasants. Punitive detachments beat up or killed anyone they suspected of having participated in the revolution. But the tsar was unable to stifle the revolution completely. The workers continued to fight doggedly. In the summer of 1906 peasant unrest spread to half the European part of the country. A mutiny broke out in the Baltic Fleet. The continuing revolution compelled the tsarist government to convene the promised State Duma, and it endeavoured to sow the illusion among the masses that land and political rights could be won by peaceful means through the Duma.

In face of this new piece of deceit, the Bolsheviks did their best to shatter these illusions, to explain to the people that victory could be achieved only through a revolutionary struggle, and they called upon the people to boycott the elections to the Duma. However, they failed to wreck these elections because the zenith of the revolution had already been passed, and the revolution itself was on the decline. The peasants yielded to the stratagems of the ConstitutionalDemocrats, who, at the elections, called themselves the People's Freedom Party. The Bolshevik boycott of the First Duma, at a time when the revolution had already started to ebb was a mistake that was quickly rectified. Experience showed that constitutional illusions could be combated in the Duma as well.

The First Duma existed for 72 days. Land was the main issue debated in it, and the sittings were watched by the entire nation. The peasant deputies (known as Trudoviks) demanded the transfer of all the landed estates to the peasants and agreed that compensation should be paid for them. The Constitutional-Democrats recommended that only part

5-1359

of the land belonging to the landowners should be taken from them and that they should be amply compensated. The workers' deputies supported the demands of the peasants. The Trudoviks soon came round to the realisation that the tsar would give the people neither land nor political rights. When they began drawing closer to the workers' deputies and pressing their demands more resolutely the tsar disbanded the Duma and announced new elections.

The First Duma gave the people useful experience. The Second Duma was inclined to act with greater determination: there were more peasant representatives and more SocialDemocrats in it. It existed just a little longer than the First Duma and its attention, as that of its predecessor, was focused on the land issue. The Bolsheviks sought to form a Left bloc with the peasant democrats, supporting the Trudoviks and stirring them to more resolute action. The more and more frequent joint action by the Trudoviks and the SocialDemocrats seriously alarmed the tsarist government. The Bolsheviks warned the people that the government had for a long time been planning another blow at the revolution.

A coup, instigated by the tsarist government, was carried out on June 3, 1907. The Social-Democratic faction in the Duma was provocatively accused of conspiracy and arrested, and the Duma itself was disbanded. The Constitutional-Democrats silently dispersed, without a word of protest, once more betraying the revolution. The tsar passed a new election law which put the Duma squarely in the hands of the feudal landowners and the big bourgeoisie.

Bolshevik tactics had been correct. These tactics were aimed at overthrowing tsarism by means of an armed uprising, the establishment of an alliance between the proletariat and the peasants and the setting up of a revolutionary government of workers and peasants. The Bolsheviks were the first to engage in struggle, rallied the masses and led them with superb courage. The struggle of the masses did not end in victory because the revolutionary onslaught had not been strong enough. The blow that had been dealt tsarism had not been powerful enough to bring it down.

The working class was the leading force of the revolution. It set an example of heroic struggle and raised the fighting spirit of the whole people. This was the first time that the proletariat had come forward as the leader of the people, and it demonstrated its ability to lead the revolution even if by virtue of an insufficient level of capitalist development it constituted a minority in the country.

There was, however, a lack of harmony in the actions taken by the proletariat. Some contingents of workers rose to the struggle when the proletarian vanguard had been considerably weakened by previous battles. An all-Russia political centre for the leadership of the uprising was nonexistent, and this gave the revolutionary struggle the nature of scattered local revolts. The Social-Democrats became united in a single party only during the revolution, but the Mensheviks continued disorganising the ranks of the fighters. The lack of unity within the RSDLP disunited the working class and thereby undermined its onslaught. Taken together this prevented the proletariat from completely and fully discharging its role as the leading force of the revolution and from advancing towards victory.

For the first time in world history an alliance began to take shape between the workers and the peasants in the struggle for a better life. The weakness of all previous revolutions was that the workers and peasants were not united. In the Russian revolution they began to act jointly. This was a major gain of the international liberation movement. But at the time it was not possible to make this a stable alliance. The peasant actions were scattered and they lacked organisation and determination. Most of the peasants were extremely backward politically, continued to trust the tsar and hoped the Duma would solve their troubles.

Why the Revolution Failed and What It Taught the People

The Russian revolution of 1905-07 was the first popular revolution of the epoch of imperialism. It was an antifeudal revolution in which the national liberation movement played an important role. The peoples of Russia fought for what many peoples of the world are fighting for today, and that makes this revolution particularly instructive. The Bolshevik Party analysed the reasons for its failure and showed what lessons had to be drawn from it.

The development of the revolution confirmed that the

The workers of the numerous nations inhabiting Russia fought shoulder to shoulder. But unity among the oppressed peoples was only emerging. The influence of the national bourgeoisie, which strove to reach agreement with tsarism, and the vacillation of the national petty-bourgeois parties weakened the national liberation movement.

All this adversely affected the behaviour of the Army, which consisted mainly of peasants dressed in soldiers' greatcoats. Although some military units came out actively against the autocracy, most of the troops remained loyal to the tsarist government.

In this revolution the struggle of the proletariat, the peasant unrest, the actions of the oppressed peoples and mutinies in military units failed to merge into a single mighty torrent, which could have swept the landowners away, together with the tsar.

The Russian tsar was aided by the world bourgeoisie. The foreign imperialists feared for their capital invested in Russia. They were afraid that the spark lighted in Russia would start an all-European conflagration that would consume their profits and power. French bankers, for example, granted the tsarist government a loan of 2,000 million francs to pay for drumhead courts, punitive expeditions and executions.

The Russian revolution of 1905-07 had a powerful impact on the liberation movement throughout the world, and marked the beginning of a new stage in the international working-class movement. The working-class struggle mounted in the capitalist countries of Europe. Bourgeois revolutions took place in large Asian countries---Iran, Turkey and China. There was an intensification of the working people's struggle against colonial oppression in India, Indo-China, Indonesia and Mongolia. The news of the Russian revolution reached Latin America. The people of Cuba rose in revolt. A revolution started in Mexico. The wave of revolution swept across Argentina, Chile and Brazil. This undermined the colonial system of imperialism. The centre of the world revolutionary movement shifted to Russia, and the heroic Russian proletariat became the vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat of the whole world.

The people, particularly the peasants, drew many important lessons from the revolution. It made it abundantly clear that the tsarist autocracy and capitalist oppression could be

overthrown only through the joint revolutionary struggle of the workers, peasants and the oppressed nations of Russia. Waking up to political life, the people first demanded concessions from the tsar. He manoeuvred, making small concessions when the pressure of the masses increased and revoking them when this pressure abated. Gradually the people became aware of the need for a determined struggle against the autocracy.

The revolution snowed all classes and parties in action, and revealed their aspirations and also their role and importance. The masses saw for themselves what each party wanted and whose class interests it was championing. Prior to the revolution many people thought that everybody wanted freedom in equal measure. The revolution dispersed this delusion and demonstrated that the different classes understood freedom differently. Initially the peasants believed the Constitutional-Democrats and their promises of achieving freedom by peaceful means. But when the revolution reached the stage of decisive struggle against the tsar, the Constitutional-Democrats basely betrayed the people. This was a bitter but useful lesson for the peasants. Many of them realised that the earnest of victory lay solely in an alliance with the urban workers.

The revolution taught the Bolshevik Party much as well. The Party underwent extensive political training and gained vast experience of organising the masses. It was the first time that the Bolsheviks led the struggle of millions of workers. Prior to 1905 only a relatively small circle of people knew of the Bolsheviks. In the course of the revolution they won a name for themselves among the broad masses of the workers as men who fought with dedication for the interests of the people and were to be found in the most dangerous sectors of the struggle. This left a deep imprint in the minds of the people.

During the revolution the people learned to fight for their vital interests. Lenin said that without a dress rehearsal like the 1905 revolution it would have been impossible to accomplish the Great October Socialist Revolution.

BETWEEN TWO REVOLUTIONS

An Orderly Retreat

A difficult period followed the defeat of the revolution. The country was held in the vice of a reign of terror. Thousands of people who had taken part in the revolution were executed and tens of thousands were imprisoned or sentenced to penal servitude. Tsarism wrought savage vengeance on the working people, who had dared to rise in revolution. The tsarist government, the landowners and the capitalists set themselves the aim of obliterating the memory of the revolution.

The struggle of the masses dwindled. The wave of the working-class movement fell sharply. The number of strikers dropped steadily. The embittered struggle in the countryside subsided. The several years of tremendous revolutionary tension gave way to exhaustion. Time was needed to surmount this exhaustion.

However, tsarism found it impossible to make a complete return to the pre-revolutionary order of things. Russia had changed. The feudal landowners realised that in order to preserve their power and profits they had to adapt themselves to capitalist development. They sought allies among the bourgeoisie of town and country. Tsarism began to pursue a new policy. It retained the State Duma with the purpose of strengthening the counter-revolutionary alliance of the landowners and the bourgeoisie and misleading the backward sections of the population. It tried to settle the land problem in such a way as to give land not to all the peasants and not at the expense of the landowners. The revolution made the ruling circles relinquish their hopes that the peasant would remain devoted to the tsar, and they began creating a new bastion for themselves in the person of the rural bourgeoisie, the rich peasants (kulaks), and helped them to take over land from the poor sections of the peasants.

This was the situation in which the revolutionary Party of the proletariat had to work.

The Russian Social-Democratic movement was in a particularly difficult position. It had sustained heavy blows.

Lenin crosses a half-frozen body of water at the risk of his life as he leaves Russia

Party members were being arrested en masse. Many leaders, including members of the Central Committee, were in prison, exile or hard labour camps. Lenin and some other Bolshevik leaders were compelled to leave the country and live abroad. Every local committee suffered losses. Many wavering intellectuals resigned from the Party. Part of the workers gave up illegal Party activities. The membership of the Party organisations dropped considerably. Police agents infiltrated into revolutionary organisations, where they spied on and betrayed revolutionaries.

The defeat of the revolution completely demoralised the Mensheviks. They retreated in panic, declaring that another revolution was out of the question. They wanted the disbandment of the illegal Party and the cessation of illegal revolutionary activities. At the price of their renunciation of the Party's revolutionary programme and tactics, of its revolutionary traditions, the Mensheviks hoped to win permission to exist legally. They betrayed not only socialism but

democracy as well, and they were quite rightly called liquidators.

There was dangerous vacillation among some unstable Bolsheviks. Intoxicated by revolutionary phraseology, they declared that a revolutionary was a person who fought with gun in hand and scorned participation in the reactionary Duma. They urged the Party to renounce legal forms of work and demanded the recall of the Social-Democratic group from the Duma. They were therefore nicknamed otzovists (from the Russian otozvat, meaning to recall). Whereas the liquidators recommended abolishing the illegal Party, the otzovists covertly threatened its very existence: any refusal to make use of legal possibilities of working among the masses would have disrupted the Party's ties with the masses, and this would have led to the Party losing its strength and becoming nothing more than a sect. That was why Lenin called the otzovists liquidators turned inside out.

With the revolution defeated and the masses exhausted, ideological vacillation was extremely harmful. The liquidators preached capitulation to tsarism. The otzovists urged adventurism. Both the liquidators and the otzovists injected want of faith in the revolutionary possibilities of the masses, in the triumph of the working class. They encroached on the Party's very existence. The liquidators were aided by Trotsky, who was a Menshevik. Behind a screen of declarations about unity, Trotsky and his supporters preached reconciliation with the liquidators. The Bolsheviks were actively opposed to the liquidators and to the Trotskyites, who were the latter's accomplices. But while denouncing the liquidators, otzovists and Trotskyites, they met those Mensheviks half-way who were against the liquidators, and formed a bloc with them in order to safeguard the illegal Party. During the years when reaction was running amuck, the Bolsheviks thus rallied all the forces capable of fighting for the Party, against those who were out to destroy it.

The Bolshevik Party did not abandon the working people. Although it suffered enormous losses it continued its selfless struggle against the stranglers of the revolution. Working deep underground, the Bolsheviks kept alive the hope among the masses that better times would soon come.

Tsarism had suppressed the revolution but it was powerless to uproot its causes. The people remained without rights. The life of the workers became even more unbearable than before. The peasant poor went on toiling on their tiny plots of land in bondage to the landowner. On top of that, they found their land falling into the hands of the growing kulak class. In the non-Russian areas conditions grew harder than ever before. In short, not a single cause of revolution was removed. And since the causes remained, they would, sooner or later, give rise to another revolution.

But the preparations for a new revolution had to be conducted in a new way. The Party changed its tactics in conformity with the changed situation. Reaction had taken the upper hand and the masses could not be called upon to start a direct assault on tsarism. It was necessary to retreat, to go over to a flanking movement. The illegal Party had to make the utmost use of the State Duma and the surviving legal organisations---trade unions, co-operatives and workers' clubs. Lenin trained the Bolsheviks to scorn empty revolutionary phraseology and taught them that a true revolutionary fulfils his duty even in toilsome, unostentatious, routine work among the masses. This is the kind of work that is never wasted.

After the defeat of the revolution the Marxist Party was thus confronted with a task it had never had to face, namely, to beat an orderly retreat and, in a revolutionary manner, utilise its slim legal foothold to maintain its link with and politically enlighten the masses. The Bolsheviks steadily learned to take advantage of every opportunity and combine illegal with legal activities. The militant voices of the Bolshevik deputies, who had been elected by the workers, were heard in the fusty atmosphere of the tsarist Duma. They boldly exposed the autocracy, the landowners and the bourgeoisie, winning the hearts of the masses. The Bolsheviks utilised legal congresses of teachers, doctors and women, where they skilfully expounded their views on pressing issues and called for participation in the struggle. What the Bolsheviks could not say directly in legal organisations was said by illegal Party bodies in leaflets and at underground meetings and secret discussions with workers, bringing the latter round to realising the need for uniting into an organised force with the aim of overthrowing tsarism by

revolution. In this way the Party prepared the ground for a new revolution, for the overthrow of the tsarist monarchy.

In the difficult years of reaction the Party gained further political experience and learned new methods of struggle and forms of organisation. During the revolution the Bolsheviks had learned to advance, but defeat taught them to retreat in an organised manner and preserve their main forces. This experience was invaluable for the coming revolution. It is impossible to win, Lenin said, without learning how to advance and retreat correctly.

The people saw the Bolsheviks in a new light. All the other parties calling themselves opposition or revolutionary parties failed when it came to a stern test. They capitulated to reaction, abandoned the revolution and betrayed the people. The Bolsheviks were the only Party that did not falter or lose heart. It continued building up its ranks and perseveringly mustering forces for fresh revolutionary battles. Time and again the Bolsheviks proved their devotion to the people and their fidelity to the revolution. They gave the proletariat a revolutionary outlook and staunchly championed the day-to-day requirements of the working people. In this difficult period the working class drew closer to the Bolsheviks whom it regarded as its true friends and reliable leaders.

the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg the workers demanded the release of the Second Duma deputies who had been arrested. The proletariat of Russia began squaring its mighty shoulders and the ground began to shake under the feet of the recent victors.

The revival of the working-class movement gave new strength to all the working masses. In the countryside mansions were again set on fire and the peasants threatened that there would be massacres if land was not given to them. But a new element appeared in the peasant movement---a struggle flared up between the poor sections and the rich peasants. The houses of kulaks went up in flames like those of the big landowners. Two social wars raged in the countryside---the main war was between the peasants and the landowners, and the other, which was secondary at the moment, was between the poor sections of the peasants and the kulaks.

The oppressed peoples of Russia became active as well. In the non-Russian regions the working people gave increasing support to the Russian workers and peasants. "Equality and freedom" were the watchwords of the national liberation struggle. A new revolutionary upsurge began.

The Retreat Comes to an End

The triumph of the victors was short-lived, for the will of the masses to resist had not been broken by bloodshed, gallows, shootings or penal servitude.

The tsarist authorities were still boasting that they had completely quashed the revolution when suddenly they heard it approaching again. The working class was the first to stir. Strikes were staged in Moscow in the summer of 1910. The workers protested against the inhuman exploitation and the miserable pay. At the close of the year political demonstrations against the tsarist authorities were held in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other towns. In the following year the number of strikes doubled. More than 105,000 workers secured better conditions. At stormy meetings organised by

Uniting the Party Forces

However, the success of this struggle depended on the unity of the workers. Attempts to split the workers were made by the liquidators, who paraded their affiliation to the RSDLP. They called on the workers to give up their revolutionary struggle and plead for concessions from the tsar, urging them that their only recourse was to petition the tsar for freedom of speech and assembly and for the right to unite in public organisations. Grown wise with the experience of the first revolution and firmly believing the Bolsheviks, the proletariat saw through the treacherous policy of the liquidators. The latter's campaign for a new variant of a "procession to the tsar" failed ignominiously. Of the millions of workers only 1,300 signed the petition of the liquidators. The overwhelming majority of the workers broke away from them. It was becoming increasingly obvious that

toleration of traitors to the cause of socialism and democracy in the Party and their declarations on behalf of the Party were undermining the Party and impeding its work.

An All-Russia Party Conference, attended by representatives of almost all Party organisations, was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in January 1912. It unanimously passed a decision expelling the liquidators, who had in fact sided with the bourgeoisie. The Trotskyites and other opportunists, who refused to obey the conference decisions, likewise found themselves thrown out of the Party.

In August 1912 Trotsky formed a party consisting of all splinter and opportunist groups. This was the so-called August bloc. The workers refused to recognise it and rallied to the Bolsheviks, and the bloc soon disintegrated.

The Bolshevik Party was the first and only political organisation in the world working-class movement that completely rid itself of opportunists. This purge enhanced the Party's militancy, and the masses saw it as a single, united body without internal discord.

The Party prepared the masses for another revolution under slogans that had failed to materialise during the first revolution---a democratic republic, the confiscation of the landed estates and an eight-hour working day. These three slogans expressed the most cherished aspirations of the workers, peasants and all other working people. Dissatisfaction was running high and everybody was expecting a change. The readiness to plunge into battle again was maturing. All that was needed was a spark to turn the rising revolutionary movement into a revolutionary upsurge. This spark was provided by an incident on the Lena River in Siberia.

Foreign and Russian capitalists bossed the Lena gold-fields with impunity. The location of these gold-fields deep in the taiga and remote from the railways prompted the owners to exploit the workers hideously. Wages were pitiful and the workers had to be at the job from sunrise to sunset. The only shops in the vicinity were run by the owners of the gold-fields, and the food in them was frequently rotten. The sale of maggoty meat started a strike at one of the gold-fields. The workers demanded better conditions and a stop to the monstrous exploitation. The strikers were sup-

ported by other mines and work stopped at all the gold-fields The owners rejected the workers' demands and requested assistance from the tsarist authorities in St. Petersburg The local police received orders to quash the strike. Tsarism decided to use this occasion to strike fear into the hearts not only of the workers at the Lena gold-fields but of working people throughout the country.

On April 4, 1912, when a column of workers was marching peacefully for talks with the owners, the police blocked its road and opened fire. More than 500 people were killed or wounded.

On the next day the whole country learned of this new crime Ihe workers protested stormily with strikes, rallies and demonstrations. The Bolsheviks told the masses that tsarism was responsible for the bloodshed. Nothing less than the overthrow of the monarchy could now satisfy the people. In the State Duma the Social-Democratic group demanded an inquiry and the punishment of those responsible for the

Victims of the shooting down by tsarist troops of workers at the Lena gold-fields, Siberia

shooting. In reply the tsarist Minister for the Interior declared that things would go on as they were. This brazen reply whipped up the protest movement. Nobody had any doubts as to who had organised this shooting down of a peaceful procession. Protest strikes involving nearly 300,000 people were staged throughout Russia. On May 1, 1912, the strikes involved some 400,000 people or as many as in 1905. As had been the case before the Winter Palace in January 1905, tsarism wanted to wipe out the revolution, but all it did was to wipe out the last vestiges of faith that it could do anything to improve the life of the people.

Manxes* t-* w *

PM6QNHH

mm

Ct>«t C«ft»

mm

Pravda

The Bolshevik Party foresaw the new revolutionary upsurge, prepared the ground for it and took over its leadership when it started. An important role in organising the masses was played by the Party's legal workers' newspaper, Pravda, which was founded on Lenin's initiative. The first issue came out in print in St. Petersburg on May 5, 1912, a day that has since been marked as Workers' Press Day.

Pravda was the soul of the fighting proletariat. It^ skilfully integrated the struggle for the "partial demands'] of the workers---higher wages and better working and living conditions---with the general interests of the people, namely, the struggle to overthrow tsarism. The newspaper's dayto-day reports of strikes were really communiques from the front of the people's struggle against capitalism. Pravda formulated the demands of strikers, called on the workers of other enterprises and towns to support their struggle, and set more and more sections of the proletariat into motion. The newspaper cultivated a feeling of class solidarity among the worker masses.

Pravda was in the centre of Party life. Bolshevik work among the masses usually began with the collective reading of the newspaper in some out-of-the-way spot where the police could not interfere. These Pravda reading circles gradually turned into primary Party cells, which collected funds for the newspaper, reported on the mood of the workers and, in letters to the editors, gave their views on key

IMA

BPflY

Bolshevik newspaper Pravda

problems of policy. The workers themselves acted as correspondents. In the course of a little over two years the newspaper published 17,000 items of correspondence from workers. A veritable army of worker correspondents soon came into being and it spread Bolshevik ideas among the people.

Pravda's editions ran into some 40,000 copies but it was

read by hundreds of thousands of workers. The tsarist authorities took steps to close the newspaper. The censors kept a vigilant eye on its contents. It was closed eight times in two years, but each time it reappeared under a new name. One of its heaviest burdens was fines, with which the authorities hoped to crush it. But assistance came from the workers. Kopek by kopek they contributed the necessary funds, knowing that it was the only newspaper that wrote the truth about the life of the people.

Subscription fees to the newspaper were in those days tantamount to Party membership fees. The Bolsheviks collected money for Pravda, while the liquidators called for funds for their own newspaper, Luck. Four-fifths of the donations from the workers went to Pravda. In other words the Bolsheviks had the support of four-fifths of the politically conscious workers.

In this way Pravda helped the illegal Party to become a mass political organisation.

The newspaper was directed by Lenin. In order to be closer to Russia he moved from Paris to Cracow, which in those days was part of Austria-Hungary. Lenin wrote for Pravda almost every day. In the course of two years the newspaper published more than 280 of his articles and notes. Editorial staff members constantly arrived from Russia for instructions from Lenin and bringing him letters. Lenin assessed Pravda as a "great piece of work accomplished by the workers of St. Petersburg". It had, he pointed out, the backing of many hundreds of workers.

took place in the autumn of 1912. Under the election law a deputy was elected directly by the workers only in six of the hundred gubernias. One can imagine what influence was wielded by the Bolshevik Party and what skilful leadership it provided if Bolsheviks were elected in all the six gubernias, where more than a million workers were concentrated. In other gubernias, where there were only 136,000 workers seven Mensheviks were elected, but not as workers' representatives.

The Duma group functioned under the direct leadership of the Party's Central Committee. In the Duma the Bolshevik deputies fearlessly upheld the Party's views on all pressing problems. For a question to the government they took some vital fact---the suppression of a trade union, the persecution of a workers' newspaper, an accident in a mine, an explosion or poisoning at a factory, the arrest of strikers or the killing of a peasant by the police. This enabled them to give, from the rostrum of the Duma, a picture of police arbitrary rule and of the monstrous exploitation of the working people. The voice of the workers' deputies reached the masses and deepened their hatred of tsarism, the landowners and the capitalists.

The workers' representatives in the Duma prepared three draft laws: an eight-hour working day, social insurance and national equality. They were published in Pravda and discussed by the masses.

In addition to speaking in the Duma, where they exposed tsarism and the reactionary parties supporting it, the workers' deputies toured factories to report on their activities to the workers, maintained contact with local illegal Party organisations, communicated to them the directives of the Party's Central Committee and helped them to organise work among the masses.

The Bolsheviks ably combined the activities of Pravda and of their representatives in the Duma with illegal Party work. In December 1912, for example, the Bolshevik group asked a question in the Duma about the persecution of trade unions. Pravda and the St. Petersburg Party Committee organised mass campaigns in support of this question. The newspaper printed reports of cases where trade unions had been victimised. In an illegal leaflet the St. Petersburg Committee called on workers to go on a one-day protest strike.

At the Head of the New Revolutionary Upsurge

In Russia the revolutionary struggle steadily mounted. In 1912 the strikes involved more than a million workers, and in 1913---a million and a quarter. The working class once again took the offensive against the capitalists and the tsarist monarchy.

The Bolshevik Party headed all the manifestations and forms of the struggle of the proletariat. A key all-Russia legal organ of the Party, besides Pravda, was the Bolshevik group in the Fourth State Duma. The elections to the Duma

6-1359

At the time when in the Duma one of the Bolsheviks was exposing the actions of the tsarist authorities, the workers of several large factories downed tools in token of support for their deputy.

There was a fresh revolutionary upsurge and Party work was activated. Tempered during the years of reaction, the illegal Bolshevik organisations stepped up their legal activities. Membership increased and the Party Committees strengthened their position at the factories. The Bolsheviks ousted the Menshevik-liquidators from all legal workers' organisations: trade unions and mutual aid funds. The Bolshevik Party became the only leader recognised by the proletariat, and its influence spread to the Army, Navy, rural areas and non-Russian regions.

national deviators of all hues opposed the Party's national programme. Instead of urging the oppressed people to rise with the workers against tsarism, which was the common enemy, they recommended concentrating solely on cultural questions such as the building of schools, the publication of books and newspapers in the native language, and securing the right to rest not on a common day but according to national custom. They put forward a programme of culturalnational autonomy, whose substance was that regardless of where a person resided he should have the right to declare his affiliation to one nation or another; and that a nation formed in this manner should have the right to tax all its citizens and set up its own parliament to handle questions connected with the national culture, e.g., schools, language.

Essentially speaking, this was a bourgeois programme embellished and purged of open forms of national oppression. It left to tsarism the decision on all political and economic issues, i.e., it left all power in the hands of the ruling classes. By demanding that workers declare their affiliation to one nation or another regardless of where they lived and worked, this programme artificially divided them and split the united front of proletarian struggle. In other words, it sought the subordination of the revolutionary movement to narrow national interests, and small wonder that it did not evoke protests among the bourgeoisie.

The Bolsheviks exposed the bourgeois nature of nationalcultural autonomy. Naturally, they pressed for schools and the publication of books in the national languages but, at the same time, they argued that complete freedom and the abolition of national oppression could be achieved only in joint struggle with the workers for the revolutionary remaking of society. The interests of the workers and of the oppressed nations demanded not disunity but the unity of the workers of all nations inhabiting Russia in single proletarian organisations---political, trade union, co-operative and educational. To achieve victory, the working-class and the national liberation movements had to unite and fight the common enemy. Revolution, the Party said, was the only vehicle by which the oppressed nations would win the right to self-determination and free development, complete equality and fraternal co-operation among all peoples, big and small.

The Bolshevik Party and the National Liberation Movement

Ever since its foundation the Bolshevik Party had identified itself with the national liberation movement. Armed with a clear-cut programme on the national question, adopted at the Second Congress in 1903, it raised on high the banner of struggle for the abolition of national and colonial oppression in its own country and the rest of the world. In the early twentieth century when the imperialists were carving up China, Lenin made a sharp protest and called on the workers of Russia to oppose the imperialist plunder of China. When revolution broke out in Iran it received the active support of the Bolsheviks.

It was of immense importance to formulate the nationalities problem correctly under conditions of imperialism, which had intensified national oppression and was fanning national strife. Imperialism endeavoured to split the working class and prevent the revolutionary proletariat from forming a united front with the national liberation movement.

The leaders of most of the parties in the Second International withheld support for the national liberation movement in colonial and dependent countries and more and more openly justified the predatory colonial policy of the imperialists. In Russia the liquidators, Trotskyites and

Two lines, two policies---bourgeois nationalism, supported by the bourgeoisie and all the petty-bourgeois parties, and proletarian internationalism, adopted by the workers of all nations as their banner---thus clashed over the nationalities problem. The former sought, above all else, the satisfaction of narrow national demands and not the overthrow of imperialism, which was the main source of oppression. Essentially, this policy led to the preservation of the colonial regimes. For the latter, the principal goal was to achieve the international class solidarity of workers and all oppressed peoples in the struggle for freedom and socialism, for the abolition of national oppression.

Developments showed that Bolshevism was on the right road: in the wake of the proletariat the oppressed peoples joined the common struggle for the overthrow of tsarism.

deluding their peoples, the rulers of the imperialist states set them against each other and fanned chauvinistic passions.

A war loomed in Europe, springing from the acute contradictions between the imperialist countries.

Flashes of this war were already in evidence. In 1910 Italy put her hands on Turkish possessions in Africa, massacring Arabs. In 1912 the flames of war leaped to Europe, setting the Balkans on fire. The imminent threat of a world war alarmed ordinary people but there was nothing they could do to stay the hand of imperialism. The only force opposing imperialism in those days was the international proletariat, whose foremost sections were united in the Second International, where this burning issue was debated. In 1912 representatives of the Socialist parties assembled in Basle, Switzerland, for a congress and unanimously passed a manifesto against war. They solemnly declared that they considered it a crime for workers of different countries to shoot at each other, called on the workers of all countries to step up their revolutionary struggle and stated that if the attempts to avert war failed the crisis engendered by the war should be utilised to overthrow the imperialist governments.

However, some leaders of the Socialist parties began to justify the colonial policy of their imperialist governments, declaring that the growth of militarism and expansion of the war industry were enabling the workers to earn good money. This was opportunism and a betrayal of socialism and proletarian internationalism.

Strictly abiding by the Basle Manifesto of the Second International, the Bolshevik Party showed the socialists of all countries how true revolutionaries should carry out their internationalist duty. They urged the working class to intensify the revolutionary struggle, which was shaking the foundations of tsarism, and exposed tsarism's predatory plans.

The wave of the working-class movement rose steadily higher. _ During the first half of 1914 the strikes staged in Russia involved nearly a million and a half workers. Strikes broke out uninterruptedly. A revolutionary situation reemerged in the country. Revolution was clearly knocking on the door. A general strike began in Baku in June. It was supported by workers in some other towns. In July 200,000

Eve of the First World War

Imperialism revealed its sinister nature more and more openly. Capitalism grew into a global system of colonial oppression of the overwhelming majority of the world's population by a handful of "great powers". The peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America were enslaved. The colonialists ruthlessly exploited the oppressed peoples, plundering their wealth and, by sword and fire, forcing the recalcitrant to submit.

Imperialism brought unprecedented suffering to the working people of the capitalist countries: oppression by the monopolies, mass unemployment, a rising cost of living and heavy taxation. Reaction reared its head in all the imperialist countries---the repressions against workers and all other progressive forces were intensified.

But the most sinister manifestation of imperialism was the growth of militarism. The leading European powers, particularly Germany and Britain, started a feverish arms race and their rivalry in the world market grew increasingly sharper. In Britain the bourgeois press spoke tirelessly of an impending "German invasion", while the bourgeoisie of Germany kept dinning it into the heads of the people that an "English attack" was inevitable. France, Russia and Austria-Hungary armed themselves hastily. Misleading and

of the old colonial powers, Britain and France. Germany laid claim to world supremacy. The contradictions between Russia and Germany were another major reason for the war. The Russian capitalists had to have new markets and they turned their gaze to the Middle East, where German influence was already heading.

Europe split up into two hostile imperialist camps: Germany and Austria-Hungary in one, and Britain, France and Russia in the other. The United States of America made believe it was standing aloof; the US monopolies hoped to gain by supplying the belligerents, win time for the building up of an army and enter the war when the belligerents were exhausted. The objective of this war was to drive out rivals from markets they had seized, to plunder foreign countries and radically redivide the already divided world.

There was yet another cause for the war. Throughout the world the working-class movement was gaining momentum under the impact of the first Russian revolution. Germany, France, Britain and the USA were shaken by huge strikes. The ruling classes felt the approach of revolution. The imperialists of all countries hoped that war would exsanguinate the working class, set the workers of the belligerent countries against each other and prostrate the revolutionary forces. The imperialists regarded war as a means of preserving their rule.

The Social-Democratic parties of all countries saw that war was drawing ever closer. Anti-war resolutions were passed at every world congress of the Second International. All its parties solemnly undertook to fulfil these decisions, particularly the decision adopted at Basle in 1912. But when war broke out almost all these parties repudiated their commitments. On August 4, 1914, the leading party in the Second International, the German Social-Democratic Party, voted for war credits, i.e., it supported its imperialist government. The French and Belgian socialists followed suit, accepting portfolios in the bourgeois governments. Almost all the parties of the Second International called on the workers to defend their bourgeois fatherlands. This brought about the collapse of the Second International.

There were many reasons for this collapse. The exploitation of the working people in their own countries and

Barricades in St. Petersburg, July 1914

workers went on strike in St. Petersburg. The police opened fire on a rally in the courtyard of the Putilov Works, and in retaliation the workers built barricades. But the revolutionary situation did not develop into a revolution. This was hindered by the world war, which broke out on August 1, 1914.

First World War. Collapse of the Second International

The First World War was started by imperialism. The uneven development of the capitalist countries proceeded by fits and starts. During the latter half of the nineteenth century Germany began rapidly to overtake the level of industrial development reached in Britain, which had until then occupied first place in the world, and also in France. A young and strong vulture, German imperialism wanted to redivide the world in its own favour, to seize the possessions

particularly the plundering of colonial and dependent countries were bringing the monopolies fabulous profits. The British bourgeoisie, for example, squeezed more profits from its colonies than from the exploitation of the workers in Britain herself. The imperialists allocated crumbs from their immense profits to bribe a small part of the workers and other sections of the working people. A so-called "labour aristocracy" took shape in the imperialist countries. A considerable number of this aristocracy were functionaries in legal trade unions, members of Social-Democratic groups in the parliaments, and so forth. They were interested in the preservation of imperialism, which gave them their privileges. By setting this ``aristocracy'' off against the rest of the working class the imperialists succeeded in splitting the united working-class front.

In the course of decades of ``peaceful'' capitalist development, the Social-Democratic parties of the West had grown accustomed to their legal status. The leaders of these parties had adapted themselves to that status and began showing more concern for a "class peace" than for the class struggle. Instead of steering towards revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the opportunists preached a theory claiming that capitalism was growing into socialism. The adaptation of all the activities of these parties to legal conditions intensified opportunism. It goes without saying that this legal status had to be utilised but there was no justification for sacrificing the revolutionary struggle for socialism to it.

The finest representatives of the Social-Democratic movement militated against opportunism. Engels had, in his time, pointed to the danger of opportunism, and Lenin resolutely fought opportunism at international congresses. The Bolsheviks upheld the revolutionary line in the Second International, marched in the forefront of the fighters for Marxism and rallied the revolutionary forces in the international working-class movement. Opportunism was opposed by the Left Social-Democrats in other countries, for example, by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin and Franz Mehring in Germany and by Dimitr Blagoev in Bulgaria. But more and more frequently the opportunists got the better of the struggle. Moreover, in the various parties groups were formed which criticised opportunism but, at the same

time, feared to make a clean break with it. These were called ``Centre'' groups. The leaders of this trend were Karl Kautsky in Germany and Leon Trotsky in Russia. The Centrists were much more dangerous than the candid opportunists because they screened their opportunism and deviation from Marxism with Leftist phraseology.

Prior to the First World War these three trends got along together in one and the same parties, but it was obvious that the contradictions between them would burst into the open at the very first serious crisis. That crisis was the world war.

The opportunists supported their bourgeoisie, their clandestine alliance with the latter coming into the open. They adopted a defencist stand and justified and backed the war waged by their governments. Opportunism developed into social-chauvinism: while preaching socialism its protagonists supported the plans of aggrandizement framed by their bourgeoisie.

The Centrists, as we have already mentioned, continued criticising the social-chauvinists but categorically objected to a rupture with them. The stand taken by the Centrists became all the more dangerous and pernicious because now they defended the open allies of the bourgeoisie, thereby becoming accomplices of the conspiracy with the bourgeoisie.

The Left Social-Democrats started a struggle against the overt traitors but did not break off contact with them. This was due to their lack of determination in coming out against the Centrists as well. The Bulgarian Workers' SocialDemocratic Party (Tesnyaki) opposed the war, and a correct stand was adopted by the Social-Democratic Party of Serbia. The Italian Social-Democratic Party at first opposed the war but later adopted a defencist stand.

There were social-chauvinist and Centrist trends in Russia as well. In contrast to the other parties in the Second International, the Bolsheviks fought the liquidators to the very end and expelled them from the Party before the war broke out. The war confirmed the correctness of this step. The Bolsheviks were the only Party which remained true to socialism and internationalism and drew up a revolutionary programme of struggle against the war.

The Bolshevik Anti-War Manifesto

On November 1, 1914, the Party's central organ, then published in Switzerland, printed a Manifesto, written by Lenin, on the attitude of the Bolsheviks to war, peace and revolution.

It defined the nature of the war in unambiguous terms. The bourgeoisie of both belligerent camps wanted the people to believe that they were fighting a defensive war. The diplomats of every belligerent country used up mountains of paper to prove that their countries were the victims of aggression. In the wake of the bourgeoisie the leaders of the Socialist parties of Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, Belgium and other belligerent countries impressed on their peoples that since war had broken out they had to defend themselves. Lenin formulated the issue differently. The nature of a war could not be defined by its course: there were defensive and offensive operations in any war. Moreover, the nature of a war could not be defined by who started it or by whose territory is occupied. All the imperialist countries had prepared for the war, and it was started by those who considered that they were better prepared for it.

The nature of a war depends on the class fighting it, the policy that the given war is continuing and the objective pursued in the war by the ruling class. On this basis Marxists divide wars into just and unjust wars. Wars waged by oppressed classes against their oppressors were just wars. These were wars of slaves against slave-owners, for example, the revolt led by Spartacus in ancient Rome, the wars fought by serfs against landowners, such as, for example, the peasant war led by Pugachov in Russia, and the national liberation wars, such as the wars of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America against foreign conquerors, against imperialist colonialists. Just wars are also those fought by the victorious proletariat in defence of socialism, such as the war of Soviet Russia against the imperialist intervention or the war of the people of Cuba against the invasion of the US imperialists.

The First World War was an unjust, predatory, imperialist shambles on both sides. In this light "defence of the fatherland" in this war meant singing the tune called by

the bourgeoisie and betraying the cause of the working class. The only correct slogan in such a war, Lenin said, was that of turning the unjust war into a just war, turning the imperialist war into a civil war, into a war of the oppressed classes against their oppressors, i.e., into revolution.

Setting their sights on turning the imperialist war into a civil war, Lenin and the other Bolsheviks called for revolutionary work among the masses with the purpose of showing them that it was necessary to fight the imperialist governments, while in Russia they had to fight tsarism. They pointed to various forms of struggle: refusal to vote for war credits, refusal to accept posts in bourgeois governments, renunciation of "civil peace" with the bourgeoisie, the setting up of illegal Party organisations where such organisations are non-existent, and support for the fraternising of troops at the firing lines and for revolutionary actions by the masses. This would expedite the approach of revolution and help the masses prepare for it.

The defeat of the governments in the war would pave the way for revolution. Defeat would weaken the state machine and facilitate the onslaught of the masses against it, and thus prepare the ground for revolution. Lenin's Manifesto called on all revolutionaries to pursue a policy calculated to bring about the defeat of their governments in the imperialist war. In order to pursue this policy it was necessary to push ahead with revolutionary work and utilise all the difficulties of the government of the given capitalist country to bring the revolution nearer. Together with their bourgeoisie, the betrayers of socialism interpreted Lenin's slogan in their own way. They said that those who desired the defeat of their government in the war wanted the enemy to win. But this was a distortion of Lenin's thesis. The way Lenin saw it was that not some individual but all the proletarian parties of the belligerent countries should secure the defeat of their governments in the imperialist war. If that was achieved the war started by the imperialists in their own interests could turn into a civil war with the objective of overthrowing imperialist rule. Therein lay the internationalist character of Lenin's theory. The Party believed that internationalist revolutionary actions were possible and gave its utmost support to such actions.

Lenin's Manifesto demanded a complete rupture with the social-chauvinists and the setting up of a new, Third International purged of all opportunists.

which, essentially, meant preserving tsarism and imperialism. This was a refined version of the chauvinist slogan of "defence of the fatherland" in the imperialist, predatory war. A really democratic peace could be achieved only by turning the imperialist war into a civil war and overthrowing tsarism and imperialism.

Internationalism and Patriotism

The Manifesto of the Bolshevik Party was like a flash of bright sunlight in that intricate and dreary period of history. It constituted a concrete, clear and bold programme of struggle. It showed the way out of the blind alley into which the masses had been pushed by the opportunist leaders of the parties of the Second International, and it gave heart to the revolutionary forces of all countries. That was why the ruling classes and their social-chauvinist lackeys started a struggle against the Bolsheviks, accusing them of throwing patriotism overboard, of showing disdain for their own country.

But this was a thumping lie. The proletariat is not indifferent to what country it lives in, whether that country has a despotic or republican regime, whether the conditions of life facilitate or hinder the struggle for socialism. The Bolsheviks were opposed not to the defence of the fatherland in general but to the defence of the fatherland of capitalist monopolies, the fatherland of the Russian landowners and bourgeoisie. In the imperialist war, which broke out in 1914, the ruling circles pursued the aim of strangling the revolutionary movement in their own and other countries, pillaging and seizing foreign territory and enslaving other peoples. A genuine patriot was not the person who supported a bellicose government, a government that crushed the peoples, but the person who opposed the reactionary government, who wanted to see his country free of oppression, bondage and the predatory policy of the bourgeoisie. Genuine patriotism did not clash with internationalism and did not lead to discord between nations. It coincided with internationalism. In October 1917, when the working people of Russia deposed the bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviks became defencists, coming out in defence of the fatherland of the victorious workers and peasants.

In contrast to the Manifesto of the Bolshevik Party, Trotsky advanced the slogan "neither victory nor defeat",

The Bolshevik Struggle to Unite Internationalists

The destiny of mankind commanded more attention during the First World War than at any other time in history. None of the world's politicians, gripped as they were by chauvinism, could say how to end this and other wars, how to establish lasting peace on earth. Lenin was the only one who gave an answer to this burning issue.

Everybody who cherished the interests of the people and the cause of socialism rallied under the banner of Lenin's Manifesto. Lenin helped the Left forces in the international Social-Democratic movement to free themselves from the fetters of old ideas and smash the chains holding them to the old organisation. At the beginning of 1915 the Bolsheviks took part in an international conference of socialist youth and in an international socialist women's conference. At these conferences they explained the slogans in Lenin's Manifesto.

An international conference of Social-Democratic parties of 11 countries was held at the close of August 1915 at the village of Zimmerwald, Switzerland. Most of the delegates were Centrists.

Under the influence of the war and the swing of the worker masses to the Left, the Centrists tried to dissociate themselves from the overt social-chauvinists and heavily criticised them. But they did not accept Lenin's slogans on turning the imperialist war into a civil war, on the defeat of their own governments. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks considered it necessary to attend the conference because it was directed against the social-chauvinists. Sectarianism was alien to them. They held that it was necessary to work among all sections of the population, to explain their stand perseveringly and patiently. While agreeing to attend the conference Lenin criticised the vacillation and errors of the

Centrists. At the conference he formed a Left group of eight persons, who submitted their own resolution. This group attracted all consistent revolutionaries, all internationalists. Six months later, at the conference in Kienthal, Switzerland, the Lefts comprised nearly one-third of the participants. Lenin's slogans were finding their way to the masses.

The Bolsheviks at the Head of the Revolutionary Masses

The struggle to implement Lenin's Manifesto in Russia made headway step by step.

During the war tsarism instituted an unprecedented reign of terror against the Bolshevik Party. Pravda was closed on the eve of the war. The entire Bolshevik press was muzzled. Thousands of Party activists were thrown into prison. The Bolshevik deputies in the State Duma were arrested and tried. In court they comported themselves with great courage, and the whole world heard their appeal that the imperialist war should be turned into a civil war. The masses heard the truth about the war. The deputies were sentenced to exile for life in Siberia. But they had set an example of how proletarian representatives had to behave in a bourgeois parliament. In the West, meanwhile, the SocialDemocrats in the various parliaments supported the bourgeois governments in the war and soon afterwards many of them accepted posts in these governments. In Russia the Bolshevik deputies remained true to socialism.

The Bolsheviks conducted most of their work among the proletariat. They exposed the government and the socialchauvinist Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who collaborated with it, and at the factories restored the Party organisations that had been broken up by tsarism and established new ones. The Party skilfully directed the dissatisfaction of the masses against tsarism, which was responsible for all their misery. The Bolsheviks headed strikes, turning them into political actions against tsarism. They went ahead with revolutionary agitation in the Army, where the penalty for this was death, and they stirred the peasants to action. The voice of the Party was heard by the working people of the non-Russian regions as well.

Bolshevik deputies to the Fourth Duma sentenced by a tsarist court to exile for life for their opposition to the imperialist war

As had been forecast by the Bolsheviks, tsarism began to suffer defeat at the front. Because of industrial backwardness and the corruption in the tsarist bureaucracy, Russian troops went into battle without ammunition and there was a shortage of artillery shells. The decline in agriculture and the dislocation of transport doomed the people and the Army to starvation. Another factor leading to the Army's defeat was the bungling of the military leadership. Thirty months of war proved to be sufficient to smash the military strength of tsarist Russia. The tsar and his ministers showed their complete inability to administer the country. Even the big bourgeoisie allied to the tsar began to turn away from him and look for a new candidate for the throne. The foreign ambassadors helped the Russian bourgeoisie to find a new monarch.

But nothing could now help tsarism. The throne was reeling. The tormented people were rising to the struggle with

the proletariat at their head. At the beginning of the war, in 1914, there were 70 strikes involving 35,000 people. In 1915 the number of strikes totalled nearly 1,000 with half a million workers taking part in them. During the first months of the third year of war there were 1,500 strikes with a million and a half strikers. This was an indication that the revolution was approaching rapidly. The prevision of Lenin's Manifesto about the revolution was becoming a fact.

revolutionary movement. The united front of world imperialism had to be opposed with a united front of the international revolutionary struggle of the working class and the national liberation movement headed and led by the international proletariat. But the revolutionary initiative in overthrowing imperialism would be taken by the proletariat that accomplished a socialist revolution.

The socialist revolution was not a single battle, and neither did it take place at one and the same time or in one and the same place. Those who had that idea about the revolution were sharply criticised and ridiculed by Lenin. The revolution, he said, would consist of a series of battles and actions by all the oppressed classes and strata of the population. The peasants, the semi-proletarian masses and considerable sections of the urban petty bourgeoisie would come out jointly with the proletariat. All of them were against monopoly oppression, against landowner, bourgeois, national and other forms of oppression. The task of the proletariat was to unite these movements and direct them towards the single objective of overthrowing the bourgeoisie and accomplishing a socialist revolution.

The world capitalist system had, as a whole, matured for the socialist revolution, and imperialism had created the objective prerequisites for it. The world war had inflicted incalculable suffering on the peoples. It had carried away 10 million lives and crippled another 20 million, showing what the domination of the monopolies was leading to. Engendered by imperialism, it was evidence and a manifestation of the beginning of the general crisis of capitalism characterised by an uninterrupted and steady weakening of the political, economic and ideological foundations of capitalism and of its ability to keep the peoples subordinated to it. Moreover, the war had brought about an exacerbation of all the contradictions of imperialism. It had accelerated the development of capitalism and demanded colossal sacrifices on the part of the working people. A revolutionary situation matured in the belligerent countries of Europe. Bold revolutionary initiative was needed to turn the revolutionary situation into revolution. That initiative was taken by the proletariat of Russia.

Lenin wrote that a bourgeois-democratic revolution was approaching in Russia, but it would not be a simple repe-

The Theory of Revolution Developed by Lenin

Drawing upon the lessons of world history and the experience of the international revolutionary movement, Lenin developed the Marxist theory of the socialist revolution, of the world revolution.

Imperialism had accelerated the maturing of the material prerequisites of socialism. By building up a large-scale industry it created and increased the number of its gravediggers. A proletariat had emerged everywhere, and by its struggle for the interests of the people it showed that it could unite all who were oppressed by capitalism and lead them in a revolution against imperialism, for the abolition of all forms of class and national oppression.

The national liberation movement was likewise gaining ground. The first Russian revolution had demonstrated to the oppressed masses of the colonial and dependent countries that they could bring down imperialism only by waging a joint struggle with the proletariat. The Russian revolution has awakened the oppressed nations and induced them to start a liberation struggle. Large numbers of colonial troops were fighting in the world war. They were coming into contact with revolutionary-minded troops and were learning to handle modern weapons. Foremost people from among the oppressed nations joined the common struggle against the oppressors, and the national liberation movement was becoming a component of the world revolutionary movement.

Lenin pointed out that imperialism was an international force and that it could be smashed only by an international

7-1359

tition of the revolution of 1905-07. The country had forged ahead in economic development in the ten years that had elapsed since the revolution. The proletariat had grown numerically and become more experienced. The number of peasant poor had also grown and their alliance with the proletariat had become closer. The conditions accelerating the growth of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist revolution had formed in Russia.

In 1915 Lenin had put forward and substantiated the important scientific conclusion that socialism could triumph initially in several or one country taken separately. Until then Marxists had believed that the socialist revolution could triumph only if it were accomplished simultaneously in all or in the majority of the developed capitalist countries. This was true for the period when capitalism was developing, but in its last, imperialist stage it began to rot and die. Its uneven, sporadic development had become particularly marked and catastrophic. These new conditions had made it possible for socialism to triumph in one country. By breaching the chain of imperialism through victory in one country, the revolution would release the forces of the world revolutionary movement. This new conclusion by Lenin opened clear vistas for the revolutionary fighters of all countries.

Workers demonstrate in Petrograd during the revolution of February

and Soldiers' Deputies, which were organs of the people's power, sprang up everywhere.

The workers and the troops, most of whom were peasants, were victorious, but their victory was not complete. A Provisional Government, organ of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist landowners, who, in fact, took power into their own hands, appeared side by side with the Soviets.

Although the revolution had been accomplished by workers and peasants, power fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie. How did that happen? The revolution had swept away the tsarist apparatus of coercion. Russia became a free country, and millions of people embarked upon political activity. But the peasants and the petty bourgeoisie comprised the bulk of Russia's population, and these classes, which had only just been awakened, knew nothing of politics and could not grasp the situation. They thought that the revolution had changed the nature of the war, and since tsarism had been deposed the war ceased to be imperialist. Their delusion was honest. Although the tsar was overthrown, the war was continued by the bourgeoisie and the landowners, and it remained an imperialist, unjust

The Second Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution

The working-class movement in Russia intensified the unrest among the troops at the front. Entire regiments refused to carry out the orders of their commanders, and troops left the firing lines in their thousands. Discontent mounted among the peasants.

The workers of Petrograd (when war broke out St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd) revolted in February 1917 and were joined by the city garrison. The autocracy collapsed under the concerted onslaught of the workers and troops, ending the three-century reign of the House of Romanov. The insurgents set up a Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Petrograd. The Army and the people supported the heroes of Petrograd, and Soviets of Workers'

war.

For a certain period a section of the workers was influenced by the views of the petty bourgeoisie. That brought many representatives of the petty bourgeoisie---Socialist-- Revolutionaries and Mensheviks---into the Soviets and most of the non-Party deputies supported them. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries found themselves at the head of an overwhelming majority in the Soviets, Pressurized by the petty-bourgeois parties, the Soviets voluntarily ceded power to the bourgeoisie, i.e., the Provisional Government. Dual power was established in Russia: the Provisional Government as the organ of bourgeois power, and the Soviets as the organ of the power of the proletariat and the peasantry. But this situation could not last long.

The revolution of February 1917 was of immense significance to Russia and the rest of the world. It was the first revolution during the war and set an example to the international proletariat. Under its impact the working-class movement grew in other countries.

It abolished the Russian autocracy, which had suppressed all popular movements for centuries. The minimum programme, drawn up at the Second Congress of the Bolshevik Party in 1903, was thus, in the main, fulfilled. By removing tsarism the working class with the Bolsheviks at its head obtained the possibility of launching on the fulfilment of the maximum programme---the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the building of socialism.

interests. It continued the war and had no intention of improving the life of the workers: it was resolutely opposed to the eight-hour working day that had been instituted by the workers at a number of factories without official permission. It refused to confiscate the land from the landowners and turn it over to the peasants, and did not plan to grant freedom to the oppressed peoples. It even failed to proclaim the abolition of the monarchy---Russia had not been proclaimed a republic. At the helm of power, the bourgeoisie and landowners hoped to put the tsar back on thfc throne.

Having just accomplished the revolution, the people, who were armed, could have crushed the capitalists. The Soviets, who united the huge majority of the people, could have seized power. But this did not happen because the Soviets were ruled by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. During the war these parties had preached "class peace" and supported the ruling classes. They now became the mainstay of the bourgeois government. They came to an agreement with the bourgeoisie and its government, and became known as conciliators. In 1905 the Mensheviks had objected to socialists accepting posts in a revolutionary government, and now they gave their support to the nonrevolutionary bourgeois government.

The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks urged the masses not to hurry with the implementation of their demand for peace and land, telling them to wait until the Constituent Assembly was convened. But they did not name the date for the convening of that Assembly. They promised to establish control over the government, but control without power is worth nothing, and in effect they justified and backed up the policy pursued by that government. They maintained that Russia had not matured for socialism, that the conditions for socialism obtained only in the highly developed capitalist countries of the West, and they therefore advocated the preservation of capitalism in Russia, recommending some improvements and embellishments.

Yet all the objective conditions for a transition to socialism existed in Russia. Besides, the war which had dislocated the economy and carried away so many lives confronted the people with the choice of either continuing to vegetate

THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

After Tsarism Was Deposed

The people who had accomplished the revolution expected peace, food, land and freedom. But the Provisional Government was not inclined to satisfy the aspirations of the working people for the simple reason that it was a government of the bourgeoisie and landowners and protected their

under capitalist rule or to transfer power to the proletariat and move rapidly forward towards the building of the new, socialist society.

The only things the people lacked were belief in their own strength and the understanding that socialism would bring salvation. This belief and understanding were given to them by only one party, the Bolshevik Party.

Lenin's Plan for the Transition to the Socialist Revolution

The Bolshevik Party emerged from underground after the February revolution. Pravda and other Bolshevik newspapers resumed publication. Bolshevik leaders returned from prison or exile. Many of them came to the capital, Petrograd. The Bolsheviks went to the masses, calling on them to develop and deepen the revolution. But the situation in the country was complex, chiefly because of the dual power---the Provisional Government and the Soviets. The Party had to study this situation with the purpose of working out correct tactics and drawing up a new plan of struggle. This was done by Lenin, who returned to Russia from forced emigration.

Late in the evening of April 3, 1917, the square in front of Petrograd's Finland Railway Station was filled with thousands of people. Lenin's friends and associates came to welcome him. Factories sent workers' delegations. Red Guard units, that had been formed at the factories, arrived. Soldiers and sailors lined up in front of the railway station. Armoured cars drew up. The crowd cheered wildly when Lenin appeared and then fell silent to listen to him speak from an armoured car. Lenin ended his speech with the words, "Long live the socialist revolution", to the accompaniment of a roar of approval and enthusiastic cheering.

On the next day, April 4, Lenin put his plan before leaders of the Party, and three days later his Theses (the main propositions of his report) were published in Pravda. The cardinal points of these theses were as follows.

The first stage of the revolution, a stage which had put power in the hands of the bourgeoisie, had ended, The

Lenin addresses workers, soldiers and sailors of Petrograd on April 3, 1917, the day of his return from abroad

second stage had begun and it would end with the transfer of power to the proletariat in alliance with the poor sections of the peasants. The bourgeois-democratic revolution would inevitably grow into a socialist revolution.

What should be the Party's attitude at this stage, and what tactics should it employ? First and foremost, it could neither trust nor support the bourgeois Provisional Government. It had to expose it as a government that would give

JOS

the people neither peace, food, land nor freedom. The people had to be made to see that only the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, after they had taken all power into their hands, would end the war, confiscate the landed estates for the peasants and abolish national oppression. The Party's slogan during this period was: "All power to the Soviets.''

This slogan did not imply a call for the immediate overthrow of the Provisional Government. That government could not be overthrown at the time because it had the support of the Soviets. It had to be explained to the masses that the Soviets had to break with the bourgeois government and seize all power. The majority of the people was represented in the Soviets, and the Army was on their side. If the Soviets proclaimed themselves the central authority there was no force that could oppose them.

This transfer of power could take place peacefully. The Provisional Government was afraid to use military force against the people; besides even if it had wanted to, it did not have that force. The Soviets had the monopoly of strength and the backing of the people. Under these conditions, they could concentrate all power in their hands without resorting to an armed struggle against the bourgeois government.

But the trouble was that the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks dominated the Soviets. The transfer of all power to the Soviets and the formation of a government consisting of Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks would not change the nature of these parties: they would continue to gravitate towards the bourgeoisie, vacillate in favour of the bourgeoisie. But their vacillation would take place under new conditions where the bourgeoisie had no power. The machinery of the bourgeois state with its all-powerful bureaucracy would have been broken and replaced by a new state apparatus founded on the Soviets. The Socialist-- Revolutionaries and Mensheviks would vacillate in the Soviets, in full view of the working masses. The Bolsheviks would stigmatise and expose their behaviour and the inability of their government to resolve the basic problems of the revolution. The masses would turn their backs on the conciliators and give the leadership of the Soviets to the Bolsheviks. The change of power within the Soviets, which would be

the sole legislative and executive power in the land, and the transfer of that power to the proletariat with the resultant establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat could take place peacefully.

Lenin's plan made provision for the political platform of the Soviets:

In international policy---the signing of a universal democratic peace;

In domestic economy---the nationalisation of all the banks, the setting up of a single people's bank, the nationalisation of the leading monopolies---sugar and iron and steel---and the institution of control by the Soviets over production and the distribution of all products;

In agriculture---the confiscation of the landed estates without compensation and the nationalisation of all land, i.e., making the land the property of the people;

In the nationalities sphere---the pulling down of the tsarist "prison of nations", and the granting to all oppressed peoples the right to self-determination up to and including secession and the creation of independent states. Recognition of this right was not a call to all nations to break away from Russia. It meant that every nation had to decide its own destiny on the basis of the interests of social development and the interests of the proletariat's struggle for socialism. Here Lenin emphasised that the interests of the revolution, of the working-class movement, required the unity of the workers of all nationalities in single political, trade union, co-operative and educational organisations. A single Party of the workers of all nationalities, the unity of the proletariat, was the earnest of the triumph of the revolution.

This programme did not imply the immediate introduction of socialism, for socialism cannot be introduced forthwith. Its fulfilment would signify a step towards socialism. Lenin's Theses were opposed by only a small group within the Party who had no faith in the socialist revolution and clung to their ties with the Mensheviks. Lenin's programme was endorsed at the All-Russia Party Conference held at the end of April. The entire Party rallied round the decisions of this conference, displaying its unity, political maturity and revolutionary steeling, and took Lenin's programme to the masses.

The People Unite Round the Bolsheviks

Developments confirmed the soundness of the line charted by the Party. May Day was celebrated openly for the first time in Russia's history. At the rallies marking this festival of Labour much was spoken about the most pressing and vital issue---peace. The Bolsheviks urged the transfer of all power to the Soviets, which would secure peace. The adversaries of the Bolsheviks spoke of peace, otherwise nobody would have listened to them, but they, to say nothing of the Constitutional-Democrats, made no concrete suggestions and, in fact, continued the war.

The people attending these rallies dispersed to their homes with the hope that at last the war would be terminated. But on the next day the newspapers printed a statement by the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government to the effect that Russia was prepared to continue the war. Several thousand infuriated troops marched to the palace where the government was in session. The Provisional Government would have used force against the demonstrators, if it had the strength, but in the circumstances all it could do was to organise its adherents for a small demonstration in the Nevsky Prospekt, the capital's main thoroughfare, in support of its imperialist policy. In response to a call by the Bolsheviks more than a hundred thousand workers filled the streets, demanding the transfer of all power to the Soviets.

The government was shaken, -but the Socialist-- Revolutionaries and Mensheviks came to its rescue. They had been hesitating to join the bourgeois government, fearing condemnation by the masses. But after the demonstration, when the existence of the Provisional Government was threatened, they accepted posts in it, thereby openly showing their support for the bourgeoisie. A coalition government was formed consisting of Constitutional-Democrats, SocialistRevolutionaries and Mensheviks.

Protest demonstrations were also held in Moscow, the Urals and other industrial centres. They showed that the workers and soldiers were gradually becoming convinced that the Bolsheviks were right in warning them not to trust the Provisional Government: it wanted war not peace. Moreover, the Bolsheviks had proved to be right when they said that the conciliators were not socialists: the Socialist-

Revolutionaries and Mensheviks had joined the bourgeois government and saved it. Great sections of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd, to say nothing of foremost, classconscious workers, began to turn away from the SocialistRevolutionaries and Mensheviks. They began recalling the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik deputies from the Soviets and electing in their stead Bolsheviks, who really championed the interests of the people. The proletariat and garrison of Petrograd began to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

The situation in other regions and at the front took a different course. Although the Bolshevik influence was everywhere on the upgrade the authority of the SocialistRevolutionaries and Mensheviks was still predominant. This was shown at the First All-Russia Congress of Soviets in Petrograd in June 1917. Nearly a thousand delegates attended that congress, and of these only a little over 10 per cent were Bolsheviks. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks called on the delegates to pass a vote of confidence in the Provisional Government. They argued that the country could not be administered without a bloc with the bourgeoisie. "There is no party in this country," said one of the Menshevik leaders, "which would agree to administer the country alone." A confident voice was heard in the silent hall: "There is such a Party!" All eyes turned to the man who made that statement. It was Lenin. Receiving the floor he tabled the Bolshevik recommendations for the transfer of all power to the Soviets. Many of the rank-and-file delegates vacillated under the influence of Lenin's words. But the conciliators used their majority to pass a resolution approving the policy of conciliation with the bourgeoisie. The Bolsheviks decided to prove to the congress that its stand clashed with the sentiments of the working people, and steps were taken to hold a demonstration in Petrograd on June 10. The conciliators spread the slander that the Bolsheviks were planning a coup. The congress banned the demonstration on the eve of the day on which it was to have taken place. The situation grew tense. If the Bolsheviks refused to submit to the congress it would bring them into conflict with the Soviets. But if they submitted it would be difficult to hold back the hundreds of thousands of people planning to take part in the demonstration.

The Party's Central Committee decided to call off the demonstration no matter how difficult that might prove to be. Not a single regiment, not a single factory moved into the streets, thereby showing the tremendous prestige enjoyed by the Bolsheviks. Congress delegates who toured the factories found that the ban had aroused indignation and that the workers were pressing for a demonstration. Fearing to tax the dissatisfaction of the workers, the congress decided that the demonstration would be held on June 18 under the slogan of confidence in the Provisional Government.

The Bolsheviks called on the people to take part in this demonstration under the Party's slogan of "All power to the Soviets!" On the designated day about half a million workers and soldiers marched in the streets, for the most part under the Bolshevik slogan. Only a tiny handful carried a placard urging confidence in the Provisional Government. It could hardly be seen in the sea of demonstrators demanding the transfer of all power to the Soviets. The working class and the garrison of Petrograd unequivocally sided with the Bolsheviks, against the bourgeois government and against the conciliators.

The government was alarmed at the growth of Bolshevik influence. The leaders of the bourgeoisie planned to use a tested means against the mounting revolution---to crush it by an offensive at the front. Russia's allies---Britain, France and the USA---were also demanding action on the front against Germany. The bourgeoisie calculated that if the offensive was successful the government's position would be enhanced and it would be possible to suppress the revolutionary movement by force. If the offensive failed they would blame it on the Bolsheviks, who, they contended, were demoralising the Army by their opposition to the war. That would destroy the Party. The offensive was set for the same day as the demonstration, to show that the offensive had the approval of the Congress of Soviets.

End of Dual Power

On June 18, when the whole of working Petrograd was demonstrating against the government and the war, that same government ordered its troops into action. The offen-

sive had been poorly prepared. It was an obvious gamble, and it failed. The enemy started a counter-offensive, seizing territory, munitions and prisoners. These treacherous actions of the Provisional Government cost Russia nearly 60,000 men in killed and wounded.

As soon as news of the abortive offensive reached Petrograd, the bourgeoisie set about implementing its plan: the press of the conciliators clamoured that the anti-war propaganda of the Bolsheviks had wrecked the offensive. The Constitutional-Democrats walked out of the government with the calculation that this would intimidate the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks into accepting the terms of the Constitutional-Democrats for crushing the revolution.

Unrest spread among the workers and soldiers in the capital. The Provisional Government ignored their demands expressed during the June demonstration and continued its old policy. The deep dissatisfaction of the masses spontaneously burst to the surface: the troops of a machine-gun regiment stationed in the capital passed a decision to organise an armed demonstration against the government. The machine-gunners sent delegates to the factories and to the other regiments in the capital requesting them to join the demonstration. Support was promised everywhere.

The Bolshevik Party was Against this demonstration, declaring that it was still much too early for action designed to overthrow the government. The conditions for this had not yet ripened in the country. There was sufficient strength in the capital to seize power, but it could not be retained because the country at large and the men at the firing lines were still influenced by the government and the conciliators and would take action with them against the insurgents. The Party therefore urged the masses to refrain from such action. But it proved to be impossible to hold back the agitated masses.

To leave the demonstrators without leadership would have meant letting them fall into the trap prepared for them by the bourgeoisie, who were only waiting for an unorganised action in order to shoot it down. The Party's Central Committee decided to head the demonstration with the object of turning it into a peaceful and organised action.

On July 4 more than half a million people demonstrated

Lenin hid from persecution by the Provisional Government in a hut near Lake Razliv in a suburb of Petrograd

On July 4, 1917, acting on the instructions of the bourgeois

Provisional Government, troops shoot down a peaceful

demonstration in Petrograd

under the slogan of "All power to the Soviets!" Red Guard units and revolutionary soldiers and sailors protected them against attacks by counter-revolutionaries. Bourgeoisie and the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were clearly planning to shoot down the demonstrators and thereby destroy the main forces of the revolution. Troops brought in from the front opened fire on the workers and sailors. Government forces wrecked the offices and printshop of Pravda that had been bought on money donated by workers. A detachment of military cadets was instructed to find and kill Lenin. His home was searched. As in the days of tsarism, he was once more compelled to go underground. Mass repressions were started. Many leading Bolsheviks were arrested, and the workers were disarmed as were the regiments that had taken part in the demonstration. Revolutionary-minded soldiers were sent to the front and the death penalty was reintroduced. Thousands of soldiers were arrested for their refusal to obey orders. Many were shot. All power was seized by the bourgeoisie.

The Party Decides on Insurrection

The situation had changed and the Bolshevik tactics no longer conformed to the new conditions. New tactics were adopted by the Sixth Party Congress, which sat in Petrograd in August. Its proceedings were semi-legal, and the meeting place had to be changed several times to prevent the arrest of the delegates.

Lenin did not attend this congress. He was in hiding on the shore of Lake Razliv near Petrograd. Nevertheless the work of the congress was guided by him. Its resolutions were based on his counsel and instructions.

Dual power had ended. All power had passed to the military, and the Provisional Government was in command of the situation. That, Lenin said, was the political situation. It was no longer possible to seize power peacefully. It had to be taken by force, by overthrowing the counter-- revolutionary government.

The slogan "All power to the Soviets", too, no longer conformed to the situation. The Soviets had become tools of the bourgeois government. The hands of the Socialist-

Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were stained with the blood of the workers and soldiers who had been shot. There could be no question of turning power over to hangmen. But this did not imply that the Party would walk out of the Soviets. The Party, Lenin explained, stood by its policy of turning power over to the Soviets, but these had to be Soviets cleared of stranglers of the revolution. The congress instructed the Bolsheviks to remain in the Soviets and step up their efforts of winning them over to their side.

The congress steered the Party towards an armed uprising. But that did not mean that it had to be started at once. An uprising could be organised only when the conditions for it were ripe, when there was another upsurge of revolution and the masses were convinced that the most determined measures were necessary.

The congress approved the Party's economic platform as formulated in Lenin's April Theses. The resolution on this question stated that Russia's economy was on the verge of collapse. The people were at the end of their tether. Famine was in the air. At the front the troops were undernourished. Inflation had reached catastrophic proportions and the country was becoming more and more dependent on foreign capital. In Russia the foreign capitalists were behaving as though the country were a colony. There was the threat that this great country would be carved up by the imperialist powers. There was only one way to save Russia, namely, to overthrow the bourgeois government, a government that brought nothing but war and starvation, and transfer power to the proletariat and the poor peasants. Only then would catastrophe be averted and the country given the opportunity to restore its economy and move forward.

At the Sixth Congress a group headed by Trotsky was admitted into the Party. It recognised that Lenin was right and promised to propound the Party line. But not all of those accepted into the Party, Trotsky in particular, fulfilled their commitments. Trotsky soon resumed his struggle against the Party.

This congress found that the Party had to broaden out its activities among the masses, among workers, soldiers, peasants, young people and women. It addressed a manifesto to the people, calling on them to muster their forces for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and

the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry.

Inspired by the decisions adopted at the congress, the delegates dispersed to prepare the masses for decisive battles.

The Bourgeoisie Starts a Civil War

When the bourgeoisie seized power, it was determined to make short work not only of the Bolsheviks but of the Soviets as well. Its leaders made it plain that they wanted a return to the old orders, and one of them brazenly urged crushing the revolution with the gaunt hand of famine. This was a call to close down factories and throw the workers out into the streets. The response from the industrialists was immediate: hundreds of thousands of workers found themselves unemployed and hunger entered their homes.

Believing that the resistance of the proletariat had been broken and that the Bolshevik Party had been weakened by repressions, the counter-revolutionary forces decided to place power in the hands of a military dictator with the purpose of abolishing all the achievements of the revolution and restoring the monarchy. The Russian bourgeoisie and the foreign imperialists agreed on the candidature of General Kornilov, the Supreme Army Commander-in-Chief. At the close of August Kornilov moved a cavalry corps and a number of other units from the front in the direction of Petrograd.

The Provisional Government headed by its chairman the Socialist-Revolutionary Kerensky were privy to this conspiracy. However, the scale of the counter-revolution made the conciliators realise that the generals would not only hang the Bolsheviks but would also shoot down the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Kerensky panicked. When he saw the masses rising to defend the revolution against Kornilov he called to them for help. The SocialistRevolutionaries and Mensheviks tried to persuade the people that Kornilov was taking action against the Provisional Government and that therefore that government had to be defended.

Lenin, who was in hiding, closely followed the intrigues of the counter-revolution and the manoeuvres of the conciliators. The counter-revolutionary action of the generals, naturally, had to be repulsed, but to defend Kerensky's administration was tantamount to helping the counterrevolution. Lenin suggested the wise tactics of calling upon the masses to fight Kornilov and, far from defending the Provisional Government to expose it as an accomplice and instigator of the revolt. The masses responded to the Bolshevik call and rose to smash the revolt. Red Guard units were formed in many localities. In Petrograd the Red Guards and revolutionary troops moved to the capital's outskirts to engage Kornilov's units. The cavalry corps were halted. The plans of the generals were explained to the men and they refused to obey their officers. The Provisional Government found itself compelled to arrest Kornilov and his fellow conspirators. The Civil War started by the bourgeoisie ended in a fiasco. The conciliators recovered from their fright and re-entered the service of the bourgeoisie: Kerensky formed a new coalition government with the participation of Constitutional-Democrats to prevent any further development of the revolution. But this government was not destined to rule long.

onstrated their utter helplessness in the course of the revolution. They had revealed their hatred of the revolution and had refused to give the people peace, bread, land and freedom, with the result that they found themselves in isolation.

The bankruptcy of the tactics of compromise was strikingly seen in the break-down of these parties. After the February revolution, when the petty-bourgeois wave carried the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to power, their parties began growing rapidly, their membership swelling to hundreds of thousands. In the course of the revolution the substance of these parties became increasingly clearer to the masses and their growth stopped. Moreover, rank-- andfile members began resigning in protest against the collaboration of their leaders with the bourgeoisie.

The disintegration of these parties was speeded up after the Kornilov revolt was frustrated. A split occurred in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in the autumn of 1917. The class struggle within the peasantry was intensified. The kulaks were afraid of the revolution and supported the bourgeois government. Their spokesmen were the Right SocialistRevolutionaries, who had representatives in the bourgeois government. The broad peasant masses, on the other hand, had swung sharply towards the revolution, as was evident from the peasant uprisings throughout the country. Reflecting this swing, a considerable number of Socialist-- Revolutionaries broke with their Right-wing leaders, who had betrayed the peasants, and formed the independent Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The new party aligned itself with the Bolsheviks in the main issue of the revolution--- the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The Menshevik party was also breaking up. A group calling themselves Internationalist Social-Democrats broke away from the Mensheviks and were, like the Left SocialistRevolutionaries, inclined to co-operate with the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were becoming the most authoritative and most influential force in the land. The Socialist-- Revolutionaries and Mensheviks who had failed to justify the trust of the workers and soldiers were recalled from the Soviets. Bolsheviks, who had proved themselves consistent champions of the people, were elected in their stead. The Bolshevisation of the Soviets began, i.e., the leadership in the

Preparations for an Armed Uprising

The Soviets came to life in the struggle against the Kornilov revolt. On August 31 the Petrograd Soviet adopted a Bolshevik resolution on the transfer of power to the Soviets. A similar resolution was passed by the Moscow Soviet on September 5. One after another the Soviets associated themselves with the Petrograd and Moscow resolutions. After the February revolution the working masses of Russia had seen all political parties in power except the Bolsheviks. They had seen the worth of the Constitutional-Democrats, who represented the bourgeoisie, and also of the coalition formed by the Constitutional-Democrats, the SocialistRevolutionaries and the Mensheviks. When the SocialistRevolutionaries and the Mensheviks had the majority in the Soviets the people had seen that all they wanted was to come to terms with the bourgeoisie. These parties had dem-

The Bolshevik Party Prepares an Armed Uprising

A Red Guard detachment in Petrograd

Soldiers at the firing lines demand the transfer of power to the Soviets

A peasant revolutionary detachment

Soviets began to pass into the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Bolshevik Party had become the generally recognised leader of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat and all other working people.

A new upsurge of the revolution, predicted by the Sixth Party Congress and prepared by the Bolsheviks, set in. The slogan "All Power to the Soviets!" was re-adopted, but this time it was a slogan of insurrection, a slogan of the overthrow of the Provisional Government by armed force.

In mid-September Lenin wrote two letters to the Central Committee and to the Petrograd and Moscow Committees, in which he stated that the Party had to organise an armed uprising. The situation for this was now ripe. Russia was in the grip of a powerful wave of strikes. Some 700,000 railwaymen stopped work, demanding better living conditions. No sooner had the government settled the railway strike, than metalworkers and tanners went on strike. They were followed by a strike of more than 300,000 textile workers. At no time, neither during the revolution of 1905 nor in the revolution of February 1917, had the strike movement reached such a scale. Moreover, these strikes on the eve of the decisive assault on the old world had another feature: in some localities the workers drove out the factory owners and took the management of the factories into their own hands. The tension of the proletarian struggle was rising, the working-class movement having come directly to the question of power.

The nature of the peasant struggle had likewise changed. The peasants realised that General Kornilov had the backing of the landowners. If the revolt led by him were victorious they would never see either freedom or land. This induced them to start driving out the landowners, confiscating their land, implements and livestock and burning down their mansions. Throughout Russia the peasant movement was growing into an open war against the landowners.

The unrest among the troops at the front developed into mutinies and mass defiance of the Provisional Government.

A change had taken place in the character of the popular movements in the non-Russian areas---the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Central Asia and the Transcaucasus, Becoming con-

vinced that in their fear of the revolution their ``own'' national bourgeoisie wanted to form a bloc with the allRussia counter-revolution, the movement of the working people of these regions began to merge into a united front with the general movement of the workers and peasants throughout Russia. An acute struggle that grew into insurrection was raging in some non-Russian areas. An uprising, in which Uzbek and Russian working people took part, flared up in Tashkent, Central Asia.

The international situation had changed as well. The revolution in Russia was developing under conditions of a world war. The imperialist vultures were locked in mortal combat and- could not come to an agreement on peace and turn their attention to revolutionary Russia. In addition, the Russian revolution and the lull on the Russo-German front enabled Germany to transfer part of her troops to the Western front against France and Britain and score partial success. This inspired the German imperialists with the hope of an early victory. On the other hand, the USA entered the war in the spring of 1917 on the side of Britain and France. This increased the strength of the Entente and it hoped to win the war.

But the end of the war was not in sight, and the masses, weary and burdened by suffering, refused to reconcile themselves to this. The troops seethed with discontent. Despite the barriers, the truth about the revolution in Russia, the Bolsheviks and Lenin reached them. The workers and soldiers of other countries sympathised with the working people of Russia. They were proud of them and prepared to follow their example. True, it was much more difficult for them to accomplish a revolution. No other country had such a bold, resolute, experienced and revolutionary party like the Party of Bolsheviks in Russia. But throughout the world the patience of the masses was wearing thin and discontent was rife. A mutiny broke out in the German Navy in the autumn of 1917. These were signs that the revolution was maturing in other countries as well.

In Russia, in the meantime, the forces of revolution were preparing for decisive battle. The Provisional Government lost its head. It feverishly mustered its forces to put down the revolution and planned another "Kornilov revolt". It had reached a stage where in order to avert the revolution

it was prepared to surrender Petrograd, the country's capital, to the Germans.

The revolution could only be saved by the proletariat and the poor peasants by doing away with the traitor government and seizing power.

Lenin secretly arrived in the capital to direct the preparations for an uprising. A meeting of the Central Committee at which Lenin spoke of the need to start an uprising was held on October 10, 1917. It passed a resolution, drawn up by Lenin, declaring that an uprising was inevitable, that the conditions for it were on hand. All Party organisations were instructed to be guided by the decision to start an uprising, to consider the preparations for the uprising as their basic task and, from that point of view, to discuss and settle all practical problems.

Only two members of the Central Committee---Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev---spoke against this resolution. They did not believe a socialist revolution could be accomplished and, like the Mensheviks, considered that Russia had not matured for socialism. The Central Committee scornfully rejected the arguments of these cowards and sceptics. Its resolution became a directive for action. A Party Revolutionary Military Centre was elected to direct the uprising.

A Revolutionary Military Committee, consisting of Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and non-Party revolutionaries, was set up at the Petrograd Soviet to handle the practical aspect of organising the uprising. It mobilised the forces of revolution, primarily the Red Guards. The Baltic Fleet was solidly behind the revolution, and the Petrograd garrison was prepared to respond to the call of the Revolutionary Military Committee. A plan for the insurrection, based on Lenin's instructions, was drawn up.

Lenin carefully chose the moment for starting the uprising. But unexpectedly traitors stabbed the revolution in the back. Defeated in the Central Committee, Kamenev and Zinoviev stooped to unprecedented treachery. They printed a communication about their disagreement with the Party's decision on the insurrection in a non-Bolshevik newspaper. This divulged the secret preparations for the uprising to the enemy. Lenin wrote to the Central Committee that the Bolshevik ranks had to be purged of traitors and insisted on

a

OH

bjo C

I

o

the immediate expulsion of the two men from the Party. The Central Committee isolated them, forbidding them to make any statement on behalf of the Party.

Triumph of the Socialist Revolution

Lenin demanded that the Party should go on with the preparations for the uprising, strengthen the fighting units and map out its plan in detail. Petrograd was the centre of the revolution, the main base of the insurrection. The Revolutionary Military Committee set out to win the entire garrison over to the side of the revolution. Commissars were sent to the regiments to take over the command and to make sure that orders only from the Revolutionary Military Committee were obeyed. Commissars were also sent to the Military District Headquarters, placing the command of the entire garrison in the hands of the Revolutionary Military Committee. The climax was rapidly approaching.

At this juncture a service was rendered to the Provisional Government by Trotsky. Prior to the February revolution he had been associated with the Mensheviks in their vile campaign against Lenin and the other Bolsheviks. After that revolution he joined the Bolshevik Party when he saw that its prestige was soaring in the country. The Sixth Party Congress admitted him and his supporters to Party membership. He was elected to the Central Committee and appointed Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. But he did not renounce his views and did not accept the Leninist principles of Bolshevism. An irresponsible statement made by him at this critical time very nearly wrecked the armed uprising. At a sitting of the Petrograd Soviet he demanded the postponement of the uprising until October 25, the day the Second Congress of Soviets was to have been convened. This statement forewarned the Provisional Government that there might be an uprising on October 25 and it began mustering its forces for an attack with the purpose of forestalling the Bolsheviks.

Lenin insisted that under no circumstances should the insurrection be postponed until the Second Congress of Soviets. On his instructions the insurrection was started on October 24. Acting according to a prearranged plan, the insurgents

The cruiser Aurora

occupied the railway stations, the post and telegraph, government buildings and surrounded the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government had taken refuge. The State Bank was seized, and this averted the error committed by the Paris Commune, which had hesitated to lay its hands on the sanctum of the bankers. By the morning of October 25 the Provisional Government had been deposed. At 10 a.m. Lenin signed a statement proclaiming the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Military Committee, organ of the Petrograd Soviet.

Entrenched in the Winter Palace, the deposed Provisional Government was still hoping for assistance from the front. Kerensky had fled to the front in an American car flying a foreign flag. Lenin ordered the capture of the Winter Palace. Late at night on October 25, the cruiser Aurora, which was in the hands of revolutionary sailors, fired one of its guns, which was the signal for attack. Revolutionary detachments stormed the Winter Palace. The former ministers were taken into custody and imprisoned in the Peter and

Paul Fortress, whose dungeons the tsar had used for freedom fighters.

The Great October Socialist Revolution triumphed, and ever since then progressive mankind has been marking October 25 (November 7) as the date on which Soviet power was established, the first socialist state of workers and peasants formed and the building of socialism started.

The Bolshevik Party led by Lenin inspired and organised the October Revolution. Lenin had studied the revolutions that had taken place in a number of countries and summed up the vast experience of insurrection gained by the proletariat and other working people. He exposed the reformists who opposed the uprising and waged a similarly uncompromising struggle against the ``Left'' adventurists, who maintained that an armed uprising was a form of struggle that had to be applied under all conditions. For that reason he condemned those Bolsheviks, who in April 1917, when the Party called for the peaceful development of the revolution, demanded the immediate overthrow of the Provisional Government. Without the existence of certain prerequisites such an insurrection would have been a pure gamble. Lenin characterised the attitude of Marxists to an armed uprising and defined the conditions under which it was possible as follows:

``To be successful, insurrection must rely not upon conspiracy and not upon a party, but upon the advanced class. That is the first point. Insurrection must rely upon a revolutionary upsurge of the people. That is the second point. Insurrection must rely upon that turning-point in the history of the growing revolution when the activity of the advanced ranks of the people is at its height, and when the vacillations in the ranks of the enemy and in the ranks of the weak, half-hearted and irresolute friends of the revolution are strongest. That is the third point."""

The situation in Russia on the eve of the October Revolution satisfied all these conditions. Since these conditions obtained it was necessary to approach insurrection as an art, i.e., to prepare for it thoroughly. Lenin demanded and demonstrated this art in his leadership of the uprising. He made sure that once the revolution got under way the Bol-

sheviks would see it through. A preponderance of strength was ensured in the critical sector. The Party took into account the experience of the uprising of December 1905, whose organisers had adopted a defencist stand. The Bolsheviks gave the insurrection of October 1917 the nature of a determined onslaught. Lenin chose a suitable time for it when the forces of the enemy were demoralised and the ranks of the insurgents were inspired by confidence in victory. That explains why this insurrection, in which huge masses of people participated, triumphed in a single day and involved virtually no bloodshed.

The Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets opened in the night of October 25, 1917. It was attended by representatives of more than 450 Soviets in all parts of the country, including the non-Russian regions. Of the 650 deputies nearly 400 were Bolsheviks. The rest were members of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties; the overwhelming majority of the Socialist-Revolutionaries (some 180) were Lefts and they supported the Bolsheviks on the question of power. The Mensheviks and Right SocialistRevolutionaries, who had previously been masters of the situation, comprised a small group of 70-80 delegates at the congress, but even that group melted rapidly, most of its members siding with the Lefts and only a few delegates walking out of the congress.

This congress passed a decision on the transfer of all power to the Soviets, which became the lawful authority recognised by the entire nation. The bourgeois dictatorship was overthrown and superseded by the dictatorship of the proletariat, the only class capable of championing the interests of the whole people and leading it in the building of socialism.

At this congress Lenin delivered reports on peace and on land. A rousing reception was given by the delegates to the inspirer and leader of the newly triumphant socialist revolution. It took a long time for the enthusiastic ovation to subside, and as soon as he was able to speak Lenin read the Soviet power's first decree, which he had personally drafted. It concerned the most pressing, the most vital issue of the day---the termination of the war. The Soviet Government proposed that the governments of all the belligerent nations should forthwith initiate talks on a universal, democratic

V. I, Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 22-23,

of all peoples, smashing the iron fetters of the imperialist war and giving all nations the hope that they would be delivered from the predatory, devastating war.

The Soviet government laid the foundations for new international relations. It did not seek to subjugate other peoples or to orient its policy on some foreign power. It was the first to proclaim principles that excluded war as a means of settling issues between peoples and called for talks, for the coexistence of states with different social systems. This afforded the possibility for pursuing a foreign policy based not on the enslavement of other peoples and the seizure of foreign territories but on equality and mutual respect.

An ovation thundered out for the second time during that night when Lenin was given the floor to deliver the report on land.

He proposed the adoption of a decree on land, which would transfer the landed estates and the land belonging to the monasteries and the royal family to the people without compensation. Private ownership of land was abolished and all the land was nationalised.

For long centuries the peasants had wanted to take the land from the landowners and had time and again risen against landowner rule. But all these uprisings had failed because there was no class that could organise the scattered peasant masses and lead them to victory. The bourgeoisie sought to lead the peasants, but this came to nothing because the confiscation of the landed estates would have dealt a blow at bourgeois ownership as well. The Socialist-- Revolutionaries tried to win the peasants with promises of land. One of their number had been Minister for Agriculture in the Provisional Government. With the Mensheviks, their party had comprised the majority in the Soviets. But they, too, had deceived the peasants, because their policy was subordinated to the interests of the bourgeoisie. The Bolsheviks alone made good their promise to the peasants. The latter received land from the hands of the working class, from the Party of the working class, the Bolshevik Party. The triumph of the socialist revolution brought about the realisation of the peasants' age-old dream.

When Lenin finished his speech, one of the delegates, a peasant, walked up to the platform, bowed low to the

Lenin addresses the Second Congress of Soviets, October 26 (November 8), 1917

peace without annexations or indemnities. The decree made it crystal clear that peace without annexations implied not only the renunciation of seizures of foreign territories in the given war but also the granting to all nations and peoples the right to self-determination and to decide their own destiny by themselves. It upheld the interests not only of the peoples of Russia but also of the peoples of the other belligerent countries, as well as of the rest of the world.

Hardly had the gunpowder dispersed in the square in front of the Winter Palace than the Soviet Government appealed to the whole of suffering mankind to stop the imperialist war and conclude a just, democratic peace. For the first time during the exhausting war the masses heard a programme of peace. It came from a country determined to build a new society. The imperialists wanted to conceal the Soviet peace proposal but it found a response in the hearts

assembly and then turned to Lenin, bowed to him and on behalf of the millions of peasants of Russia thanked him for settling the land problem.

The Second Congress of Soviets set up a Government, the Council of People's Commissars with Lenin at its head.

victorious proletariat, of rapidly surmounting their backwardness and overtaking the advanced nations in the country.

The revolution created the conditions for putting an end to Russia's age-long backwardness and building up the productive forces. It initiated the complete abolition of cultural backwardness.

It was a triumph of Marxism-Leninism and demonstrated the significance and role of the revolutionary Marxist Party. The working class and all other working people of Russia were led by the Bolshevik Party, which was guided by the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism. The people saw that the Party was devoted to them and providing them with judicious leadership and recognised it as their leader. It discharged its internationalist duty by ensuring the victory of the proletariat of Russia, which breached the imperialist front and set out to build socialism.

The international significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution is tremendous. For the first time in history the working class led the working people to victory in a huge country straddling vast expanses in both Europe and Asia. A country with a population of 150 million broke away from the imperialist system, and the Red Flag of socialism was unfurled on one-sixth of the globe. The working class of Russia, supported by the poor peasantry, blazed the trail to socialism, showing the road for the world proletariat.

This great achievement of the working people of Russia marked a fundamental turning-point in human history. The revolution inspired the workers of all countries and released their revolutionary initiative. The proletarian revolutionary movement spread everywhere. Communist Parties sprang up in many countries, and not only workers but all the working people became more organised.

The revolution gave impetus to the national liberation movement, which undermined the foundations of colonial rule. It initiated the great struggle to liberate mankind from imperialist oppression. The dawn of a new epoch broke over the world, the epoch of the downfall of capitalism and the building of socialism, the epoch of mankind's transition from capitalism to communism.

Significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution

The Great October Socialist Revolution overthrew the anti-popular regime, smashed the obsolete state system, established the dictatorship of the proletariat and created the Soviet socialist state.

Its distinctive feature is that it was accomplished by the working class in alliance with the poor peasantry. In the course of the revolution the workers and peasants set up Soviets, which were organs of the revolution. The Soviets were not invented by any political party; they had been created by the masses themselves as far back as the first Russian revolution. Lenin regarded the 1905 Soviets as the prototype of the new power. During the February revolution the Soviets were revived and set up throughout the country. The October Revolution turned them from revolutionary organs for mobilising and preparing the masses for an armed uprising into organs of the new workers' and peasants' power. Through them it was possible to draw the working masses into the administration of the state and the building of socialism.

The October Revolution eliminated the threat that the country would be dismembered and turned into a toy in the hands of foreign imperialists. It strengthened Russia's independence and sovereignty. The masses, exhausted by the war, passionately wanted peace and the Soviet government initiated a struggle for Russia's withdrawal from the war and the establishment of world peace.

The revolution shattered the savage practices of imperialism, under which the peoples who did not belong to the dominant nations were doomed to oppression and slavery. Led by the proletariat, Russia ceased to be a "prison of nations". The peoples that had been oppressed by tsarism achieved freedom and the possibility, with the aid of the

8-1359

CHAPTER THREE

BUILDING OF SOCIALISM

with other political parties, provided they accepted the decisions of the Second Congress of Soviets and the plationn o[ the Soviet government set up by that supreme organ of people's representatives. After the Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries walked out of the congress, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party publicly declared that it was prepared to form a coalition with them within the iramework of the Soviets, thus knocking the ground from under the assertion that the Bolsheviks were unwilling to share power. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks rejected the Bolshevik proposal, while the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries initially refused to participate in the government even though they supported the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The Right Socialist-Revolutionaries attempted to incite the peasants against Soviet rule. The Soviets of Peasants' Deputies elected in May 1917 had not had new elections and that left the Socialist-Revolutionaries at the head of their Central Executive Committee. But the peasants did not respond to the exhortations of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Two all-Russia congresses of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies were held at the close of 1917, and despite the opposition of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries they endorsed the decrees and policy of the Soviet Government, coming out in favour of merging the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies with the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. This merger consolidated Soviet power. The Bolsheviks renewed their offer to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries to accept posts in the Council of People's Commissars. On the insistence of the delegates to the peasants' congresses this offer was accepted and the agriculture, justice and other commissariats went to them. The Soviet Government was composed of eleven Bolsheviks and seven Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.

CREATION OF A SOCIALIST STATE

Tasks Facing the Party After the October Revolution

The position and role of the Communist Party changed with the triumph of the October Revolution. From a Party devoted to the overthrow and destruction of the old system it became a Party dedicated to building a new society without exploiters, without oppression of man by man.

Nobody had attempted to build socialism anywhere in the world. This work was started in a country encircled by hostile capitalist states. For the first time in history a people undertook to build a society where private ownership had been abolished, i.e., where the very foundation of social inequality and all forms of oppression had been removed. The most deep-rooted economic and political foundations of the life of many scores of millions of people had to be reorganised. This was the greatest task ever undertaken in any country. A people tackling this task could be organised and led only by a Party that had their trust, was not afraid of difficulties, knew the laws of social development and could scientifically determine the ways and means of advancing towards socialism and communism. The Leninist Party possessed these qualities and it intrepidly shouldered the responsibility for the destiny of this huge, multi-national country with its war-dislocated, backward economy.

The Bolshevik Party became the ruling Party of the world's first socialist state, but it did not refuse to co-operate

Building Up the Soviet State

The bourgeoisie and their petty-bourgeois agents did not submit to the will of the people and rose in arms against the people's power. Lenin's warning that the resistance of the exploiters would increase sharply after they had been

overthrown came true, and the Party found itself confronted with the task of consolidating Soviet rule and defending it against countless enemies.

The very first Soviet decrees---on land and on peace--- showed the overwhelming majority of the people that they at last had a government championing their interests. That made it relatively easy to crush the counter-revolutionary revolts in Petrograd, Moscow, the Urals and on the Don. Soviet power was rapidly consolidated throughout the country.

After the working class had seized power, Lenin said, the Party's main task was to learn to administer the country. This was an art that the workers and peasants could not simply adopt from the bourgeoisie. The state apparatus created by it could not be utilised. The bourgeois state and its apparatus had been set up and improved with the purpose of keeping the working people in subjugation. It had to be completely demolished and a state created without and against the bourgeoisie, i.e., a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat founded on co-operation between the workers and peasants. This was the first state of its kind in history.

In building up such a state the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia abolished the ministries of the bourgeois Provisional Government and set up People's Commissariats in their stead. All organs of bourgeois-landowner power were abolished in the provinces. The old state apparatus--- the police, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the military--- that had served the landowners and the bourgeoisie, was demolished. People's courts and a workers' militia were created. The All-Russia Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) was formed to combat the counter-revolution and sabotage. The People's Commissariat for Nationalities Affairs was formed to promote co-operation among all the peoples inhabiting the country. Felix Dzerzhinsky, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, Grigory Petrovsky, Joseph Stalin, Alexander Shlichter and other prominent Bolsheviks were appointed to head the People's Commissariats. Yakov Sverdlov became Chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the highest legislative organ of the Soviet state.

The setting up of an administrative apparatus was attended with formidable difficulties. There was a shortage of cadres.

Leaders of the Communist Party who headed the Soviet

Government

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's

Commissars, Yakov Sverdlov, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Mikhail Kalinin,

Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, Gri#ory Petrovsky,

Nikolai Scmashko, Joseph Stalin, Pyotr Stucka,

Alexander Shlichter

Influenced by the counter-revolutionary parties, the officials of the old apparatus refused to serve Soviet rule. Many of them came from bourgeois or landowner circles. But the Party was not daunted either by sabotage by old officials or by the shortage of cadres. It appealed to the people, and thousands of front-rank workers, soldiers and peasants possessing organisational ability came forward. The new apparatus of the central and local organs of Soviet power was formed of them and of progressive intellectuals, who had close ties with the people. The Party sent its finest cadres to work in the Soviet state machine. At the same time, it made use of the knowledge and experience of bourgeois specialists and officials. In order to give them an incentive to co-operate with the new power it established high salaries for them.

The new state apparatus was not big. The salaries of Soviet officials were not higher than the average wage of workers. The prejudice that only the rich could administer the state, planted by exploiters over the centuries, was erased. After setting up the Soviet state, the workers and peasants perseveringly learned to administer it.

One of the most difficult tasks was that of building up new armed forces. The Party was aware that the land of workers and peasants would .not be left in peace either by the internal counter-revolution or by world imperialism. A military machine had to be organised to defend the Soviet state and the gains of the revolution. This task was beyond the strength of the old army that had been wearied by nearly four years of war. It had to be demobilised, but the Red Guard detachments were not enough to defend the country. The Soviet Republic found itself almost defenceless in face of its numerous enemies. The building up of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was started in January 1918 with the aid of many officers of the old army, including generals and admirals.

Defeated in open battle, the counter-revolutionary Constitutional-Democratic, Right Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties planned to overthrow Soviet rule through the Constituent Assembly. After tsarism was deposed the Provisional Government had undertaken to convene the Constituent Assembly with the purpose of determining the form of state power. However, the convening of this As-

sembly was delayed by the bourgeois and conciliationist parties.

The Bolsheviks were the only ones who pressed for the convening of the Assembly, and when they came to power they kept their word. It was known that in the elections in remote gubernias the majority of the votes was won by the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and that they were out to turn this to account and seize power. The people expected the Constituent Assembly to confirm the gains of the October Revolution and the decrees and decisions of the Second Congress of Soviets. At the Constituent Assembly, which opened early in January 1918, the Bolsheviks and the Left SocialistRevolutionaries tabled a motion calling for recognition of the fact that all power in the land was vested in the Soviets and for the endorsement of the decrees on peace and on land and the peace-loving foreign policy of the Soviet Government. This meant recognising what the people had already approved. But the Right Socialist-Revolutionary majority in the Assembly refused even to debate this motion, thereby setting itself above the will of the people. Soviet power was compelled to disband the Assembly.

This act was approved by the Third All-Russia Congress of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which was held soon afterwards. This congress adopted the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People, which was drawn up by Lenin and submitted by the communist group. The Declaration stated: "Russia is hereby proclaimed a Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies." The Russian Soviet Republic was founded on the basis of a voluntary union of the workers of free nations as a Federation of Soviet national republics. The Third Congress of Soviets thus put the Soviet system on a legal footing.

The Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People is one of the most outstanding policy acts in history. It differs fundamentally from the declarations made by all bourgeois revolutions. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of the time of the French bourgeois revolution of the eighteenth century proclaimed freedom, equality and fraternity. But these rights were not ensured by the bourgeoisie, which came to power. The working people received neither freedom, nor equality nor fraternity. All that the French declaration did was to consolidate the

power of the bourgeoisie, of capitalism, and further the exploitation of the masses. The proletariat, which came to power in Russia, secured the realisation of the rights proclaimed in the Soviet Declaration. It expressed the will of the working classes, consolidated their rule and set the aim of abolishing exploitation of man by man and building socialism.

Democratic Transformations

The Communist Party was aware that all survivals of medievalism and serfdom had to be uprooted before the building of socialism could be started. These survivals were swept away in the course of some six weeks. The Decree on Land stamped out survivals of serf agriculture. The division of the population into estates (nobility, merchants, and so forth) as well as titles and ranks were abolished. All the people became citizens of the Russian Soviet Republic. Soviet power proclaimed freedom of conscience. The church was separated from the state and every citizen was given the right to profess any religion or to practise atheism. The school was separated from the church. The teaching of the gospel and all other forms of ecclesiastical influence over schoolchildren were discontinued. For the first time in history women were granted equal rights with men. Laws on the family, marriage and mother and child protection were promulgated. Unequal payment for the labour of men and women was abolished. Women were granted equal rights with men in education, state and public activity and the ownership of property. The working people received real freedom of speech, the press, and assembly, and of uniting in trade unions and other mass organisations.

In early November 1917 the Soviet Government published the Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which legislatively granted complete equality to all the nationalities inhabiting Russia. This put an end to the oppression of non-Russian nationalities. All nations were granted the right to self-determination up to and including secession and the formation of independent states. This did not imply that the Bolshevik Party advocated the dismemberment of the longestablished Russian state. On the contrary, it considered that it would be easier to build a new life in a united multi-

national family of nations. But the union of peoples in a single state had to be voluntary.

The Soviet Government recognised the state independence of Finland and the Ukraine, and declared null and void all the unequal treaties forced by the tsarist and the Provisional governments on China, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey. This dealt international imperialism and colonialism a severe blow, for it demonstrated a fundamentally new foreign policy in practice, a policy founded on the sovereignty and complete equality of all peoples and on non-interference in their internal affairs. The newly established People's Commissariat for Nationalities Affairs helped the formerly oppressed nations to achieve statehood and promote their economic and cultural development.

Lenin pointed out that the workers and peasants were accomplishing the revolution for the sake of the welfare of the entire nation. It was necessary that the people should see an improvement of their life immediately after the revolution. Despite the tremendous difficulties, the Soviet Government did everything in its power to satisfy the pressing needs of the people. Taking the distribution of food into its own hands, it ensured the food requirements of the working people, primarily of workers and their families. Education and medical assistance were made free of charge. The Soviet Republic was the first country in the world to introduce an eight-hour working day. Insurance against illness, loss of the capacity for work and unemployment was shouldered by the state.

The Party and the organs of Soviet power called on the masses to participate actively in the administration of the state and taught them to make use of their democratic freedoms. This promoted the activity of the people, enhanced their political consciousness, facilitated socialist transformations and became part and parcel of the socialist revolution.

Withdrawal From the War

As soon as Soviet power was established the Bolshevik Party launched an active struggle for peace. But the Soviet Government's repeated appeals and proposals for the conclusion of a universal, democratic peace were rejected by

the imperialist Governments of Britain, France, the USA, Japan and the other members of the Entente. This compelled the Soviet Government, in line with the desire of the people, to initiate talks with Germany and her allies in the hope that in the course of these talks they would be joined by other countries. The German Government agreed to an armistice, but at the talks it stipulated predatory terms.

The German imperialists hoped to remain in military occupation of Poland, Lithuania and part of Latvia and of Byelorussia, and with the aid of the Ukrainian nationalists they sought to seize the Ukraine as well. The Soviet Government had no alternative but to accept these onerous terms. It could not fight a war. The economy was dislocated. Exhausted by four years of war, the old army was no longer an efficient fighting machine. To carry on the war without an army meant destroying the revolution and jeopardizing Soviet power.

Despite these onerous terms Lenin and his associates pressed for the immediate conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany. But there was a section in the Party which opposed the treaty. It argued that the Soviet Government could not come to a compromise with imperialists, that it was impermissible for a proletarian state to come to an agreement with bourgeois governments. Regardless of the situation, the Soviet Republic, they said, had to wage a revolutionary struggle against world imperialism and bring the banner of revolution to Western Europe on its bayonets. This view was shared also by some members of the Party's Central Committee. The successes of Soviet power in the struggle against the internal counter-revolution had turned their heads. They claimed that they alone were real revolutionaries and styled themselves "Left Communists''.

A difficult situation arose in the Party and in its leading body. The "Left Communists" tagged all sorts of labels on the advocates of a peace treaty, on Lenin and his associates. They called them Right opportunists, conciliators, and traitors of the international proletariat. These "ultra-- revolutionaries" went so far as to declare that in the interests of the world revolution it might even be expedient to sacrifice Soviet power. Lenin called their statements strange and

monstrous. In the speeches made in this period Lenin, step by step, showed the adventurism and petty-bourgeois substance of the ``Lefts''. He explained that the preservation -of the Soviet Republic as the seat of socialism was the loftiest internationalist duty of Communists. The existence of the Soviet Republic and the example set by it rendered the world revolution the best service.

The opposition of the "Left Communists" prevented the Soviet Government from signing the peace treaty at once. Trotsky was also opposed to the peace treaty. As People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs he led the Soviet delegation at the talks with Germany but he did not carry out the instructions given to him by Lenin, as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, to sign the peace treaty in the event Germany delivered an ultimatum. The German imperialists took advantage of this and launched an offensive in which their troops seized more territory than they had contemplated. It cost the young Soviet Republic a tremendous effort to stop the heavily armed German troops near Petrograd.

Trotsky's conduct at the talks with the Germans was not accidental. He did not believe socialism could triumph in one country and considered that alone Soviet Russia would not be able to stand up against world imperialism. He believed that she could be saved only if power was seized by the proletariat of the European countries. By provoking the German imperialists to take action, he calculated that it would evoke an outburst of indignation among the German people and trigger a proletarian revolution in Germany which would come to the rescue of the Soviet Republic. But that was a piece of undisguised adventurism. Nobody can tell in advance when and where a revolution will take place. Lenin considered it the height of absurdity to base tactics on the calculation that a revolution would take place at a certain time in a certain country. This would do nothing but inflict enormous harm on the socialist state and on the world liberation movement as a whole. That is exactly what happened. No revolution took place in Germany, while the German offensive threatened the very existence of the Soviet state, wresting a vast territory from it.

The Party broke the resistance of the opponents to the peace treaty. On March 3, 1918, the Soviet Government

13d

signed a peace treaty with Germany in the town of BrestLitovsk.

The conclusion of that treaty did not put an end to the inner-Party struggle. Like Trotsky, member of the Party's Central Committee Bukharin, who led the ``Lefts'', held that socialism could not be victorious in one country. The ``Lefts'' maintained that the gains of the October Revolution could be upheld in Soviet Russia only if the world revolution was victorious, and that that revolution had to be pushed by means of war against world imperialism. Lenin explained that the theory of ``pushing'' revolutions had nothing in common with Marxism. Revolution cannot be exported. It breaks out as a result of the maturing of class contradictions in the capitalist countries and depended on the level of the proletariat's class consciousness and organisation and on its links with other sections of the working people.

Concerning the Soviet Government's foreign policy, the ``Lefts'' contended that the peace treaty implied `` capitulation'', that "war against international capitalism" was the "one and only prospect for the future". Bukharin argued that there could be no "peaceful co-habitation" between the Soviet Republic and the capitalist countries, that coexistence was an illusion. In his criticism of the ``Lefts'', Lenin explained that capitalist encirclement was inevitable. The victory of socialism first in one country presupposed the existence of capitalism in other countries. Under those circumstances the socialist state had to pursue a foreign policy and maintain relations with capitalist countries that would provide the most favourable conditions for the building of socialism and thereby facilitate the triumph of socialism on a global scale.

The Bolshevik Party had had to contend with ``Leftist'' petty-bourgeois vacillation in its ranks on other occasions. This vacillation sprang from the special position of the small proprietors, who in those days comprised the majority of the population. Instability, leaps from one extreme to another are a feature of this social stratum and of its ideologists. The petty-bourgeois easily moves to "extreme revolutionism", but confronted with difficulties he just as easily slumps into despondency and despair. He is incapable of the restraint, organisation, discipline and staunchness of the working

class. At crucial moments of political development, at abrupt turning-points of history, the more numerically strong the petty-bourgeois stratum is in a country the more apparent becomes the contradiction between the tub-- thumping ``revolutionism'' of the petty-bourgeois revolutionaries and their deeds, and, consequently, the greater becomes the danger of their vacillation infecting the ranks of the proletarian party.

In characterising the "Left Communists", Lenin said that despite their outwardly revolutionary statements they expressed pessimism, utter desperation and doubt in the strength of the workers and peasants of Russia.

The attempts of the "Left Communists" to wreck the Brest Peace Treaty ended in failure. The Extraordinary Seventh Party Congress, held in March 1918, endorsed Lenin's policy in the question of peace and passed a decision recommending the ratification of the peace treaty signed with Germany.

At that congress the Bolshevik Party, known for 20 years as the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Lenin showed the need for that change, pointing out that by initiating socialist transformation the Party was pursuing the objective of building a communist society.

Developments confirmed that Lenin's policy in the struggle for peace had been correct. That same year the vast majority of the "Left Communists" openly admitted their errors and resumed active Party and state work.

The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had likewise opposed the Brest Peace Treaty. In March 1918, when the Extraordinary Fourth All-Russia Congress of Soviets ratified that treaty the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries tore up their agreement on co-operation with the Bolsheviks, resigned from the Council of People's Commissars and commenced a struggle against Soviet power.

The conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty was of immense international significance. In spite of incredible difficulties, Soviet Russia had scored a victory in the struggle for peace, winning a respite. This was the first victory of the cause of peace, and it gave the Soviet system considerable stability.

Socialist Transformations

The victorious revolution and the democratic changes were hailed with great satisfaction by the masses. Rallies and meetings were held throughout the country at which workers and peasants discussed the building of the new life and the government's domestic and foreign policy. The Party's policy was explained to the people by Communists. This was a period when democracy was expressed through meetings. After the revolution this was inevitable and quite natural. But the Party saw to it that this holding of endless meetings did not drag out too long and directed the enthusiasm of the masses into the channel of creative work.

With the October Revolution Soviet Russia entered the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. After the working class had set up organs of revolutionary political power its most pressing and difficult task was to organise social production and the country's economic life on a new, socialist foundation. Socialism could not be carried into effect by a wave of the magic wand, by decrees. Private ownership of the means of production had to be abolished gradually by different ways in the different spheres of the economy.

The building of a socialist economy was started immediately after the October Revolution, with the transfer of the enterprises run by the bourgeois-landowner state to the ownership of the people. Soon afterwards the government took over the administration of the State Bank and then nationalised private banks and proclaimed banking a state monopoly. This dealt the bourgeoisie a lethal blow. All foreign loans obtained by the tsar and the Provisional Government from other states and foreign capitalists, chiefly for war preparations and the conduct of the war, were annulled.

The transfer of private industrial enterprises to the ownership of the people is a more complex business. Being the most oppressed class of capitalist society, the proletariat has neither trained cadres nor experience of managing large industries at the time it seizes power. In Russia these difficulties were all the greater because she was the first country to begin the transition to socialism. There were no ready-made patterns for reorganising the economy along socialist lines or for managing social production.

Workers take control of a factory belonging to a capitalist

Taking this into account, the Leninist Party did not hurry to expropriate the capitalists and nationalise their enterprises immediately after winning power. Its first step was to put production and distribution under the control of the workers. The appropriate law was passed and this enabled the workers to acquire experience of managing production and promote talented executives from among their midst. Within six to eight weeks in 1917 workers' control was established at all factories and mines, the railways and the water transport.

The capitalists resisted the new law. Thinking that Soviet power was unstable and hoping to overthrow it, they engaged in sabotage, hampering work of the control bodies, concealing output from them, doctoring accounts, stopping the payment of wages and closing down factories. This threatened to wreck the already dislocated economy. This economic sabotage had to be halted. Many large factories were confiscated without compensation and nationalised. The resistance put up by the bourgeoisie only accelerated nationalisation. Most of the large capitalist industries, as well as transport, the merchant marine and foreign trade were nationalised by the summer of 1918. This gave the Soviet

state the commanding heights in the economy, and the economic might of the bourgeoisie was completely broken.

The management of the socialised industry and state economic administration were placed in the hands of the newly formed Supreme Economic Council as well as of the economic councils at the local organs of Soviet power. The economic councils were assisted by the trade unions. The nationalisation of the banks, railways and large-scale industries as well as the establishment of the Supreme Economic Council enabled the Party and the Soviet Government to start the planned building of the new, socialist economy.

In The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government, which came out in print in the spring of 1918, Lenin charted a plan for the building of the foundations of socialist economy. A feature of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism is that old, pre-socialist economic systems will exist for a relatively long time alongside the incipient socialist economy. In Russia, for example, when the period of transition was started there were along with the socialist economy:

---small-commodity production, represented chiefly by the peasants, who sold their produce in the market;

---natural economy (i.e., an economy in which almost nothing is bought or sold), which embraced millions of peasants, particularly among the backward peoples of the Extreme North, Central Asia and part of the Caucasus;

---private capitalist economy (urban and rural bourgeoisie) ;

---state capitalism.

Different countries, Lenin said, may achieve the transition to socialism by various forms and methods. But everywhere the essence of this transition is to turn the socialist system into the dominant and then the only system of economy. After the socialist revolution, the building up of a socialist economy is, along with the strengthening of the revolutionary power, of the new state, the principal task of the Marxist-Leninist Party.

Lenin suggested beginning the building of socialism with strict accounting and control over production and distribution. He considered it possible and useful to utilise state capitalism, i.e., private capital controlled by the state, with the purpose of accelerating the building of socialism. It was

Peasants divide a landowner's estate among themselves

planned to lease individual enterprises and sources of raw materials to capitalists on definite terms and together with them, to set up joint-stock companies. It was particularly important to utilise the various forms of co-operation: supply-and-marketing, consumers' and producers' associations of small proprietors. Through co-operative societies the socialist state can direct and regulate the exchange of goods between town and countryside.

In starting the building of socialism, the Communist Party proceeded with circumspection, utilising many transitional forms (workers' control, state capitalism, co-operation) to bring about the socialist reorganisation of the economy gradually and least painfully.

It devoted special attention to labour productivity. The main objective of socialism, Lenin said, was to achieve higher labour productivity than under capitalism. It was therefore necessary to increase the productive forces, utilise natural resources more rationally and develop heavy industries, i.e., the fuel, metal, chemical, heavy engineering and electrical engineering industries, and also to raise the level of education and place all the scientific and technical achievements of capitalism in the service of socialism.

In order to secure a high level of labour productivity, socialist consciousness must be cultivated in the working

10-1359

U5

people and they must be given a material incentive to work and encouraged to increase output. Emulation, i.e., a voluntary mass movement for a high level of labour productivity, acquired the utmost importance. But the Party had to start by tightening up labour discipline and declaring war on idlers and grabbers, who sought to feather their own nests and give the state as little as possible. These were the manners and morals cultivated by capitalism. Many people could not at once realise that they were no longer living in a bourgeois state. A person fresh from the capitalist world found it difficult immediately to appreciate that public property was the property of the people and that it had to be safeguarded and multiplied.

The greatest difficulties were encountered when agriculture was reorganised along socialist lines. Soon after the October Revolution part of the farm labourers and poor peasants began setting up agricultural communes in the lormer landowner estates. Some of these estates were turned into state farms. These were the first shoots of socialism in the countryside.

The building of the foundations of socialism came up against the desperate resistance of the kulaks---wealthy peasants. In those days there were about two million kulak farms, which comprised approximately one-tenth of the total number of peasant husbandries in the country. The kulaks made an attempt to rule the countryside, to subordinate the land-hungry peasants. They hated Soviet rule for protecting the interests of the poor and middle peasants, and were the mainstay of the internal counter-revolution and the foreign imperialists. Anti-Soviet revolts were instigated by them. In the spring of 1918, due to the economic dislocation and the bread shortage, the Soviet Government confirmed the immutability of the monopoly on grain. This meant that only the Government could procure grain from the peasants and sell it. The peasants, including the kulaks, had to sell grain to the state at fixed prices. However, the kulaks hid grain and engaged in profiteering, calculating to strangle Soviet rule by hunger.

A relentless struggle went on in the countryside between the peasant poor and the kulaks. The poor sections of the peasants fought the kulak domination, but they lacked organisation. The Party and the Government called on the

front-rank workers to go to the countryside en masse with the purpose of helping the peasant poor in their struggle against the kulaks. Thousands of worker teams headed by Communists responded to this call. At the same time, on Lenin's recommendation, a decree setting up Poor Peasants' Committees was passed in the summer of 1918. These committees, which included middle peasants, were set up under the leadership of local Party and government bodies.

They became the bulwark of Soviet rule in the countryside, rallying the working peasants round the working class and helping the government undermine the strength of the kulaks and break their resistance. Nearly 50 million hectares of land as well as large numbers of horses, oxen and implements, which they had seized during the division of the landed estates, were confiscated from the kulaks and turned over to the working peasants. The Poor Peasants' Committees helped to confiscate surplus grain from the kulaks and supply the urban population and the Red Army with food. Thanks to these committees many of the peasant poor started husbandries of their own. The bulk of the rural population was rising to the level of middle peasants. Although the strength of the kulaks was considerably undermined, the Soviet Government did not, at the time, set the task of abolishing the kulak farms. All it did was to compel the kulaks to abide by Soviet laws. At the close of 1918, after fulfilling their mission the Poor Peasants' Committees merged with the rural Soviets, thus strengthening Soviet power.

The First Soviet Constitution

The Fifth Congress of Soviets was convened in July 1918. Nearly two-thirds of the delegates were Communists, and many of the non-Party delegates sympathised with the Communists and whole-heartedly supported their policy.

The importance of this congress is that it adopted the first Soviet Constitution. This Constitution legalised the Soviet state system and abolished private ownership of factories, land and natural resources. It granted the people equal rights and equal duties regardless of their nationality or race, and

io»

_M7

defined the structure of the organs of Soviet power in the centre and in the localities. The hammer-and-sickle coat-- ofarms adopted by the Soviet state eloquently showed that the Soviet system rested on the alliance between the working class and the peasants.

The first Soviet Constitution ensured all the working people of Russia with the right to participate in the administration of the state but disfranchised the exploiters. This measure had to be taken because of the fierce resistance that was being put up by the deposed exploiters and their accomplices, who depended on assistance from foreign states.

Socialist construction began to encounter resistance from the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Although the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had resigned from the Soviet Government in the spring of 1918 they still had representatives in the Soviets. When the Communist Party began setting up Poor Peasants' Committees and curbing the kulaks, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries championed the kulaks. While the Fifth Congress of Soviets was in session their leaders organised an anti-Soviet revolt in Moscow and attempted to seize power. This revolt was stamped out in a matter of hours, but by this action the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries exposed themselves in the eyes of the working masses. At the Fifth Congress of Soviets it was decided to expel from the Soviets those Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who were engaged in anti-Soviet activities. A considerable number of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries broke away from their leaders and gave their support to the Soviet government. Some of them later joined the Communist Party.

The Bolsheviks successfully mastered the difficult art of administration and taught this art to the workers and peasants. As the leading force of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party united and directed the work of the Soviets, the trade unions and the Young Communist League. There had been trade unions before the revolution, while the Young Communist League was founded in October 1918. The Party did not control these organisations but through the Communists in them showed them that it was pursuing a sound policy and, on that basis, implemented its decisions. Under its leadership, the public organisations linking the Party up with the masses formed the smooth-running mechanism of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The advocates of capitalism, particularly the Right-wing leaders of the Social-Democratic parties in the capitalist countries, slandered the proletarian dictatorship. They asserted that the proletarian dictatorship was a vehicle of brute coercion for the suppression by the working class of the rest of the population. This was nothing but a malicious fabrication.

The dictatorship of the proletariat suppresses only the deposed exploiters, only those who attempt to restore the power of the exploiters and regain a strangle-hold on the people. Soviet power used force only when it was compelled to do so by counter-revolutionaries. The working class displayed the maximum of humanity even towards its class enemies, giving them every opportunity to change their minds and consciously submit to the will of the majority of the people. When the tsarist General Krasnov, who engineered a revolt immediately after the October Revolution, was defeated and taken prisoner, he was released on the strength of a promise never again to rise against the people. But he proved to be dishonest: he fled to the south where he again mustered counter-revolutionary military units.

Kautsky and other leaders of the Second International, who had betrayed the working class, declared that the proletarian dictatorship should not infringe upon the rights even of the handful of exploiters, alleging that such an infringement clashed with genuine democracy. In the autumn of 1918 Lenin wrote The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky in which he explained that compared with bourgeois democracy the dictatorship of the proletariat was a higher type of democracy. It was a democracy for the bulk of the people, for the formerly exploited masses, and restricted the rights solely of the exploiting minority. Bourgeois democracy, on the other hand, signified democracy solely for the exploiters and their dictatorship over the working people. Lenin underscored the antithesis between the bourgeois and the socialist state. The state, he pointed out, had emerged as an organ of coercion, of the rule of the exploiting minority (slave-owners, feudal lords, capitalists) over the majority, over the working masses. The dictatorship of the proletariat, on the other hand, was an organ of the rule of the overwhelming majority of the people over the small band of deposed exploiters, an organ for the

U8

building of socialism. The substance of Soviet power was that it integrated democracy for the broad masses with a revolutionary dictatorship against the exploiters.

Soviet power. Whiteguard armies and various anti-Soviet organisations were formed in the outlying regions where tsarist officers, generals and other counter-revolutionaries assembled. Some of these organisations went so far as to call themselves the "government of Russia". With the purpose of dismembering the country, the imperialists gave every support to the bourgeois nationalist parties, helping them to set up so-called national governments in the outlying regions. The counter-revolutionaries received massive military and material aid from the capitalist states.

In the spring of 1918 the imperialists of Britain, France, Japan and the USA sent troops to intervene in Soviet Russia's internal affairs. Helping the Russian counter-- revolution, they occupied huge territories in the North, the Far East, the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. The German imperialists instituted a reign of terror in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The Mensheviks, who had seized power in Georgia, were afraid of their own people. They came to an agreement with Germany, letting German troops occupy Georgia. Instigated by the US, British and French imperialists and with their aid, Rumania, which was ruled by a bourgeois-landowner government, seized Bessarabia.

Soviet Russia found herself in a ring of fire. The armies of the whiteguards and the interventionists were incomparably better armed and supplied and had trained officers. In the Soviet Republic itself the counter-revolutionaries organised revolts, conspiracies and acts of terrorism. On August 30, 1918, the Socialist-Revolutionaries made an attempt on Lenin's life, seriously wounding him.

The principal grain regions and sources of oil and coal were captured by enemies. Transport worked irregularly. The factories ceased production---there was no raw material or fuel. The urban population starved. Economic dislocation, famine and epidemics placed the Soviet Republic in a critical position.

First Victories at the Front

But Soviet power rested on the support of the proletariat and the working peasants, who had seized power for the first time in history and were prepared to die rather than

DEFENCE OF THE SOCIALIST MOTHERLAND

Imperialists Attempt to Smash the Homeland of Socialism

The deposed exploiting classes never reconciled themselves to the loss of power and privileges. The landowners and capitalists possessed enormous material means as well as political and military experience, and they had broad ties with international capitalism. They could rely on the numerically large kulak class in the countryside. But within the country they did not have sufficient strength to put up resistance to the people.

With supreme apprehension the imperialists watched the working people of their respective countries and the oppressed peoples of the colonies rise under the impact of the October Revolution. Moreover, the Russian revolution had hit the pockets of the foreign capitalists, depriving them of their enterprises in Russia. In addition, the British and French capitalists lost thousands of millions of rubles when the Soviet Government annulled the loans that had been granted to the tsar and the bourgeois Provisional Government. That gave the imperialists cause to hate the Soviet Republic. They took advantage of its military weakness to make an attempt at uprooting the shoots of socialism before they could gather strength.

The first such attempt was made by the German imperialists. They inflicted huge losses on the voung Soviet Republic but fell short of their objective, which was to destroy it.

Russia's former allies were preoccupied with the war against Germany and were initially unable to send considerable forces against the Land of Soviets. However, they gave every assistance to the counter-revolution within the country. These two forces---the internal counter-revolution and the foreign imperialists---united in their struggle against

Former bourgeois could frequently be seen doing the work of navvies.

The peasants had to deliver all their food surpluses to the state, for which they received payment. But inflation was rife and money was almost worthless. Essentially speaking, the peasants gave their surpluses of food to the state without remuneration. They accepted this policy, and made every effort to supply food to the urban population and the Red Army and raw materials to the factories. They knew that this was the only way to defend the country, do away with landowners and capitalists and retain the land they had received from Soviet power. This gave shape to the military-political alliance of the working class with the peasants in the struggle against the interventionists and whiteguards, in defence of the gains of the revolution.

During the Civil War and the foreign intervention war communism was the only policy that could be pursued and it fully justified itself. However, war communism does not lead to socialism. While considering that war communism benefited Soviet power, Lenin said that it was a temporary measure forced on the country by the war and the economic ruin.

One of the first regiments of the young Red Army on its way to fight the whiteguards and foreign interventionists

allow the landowners and capitalists return to power. The Communist Party mustered the people for a sacred war of liberation against the interventionists and internal counterrevolution. It turned the country into a single military camp. Regiments and divisions of the Red Army were formed rapidly. The Party sent its finest forces into these regiments and divisions, and all the reserves of the huge, ravaged country were placed in the service of the Army.

The Civil War and intervention prevented the Soviet Government from implementing the economic policy Lenin had charted in the spring of 1918. Instead, the Party was compelled to pursue a policy that has been called war communism. Under this policy the nationalisation of the large enterprises was followed by the nationalisation of all medium and many small enterprises; free trade was forbidden; universal labour conscription instituted; compulsory deliveries of food were introduced in the countryside. The principle of "He who does not work, neither shall he eat" was put into practice. All people capable of working had to work. People who did not work were not issued food ration cards. The forms of work for people from the wealthy classes were determined by the local organs of Soviet power.

A sitting of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defence, 1918

The Party's sound policy and organisational activity backed by the heroism and devotion of the workers and the working peasants enabled Soviet Russia to withstand the onslaught of international imperialism. The young Red Army quickly grew into an efficient fighting machine. Gifted military leaders came to the fore from the ranks of the Communist Party and from the midst of the people. They included Mikhail Frunze, Vasily Chapayev, Kliment Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny, who outgeneraled the experienced whiteguard and foreign generals. The Party, the trade unions and the YCL mobilised their members for service in the Army. Three hundred thousand Communists or more than half of the Party membership were in the Red Army fighting at the front. The post of military commissar was instituted in the Army. As representatives of the Party and the Soviet Government, the military commissars handled the political education of the troops and controlled commanders who had been officers in the tsarist army.

In November 1918 the Soviet Government set up a Workers' and Peasants' Defence Council with Lenin at its head. This Council had full charge of the country's manpower reserves and material resources, directing them towards the defeat of the interventionists and whiteguards. The backbone of the Red Army consisted of workers. Soldiers from poor and middle peasant families, who saw that the interventionists and whiteguards were bringing back the old regime, rallied round the workers.

In occupied territories the whiteguards and interventionists restored the power of the landowners and capitalists. Tens of thousands of Soviet people fell victim to brutal terrorism. The landowners took the land away from the peasants. The factories were returned to the capitalists. The proletariat and the working peasants united round the Communist Party, which was their organiser, to defend the gains of the October Revolution and the independence and sovereignty of the Soviet Republic. Communists organised a mass partisan movement behind the enemy's lines.

Sympathising with the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia, troops of the interventionist armies refused to fight them. A revolution broke out in Germany in November 1918. Soviet troops and partisans liberated territory occupied by the German imperialists, and the Soviet Government

Lenin in the presidium of the First Congress of the Communist International

repudiated the predatory Brest Peace Treaty. The working people of the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia restored Soviet power and formed Soviet national republics. The Entente interventionists likewise suffered defeat. The Red Army won its first major victories in the autumn of 1918.

Soviet Russia was greatly aided by the revolutionary upsurge in Western Europe. In some countries matters reached the stage of an armed struggle. Soviet power was established in Hungary and Bavaria in the spring of 1919.

Communist Parties were formed in many countries. The First Congress of Communist and Left socialist organisations of 30 countries was held in Moscow early in March 1919. At this congress a decision was passed to set up the Third Communist International. This was a smashing victory of Marxism-Leninism over social-reformism in the international working-class movement. The finest revolutionary forces of the international proletariat rallied under the banner of the Communist International.

Second Party Programme

The Eighth Party Congress was held in March 1919, when the Civil War was at its height. The Soviet Republic was encircled by the armies of the internal counter-revolution and the powerful imperialist states. However, the Party was firmly confident of victory over the enemies of the revolution and, in deciding questions of war, it therefore looked ahead. The congress adopted a new Party Programme drawn up by Lenin. This programme defined the Party's tasks for the entire period of transition from capitalism to socialism. All its propositions were aimed at building socialism. It characterised Soviet democracy as a democracy of a higher type and bared the class substance and spuriousness of bourgeois democracy.

In the political field, the tasks set by the new programme were:

---to turn the Soviets into the only foundation of the entire state apparatus, both local and central, from top to bottom. Extend local self-administration to the maximum. Steadily raise the cultural and organisation level of the masses and promote their independent activity;

---while recognising the necessity for uncompromisingly crushing the resistance of the exploiters, to regard the denial of political rights and other restrictions on the freedom of the exploiting classes as a temporary means of struggle. All these measures to be stopped when the possibility for the restoration of the power of the exploiters disappears;

---to encourage ever broader masses of the working people to make use of their democratic rights and freedoms. To enlarge the material facilities for this by expropriating the bourgeoisie and placing premises for meetings, printshops, stocks of paper and so forth at the disposal of the working people;

---to ensure real equality of people regardless of sex, religion, race or nationality;

---to draw the organs of power ever closer to the masses, particularly by enhancing the responsibility and accountability of officials;

---to utilise the certain constitutional advantages, necessary during the period of transition, enjoyed by the industrial proletariat as the most organised, enlightened and

steeled section of the working people to secure a closer alliance with the foremost members of all sections of the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat as well as with the middle peasants;

---to give every member of the Soviets a definite job in the administration of the state with the purpose of combating manifestations of bureaucracy in the Soviets. Gradually to draw all the working population into the administration of the state.

In the economic field the Party's main objective was to ensure the utmost development of the country's productive forces. Provision was made for turning all the means of production into public property and promoting all economic activity according to a single state plan. Science and the extension of its links with production were accorded an important role in economic development.

The programme set the task of organising large-scale socialist agriculture through the setting up of state farms and all-out assistance to all forms of collective farming.

The Party considered that it had to assist individual husbandries in every way in order to increase their labour productivity with the object of giving the country as much farm produce as possible. In this sphere the measures envisaged in the programme were:

---to regulate the utilisation of land by the peasants;

---to supply peasants with improved seeds and artificial fertilisers and help them to improve livestock breeds;

---to improve peasant land;

---to establish hire stations where peasants could rent implements on favourable terms and to open state-run workshops for the repair of implements;

---to set up experiment stations as centres showing peasants how to tend crops and livestock;

---to disseminate agronomical knowledge among peasants.

The programme defined the Party's policy on the nationalities problem. The aim of this policy was to draw the working people of all nationalities together for a joint struggle against exploiters, for socialism. The task was set of eradicating the distrust of the formerly oppressed nations for the proletariat of the formerly oppressing nation as quickly as possible. The programme required the abolition of all privileges of nations, the granting of complete equality

to all nations and the recognition of the right of colonies and unequal nations to secede and form independent states. Early in 1919 there were five independent Soviet Republics on the territory of the former Russian empire. These were the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian, Byelorussian-Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Soviet Socialist Republics. The Eighth Party Congress recommended the pooling of their military and economic efforts for the speediest defeat of the interventionists and whiteguards, and the programme declared that it was advisable to form a federative union of Soviet Republics.

In the improvement of the material and living standard of the people and in the promotion of their cultural level, the programme called for:

---an eight-hour working day with a six-hour working day for persons under 18 and for people engaged in particularly unhealthy industries, and the banning of night work, overtime and work in unhealthy occupations for women and juveniles;

---a 42-hour rest at the end of the working week and an annual paid leave, and also a 16-week paid maternity leave for women;

---full social insurance for industrial and office workers who have lost the capacity for work;

---an all-out improvement of housing for the working people;

---free medical attention;

---free and compulsory education for all children under the age of 17, the building of pre-school institutions, the opening of all institutions of higher learning to all who desire a higher education, first and foremost, to workers, the utmost state aid to workers and peasants wishing to improve their education and cultural level, and free access to all art treasures;

---the broadest propagation of communist ideas with the use for this purpose of the apparatus and means of state power.

Implementation of many of these measures was started soon after the establishment of Soviet rule.

In addition to adopting the new programme, the congress debated the question of the attitude to be taken towards the

middle peasants. By its composition the peasantry is heterogeneous, consisting of three strata: poor, middle and wealthy peasants (kulaks). After the October Revolution there were in Russia more than 10 million peasant households, of which six million were poor, more than two million middle and about two million wealthy. The revolution had shown the political leanings of each of these strata. The poor peasants, like the workers, solidly backed Soviet power. The kulaks were its enemies. The middle peasant wavered because he was partly a proprietor and partly a worker. He had his own husbandry, which he strove to enlarge with the aim of becoming rich. But he did not exploit the labour of others, tilling his land by himself. As a proprietor he gravitated towards the bourgeoisie, but as a toiler he gravitated towards the workers.

While the working class was engaged in a bitter struggle against the bourgeoisie for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and, later, for the consolidation of that dictatorship, the middle peasant bided his time and pondered what side to take. After the October Revolution, when Soviet power transferred the landed estates to the peasants, he gave it his support. But in the summer of 1918, when circumstances compelled the Soviet Government to take all surplus grain from the peasants at fixed prices and ban the free sale of grain, the middle peasant swung to the side of the bourgeoisie. In some places he even participated in kulak, anti-Soviet actions. During the first year of the existence of the Soviet Republic, the working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party, therefore, made every effort to strengthen its alliance with the peasant poor, while with regard to the middle peasant it continued the same policy as it had pursued before the October Revolution, namely, a policy aimed at neutralising the middle peasant, i.e., securing his alienation from the bourgeoisie. The middle peasants found that experience was the best adviser. When the foreign imperialists attacked the Soviet Republic and the whiteguards used their assistance to restore the old regime in a number of regions, the middle peasant saw that the landowners were again depriving the peasants of land. This brought him firmly over to the side of Soviet power and he gave it his active support. But this turning-point was not the only factor. Important changes had been effected

in the countryside during the very first year of Soviet rule. Millions of poor peasants received plots of land confiscated from the landowners and kulaks and started husbandries of their own. This brought them to the level of the middle peasants, and middle-peasant farms now comprised more than half of all the peasant farms. The Party had to take this into account when it framed its policy.

The new policy towards the middle peasants was substantiated by Lenin at the Eighth Party Congress. Communists regard the alliance between the working class and the working peasants as the basic and supreme principle underlying the dictatorship of the proletariat. The congress, therefore, endorsed the policy, proposed by Lenin, of promoting a firm alliance with the middle peasants, with emphasis on the poor peasants, for the struggle against kulaks and all other enemies of Soviet power. In the alliance between the working class and the working peasants the leading role had to be played by the workers.

The congress recognised the need for drawing the peasants into the building of socialism. The first step in this direc-¹ tion was the abolition of private ownership and the socialisation of the means of production. Socialisation was directed by the working class, which utilised its power for this purpose. But it adopted a differential approach in implementing socialisation: it relieved, without remuneration, the big landowners and capitalists of the wealth they had appropriated by confiscating their land, factories, banks and so forth and making them the property of the people. The working peasants were likewise proprietors, but they were small proprietors. In order to consummate the triumph of socialism their means of production had also to be socialised. But force could not be applied to the peasants. They had to be shown the advantages of large-scale farming and of the voluntary pooling of their means of production. That required time, a series of transitional measures and various forms of co-operation. The Party therefore considered it impermissible to use force with regard to the middle peasants, stressing that concessions had to be made to them and that they had to be helped to find acceptable ways and means of reorganising their life along socialist lines. These propositions were included in the Party Programme.

The decision adopted by the congress on the peasant problem played a major role in defeating the enemies of Soviet power, building socialism and promoting the international revolutionary movement. The question of the relationship between the working class and the working peasants and other small proprietors is vital to every country taking the road of socialism. It is of particular significance to countries where the working class is only nascent and the main burden of the struggle against the imperialists and their accomplices from among ``own'' reactionaries falls on the shoulders of the working peasants. The experience of many Asian and African countries has shown that this struggle can be successful providing there is unity among the peasants and they are led by progressive parties pursuing the line of alliance with the socialist countries and with the revolutionary working class of other countries.

The congress debated the ways and means of further strengthening the Party and improving its work, and found it necessary to purge the Party of casual and bureaucratic elements and to adopt a strict approach to the admission of new members, particularly from among the non-proletarian strata of the population.

When the Communist Parties of the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Turkestan, Latvia and Estonia were formed the question arose of their relationship to the RCP(B). Delegations from the Communist Parties of all the Soviet Republics were present at this congress. In line with proletarian internationalism, the congress found it necessary to preserve the existence of a single centralised Communist Party uniting the Communist Parties of all the Soviet national republics and have a single directing centre---the Central Committee of the RCP(B). The congress stated that the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of the republics enjoyed broad rights and were subordinate to the Central Committee of the RCP(B).

The decisions passed by the Eighth Congress and the new programme adopted by it gave the workers and peasants a clear-cut outlook on the building of socialism. The programme explained to the working people of the whole world how the socialist revolution triumphed in Russia, why it was inevitable in all countries and where its strength lay.

11-1359

Victory Over the Interventionists and Whiteguards

The struggle against the foreign interventionists and the whiteguards lasted for three years. It was an unprecedentedly grim struggle and caused the young Soviet state incalculable hardship. Time and again the Soviet Republic faced a critical situation. Operating from Siberia, an army commanded by Kolchak seized the Urals and moved from the east in the direction of the Volga. The army commanded by Denikin approached Tula from the south and threatened Moscow. The suburbs of Petrograd were occupied twice by Yudenich's forces. The Crimea was in the hands of Baron Wrangel. The White Poles advanced from the west. Gangs commanded by General Miller were in occupation of the northern regions. All these armies were directed and strengthened by the military command of the leading imperialist countries. The enemy controlled the country's richest regions---the Ukraine, the Caucasus and Siberia. The foreign press of those days reported that the Bolsheviks were on the verge of collapse. It was repeatedly reported that Soviet power had ceased to exist.

But Soviet power had been set up by the people themselves, and it could not be destroyed in the same way as a people cannot be destroyed. Lenin, head of the Soviet Government and Chairman of the Council of Labour and Defence, and the Party appealed to the people and the Army every time the situation grew menacing. Their appeal gave birth to new forces. The finest members of the Party and fresh detachments of workers and Komsomol members were sent to the threatened sectors, and the enemy, already proclaiming victory, suffered defeat and took to his heels. Hungry and poorly shod, dressed and armed, the men of the Red Army---all of whom were workers or peasants--- displayed unparalleled self-sacrifice and heroism. At the front and in the rear, led by the Party's Leninist Central Committee and the Soviet Government the working people found the strength to surmount seemingly insuperable difficulties in face of the heaviest of odds.

The struggle of the Soviet people against the interventionists and whiteguards was facilitated by the revolutionary struggle of the international proletariat. In the

capitalist countries the working people disrupted the supply of weapons to the whiteguards and the interventionists and set up Hands Off Russia committees. Thousands of volunteers from many countries joined the international detachments of the Red Army. The support and sympathy of the workers and peasants of the whole world gave the working people of Russia strength and confidence in victory.

By the close of 1920 all the crusades launched by the imperialists and their allies in Russia were routed. The interventionists and the whiteguards were driven out of Siberia and Central Asia. Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan and then in Armenia and Georgia. The attempts to destroy the Soviet state by military strangulation ended in failure. With the exception of the Soviet Far East, where the Japanese invaders and the whiteguards clung on until 1922, the entire country was cleared of foreign interventionists and the whiteguard hordes towards the close of 1920. True, with the aid of foreign imperialist armies the bourgeoisie recaptured Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Part of Moldavia (Bessarabia) as well as of the Ukraine and of Byelorussia were temporarily wrested away.

Explaining the reasons for the victories of the Red Army in the Civil War against the superior united forces of the interventionists and the whiteguards, victories that could not but seem miracles, Lenin wrote: "It was only because of the Party's vigilance and its strict discipline, because the authority of the Party united all government departments and institutions, because the slogans issued by the Central Committee were adopted by tens, hundreds, thousands and finally millions of people as one man, because incredible sacrifices were made---it was only because of all this that the miracle which occurred was made possible."""

This was a signal victory in defence of Soviet power, the independence of the Soviet state and of the conditions for peaceful socialist construction.

While the grim struggle against the foreign invasion and the whiteguards was raging, the Party never for a moment relaxed its promotion of economic development. This problem was examined at the Party's Ninth Congress, which was convened in the spring of 1920. A plan for Russia's electri-

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 446.

11*

76.3

Party's second programme, and assessed its significance in the following words: "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country."''^^1^^"

Why the Communist Party Became the Only Party in the Country

In a number of countries, which had embarked upon the building of socialism later and in different historical conditions, there are, in addition to Marxist-Leninist Parties, which direct socialist construction, other political parties that express the interests of classes and social groups allied to the proletariat (peasantry, small urban proprietors, some sections of the intelligentsia). Such is, for example, the case in Poland, Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic. Why had only one party ultimately stood its ground in the Soviet Union?

The numerous political parties that existed in Russia gradually disintegrated and died a natural death in the course of a fierce struggle. During the Civil War all strata of the working people saw for themselves that the Communist Party was the sole consistent champion of their interests and the most determined fighter upholding the independence of the Soviet Republic against the encroachments of the imperialists of all countries. During the three years of bitter Civil War the workers and peasants saw the self-sacrifice of Communists on the many fronts and were infected by the example of courage and staunchness set by them. In the flames of that sacred war of liberation the workers and peasants came to know the Communist Party closer than ever before, appreciated its ability to administer the Soviet state and placed boundless confidence in it.

The leaders of the Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary and other petty-bourgeois parties that had opposed the October Revolution found themselves in the camp of the enemies of Soviet power along with the parties of the bourgeoisie and the landowners. The Communist Party adopted flexible tactics towards vacillating political groups and elements in the petty-bourgeois parties, making every effort to help those

Lenin speaks of the plan of electrification, 1920

fication covering a period of 10-20 years was drawn up on Lenin's instructions as far back as February 1920 by a large team of experts led by Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, an eminent power engineer who had been associated with Lenin ever since the Party was founded. This plan was approved by the Congress of Soviets in December 1920. The congress sat in the Bolshoi Theatre. There was no fuel in Moscow and the hall was not heated. The city transport was at a standstill. The delegates went to the sittings on foot. So little electricity was generated that in order to illumine the electrification map, which was demonstrated at the congress, even the Kremlin had to be cut off from the power supply. And under these conditions the Congress of Soviets, the country's highest organ of power, debated the electrification plan, whose daring and colossal scale astounded its contemporaries.

It envisaged the building of 30 power stations with a total output of 1,500,000 kw. For its day it was a breathtaking plan. Lenin wrote about it as of a great programme that would arouse the enthusiasm of the worker masses and the politically conscious peasants. He regarded it as the

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 516.

who were prepared to co-operate with Soviet rule, stop their wavering and understand the need for and support of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Communists sought agreement with them in order to weaken the camp of the revolution's adversaries.

In the summer of 1918 the leaders of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had engaged in counterrevolutionary activities, were expelled from the Soviets by the workers and peasants. But in the autumn of 1918, when the German revolution and the first lessons drawn from the foreign military intervention made them swing over to the side of Soviet rule, the Bolsheviks at once took this swing into account. Those Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who turned down an alliance with the Russian and foreign bourgeoisie were granted the right to take part in the administration of the country. They began to publish newspapers. But they soon dropped this stand, and during the Kolchak offensive in the spring of 1919 they came forward as an anti-Soviet force. The Government was compelled to close their newspapers once again, but it did not ban these parties. The Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary and other petty-bourgeois parties had representatives in the Soviets as late as the end of the Civil War (December 1920).

But the further the October Revolution developed, the more the roads of the petty-bourgeois parties and the working masses diverged. The peasants, artisans and working intellectuals learned much during the revolution and the Civil War. The long and sanguinary Civil War made it imperative for all the parties to clarify their positions. Irreversibly the question was: either to go against the Bolsheviks (which meant backing the whiteguards and interventionists against their own people) or to side with the working people against the landowners and the capitalists (which meant an alliance with the Bolsheviks, because no other political force in the country could organise and head the struggle against the whiteguards and the interventionists). The working people of Russia made their choice: they accepted the leadership of the Bolsheviks and they won. The leaders of the Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary and other petty-bourgeois parties sided with the whiteguards and the interventionists and together with the latter they were thrown on the rubbish heap of history,

This process took place not only in the Russian Federation but also in the outlying, non-Russian regions. In those regions as well, the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties compromised themselves by collaborating with the foreign imperialists. The workers and peasants of those regions denounced the treachery of these parties and united round the communist organisations, preferring an alliance with the Russian workers than with their bourgeoisie and their parties. By consistently pursuing an internationalist policy the Communist Party won unquestioned prestige among the formerly oppressed peoples.

There were revolutionary elements in the petty-bourgeois parties as well, and these elements (Left Socialist-- Revolutionaries, Mensheviks-internationalists, Left Bundists, Borotbists in the Ukraine and many others) dissociated themselves from the counter-revolutionary activities of their leaders and formed organisations and parties of their own which accepted the policy of the Soviet Government. The Communist Party met these revolutionary elements halfway and co-operated with them. Gradually, seeing the overwhelming majority of the working people rallying round the Communists, all these parties and groups found their separate existence inexpedient and disbanded voluntarily. Many of their members joined the Communist Party. In this way Bolshevism attracted the finest elements from its kindred trends in socialist thought.

That left the Communists as the only Party in the country and it enjoyed the undivided trust of the people.

THE LENINIST ROAD TO SOCIALISM

The Soviet State in the Struggle for Peace

Having defeated the whiteguards and the interventionists, the Party could now concentrate the attention and efforts of the people on economic development. For their part the imperialists encircling the Soviet Republic had not abandoned their intention of launching another military intervention. A prudent and flexible policy had to be pursued to

1G7

avert this danger. Soviet foreign policy, formulated by Lenin, was aimed at promoting peaceful coexistence with the capitalist countries. When the Civil War ended, he said: ". . . we are in a position of having won conditions enabling us to exist side by side with capitalist powers.""'

Headed by Lenin, the Communist Party and the Soviet Government unswervingly pursued the objective of consolidating peace. At a conference in Genoa, Italy, convened by the capitalist powers to discuss post-war co-operation, the Soviet Government proposed a general reduction of armaments. This proposal was turned down. At the League of Nations in 1927 the Soviet Government proposed the complete disarmament of all states. This proposal was also turned down. The imperialists were nurturing plans for another intervention against the Soviet Union.

This forced the Soviet Union to divert a considerable portion of its then small means to enhance the fighting capacity of the Red Army. Many capitalist powers, particularly the USA, which clung to its objective of wiping the Soviet system off the face of the earth, did not recognise the Soviet Government for many years. The capitalists hoped to strangle the young Soviet Republic with an economic blockade. They were certain that Soviet power could not independently rehabilitate the economy, which had been laid waste by the First World War, the foreign intervention and the Civil War.

Indeed, the Soviet Republic found itself in an extremely grave situation thanks to the imperialists and the whiteguards. The factories were idle because there was no fuel and raw materials. Many factories had been destroyed by the interventionists. One can imagine the extent of Russia's ruin if in 1920 the output of her large-scale industry was only a little over 14 per cent of the pre-war level. There was a shortage of all necessities---clothes, footwear, kerosene and even matches and salt. In the countryside wood splinters were used as lighting at night, and the people wore homespun clothes and bast shoes.

The plight of the workers was particularly desperate. Their daily food ration consisted of a thin slice of bread, but there were days when they did not receive even that meagre

ration. Famine compelled many workers to go to the countryside with their families and engage in farming. The workers who remained in the towns managed to exist by making household utensils and bartering them for food.

The peasants experienced grave want. Their farms were falling into decay. The interventionists and the whiteguards had slaughtered large numbers of livestock and poultry and had confiscated grain. Besides, a devastating drought hit the country in 1921. The crop failed and there was famine in many gubernias.

A clearer idea of these conditions can be drawn from a comparison between Soviet economy of those years and the economy of the USA. In 1920 the USA produced 55,000 million kwh of electricity, while Soviet Russia produced only 500 million kwh; the figures for other output were:

USA

coal 600,000,000 tons oil

62,000,000 "

steel 43,000,000 "

Soviet Russia

about 9,000,000 tons

4,000,000 " only

200,000 "

Some quarter of a million tractors were in operation in the USA. In Soviet Russia there was not a single tractor; instead there were 8,000,000 wooden ploughs.

The Party Shows the Way Out of Poverty and Backwardness, the Road to Socialism

To restore the country's economy the Soviet people needed lasting peace. The problems facing the Communist Party and its leader, Lenin, were how to lead Soviet Russia out of economic ruin and poverty as quickly as possible and how to build socialism.

The answers to these questions were given by the Tenth Party Congress, which sat in March 1921. Lenin delivered the main report, which dealt with how to find the surest ways and means of building socialism. The main thing was to establish a correct relationship between the two principal classes---the workers and peasants---under conditions of peace. Lenin pointed out that the relationship between these classes determined the destiny of Soviet power. Just

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 412,

as it had been possible and necessary to drive out the landowners and the capitalists, so it was imperative for the working class to live in harmony with the peasants.

Workers and peasants are brothers in labour. Both classes had been oppressed by the landowners and the capitalists. In order to exist they must supplement each other. The peasants produce food for the workers, while the workers produce implements, machines and consumer goods for the peasants. The Party's policy, Lenin said, had therefore to be aimed at consolidating the alliance between the workers and peasants. The war communism policy, which the Government had been forced to implement during the military intervention and the Civil War, had to be superseded by a New Economic Policy. In fact, this policy had been charted by Lenin as far back as 1918, but the Civil War had cut it short.

Under conditions of peace the relations between workers and peasants must rest on an economic foundation. Industry and agriculture must exchange goods through trade, a form of exchange that had existed for centuries and become second nature to the peasants. But to promote trade it was necessary first to restore and then further develop the economy. Moreover it had to be developed in such a way as to give priority to heavy industry, which was the key to the building of other branches of the economy and to raising labour productivity.

The country lay in ruin. Economic life had come to a standstill. Its revival, Lenin said, had to be started with the restoration of agriculture. First and foremost, it was necessary to feed the workers, to save them from starvation. Food would be given by the peasants, who would also supply industry with raw material---cotton, flax, wool and hides. Industry would regain its strength and begin producing goods needed by the peasants when the workers received sufficient food and the factories received raw materials. Therefore, conditions had to be created in the countryside which would give the peasants the incentive to develop agriculture with an eye to producing food surpluses that could be sold to the workers and the urban population and also to sell grain and agricultural raw materials to the state.

Lenin proposed annulling the surplus requisitioning system introduced during the Civil War and replacing it with a tax in kind. It had to be a small tax. The peasants real-

ised that they had to give part of their product to the state. Taxes were paid by workers and office employees. Industry had to be restored and enlarged and the state apparatus that served the peasants as well, had to be maintained. The Red Army, which protected the Soviet Republic and the peaceful labour of the workers and peasants, had to be fed. The peasants, who had received land from the state for their free use would therefore willingly give part of their product to the state free of charge, in the form of a tax. Their surplus, after they had satisfied their own needs, would be sold in the market and the money used for the purchase of manufactured goods. That would establish a trade link between town and countryside and give the peasants the incentive to increase output, and the alliance between the workers and peasants would grow stronger.

The introduction of free trade, Lenin said, in some measure harboured the threat of a revival of capitalism. There would be private traders and small private enterprises. A bourgeoisie would emerge. But that was not dangerous to the socialist state for it held such commanding heights as the banks, a monopoly over foreign trade, and the nationalised industrial enterprises, railways, the water transport and the land. With these levers it was possible to restrict the growth of private capital, which would ultimately be ousted by state industry and trade.

Free trade fans proprietorship passions among the peasants as well. Many would seek to grow rich at the expense of others. The working class and its Communist Party had, therefore, to be vigilant and firmly regulate trade and the entire economy, direct and control them and place them in the service of socialist construction.

The New Economic Policy was calculated to operate throughout the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. Lenin was confident that socialism would be built in Soviet Russia on its basis.

The Tenth Congress approved these theses and passed a decision to introduce the New Economic Policy. The pertinent laws stimulating the development of agriculture were promulgated by the Soviet Government, and the peasants welcomed these laws enthusiastically.

In this sharp turn from war communism to the New Economic Policy the Communist Party displayed its wisdom

and its knowledge of the laws of social development, while the great Lenin showed his genius and scientific foresight.

The ways and means of building socialism as charted by Lenin and tested in practice in the Soviet Union are an extremely valuable contribution to Marxist theory. Inasmuch as there are peasants, handicraftsmen and artisans, these ways and means will inevitably be applied in one form or another, according to local conditions, in every country building socialism.

The Soviet system---the bulwark of the world revolutionary movement---was consolidated along the lines of the New Economic Policy. By building socialism the Party fulfilled its internationalist duty and influenced the development of the world revolutionary movement. Lenin said: "We are now exercising our main influence on the international revolution through our economic policy.. .. The struggle in this field has now become global. Once we solve this problem, we shall have certainly and finally won on an international scale."*

It was possible to carry out the far-reaching tasks of socialist construction in the extremely complex international and domestic situation only if there was complete, monolithic unity in the Party. This unity was particularly necessary because the petty-bourgeois element with its political wavering, which communicated itself to unstable members of the Party, was predominant among the population. Factional struggle and even the least deviation from the Party's steadfast policy were utilised by the enemies of the working people for counter-revolutionary purposes. That was what happened in the period of the struggle for the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, when factions formed within the Party. The same thing happened during the transition from war to peaceful, constructive labour, when factional strife was resumed over the assessment of the role played by the trade unions in the building of socialism.

Groups and factions with their own platform in opposition to the Party's principled policy and violating its organisational and ideological-political unity are impermissible in the Marxist-Leninist Party. Lenin said that Party unity

had to be guarded like the apple of ones eye. The Tenth Congress passed a decision categorically banning factional and group struggle in the Party. The penalty for any violation of this decision was expulsion from the Party.

The Leninist principle of Party unity is, as it always has been, an immutable law of Party life.

Formation of the USSR

The decisions of the Tenth Party Congress became a source of inspiration for the workers and peasants. But successful socialist construction also depended on the close unity of the peoples inhabiting the Land of Soviets. They had to be welded into a single fraternal family. The joint struggle of the working people of all the nationalities in the country had led to victory over the interventionists and the whiteguards. Now a concerted labour effort was required to surmount the economic ruin and accelerate progress towards socialism. Mutual assistance among the peoples of the different Soviet Republics was all the more vital because of the hostile capitalist encirclement. This unity was moulded by the correct solution of the nationalities problem.

The October Revolution had brought legal equality to all the nations of Russia. The task that now confronted the country was to bring economic and cultural equality to all these nations, regardless of their level of social development. This meant raising the backward peoples to the level of those in the forefront and helping them to go over from pre-capitalist forms of economy directly to the socialist system without passing through the painful stage of capitalism. To effect this transition the peoples with a more developed economy, primarily the Russian people, had to help the backward peoples build industries and train national cadres.

Much had been done to strengthen national statehood during the early years of Soviet rule. Even the most backward peoples were drawn into the administration of the state. Their organs of power and economic management, the courts, the press, the schools and the theatres used the native language. This promoted education, which had been totally neglected, and raised the cultural level.

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 437,

m

When the Civil War came to an end there were on the territory of Russia the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which consisted of the Azerbaijanian, Armenian and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republics. Khiva and Bukhara (in Central Asia) became people's republics. Each of these republics was an independent state. But at the new stage of development that had set in with peace all the republics found it necessary not only to co-ordinate their actions and, on the basis of agreements, unite certain functions of state, for example, military defence, but also achieve closer economic co-operation and unite in a single centralised Soviet state. It was clear to the people that the defence of the sovereignty and integrity of each of the Soviet Republics against imperialist aggression depended on a close alliance between these republics. Furthermore, they were aware that to surmount the economic ruin and build socialism it was imperatively necessary to pool the economic, political and military resources of all the Soviet Republics.

A movement for unity in a single Union state was started by the working people in all the Soviet Republics. The roots of this movement were in the joint struggle of the workers and peasants of all nationalities to overthrow tsarism, end the domination of the landowners and the bourgeoisie and establish and consolidate Soviet rule, and also in their joint struggle against the interventionists and the whiteguards and in their joint labour to build socialism.

The aspiration of the Soviet peoples for unity was supported by the Communist Party. It proposed the creation of a single multi-national state on a federal basis. Representatives of all the four Soviet Republics met in Moscow in December 1922 and decided to create the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Each of the Soviet Republics remained a sovereign state with its own government that independently handled all questions concerning its own republic on the basis of the laws of the USSR. There were Autonomous Republics in some of the Union Republics and these likewise had their own governments with jurisdiction over the internal life of their republics on the basis of the laws of the Union state.

Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

The single Union Soviet socialist state thus came into being. Its creator was the great Lenin. The formation of the USSR was a triumph of Lenin's nationalities policy,

17 A

which provided the world with a model for settling the formidably intricate nationalities issue. More than one hundred nationalities and nations inhabit the Soviet Union, and their unity in a single fraternal family is of epoch-making significance.

"Who Will Win?"

After adopting the New Economic Policy the Communist Party vigorously organised the people to implement this policy.

It reorganised its ranks in conformity with the new tasks. The attention of the Party organisations was focussed on economic management: the restoration of agriculture, industry and transport, the revival of trade between town and country, and the normalisation of the credit-monetary system. Thousands of Communists from the Red Army were sent to work in the economy. Many of them became factory directors and transport, state trade and co-operative executives.

The Party cells exerted all-sided influence on the operation of enterprises, controlling them from the bottom without interfering with the management. Communists were in the forefront in fulfilling production assignments and raising labour productivity.

In the villages they explained to the peasants the substance of the New Economic Policy and the new law replacing surplus requisitioning with a tax in kind. They called on the peasants to enlarge the crop area, develop animal-breeding and increase farm output, and helped them to set up cooperatives and organise their work, introduce the latest farming methods and repair farm implements.

This energetic work by the Party soon yielded results. As Lenin had foreseen, agriculture and industry were rapidly restored on the basis of the New Economic Policy. The living standard of the workers and peasants began to climb. Workers returned to the factories from the countryside. The position of the rural poor, who had lived in want, improved. The Soviet Government supplied them with seeds and farm implements.

But free trade gave rise to private traders. They cornered the retail trade and began to penetrate the wholesale trade.

Private industrialists appeared in industry, opening small enterprises with a small number of workers. In the countryside the kulaks grew in number and in wealth.

In this intricate situation some Communists lost their faith in the strength and ability of the working class to defeat the bourgeoisie in the economic sphere. We, they said, had accomplished the October Revolution, overthrown the bourgeoisie, driven out the interventionists and, after all this, we began allowing capitalism to revive. We cannot agree with such a policy. This mood was furthered by the allegations of the Mensheviks and leaders of the international SocialDemocratic movement that with the adoption of the New Economic Policy the Soviet Communists had reverted to capitalism and were going to their doom.

The New Economic Policy was indeed an important turn in the life of the country, but it did not in any way signify a regression. It put the whole system to a stern test. Lenin explained the wavering in the following words: "Every specific turn in history causes some change in the form of petty-bourgeois wavering, which always occurs alongside the proletariat, and which, in one degree or another, always penetrates its midst", and when a sharp turn occurs two torrents of wavering come to the fore: one is "petty-bourgeois reformism" and the other---petty-bourgeois revolutionism--- "menacing, blustering and boastful in words, but a mere bubble of disunity, disruption and brainlessness in deeds".*

Lenin did not close his eyes to the threat of a revival of capitalism and drew the Party's attention to the fact that in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat does not disappear but, on the contrary, acquires new forms. The issue was: Who will win? Would capitalism, i.e., the new bourgeoisie, which had emerged as a result of the New Economic Policy, and the kulaks gain strength and the upper hand first, or would the working class led by the Communist Party get control of the country's entire economy, oust the private traders and curb the kulaks? Essentially, this was a struggle for influence over the working peasants. The bourgeoisie sought to drive a wedge between the proletariat and the working peasants and draw the latter over to

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 21.

12-1359

their side. The working class had to frustrate these attempts and consolidate its alliance with the peasantry. The unbreakability of this alliance was the guarantee of successful socialist construction.

Lenin said that in this intricate situation the main thing was to sustain confidence in one's strength and, while surmounting difficulties, to move firmly towards the set goal, towards socialism.

At the time trade was the main link in the chain of economic development. It had to form the economic bridge between socialist industry and small-peasant individual production. This question was debated at the Eleventh (1922), Twelfth (1923) and Thirteenth (1924) Party congresses. It was a new field for Communists, and some of them held trade in disdain, considering that after having accomplished a great revolution they could not stoop to this sort of work. Lenin stigmatised this delusion and moved the slogan: Communists must learn to trade.

To make economic management efficient it was important to select and place cadres correctly and organise executive control over Party and government assignments, for the policy of the Party and the government was implemented with the help of the people.

Many of the Party's finest cadres were assigned to economic work. Alexander Tsyurupa, Lenin's deputy in the Government, was in charge of trade. Later Anastas Mikoyan was appointed to this post. Felix Dzerzhinsky headed the People's Commissariat for Communications and then the Supreme Economic Council. Valerian Kuibyshev directed the country's electrification and, when Dzerzhinsky died, became head of the Supreme (Economic Council.

The socialist system gained strength and developed thanks to the correct policy pursued by the Party and to the dedicated labour of the workers. Communists successfully mastered the art of economic management. They learned to trade and began to oust private merchants from the wholesale and retail trade. Efficient factory managers, who knew production, had the knack of being always in contact with the worker masses and could rely on their initiative, came from the midst of the working class.

Inspired by the Communist Party the workers enthusiastically restored factories and mines. Agriculture made head-

way. The quantity of food and manufactured goods in the market steadily increased.

The question of "Who will win?" was thus settled in favour of socialism. The Soviet Union developed rapidly.

Workers of AH Countries and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!

Under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution the struggle of the proletariat in the developed capitalist countries began to merge with the struggle of the oppressed peoples of the colonial and dependent countries. The scale of the liberation movement against imperialism became global. In speaking of this great world revolutionary process Lenin pointed out that the proletariat of the capitalist countries could finally defeat world capitalism only in alliance with the oppressed peoples of the colonies.

The Land of Soviets took over the leadership of the worldwide liberation movement, helping the international revolutionary movement, the struggle of the proletariat against exploitation and the independence struggle of the peoples of countries enslaved by imperialism. History had given the working class of Russia the lofty but extremely difficult role of pioneering mankind's liberation from imperialist and colonial oppression. The workers and the oppressed peoples of the whole world gazed with pride at the Land of Soviets, admiring its heroic efforts and successes in the building of socialism in face of the hostile capitalist encirclement. They knew that the Soviet workers and peasants were working for the common good.

The name of Lenin, inspirer and organiser of the October Revolution, leader of the Communist Party and head of the world's first proletarian state, became known in all continents. The Land of Soviets became the centre of attraction for all oppressed people. "We now stand," Lenin said, "not only as representatives of the proletarians of all countries but as representatives of the oppressed peoples as well."*

In face of enormous difficulties representatives of the oppressed masses came to the Land of Soviets from all parts of the world in order to see how workers and peasants were

*V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 453.

12*

building a new life without capitalists or landowners. Foreign delegations from working people had meetings with Lenin and his associates. Lenin had talks with revolutionaries from many countries and gave them valuable advice.

The First Congress of the Peoples of the East was convened in Baku, capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, in September 1920. It was attended by more than 2,000 delegates. This was the first time in history that representatives of the oppressed peoples of Asia and Africa had gathered with representatives of the peoples of Russia, who had won freedom, to discuss their vital problems. At this congress there were delegations from Turkey, Egypt, Iran, China, India, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Kirghizia, Bukhara, Khiva, Georgia, Armenia and other countries, as well as representatives from the Communist Parties of Europe, Asia and America. The congress adopted an Appeal to the peoples of the East, calling upon them to unite and intensify the struggle for liberation from imperialist and colonial oppression. The delegates appealed to the workers of Europe, America and Japan to support the struggle of the oppressed peoples. This Appeal ended with the call: "Long live the unity of the workers of all countries with the working masses of Asia and Africa!''

Noting the significance of this congress, Lenin said that it was a more momentous gain than some military victories. In summing up its proceedings, he approved and substantiated the new slogan of the world liberation movement: "Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!''

The emergence of the Soviet state brought into focus the demand of all the oppressed peoples of the world for liberation and for the right to self-determination. It tore up and destroyed the humiliating secret treaties on the division of Iran and Turkey, concluded by the tsar and the bourgeois Provisional Government, renounced the indemnity imposed by the tsarist government on China for the Boxer uprising of 1900, and stretched out its hand to offer fraternal assistance to all oppressed peoples of the East in their struggle for liberation. Soviet Russia was the first country to recognise the independence of Afghanistan and Iran and support their struggle against the British colonialists. When Britain, France and other imperialist countries began an intervention against Turkey, Soviet Russia helped the Turkish people

to defeat and drive out the foreign invaders and then extended economic aid to Turkey. The Red Army helped the Mongolian people to clear their country of foreign invaders. The Soviet people expressed their solidarity with the workers of Germany, Bulgaria and Poland during their revolutionary struggles in 1923. When the imperialists of the USA, Japan and Britain openly interfered in the internal affairs of China, supporting the militarists and reactionaries, the Soviet Union came to the assistance of the revolutionary forces fighting against the imperialists and the internal counterrevolution for China's independence.

In November 1922 Lenin made his last address to representatives of the international working-class and national liberation movement at a Comintern Congress attended by delegates from 58 countries. His report was entitled "Five Years of the Russian Revolution and the Prospects of the World Revolution". In this report he dealt at length with the successes of the New Economic Policy. It had satisfied the peasants. The alliance between the workers and the peasants had grown stronger. Agriculture was picking up rapidly. Industry and trade had begun to liven up. In order to administer properly, he said, all Communists had to study. Soviet Communists had to sum up the experience they had gained and skilfully direct the movement of Soviet society towards socialism. The foreign comrades had to understand the organisation, pattern, method and content of revolutionary work. "If they do that," Lenin said in conclusion, "I am sure the prospects of the world revolution will be not only good, but excellent.''^^51^^"

Lenin's Behests

Superhuman stress in work and the wound inflicted on him by a villainous Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist adversely affected Lenin's health. He fell gravely ill, but despite his illness he dictated a number of articles and letters in which he elaborated on his plan of building socialism in the USSR.

He said that the Soviet Union had everything it needed to build a full-fledged socialist society. The main thing was to industrialise the country, build the material and technical basis of socialism and develop industry, chiefly heavy in-

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 432.

dustry, as the leading branch of socialist economy. Mechanisation and electrification would increase labour productivity and sharply step up the output of manufactured goods. Industrialisation was the reliable foundation for strengthening the country's defence capacity, for protecting the peaceful labour of the Soviet people and enabling them to carry on a persevering struggle for peace, for victory in the economic competition between the socialist and the capitalist system, and facilitating the transition of agriculture to the socialist road.

Individual, small peasant farming, Lenin said, had to be transformed into large-scale collective farming. This had to be done thoughtfully and with circumspection, by persuading the peasants with examples which would enable them to see and appreciate the advantages of collective farming and voluntarily, without any compulsion whatsoever, to adopt the collective-farm system. The working class would help to deliver the peasants from their eternal want, supply the collective farms with tractors and other farm machines and lighten their arduous labour. The switch-over to the collective-farm system was a very intricate and difficult undertaking, but it had to be done. Once the collective-farm system was established, public ownership of the means of production would be consolidated in all branches of the economy, labour productivity would rise in agriculture, the alliance between the working class and the peasants would become unbreakable and socialism would triumph.

To industrialise the country and build up a collective-farm system in the country it was necessary to achieve a sharp rise of the cultural level and train cadres. Illiteracy had to be wiped out: primary and secondary schools had to be opened everywhere, the number of institutions of higher learning had to be increased and scientific communist ideology had to be cultivated in the minds of the people. In short, a cultural revolution had to be accomplished.

Socialism is built by the dictatorship of the proletariat. The strength of the Soviet socialist state depended on the firmness of the alliance between the working class and the working peasants. It was therefore necessary to keep strengthening this alliance, in which the leading role was played by the working class headed by its Communist Party.

In his last works Lenin devoted special attention to Party

unity. Socialism, he said, would not triumph without a united and monolithic Party. Those who violated this unity must be expelled from the Party. In order to maintain Party unity, he emphasised, there had to be collective leadership in the Party. This was the supreme principle underlying Party leadership, a principle Lenin strictly observed. He considered one-man decisions of fundamental issues of Party policy impermissible, for this was a practice that could lead to a distortion of the Party line and of communist ideology. A correct Party policy and its successful implementation could be ensured only by the collective wisdom of the Party and its Central Committee.

Lenin's legacy to the Party consisted not only of a plan of building socialism but also of the style of leadership that he had worked out for the ruling Communist Party. He exhorted the Party to keep in constant touch with the masses, take their mood into account, study their creative experience, absorb their collective wisdom and not only teach but also learn from them. He set an example of constant intercourse with the people. He toured factories and villages, talked to workers and peasants, spoke at their meetings, helped to enhance their political consciousness and listened to criticism of the Party and the Government.

He personified the new, higher type of political leader who had unshakable faith in the creative strength of the people. He closely watched the appearance of shoots of the new in society and considered that it was the prime duty of the Party and the Government to support and disseminate every valuable initiative in the building of socialism.

He was intolerant of red tape, toadyism, eyewash, exaggeration of successes, and deceit. He always told the people the truth about the state of the country's economy, violations of the law, arbitrary actions by bureaucrats and of the mistakes committed by the Party and the Government. Truthfulness and honesty, he said, were the cardinal qualities of a Communist. Only truth, no matter how bitter it sometimes is, inspires the people to surmount shortcomings and difficulties, and to rectify errors, and enhances the prestige enjoyed by the Party.

Lenin could not tolerate people who tried to extol him, stress his services and fawn upon him. He was a model of modesty. He sharply stigmatised arrogance and conceit and

was opposed to people infected by these vices being appointed to leading posts.

His illness advanced. There was nothing the doctors could do. The whole country read the bulletins on the state of their beloved leader's health with anxiety. Workers and peasants in all parts of the country sent messages wishing him recuperation. But the illness was inexorable. On January 21, 1924 the heart-breaking news flashed around the world that Vladimir llyich Lenin had died. It shook the working people of the entire globe. The leader of the Communist Party, the Soviet people and the world proletariat was dead. The creator and leader of the world's first socialist state, the great theoretician of communism and the organiser of the Third Communist International had died.

Lenin lay in state for several days. Despite the bitter frost, an endless line of people filed past the coffin to pay their last respects to their unforgettable leader and teacher.

On the day of the funeral the working people of the Soviet Union and many capitalist countries stopped work for five minutes. In bidding farewell to their leader they vowed to complete the cause he had initiated.

His embalmed body was placed in a Mausoleum erected in Moscow's Red Square, and to this day people from all parts of the earth converge on the Mausoleum to pay tribute to Lenin and to pledge that the work to which he had devoted his life would be completed, that communism would triumph throughout the world.

Leader, Friend and Teacher of the Working People of the World

Why had Lenin become the universally recognised, beloved leader of the working and oppressed people of the whole world? Why had his name become the banner of the struggle of the working people of all countries and continents?

The answer to these questions is that the working and oppressed peoples of the whole world saw that Lenin was sublimely devoted to men of labour, that he courageously upheld their interests and that.he lived and worked for their happiness. His genius and inexhaustible energy were directed towards the uprooting of all forms of oppression, towards

The Communist Party, the Soviet people and the working people of the whole world pay their last tribute to Lenin

replacing the unjust exploiting society with a just communist society. The oppressed masses had for ages dreamed of deliverance from exploitation. The beginning for this deliverance was laid by the Great October Socialist Revolution, which was accomplished under Lenin's leadership. For the first time in history, the working people overthrew the exploiters, took their destiny into their own hands and got down to administering their country and building a new, happy life. The Red Flag, the beacon of socialism, was raised on onesixth of the planet. The overthrow of the exploiting classes and the creation of the world's first proletarian state, whose workers and peasants took the road of socialism and communism, was the main result of Lenin's life and work.

The proletarians of the whole world saw the position of the workers being radically changed in Russia under Lenin's leadership. The working class of Russia shook off the yoke of capitalist exploitation and became the ruling class. The Soviet Union was the first country to shorten the working day to eight hours. The factories were confiscated from the capitalists and made public property. The workers began to administer the state themselves. These aspirations of the workers of the whole world were translated into reality by the proletariat of Russia. The Soviet state, which was headed by Lenin as soon as it was created, was regarded by the proletarians of all countries as their Motherland.

The working peasants of the whole world saw their ageold dreams embodied in the Soviet Union. In response to the calls of Lenin and of the Party led by him, the working peasantry of Russia, in alliance with the workers, delivered itself once and for all from landowner oppression, received land and acquired political freedom. It participated in the administration of the state. The working peasants of the globe were profoundly grateful to Lenin for showing them a sure way of delivering themselves from landowner oppression and capitalist bondage and putting an end to want, darkness and ignorance.

The peoples of the colonial and dependent countries, enslaved by imperialism, saw for themselves that under Lenin's wise leadership the Soviet Union was the first country to make away with the oppression of nations, with national and racial discrimination. They saw that in the Soviet Union there was genuine equality of all nations, big and small,

advanced and backward, and that the distrust and hostility that had reigned among the nations inhabiting Russia had given way to close friendship and fraternal co-operation in the building of socialism. Lenin's propositions that formerly backward peoples could achieve the transition to socialism without going through capitalist development, propositions that had been translated into reality in the Soviet Union, were of immense significance to the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, whom the imperialists and colonialists had doomed to economic and cultural backwardness. The working masses of the colonial world saw the realisation of their dreams in the Soviet Union, and they expressed their profound respect for Lenin, who showed them how to end colonial slavery and imperialist oppression and move towards freedom and progress.

The whole of progressive mankind, the working people in particular, highly assessed Lenin's determined struggle for peace among nations and for the eradication of wars of aggrandizement. Lenin proclaimed the famous Decree on Peace, which he had personally drawn up (it was the first decree published by the Soviet Government), took Russia out of the imperialist war of 1914-18 and helped to stop it, thus saving the lives of millions of people. He proclaimed the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems and spared no effort to secure its recognition by the ruling circles of the capitalist countries. This principle is the unshakable foundation of the Soviet Union's peace-loving foreign policy.

The whole of working and progressive mankind saw in Lenin a profound and consistent internationalist, an implacable enemy of chauvinism. Time and again Lenin declared and proved in practice that in the Soviet Union he, the Communist Party, the working class and the whole people were furthering the cause of the international proletariat and of all the oppressed and enslaved peoples of the world. The October Revolution, which was carried out under his leadership, marked the beginning of the world socialist revolution, which will triumph sooner or later. The highest purpose of Lenin's life was to unite the proletariat and oppressed peoples of all countries into a single mighty army of fighters against imperialism and colonialism, for democracy, national liberation and socialism. He explained that

1S7

the international proletariat was the main revolutionary force in the world. Only the proletariat, which rallies all the working people round itself, can overthrow the imperialist bourgeoisie by accomplishing a socialist revolution. Lenin said that the working class of the capitalist countries discharged its international duty by its revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie and by its determined support for the liberation movement of the oppressed peoples. On the other hand, the oppressed peoples were allies of the proletariat. The closer this alliance grew the more effective became the struggle against imperialism, which was the common enemy. Imperialism and colonialism could be destroyed only by uniting the proletariat of the capitalist countries and the oppressed peoples of the colonial and dependent countries round the Soviet Union.

Lenin was the generally recognised leader, friend and teacher of the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world.

The life and work of Lenin, brilliant continuer of the teaching and cause of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, have exerted and continue to exert a powerful influence on the entire course of modern world history.

In the Theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin it is stated:

``Lenin's life was a feat. It was a life of creative thought and tireless revolutionary action, of ideological and political battles. Lenin embodied the most outstanding qualities of the proletarian revolutionary: a powerful intellect, an all-conquering will, uncompromising hatred of slavery and oppression, revolutionary passion, consistent internationalism, unbounded faith in the creative strength of the masses, and a colossal genius for organisation.

The Lenin Enrolment. Workers recommend a work-mate for membership in the Communist Party

in the USSR and he had armed the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples with confidence in ultimate victory over imperialism.

Following Lenin's death there was a steady influx into the Communist Party. More than 240,000 workers joined the Party during the first six months after his death. There had never been such a mass influx before and it was called the Lenin Enrolment. It brought into the Party front-rank workers, who had been active in the October Revolution, heroically defended Soviet power during the Civil War and the foreign intervention, and rehabilitated industry and the economy as a whole. The Party's proletarian core was strengthened, and this was of the utmost importance for the implementation of the Party's tested MarxistLeninist policy.

In the single year between the Twelfth Congress, held in April 1923, and the Thirteenth Congress, held in May 1924, the Party membership more than doubled. Most of the new members were industrial workers. This was striking testimony of the growth of the Leninist Party's prestige among the worker masses.

The Party After Lenin's Death

The death of Lenin was an enormous loss to the Party, but it did not, as its enemies calculated, cause confusion in its ranks. Communists rallied closer round the victorious banner of Leninism. Lenin had given the Party and the Soviet people a brilliant plan for the building of socialism

The Thirteenth Congress was the first congress to be held after Lenin's death and was devoted entirely to the fulfilment of his behests.

It stressed the need for consolidating the Party membership and enhancing the Party's leading role in the Soviet state. This was facilitated to a large extent by the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of foremost workers. The congress set the task of stepping up ideological and educational work in the Party, arming young Communists with Lenin's ideas, and drawing them quicker into active Party and Government work, and into economic and cultural activity. All Communists were called on to master Lenin's style and method of work.

The congress instructed the Central Committee to strengthen iron Bolshevik discipline, safeguard the Party's unity and consistent political line and sternly suppress every manifestation of factional activity as resolutely and firmly as in Lenin's lifetime. "The RCP's firmness and solidity on the basis of the immutable principles of Leninism," states the resolution adopted by the congress, "is a key requisite for the further successes of the revolution.''

In the last years of his life Lenin was particularly concerned with enhancing the Party's militancy, with ensuring the harmonious and efficient work of all its organisations, above all of the Central Committee. He noted that thanks to its extensive and fruitful work the CC had become a highly authoritative organ, and that this authority had to be maintained and strengthened to the utmost. He was emphatic on the point that in the Central Committee there should be no discord that might lead to a split in the Party and threaten the very existence of the proletarian state.

In fulfilment of Lenin's behests the membership of the Central Committee was enlarged; the congress elected many Party functionaries working in local Party organisations to the Central Committee. At the same time, the congress enlarged the Central Control Commission, bringing workers into it. One of this Commission's principal tasks was to strengthen Party unity and stop any attempt, no matter by whom, to undermine the unity of the Party's ranks. The decisions passed by the congress were permeated with concern for enhancing the Party's prestige and its leading role in the Soviet state.

Industrialisation Is Started

The Communist Party directed the efforts and energy of the Soviet people towards the fulfilment of Lenin's behests. By the end of 1925, the country's economy was, in the main, restored thanks to the New Economic Policy. Agricultural output had come close to the pre-war level. The peasants were sowing as much land as before the First World War. Considerable headway had been made by large-scale industry as well. It had reached 75 per cent of the pre-war level of output. State and co-operative industry was accounting for four-fifths of the country's industrial product, while private industry contributed one-fifth. The domestic trade turnover was almost three-fourths of the pre-war level. Half of it was accounted for by state enterprises, one-fourth by the co-operatives and the remaining one-fourth by private enterprise. Wholesale trade was almost entirely in the hands of the state.

The material position of the working people had improved substantially. The real wages of the workers were higher than before the war. The peasants had more to eat and were buying more manufactured goods. The cultural level was rising. The circulation of newspapers and magazines was on the upgrade and more schools, theatres, clubs and readingrooms had been opened. Cinemas and the radio appeared in the countryside.

The Soviet Union's position had been consolidated in the international arena. A steadily increasing number of capitalist countries were establishing diplomatic and trade relations with it.

Led by the Communist Party, the Soviet people were making steady progress towards socialism. This progress had to be accelerated.

The Fourteenth Party Congress was convened in December 1925. It decided to implement Lenin's plan of industrialisation, which would turn the Soviet Union from an importer to a producer of machines and equipment, supply the economy with the most up-to-date machinery and ensure the Soviet Union's economic independence. Industrialisation became the Party's general line. The congress renamed the Party into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).

Communists vigorously undertook the country's industrialisation. Thousands of new factories had to be built, the old factories had to be re-equipped with modern machinery, and the material and technical basis of socialism had to be created. Attention was focussed on building up heavy industries, for this was the bedrock of all further successes: the growth of the country's productive forces, the reorganisation of agriculture along socialist lines, the strengthening of the Soviet Union's defence capacity and the enhancement of the standard of living. Industries that were undeveloped or completely non-existent had to be built; these included the heavy engineering, machine-tool building, electrical engineering, automobile, chemical, defence, tractor and harvestercombine industries.

The finding of the huge sums of money for investment in building was the major difficulty in promoting industrialisation. Credit was refused by the foreign capitalists. The money was found in the country itself. The revenue from industry, foreign and domestic trade, the railways and the water transport was channelled into the development of heavy industry and rigid economy was introduced.

The annulment of the loans received by the old regime and on which a rate of interest amounting to 800-900 million gold rubles annually had to be paid, helped to build up the funds for industrialisation. Part of the money, in the form of taxes, came from the population, the peasants in particular, who had been freed from the payment of rent to landowners and from the need to purchase land. In addition, domestic loans were successfully floated.

As early as 1926 the Soviet Government invested nearly 1,000 million rubles into industry, and by 1929 the investments had grown to over 5,000 million rubles. The new projects made rapid headway. There was very little machinery and other equipment, but the workers, inspired by the ideals of socialism, worked miracles. Industrial output grew at a faster rate than in the capitalist countries.

Defeat of the Trotskyites

Another difficulty was that by promoting socialist industrialisation the Soviet Union was breaking new ground. Besides, there was a shortage of industrial cadres, especially

engineers and technicians. Bourgeois elements, regenerated during the period of the New Economic Policy, endeavoured to disrupt the country's industrialisation. There were sceptics and capitulators in the Party. The Party line was opposed by Trotsky.

Trotsky disagreed with Lenin and the Party on the basic question of the possibility of building socialism in one country taken separately. He and his supporters contended that socialism could not be built in the Soviet Union until capitalism was overthrown in the principal Western countries. They argued that because of its backwardness the Soviet Union had not matured for this, that socialism could be built only when the working class of the West European countries seized power and rendered state aid to the Soviet workers. Trotsky maintained that the Soviet working class was not strong enough to crush capitalism in its own country. He did not believe in the alliance between the workers and peasants, regarding the peasants as a counter-revolutionary force that would inevitably come into collision with the working class and oppose the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Whenever the Soviet Union found itself in a difficult situation, Trotsky renewed his attacks on the Party in an effort to engineer a split. In the autumn of 1923 the difficulties attending the marketing of manufactured goods gave rise to some popular dissatisfaction. Trotsky took advantage of this situation and also of the fact that Lenin was seriously ill to accuse the Party's Central Committee, of which he was a member, of leading the country to ruin.

In opposition to the steps taken by the Party to reduce the prices of manufactured goods, Trotsky proposed raising the prices, knowing full well that this would only add to the dissatisfaction of the peasants. This would have wrecked the alliance between the proletariat and the working peasants and threatened the Soviet state with destruction.

Trotsky accused the Party leadership of opportunist degeneration, comparing the Leninist cadres with the opportunist leaders of the Second International. An incongruous situation arose: the incorrigible opportunist Trotsky, donning Marxist clothes and hiding behind revolutionary phrases, accused genuine Marxist-Leninists of opportunism.

The Party gave a decisive rebuff to Trotsky and his supporters, pointing out that Trotskyism represented not only a

13-1358

direct departure from Leninism but that it was also a clear expression of a petty-bourgeois deviation. The disorganising activities of Trotsky were denounced at the Thirteenth Party Congress in May 1924 and at the Congress of the Communist International held in July of the same year.

In face of the unanimous condemnation of his stand, Trotsky promised to stop his anti-Party struggle and submit to Party discipline. But this was only a manoeuvre designed to deceive the Party. In the autumn of 1924, after Lenin's death, Trotsky started another smear campaign against the Party. He distorted the history of the struggle for the October Revolution, claiming that in 1917 Lenin and the Party had adopted his, Trotsky's theories. He attributed the principal role in organising the October insurrection to himself despite the fact that everyone knew that that role had been played by Lenin. He would not have dared to spread this monstrous slander during Lenin's lifetime.

The Central Committee was compelled once more to raise the question of Trotsky's anti-Party behaviour. It found that he was trying to supplant Leninism by Trotskyism and sternly warned him that he would be expelled if he did not cease his struggle against the Party.

Two members of the Party's Central Committee, Zinoviev and Kamenev, came to Trotsky's assistance. They had opposed Trotsky, but now they formed a so-called New Opposition and together with Trotsky launched a drive against the Party, against Leninism. Like Trotsky, they waved the flag of Leninism and swore fidelity to it, and although they quoted Lenin's utterances they completely distorted their substance. Like Trotsky they maintained that socialism could not be built in the Soviet Union and had no faith in the strength of the proletariat, in its ability to lead the working peasants to socialism. They called Soviet economy state capitalism, and declared that what the Soviet people were building was not socialism but capitalism. The New Opposition accused the Party of bourgeois degeneration and opportunism, of going over to kulak positions. Some of the members of this ``Opposition'' demanded that emphasis should be placed on the development of the light industry instead of the heavy industry. Had the Soviet Union adopted that line it would have found itself dependent on the capitalist states and in bondage to them.

The Fourteenth Party Congress emphatically condemned this ``Opposition'' and called upon the Party to combat all attempts to undermine its unity no matter who sponsored or headed these attempts.

The struggle of the New Opposition against Leninism, against the Party's Leninist line of building socialism in the USSR, pushed it into an alliance with the Trotskyites. They planned to take the Party leadership into their own hands and delay the building of socialism in the Soviet Union until the triumph of the socialist revolution in Europe. The Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc took final shape in the spring of 1926 and started a campaign to split both the Party and the international communist movement. They established contact with renegades, who had been expelled from the fraternal Communist Parties of the capitalist countries. They made a futile attempt to split the Communist International.

The international situation grew tense in 1927. The imperialists were planning a new intervention against the Soviet Union. Britain broke off diplomatic relations with the USSR and the threat of war hung heavy in the air. Trotsky openly declared that if war broke out the Opposition would use the situation to overthrow the Leninist Central Committee and the Soviet Government and seize power. This was a threat to stab the Party in the back and amounted to assistance for the enemies of Soviet power and of the world communist movement.

To all intents and purposes the Trotskyites were a party in themselves, a party that was functioning illegally. They had their own leadership, collected membership dues, published anti-Soviet leaflets in an underground print-shop and publicised their anti-Leninist platform.

The logic of the anti-Party struggle thus brought Trotsky and his small band of supporters into the camp of the counterrevolution. This was mirrored in their attempt to organise an anti-Soviet demonstration in Moscow and Leningrad. On November 7, 1927, which was the tenth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a sorry handful of dissentients attempted to march in the streets with Trotsky's slogans but they were dispersed by indignant workers.

The Party's patience was exhausted. It had expended a great deal of energy to bring Trotsky and his supporters to their senses. But when the Trotskyites openly pursued a

counter-revolutionary policy the Party could no longer tolerate them in its ranks. At the Fifteenth Party Congress in December 1927 it was stated that the Trotsky-Zinoviev opposition had broken with Leninism, degenerated into a Menshevik group, taken the road of capitulation to the international and internal bourgeoisie and become a weapon of the class enemy against the dictatorship of the proletariat. The congress proclaimed the propagation of Trotskyite ideas as incompatible with Party membership and expelled Trotsky and his active supporters from the Party. The others were warned that if they failed to accept the Party line and continued to espouse Trotskyism they would also be expelled from the Party. Many of them saw the perniciousness of Trotskyism and gave up their splitting activities. The parties in the Communist International likewise expelled Trotskyites from their ranks.

Trotskyism was defeated, the struggle waged by Trotsky against Leninism, against the Party, ending ingloriously. For his counter-revolutionary activities Trotsky was banished from the country. Abroad he renewed his struggle against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and against the international communist movement.

perity only by working collectively. The Communist Party had to help them move from the lowest to the highest forms of co-operation, i.e., from supply and marketing co-- operatives to producers' co-operatives using machines, to collective tilling of the soil, to agricultural artels. The collective farms had to combine the peasant's public and personal interests. Some collective farms had been organised soon after the October Revolution and the peasants closely followed their development. Their desire to form such farms had to be encouraged. "If the whole of the peasantry," Lenin wrote, "had been organised in co-operatives, we would by now have been standing with both feet on the soil of socialism."""

A new task in agriculture was set by the Fifteenth Party Congress. It summed up the results of the first years of socialist industrialisation. Large-scale socialist industry was growing at a much faster rate than in the big capitalist states. But in agriculture, although total output had exceeded the pre-war level, grain production had not yet reached that level, while the quantity of marketable grain was only 50 per cent of that level. Agriculture was not satisfying the bread requirements of the growing towns or the raw material requirements of the expanding industry. The solution lay in large-scale collective farming with the use of modern machinery.

The Party steered a line towards the collectivisation of agriculture. It launched a campaign with the purpose of showing the peasants the advantages of collective farming and, at the same time, intensified the offensive against capitalist elements along the entire front: in industry and trade, and against the kulaks in the countryside.

The crop failed in the Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus in 1928. The kulaks, who had large stocks of grain, decided to use the grain shortage to incur a famine and overthrow Soviet power. They hid grain, refusing to sell it to the state at fixed prices. They murdered Party and government functionaries and rural activists. Extraordinary measures were taken against them. Those who sabotaged Soviet laws were taken into custody and tried, and their grain caches were confiscated. Part of the confiscated grain was turned over to the peasant poor and the rest went to

Collectivisation

Soviet industry grew rapidly but agriculture lagged behind, giving rise to the threat of disproportionate economic development. Life itself demanded the implementation of Lenin's co-operation plan.

Lenin had foresightedly regarded the agricultural cooperatives as the most accessible and understandable means of drawing the peasants from individual to collective, socialist farming. He therefore attached the greatest importance to the co-operation of peasants. Under the bourgeois system, he said, co-operation was a capitalist enterprise, but in a socialist state it coincided with socialism.

The state, he declared, had to render the co-operatives financial support and grant them economic privileges and benefits. In the co-operatives the peasants learned to work collectively and to appreciate that individually they would never free themselves from want. They could secure pros-

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 474,

the state granaries. This broke the resistance of the kulaks and frustrated their counter-revolutionary schemes, while the state set up grain reserves.

The blow dealt the kulaks was not to the liking of some members of the Party. A Right-wing opportunist opposition led by Bukharin emerged. The Party was working towards the liquidation of the kulaks as an exploiting class, while Bukharin and his supporters preached the idea that the kulaks would grow into socialism. This group of Right opportunists attempted to force the Party to capitulate to capitalist elements. Bukharin, who had begun a struggle against the Party from ``Left'' positions in 1918, now went over to the camp of the Right capitulators. ``Left'' opportunism grew into Right opportunism---that was the logic of the development of the struggle against Marxism-Leninism. The advocacy of capitulation inflicted serious harm on the Party and the Soviet state. After the defeat of Trotskyism, the Right deviation became the main danger in the Party.

Lacking support among the Party masses, the Right opportunists looked for allies among the defeated Trotskyites. Bukharin conducted behind the scenes talks with them. When the Party Central Committee sharply condemned the Bukharinites and declared that the propagation of their views was incompatible with Party membership, the leaders of the Right opportunists submitted a statement to the Central Committee in which they admitted that they had been wrong.

In the course of more than twelve years the Communist Party thus had to wage a principled struggle against ``Left'' and Right opportunists, for the purity of Marxism-Leninism, for the Party's Leninist general line. The opportunists were defeated ideologically, and this enabled the Party to concentrate all its strength on the fulfilment of Lenin's plan of building socialism in the Soviet Union.

had more than 1,200,000 members, half of whom were workers. It had mastered the art of administration and was using this art to promote socialism. Its prestige had grown. The workers and the working peasants appreciated and whole-heartedly supported the policy of the Party, which had secured monumental achievements.

More and more industrial enterprises were built. The Party devoted particular attention to carrying out Lenin's plan of electrification. The Volkhov Hydropower Station, situated near Leningrad, became operational in December

1926. With a capacity of a little over 50,000 kw it was the largest power development in the country. The Soviet people rejoiced over this first success, and the new station was named after Lenin. The foundation stone of a large power station with a capacity ten times that of the Volkhov project was laid on the Dnieper on November 8, 1927. The building of other power projects commenced.

Intensive prospecting was started by geologists, who looked for deposits of ore, coal and oil and selected sites for industrial projects. The building of two giant metallurgical plants was begun: one in the Urals at the foot of Mount Magnitnaya and the other in Western Siberia near the town of Kuznetsk. The first large railway project was started in

1927. This was the 1,500-kilometre Turkestan-Siberia (Turksib) Railway, which linked Central Asia up with Western Siberia. It was proclaimed a nation-wide project, with Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Kirghizes, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmenians helping to build it. It ran across the vast steppes of Kazakhstan and the Altai foothills, where formerly there was nothing but camel caravan trails. The new railway facilitated the rapid economic development of the formerly backward regions of Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The ceremony marking the opening of this railway was attended by Sen Katayama, founder and leader of the Communist Party of Japan. Congratulating the builders on their great achievement, he said: "Your achievement is an achievement of the world proletariat.''

The Party attached the utmost importance to the production of agricultural machines and implements. These had to be supplied to 24 million peasant farms. In those days the factories produced mainly horse-drawn machines

m

Preparations for the Building of Socialism

In November 1927 the peoples of the Soviet Union solemnly marked the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. For a whole decade the Communist Party had been at the head of the socialist state of workers and peasants, It

ma

Socialist Industrialisation Giants of Heavy Industry Under

Construction

Building of a hydropowcr station on the Dnieper

The Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Plant, the Urals, under construction

• -,

The Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Plant in Siberia under construction

The Stalingrad Tractor Works under construction

came off the assembly line in June 1930. It was brought to Moscow and, on June 26, 1930, the day on which the Sixteenth Party Congress opened, driven across Red Square past the Lenin Mausoleum. Agriculture began to receive modern machines.

Intricate processes were taking place in the countryside. Lenin taught that as long as small-commodity peasant production founded on private ownership of the means of production existed there would always be a basis for the resurgence and growth of capitalism, for the restoration of capitalism. Moreover, the countryside would be divided into poor peasants, middle peasants and kulaks. Administrative measures, no matter how compelling, would not stop the growth of the kulak farms. In this respect, the example of the Soviet Union is instructive. In 1918 the kulaks were deprived of much of their land and a large number of horses and implements. Their strength was undermined. The Soviet Government pursued a policy of restricting capitalist elements in the countryside. Laws were passed limiting the lease of land and the hire of manpower by the kulaks. The taxes established for the kulaks were higher than those paid by other peasants, they were required to sell grain to the state at fixed prices, and machines were sold to them at higher prices. Despite all these measures the kulak farms went on growing. In 1928 there were more than a million of them, and they accounted for one-fifth of the grain sold to the state. During the period of the New Economic Policy the kulaks prospered and grew stronger.

The growth of the kulaks created a menace. Increasing numbers of poor peasants and even middle peasants fell into bondage to them. The Government extended every possible assistance to the village poor, freeing them from taxes and granting them easy-term credits to start farms. But this assistance could not improve their position immediately. Only socialism, only the organisation of peasants in collective farms could deliver them from kulak bondage and ensure them with a prosperous and cultured life.

After the Fifteenth Congress the Party speeded up the formation of collective farms. At the time there were some 350,000 villages with an average of 70 peasant households in each. The Party took steps to influence the entire peasantry, explaining the advantages of the various forms of

Participants in the socialist emulation movement aimed at fulfilling the First Five-Year Plan in four years

and implements: sowers, reapers, mowers, threshers, graders, ploughs, scythes and sickles. There were a few tractors, which had been purchased in the USA. The production of tractors was only being started at the Putilov Works in Leningrad. Having adopted the policy of collectivising the peasant farms, the Party set to work to create the material and technical basis for socialist agriculture. A combineharvester plant was erected in the town of Zaporozhye on the Dnieper. Construction of the huge farm machines plant was started in Rostov-on-Don. A mammoth tractor plant was built in the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) on the Volga in 11 months, a record in itself, and the first tractor

co-operatives in the press, through the radio and at peasant meetings.

Initially consumers' co-operatives became the most widespread. They supplied the rural population with manufactured goods. Usually the peasants of one and the same or several adjacent villages set up a rural consumers' society on a voluntary basis. Every peasant joining the society contributed a cash share. These shares made up the cash fund of the society which it used for the purchase of manufactured goods. Each society had its own shop where the shareholders bought goods. In the Union Republics the activities of these societies were directed by the central unions of consumers' societies whose agencies purchased goods from the state for the consumers' societies.

Credit co-operatives were also set up in the countryside with the active support of the Government. The purpose of these co-operatives was to help peasants by granting them easy-term loans. The Government opened the Central Agricultural Bank and allocated funds to enable it to extend credits. The cash resources were thus formed of voluntary shares and of funds allocated by the state. The credit cooperatives protected the working peasants against bondage to the kulaks. In the autumn of 1929 they united nearly 10 million poor and middle farms.

A special role was played by agricultural co-operatives. Initially they were universal, embracing all forms of agricultural co-operation: producers' co-operatives (artels and associations for the joint cultivation of the land), subsidiary producers' co-operatives (machine, land-reclamation and other associations), and associations for the marketing and processing of farm produce (dairies, creameries, cottongrowing, flax-growing and so forth). The latter were the most widespread.

The associations for the marketing and processing of farm produce did not affect the foundations of peasant production. The peasants worked on their farms and united in associations solely to market and process their marketable output. If, for example, it was a dairy association, it had a milk collecting centre or a creamery. The produce was sold to the state. As the number of agricultural co-operatives increased they began to specialise. Co-operative associations of graingrowers, beet-growers, cotton-growers, flax-growers, live-

stock-breeders and so forth were formed in the Union Republics. The state concluded contracts with them under which it pledged to supply the peasants with farm machines, implements and manufactured goods in exchange for the farm produce delivered by the co-operative associations. In 1929 more than half of the poor and middle peasant households were members of agricultural co-operatives.

The Party utilised the marketing and supply co-operatives to establish the simplest forms of producers' co-operatives and showed the peasants the advantages of collectively using machines and of social labour. More and more machine associations and associations for the joint cultivation of the land sprang up in the countryside. The agricultural co-- operatives set up machine-hire centres as well as machine and tractor teams, machine fleets and stations which on advantageous terms for the peasants helped them to work the land and bring in the crop. This was particularly useful for peasants who had no horses. The working peasantry gradually went over to collective farming. Collective-farm centres were formed in the different republics in 1927 to direct this movement.

State farms played an important role in promoting collective farming. On their example the peasants saw the inestimable advantages of machine labour. In those years more than 100,000 peasants visited the Gigant State Farm, the North Caucasus, where they were impressed by the work of tractors and other modern farm machines. Upon their return home these peasants eagerly got down to forming collective farms. Many state farms sent machine and tractor teams to help the peasants of the neighbouring villages to work the land. The Shevchenko State Farm, the Ukraine, set up the country's first machine and tractor station for this purpose. In the district served by this station all the peasants joined collective farms. The peasants closely followed the building of the tractor plant on the Volga. Daily there were delegations of peasants who came to see the project with their own eyes, the number of peasant visitors totalling some 150,000.

In this way, implementing Lenin's co-operation plan, the Party prepared the ground for the nation-wide collectivefarm movement, which got under way in the second half of 1929.

The Working Class---the Leading Force of Socialist Construction

The great postulate of Marxism-Leninism that the working class is the creator of the new, communist society was first translated into reality in the Soviet Union. Lenin wrote: "What is needed to enable the proletariat to lead the peasants and the petty-bourgeois groups in general is the dictatorship of the proletariat, the rule of one class, its strength of organisation and discipline, its centralised power based on all the achievements of the culture, science and technology of capitalism, its proletarian affinity to the mentality of every working man, its prestige with the disunited, less developed working people in the countryside or in petty industry, who are less firm in politics.""" The development of Soviet society has strikingly confirmed this proposition.

In Russia at the time the workers comprised approximately one-tenth of the population. The overwhelming majority of them were of peasant origin. After the Civil War, when the Party directed all its efforts towards the building of socialism, there were only 25 workers and three Communists per 1,000 of population, while in the countryside there were an average of 11 Communists per 33 villages.

How was the leadership of the working class ensured under these conditions? Lenin scrupulously studied the Soviet experience of proletarian leadership of the building of socialism and enriched Marxist theory with this experience.

The prestige and political influence of the working class rose immeasurably after the October Revolution. This prestige and influence had to be consolidated and multiplied by the corresponding forms of organisation.

The proletariat's leading role was mirrored, first and foremost, in the very system operating in the Soviet state. The Soviet Constitution gave the workers certain advantages in the elections to and in the activities and leadership of organs of Soviet power. The Soviets rallied the working masses round the proletariat headed by the Party. In this respect an important function was performed by the district congresses of Soviets, which consisted mainly of delegates from the rural Soviets and debated state and local problems.

The decisions adopted by them reached the most remote regions through the delegates. At these congresses the Party studied the mood of the masses, replied to their questions and promoted the most talented among them to posts in the government.

The workers had to be enlisted to help the countryside advance towards socialism. Lenin regarded this as one of the Party's cardinal tasks. Politically conscious workers, both Communists and non-Communists, sent to work permanently in the countryside, staunchly pursued the Party line. Moreover, thousands of them went to the villages to help in the elections to the Soviets and other campaigns. Wherever workers went they took with them the spirit of organisation and discipline. Workers from Leningrad, Moscow, NizhniNovgorod (now Gorky), Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the Urals, the Donbas and other major industrial centres were in the front ranks, working in the most difficult sectors and building the new, Soviet life in all parts of the boundless country.

Working-class influence on the peasants was also exerted through various urban mass organisations, the most important of which were the trade unions. The Party encouraged the trade unions to work in the countryside, and trade union members became proponents of proletarian influence over the peasants. Part of the workers belonging to the trade unions had links with the countryside and some industries were situated in rural localities. A leading role was played by the agricultural labourers' union, which Lenin called "the advanced army remaking the whole of rural, village life". The idea of assuming patronage over villages was put forward by the worker masses. The Party supported this initiative whereby factory workers took part voluntarily, independently and directly in the struggle for socialism in the countryside. Initially this was a cultural patronage, and later it spread to production. The movement was started by individual factories, which assumed patronage over separate villages, and it developed into patronage of industrial regions over agricultural regions.

The poor peasants were the Party's bulwark in the countryside. During the early period after the revolution, when the Soviets had yet to gain strength, there were, as has been noted above, Poor Peasants' Committees. Later poor peasant groups were organised by the Soviets and co-operatives.

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 389.

With the Party's assistance, poor peasant associations were also formed in the Ukraine, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In these associations there were middle peasants as well. Thanks to their improved organisation the poor peasants exerted an ever-growing influence on social life in the countryside and were active in the struggle against the kulaks.

The Party awakened the peasant women to political activity. They were grateful to the Government for giving them equality with men and gave it their utmost backing. Meetings of delegates were used as a form of work among women. Peasant women elected their delegates to these meetings where they decided many major problems of rural life. In the building of the new life in the countryside the peasant women were assisted by women from the towns.

The Komsomol was the Party's loyal assistant in the countryside. The young fighters for socialism courageously combated the kulaks and all other anti-Soviet forces, as well as stagnation and distrust for the as yet unexplored socialist road in agricultural development.

The central and local press rendered the peasants enormous assistance. Every district had its own wall newspaper that organised public opinion. An army of many thousands of rural correspondents, undaunted by kulak threats and assassination attempts, intrepidly upheld the cause of socialism.

The Party conducted extensive educational activity in the Red Army as well. Many young peasants served in it, learned to read and write, and they returned home politically conscious. Many former Red Army men had extensive influence in the countryside and headed the local Soviets.

Intellectuals---teachers, agronomists and doctors---were drawn into the struggle for the new life in the countryside. Political education centres were set up for peasants: rural reading-rooms, and in the towns---Peasant Houses, where peasants coming to the towns on business could count on recreation, receive advice, hear a lecture or a report or talk to local leaders.

The Party, thus, attentively followed the forms of organisation and methods of work brought to life in the course of the revolution and carefully selected what was viable, promoting and encouraging the initiative of the worker masses

The first tractor comes to the village, 1925

in organising the victory of socialism in agriculture. Lenin wrote that one of the greatest accomplishments of the October Revolution---the Soviet Revolution---was that the advanced workers, as the leader of the working peasant masses, as the builder of the state of toilers, had "gone among the people".* It is to the credit of the Bolshevik Party that it organised this movement of foremost workers and turned it into a powerful lever for remaking the long-established way of peasant life, peasant economy and mentality along socialist lines.

VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR

First Five-Year Plan

The economy was being restored on the basis of annual state plans, but the Party went further than to rehabilitate what had been destroyed. It aimed to reconstruct the entire economy on a new technological foundation. The building of thousands of large factories, power stations and new towns demanded accurate calculation as regards funds, equip-

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 397.

ment and manpower. This extensive work could not be carried on by looking only one year in advance. The Party therefore went over to long-term planning. It is impossible to plan several years ahead in a society founded on private ownership, where every factory and estate owner seeks to promote his own welfare without caring for society as a whole. In the Soviet Union socialist public ownership made long-term economic planning feasible. The First Five-Ycar Plan of economic development from October 1, 1928 to October 1, 1933, was drawn up on instructions of the Fifteenth Party Congress.

Its purpose was to build the foundation of socialism in the USSR. This meant building large factories for the production of machines for all branches of industry, agriculture and transport; setting up collective farms in the countryside; and abolishing capitalist elements in both town and countryside. Stress was laid on the building of a heavy industry, whose output had to be more than trebled in the course of five years. This was an unprecedented rate of industrial development.

When the Soviet five-year plan was announced to the world it evoked pride and admiration among the working people of the capitalist countries, and mockery and malignity among the bourgeoisie and its accomplices. The rulers of the capitalist world considered the five-year plan a pipedream of the Soviet Communists. But they had little idea of the potentialities of the Soviet system, of what the working people are capable of accomplishing when they take the destiny of their country into their own hands and work for themselves and not for exploiters.

Naturally, it was not easy to fulfil the five-year plan, to surmount the country's age-old backwardness in such a short span of time. The Party did not conceal the difficulties from the people. There was practically no locally-made equipment for the new factories. It had to be purchased abroad from the capitalists at a high price, in exchange for the grain, timber and oil needed by the country itself. There was little grain to spare. The people had to tighten their belts. The state did not have the means to build factories and modern dwellings simultaneously. At the construction sites the workers lived in dugouts, tents and hastily erected hostels. Machines were in short supply and much of the heavy work had to

be performed manually. The country was short of specialists and, besides, some of the old specialists engaged in wrecking.

If the rate was slowed down and consumer goods industries given priority over metallurgical and machine-building plants industrialisation would have dragged on for decades. The Party explained to the people that the question of the rates of building a powerful socialist economy was a matter of life and death to the Soviet state. The world's only socialist state could not exist long in a hostile capitalist encirclement without an industry capable of supplying, when necessary, the needed quantity of the latest means of defence. This was clearly appreciated by the working class and it performed real miracles of labour heroism, surmounting enormous difficulties in order to take the country out of backwardness as quickly a? possible and turn it into an impregnable fortress of socialism.

Soviet workers, like the Party, lived with one desire, that of fulfilling the five-year plan at all costs. The country was turned into a building site. Two mammoth metallurgical projects, the Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk plants, were erected in the Urals and in Western Siberia. Coal-mines were built nearby. In the course of the five years these had to form another huge coal and metallurgical centre---in the East. There already was a base in the Donbas, in the South, where new factories were also built and the old ones modernised. A hydropower station, the world's largest at the time, was built on the Dnieper, in the Ukraine. The foundation of the first large-scale industries was laid in the Central Asian Soviet Republics that formerly had no factories at all.

The trade of builder became the most numerous and honourable in the country, and the foremost among the builders were Communists and members of the Komsomol. They went to uninhabited areas, carrying away with them hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts and creating and cementing collectives of young workers. The builders of the new projects were supported and provided with everything they needed by the entire people.

The Party foresaw difficulties in the mastering of new technologies and industries. Hundreds of higher and secondary technical schools were opened. To make it easier for workers to enter institutions of higher learning, special workers' faculties were opened at these institutions. Three

2/0

14*

out of every four students at the institutes and technical schools were workers. Every fourth student was a Communist. Nearly 100,000 engineers and technicians were trained during the five-year plan period. This was a new, Soviet technical intelligentsia on which the Party and Soviet power could rely. The Party urged all workers to learn to operate machines. A mass drive for technical knowledge was started. Hundreds of thousands of builders studied at technical circles, schools and courses in their spare time. Navvies and builders became steelmakers, furnace-operators, fitters, turners, drivers or electricians. When the new factories were put in operation they did not have to look for skilled

workers.

The breath-taking targets of the five-year plan released the energy of the masses. In Leningrad the workers advanced the slogan: "The five-year plan in four years!" The Party supported this patriotic initiative, and the emulation movement was joined by more than two-thirds of the workers of all the large factories in the country. It was emulation between teams, factory departments and enterprises. Communists set examples in labour. The socialist emulation movement was a new, unparalleled phenomenon, the embryo of which Lenin saw in the first Communist subbotniks'"" in 1919. Calling these subbotniks a great beginning, he wrote: "It is the beginning of a revolution that is more difficult, more tangible, more radical and more decisive than the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, for it is a victory over our own conservatism, indiscipline, petty-bourgeois egoism, a victory over the habits left as a heritage to the worker and peasant by accursed capitalism.""""' At the time it was only one of the shoots of the new. The Party tended it during the years of the five-year plan and it yielded an abundant harvest. The initiative and dedicated labour of workers, engineers and technicians surmounted many of the obstacles engendered by the country's former economic and technical backwardness. The following is one of countless examples that could be given. Blooming mills were needed to allow the country to build a large metallurgical industry. But no blooming mills were made in Russia. A German firm asked

17 million rubles in gold for one mill and promised to have it made in a year. Soviet people did not agree to put their country to this huge expense. At the Izhora Works, near Leningrad, the workers and engineers declared that they would manufacture a blooming mill themselves. The mill was ready for delivery in nine months. Its makers regarded their work as an assignment from the Motherland. When it was completed, nearly 700 of the workers employed on the job applied for membership in the Communist Party.

The First Five-Year Plan was fulfilled ahead of schedule, in four years and three months. A total of 1,500 large factories were placed in operation. Ferrous metallurgy and heavy engineering industries were built anew. Industries the country never had before were developed; these were the tractor, automobile, chemical, aircraft and defence industries. The Soviet Union became an industrial power. It now had the foundation of socialism, a large industrial and technical basis ensuring the re-equipment of all branches of the economy.

This was a major victory of the working class, an outstanding success of the policy pursued by the Communist Party.

Creation of the Collective-Farm System

The labour enthusiasm of the working class transmitted itself to the peasants. A mass movement with the objective of setting up collective farms was started at a time when the workers were pushing ahead to complete the five-year plan ahead of schedule. Headway in industrialisation had prepared the ground for the socialist reorganisation of agriculture. This was one of the key tasks in the building of socialism, for it involved a basic change in the way of life, age-old traditions and habits of 25 million peasant families.

The Party was aware that before large-scale socialist farming could get under way agriculture had to be supplied with tractors and other machines. Lenin wrote that the only way to change the mentality and habits of the small farmer was "through the material basis, technical equipment, the extensive use of tractors and other farm machinery, and electrification on a mass scale"/^^1^^'

* Labour given freely to the state on days off or overtime.---TV. ** V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 411.

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 217,

2/2

At the close of 1929, state assistance to the working peasantry, primarily to its poor sections, combined with extensive political and organisational work by the Party induced entire villages in the grain regions to go over to collective farming. This marked the beginning of nationwide collectivisation, with the main mass of the peasantry decisively voting for the switch to collective farms.

This mass movement was directed by the Party and the Government. The collective farms were granted credits, machine and tractor stations were opened to serve them and collective-farm leaders were trained at special courses. The Party appealed to the workers to help the peasants organise the new, collective-farm life. Responding to this appeal 25,000 Communist workers went to work in the countryside. They united the more politically conscious poor and middle peasants and drew the peasant millions into socialist construction.

In the drive for collectivisation errors were committed early in 1930. They sprang from the inexperience of many functionaries and from their desire to speed up the collectivisation process in violation of Lenin's injunctions that peasants should be allowed to form collective farms voluntarily and that middle peasant should be treated with tact. In many cases peasants were forced to join collective farms and socialisation covered not only the basic means of production but also the entire livestock, including poultry. These errors were utilised by the kulaks and their fellow-travellers. They incited the peasant to destroy livestock with the result that the livestock population began to diminish rapidly.

An explosive situation was caused by these errors. The Party quickly perceived the danger and urgent steps to rectify the mistakes were taken on instructions from the Central Committee. The Leninist principle of voluntary membership in the collective farms was restored, and the development of the collective farms forged ahead. By mid1930 nearly one-fourth of the poor and middle peasants had joined the collective farms.

These farms provided Soviet power with a powerful mainstay. The growth of socialist forces in the countryside created the conditions for abolishing the kulaks, who were the last and most numerous exploiting class. In areas where collectivisation acquired a mass, scale permission was given

to confiscate kulak livestock, machines and auxiliary buildings in favour of the collective farms. The expropriation of the kulaks and the denial to them of suffrage are not measures that all countries have to take. Lenin pointed out that had the kulaks been loyal to Soviet power there would have been no need for expropriating them. But in the USSR there were over a million kulak households and this large force made repeated attempts to depose Soviet rule by famine and force of arms. The kulaks savagely opposed collectivisation, intimidated peasants and murdered rural activists. Firm measures had to be taken against them. This was insistently demanded by the poor and middle peasants who had joined collective farms.

The kulaks were sent to remote regions where they had to live by their own labour. The Government made sure that they and their families were provided with housing, work and food. Subsequently the overwhelming majority of them ceased their struggle against Soviet power and obtained work at factories and state farms, gradually becoming working people. All the political restrictions imposed on them were lifted and they became equal members of socialist society.

The collective farms set up in 1930 operated smoothly and achieved outstanding successes. The state machine-- andtractor stations helped them to till the soil and harvest the crop. In the course of a single year former poor peasants found themselves prospering. They received more grain and other products than the middle peasants used to obtain from their farms. The division into poor and middle peasants disappeared in the collective farms. All enjoyed equality in the sense that the income of each depended on his work in the socialised economy. The fine example set by the first collective farms and their achievements provided convincing proof of the advantages of large-scale collective farming over small individual farming. The Party used these achievements further to promote the collective-farm movement. By the summer of 1931 a total of 13 million peasant households or more than half the number of peasant households in the country had joined the collective farms.

The consolidation of the collective-farm system was a fundamental turning-point in Soviet agriculture, a most deep-going revolutionary change which had been organised and directed by the Party and the Government. The switch

The Collective-Farm Movement Is Started

._'•-.- "\- Jt'Tr*>*.;»';•• A

Uzbek peasants hail the first tractor, 1929

Peasants join a collective farm, 1930

The tractor fleet of a machine and tractor station

from backward, tiny individual farms to large-scale socialist farming settled the contradiction between the scattered pettyproprietor agriculture and large-scale socialist industry. The experience of the first collective farms showed that even a simple pooling of farm implements considerably raised the productivity of labour, while in combination with tractors and other modern machines collective labour created the conditions for a sharp rise of output and for an improvement of the material and cultural level of the peasants.

Noteworthy headway was made in the development of state farms as well. Their means of production were the property of the state, and labour was paid for on the same terms as at factories. As early as 1932 these large mechanised farms supplied the country with more than 1,600,000 tons of grain.

Collective Farm as the Basic Type of Co-operative

The Party summed up the experience gained by the collective farms and helped the peasants who joined them. As a first step it was extremely important to define the basic form of co-operation in agriculture.

Practice had moved several forms of agricultural cooperatives to the fore. The Party studied them meticulously. Communes were established soon after the October Revolution by farm labourers and poor peasants on land confiscated from landowners. All the property in these communes was commonly owned with the exception of personal belongings (clothes, footwear). The members worked jointly and collectively enjoyed the fruits of their labour. They had no need for money because they had their meals free of charge at the common dining-rooms and the board supplied them with footwear and clothes. Distribution was thus egalitarian. Single people and people with small and large families equally enjoyed the results of the joint work. Yet no matter how well the members got on together, levelling gave rise to unfavourable criticism especially when the commune found itself in economic difficulties.

Developments showed that as a form of co-operative the commune was unacceptable for the socialist stage. The peasant had lived on his individual farm for centuries and

could not at once go over to a communist way of life. He could not understand how one could work and not get paid for his labour. Besides, the newly formed communes were unable to organise the life of the peasants on communist lines, i.e., to satisfy all their requirements. This could only be done providing there were an abundance of all blessings and a high sense of civic duty that would impel people to work to the best of their ability and reasonably conform their requirements to the possibilities of the farm concerned. There were only a few communes and they were shortlived. When the mass collective-farm movement was started they were reorganised into co-operatives.

In 1928-29, when collectivisation was only beginning, associations for the joint cultivation of the land became fairly widespread. A feature of these associations was that the peasants joining them pooled their plots of land, purchased machines and with their help jointly tilled the soil and harvested the crop. The members continued to work their individual husbandries as well. The harvest was distributed not according to the quantity of labour expended but according to the size of the plots of the members. The poor and middle peasants soon found that the associations were not a perfect form of agricultural co-operative. The plots owned by the peasants were different in size and fertility. Thus, all members expended approximately the same amount of labour but when the crop was distributed a larger share went to those who had bigger plots of land. The association could not, therefore, give all its members the incentive to increase labour productivity, and suited the richer peasants more than those with tiny plots of land. Even kulaks joined these associations, for it was to their advantage to do so. Using the screen of membership in these associations and enjoying the benefits accorded to them by the Government, the kulaks thereby avoided paying the higher taxes. As a rule, they did not work themselves, hiring farm labourers or poor peasants from among the association members to do their work. But when it came to sharing the income or enjoying the benefits, the kulaks received a larger share than the other members. Thus, the associations did not remove even kulak exploitation, with the result that in the long run they proved to be an unacceptable form of agricultural co-- operative for the majority of the peasants,

The agricultural artel or collective farm, adopted as the basic form of agricultural co-operative, was found to be the most understandable and acceptable to the peasants. Peasants set up collective farms according to rules which they themselves adopted. These rules stipulated how the collective economy had to be socialised and run. A board headed by a chairman and an auditing commission that controlled the activities of the board were elected at each farm. Through the general meeting the members participated in resolving all major problems concerning the interests of the farm and the collective farmers. The socialised property of the collective farm embraced all the draught animals (horses, oxen), part of the productive livestock (cows, pigs, sheep), the basic implements and production premises. The land, which the peasants had formerly used individually in the form of separate plots, was merged into a single tract. The collective farmer retained ownership of part of the productive livestock, poultry, small implements and all personal property: his household and items of personal use. Moreover every collective-farm family had a subsidiary plot of land for its own use. The size of this plot varied from 0.3 to one hectare, depending on the region. The labour of the collective farmer was remunerated in accordance with its quantity and quality.

With the growth of the collective farms the Party paid increasing attention to the organisation of their inner life and to strengthening them. The collective farmers had to be helped to organise their work correctly and introduce stricter discipline. Methods of work had to be evolved which would give the collective farm'ers the incentive to promote the socialised economy. In tackling these problems, the Party drew up recommendations based on the experience of the leading collective farms.

It was recommended that in order to keep account of the work the collective farms should establish output norms for the various forms of work: ploughing, the number of cows to be tended per day, and so forth. These norms were established on the basis of the experience gained by the peasants and were revised when more machinery was received by the collective farms. The workday became the unit of labour, and it served as the measure of labour and of the distribution of the income.

Initially workday units were credited to everybody who worked in the course of the day, regardless of what they managed to do in that day. This did not give the members any incentive in the results of their work, and some of them sought to be given easier work. A person who spent a day guarding the melon-fields earned the same workday unit as the person who had spent the day ploughing or mowing. This was soon rectified. The collective farms began assessing the day's output in workday units depending on the complexity and difficulty of the work. For example, the norm of a tractor-driver was assessed as two and a half workday units, that of a ploughman working with a horse as 1.75 workday units, that of a watchman of melon-fields as 0.75 workday unit, and so forth. Additional workday units were credited for those who overfulfilled their norm, providing the quality of the work did not suffer. An efficiently working tractor-driver could earn as much as three or more workday units for his day's work.

Every collective farmer had a work-book in which his monthly tolal of workday units was recorded. Information on the number of workday units earned by the collective farmers was posted on the notice-board. This form of labour accounting created the necessary incentives and strengthened discipline. Every member strove to improve his qualification in order to be appointed to more highly paid work, and everybody knew that more workday units meant more earnings in cash and kind.

Production teams were formed at the collective farms, and these were put in charge of definite plots of land, draught animals, machines and implements. At the livestock farms the livestock was placed in the charge ef breeders. All this enhanced the responsibility of the members for the socialised property and made them strive to increase this property. Part of the output, as stipulated in the annual plan of every collective farm, was sold to the state. The remainder was left at the disposal of the collective farm. At the end of every year the general meeting determined how much of the output to leave for seeds and for the fodder and insurance funds, how much to distribute among the members against workday units (i.e., according to the quantity and quality of the work put into the socialised economy) and how much to sell in the collective-farm market. The cash incomes were

22/

likewise partly distributed against workday units and partly used for the promotion of the socialised economy and for the community's cultural requirements. Until the incomes were finally distributed, members could receive produce and money in advance, depending on the number of workday units they had already earned. This procedure gave both the collective farms and every member the incentive to enlarge the economy.

At the early stages the development of the collective farms was hindered by the subversive activity of the kulaks who had infiltrated into these farms, as well as by the shortage of trained cadres. Political departments were set up at the machine and tractor stations and the state farms in January 1933 with the purpose of extending organisational and political assistance to the collective farms. Communists who had experience and enjoyed prestige among the people were appointed to these political departments, v/hich selected and promoted to leading posts at the collective farms more than 250,000 front-rank collective farmers, including some 30,000 collective-farm chairmen. These political departments were abolished and merged with local Party bodies after they had fulfilled their mission.

In studying and summing up the experience of collectivefarm development, the Party consulted with the collective farmers on how to raise their standard of living and quickly strengthen the collective farms. Two all-Union congresses of front-rank collective farmers were held for this purpose.

and their accomplices could shake the Party's determination. It never retreated an inch from its policy of industrialisation and collectivisation, directing all its strength and the strength of the Soviet people towards the fulfilment of these main tasks. All the country's means and resources were mobilised to carry out the Five-Year Plan.

Successful implementation of the Party's general line brought the Party added prestige as the leader of the people and still further cemented the unity of its ranks. During the closing years of the five-year plan period the Party was free of opportunist deviations. Most of the members of the former anti-Party factions---Trotskyites, Zinovievites and Bukharinites---repented their delusions and joined in implementing the general line. The Sixteenth Party Congress, held in 1930, demonstrated the monolithic ideological and organisational unity in the Party and the success of the all-out offensive of socialism in town and country.

The Party organisations had grown and gained strength. The finest people in the country had become Communists. During the five-year plan period the Party's membership doubled to reach a total of three million at the beginning of 1933.

The Party's political and organisational work grew more concrete and efficient, with the practical leadership of socialist construction acquiring new forms and methods that brought it closer to the masses and to production. Party Committees were formed at large factories and building projects that had several hundred Communists each, while Party cells and Party groups were formed in workshops and work-teams respectively. Party Committees were set up in the large towns. All this brought the Party closer to production and increased its influence on the worker masses. The vanguard role of Communists soared in production. They worked in the decisive sectors of the labour front: on the scaffoldings of building projects, at the coal-face in mines and at the lathes and blast- and open-hearth furnaces. The trade union and the Komsomol were reorganised along the production principle.

Party organisations were reorganised in rural localities as well. Prior to collectivisation there were territorial Party cells. The Communists in all the villages, all the collective and state farms situated on the territory of a given rural

The Party as the Organiser of Socialist Reconstruction

The leading role of the Communist Party came to light more strikingly than ever before during the period of the First Five-Year Plan. It had passed a new political test and gained valuable experience of guiding the masses under conditions of socialist reconstruction.

The Party displayed supreme tenacity and firmness in implementing its general line as expounded by Lenin and set forth in its Leninist Programme. Neither the pressure from the petty-bourgeois elements within the country nor the malicious prophecies of foreign bourgeois ideologists

Global Impact of Soviet Achievements

The success of the First Five-Year Plan proved to the world that planned socialist economy was superior to the capitalist system and it exerted a revolutionising influence over the working people of the capitalist countries. In 1929-32, while the Soviet Union was swiftly developing its economy the capitalist world was shaken by the most devastating economic crisis in history. It affected all the capitalist countries, laying bare the contradictions of capitalism, causing a decline in production and giving rise to colossal unemployment. There were some 17 million unemployed in the USA alone. Reduced to desperation by unemployment and the attendant poverty, the workers began to rise against their oppressors with growing determination. The influence of the Communist Parties rose in many countries. In Germany, for example, the Communist Party won nearly six million votes in the elections to the Reichstag.

The bourgeoisie looked for a way out of its difficulties in war, in the seizure of foreign territories. As early as 1931 Japan seized the North-eastern provinces of China without a declaration of war, thereby creating a hotbed of war in the Far East. Another breeding ground of aggression sprang up in the heart of Europe, in Germany, where in 1933 the imperialists established a nazi dictatorship by bringing the nazi party into power. The nazis abolished all democratic rights and freedoms and instituted a savage reign of terror against all progressive forces in Germany, primarily against Communists. They openly proclaimed their aim of winning world supremacy. Disregarding all of Germany's commitments under the Versailles Peace Treaty they launched a frenzied arms race, utilising for this purpose the huge credits received from the USA and other capitalist countries allegedly for economic rehabilitation.

In 1935 fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia. In 1936 Germany and Italy sent troops to aid the fascist insurgents against the republican government in Spain. That same year Germany and Japan concluded the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact, which, shortly afterwards was joined by Italy, thus forming a military alliance of three aggressive powers directed mainly at the Soviet Union. While calling for a crusade against communism, the rulers of Germany, Japan

Meeting of a collective-farm communist cell

Soviet or district belonged to one and the same cell. They united collective farmers, state-farm workers, individual peasants, agronomists and teachers. When collective farms were set up the cells were reorganised on the production principle. Independent Party cells were formed at collective farms which had Communists among their members, and there, too, the Communists worked in the decisive sectors, as tractor-drivers, mechanics, grain-growers and livestock breeders. With the purpose of providing the collective and state farms with more efficient leadership and bringing Party and local government bodies closer to them, the existing large administrative units---uyezds and okrugs---were divided into districts, with their own Party Committees and Soviets. District Party Committee officials began going to the collective farms more often and more effectively helping the Party cells to consolidate the new, collective-farm system.

The successful fulfilment of the First Five-Year Plan was the result of the Communist Party's extensive political and organisational work and the dedicated labour of the working class, the working peasants and the Soviet intelligentsia.

15-1359

and Italy prepared for a war to redivide the world, to deprive Britain, France and the USA of their colonies.

The Second World War became imminent. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union foresaw this menace and the Soviet Government did its utmost to unite the peaceloving states and create a system of collective security. In line with this aim it concluded treaties of mutual assistance with a number of countries. However, to the detriment of the national interests of their countries, the ruling circles of the USA, Britain and France pandered to the nazi aggressors, allowing them to engage in acts of piracy with impunity and endeavouring to direct them against the Soviet Union, calculating that this would divert the threat from themselves.

In domestic policy, following the example of Germany, the bourgeoisie of many countries aspired to establish openly fascist dictatorships. However, unlike Germany where the Right-wing leaders of the Social-Democratic Party rejected co-operation with the Communists and thereby helped the nazis to come to power, in some countries the fascist threat caused a swing to the left among the broad worker masses who supported the Social-Democrats. Fascism was opposed by a considerable section of the peasants and some circles of the petty and middle bourgeoisie. In countries where the antifascist forces united the fascists received a rebuff. One of these countries was France, where in February 1934 the workers frustrated a fascist coup. The leadership of the Socialist Party of that country signed a pact on unity of action with the Communists against fascism. In Austria the attempts to install a fascist dictatorship in February 1934 gave rise to an armed insurrection, in which Communists and Social-Democrats fought shoulder to shoulder with the workers of Vienna. Co-operation between the Communist and Socialist parties of Italy was established that same year.

The Seventh Congress of the Communist International, attended by representatives of the Communist Parties of 65 countries, was convened in the summer of 1935. In the decision on the report delivered by Georgi Dimitrov, prominent leader of the Bulgarian and international communist movement, the congress called on the Communist Parties to secure working-class unity of action against the threat of fascism and the menace of war on the basis of co-operation between Communists and Social-Democratic workers. It advanced

the task of using proletarian unity as the basis for forming a broad people's anti-fascist front, of rallying the peasants, urban petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals round the working class. Moreover, it urged the creation of a united antiimperialist front in colonial and dependent countries. It called on all peoples to support countries that were fighting for independence, against aggression and imperialist oppression. However, in most countries the Right-wing leaders of the Social-Democratic movement turned a deaf ear to these appeals.

Lenin's Plan of Socialist Construction Is Realised

By strengthening the might of the socialist state the Soviet Communists felt they were discharging an internationalist duty. The First Five-Year Plan had given the country a good start. The people were in the grip of enthusiasm. In this atmosphere the Seventeenth Party Congress was convened in January 1934. It summed up the results of the country's achievements and concentrated attention on the further development of socialist economy and on strengthening the Soviet Union's defence capacity.

This congress endorsed the Second Five-Year Plan of Economic Development for 1933-1937, which had two objectives: in the political field---to complete the abolition of capitalist elements and totally uproot the causes giving rise to exploitation of man by man and the division of society into exploiters and exploited; in the economic field---to complete the technical reconstruction of the entire economy. Fulfilment of these tasks ensured:

---the building, in the main, of socialism in the USSR;

---rapid rates of growth of socialist production:

---a faster rise of the Soviet people's standard of living;

---the strengthening of Soviet technical and economic independence;

---the enhancement of the country's defence capacity.

The targets were more far-reaching than those of the previous five-year plan. They envisaged more than doubling the industrial product, doubling farm output and increasing the output of power nearly 200 per cent and of coal 100

15*

per cent. The engineering industry had to reach a volume of output which would fully satisfy the modern machine requirements of the economy, in other words, it had to manufacture a quantity of machine-tools and other equipment that would enable the newly built and reconstructed (modernised) factories to account for four-fifths of the country's total industrial output in the course of two fiveyear plans. Agriculture had to be supplied with more than half a million tractors, nearly 100,000 combine-harvesters and more than 100,000 lorries. The locomotive and carriage fleets of the railways had to be renewed.

The Party continued its policy of siting new industries in the vicinity of raw material sources. Priority was given to industrial development in the Urals, Siberia, the Soviet Far East, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and Bashkiria, where new industrial centres were built. This was important on two counts. First it furthered the country's economic development and, second, it strengthened its defence capacity inasmuch as the new industrial centres were far from the frontiers. Almost half of the funds allocated for the Second Five-Year Plan were invested in heavy industry in the eastern regions.

The building of many new light industry enterprises and the reconstruction of the old consumer goods plants were envisaged. The output of consumer goods began to increase. The collective and state farms enlarged their socialised economy and began producing more raw material for industry and food for the urban population.

All this made it possible to envisage in the Second FiveYear Plan a 150 per cent increase in the trade turnover and a 100 per cent rise of the real wages of industrial, office and other workers. The incomes of the collective farmers likewise rose. The difficulties in supplying the population with food, clothes and footwear, caused by the huge investments in heavy industry and in the socialist reorganisation of agriculture had now been surmounted and Soviet people could reap the fruits of their labour. More than ever before they saw the brilliance of the prevision of the great Lenin, who had drawn up the plan for building socialism in the USSR, and the wisdom of the policy charted by the Communist Party, which firmly and consistently implemented this plan.

A major achievement by the Party was its solution of the problem of accumulating funds for large-scale capital construction, for the financing of all branches of the economy. Every country embarking on industrialisation experiences an acute shortage of funds. The Soviet Union was no exception, but it solved this problem itself, without external assistance.

Socialist ownership of the means of production is the principal source of funds in the USSR. It enables the government to concentrate in its hands a considerable portion of the income of socialist enterprises and expend the accumulated funds prudently, by plan. The more new enterprises became operational the more funds became available to the state. Naturally, when industrialisation was started and most of the projects were under construction there were enormous difficulties. That was inevitable, and that period had to be lived through. The Soviet people, to whom the Party truthfully explained the causes of the temporary difficulties, correctly understood them and courageously endured many hardships. When the new enterprises began to be placed into operation the standard of living began to rise rapidly.

The technical reconstruction of the economy was another important source of socialist accumulation. Factories, mines, transport, communications and the state and collective farms were supplied with modern equipment. Labour productivity rose steadily in town and country and production costs dropped. With the consolidation of socialist ownership in all branches of the economy and the technical reconstruction of these branches the flow of funds to the state began to increase with every passing year. The problem of accumulating funds within the country was thus solved once and for all. Now the state could not only carry on capital construction on an ever-growing scale but also allocate more funds for the people's social and cultural requirements and for the promotion of their standard of living.

Income taxes and internal loans were also a source of funds. But this made up only a small portion of the state budget. During the first five-year plan period the revenues from taxes and loans covered only one-eighth of the state expenditures, and this proportion diminished in the period of the Second Five-Year Plan.

As the Party had foreseen, the Second Five-Year Plan injected fresh energy into the people. This manifested itself in the movement of production innovators to master new machinery and in a movement aimed at revising technical norms. In the autumn of 1935 a Donbas miner named Alexei Stakhanov cut 102 tons of coal in a single shift, exceeding the usual norm 14 times. His achievement was widely publicised and the response was immediate among miners, metallurgists, engineering industry workers, weavers, railwaymen, and mechanics at state farms and machine and tractor stations. The innovators were supported by the Party organisations. In November 1935 the Party Central Committee convened an all-Union conference of front-rank workers in industry and transport which supported the magnificent initiative of the Stakhanovites. The movement of production innovators embraced the entire country and testified to the beginning of a new stage in emulation connected with the mastering of new machinery.

What, it may be asked, induced the production innovators to work zealously? Was it the desire for personal enrichment? By no means. The main driving force of the Stakhanovite movement was the consciousness by the workers of their patriotic duty, of their desire to increase the country's wealth and work for the welfare of their country and people.

Most of the innovators were young people who began working under Soviet rule. Before their eyes and with their participation the country rose from ruin and backwardness to might and prosperity. The new man of socialist society, armed with the ideals of Leninism and led by the Party, was moulded in the struggle with the difficulties of socialist construction. The Party is proud that it has reared and educated a new generation in the spirit of devotion to the ideals of communism, a generation that is a worthy continuer of its revolutionary traditions, a generation of dedicated people who are always prepared to defend the gains of socialism.

The movement of production innovators accelerated the fulfilment of the Second Five-Year Plan. Like the First Five-Year Plan, it was fulfilled in industry in four years and three months. Hundreds of new factories, power stations, mines and oil wells were placed in operation. Thousands of the old enterprises were supplied with new machinery. Con-

Classes in an illiteracy abolition school. By the mid-1930s these

schools almost totally abolished illiteracy among the adult

population

Large sums of money were spent annually by the state on cultural development. Universal and compulsory elementary education was introduced as early as 1930. All children of school age studied, and the schools were staffed by nearly a million teachers. Extensive work was carried out to wipe out illiteracy among the adult population. The people were eager to receive knowledge. Tens of millions of men and women got down to learning to read and write. This was particularly important to the population of the formerly backward non-Russian regions. Hundreds of secondary special schools and institutions of higher learning were opened during the period of the Second Five-Year Plan. In 1937 the institutions of higher learning had over half a million students or more than in the West European countries put together.

The cultural life of Soviet society became steadily richer. The libraries, theatres, cinemas and museums were well attended. There was a growing demand for books, magazines and newspapers, whose circulation rapidly increased. Soviet people displayed a particularly heightened interest in socio-political literature, in the works of genius by Marx, Engels and Lenin. The rise of the Soviet people's level of education was thus accompanied by a growth of their political consciousness, by the acquisition by them of a scientific world outlook.

struction was completed of the ferrous metallurgy giants at Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk, of the Urals and Kramatorsk heavy engineering plants, the Kharkov turbo-generator plant and many other projects. In 1937 the Urals-Kuznetsk industrial complex was already producing nearly one-third of the country's iron and steel output and more than a quarter of its coal. Steel production rose from 6,900,000 tons in 1932 to 17,700,000 tons in 1937, by far outstripping the steel output of developed capitalist countries like Britain and France.

The most marked progress was achieved in the heavy engineering industry, which could now produce the most upto-date machines and equipment. In 1930 the country was still importing nine out of every ten of the turbines and generators installed at the new power stations. In 1937 eight out of every ten installed turbines and all the generators were made in the Soviet Union. The entire economy was technically reconstructed in less than a single decade. The Soviet Union became the third industrial power in the world after the USA and Germany. The credit for this goes to the working class and the technical intelligentsia.

The collective farmers kept pace with the working class. The collectivisation of agriculture was completed towards the close of the second five-year plan period. In 1937 there were 18,500,000 peasant households in the collective farms. The countryside changed beyond recognition in the course of a single decade. The boundaries and narrow peasant strips disappeared from the fields, which now became solid tracts of farmland. The wooden ploughs and harrows gave way to tractors and other machines. In 1937 agriculture was using more than 450,000 tractors and some 130,000 combineharvesters. The crop area was enlarged, harvests were increased and livestock-breeding farms were started. The collective-farm village was modernised with new houses, schools, clubs and first-aid stations.

The Party and the government extended the utmost aid to the collective farms. Land was given to them for their use in perpetuity. The number of machine and tractor stations serving the collective farms was steadily increased. The state bore the brunt of the expenditures for the training of machine-operators. A landmark in the development of the collective-farm system was the second congress of foremost collective-farmers that was held early in 1935. At this

congress the collective farmers shared their knowledge and submitted many valuable suggestions. Model CollectiveFarm Rules were adopted containing the basic principles underlying the organisation of collective-farm production and life.

The most noteworthy change in the Soviet countryside was the disappearance of the kulaks. The soil for their revival--- petty privately owned peasant farms---likewise disappeared. In the towns capitalist elements (industrialists and shopkeepers) had been abolished as early as at the beginning of the first five-year plan period. The cardinal political objective of the Second Five-Year Plan---the abolition of surviving capitalist elements and the causes giving rise to them---was thus successfully attained.

In the course of two five-year plan periods the USSR had completely abolished the exploiting classes, uprooted the causes giving rise to exploitation of man by man and, in the main, completed the building of socialism. The main objectives of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism had been attained and Lenin's plan of socialist construction in the USSR had been translated into life. It took hundreds of years for capitalism to shape itself, but in the USSR socialism was built in only two decades. The fact that this was accomplished in forbiddingly unfavourable conditions only brings into bolder relief the majesty of the Soviet people's achievement and the entire significance of the work performed by the Party, which awakened mighty popular forces to creative activity. The building of socialism in such a short span of time provided the most complete confirmation that the Party's general line was correct.

All aspects of social life---the political and economic system, the class pattern of society, the outlook of people--- were radically remade in the course of socialist construction. Society now consisted of two friendly classes---workers and peasants---with a social stratum, the intelligentsia, most of whom came from working class or peasant families.

The fundamental changes that had taken place in the class composition of the population and in the economic and social system were mirrored in the Constitution adopted at the Eighth Extraordinary All-Union Congress of Soviets in December 1936. It gave legal status to the victory of socialism in the USSR.

CHAPTER FOUR

FROM SOCIALISM TO COMMUNISM

THE PARTY'S STRUGGLE TO CONSOLIDATE THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM

Coat-of-arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Having put Lenin's plan into effect and organised and successfully consummated the building of socialism, the Communist Party thus gave the world a model for the revolutionary remaking of society. The Party had scientifically proved the laws governing this transformation and put these laws to the test of practice.

Having strengthened its economic might and independence the Soviet Union became a decisive force in international life. Its socialist achievements bolstered the revolutionary spirit of the working people of all countries.

A key period in the history of the Soviet people's struggle for communism had come to an end.

The Soviet Union Enters a New Period of Development

Having built socialism in all essentials, the Soviet Union entered the period of the completion of socialist construction and gradual transition to communism.

Marx and Lenin had pointed out that in its development communism would pass through two phases (stages). Socialism was the first, lower phase of communism. The distinction between complete communism and socialism lay in the level of development of the productive forces and the level of consciousness of the working people. Communism grows out of socialism in the process of socialism's development and consolidation. As Lenin had said: "Socialism is the society that grows directly out of capitalism, it is the first form of the new society. Communism is a higher form of society, and can only develop when socialism has become firmly established."*

After socialism has been built in all essentials, a certain amount of time is required for its consolidation and development.

The primary factor in the consolidation of socialism is the development of its material and technical base. By this time the USSR had a massive industrial potential. But in mecha-

* V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 284.

nisation and productivity of labour it still lagged behind the developed capitalist countries. The task was to continue the all-out development of heavy industry, which formed the basis of the technical progress of all branches of the economy and the country's economic power, the growth of its productive forces and social wealth, and the steady improvement of the people's standard of living.

The young collective-farm system was particularly in need of consolidation. The collective farms could not reveal their possibilities all at once. At first they were relatively small and economically weak. The property they owned in common consisted only of what the peasants had contributed on joining: horses, oxen, horse-drawn reapers, mowers, threshers, ploughs and harrows. Only cultivation of the land was completely socialised. The other important branch of the collective farm's economy, stock-breeding, had yet to be organised. Some of the collective farms, it is true, had stock farms, but they had very few cattle. It was necessary to consolidate and expand the socialised sector of the collective farms, increase their incomes, and on this basis raise the collective farmers' standard of living.

Under socialism the level of social production is not yet high enough and society does not possess sufficient material goods to satisfy all the needs of its members. Socialist society, therefore, is organised on the principle, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work." This means that everyone's work is rewarded according to the quantity and quality of what he produces. The principle of payment according to work combines people's personal material interest in the results of their labour with the interests of society as a whole. The person who works better and achieves greater results receives higher rewards. This is to the advantage of the whole of society, since production goes up, the socialist economy grows and social wealth increases. Socialism cannot allow levelling, egalitarianism. Work and wages rates must be strictly graded, kept account of and controlled. For this reason, Lenin pointed out, "Until the `higher' phase of communism arrives, the socialists demand the strictest control by society and by the state over the measure of labour and the measure of consumption."*

Life shows that people's consciousness lags behind the changes taking place in society. With the victory of socialism in the USSR, private ownership of the means of production disappeared, but people retained the habits of private ownership in many aspects of their thinking and behaviour. In some people these showed themselves in the desire to give society as little as possible and to take as much as possible for themselves. Under the conditions of socialism, therefore, the re-education of all the working people, the task of making them into active and conscious builders of socialist society, acquires special importance.

The state plays a new role under socialism. Some of its functions wither away, others are developed to the full. At first, one of the main functions of the socialist state was to suppress the opposition of the deposed exploiting classes. With the victory of socialism the exploiting classes within the country disappeared; there was no one to suppress, and so this function withered away. The function of protecting socialist property and law, the accounting and control of the measure of labour and the measure of consumption was, on the other hand, developed. To perform this function, the socialist state applies measures of compulsion and punishment to idlers, parasites, thieves and hooligans. Dangerous though these people are to socialist society, however, they should on no account be placed on the same plane as former exploiters. The latter were the class enemies of the working people, they sought to restore their power, they took revenge on the working class for depriving them of their property, wealth and privileges. But idlers, parasites, thieves and hooligans are people whose consciousness is affected by the pernicious hangover of the past or who give way to hostile bourgeois influences. The state reforms such people by means of education and compulsion.

The main functions of the state---economic organisation, cultural and educational work---enjoy all-round development under conditions of socialism. In twenty years the socialist economy of the USSR made great advances, developing new branches and becoming organised on a countrywide scale. Such a large and complex economy could be managed and steadily improved only on the basis of wise planning. The socialist state had to define and observe correct proportions in the development of the various

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 470,

branches of the economy, rationally distribute financial and material resources and the product of social labour, and employ manpower correctly. It also had a bigger part to play in raising the consciousness and activity of the workers and peasants, their cultural and technical level and in training personnel for all branches of the economy.

The function of protecting Soviet territory from external enemies remained. The socialist state had to concern itself constantly with raising its defence capacity and ensuring its security.

sidered, was of great significance for the future of Soviet socialist society. The Party of Lenin and the Soviet people had proved in practice that it was possible to build socialism in one country alone. Now the question arose as to whether it was possible to build communism in the USSR, if the socialist revolution in other countries was delayed and capitalist encirclement remained. The congress replied that it was. The Party recalled the instructions Lenin had given soon after the victory of the October Revolution. In launching socialist reforms, he had said, we set ourselves the aim of creating a communist society.

Guided by Lenin's instructions and backed by the victories of socialism, the Eighteenth Party Congress laid down that in its internal development the USSR had entered the period of the completion of socialist construction and gradual transition from socialism to communism. The principal task of this period was the consolidation and development of the socialist system and its material and technical base. Capitalism had to be surpassed in the sphere of material production. The congress called on the Party and the Soviet people to set about achieving a practical solution to the basic economic task which Lenin had proposed, the task of overtak-

The Party's New Tasks and the Struggle for Their Realisation

The successes of socialism further enhanced the Party's prestige among the people. Its leading position in Soviet society was confirmed by the new Constitution of the USSR. Here it was stated:

``The most active and politically conscious citizens in the ranks of the working class, working peasants and working intelligentsia voluntarily unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to build communist society and is the leading core of all organisations of the working people, both government and non-government.''

The victory of socialism meant that the Party's principal task within the country was to consolidate and develop the socialist system.

Socialism created favourable conditions for the development of democracy in the country as a whole and within the Party. The introduction of the 1936 Constitution signified further democratisation of the Soviet social and state system. In December 1937, elections were held to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the basis of the new Constitution. The Communist Party entered these elections in alliance with the non-Party candidates. The elections demonstrated the strength and vitality of socialist democracy and the Soviet people's support for the Party.

In March 1939 the Eighteenth Party Congress took place. It summed up the victories of socialism. The problem of building socialism in the USSR, which the congress con-

2.18

People of a country where socialism triumphed

ing and outstripping the major capitalist countries in per capita production. With this task in mind the congress passed the Third Five-Year Plan of development of the Soviet economy for 1938-1942.

The Third Five-Year Plan was the first long-term plan to be evolved by the socialist society that had been built in the USSR. It provided for an increase in the country's industrial potential, consolidation of the collective-farm system, raising of the people's material and cultural level, and strengthening of the country's defence capacity. The volume of industrial output was to be almost doubled.

The socialist solidarity of the Soviet people was reflected in the life of the Party. The congress introduced changes in the Party Rules. The former classification of candidates for membership according to whether they were workers, peasants or intellectuals was abolished. The same conditions were laid down for all who applied to be admitted to the Party.

Socialism has its own laws of development and its own problems. No one had ever tackled these problems before. The Party's approach to them was a skilful one.

Socialism guarantees every able-bodied member of society the right to work. This was a historic achievement of the working people, and the USSR was the first country where it was put into practice. This was done on the basis of the victories of socialism. As life showed, however, this new right imposes great responsibilities on the socialist state and the Party which guides its development, and gives rise to new problems.

Under capitalism, for example, the state does not have to concern itself with providing manpower for industry. The manufacturers take care of this themselves. Their task is made relatively easy by the ruin of the peasants in the countryside and small owners in the towns, which makes large quantities of manpower available. In the Soviet Union, too, before agriculture was collectivised, the countryside provided industry with more manpower than was needed. The situation changed, however, when the collective-farm system was established. The division of the peasants into rich and poor ceased. Life in the collective farms improved, and the spontaneous flow of labour to the towns dried up. There was no spare manpower available in the towns either, since unem-

ployment had been abolished. But fast developing industry was badly in need of a constant supply of labour.

By the end of the First Five-Year Plan the state was obliged to undertake organised recruitment of labour in the villages on the basis of contracts with the collective farms. But this source quickly dried up, too. The Party decided to introduce planned training of state reserves of labour. A wide network of trade schools and factory-training schools was organised where millions of young people learned trades and became qualified workers. The state bore the expense of their maintenance. Engineers and technicians were trained on a planned basis. The whole system of training reserves for industry was placed on a firm basis and became a vital function of the planning and economic bodies of the socialist state.

Under socialism everyone who works receives payment in accordance with the results of his labour. The person who produces more goods and improves quality, receives a larger reward. At first this principle was applied only in socialist industry. When the collective-farm system became established in the countryside, it spread to agriculture. The socialist system now embraced the whole economy. It was very important, therefore, that the socialist principle of distribution according to work should be observed in all branches of the economy, at every enterprise, since the correct use of manpower and the growth rate of the socialist economy, the worker's interest in the results of his labour and the general improvement in the standard of living---all depended on the observance of this principle.

It was not an easy matter, however, to deal with these problems. It took years to place the organisation of socialist production and the distribution of material goods on a firm scientific basis. The Party encountered various problems in this field and gradually found correct solutions to them.

During the first and second five-year plans the work of industrial enterprises and projects was plagued by fluidity of labour. Capitalists, for example, do not have to worry about maintaining labour stability at their enterprises. The fear of unemployment among the workers in the capitalist countries keeps the worker firmly tied to the place where he works. He clings to his job for fear of being left without

16-1359

work. Under the conditions of socialism, where there are no crises and no unemployment, the worker has no fear of becoming unemployed. If he leaves one factory, he can find himself a job somewhere else.

In the USSR in the mid-thirties, at some factories and construction projects a considerable part of the staff would replace itself in the course of a single year. People came and went. The workers had various reasons for moving on. Some wanted better pay, others were not satisfied with their living conditions, others lacked the right qualifications. It was not unusual for the same job to be paid for at different rates at different factories. But the levelling down of wages, the egalitarian wage structure, was the main cause of the trouble. Qualified and unqualified, heavy and light work was paid for at almost the same rate. The miner, working underground, received nearly the same wage as the man on the surface. The excavator-operator received only a little more than an ordinary navvy, and the skilled foundry worker only a little more than the sweeper. Engineers and technicians employed in offices received higher salaries than those who actually supervised production, so many people made no effort to improve their qualifications and preferred to move about in search of the easiest and best paid posts.

The fluidity of labour upset the rhythm of production and prevented enterprises from fulfilling their plans. Whole industries, such as coal-mining, were affected. The new enterprises, which were operating with modern equipment and needed a regular staff of qualified workers, were in a particularly difficult position.

How did the Party and the socialist state tackle these problems?

The first step was to eliminate the illogical wage structure. It was laid down that workers of the same trade with the same qualifications and employed on the same job should be paid the same wages at all enterprises. This measure reduced fluidity of labour and helped to keep workers at their enterprises.

Egalitarianism, the levelling of wages, was also eliminated. Heavy work was paid better than light. Miners, for example, began to receive much higher wages than workers in some other trades. The same applied to experts. Engineers and technicians employed directly in production received

higher salaries than those who worked in offices. Under conditions of technical reconstruction it was particularly important to get rid of the tendency to level wages for qualified and unqualified labour. Workers who improved their skill and productivity by mastering new techniques were, therefore, better paid than the unqualified.

The measures taken by the Party and the socialist state to regulate the wage structure stimulated the material interest of industrial and office workers in the results of their labour and prompted them to master new techniques and improve their productivity. This was to the advantage both of the workers as individuals and to socialist society as a whole. Industrial and office workers earned more and society received more material goods.

Moral incentives were also a factor in improving the indices of production. Workers who did well in production were awarded Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, and badges of honour. The highest award for labour, the title of Hero of Socialist Labour, was instituted in 1938, when the Labour Valour and Distinguished Labour medals were also introduced. A Hero of Socialist Labour was awarded the Order of Lenin and a Gold Star with the hammer and sickle emblem stamped upon it.

At the same time the Party set about improving the work of Party organisations in industry, increased its demands on communist managers, and made the Party and state machinery more efficient. The post of secretary for industry and transport was introduced into the Party regional, territory, and town committees. A number of large People's Commissariats were divided up into smaller ones and these new commissariats supervised narrower fields of industry. The Party organisations at enterprises and construction projects acquired the right of supervising the activities of the management.

Even before this, Party organisations had been able to demand an explanation from a manager, a shop superintendent or a foreman for any failure or irregularity in production. But this was not always done. The Party now made both Party organisations and communist managers equally responsible for the state of affairs at enterprises. It was their duty to take constant care of their enterprises needs and prospects of development, to help the management in

16*

organising production and achieving the targets laid down in the plan. Party organisations insisted that all Communists, whether they were workers or managers, should carry out their obligations in exemplary fashion. They did a great deal of political work among the non-Party workers and encouraged them to work as a team. Together with the trade unions and the management, the Party organisations went into the business of improving staff qualifications, providing them with housing, organising recreation and other facilities. They helped the Young Communist organisations to rally the young people and promote communist education.

The Party also concentrated on the development of agriculture. The main thing here was to consolidate the young collective farms. This could be achieved only by correctly applying socialist principles in organising collective-farm production. The Party kept devising new ways of encouraging the collective farms and their members to develop the collectivised economy and increase its productivity.

The development of the collective farms was promoted by improvements in the system of compulsory deliveries of farm produce to the state. In the period when the collective farms were being built up the state introduced the system of compulsory deliveries of grain, meat and other produce at fixed prices. Deliveries were calculated according to the sowing area and head of cattle. In practice, however, it was found that this system of deliveries put a brake on the growth of collective-farm production. It worked out that the farms that had the biggest sowing area and herd of cattle were compelled to deliver more to the state, while the farms that were making less use of their land and not troubling to increase the head of cattle had to make smaller compulsory deliveries.

This injustice was abolished. A new system of compulsory deliveries of farm produce was introduced at the close of the thirties. The collective farms now delivered produce to the state not according to the sowing area and head of cattle but according to the total amount of land owned by the farm. Thus, all the collective farms were placed in equal conditions. Each of them acquired a material interest in making better use of the land, and developing stockbreeding and other branches of agriculture.

To stimulate farm members' interest in the development of social production, the Party advised the farms to offer additional rewards to those of their members who obtained better harvests and higher animal productivity. The farms were also advised to establish a compulsory minimum of days that members should work in social production (i.e., on the farm and not their own private holdings).

These measures helped to consolidate the collective-farm system and to improve the well-being of the collective farmers.

The Communists in the rural areas were in the vanguard of the struggle to stabilise collective-farm life. True enough, there were too few Party organisations in the collective farms in those days---only one to every four farms. Party organisations were usually to be found in the larger farms, but their numbers grew fast and their importance increased. Just as in industry, the Party organisations of the collective farms acquired the right to supervise the activities of the management. In collective farms that had no Party organisations a great deal of work was done by the Young Communists. The Young Communist League made a great contribution to the work of establishing collective-farm life in the countryside.

The USSR at the Outbreak of the Second World War

The Soviet people were fulfilling the Third Five-Year Plan in a complex international situation. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. A few days later Britain and France declared war on Germany.

The second world war had begun.

How had it been caused and who was to blame?

War was unleashed by the three aggressive states, Germany, Japan and Italy. They had been preparing for war for a long time. The chief aim of Hitler Germany and her allies was to destroy the Soviet Union. In this they enjoyed the connivance of the imperialist circles of Britain, France

and the United States. But the sharp contradictions between the imperialist states within the capitalist world led first of all to armed conflict between Germany and Italy on the one hand and Britain and France on the other. Events in Europe in pre-war years developed as follows:

In those days the Soviet Union was the only socialist country in the world. Its example was exerting an enormous influence on the revolutionary movement in all countries. The Soviet Union came forward resolutely in defence of peace and international security and against fascist aggression. It rendered enormous assistance to the people of Republican Spain, who were the victims of fascist intervention by Germany and Italy. The USSR tried to organise collective resistance to the fascist aggressors, but here it encountered the opposition of Britain and France.

Meanwhile the aggressive fascist states were becoming more and more arrogant. Hitler Germany introduced conscription and was rapidly building up her military strength. She seized Austria, and then, with the consent of Britain and France, occupied Czechoslovakia. The ruling circles of Britain and France were making more and more concessions to Hitler.

The danger of an attack on the USSR from the East was also growing. The Japanese imperialists had occupied first the north-east provinces of China, then seized the greater part of the country and reached the frontiers of the USSR. They entertained plans for taking over Soviet territory as far as the Urals. The Soviet Union rendered the Chinese people great assistance in their struggle against the Japanese interventionists. In 1938, the Japanese generals tried to probe the Far-Eastern frontier of the USSR with their bayonets, but were resolutely rebuffed at Lake Khasan. In the summer of 1939, the Japanese invaded the Mongolian People's Republic, with which the USSR had concluded a treaty of mutual assistance. The Soviet Union went to the aid of the Mongolian People's Republic and by the joint action of Soviet and Mongolian troops the Japanese aggressors were routed.

A very critical situation was developing in Europe. The rulers of Britain and France were themselves beginning to have misgivings about the strength of Germany. Britain and France proposed negotiations with the USSR on joint resist-

ance to German aggression. But this was only a manoeuvre by the ruling circles of Britain and France, who wanted to involve the USSR in certain definite obligations while refusing to undertake similar obligations themselves. Time was running out, but through the fault of Britain and France the negotiations made no progress. Subsequently, it transpired that Britain was simultaneously conducting secret negotiations with Hitler. It became obvious to the Soviet Government that the reactionary circles of Britain and France were insincere and did not wish to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union against the fascist aggressors.

Meanwhile, in August 1939 Hitler's government proposed a non-aggression pact to the Soviet Government. The Soviet Union was threatened with war on two fronts---in Europe and the Far East---and was completely isolated. The Soviet Government, therefore, agreed to make a pact of nonaggression with Germany. Subsequent events revealed that this step was the only correct one under the circumstances. By taking it the USSR was able to continue peaceful construction for nearly two years and to strengthen its defences.

The flames of the Second World War blazed up in Europe and in Eastern Asia.

The Polish people fought courageously against the fascist invaders in a just war, but Poland could not resist the onslaught of the fascist hordes. Hitler's armies were approaching the Soviet frontier. The Soviet Union could not allow this, nor could it remain indifferent to the fate of the defenceless peoples of the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia. The Red Army crossed the frontier and took them under its protection. The peoples of these regions were thus reunited with the Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Byelorussia. Bessarabia, which had previously been annexed, also became reunited with the Soviet Union. In 1940, when the threat of German invasion loomed over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and their reactionary governments were preparing to make a deal with Hitler, the peoples of these countries overthrew their rulers, restored Soviet power and joined the USSR.

Meanwhile, Britain and France were conducting what soon became known as the "phoney war" with Germany, undertaking no active operations against her. On the other

hand, they did not leave the Soviet Union in peace and in the autumn of 1939 provoked Finland to go to war with the USSR. But the war did not last long. After successful operations by Soviet forces, Finland asked for peace and in March 1940 a peace treaty was signed. Britain and France did not undertake any real counteraction even when Germany occupied Denmark and Norway. The ruling circles of Britain and France were still hoping that Hitler would turn eastwards. But in May 1940 Hitler suddenly marched into Holland and Belgium and struck at France. The reactionary French government shamefully surrendered to Hitler in June 1940.

But the French people did not surrender. They started rallying their forces to fight Hitler's army of occupation. This resistance movement was led by the French Communist Party. When Germany and Italy seized the Balkan countries, the peoples of Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece rose against the occupation forces. In China the people were stubbornly resisting the Japanese invaders. The people's struggle in all these countries was led by the Communist Parties.

The thunderclouds of war were building up round the Soviet Union. After the defeat of France and the occupation of the Balkans nearly all Europe with the one exception of Britain lay at Hitler's feet. Germany had captured a huge amount of loot and taken over the economies of the countries she had occupied. Hitler had drawn Hungary, Rumania and Finland into the fascist coalition.

The Communist Party and the Soviet state, realising that the USSR was threatened with war, took measures to build up the Armed Forces. By the summer of 1941 there were 4,500,000 men serving in the Red Army. The training of officers was stepped up. There were nearly half a million Communists in the Army and Navy.

The Party worked to increase production of metal, coal and oil. The industrial base in the eastern regions of the country was strengthened. Far away from any frontiers, in the Urals and Western Siberia power stations, metallurgical and engineering plants were built, and new mines and workings were developed. More and more resources were allocated to defence. Its annual increment was three times more than that of any other branch of industry.

Stocks of raw materials and food were built up in case war should come. The Soviet Government was obliged temporarily to introduce an eight-hour working day instead of the seven-hour day that had been the rule. The workers understood that these measures were necessary to strengthen the country's defences and responded to them by intensifying socialist competition and fulfilling plans ahead of schedule.

The Party and the Soviet people spared no effort to strengthen the country's defence.

VICTORY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

The USSR Enters the War Against Fascism

On June 22, 1941, a three-million-strong German army, with a huge force of planes and tanks, invaded the Soviet Union, treacherously violating the pact of non-aggression. Germany was joined in her war against the USSR by Italy, Rumania, Hungary and Finland.

Hitler and his generals had planned a blitzkrieg against the USSR. They believed that in a few months, they would knock out the Red Army, break the Soviet people's will to resist, destroy the Soviet socialist system and enslave the peoples of the Soviet Union.

The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union had begun. It was a patriotic war because the Soviet people were defending their socialist Motherland. It became Great because the Soviet people entered a mortal struggle with fascism, on the outcome of which depended not only the future of the Soviet state but also that of the world working-class and national liberation movement, the future of all mankind. The war waged by the Soviet people against the fascist aggressors was a just war. The Communist Party and the Soviet Government declared that the Soviet people would carry on the war until complete victory over fascism, and that they would help the enslaved people fighting for

States did not agree to a coalition with Hitler Germany because they knew about her plans for world domination. In the very first days of the Patriotic War they announced their support for the Soviet Union.

The Soviet leaders, however, knew what kind of mood the reactionary circles of the United States and Britain were in. It had been openly expressed in 1941 by the American Senator Harry Truman, who at the end of the war became President of the United States. "If we see that Germany is winning," he said, "we should help Russia, but if Russia is winning, we should help Germany.''

But in the United States and in Britain statesmen came to the fore who were able to assess soberly the mortal danger that the fascist alliance presented to their own countries. They realised that without the Soviet Union it would be impossible to crush fascism. The Americans themselves were soon convinced of the treachery of the aggressors. In December 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American military base in the Pacific. The United States went to war with Japan, then declared war on Germany and Italy.

~^^7^^

On January 1, 1942, twenty-six states passed a declaration on joining military forces and economic resources to defeat the Axis. It was signed by the USSR, the USA, Britain, China and other countries. The freedom-loving peoples were inspired and encouraged by the creation of the anti-fascist coalition.

Britain and the United States promised to open a second front in Europe in the near future. This was of great importance, since the main struggle against the aggressors was being waged in Europe, and the outcome of the war was being decided on the Soviet-German front, the main front in the Second World War. But it was a long time before the Allies fulfilled their promise. For three years the Soviet Union stood alone against the Hitler alliance in Europe and bore the main brunt of the war. This quite unjustified conduct on the part of Britain and the United States prolonged the war and cost the Soviet people millions of lives.

The Red Army's operations against the fascist aggressors began in extremely unfavourable circumstances. Germany's onslaught was unexpected and the Soviet forces were taken

The Motherland Calls

The Soviet people rise to fight fascism to save their socialist Motherland and the whole of mankind

national independence to throw off the yoke of the imperialist aggressors.

.

When preparing for war against the Soviet Union, Hitler had tried to isolate it and create a general coalition led by Germany and including Britain and the United States for a crusade against the USSR. But Britain and the United

by surprise. By its treacherous attack the fascist air force put out of action a large number of Soviet planes and tanks in the very first hours. The Red Army's ground forces were deprived of proper air cover and were short of tanks and motor transport. Taking advantage of this, the panzer and mechanised units of the German army drove deep salients into the Red Army's defence lines, upsetting its co-ordination and dispositions.

It was extremely difficult for the Red Army to ward off a surprise attack and hold back the onslaught of so strong an enemy as the German army. The Soviet forces fought heroically, took a heavy toll of the fascist troops and wore down their strength. On the very first day of the war the relatively small garrison of Brest Fortress on the frontier showed that the time of easy wars was over for Hitler's troops. It held out for six weeks against overwhelming odds.

But the enemy maintained the initiative. The Red Army was compelled to retreat and relinquish Soviet territory. In the first month of the war the Germans seized part of the Ukraine, Moldavia, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The Party's activities were focused on the war effort. It first set about expanding and strengthening the Army. By the end of 1941 nearly half the Party's membership was serving in the Armed Forces. Communists were sent to key sectors in the Army and Navy and charged with the most dangerous missions. Many of them became commanders and Army commissars and political workers. They rallied and inspired the troops by their courage and determination. Many members of the Party's Central Committee, its most prominent figures, went to the front. They became members of the military councils of fronts and armies and co-operated with the staff officers in directing military operations.

General mobilisation was carried out rapidly and efficiently. Reserves were trained in the rear. Regiments and divisions of civilian volunteers were formed. Fresh forces flowed steadily to the front. And a great fighting song was sung throughout the land:

Arise, arise, great land, For mortal strife arise, 'gainst fascist forces stand, 'gainst the darkness we despise. Let noble anger seize you And surge up like a wave, The war you wage is holy, All peoples shall it save.

The thing that everyone in the Army, every officer and man, the whole Soviet people lived for at the beginning of the war was to stop the enemy. The Red Army carried out its mission. At Leningrad, Smolensk, Kiev and Odessa the enemy was halted. The offensive of the German-fascist forces began to weaken, while the resistance of the Soviet forces increased. The fascists realised for the first time that they had met their match. Fierce engagements developed. The whole population responded to the Party's call and rose in defence of their towns and villages. Defence works in the front-line area were built by millions of women, children and old men.

The fascists failed to complete their drive towards Leningrad, whose soldiers, sailors and working people turned the city into an impregnable fortress. Besieged by the enemy,

The Enemy Advance Halted

The Soviet people were deeply shaken by the failure of their army. The Party openly and courageously told them the grim truth. In its appeal to the people it revealed the evil intentions of the German imperialists and declared the country to be in mortal danger. But no matter how great the danger, the Party expressed firm confidence in victory over fascism.

The Communist Party rallied and organised the Soviet people to fight the Patriotic War. It worked out a clear programme for mobilising all the country's resources to defeat the enemy. The whole life of the country was put on a war footing. Direction of the war effort was concentrated in the State Defence Committee which was headed by Stalin. The State Defence Committee had total power over the whole country. It co-ordinated the activities of all state and military institutions, and also Party, trade union and Young Communist League organisations.

it endured the grim winter of 1942 in the grip of cold and starvation and under continuous bombardment. The inhabitants went for days without bread. Many died of hunger. But the legendary heroes of Leningrad, the cradle of the Revolution, stood firm and showed the world unprecedented steadfastness and heroism.

The defenders of Odessa beat back the onslaughts of the fascist hordes for more than two months. Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, held out valiantly for nearly two and a half months. The heroes of Sevastopol stood their ground for nine months. Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol, Brest Fortress have become symbols of the heroism and endurance of Soviet people. Their names have been recorded for eternity in the honourable list of hero-cities.

The prolonged defence of the hero-cities was of great importance. The enemy suffered enormous losses. One in three of the German soldiers who in June had set foot on Soviet territory was by October either dead or in hospital. The slow-down of the enemy offensive made it possible to evacuate all valuable property from the front-line districts and set up powerful defence screens on the main lines of

advance.

But the Germans poured more and more fresh troops into battle. Regardless of losses, they continued their offensive. In October 1941 the Soviet Union was in a very difficult situation. The fascists had occupied nearly all the Ukraine and the coal-fields of the Donets Basin, they had reached the approaches to Moscow. Hitler had given orders that Moscow was to be taken at any cost. The Party and the Soviet people pledged themselves to fight to the death. Moscow must not be surrendered.

Moscow looked grim in those days. No enemy had ever been so close to the Soviet capital. But although the front was so near, the Political Bureau of the Party's Central Committee, the Soviet Government, the State Defence Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme Command remained in Moscow. The traditional parade of Soviet forces was held as usual in Red Square on November 7. Columns of infantry, tanks and artillery passed the Lenin Mausoleum in parade order on their way to the front.

In November the Germans launched yet another offensive against Moscow. The Soviet forces displayed tremen-

Battle of Moscow. Soviet troops repulse an attack by nazi tanks

dous bravery and determination. Soldiers of all nationalities of the USSR---Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Kazakhs, Georgians, Armenians, Kirghizes, Azerbaijanians, Uzbeks, Turkmenians, Tajiks, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Moldavians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurts, Mari and others---took part in defending the capital of their country.

While the crack fascist tank divisions were being stubbornly held back on the approaches to Moscow, the Soviet Command brought up fresh reserves for a counter-attack. The Party declared, "The defeat of the enemy must begin from Moscow!''

At the beginning of December 1941, the Red Army launched a counter-offensive near Moscow. By the spring of 1942 the enemy had been thrown back more than 250 miles from the capital. Dozens of towns and thousands of villages had been liberated. Heavy blows had been struck at the enemy on the Southern front and near Leningrad.

The Battle of Moscow revealed the strength of the Soviet people and their Army, the inexhaustible resources of the USSR in war. The fascists broke their teeth in this engage-

ment. The Red Army shattered the myth of the Wehrmacht's invincibility and wrecked Hitler's plan for a lightning war. The defeat of the Germans at Moscow was the decisive event of the Patriotic War and the first massive defeat of Hitler Germany in the Second World War. For its outstanding services in defeating the nazi invaders Moscow was made a hero-city.

Manpower was a problem. By the end of 1941 the labour force had shrunk to nearly a half and was very different in composition. The men who had left the factories for the front were replaced by women and adolescents. Half the labour force were women. To meet the demands of war the working day was increased, compulsory overtime was introduced and all leave was cancelled. Workers were trained rapidly for new trades. In 1942 nearly 1,300,000 workers acquired new skills and more than 2,500,000 improved their qualifications.

The Party helped the collective farmers to overcome the difficulties caused by the war. The shortage of labour in the countryside was made good by rational distribution of evacuees.

The Party's appeal to the Soviet people was "All for the front! All for victory!" The working class, collective farmers and intellectuals responded with mass socialist competition. Feats of valour at the front were combined with feats of labour in the rear. Communists and young Communists led shock brigades at factories and in the mines. Their watchword was "In work as in battle!" In the spring of 1942 enterprises and individuals all over the country began competing with each other to help the front. The Party Central Committee and the State Defence Committee instituted red challenge banners and money prizes to encourage the best producers. Competition results were announced every month. Representatives of the Guards units of the Red Army and Navy presented the red banners to the winners. The collective farmers also worked dedicatedly. In 1942 they increased the sowing areas in the eastern regions by about 12,000,000 acres. The collective farms sowed some fields specially for the front, the entire harvest from which they delivered to the state.

The Party and the Soviet people overcame enormous difficulties and by the end of 1942 the USSR had a wellorganised, rapidly expanding military economy. The Urals and Western Siberia formed the main arsenal of the Red Army. In 1942, four times more tanks and nearly twice as many planes were made as in 1941.

The Soviet rear, the home front, forged victory for the Red Army. Scientists, designers and engineers improved tanks and aircraft. The rocket mortars, ``Katyushas'', as the

All for the Front! All for Victory!

Victory in war demands not only an efficient fighting force but also a secure, well-organised rear. It was clear that this was a struggle to the death, and that the war would be a long one. Right from the outset the Communist Party appealed to the working class, the collective farmers and the intellectuals to turn the country into an armed camp, to join in the war effort, to give the front more weapons, ammunition and food, to evacuate everything of value in those areas where the Red Army was forced to retreat, and, if this was impossible, to destroy it, so that it should not fall into the hands of the enemy. In response to the Party's appeal, all the peoples of the Soviet Union came to the support of the front.

The economy had to be geared to war in extremely difficult circumstances. Most complex of all was the task of moving the population and industrial equipment from the frontal areas to the hinterland. This required strict organisation, efficiency and enthusiasm on the part of millions of people.

Under the leadership of Party and Soviet organisations, workers, engineers and technicians carried out an operation that no one had ever been able to carry out before. In five months, from July to November 1941, they moved more than 1,360 large industrial enterprises and more than 10 million people to the East. The people of the Urals, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Republics of Central Asia also made heroic efforts. The railwaymen delivered the equipment and assembly work began at once. Work went on all round the clock. In three or four weeks the evacuated enterprises went into production and three or four months later they were exceeding the pre-war output.

17-1358

troops liked to call them, were turned out in greater numbers. Factories worked day and night and a continuous stream of arms and equipment flowed to the front.

The workers on the home front strained every nerve to provide the Red Army with all that it needed. Soviet troops never went short of anything. In spite of all the shortages of food, fuel and clothes that the home front experienced, no one grumbled. Every family had someone---father, son, brother, daughter---in the fighting line. And everyone understood that the men at the front were sacrificing their blood, their lives, to save the country and their families. The public voluntarily contributed to the cost of weapons for the Red Army. Many patriots gave all their savings. Factory and office workers and professional people paid for whole tank columns and squadrons of aircraft.

The high standard of organisation and patriotism at the front and in the rear was supported and encouraged by the energy and bravery of the Communist Party. The Party cemented the unity of the fighting and home fronts. By their heroic efforts the workers on the home front prepared the great turn of the tide that was to come in battle, the victorious offensive of the Red Army.

A soldier receives a Party membership card before a battle

Decisive Battles

The second year of the war began with a new fascist offensive. But instead of proceeding along the whole front, it was confined to the southern sector. Here the enemy had concentrated a million troops. One Italian and two Rumanian armies took part in the German offensive. Numerically the enemy was twice as strong as the opposing Soviet forces. The fascists broke through the Soviet defences and drove on towards the Volga and into the North Caucasus. But on the approaches to Stalingrad (now Volgograd) the enemy was stopped.

A historic battle developed on that great Russian river, the Volga. It was here that the Soviet Command had decided to halt and destroy the enemy. Its plan was to wear the enemy forces down in defensive engagements while steadily building up fresh forces on his flanks, then close in and utterly defeat him.

The whole world watched the Battle of Stalingrad, where the outcome of the war was being decided in a life-- anddeath struggle. Every yard of the city's land, every house, every floor was defended stubbornly. But in spite of the bitter fighting, Party work continued every day. Party meetings were held, young Communists were presented with their Party cards, heroes were decorated, newspapers were delivered, handwritten newssheets were issued.

The defenders of the Volga stronghold held out. On November 19, 1942, the Red Army struck a crushing blow at the fascist forces. On the fifth day of the offensive Soviet troops surrounded an enemy army of 330,000 men and every day after that the ring grew tighter until at the beginning of February the enemy surrendered. Never before in history had such a large formation of troops been surrounded and destroyed.

Stalingrad has gone down in history as a hero-city and the memory of its valiant defenders will live for ever in

17*

men's minds. The glorious victory on the Volga turned the tide of the war in Russia and throughout the world.

The rout of the fascists on the Volga was followed by further blows on the other fronts. The Red Army cleared the North Caucasus and relieved Leningrad.

The great expulsion of the enemy from Soviet soil was afoot.

The character of the Party's political work in the Armed Forces changed. At the beginning of the war, when the Red Army was compelled to retreat, the Party organs and political workers trained the soldiers to be steady in defence. Now the Red Army was advancing. The home front was supplying it with the latest arms and equipment. Tank, air and motorised armies and corps had been formed. So the Party saw to it that the troops mastered the new equipment and weapons in the shortest possible time and developed in them the kind of courage and comradeship that was needed for offensive action.

Massive defeats had undermined Germany's might and her military prestige. The fascist beast had been lamed but it was not yet broken. Hitler carried out a fresh mobilisation in Germany, built up fresh armies at the front, equipped them with powerful tanks, and in July 1943 attempted to launch yet another powerful offensive. This time the fascists concentrated their forces on a narrow sector of the front south of Moscow, in the region of Kursk. With a powerful battering ram of 50 divisions, 20 of which were armoured or motorised, they counted on smashing through the Soviet defence lines, seizing the initiative and changing the course of the war in their favour.

The Soviet Command saw through the enemy's plan and the battle of Kursk began. This was the biggest battle in history. Both sides threw in a huge number of planes, tanks and artillery. The German offensive broke itself on the impregnable Soviet defences and the Red Army launched a decisive counter-offensive. It hurled the enemy back across the Dnieper, cleared the Donets Basin and the whole Ukraine east of the Dnieper, and at the beginning of November 1943 liberated Kiev.

The powerful partisan movement in the enemy rear furthered the Red Army's successes. These Soviet patriots were responding to the Party's call. Party organisations, Commu-

Partisans

nists initiated the formation of partisan detachments. As early as 1941 large partisan brigades and formations were operating on occupied territory and striking at the enemy. By 1943 the army of partisans fighting in the enemy's rear was nearly a million strong and underground regional, town and district Party committees had been set up. The partisans were known as the people's avengers. They took revenge on the fascists for the atrocities they were committing on Soviet soil against women, children and old men. The partisans saved civilians from being driven away into fascist slavery, destroyed enemy stores and headquarters, blew up bridges, enemy convoys and trains. They caused the enemy tremendous losses.

The tide of the war had changed irreversibly in favour of the Soviet people and their Army. The Red Army had shown tremendous fighting ability. Senior and junior officers had acquired experience of modern warfare and mastered the art of directing large mechanised formations and massive offensive operations. The Army now had a powerful military economy behind it and was equipped with the very latest weapons. In two years of war Soviet industry produced two and a half times more tanks and 20,000 more aircraft than German industry. In the course of war the Soviet Union surpassed Germany in the quality of its weapons.

The victorious offensive launched by the Red Army in the summer of 1943 inspired the whole Soviet people. No matter how great the hardships and sacrifices, there was happiness in knowing that the Red Army was driving the enemy back and making the country free again. People greeted the advancing Red Army with tears of joy. But a terrible picture of atrocities and destruction left by the fascists unfolded before the liberating forces. The enemy was scorching the earth in his retreat. As they withdrew, the fascists blew up all the main buildings in the towns, razed villages to the ground, slaughtered civilians or drove them away into fascist slavery, killed off the cattle, carted away grain and property. Wherever the fascist invaders had set foot, there was nothing but ashes and ruins. Faced with this spectacle of destruction, the men of the Red Army felt an even fiercer hatred for these fascist barbarians and drove ahead relentlessly.

Trained and encouraged by the Communist Party, Soviet people never lost heart. No matter where they happened to be, they put up valiant resistance to the fascists. In fascist death camps, Red Army men set up underground organisations and organised uprisings. Thousands of them escaped, made their way back to their own country and rejoined the Army. Others, in Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and Holland, joined the partisan detachments and made fearless underground fighters. Soviet patriots acted with equal courage while doing forced labour in Germany. By all possible means they sabotaged the nazi war effort.

The Enemy Driven from Soviet Soil

The Soviet Union's military successes affected the whole world. At the end of 1943 a Conference of the Heads of State of the USSR, USA and Britain was held in Teheran. The declaration it passed defined the general line of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition and proclaimed the principles of joint co-operation to be followed after the war. Britain and the United States, however, had not fulfilled their promise to open a second front in Europe in 1943. Their representatives now promised to do so by May 1944.

For two years and more the Soviet Union had been bearing the brunt of the war alone. Germany still had considerable strength. She still had the resources of nearly all Europe at her disposal. Taking advantage of the failure to open a second front, Hitler sent new divisions to the East. The Soviet Army was still faced with a formidable opponent. But by the beginning of 1944, thanks to the workers on the home front, it had more aircraft, tanks, guns and other weapons than the German army.

The German command hoped for a respite after the intense fighting of 1943, but they were disappointed. The Red Army launched a fresh and formidable offensive. In the first half of 1944 it struck a crushing blow at the enemy near Leningrad, threw him back hundreds of miles, surrounded and destroyed two large groups of enemy forces in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper, and liberated the Crimea.

In the summer of 1944 the Red Army mounted a general offensive along the whole front. The German-Finnish forces were smashed north of Leningrad and Finland withdrew from the war. On the central sector Soviet forces pushed rapidly forward to liberate Byelorussia and a large part of Lithuania, and then Latvia and Estonia. In the south, by the autumn of 1944 the liberation of Moldavia and the Ukraine was completed.

In 1944, tens of thousands of Germans gave themselves up as soon as they were surrounded. The fascist invaders had once dreamed of seeing Moscow. They were given the opportunity on July 17, 1944, when nearly 60,000 captured German soldiers, officers and generals were marched through the streets of the Soviet capital.

In 1944, the state frontier of the Soviet Union was restored throughout its entire length. The Red Army cleared Soviet territory of the fascist occupying troops. On Soviet soil the German army suffered irreparable losses: 8 million men killed and taken prisoner, 190,000 guns, 62,000 aircraft and 55,000 tanks. By driving out these would-be builders of a new German empire, the Soviet people proved the invincible strength of the Soviet socialist system.

Work of rehabilitation began immediately on the liberated territory. The Central Committee and the Soviet Government passed a special decision on emergency measures for restoring the economy in areas that had been occupied. This work of restoration was taken up by the whole country. The people of the Urals, Siberia and Kazakhstan, the Central Asian and Transcaucasian Republics sent trainloads of equipment, fuel, cattle, grain and building materials to the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The friendship between the Soviet peoples, reinforced by common sacrifice at the front, showed itself anew in the fraternal assistance that was rendered to those sections of the population that had suffered under the fascist invaders. Wrecked power stations, factories and mines came to life again; houses, schools and hospitals were rebuilt. In the Donets Basin three out of every four pits were producing coal again by the end of the war. In the eastern regions of the country more than 2,250 new large enterprises were built during the war years.

The Soviet Army's Campaign of Liberation

The Soviet Army's offensive inspired the patriots in the enslaved countries of Europe. In Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia and France the national liberation movement developed into a nation-wide struggle. It was led by the Communist Parties. The resistance movement gained momentum in the countries of the fascist bloc--- in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Finland. Led by Communists, the patriots of these countries fought to bring about the defeat of the aggressive fascist alliance in the war and to overthrow the fascist regimes. The partisan movement swung into action in Italy, Bulgaria and Rumania. With the help of the Soviet people the Polish, Czechoslovak and Rumanian patriots formed military units on Soviet territory that fought with the Red Army and with Soviet weapons to defeat fascist forces.

The successes of the Red Army perturbed the ruling circles of Britain and the United States. It was clear that the Soviet Union alone could now defeat the German army and liberate the whole of Europe. The imperialists of Britain and the United States, who had backed Hitler in the thirties, were not prepared to accept such an ending to the war.

They were also alarmed by the growing struggle for democracy and progress that was being waged by the peoples of

Europe. For three years power groups in Britain and

America had delayed the opening of the second front.

Eventually, however, it was opened. In June 1944, British

and American troops landed in France. Germany found

herself between the hammer and the anvil. The hammer that

was forging victory, however, was still the Soviet Union. In mid-1944 the Soviet Army began its great campaign

of liberation in Europe. The Communist Party and the

Government of the USSR declared their aims:

---to help the European peoples destroy the fascist tyranny

and restore their independence; ---to present the liberated peoples with complete freedom

in solving the problem of their state and social system; ---to punish those who were to blame for the war and

the chief war criminals;

---to rule out any possibility of fresh aggression on the

part of Germany;

---to establish lasting co-operation between the peoples of Europe after the war.

The Soviet Union's programme of liberation struggle was inspired with humanism and respect for the sovereignty of all peoples and non-interference in their internal affairs. It gained understanding and support among the peoples of Europe.

The Red Army was greeted everywhere as an army of liberation. When they saw the Soviet soldier with his badge of the five-pointed star, symbolising unity of the working people of the five continents, the workers of the European countries realised what a huge gulf divided fascism from communism---fascism with its misanthropic, racist ideology, bringing oppression and death, and communism with its ideology of friendship of the peoples, affirming freedom and life.

The Soviet Army and the Polish Army drove the German occupation forces out of Poland. In August 1944, when Soviet forces, in pursuit of the enemy, entered Rumania, her patriotic forces, led by the Communist Party, rose and overthrew the fascist regime. Rumania broke with Germany and her army turned its guns against the Hitlerites. The victories of the Soviet Army helped the Bulgarian people to depose their fascist-monarchist government. The People's Front Government of Bulgaria declared war on Germany. In the spring of 1941, soon after the Germans had occupied Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Communist Party organised a powerful partisan movement, which became the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and tied down considerable German and Italian forces throughout the war. The Soviet and Yugoslav armies liberated Belgrade and cleared the country of the invaders. The Albanian people took advantage of the Soviet victory to drive out the fascists. The Soviet Army liberated Hungary, a considerable part of Czechoslovakia and Austria, and helped the peoples of Norway and Denmark to throw off the fascist yoke.

The Soviet Army captured several of the death camps set up by the fascists, where they had burned millions of prisoners. Four million Soviet citizens perished in these camps and the same fate had been prepared for millions more. There were people from all the continents of the world in the fascist camps. Their lives were saved by Soviet troops.

S69

The Red Banner of victory on the Reichstag in Berlin

In the middle of January 1945 the Soviet Army launched its final offensive. The Germans were unable to resist the massive pressure of the Soviet forces.

The Victorious Completion of the Great Patriotic War

The war spread to German soil. When they started the war, the fascist adventurers had not imagined that this was how it would end. The hour of reckoning for all their evil deeds had come. Soviet soldiers, who had fought their way from Moscow and the Volga, from Leningrad and the foothills of the Caucasus, pressed on in pursuit of the aggressors, determined to run the fascist beast to earth.

In the middle of April 1945, the Soviet Army began the assault on Berlin, capital of nazi Germany. Bitter fighting raged for ten days before the city fell and Soviet soldiers unfurled the Red Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. The Soviet Armed Forces had crushed Hitler's army. Fascism

was defeated, Germany capitulated, and the fascist leaders suffered the grim retribution of popular justice.

The war in Europe ended with the capitulation of Germany, but it still continued in the Pacific, where Germany's ally, imperialist Japan, had her claws into the Chinese and other Asiatic peoples and was keeping an army numbering several millions on the frontier of the USSR. The United States, Britain and China were at war with Japan and the end was nowhere in sight. The Soviet people could not feel secure while their Far-Eastern frontier was threatened by the Japanese imperialist aggressor. Nor could they remain indifferent to the sufferings of the Chinese and other peoples of Asia.

In July 1945, at a Conference of the Heads of State of the USSR, USA and Britain, at which the leaders of the three Great Powers solemnly undertook to ensure that Germany should never again threaten the world, the question of Japan was also discussed. The Soviet Government affirmed its obligation to help the allies crush the Japanese militarists, so as to bring the war to a speedier end and establish world peace.

On August 8 the USSR declared war on Japan and the Soviet Army struck a crushing blow at the Japanese forces. Japan capitulated on September 12th. The Soviet Army liberated the North-eastern provinces of China, which had a population of 40 million. For 14 years the Japanese aggressors, having seized nearly two-thirds of the territory of China and all her key economic centres, had been shooting down civilians and plundering the country. The Chinese people fought back bravely, but the poorly armed People's Liberation Army of China could not carry on successful offensive operations against the Japanese occupation forces and offer resistance to the reactionary forces within the country. The defeat of the Japanese aggressors by Soviet troops created favourable conditions for the further development and victorious completion of the Chinese Revolution. The Soviet Army liberated North Korea. Its victory stimulated the development of the national liberation movements in the countries of Asia.

On August 6th and 9th, 1945, the American air force dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The people of these cities suffered a

terrible tragedy. There was no need for the use of atomic weapons. This was a monstrous crime against humanity. The capitulation of Japan was accelerated not by the effect of these bombs, but by the Soviet Union's entry into the war, by the Soviet Army's defeat of Japan's crack land forces.

The Soviet Union had brought the Great Patriotic War to a victorious conclusion. Now the Second World War was over and long-awaited peace had come to the world.

To save the Soviet Union, the world's first socialist country, to establish peace, democracy and socialism throughout the world the Soviet people had made tremendous sacrifices. Nearly twenty million Soviet people were killed in the war. The victory of the USSR over the forces of aggression will never fade. Soviet people, educated by the Party of Lenin, displayed unexampled endurance and mass heroism. More than seven million Soviet fighting men were decorated for bravery with Orders and Medals; more than 11,000 received the highest award---the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Among those decorated there were representatives of all the nations and nationalities of the USSR. The Great Patriotic War once again confirmed Lenin's prophetic words: "A nation in which the majority of the workers and peasants realise, feel and see that they are fighting for their own Soviet power, for the rule of the working people, for the cause whose victory will ensure them and their children all the benefits of culture, of all that has been created by human labour---such a nation can never be vanquished."*

The inspirer and organiser of the Soviet people's victory in the war was the Communist Party. It welded together the Army and the people, the front and the rear; it directed all the people's efforts towards defeating the enemy. By their personal example the Communists inspired the fighting men and the workers on the home front to perform heroic feats. The Party acquired even deeper ties with the people. Its prestige increased. The best people joined its ranks. "I want to go into battle as a Communist", "If I die in action, may I be considered a Communist", were typical of the statements made by thousands of fighting men. During the war more than 5,000,000 people were accepted as candidates for Party membership, and about 3,500,000 became members.

By the end of the war more than half the Party's membership was serving in the Army and Navy. The grave trials of war gave the Party even greater endurance and enhanced its fighting qualities and leadership.

The Second World War unleashed by the German and Japanese imperialists caused humanity incalculable suffering. It claimed nearly 50 million human lives, lay waste whole countries, destroyed thousands of towns and villages, and reduced to nothing the labour of many generations.

The Soviet Union played the chief part in bringing the war to a victorious conclusion. Led by the Communist Party, the Soviet people fulfilled their international duty to the peoples of the world. They bore the brunt of the war and saved humanity from the threat of fascist enslavement. They liberated the peoples of Europe from fascist slavery and rendered tremendous assistance to the Chinese people and other peoples of Asia in their struggle against Japanese imperialism. The peoples of Europe and Asia acquired national independence. Many of them set foot on the path of socialism.

The Soviet people won their historic victory in the Great Patriotic War because of the socialist social and state system that had been established in the USSR, because the workers and peasants, all the peoples of the Soviet Union, were bound together in real friendship, because the Communist Party had fostered and encouraged this friendship. The memory of the undying exploits of the peoples of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War will live throughout the ages.

IN THE VANGUARD OF THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM

The Victorious March of Socialism

Although the Soviet Union had suffered greater losses than other states, it emerged from the war stronger politically and with international prestige enhanced. Now there was not a single major problem of world politics that could be decided without Soviet participation.

» V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 319.

The Soviet Union's victory over the aggressive imperialist states exercised a decisive influence upon the whole course of world development. Popular revolutions occurred in a number of European countries. People's Democracy was established in Albania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia. Under the leadership of the Communist Parties the workers and peasants of these countries overthrew the power of capitalists and landowners. The landowners' estates were confiscated and handed over to those who cultivated them. The factories taken from the capitalists became the property of the people. Peacefully and without civil war the popular democratic revolutions developed into socialist revolutions. The working class headed the new People's Democratic system and the Marxist-Leninist Parties became its directing force. The European countries of People's Democracy broke away from capitalism and embarked on the path of socialism.

The Soviet people gave a helping hand to these fraternal peoples. From stocks considerably diminished during the war the Soviet Union sent them food, seed and raw materials. This helped the democratic countries to feed their populations and enabled them to get their factories and mines going again. The USSR provided a mighty shield, protecting them from any further aggression. It curbed attempts on the part of the imperialist powers to interfere in the internal affairs of the democratic countries and incite civil war there; it prevented imperialist intervention.

The military defeat of Japan weakened the imperialists' positions in Asia. In North Korea, which Soviet forces had cleared of the Japanese invaders, the Korean People's Democratic Republic was formed. The Chinese people led by the Communist Party overthrew the reactionary Kuomintang government and took over power. In October 1949, the Chinese People's Republic came into being. The Chinese people set about building socialism. For many years the Vietnamese people had been fighting the Japanese aggressors and the French colonialists. This struggle was crowned with success in the northern part of the country and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established. The USSR came out resolutely in defence of these republics and from the very first day of their existence began to render them extensive and varied assistance.

Soviet soldier-liberator

18-1359

By the beginning of the fifties 11 states---Albania, Bulgaria, the Chinese People's Republic, Czechoslovakia, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, the Korean People's Democratic Republic, Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia---had broken away from capitalism. Together with the USSR and the Mongolian People's Republic they formed the world system of socialism. It comprised a quarter of the territory of the globe and more than a third of its population. The world socialist system is the creation of the international working class, the stronghold of the working-class and national liberation movement.

The formation of the world system of socialism led to friendly co-operation between the socialist countries. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties of the countries that had now embarked on the path of socialism evolved international relations of a new, socialist type. All the countries of socialism solemnly subscribed to the following principles of relations between peoples: complete equality, non-interference in each other's affairs, and mutual respect for territorial integrity. All the Communist Parties of the socialist countries have a unified Marxist-Leninist ideology. The common aim of the peoples of these countries is to build socialism and communism. They have a common interest in defending their revolutionary gains from the encroachments of the imperialist aggressors. These factors encouraged fraternal co-operation, mutual assistance, and sincere support for each other based on the principle of socialist internationalism.

True to the principles of proletarian internationalism, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people built their relations with the peoples of the socialist countries on a foundation of close friendship and fraternal cooperation. The Communist Party of the USSR shared with the fraternal parties its experience of socialist construction. Party delegations came to the Soviet Union from all the People's Democracies to see how the CPSU worked and to study its experience in building socialism.

The Soviet Union rendered great economic assistance to the fraternal countries. It granted them credits, sent experts, and helped them to build and operate industrial enterprises. At first, economic ties between the USSR and the People's

Democracies took the form mainly of trade. In 1949, when economic co-operation developed on a wider scale, the USSR and the European countries of People's Democracy formed the Council for Economic Mutual Assistance, which set about co-ordinating their economic life.

The Soviet people's victory over fascism activised the working class of the capitalist countries. In many lands where the Communist Parties had been banned before the war they were now able to operate openly and legally. By 1964 there were 5 million Communists in the capitalist countries. The working class of a number of countries, led by the Communist Parties, achieved important democratic and social victories.

The Soviet Union's defeat of the aggressive forces of imperialism was a powerful stimulus to the national liberation movement. The formation of the world socialist system spelt the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism. Besides the peoples of China, North Korea and North Vietnam, the peoples of India, Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon and other countries won national independence. The national liberation movement made great strides in Africa. The world socialist system, the forces fighting against imperialism to bring about the socialist transformation of society, formed the chief content and direction of historical development. The contradiction between the two world socio-political systems---socialism and capitalism---became the principal contradiction of modern times.

The imperialists marshalled all their forces to halt the victorious march of socialism, to weaken the working-class and national liberation movement. But imperialism could not stifle the rapidly growing power and international influence of the world socialist system, which was becoming a decisive factor in world development.

Heroic Achievement of the Soviet People on the Labour Front

Having won the Great Patriotic War in 1945, the Soviet people resumed the work of peaceful construction. The Party concentrated attention on restoring and developing the socialist economy.

18*

The war had delayed the Soviet Union's progress towards communism for a whole decade. It had claimed countless victims and caused tremendous damage. The German aggressors had reduced 1,700 towns and townships to rubble, razed 70,000 villages, wrecked 32,000 industrial enterprises, and torn up over 40,000 miles of railway track. They had plundered more than 100,000 collective and state farms and machine and tractor stations. They had destroyed tens of thousands of schools and hospitals and killed off millions of farm animals; 25 million people were homeless. In towns people sought shelter in the cellars of wrecked buildings; in the villages they lived in dug-outs. No country had ever suffered such destruction in war as the Soviet Union did between 1941 and 1945.

Had any capitalist country experienced such crippling losses, it would have been thrown far back in its development and would have inevitably become dependent on more powerful countries. The imperialists of the United States calculated that the USSR would be a long time healing the wounds of war, that it would require many decades to recover its prewar level of production. Meanwhile the United States, whose economy had not suffered at all from the war, would continue to build up its economic and military might, enabling it to dictate its will to the world, to terrorise it with the atomic bomb, establish world domination and enslave the peoples. The US imperialists hoped that they would be able to return the People's Democracies to the capitalist camp and crush the working-class and national liberation movement.

But the Communist Party and the Soviet people found in themselves the strength not only to heal the wounds of war and maintain their Armed Forces in readiness in case of fresh aggression by the imperialists. They rendered considerable assistance to the People's Democracies and supported the working-class and national liberation movement.

The restoration of the economy, which had been started while the war was still on, now became the key task. The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950) was drawn up on the instructions of the Party Central Committee. In five years the destruction of war was to be made good and, in addition, the pre-war level of output was to be surpassed; the country was to become a lot richer than it had been before the war.

Hero-Cities Restored

This is what Stalingrad looked like after it was liberated in 1943

Volgograd today

Hero-Cities Restored

Hero-Cities Restored

Kiev, November 1943. Buildings on Krasnoarmeiskaya Street burned down and destroyed by the German invaders

Leningrad during the siege in 1942. Exhausted people at a water pump

The same spot in 19G4

Krasnoarmeiskaya Street, Kiev, 1959

Hero-Cities Restored

Just as the Party had been able at the outbreak of war to adapt itself to war time conditions, so now it set an example of rapid re-adaptation to peace. The Party sent its members to vital sectors of production. On their return from the front the Communists again became builders and steelmakers, assembly workers, electricians, mechanics and miners, tractor-drivers and combine-operators, stock-breeders and crop-growers, teachers and agronomists. There was a tremendous amount to be built and restored. Building became the most popular trade in the country. But building workers alone could not restore whole cities. The Party organisations appealed to the urban population to take part in clearing the rubble and putting up new houses. Factory and office workers, professional people, students and housewives, considered it their duty to give up a few hours of their leisure a week to help with the restoration of their home town.

The Party and the working class overcame enormous difficulties repairing the industrial damage that the fascists had caused. To bring the Donets coal-fields back into operation, for example, the miners had to pump out enough water to fill a lake 10 km long, 7 km wide and 10 metres deep. They also had to clear 1,560 miles of tunnels that had fallen in, a task equivalent to digging a tunnel right across Africa at the equator.

Thanks to the efforts of the people and the Party's organisational work, all essential elements in the economy were readjusted to peace by 1946. The Party called on the workers to make the best possible use of machinery, to employ rapid methods of work. The workers put forward hundreds of thousands of valuable proposals for speedier machining of parts, making metal, drilling oil wells and extracting coal. New, faster methods increased output and yielded great economies.

Nearly all the workers took part in the socialist competition for fulfilling the Fourth Five-Year Plan ahead of time. The Communists were to the fore as usual. The patriotism and team spirit of the Soviet workers revealed itself with fresh vigour in the post-war socialist competition. They were eager to see their country restored as quickly as possible and forging ahead towards communism.

In three years after the war the Soviet Union actually passed its pre-war level of production. By 1950 gross output

Sovetskaya Street, Minsk, 1944

The same street (now Lcninsky Prospekt) in Minsk, 1964

was 75 per cent up of the pre-war level. In the First FiveYear Plan after the war more than 6,000 large industrial enterprises were restored and built. This was a heroic feal of the Soviet working class.

The Party encountered great difficulties in reviving agriculture. There was hardly any machinery in the collective and state farms in the liberated areas, and in regions that had not been occupied the tractors and farm machinery were badly in need of repair. The ex-servicemen who had come home to manage the collective farms were full of energy but had little experience. The countryside was short of labour. Many ex-servicemen and young country people had been attracted to town to speed the restoration of industry. War had caused tremendous losses to agriculture. Sowing areas had shrunk by a quarter and the grain harvest was down to a half. The head of cattle had been reduced by 7 million; more than half the pigs and a third of the sheep had been lost. With the grain harvest and the head of cattle so much reduced there were bound to be great difficulties in feeding the population.

The Party decided that the rehabilitation of agriculture must begin with measures to ensure the supply of tractors, seed drills and harvesters. If this were achieved, it would be possible even with less people than before the war to restore the pre-war sowing area, increase the grain harvest and the head of cattle. Tractor works that had been producing tanks during the war again started turning out tractors. Several new large tractor works and factories producing farm machinery and implements were built. In 1949, the farms received two and a half times more tractors and four times more machinery than in the pre-war year 1940. Now there were more tractors on the fields than before the war, but the small collective farms with their relatively small fields could not make full use of these tractors and combines. A movement towards amalgamation began among the collective farms and was supported by the Party. Four or five small collective farms would amalgamate to form one large unit with six or seven thousand acres of arable land.

The Party helped the peasants to form collective farms in areas that had acceded to the Soviet Union only just before the war. In the early fifties the collective-farm system

established itself in the western regions of the Ukraine and Byelorussia, in the young Soviet Republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and in the western districts of Moldavia. A million peasants here embarked on the path of socialism.

The Party took steps to train organisers---chairmen, cropgrowers and stock-breeders---for the collective farms. Schools and courses for farm machine-operators were started at the machine and tractor stations. Agronomists and stock-breeding specialists taught the collective farmers the best ways of looking after crops and animals.

In 1950 Soviet agriculture approached the pre-war level. The sowing area and head of cattle had been largely restored. The people in the towns were receiving more food, and industry, more raw material. Output of consumer goods had increased. In 1947 this made it possible to abolish the rationing system introduced during the war and resume unrestricted sale in state and co-operative shops. The standard of living was nearing the pre-war level.

Restoration and new building was proceeding on a big scale in the towns and villages. Between 1946 and 1950 more than 4 million flats were built in town, and 2,700,000 houses went up in the countryside. But the housing shortage was still acute. Occupied as it was with the rapid restoration of industry, the Soviet Government could not speed up housing construction at the same time.

The urban population of the USSR began to increase very rapidly after the war. This was due mainly to the vigorous development of industry. People from the country were flooding into the towns. But the exodus from the countryside was due not only to the demands of industry. Many people were quitting the villages because they were able to earn a steady wage in town that the collective farms could not guarantee. The countryside was still feeling the effects of the war. Many collective farms were making only small incomes and their needs were many. They had scarcely anything left to share out among their members as payment for their labour, so the members began to lose interest in developing the farm's collective economy, and sought ways of earning money on the side or in town.

The local Party organisations saw these shortcomings in collective-farm life and did what they could to mitigate

them. But more resolute measures on the part of the Soviet state were required to put the farms back on their feet and speed the development of agriculture.

The Party organisations changed their methods of work. During the war local Party organs had often taken it upon themselves to see that the decisions and instructions of the State Defence Committee were carried out. There had been times when they resorted to high-handed action. This was for the good of the cause. The front demanded an unfailing supply of arms, ammunition and equipment. But even after the war Party committees continued in various degrees to take high-handed action. They assumed functions and administrative powers that they had never been intended to have. Managers of factories, construction jobs and state farms, and chairmen of collective farms, had got into the habit of consulting them on even the smallest economic matters. The local Soviets had been pushed into the background. Under peace-time conditions this was abnormal.

The Central Committee drew the attention of the Party organs to these shortcomings and urged them to return to the Party's well-tried methods of leadership, to achieve a proper balance between Party political work and managerial activity. It is the duty of Party organs, the Central Committee explained, to direct state, economic and social organisations through the Communists working in these organisations. The Party organisations in industry have the right, as was laid down at the Eighteenth Party Congress, to supervise the activity of managements. But this supervision must not become tutelage of managers; it must not diminish their responsibility and on no account must Party organs be allowed to take over the functions of state and economic bodies.

While improving methods of leadership, the Party simultaneously stepped up communist education of the working people. It had always given much attention to ideological work, but in the post-war years the importance of this work had grown. As it restored its socialist economy, the Soviet Union was gaining momentum for its drive towards communism. It was important that not only the Communists but all Soviet people should have a clear idea of the ultimate aim and should be eager to achieve it. The building of communism is not a spontaneous process. It is achieved through the creative, purposeful activity of millions of people. It was, therefore, one of the primary tasks of the Communist Party to provide Soviet people with a communist

The Party After the War

The Party emerged from the war with even greater energy and powers of endurance. In spite of the tremendous losses sustained at the front, its numbers had almost doubled. By the end of the war its membership was near the six million mark.

Communist ex-servicemen returned to peaceful work at factories, mines, collective and state farms. The Party organisations there at once grew in numbers and there was a particularly noticeable increase of Communists in the villages. Before the war many of the collective farms had been without any Party organisation. After the war, with nearly 1,500,000 Communists working in agriculture, there were Party organisations in four out of every five collective farms.

In the years immediately after the war the Party limited its rate of increase and concentrated on raising the ideological and theoretical level of the new members, who under war-time conditions had been unable to give enough attention to political studies. Now the opportunity was available. The Central Committee organised schools for training Party workers in republics, territories and regions. Most of those who attended these schools were ex-servicemen. They studied the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the historical experience of the Party, political economy and philosophy, and practical Party work. The whole six-million-strong army of Communists was raising its theoretical and political level.

During the war inner-Party democracy had been somewhat restricted. The Party's Central Committee, for instance, would appoint to the big factories Party organisers who were at the same time secretaries of Party organisations. The schedule for holding Party conferences was not observed. Leading Party workers were frequently co-opted. After the war Party conferences began to be held regularly. Regular election of Party organs was restored in accordance with the Party Rules.

world outlook, to help them overcome the mental hangover and prejudices of the past.

In addition, it was impossible to ignore the increasing penetration of bourgeois ideology from abroad. The Soviet Union's contacts with the capitalist countries had expanded since the war. The principle of peaceful coexistence between countries with differing social systems was becoming increasingly recognised. But the two opposing ideologies, socialist and bourgeois, cannot coexist. The masters of the capitalist world are roused to fury by the communist world outlook and, since they have nothing to offer in its place, they try in every way to build up and praise the bourgeois way of life, while slandering socialism.

The Party took decisive steps to check the imperialists' ideological sabotage and educate Soviet people in the forward-looking, revolutionary ideas of Marxism-Leninism. It made use of the press, radio, television, cinema, literature and art to bring political enlightenment to the masses. People working in the social sciences, literature and the arts gave the Party a great deal of help in exposing bourgeois ideology.

The Party is particularly opposed to bourgeois nationalism, to the incitement of enmity between peoples. While encouraging friendship among the peoples of the Soviet Union, it educated the working people in a spirit of fraternal co-operation with the peoples of the socialist countries, and international solidarity with the working people of all countries fighting against imperialism and colonialism.

The Party's organisational and ideological-political work among the masses produced results. Workers, peasants and intellectuals displayed a high level of political consciousness and worked with unselfish dedication. The Fourth FiveYear Plan was fulfilled by industry in 4 years 3 months. The economic wounds inflicted by the war were for the most part healed. The people had recovered their strength and overcome the shortages of the war years.

The Nineteenth Party Congress was held in October 1952. It summed up the victories of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and in the work of restoring the economy, and outlined the tasks for the years immediately ahead.

The congress passed the directives for the 1951-1955 Five-Year Plan of Economic Development of the USSR.

These provided for more than trebling industrial output and doubling agricultural output compared with the pre-war level. There was particular emphasis on accelerated development of heavy engineering and increased production of electricity. Mechanisation and electrification of all branches of the economy remained, as before, the mainspring of the development of the socialist economy. It was on this basis that the rise in labour productivity and the people's standard of living was being achieved. Considerable funds were allocated to cultural advance.

The congress changed the name of the Party, which now became known as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The Nineteenth Party Congress was the first to be held in the new conditions of a world socialist system. Guests from 44 Communist and Workers' Parties were present. They included representatives of the Communist Parties of the socialist countries. In their speeches at the congress they spoke of the great assistance the Soviet Union had given the young socialist countries and stressed the importance of studying the historical experience of the CPSU in building socialism.

The Nineteenth Congress took place in an atmosphere of international tension. Korea was in the throes of a war unleashed by the American aggressors. The peoples of IndoChina were waging a brave struggle against the French colonialists. The threat of a third world war loomed large on the horizon. The Soviet Union stood firm by its Leninist peaceful policy, exposed the imperialist aggressors and worked to strengthen world peace. The congress pointed to the need for building up the country's defence capacity and strengthening the ties between the socialist countries, and urged all-out support for the peoples that were fighting for social and national freedom.

The Soviet Union's Struggle for Relaxation of International Tension

The outcome of the Second World War was not to the liking of the imperialists, who were alarmed by the Soviet Union's increased authority in the world. They refused to

2SC,

2S7

reconcile themselves to the fact that a large group of countries of Europe and Asia had broken away from the capitalist system. They were seriously worried by the mounting impetus of the national liberation movement.

The post-war international situation was characterised by a sharp struggle between the two major political camps--- socialism and imperialism. The socialist camp consisted of the USSR and the People's Democracies. Many young countries that had recently won national independence were also becoming associated with the socialist camp. The imperialist camp was led by the United States, Britain and France. But the two latter countries had emerged from the war in a weakened state. The United States, on the contrary, had become stronger. The American monopolies had made billions on war orders and had done very well out of the war.

Now that they possessed such enormous economic and military power, the ruling circles of the United States imagined that they could impose their will on the whole world. At the end of 1945, the American President stated that the outcome of the war had confronted America with the necessity of "world leadership". Under the guise of so-called economic ``aid'', the United States brought the other capitalist countries more and more under its domination. Even Britain and France had become dependent on America. The monopolies of the United States had seized the world's major spheres of capital investment, the sources of raw materials and markets and had become the world's largest exploiter.

As a rallying point for all the reactionary forces of the capitalist world, American imperialism had developed into a stronghold of reaction, a world policeman. In Western Europe it relied on the monopolistic bourgeoisie, the military and the fascist leaders; in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, on military dictators, and monarchist and feudal cliques. With the support of the American imperialists these reactionary forces tried to hold down the working-class and national liberation movement.

Whenever the people of this or that country made advances in the struggle for freedom and social progress and the reactionaries in that country were unable to cope with the revolutionary movement, American troops would appear on the scene. The United States had for long been carrying on like this in the Latin American countries, backing the

dictatorships there. After the war they began to act in the same way in Asia. In China, the American imperialists gave every support to the Kuomintang clique. When this clique was utterly defeated in 1949, the United States took over the Chinese Island of Taiwan and sent its fleet to help evacuate to this island the remnants of the Kuomintang forces. In Indo-China the American imperialists backed the dirty war of the French colonialists against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Gradually they entrenched themselves in the south of the country and, when French colonialism had been defeated, placed the reactionary government of South Vietnam under their control. In South Korea the American occupation forces set up a puppet government headed by a yes-man of their own choosing. This was done against the will of the Korean people, who had instituted their own system of People's Democracy in the northern half of the country, thus forming the Korean People's Democratic Republic, which strove and is still striving to unite the country by peaceful means.

The ruling circles of the United States very quickly forgave the German fascists and Japanese militarists who had been responsible for the Second World War.

The war in which the United States, the USSR and other countries had fought together against nazi Germany was scarcely over, when the American ruling circles started renewing their contacts with the German monopolies. At the end of the war the territory of Germany was occupied. The military administrations of the USA, Britain and France took over the western sectors; the USSR administered the eastern sector. The countries of the anti-fascist coalition had reached agreements on the future of Germany. These agreements provided for the eradication of fascism, the liquidation of the German monopolies, the democratisation of the entire social life of Germany, the unification of the four occupation zones of Germany into a single democratic state and the eventual withdrawal of occupation troops from its territory. But the USA, Britain and France openly violated these agreements. They declared the western zones of Germany to be an independent state---the Federal Republic of Germany. When they helped this state to build up an army led by former Hitler generals, and to restore the former power of the German monopolies, a dangerous breed-

19-1359

ing ground of German militarism and revenge reappeared in Europe. The imperialists had split Germany and made it difficult to create a united democratic German state. In reply to this arbitrary act, the workers and peasants of East Germany, with the consent of the Soviet Union and other interested countries, set up in 1949 their own independent state---the German Democratic Republic.

The United States Government also broke its pledge to the Grand Alliance with regard to Japan. Ignoring the Soviet Union, which had made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the Japanese armed forces, the United States, Britain and France concluded a separate peace treaty with Japan. This was a mutually advantageous deal for the imperialists. The United States kept its troops in Japan and gained the right to build military bases on her territory, while the treaty left the Japanese monopolies free to revive the forces of militarism. The working people of Japan replied to the treaty with a storm of indignation and launched a campaign for its annulment.

The imperialists made desperate attempts to crush the national liberation movements, using every means at their disposal: armed forces, plots, bribery and terrorism. But the national liberation movement continued to grow. It spread to Africa, and particularly the Arab countries. After Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, national independence was won by Lybia (1951), Egypt (1952), and the Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia (1956). The Algerian people launched an armed struggle against the French colonialists.

In the post-war years American imperialism has been the chief initiator and organiser of aggressive wars. Its policy has been spearheaded against the USSR and the People's Democracies. Acting from its "positions of strength", the United States started the so-called "cold war". It intensified the arms race, built up stocks of nuclear weapons and increased the size of its armed forces. At the same time the United States formed aggressive military blocs, built a ring of military bases round the socialist countries and threatened them with the atomic bomb. In 1949, they set up a military alignment of states known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which included the United States, Britain, France and other capitalist countries and was later joined by the Federal Republic of Germany. American

forces with nuclear weapons were stationed in the member countries of NATO. In the mid-fifties two more aggressive military blocs were formed on the initiative and with the participation of the United States. These were the SouthEast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO). American military bases aimed against the socialist countries and intended also for suppressing the national liberation movement were set up in the countries that entered these blocs.

The imperialists pursued their aggressive policy on the basis of the alleged threat of communism, and anti-- communism was their slogan. They spread slander about the USSR and the other socialist countries and tried to distort and blacken the ideals of communism. The main danger from the imperialists' point of view was that socialism had become part of the lives of the peoples of many countries and was having a revolutionising effect on the working people of the capitalist world, on the whole course of world development. In imperialist ruling circles this aroused fierce hatred and anger against the socialist countries. But the ideals of communism surmounted all the barriers erected by the imperialists and their agents. Communist Parties appeared in countries where there had been none before the war. The world communist movement was becoming the most influential force on earth.

The American imperialists were pushing the world to the brink of a third world war, in which the Pentagon was planning to use a terrible weapon of mass extermination and destruction---the atom bomb. In 1950, the United States embarked on a policy of direct military adventures. It provoked South Korea to attack the Korean People's Democratic Republic and sent its troops to Korea. America's armed intervention in Korea created an extremely tense international situation. The clouds of world war were gathering.

The people's main hopes of preventing war lay in the Soviet Union, a powerful and peace-loving socialist country, and the Soviet Union proved worthy of their hopes. Relying on the growing might of the USSR and its international prestige, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Government took resolute steps to defend world peace.

19*

for many years. But they miscalculated. In 1949, the USSR tested its first atom bomb; in 1953, it tested a hydrogen bomb. The US monopoly of the atomic weapon was broken. The USSR placed the thermonuclear weapon at the service of peace and socialism, the world socialist system and all peace-loving peoples. The Soviet Union's increased military power cooled the belligerence of the imperialist warmongers and proved an effective antidote to their adventures and provocations.

In their foreign policy the CPSU and the Soviet Government relied on the powerful camp of socialism and constantly sought the advice of the Communist Parties and Governments of the other socialist countries. The world socialist system became a bulwark of peace and international security. The Soviet Union, supported by the other socialist countries, persistently urged the capitalist countries to agree to a ban on nuclear tests and the use of nuclear weapons in war. But the Governments of the United States, Britain and France held out against this and continued their aggressive course.

The USSR tried to influence the governments of the imperialist powers through the United Nations Organisation, which had been founded to preserve peace and regulate international problems. Soviet spokesmen in UNO resolutely exposed the imperialists' aggressive plans. In 1953, the Soviet Union submitted to the UN General Assembly a draft resolution On Measures for Eliminating the Threat of a New World War and Reducing Tension in International Relations. It provided for: banning of the atomic and hydrogen weapon; reduction by a third of the armed forces of the five Great Powers---the United States, Britain, France, the USSR and the Chinese People's Republic; an international conference on the general reduction of armaments and armed forces; condemnation of all attempts to spread enmity and hatred among the peoples.

At the United Nations the Soviet Union spoke out in support of the young national states: the Indonesian Republic, Syria and Lebanon. Under pressure from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the Dutch and British interventionists were compelled to withdraw from Indonesia and recognise her independence and sovereignty. The Soviet Union's firm support for the peoples of Syria and Lebanon

JVo to a world thermonuclear war!

The CPSU fully realised that hundreds of American military bases equipped with nuclear weapons were aimed primarily at the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries. In spite of all the difficulties of restoring the damage to the economy caused by the fascist aggressors during the war, the Party and the Soviet people did not relax their efforts to strengthen the country's defence potential. The Soviet Union could not remain defenceless in the face of an atomic attack by the imperialists, it could not abandon the peoples of the socialist and other peaceful countries which the United States was threatening with nuclear war. The American imperialists' aggressive plans were built on the assumption that they would enjoy their nuclear monopoly

helped to bring about the evacuation of French and British forces from the territory of these countries.

The peoples of Europe were seriously alarmed by the resurgence of militarism in the Federal Republic of Germany, by the fact that the United States, Britain and France had violated the pledges they had made under the Potsdam Agreement to create a peaceful, democratic Germany. The Western Powers had rejected the Soviet Union's numerous proposals for the unification of Germany and conclusion of a peace treaty with her. They had also rejected the Soviet proposal to create a system of European collective security. At the same time they were building up NATO and doing all they could to boost militarisation of the Federal Republic of Germany. The socialist countries could not ignore these ominous facts. At a conference in Warsaw, in 1955, the USSR and other European socialist countries signed a Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance. The Warsaw Treaty is defensive in character. Its aim is to strengthen the security of the peoples of Europe and the whole world. It is open for other states to join, irrespective of their social system.

As a great European and Asiatic power, the Soviet Union kept a vigilant eye on the schemes of the aggressors in Asia. It made persistent attempts to put a stop to intervention by the United States and its allies in Korea, to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Korean problem, and to halt the dirty war of the French colonialists in Indo-China. The Soviet Union's influence was instrumental in putting an end to the Korean war in 1953. An agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Indo-China was concluded in 1954.

Thus, step by step, the CPSU and the Soviet Government, acting in the interests of general international security, strove to reduce world tension. They used every possible means for this purpose. The powerful peace movement that spread throughout the world was an important factor in preventing a new war. Soviet Communists, all Soviet people took an active part in the movement. The world peace movement embraced hundreds of millions of people of various classes and parties, holding various political views and religious beliefs. It was led by the World Peace Council. The World Federation of Trade Unions, the International Democratic Federation of Women, the World Federation

of Democratic Youth and Students, the Movement for AfroAsian Solidarity, various international organisations of journalists and lawyers, prominent public men and outstanding figures in science, culture and the arts took part in the movement and it became a serious obstacle to the aggressors, who were trying to fan the smouldering fires of war into a world conflagration.

Personal contacts were established between Soviet Government leaders and leaders of the capitalist countries with the aim of seeking mutually acceptable solutions to international problems. The Soviet Union's ties with the young national states of Asia and Africa expanded. Every year more and more people came from various countries to visit the Soviet Union. They saw for themselves the tremendous achievements of the Soviet people, their desire for peace and their good will. The common people of the capitalist world got to know more and more of the truth about the first country of socialism. The Soviet Union's friends multiplied all over the world. The false tales about the threat of "communist aggression", and the "iron curtain" that the Soviet Union was supposed to be using to cut itself off from the rest of the world, were utterly exploded.

While working resolutely to preserve peace, the Communist Party devoted unflagging attention to developing the country's economy and improving the Soviet people's wellbeing, and guided the movement of Soviet socialist society towards communism.

The Twentieth Congress of the CPSU

The Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, held in February 1956, played an important part in the life of the Party and Soviet society. It considered the Soviet Union's international position and defined the tasks of communist construction for the next five years.

The congress approved the peaceful foreign policy pursued by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government and gave a profound analysis of the important changes that had occurred in the world. The area of capitalist domination had shrunk. The positions of socialism had been considerably strengthened. Great economic

and cultural progress was being made in all the socialist countries. Nearly half the world's population had shaken off colonial and semi-colonial dependence. The peace forces had multiplied and grown stronger. All this had created favourable conditions for promoting peace, democracy, national liberation and socialism.

Taking these changes into account, the Twentieth Congress advanced a number of new propositions on the basic questions of world development.

The congress developed the Leninist principle of peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems in relation to the present epoch. In a situation where the world was divided between two different systems---socialism and capitalism---this principle was the only reasonable one to follow in international relations. Peaceful coexistence or a war of destruction---this was the problem posed by history. The Communists firmly maintain that differences arising between states should be solved by means of negotiations and not by war.

The policy of peaceful coexistence is a form of the class struggle and does not involve reconciling proletarian ideology with the ideology of the bourgeoisie. It assumes a struggle on the part of the working class for the triumph of socialist ideals and promotes the success of the people's struggle for emancipation and the achievement of their revolutionary aims. Marxism-Leninism teaches that socialism will ultimately be victorious in all countries. All people will sooner or later embark on the socialist path of development. This is an objective, historical necessity. It is based on the decisive advantages of socialism over capitalism and no one can change or abolish it.

The Twentieth Congress of the CPSU reached the conclusion that under present-day conditions there was a real possibility of preventing world war. Lenin had pointed out that while imperialism continued to dominate the world, wars were inevitable. Life had borne out his assertion. But many decades had passed since then. There was a new situation in the world. The essentially aggressive nature of imperialism had not changed, but it no longer had the same opportunities. It was no longer a single all-embracing, world system. Forces that were opposed to war had acquired immeasurably greater strength.

While imperialism continues to exist, of course, the possibility of aggressive wars remains. This means that the peace-loving forces must be particularly vigilant. But under present conditions, when a powerful socialist camp has been formed and there is in addition quite a number of other peace-loving countries, when broad-based movements for peace are growing and spreading in all countries, there are real possibilities of preventing the imperialists from launching a fresh world war.

Generalising world revolutionary experience, the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU developed Lenin's proposition on the variety of forms that the transition to socialism may take in different countries, and on the possibility of peaceful development of the socialist revolution. The bourgeoisie and its yes-men like to represent the Communists as people who are always eager for violence and civil war. In fact, the working class and its vanguard---the Marxist-Leninist Parties---have always preferred the peaceful path of socialist revolution. This is in the interests of the working class and the whole people. Previously, when capitalism was a single all-embracing world system, the chances of a revolution developing peacefully were, as Lenin pointed out, extremely rare. But now that there is a powerful group of socialist countries the possibility of peaceful development of the socialist revolution has broadened; the specific forms of transition to socialism are becoming richer and more varied.

The parliamentary form of transition to socialism may also be used. In a number of capitalist countries the working class, led by its most advanced section, the Communist Party, has gained, thanks to far-reaching struggle outside parliament and firm opposition to the opportunist elements, a real opportunity of rallying a large section of the people to its banner, defeating the reactionary, anti-popular forces and winning a firm majority in parliament. With the active support of the working people, it can change parliament from being an instrument serving the interests of the bourgeoisie into one that serves the working people. In this way conditions for carrying out radical political and economic reforms peacefully may be created.

The question of whether force should or should not be applied during the transition to socialism depends not so

much on the proletariat as on the strength of the resistance offered by the exploiting classes to the will of the majority of the people. If the exploiters use weapons against the working people, the working people will be compelled to overthrow the power of the bourgeoisie by armed force and establish their own power. No matter how varied the specific forms of transition to socialism may be, the essentials are: political leadership of the working class by a MarxistLeninist Party, revolutionary assumption of political power by the proletariat in alliance with the toiling peasants, dictatorship of the proletariat in one form or another, political leadership of socialist construction by the working class.

The Communists' recognition of the possibility of a peaceful transition to socialism has nothing in common with the policy advocated by the reformist Right-wing socialists, who renounce dictatorship of the proletariat, substitute petty reforms for the revolutionary transformation of society and, in effect, refuse to abolish the capitalist system. A resolute struggle must be waged against the reformists, the defenders of capitalism.

The propositions advanced by the Twentieth Congress on the fundamental problems of international life are of great theoretical and practical importance. They opened up new opportunities for rallying the progressive forces under the leadership of the working class, for intensifying the struggle against imperialism, for peace, democracy and socialism.

The Twentieth Congress summed up the results of socialist construction since the Nineteenth Congress. These results were pleasing to Communists and all Soviet people. The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-1955), had been fulfilled ahead of time---in 4 years 4 months. In 1955, industry had produced three times as much as in the pre-war year of 1940. Agriculture had made considerable progress. Output of consumer goods had doubled compared with before the war. The people's standard of living had risen. All this showed the advantages of the socialist system over the capitalist system.

Backed by these successes in developing the economy, the congress planned a new powerful economic advance for the years immediately ahead. The main emphasis, as before, was on heavy industry, which ensures high rates of development in all branches of the economy, strengthening of the country's defence capacity and a rise in the people's

standard of living. The congress set the aim of putting the economy on a higher technical level; it adopted a policy of accelerating technical progress. Attention in industry was concentrated on the development of engineering, the electrical and chemical industries. The plan provided for completion of two powerful hydro-electric stations on the Volga and the world's largest hydro-electric station, on the River Angara near Lake Baikal, and envisaged construction of another similarly powerful hydro-electric station on the River Yenisei. The peaceful use of atomic energy was considerably expanded. New atomic power stations and a nuclear-powered ice-breaker were to be built. Important measures were proposed for overcoming the lag in agriculture, which had suffered particularly badly during the war. The congress affirmed that the Soviet Union, having healed the wounds of war and having made great progress in economic development, possessed all the prerequisites for carrying out the basic economic task that had before the war been proposed by the Eighteenth Party Congress---to overtake and outstrip the most developed capitalist countries in per capita production.

The resolution adopted by the congress indicated shortcomings in ideological work, these being chiefly the isolation of this work from the practical tasks of communist construction. The congress called upon Party organisations to remove these shortcomings and bring theoretical work closer in line with the day-to-day tasks of the building of communist society. It was emphasised that it was the duty of all Party organisations and of everybody engaged in ideological work to uphold the purity of Marxist-Leninist theory and wage an irreconcilable struggle against hostile bourgeois ideology.

The Twentieth Congress unanimously approved the work conducted by the Central Committee after the Nineteenth Congress to restore the Leninist principle of collective leadership and further develop the norms of Party life. This helped to enhance creative activity of the Party organisations and of the membership as a whole

The Party explained the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the role of personalities in history, criticised the Stalin personality cult and overcame its harmful consequences. This was of enormous importance.

The personality cult, i.e., the extolling of the role of some personality and the belittlement of the role of the masses, is fundamentally at variance with communist ideology. Marxism-Leninism highly values the role of leaders, of staunch and courageous revolutionaries. But the people are the makers and decisive force of history. Lenin wrote: "The minds of tens of millions of those who are doing things create something infinitely loftier than the greatest genius can foresee."""

The CPSU sees two aspects in Stalin's work: a positive aspect, which the Party values, and a negative aspect, which it criticises and denounces.

During the years Stalin was General Secretary of the CC (he was elected to this post in 1922), the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party and its Central Committee, carried out a task that was colossal for its importance and for the difficulties it involved---they built the world's first socialist society, turned an economically backward country into a leading industrial power. During the Great Patriotic War, under the leadership of the Party the Soviet people accomplished an immortal feat---they defeated nazi Germany and her allies, upheld the great gains of socialism and saved mankind from the threat of enslavement by fascism. After the war, led by the Party, they quickly restored the country's economy and started the building of communism.

Along with other leaders of the Party and Government, Stalin, as a prominent organiser and theoretician, worked to carry through socialist reforms in the USSR, headed the struggle against enemies of Leninism (Trotskyites, Right opportunists and bourgeois nationalists), exposed the intrigues of the capitalist encirclement and did much to enhance the Soviet Union's defence capability. Moreover, he did much to promote the world communist and the entire liberation movement. All this earned him considerable prestige and popularity.

But with time all the achievements of the Soviet people, led by the Party, began to be ascribed to him. The personality cult gradually took shape. Stalin overestimated his own contribution to the successes of the party and the whole Soviet people, believed he was infallible and began to abuse

the power placed in his hands. This was furthered by some negative features of his character. He began to depart from the Leninist principles of collective leadership and the norms of Party life. He committed particularly grave errors in the last years of his life. There were unjustified limitations on democracy, flagrant violations of socialist legality and unfounded repressions.

The errors and distortions linked up with the personality cult damaged the cause of communist construction. But they neither changed nor could change the nature of socialist society, the genuinely people's nature of the Soviet system, and they could not shake or weaken the theoretical, political and organisational foundations of the CPSU's activity. The policy pursued by the Party expressed the basic interests of the Soviet people, always enjoyed their support and ensured the successful building of socialism and communism in the USSR.

The measures taken by the Party to promote inner-Party and Soviet democracy helped to enhance the leading role played by the CPSU in the life of Soviet society, strengthen the Soviet social and state system and further the country's advance along the road to communism. The errors and shortcomings, and the violations of Soviet legality deriving from the personality cult were eradicated. Party and state control of administrative organs---the Ministry of State Security, the courts and the Procurator's Office---was restored; they were strengthened with tested cadres. Many innocent persons, who had been unjustly declared enemies of the people and sentenced, were exonerated. The Party put an end to all sorts of violations of socialist legality and of the constitutional rights of Soviet citizens.

The Party was aware that a public denunciation of the personality cult and its harmful consequences would provide some nourishment for anti-communist propaganda, for malicious fabrications of the enemies of socialism and communism. But it also knew that these temporary difficulties would stand no comparison with the enormous benefit which the actions undertaken by the CPSU would bring in the long run. In this the Party was guided by principled considerations, by the interests of the struggle for communism both in the USSR and in the international arena.

Condemnation of the personality cult served to educate

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 474.

Party cadres, all Communists, in the Leninist spirit and establish proper relations in the Party ranks and in its leading organs. It reminded Party and Government leaders of their great responsibility to the Party and the people. Leaders wield considerable power but they are accountable for their actions. The Party and the people will always justly assess the role of each political leader.

The decisions of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU had a wide response in the international communist movement. Expressing fidelity to the Leninist principles of proletarian internationalism, the congress reiterated the CPSU's determination to do everything in its power to strengthen the socialist community and the fraternal ties with all Communist Parties and resolutely support the working-class and national liberation movements.

The Twentieth Congress was a major landmark of the development not only of the USSR but of the international communist movement, of the entire world liberation movement. Its positive importance was noted by the leaders of the Communist and Workers' Parties of all countries.

tural produce were extremely low and the collective farms were suffering heavy losses. The collective farmer's reward for his labour was too small.

The Party and the state set about liquidating the mistakes and shortcomings in administration of the collective farms and collective-farm life by giving increased incentives to the collective farms and their members and by increasing technical assistance. The state delivery prices on agricultural produce were considerably raised. The rural areas began to receive more tractors, combine-harvesters and other farm machinery. Many experienced Party workers and qualified personnel---agronomists, stock-breeders and mechanics---came from the towns to work on the collective and state farms.

The first thing to be done was to raise the output of grain, particularly wheat, the main food crop. The question arose as to how this problem should be tackled. What was the quickest means of solution? At that time the quickest way was to bring under cultivation the virgin and disused lands in the eastern areas of the country---in Kazakhstan and Siberia. For centuries these huge tracts had remained deserted and of no use to man. Before the October Revolution and in the early years of Soviet power the peasants, working on their own with primitive implements, could not cultivate them. Before the war there had still not been enough tractors. Now that the new tractor and farm machinery factories had been built, the state was able to move a powerful fleet of machines to the virgin lands.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly young men and women, YCL members representing all nationalities of the Soviet Union, responded to the Party's appeal and went out to plough up the virgin lands. The state allocated the necessary machinery: 400,000 tractors, 80,000 combineharvesters and more than 220,000 lorries. Settlements with modern conveniences, and surrounded by boundless fields of wheat, appeared in the once deserted steppes. In three years (1954-1956) nearly 36 million hectares (about 90 million acres) of virgin and disused land were brought under cultivation. In a short period the country received additional tens of millions of tons of grain.

The reorganisation of the state machine and tractor stations (MTS) was an important measure. These stations

The Struggle to Achieve a Fresh Economic Advance

The major economic task on which the Party concentrated its attention in accordance with the resolution of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU was elimination of the lag in agriculture, removal of the obstacles to its development.

Agriculture was lagging behind for a number of reasons. The war had caused great losses. In the immediate post-war years the state had concentrated its efforts on restoring industry and could not allocate sufficient investments for the development of agriculture. But there were other reasons, too, for the lag. The possibilities of the collective-farm system were not being made full use of. Bad mistakes were being made in the management of socialist agriculture. The biggest mistake of all was the elimination of the material interest that the collective farms and their members should have had in the development of social production, in the results of their labour. The prices fixed before the war on compulsory deliveries to the state of many kinds of agricul-

were in possession of nearly all the farm machines, while the collective farms had only the land. The MTSs did the main cultivation jobs (ploughing, sowing, harvesting) for the farms on a contractual basis and were paid for their work in kind, i.e., they received part of the collective farm's harvest. At first, when most of the collective farms were comparatively small and economically weak, this system suited them. But when the collective farms grew larger and increased their economic potential, they were themselves in a position to acquire and operate all the machinery they needed. The machine and tractor stations were, therefore, abolished and their machinery was sold to the collective farms. Now the land and all the agricultural machinery were concentrated in the hands of the collective farms.

The abolition of the machine and tractor stations introduced changes in the economic relations between the state and the collective farms. The Party studied and considered this question. The system of deliveries of farm produce to the state was revised. Instead of the various forms of deliveries to the state (payment in kind to the MTSs, compulsory deliveries at fixed prices, and deliveries over and above the plan), a unified system of deliveries at prices which, though unified, were differentiated according to various zones was introduced in 1958. The state retained the right to establish, in the national interest, the amount it bought from the collective farms and to regulate the prices it paid for these purchases. The economic relations between the state and the collective farms were thus put on a commodity basis.

The new system of deliveries of farm produce to the state was more suited to the conditions of a developed socialist society and gave the collective farms more incentive to increase their output. The state delivery prices on farm produce rose and became stable. The more the collective farm produced and sold to the state, the bigger was its income. The collective farms started allocating more funds for economic and cultural needs. Some farms began advancing money to their members during the year instead of after the harvest. This system of payment gave the collective farmers more incentive to increase the farm's output.

All these measures made for an upswing in the collectivefarm economy. In 1958 the state purchased twice as much

grain as in 1953. The number of cattle in the collective and state farms increased, and so did the production of meat, milk and butter. This showed that the Party had laid down the correct path of development for the collective farms at the given stage of development of socialist society. Naturally, the new economic relations between the state and the collective farms had to be further improved. The fact that under the new conditions the collective farms were directly responsible for providing themselves with all the machines they needed and looking after them, and for training machine-operators, deserved special attention.

Soviet industry was growing rapidly. In the thirteen postwar years from 1946 to 1958 more than 12,000 large industrial enterprises were either restored or reconstructed. In less than fifteen years the Soviet people increased the country's industrial capacity five-fold in comparison with the pre-war capacity. Electricity, machine-building, the metalprocessing and chemical industries, i.e., the industries that bring technical progress to the whole economy, now had a larger share in the overall volume of industrial production.

Soviet industry had reached an important stage in the Soviet Union's economic competition with the developed capitalist countries. In 1957 and 1958 the Soviet Union surpassed the United States of America in its average annual absolute increment of production of pig-iron, steel, coal, machine tools, cement, fabrics and leather footwear. In 1958, for example, the USSR produced more than 138,000 metal-cutting lathes, while the USA produced 113,000.

More than 200,000 industrial enterprises were operating and over 100,000 construction projects were under way in the Soviet Union. New forms of administration for them were sought and economic councils were set up in the basic economic administrative areas. Many enterprises that had previously been under the control of the now abolished smaller ministries were placed under the economic councils. The principle of administering industry and construction according to branches was replaced by the territorial principle.

It was not long, however, before serious shortcomings were revealed in the new system of industrial administration.

20-1359

It is known that every branch of modern industry forms an entity in the technical, industrial sense. The reform had destroyed this unity. It had scattered the administration o'f each branch of industry over a large number of economic regions. The economic ties that had formed between enterprises in the past were broken off because they were now in different economic regions. This upset the rhythm and planning of their work. Later on, the Party, having studied the work of the economic councils, decided that at the given stage they did not promote the development of socialist production.

The Communist Party paid great attention to the development of science and culture. In 1958 there were 3,200 scientific institutions and more than 280,000 scientists at work in the Soviet Union. The introduction in 1958 of compulsory eight-year schooling for all children of school age was an outstanding achievement of the Soviet state. Now nearly 59 million people had a higher, secondary or incomplete secondary education. Every other Soviet citizen of working age had not less than 7-8 years' education, and one in five had a secondary (10-year) or higher education. In October 1957, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite. A new age of space exploration had begun. This was striking evidence of the scientific and technical progress achieved by the land of socialism.

Economic progress brought a steady rise in the Soviet people's standard of living. The Soviet Union's national income grows year by year. It is distributed in the interests of society, of the working people. Part of the national income goes on expanding socialist production, on maintaining the machinery of state and the defence forces. Nearly twothirds of it is spent on providing for the personal needs of the working people.

By 1958, compared with the pre-war year of 1940, the real income of the Soviet population had more than doubled. Soviet people receive their income from two sources--- from the wages fund, each according to the quantity and quality of his work, and from the social consumption fund, which is spent on satisfying the requirements of all members of society (pensions, free medical service and public education, pre-school care of children, etc.) regardless of how

much work they do. The constant growth of the wages and social consumption funds is in the nature of socialist society.

The growth of the social consumption fund enabled the Soviet Union in 1956 to pass a new law on state pensions. All industrial and office workers and professional people began to receive pensions at retiring age. Pensions for some groups were more than doubled. Paid maternity leave for women was increased. The working day was reduced by two hours on Saturdays and days preceding national holidays. In 1957, factory and office workers and professional people started going over to the seven-hour and six-hour working day. A big housing programme was being carried out.

The CPSU and the World Communist Movement

The CPSU was co-operating closely with the fraternal parties of other countries. In November 1957, delegations of the Communist and Workers' Parties who came to Moscow to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution discussed questions of mutual interest. At first there was a Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties of the 12 socialist countries, then a Meeting of the Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties of 64 countries of the world. In the communist movement at the time there were 33 million Communists.

This was the most representative meeting of the Communist Parties since the 7th Comintern Congress in 1935, and the first meeting since the disbanding of the Communist International in 1943.

As a result of this exchange of opinion the Meeting of the Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries passed a Declaration. It affirmed the conclusions and propositions of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU on the major questions of world development and gave a theoretical generalisation of the experience gained in the fight for peace and socialism. The Declaration defined the struggle for peace and against the imperialists' preparations for a new world war as the most important of all international problems.

20*

The Meeting expressed the unity of the views held by the Communist and Workers' Parties on the fundamental issues of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. The variety of conditions in the different socialist countries inevitably leads to a variety of forms and methods of building socialism. This fully accords with the spirit of MarxistLeninist teaching.

But the transition to socialism has certain fundamental features and laws that are common and obligatory to all countries that take the path to socialism. These may be stated as follows:

---leading role of the working class led by its MarxistLeninist Party;

---carrying out of a proletarian revolution in one form or another and establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in one form or another;

---alliance of the working class with the bulk of the peasants and other sections of the working people;

---abolition of capitalist ownership and establishment of socialist ownership of the basic means of production;

---gradual socialist reform of agriculture;

---planned development of the economy with the aim of building socialism and communism and raising the standard of living of the working people;

---accomplishment of a socialist revolution in ideology and culture and creation of a numerous intelligentsia devoted to the cause of socialism;

---abolition of national oppression and establishment of equality and fraternal friendship among the peoples;

---defence of the gains of socialism from attacks by external and internal enemies;

---solidarity of the working class of any particular country with the working classes of other countries, i.e., proletarian internationalism.

The Declaration struck a blow at opportunism and called for resolute efforts to overcome revisionism and dogmatism in the ranks of the Communist and Workers' Parties.

The Meeting of Representatives of the 64 Communist and Workers' Parties addressed a Peace Manifesto to the working people of the whole world, to all people of good will. It called upon the peoples to redouble their efforts for

peace and to sharpen their vigilance with regard to the machinations of the imperialist war-mongers.

The Communist and Workers' Parties unanimous acceptance of the Declaration and the Peace Manifesto opened up new vistas for the development of the communist movement, the further consolidation of the socialist camp, and the struggle of all peoples for peace, democracy and socialism.

In November 1960, a second Meeting of Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties was held in Moscow. It was the most representative meeting in the whole history of the world communist movement and was attended by delegations from 81 parties.

The Meeting unanimously adopted a Statement and also an Appeal to the Peoples of the World. The Statement gave the following description of the contemporary epoch:

``Our time, whose main content is the transition from capitalism to socialism initiated by the Great October Socialist Revolution, is a time of struggle between the two opposing social systems, a time of socialist revolutions and national liberation revolutions, a time of the break-down of imperialism, of the abolition of the colonial system, a time of transition of more peoples to the socialist path, of the triumph of socialism and communism on a world-wide scale.''

The world capitalist system was passing through a farreaching process of decline and decay. The balance of forces in the world was steadily changing in favour of socialism. All the contradictions of imperialism were sharply increasing. The forces fighting against imperialism and working for the prevention of thermonuclear war were growing. These forces were led by the Communists.

Time was working in favour of socialism and against capitalism. The world victory of socialism would finally remove the social and national causes of all war. But while the world was still divided into two systems, the only correct and wise principle of international relations was peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems.

The Meeting spoke highly of the successes of the national liberation movement. The collapse of the colonial system of imperialism was a development ranking next in historic significance to the formation of the world socialist

system. The peoples of the countries that had done away with colonialism could, with the support of the socialist community, resist imperialist intrigues. The opportunity lay open to them of establishing national democracies and taking the path of non-capitalist development leading towards socialism. The socialist countries and the international working-class and communist movement gave full moral and material support to the peoples fighting to free themselves from imperialist and colonial oppression.

The Meeting stressed the need for the communist movement to fight opportunism on two fronts, against revisionism and against dogmatism and sectarianism. The chief danger for the communist movement was revisionism. But the Meeting also warned that if dogmatism and sectarianism were not resolutely opposed they, too, could in certain cases become the chief danger. Dogmatism and sectarianism condemned the parties to passivity, tempted them to engage in adventurist actions and destroyed the unity of the working class and all the democratic forces in the struggle against imperialism, reaction and the danger of war.

It was the duty of every Marxist-Leninist Party to safeguard the unity of the world communist movement on the basis of the principles of scientific communism and proletarian internationalism. The Meeting called upon the Communist and Workers' Parties to observe strictly the assessments and conclusions that had been jointly arrived at concerning the common objectives of the struggle against imperialism and for peace, democracy and socialism.

The Meeting's unanimously adopted Statement spoke highly of the activity of the CPSU as the most experienced and well-tried contingent of the international communist movement. "The experience which the CPSU has gained in the struggle for the victory of the working class, in socialist construction and in the full-scale construction of communism", says the Statement, "is of fundamental significance for the whole of the world communist movement. The example of the CPSU and its fraternal solidarity inspire all the Communist Parties in their struggle for peace and socialism, and represent the revolutionary principles of proletarian internationalism, applied in practice. The historic decisions of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU are not only of great importance for the CPSU and

communist construction in the USSR, but have initiated a new stage in the world communist movement, and have promoted its development on the basis of MarxismLeninism.''

The historic documents of the Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties provide an unshakable guide for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It observes them strictly and unswervingly and does everything within its power to justify honourably the high confidence placed in it by the fraternal parties.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE STANDARD-BEARER OF COMMUNISM

After the Second World War the situation changed radically. The political, economic and military power of the Soviet state had grown and consolidated. The USSR was no longer surrounded by capitalist countries. Socialism had spread beyond the framework of a single country and become a powerful world-wide system. International imperialism no longer had the strength to restore capitalism in the Soviet Union, to overcome the socialist community. The nuclear rockets built by the USSR provided a reliable shield for the USSR and the other socialist countries.

The peoples of the countries that take the socialist path no longer have to face the problem of ensuring the final victory of socialism. That problem has been solved by the Soviet Union, by the world socialist system. Every country that embarks on the socialist path receives the help and support of the world socialist system.

The strength of the socialist community lies in its unity and solidarity. While they are united, the socialist countries need have no fear of imperialist threats. As the Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties noted in 1960, "the rallying of the socialist states in one camp and the growing unity and steadily increasing strength of this camp ensure complete victory for socialism within the entire system."

As a result of the profound changes that had taken place in all spheres of social life on the basis of the victory of socialism the Soviet Union entered a new period of its development and set about the full-scale construction of communist society.

The Twenty-First Congress of the CPSU passed the Seven-Year Economic Development Plan. In this plan attention was focused on the creation of the material and technical base of communism in the USSR. In seven years industrial output was to be almost doubled. Important measures were envisaged in the development of agriculture, transport, culture and science, and in raising the people's standard of living.

The Soviet people set about fulfilling the Seven-Year Plan with great energy. Socialist competition developed on a broad scale all over the country; it was led by participants in the movement for Communist Labour. It was initiated by Communists and young Communists on the eve of the Twenty-First Congress, The Communist Labour

POLICY OF FULL-SCALE CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNISM

Final Victory of Socialism in the USSR

The Extraordinary Twenty-First Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held at the beginning of 1959. It examined and endorsed the basic directions of the Seven-Year Plan of Development of the National Economy of the USSR (1959-1965).

The Twenty-First Congress reached an important conclusion: socialism in the USSR had won complete and final victory.

The question of the victory of socialism in the USSR had two aspects: internal and external. From the standpoint of internal conditions, socialism in the USSR had been victorious even before the Great Patriotic War. After the abolition of the exploiting classes there remained no forces within the country that were interested in the restoration of the capitalist system. But from the standpoint of external conditions, the victory of socialism in the USSR could not then be considered final. The Soviet Union was still surrounded by hostile capitalist countries. The imperialist powers were on the whole stronger than the USSR both militarily and economically, and were constantly plotting its military destruction. While this remained a real danger, the country was not guaranteed against the possibility of the restoration of capitalism,

an

BEJIHKOE COBMTHE BHCTOPHH HEJIOBEHECTBA!

Op?an u*.«T$<>!frj.ero Hc«i*Tnt» a«t«- = i/XMirfJwu« f>^«o Comfncn-tfi- f^rimmitttctrnwfrvu* H^y^e^w* *»** CO.WOT 0^^ .y. .^._... - J>wy6*«* X*"* A*ftxt«*w TAr'AFtM.

General view of the first Soviet atomic power station

movement signified a new and higher stage of socialist competition. Its slogan was: "Learn to live and work in the communist way." By October 1961 nearly 20 million people were taking part in the movement, i.e., one in every three workers, technicians and engineers.

In the first years of the Seven-Year Plan large industrial enterprises were coming into operation at the rate of three a day. The power industry was developing particularly fast. The construction of the giant Volga Hydropower Station (one of the largest in the world) was completed. In 1961, four units of the even more powerful Bratsk Power Station started supplying electricity to industry. The power stations that had been built in the USSR in the first three years of the Seven-Year Plan alone produced twice as much electricity as the power stations of all the African countries put together.

The Soviet Union gained another outstanding success in space exploration. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet spaceman Yuri Gagarin, a Communist, made the world's first space flight. On August 6, 1961, a second spaceship was put into orbit round the Earth, piloted by the Communist spaceman Herman Titov.

Front page of Pravda of April 13, 1961, reporting the world's first manned space flight

3/5

The New Party Programme

In the summer of 1961 the draft of a new Party Programme drawn up by the Central Committee on the instructions of the Twentieth Congress was made public for nationwide consideration. For three months it was discussed by the Party and the people at Party meetings and conferences, at factories, collective farms and offices, and in military units. More than 9 million Communists and over 73 million non-Party people took part in the discussion. The draft of the new Party Programme received nationwide approval.

The Twenty-Second Party Congress was held in October 1961. The congress delegates represented nearly 10 million Communists. The historic significance of this congress was that it adopted the new Party Programme---the Programme for the Building of Communism in the USSR.

The Programme passed by the Twenty-Second Congress of the CPSU was the third programme in the history of the Party. The first Party Programme, adopted in 1903, had been fulfilled as a result of the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The Party adopted its second programme in 1919. This programme was fulfilled by the building of socialism. All three Party programmes are closely interconnected.

With the victory of socialism in the USSR came the need to work out scientifically the problems of transition to communism. Socialism and communism are two phases (stages) of one socio-economic formation. They have many features in common: social ownership of the means of production, no exploitation of man by man, subordination of production to the aim of maximum satisfaction of the growing requirements of the members of society. But these two phases differ substantially in the level of development attained by the productive forces, in the maturity of social relations, the means of distribution of the social product, and the degree of the people's social awareness.

Communism is the highest stage in the development of human society. It cannot be reached directly from capitalism, without passing through the socialist stage of development. The transition to communism begins after socialism has been built. Communism grows out of socialism, and

Cover of the brochure Programme of the Communist Party of the Sovicl Union

IIPOITAMMA

KOMMyHHCTIi'tECKOfl

IIAPTHH

COUETCKOro

COMMA

.'i H t H3,1 AT

i i 6 t

Delegates at the TwentySecond Congress approve the new Programme of the CPSU

is its direct continuation. It is a continuous historical process.

At the same time, in full accord with the documents of the world communist movement, the Programme of the CPSU characterised the contemporary stage of world development, the struggle of the working people of all countries for peace, national independence, democracy and socialism. Communism, says the programme, is a society where Peace, Labour, Freedom, Equality, Fraternity and Happiness reign supreme.

further progress. Hence the programme envisages a definite continuity in carrying out the tasks of communist construction. Some of them are to be fulfilled sooner, others later, when the necessary conditions have been created.

The main tasks of communist construction are as follows:

---creation of the material and technical base of communism;

---development of communist social relations;

---education of the new man.

These tasks are closely interconnected and constitute a continuous whole. To realise the communist principles of life they must be solved simultaneously.

The Material and Technical Base of Communism

The main link in the series of tasks of communist construction is the building of the material and technical base of communism. This base is the highest stage of the development of the productive forces ever attained in history. Its construction involves complete electrification of the country and widespread use of chemistry in the national economy, organic fusion of science and production, a rapid rate of technical progress in all branches of the national economy, all-round and rational utilisation of natural, material and labour resources, and a high cultural and technical level for the working people.

The material and technical base will develop and improve with the development of society. New branches of production that are economically more effective will be created, new types of power and materials will be applied. The level of development of science and technology, mechanisation and automation of the production processes will steadily rise. This will lead to a gigantic development of the productive forces.

The programme envisages the conversion of Soviet industry into the most powerful and technically most advanced industry in the world. Priority will still be given to heavy industry, because without it there can be no rapid growth of all the other branches of the economy. The building and building materials industries, all forms of transport and communications will reach a high technical level.

Fundamental Features of Communism

What kind of a society will communism be? To put it briefly, it will be the most just society in the world. But such a brief definition, though true, is not enough. The successes gained in the construction of socialism and in the development of Marxist-Leninist science make it possible to give a fuller description of the main features of communist society.

"Communism" says the programme, "is a classless social system with one single form of public ownership of the means of production and full social equality of all members of society; under this system, the all-round development of people will be accompanied by the growth of the productive forces through continuous progress in science and technology; all the springs of collective wealth will flow more abundantly, and the great principle 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs', will be implemented. Communism is a highly organised society of free, socially conscious working people in which public selfgovernment will be established, a society in which labour for the good of society will become the prime, vital requirement of everyone, a necessity recognised by one and all, and the ability of each person will be employed to the greatest benefit of the people."

Many complex problems have yet to be solved before communism is built. They must be solved in relation to the maturing material and spiritual prerequisites that are needed for this. One cannot skip over uncompleted stages of development, nor may one rest on one's laurels, thereby checking

31&

Electrification will provide the core of economic construction of communist society in the USSR. It has a leading role to play in the development of all branches of the economy and in modern technical progress. The rate of production of electricity will move ahead of the development of other branches of production.

A highly productive and comprehensively developed agriculture will be created alongside this powerful industry. Electrification and all-round mechanisation, observance of the principle of material incentive (higher rewards for good work and better results) will provide the basis for raising labour productivity and increasing the collective and state farms' output of agricultural produce.

The most essential condition for the creation of the material and technical base of communism is a steady rise in the productivity of labour. This will be achieved mainly through the introduction of new techniques and technology, mechanisation and automation, which will lead to a fundamental improvement in the Soviet people's working conditions. There will be no heavy physical labour, and eventually, no unqualified labour at all. Under capitalism mechanisation and automation lead to unemployment. No such danger exists for a society building communism. The Soviet Union's planned economy provides labour for every able-bodied member of the population.

Under communism work according to one's ability will become a habit, the prime, vital requirement of all members of society. But until this comes about, socialist society will use every moral, material and administrative measure to see that no one shirks work. Communist society is a working society, not a society of idleness and sloth.

Communist Social Relations

As the material and technical base of communism is created, new, communist social relations will take shape. Class and other social distinctions will gradually disappear, and all members of society will come nearer to actual equality. Under socialism, certain class distinctions between the workers and the peasants still remain. This is connected with the two forms of property---state (national) and collective-farm (co-operative) property. There still remains a

difference between town and country, as well as different forms of distributing material goods. The CPSU Programme sets the task of overcoming these distinctions and building the classless communist society.

The main part here is to be played by the development, the rapprochement and, in the course of time, the fusion of collective-farm, co-operative property with the property of the whole people in a single, integrated form of communist property. The key to this rapprochement lies in the economic growth of the collective farms, in the development of the productive forces in the countryside. The proportion of social production will increase in the collective farms. The production links between the collective farms and their links with the state farms and industrial enterprises will develop. It is not unusual even now for several collective farms to co-operate in building and using small hydropower stations, enterprises for processing farm produce or the production of building materials. There thus comes into being an inter-collective-farm type of property, which is akin to state property, to property owned by the whole people. There also comes about a merging of collective-farm means of production with state-owned means of production. For example, the collective farms' use of stateowned sources of electricity or irrigation canals. The increasing supply of tractors, combine-harvesters and other modern machines to the collective farms will bring the technical level of their production funds near to that of the production funds of state enterprises. In this way the distinctions between the two forms of socialist property and the class distinctions between workers and peasants connected with them will gradually disappear.

Two forms of economy---state-farm and collective-farm--- have taken shape in the Soviet countryside. The practical experience of the state farms has demonstrated the advantages of the large-scale socialist economy, and state farms will in future continue to play the leading role in the countryside, in the organisation of agricultural production. At the same time the collective-farm form of agricultural enterprise will continue to develop, the collective farm being a school of communism for the peasants.

The essential distinctions between town and country will also disappear. Under capitalism the town mercilessly

exploits the countryside; their interests are diametrically opposed. Under socialism this opposition disappears. The town comes to the help of the countryside. It assists the peasants to reorganise their life, to master science and technology and acquire the benefits of culture. But the distinctions between them remain: the countryside still lags behind the town both in industrial development and in culture, and in conditions of life. The CPSU Programme sets the aim of removing these distinctions in the main, of raising the countryside to the level of the town.

The economic growth of the collective farms will bring about great progressive changes in the life they lead. Work in the rural areas will become a variety of industrial labour. The rate-setting, organisation and payment of labour on the collective farms will approach the forms existing at state enterprises. Restaurant facilities, kindergartens and creches, and various other public amenities will be widely developed. Gradually the collective-farm villages will become urban-type settlements with modern facilities. The rural population will draw level with townspeople in living and cultural standards. The elimination of socio-economic and cultural distinctions between town and country and of differences in their living conditions will be an important result of the construction of communism.

The differences between mental and physical labour will be gradually eliminated. Under socialism people engaged in mental and physical labour share the same interests; they are working for a common cause, for the good of society. The intellectuals no longer form a closed section of society as they do under capitalism. They have come from the people and they serve the people. But on the cultural and technical plane they are superior to the workers and peasants. The task is to raise the people engaged in physical labour to the cultural and technical level of the intellectuals, to bring about a merging of physical and mental labour. This process is already taking place. Millions of people with a secondary education and hundreds of thousands with a higher education are working at industrial enterprises, and in the collective and state farms. The labour of the worker and the peasant is becoming more and more akin to that of the engineer, the technician and the agronomist.

Significant changes will occur in the political organisation of society, in the development of the state.

With the victory of socialism the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes a political organisation of the whole people in which the leading role is played by the working class. The state of the whole people expresses the interests and will of the whole people. Such a state has never before existed in history. It cannot arise where society is divided into hostile classes, where there are exploiters and exploited. Only under socialism does the state of the whole people become a reality, since society now consists of friendly classes, whose basic interests coincide and merge. Since the working class is the most advanced class, the most highly organised force in Soviet society, it performs and will continue to perform its leading role right up to the completion of communist construction, until classes disappear altogether.

What determines the leading role of the working class?

First, its economic position, the fact that it is connected with socialist industry, which occupies a leading place in the country's economy, with the highest, nation-wide form of socialist property.

Secondly, its political position, the fact that it has the highest degree of political training and organisation, developed through decades of class struggle, a rich revolutionary experience and immense moral authority among all sections of the working people.

The Party sets the task of ensuring further development of socialist democracy, more active participation of all citizens in managing the affairs of state. Democracy in the USSR finds expression in the Soviets of Working Peoples' Deputies, which form the political foundation of the socialist state. The Soviets will emerge increasingly as social organisations with the masses taking a very direct part in their activities. The role of such public organisations as the trade unions, the Young Communist League, and the cooperative societies will also increase in all spheres of activity. The socialist state will gradually be transformed into social communist self-government. The organs of planning and accounting, direction of the economy and the development of culture will under communism shed their political character and become organs of social self-government.

21*

323

The transition to communism signifies all-round development for the personal freedom and rights of Soviet citizens. This will be achieved by strict observance of socialist legality, eradication of all infringements of the law, the abolition of crime, and the removal of all the causes that may give rise to it.

A new stage in the development of national relations, in the rapprochement of nations will be reached. The peoples of the USSR will all acquire more and more communist features, and this will further strengthen the friendship between them. Because it approaches all problems of national relations in the spirit of socialist internationalism, the Party is opposed both to ignoring the national peculiarities of the peoples and to the exaggeration of these peculiarities. All manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism, national narrowness and national isolation contradict the vital interests of the peoples, and an irreconcilable struggle is being waged against them. The Party follows a policy of further all-round economic development of all the Soviet Republics.

The cultures of the peoples of the USSR, socialist in content and national in form, will achieve a new peak of development. The united universal culture of the communist society of the future will take shape on the basis of the mutual enrichment and the merging of these cultures. This will lead to even closer unity of all the peoples of the Soviet Union and strengthening of the friendship between them.

cational work carried on by the Party, the state and the social organisations.

The Party regards the struggle against instances of bourgeois ideology and morality, the remnants of the private property-owner's psychology, superstition and prejudice as an integral part of its work of communist education. There can be no reconciliation between communist and bourgeois ideology. The communist ideology is the most humane of all ideologies. Its ideals are the affirmation of genuinely humane relations between people, between nations, the liberation of mankind from the danger of world wars of extermination, and the establishment of world peace and a free and joyful life for everyone.

The CPSU Programme formulates the moral code of the builder of communism. It contains the following moral principles:

---dedication to the ideals of communism, love of the socialist Motherland and the other socialist countries;

---conscientious work for the good of society; he who does not work, neither shall he eat;

---general concern for the preservation and increase of the public wealth;

---a keen awareness of one's duty to society, intolerance of infringements of the public interest;

---collectivism and comradely mutual assistance: each for all, and all for each;

---humane relations and mutual respect between individuals; man is a friend, comrade and brother to man;

---honesty and truthfulness, moral purity, simplicity and modesty in social and private life;

---mutual respect in the family, and concern for the upbringing of children;

---an uncompromising attitude to injustice, parasitism, dishonesty, careerism and money-grubbing;

---friendship and brotherhood of all peoples of the USSR, intolerance of national and racial hatred;

---an uncompromising attitude to the enemies of communism, peace and the freedom of nations;

---fraternal solidarity with the working people of all countries, and with all peoples.

The transition to communism assumes the education of socially conscious and highly educated individuals, capable

Education of the New Man

The building of communism is the task of the people themselves, it will be achieved through their energy and their wisdom. The keener their social awareness the fuller and wider becomes their creative activity, and the greater their successes in communist construction.

The Party aims at educating a new man, who will harmoniously combine spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection. Particular attention is paid to the education of the growing generation. The formation of the new man comes about in the process of communist construction, in production teams, under the influence of the whole edu-

of both physical and mental work, of taking an active part in social life, in the fields of science, culture, and art. The Party Programme envisages all-round development of public education. Soviet science, literature, music, painting, cinema, the theatre, television and all forms of art will rise to unprecedented heights. Great attention is paid to the development and enrichment of the artistic wealth of society by combining mass amateur artistic activities with professional art.

All for the Good of Man

Under the conditions of socialism the development of all branches of the economy is subordinated to the one aim of improving the life of the people. The CPSU Programme sets a task that has historic significance for the whole world ---to bring about in the Soviet Union the highest standard of living compared with any other capitalist country.

Some people, however, see this as a departure from the spirit of revolution, a desire to "become bourgeois". Their argument runs approximately as follows: the socialist countries should think not about the well-being of their own people but of how to accelerate the world revolution. But this approach to the problem is fundamentally incorrect. The very reason why the working people rise to fight capitalism is that it does not allow them to live like human beings appropriates the fruit of their labour, and condemns them to a wretched existence. They take sides with socialism, realising that under socialism life is incomparably better than under capitalism.

The power of attraction of socialism lies primarily in the fact that it signifies genuine freedom for the working people, the absence of exploitation of man by man. But this power becomes even stronger, when freedom and the absence of exploitation are supplemented by the essential material and cultural benefits. This is why the CPSU believes that concern for a steady rise in the Soviet people's standard of living is its prime responsibility, its international duty. The more success a socialist country achieves in its development, the better its people live, the more influence it will exert upon the minds and hearts of people all over the world.

The Programme of the CPSU points out that the further rise in the Soviet people's standard of living will come about through improvement and development of both ways of satisfying the requirements of the members of socialist society---through wages and through the public consumption fund. Payment according to work will remain, however, during the whole period of the construction of communism the basic means of satisfying the material and cultural requirements of the working people.

The new programme gives practical effect to the Party slogan: "Everything for the sake of man, everything for the good of man!" It is aimed at achieving a steady rise in the material well-being and culture of the people, at creating conditions for realising the principle of communism, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs''.

Such are the main propositions of the third programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, designed for the period of transition from socialism to communism.

THE PARTY IN THE PERIOD OF COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTION

The CPSU---Vanguard of the Soviet People

The Communist Party develops parallel with socialist society's advance towards communism. In the Soviet Union the Party of the working class has now become the Party of the whole people.

Abroad some people doubt the correctness of this conclusion. Is it conceivable, they declare, that the Communist Party, the Party of the working class, should become the Party of the whole people half-way along the road to communism? Does this not signify the organisational and moral degeneration of the working class? There are no grounds whatever for doubts of this kind. The CPSU was and still is primarily the Party of the working class, the spokesman

of its communist ideals and objectives. At the same time, it has become the Party of the whole people. This is the natural outcome of the basic social transformations that have taken place in the Soviet Union on the basis of the achievements of socialism. The purposes and ideals of the working class have become the purposes and ideals of all sections of the people who have built socialism, and this signifies not a weakening but an enhancement of the role played by the Party in society.

The period of communist construction, the Programme of the CPSU underlines, is characterised by a further enhancement of the Party's role as leader, guide and organiser. This is due to many objective reasons, primarily to the growth of the scale and complexity of the tasks of communist construction. Only a party armed with advanced revolutionary theory, a knowledge of the laws of social development and having extensive political experience and authority can find the most effective solutions to these tasks and mobilise the masses to carry them out.

The new, higher stage in the development of the Party itself, or its political, ideological and organisational activities, conforms to the new period in the country's development. The Party uninterruptedly improves the forms and methods of its work in order to keep them abreast of the increasing demands of the day. As the vanguard of a people building communism, the Party improves its organisation and methods of work, setting an example of the most perfect forms of communist social self-administration.

at his place of work. A person joining the Party goes through a year's probation to enable him to study the Programme and Rules of the Party exhaustively and prepare for membership in the Party. For its part, the Party organisation concerned uses this time to get a better knowledge of the candidate member. Admission to Party membership is strictly individual.

The Party is concerned mainly not with the numerical growth of its ranks but with their qualitative composition. It makes every effort to strengthen its influence chiefly in the major sectors of communist construction and this policy is pursued in the admission of new members.

A Party member has extensive and honourable duties. He must approach his work in a communist spirit, take an active part in the country's political life, master MarxistLeninist theory, boldly combat shortcomings and maintain Party and state discipline. He is obliged to be in the front ranks in everything and everywhere: in production, in social work, and in observing the rules of the socialist way of life and its moral principles. A Party member is a politically conscious, active and courageous fighter for the cause of the Party, for the implementation of its policy and for the building of communism.

He has the right:

---to elect and be elected to Party bodies;

---to discuss freely questions of the Party's policy and the practical activities at Party meetings, conferences and congresses, at meetings of Party committees and in the Party press to table motions and openly express and uphold his opinion until the adoption of a decision by the Party organisation concerned;

---to criticise any Communist regardless of the position he holds at Party meetings, conferences and congresses and at the plenary meetings of Party committees;

---personally attend Party meetings and bureau and committee meetings when his activities or conduct are discussed;

---to address any question, statement or proposal to any Party body up to and including the Central Committee, and demand an answer on the substance of his address.

Communists are united in primary Party organisations, which comprise the foundation of the Party. These organisations are set up at the place of work of Party members---

Bights and Duties of Party Members

The Rules of the CPSU, confirmed by the Twenty-Second Congress, state that any citizen of the Soviet Union who has reached the age of 18, who accepts the Programme and Rules of the Party, who takes an active part in the building of communism, who works in a Party organisation, who abides by Party decisions and pays membership dues, can be a Party member. A person applying for membership submits recommendations from three Party members who have been in the Party for not less than three years and who have known the person concerned for at least one year

factories, state farms and other enterprises, collective farms, Soviet Army units, offices and educational establishments that have at least three Party members. Every primary organisation elects a bureau or committee to handle current work, and the numerical composition of this bureau or committee is determined at the Party meeting. Primary organisations function in the midst of the masses, are in constant contact with them, rally them round the Party, propound Party policy and carry this policy into effect. Their duty is to enhance communist consciousness and promote the creative activity of the people, and head their constructive efforts to fulfil and overfulfil production plans. The Party attaches the utmost importance to its primary organisations and makes sure that each of them worthily represents the Party at the different enterprises and enjoys the respect and support of the people.

of politically mature and experienced cadres and the promotion of the activity of Communists. Collective leadership helps to unite the various abilities, knowledge and experience of many people.

The Party attaches immense importance to control by the Party masses of the activities of elective bodies and their officials. This is ensured by regular reports from and elections of all Party bodies from bottom up. The Party Rules stipulate that Party election meetings and conferences, congresses of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics and congresses of the CPSU must be held within strict time-limits.

An important principle of inner-Party democracy is the free and business-like discussion of the Party's policy and practical work. The Party requires conscious and not mechanical discipline. Conscious discipline cannot emerge without free discussion and criticism. But this freedom has nothing in common with anarchism, which rejects discipline. After the will of the majority is expressed and a decision adopted, all Communists act as one man. An adopted decision is binding on those who voted for it as well as those who, for various reasons, did not agree with it. This is a compulsory requirement of Party discipline, otherwise the Party cannot function as a single whole and will split up into individual groups, each seeking to force its will upon the others. Without these requirements it would have been impossible for the Party to function normally and harmoniously and communist construction would have been crippled.

The Rules of the CPSU stipulate that discussions, particularly on an all-Party scale, must be held in such a way as to ensure the free expression of the views of members and, at the same time, to exclude the possibility of Party unity being undermined and factions being formed. It is the duty of every member to do his utmost to strengthen the unity of the Party ranks.

The Party's ideological and organisational unity is the decisive guarantee of its invincibility and the earnest of successful communist construction.

Party Structure and Activities

Democratic centralism is the guiding principle underlying the Party's organisational structure. Its basic points are:

a) electivity of all leading bodies of the Party from the lowest to the highest;

b) periodic accountability of Party organs to their Party organisations and to higher organs;

c) strict Party discipline founded on the subordination of the minority to the majority;

d) compulsory fulfilment of decisions of higher by lower bodies.

In line with these points the Party ensures the energetic activity and unity of action of all Communists and the swift concentration of Party forces for the fulfilment of one important task or another.

In the Rules it is emphasised that collectivity is the supreme principle of Party leadership. In the Party there neither is nor can be one-man leadership: all its leading bodies from the Central Committee down to the bureau of a primary organisation are organs of collective leadership and all are elective, replaceable and accountable. Collective leadership is essential for the correct solution of problems, the normal functioning of Party organisations, the moulding

MAINSTREAM OF WORLD DEVELOPMENT

The CPSU and the World Revolutionary Process

Events have borne out the conclusions drawn by the 1960 Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties on the prospects of world development. The peoples have been rising against imperialism with growing determination. The forces working for socialism have gained in number. The world socialist system has continued to develop. Class battles have continued to rage in the capitalist countries and the forces called upon to ensure the triumph of democracy and socialism have become stronger. Cuba broke away from the capitalist system in 1959 and took the road to socialism. The colonial system has crumbled under the mighty blows of the national liberation movement. The mass peace movement has gained momentum in all continents.

The struggle of the peoples, of the working and oppressed masses, for peace, national liberation, democracy and socialism has become the mainstream of human development.

The CPSU and the Soviet people as a whole are making a considerable contribution to the world revolutionary process by doing their utmost to facilitate its development. While multiplying the might of the Soviet Union they are, shoulder to shoulder with the fraternal parties and peoples of other socialist countries, strengthening the world socialist system. The working masses throughout the world are receiving the unremitting support of the Soviet people.

The Soviet Union uses its international influence to further the struggle of the oppressed peoples against colonialism, for national independence.

At the United Nations General Assembly in 1960 it tabled a motion calling for consideration of the question of completely abolishing colonialism and submitted a draft Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Despite the opposition of the colonial powers led by the USA, this Declaration was passed by the General Assembly. It gave all oppressed, free-

To the scrap heap of history!

dom-loving nations further proof that the Soviet Union was their true friend and champion.

Supported by the socialist countries and the world communist movement, the oppressed peoples dealt the colonial system shattering blows in the 1960s. Some of them shook off the colonial yoke as a result of an armed struggle; others were grudgingly granted independence by the colonialists whom the swift growth of the national liberation movement had unnerved. Guinea freed herself from colonial oppression in 1958, and was followed in 1960 by the peoples of Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Gabon, Ghana, Dahomey, Cameroon, Congo (Kinshasa), Congo (Brazzaville), Mauritania, Mali, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somali, Togo, Central Africa and Chad. Sierra Leone and Tanganyika became independent in 1961. A year later independence was proclaimed by Algeria after a long and sanguinary struggle. Independence was won also by Burundi, Ruanda, Uganda and Kenya.

National liberation revolutions triumphed on huge expanses of the globe. The yoke of colonial slavery was thrown

off by almost the whole of Asia and Africa. New national states sprang up in place of former colonies and began to take an active part in international life and contribute towards general human progress.

Mighty revolutionary forces have changed the face of the world. More than 1,000 million people or one-third of mankind now live in countries belonging to the world socialist system. Colonial tyranny has been overthrown and national freedom won by hundreds of millions of people.

Imperialism has irretrievably lost its hold over most of mankind.

acceded to by the overwhelming majority of other countries. Due to opposition from the USA and Britain the treaty did not cover underground nuclear tests. Nonetheless, it was a considerable achievement of the peace-loving forces. An important step was taken towards delivering mankind from the health-destroying fallout precipitated when atomic and hydrogen bombs are tested.

However, the banning of thermonuclear tests does not remove the threat that thermonuclear weapons may be used. The Soviet Union is, therefore, pressing for the conclusion of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and for the banning of the use of nuclear weapons. In particular, it is resolute in its efforts to prevent access to nuclear weapons being gained by the West German militarists, whose brutality and predatory designs are known to the whole world.

In contrast to the peace-loving forces, the imperialists, chiefly aggressive circles in the USA, take every opportunity to aggravate the international situation. They flagrantly interfere in the affairs of other countries and peoples, commit acts of aggression against socialist and young developing states and organise plots, provocations and ideological subversion against them. In all cases the Soviet Union, as always, champions the victims of aggression, frustrates the aggressive plans of the imperialists and renders every possible aid and support to the freedom-loving nations.

In 1956 the imperialists provoked a counter-revolutionary uprising in the Hungarian People's Republic in an effort to restore the old, capitalist order in that country and tear it away from the socialist community. The Soviet people helped the fraternal Hungarian people to smash the counter-revolutionary forces and wipe out the imperialist plot.

In 1958 the imperialists conspired against Syria in an effort to set Turkey on her. At the same time, US and British troops invaded Lebanon and Jordan, and threatened Iraq. A warning from the Soviet Union forced the aggressors to withdraw their troops from Lebanon and Jordan and averted an intervention against Iraq. That same year the US aggressors hotted up tension in the region of Taiwan to the extent that war threatened to break out between the USA and the Chinese People's Republic. Active Soviet interference foiled this US provocation.

The USSR on Guard of Peace

Does this mean that imperialism is no longer a threat to the peoples of the world? By no means. It still exists and is the principal obstacle to human progress and the source of wars of aggression. Present-day international life is marked by a tense struggle of the peace-loving forces against the aggressive forces of imperialism.

As always the CPSU and the Soviet Government are working to consolidate world peace and peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems. They use every opportunity to relax world tension, strengthen the security of nations and create conditions enabling each nation to develop freely on the road of national and social progress. In their foreign policy they rely on the growing might of the USSR and the entire socialist system, and on the support of peace-loving forces throughout the world.

At the UN General Assembly in 1959 the Soviet Government proposed a programme of general and complete disarmament under strict international control. This programme was welcomed throughout the world, and pressed by world public opinion the General Assembly passed a resolution worded in the spirit of the Soviet proposals and set up a Disarmament Committee.

The Soviet Union is making every effort to secure the banning of nuclear tests and outlaw the use of atomic and hydrogen bombs in war. A treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was finally signed in 1963 by the USSR, the USA and Britain, and

In 1961 the imperialists caused tension to soar in Europe. NATO countries, chiefly the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany, hurled threats at the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union. With the support of Warsaw Treaty members, the USSR took steps to forestall the implementation of these threats. The GDR reinforced her western frontier. The Soviet Union's statement that it was prepared to defend the German Democratic Republic against any encroachment cooled the bellicose ardour of the imperialist aggressors.

In 1961 the US imperialists sponsored the invasion of Cuba by counter-revolutionary gangs. These gangs were annihilated by the Cuban people. In 1962 the USA planned to land troops in Cuba. The international situation deteriorated sharply. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries readied their armed forces for action to defend Cuba. The resolute steps by socialist countries compelled the aggressors to abandon their planned intervention.

The imperialists resent the independence of the oil-rich Arab states, and they have repeatedly attacked them, particularly Egypt (United Arab Republic). In 1956 when the Suez Canal, built by Egyptians on Egyptian territory, was proclaimed the national property of Egypt, and Britain, France and Israel attempted to hinder this legal act of the Egyptian people and their government by force of arms, the Soviet Union sternly warned the aggressors. With the support of the USSR and other peace-loving forces, the Egyptian people gave a rebuff to them. The interventionists withdrew from Egyptian soil, and Egypt retained her independence.

But the imperialists have not ceased their provocations against the Arab states, and have not abandoned their predatory plans. This is particularly true of Israeli ruling circles, who are encouraged and supported in their actions by the Western Powers. In June 1967, in collusion with the USA, Israel perfidiously attacked the United Arab Republic, Syria and Jordan, creating a dangerous military conflict in the Middle East. Other Arab states went to the assistance of the United Arab Republic, Syria and Jordan.

The USSR and other socialist countries came out in defence of the Arabs in their hour of trial. The swift and energetic measures taken by European

socialist countries compelled the Israeli adventurists to cease hostilities. Here mention must be made of the dignity and valour of the Communist Party of Israel, which unites Israelis and Arabs. It honourably discharged its internationalist duty, did not succumb to nationalist intoxication and courageously opposed the predatory plans of Israeli ruling circles, exposing their conspiracy with the US imperialists.

On the insistence of the Soviet Union, an extraordinary session of the United Nations was convened to settle the Middle East crisis and abolish the consequences of the Israeli aggression. At that session the Soviet Union demanded the denunciation of the Israeli aggression against the UAR, Syria and Jordan, the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from territory seized by them and the reimbursement of the damage caused by them. The Soviet demands were backed by socialist states, Arab countries and many of the young national states, but US pressure on its military bloc allies frustrated the adoption of the appropriate measures by the United Nations.

The Middle East crisis remains unresolved. But the imperialists fell short of their main objective, namely, the overthrow of progressive regimes and the diversion of the Arab states from the road of independent development. The Middle East events gave further evidence that in order to curb the bellicose forces of imperialism there must be unity of action by the socialist countries, the young national states, the world communist and working-class movement and the national liberation movement of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Present-day international developments show that the threat to peace and security comes from the imperialist camp, that US imperialism is the main aggressor. All honest people see that the Soviet Union, a great socialist power, unfailingly and firmly champions the security of nations.

The deadliest threat to peace has been created by the US imperialists in Vietnam. At the Geneva Conference in 1954 it was agreed that the question of uniting the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and of tEat country's future political system would be decided by the Vietnamese people themselves, without foreign interference. But the USA wrecked the unification of that country. The elections were

of deciding their destiny themselves, without foreign interference.

The Soviet Union vigorously supported the legitimate rights of the Vietnamese people and backed all the demands of the DRV Government and the NLFSV. Along with other socialist countries the USSR is rendering the Vietnamese people effective assistance. Complete agreement has been reached between the CPSU and the Working People's Party of Vietnam on the form, means and proportion of Soviet assistance, chiefly military equipment and armaments to enhance the DRV's defence capacity.

The criminal war of the US imperialists in Vietnam has aroused the wrathful indignation of progressive forces in all countries. They are expressing their solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people. Broad sections of the people, democratic organisations and the governments of many countries have scathingly denounced the US aggression and demanded the cessation of American piracy in Vietnam and the granting to the Vietnamese people of the possibility of settling their internal affairs by themselves. Communists of all countries are in the vanguard of this struggle. The Vietnamese people are bound to win because they are fighting for a just cause, for their national independence and revolutionary gains.

Main Revolutionary Force of the Modern Epoch

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam is a member of the world socialist system and relies on its might and support. This system is a social, economic and political community of free, sovereign nations moving towards socialism and communism. It is the main revolutionary force of our epoch and a granite bulwark of democracy and national and social progress.

Co-operation among the peoples of the socialist countries is founded on common objectives in the building of socialism and communism and in the defence of revolutionary gains and national independence.

The CPSU contributes immensely towards the development and strengthening of the world socialist system. Its relations with the Communist Parties of the socialist coun-

Workers of the Vladimir Ilyich Electrical Engineering Works,

Moscow, at a meeting of solidarity with the Vietnamese people

fighting US aggression, 1965

opposed by the US-backed ruling clique of South Vietnam with the result that the people of South Vietnam rose against the puppet government. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam emerged, shaking the authority of the puppet ruling clique. This induced the USA to send troops to South Vietnam and begin a military intervention. A powerful patriotic movement took shape aimed at driving out the American interventionists and their stooges. In 1965 the USA escalated hostilities onto the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, brutally bombing towns and villages and slaughtering women, children and old people. The courageous people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam rose to the defence of their gains. The DRV Government strongly protested against the US aggression, demanding the cessation of the barbarous bombing of its territory, the evacuation of all interventionist troops from South Vietnam and the granting to the Vietnamese people the possibility

22"

tries are based on principles of Marxism-Leninism, on proletarian internationalism: mutual support, equality and close co-operation, respect for independence, and noninterference in internal affairs.

The CPSU devotes much attention to strengthening the Soviet Union's reciprocally beneficial economic relations with socialist countries. The USSR grants fraternal countries credits and loans without the fettering conditions usual in the relations between capitalist countries. By 1967 these loans and credits exceeded 9,000 million rubles. The constant concern of the CPSU and the Soviet people is to render fraternal assistance to friends.

Soviet economic aid has played a key role in the industrialisation of most of the socialist countries. In the course of 20 years after the war, more than 1,200 large industrial enterprises were built in socialist countries with Soviet assistance. Over 700 of these enterprises are already in operation, using the most up-to-date Soviet-made equipment. Thanks to co-operation with the Soviet Union and to joint efforts, the socialist states, most of which were backward before the war, have rapidly become industrially advanced countries. Today the Soviet Union not only supplies equipment to fraternal countries but also receives equipment from them.

Economic co-operation between socialist countries allows for the intelligent, fullest and most effective use of the natural resources and production capacities of each country, of the advantages of the socialist division of labour, and of the potentialities of the world socialist market. This conforms to the interests of each country separately and of the socialist system as a whole.

Economic relations between European socialist countries are co-ordinated by the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) set up by them. Through this body these countries specialise and co-operate production with due consideration for the interests and potentialities of each country concerned, and co-ordinate their economic development plans, the output of key industrial products, reciprocal supplies of electric power, metal, fuel, machinery and raw materials and also reciprocal deliveries of consumer

foods. European socialist countries have built the colossal eace power grid and the giant Druzhba Oil Pipeline.

Soviet and Czechoslovak electric welders meet during the building of the Druzhba Oil Pipeline

Soviet oil from the Urals foothills and the banks of the Volga is piped to the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The International Economic Co-operation Bank is functioning successfully.

Scientific, technological and cultural co-operation is expanding between socialist countries. At Dubna near Moscow, USSR, is the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research staffed by scientists from socialist countries. Thousands of young men and women from the People's Democracies study at Soviet institutions of higher learning, and many Soviet young people study at institutions of higher learning in other socialist countries.

All the People's Democracies have registered impressive achievements in the building of socialism. Socialist ownership has become consolidated in their economies. The working class has grown numerically and it has strengthened its leading position in society. In the countryside the peasants have set up producer co-operatives and gone over to socialist development. The people's intelligentsia, which closely co-operates with the workers and peasants, is growing rapidly. All this reaffirms the operation of general laws

of the transition of countries from capitalism to socialism, the correctness of which was first tested by the experience of the Soviet Union.

In socialist countries the rate of economic advancement is considerably higher than in capitalist countries. In 1950- 67 the industrial product of socialist countries increased more than five-fold, while in the rest of the world it little more than doubled. European socialist countries account for approximately one-third of the world industrial output. In these countries the standard of living is rising steadily on the basis of successful economic headway.

The socialist community is founded on fraternal cooperation, and the complete equality and independence of its members. No objective causes exist in the socialist system for contradictions and conflicts between the peoples and countries in it.

The 1960 Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties called upon these Parties to adhere strictly to the principle of socialist internationalism in their relations with each other, tirelessly educate the working people in the spirit of proletarian solidarity and close co-operation, and denounce

all manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism. The solidarity and unity of the Communist Parties and of the peoples of all the socialist states and their fidelity to Marxist-Leninist teaching are the principal source of the strength and invincibility of each socialist country separately and of the socialist community as a whole. The CPSU strictly abides by these principles.

The socialist states co-ordinate their foreign policy, mainly in the defence of world peace and security against imperialism. They steadily reinforce the defence might of the world socialist system and ensure the security of its peoples. They will never allow anyone to undermine or weaken the socialist world or to tear a single link out of the socialist community.

The socialist world is confidently forging ahead. The hopes of all progressive mankind are linked up with its achievements. Along with all other forces opposed to imperialism and working for the socialist remaking of society, the world socialist system determines the main direction of mankind's development at the present stage.

Co-operation Between the USSR and the Developing Countries

Soviet Communists and the entire Soviet people rejoice in the successes of the national liberation movement. They welcome the victories of the oppressed nations over the colonialists and the formation of new national state. The victories of the anti-colonial revolutions and the conquest of national independence by oppressed peoples are a major milestone of their advance towards a new life. The prospect of national rejuvenation and social progress lie before peoples who have won liberation, but for their development there are only two roads---the road of capitalism, and the road of non-capitalist development which leads to socialism.

Experience has shown that the road of capitalism is one of suffering for working people. It inevitably intensifies social inequality, dividing society into a handful of rich exploiters and a huge mass of exploited. Workers fall into bondage to the bourgeoisie. The peasants face ruin and poverty. The intelligentsia become the slaves of the capital-

Professor S. V. Rumyantsev, Rector of the Lumumba Friendship University among the University's students and teachers

ists. Education and culture are placed out of the reach of the working masses. This development suits the rich sections of the population of the emergent countries---the national bourgeoisie and the feudal lords, for it enables them to increase their wealth, bask in luxury and rule the working masses. The imperialists support these sections, quickly finding a common language with them. On the road of capitalist development the peoples of the liberated countries cannot surmount economic and cultural backwardness, for this road leads to new colonial slavery, to bondage to foreign enslavers, capitalist monopolies and imperialist states.

Refusing to reconcile themselves to their defeats, the imperialists seek to direct the emergent countries towards the road of capitalist development and impose the yoke of neo-colonialism on them. Neo-colonialism has its main bulwark in the USA. In collusion with the USA, the ruling circles of former colonial powers have set up anti-popular military dictatorships in a number of countries, where they have installed their puppets at the head of governments. These countries have been drawn into aggressive military blocs. So-called economic ``aid'' is granted by the imperialist countries to the young national states on onerous terms. Capitalist monopolies are tightening their hold on the economy and resources of many Asian, African and Latin American countries. Monopoly interests are protected by the imperialist states, which bring pressure to bear on the liberated countries and constantly threaten them with interference in their internal affairs.

Capitalist development clashes with the interests of the working masses of the liberated countries---of the workers, peasants and intellectuals, who have shed their blood against the colonialists in order to build a free, prosperous and happy life. This life is to be found only under socialism, which removes exploitation of man by man, national oppression, social inequality and the division of society into rich and poor. Under socialism the working people administer the state and all the affairs of society by themselves. The experience of the Soviet Union and the People's Democracies convincingly shows that socialism is the only foundation ensuring genuine national rejuvenation and social progress, the rapid growth of the productive forces and a steady rise of the standard of living. Under socialism the working

3U

The Bhilai Iron and Steel Works, India, built with Soviet assistance and equipped with Soviet plant

people make the fullest use of the fruits of their labour and of the achievements of science and culture. Desiring social progress the peoples of a number of countries have chosen the non-capitalist road of development leading to socialism. Naturally, the road to socialism is not an easy one, for on it the peoples have to contend with new situations, with

The Aswan High Dam and power station on the Nile,

obstacles put up by enemies and with the force of old habits. Socialism is won in persevering struggle against internal reaction and the hostile actions of the imperialists. Success is achieved only through the unity of all progressive forces--- workers, peasants and intellectuals---of the developing countries.

Besides upholding their state independence the peoples of the liberated countries have to achieve economic independence in face of enormous difficulties. The imperialist states, the capitalist monopolies and the former colonialists seek to take advantage of these difficulties, offering the young states loans and credits in return for territory on which to build military bases and for concessions enabling them to tap natural wealth. The imperialists purchase farm produce and other commodities in the young states cheaply and sell them machinery and other equipment at exhorbitant prices.

The efforts of the imperialists to impose the yoke of neocolonialism on the young national states and perpetuate their economic backwardness are resolutely opposed by the world

United Arab Republic, under construction with Soviet assistance

socialist system, which staunchly backs the rejuvenation of the developing countries. Relying on the assistance and support of socialist countries, many of these states are building up their own economy, promoting culture and achieving social progress.

The USSR has established economic, cultural, scientific and technological co-operation with most of the young national states and is rendering them extensive and varied assistance. During the first two decades after the war (until 1968), the Soviet Union unconditionally granted 23 young national states credits amounting to more than 3,000 million rubles for economic and cultural advancement. In granting these credits on mutually advantageous terms the Soviet Union was guided solely by the desire to facilitate the rapid economic development of these states and help them to become completely independent of the imperialist countries.

The developing countries use Soviet credits to purchase machinery and other equipment in the USSR. With Soviet technical assistance some 600 industrial enterprises and

other projects have been built in 31 young states. These include the Bhilai Iron and Steel Works in India and the Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the United Arab Republic. The countries receiving Soviet technical assistance include Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Iraq, Mali, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAR and Yemen.

The capitalist states refused India credits and assistance for the building of the iron and steel works at Bhilai. Built with Soviet assistance, this works has already supplied India with millions of tons of steel, which is so vital to her economic advancement. The capitalist states likewise refused the UAR credits for the Aswan High Dam and hydropower station. That gigantic project was supplied with equipment by Soviet factories, and thousands of Soviet workers, engineers and technicians worked on it side by side with Egyptian workers and engineers. The Nile was dammed and diverted into a new channel in May 1964, and in 1967 the first turbines of the Aswan Hydropower Station began to generate electricity. The Aswan colossus is turning huge sandy wastes into fertile land and helping to improve the life of millions of people.

The Soviet Union is doing its utmost to help the developing countries train their own cadres. The colonialists had obstructed public education and culture in the enslaved countries, where only a few people were lucky enough to receive a secondary or higher education. But even the lucky few had nothing to do with the economy and culture of their countries, working mainly as officials in the colonial administrations.

Educational centres are built and equipped in the developing countries with Soviet assistance, and students from these countries study at Soviet institutions of higher learning. By 1968 more than 100 educational institutions and scientific centres were built or were under construction with Soviet assistance in Burma, India, Cambodia, Algeria, UAR, Guinea, Mali, Kenya, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and other countries. Some 24,000 young people from Asian, African and Latin American countries study at institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union. Friendship University was opened in Moscow in 1960 and named after Patrice Lumumba, hero of the Congolese people and outstanding African statesman who was brutally murdered by

imperialist hirelings. Young people from more than 80 countries study with Soviet students at this university.

Study at Soviet institutions of higher learning and prolonged residence in the USSR leave a deep imprint in the minds of young people from the developing countries. They become skilled specialists---engineers, economists, doctors, teachers, agronomists, and so forth---and, in addition, master the most advanced ideas of the present epoch, becoming staunch fighters of the national liberation movement and of the national and social progress of their countries.

The links of the CPSU and the Communist Parties of other socialist countries with progressive national-- democratic parties of the developing countries are growing steadily stronger and broader.

ON THE ROAD TO COMMUNISM

Strengthening of Collective Leadership

Having adopted the Programme of communist construction, the CPSU gave it to the Soviet people and mobilised them for its implementation.

The Party's ideals and Programme objectives are sinking ever deeper roots in the minds of the Soviet people. The growth of the Party's prestige is accompanied by a growth of its membership. Nearly 2,500,000 people joined the CPSU in the course of only four years after the Twenty-Second Congress. Most of the new members are young people. The network of Party organisations is likewise growing, and today there are primary organisations at all factories, mines and building projects and at all state and collective farms, scientific, educational, medical and other institutions.

The Party makes wide use of the press, the radio and television to explain its policy and draw the people into the building of communism. Pravda, organ of the Party Central Committee and the most popular newspaper in the country, has a circulation running into many millions. The Party's policy, programme and practical measures are explained to the working people day-to-day by Party organisations and by Communists. Communists strive to set an example wher-

ever they work, this being demanded of them by the Party and by their lofty title of member of the CPSU. The responsibility for the state of affairs in the sectors where they work devolves primarily on Communists. They work shoulder to shoulder with non-Party comrades, closely cooperating with them in social life as well. The leading role played by the Party in Soviet society and the joint fruitful work of Communists and non-Party people in state bodies, trade unions and other public organisations ensure the successful building of socialism and communism.

The history of Soviet society shows that the CPSU's role as its leading and directing force grows in proportion to the advance achieved in the building of communism. This stems from many circumstances. Many new problems arise during the transition from socialism to communism. The growth of the scale of social production requires a constant improvement of the methods of managing this production. The changes taking place in social relations have to be scrupulously studied and the relations themselves improved. The task of educating the new man, the man of communist society, comes to the fore. Only a party armed with MarxistLeninist theory is capable of scientifically substantiating these intricate processes, organising in practice the building of communist society and evolving the methods of leadership in conformity to the new stage of history.

In all its activities the CPSU is guided by MarxistLeninist theory. Marxism-Leninism requires that the decision of practical problems of communist construction should be founded on the objective laws of the development of socialist society and on that society's requirements and trends. No attempt to resolve these problems by voluntarist methods and hasty administrative measures in disregard of scientific methods can be successful. This practice, which clashes with real requirements and possibilities, is called subjectivism.

Subjectivism is dangerous and harmful both in ideology and politics. Often it is manifested by young and inexperienced proletarian parties and most frequently by pettybourgeois parties and their leaders. Inexperienced revolutionaries usually want to accelerate developments artificially. But the true revolutionary, who abides by MarxismLeninism, has no right to succumb to passion or ignore the

objective laws of social development. In every specific case he must soberly take the real situation and the balance of opposing forces into account and correspondingly move forward and apply the needed forms and methods of struggle, which hasten and facilitate the victory of the revolutionary forces.

Subjectivism may be shown also by individual leaders of experienced Marxist-Leninist Parties. For example, continued successes by the ruling party over a period of many years or even decades may turn the heads of some of its leaders if they do not stand firmly on Marxist-Leninist positions. They may get the false impression that the Party can achieve anything it sets its mind on. The Marxist-Leninist Party in power must, therefore, be intolerant of conceit and window-dressing. At the same time, it must see to it that its leaders constantly improve their theoretical knowledge and, above all, strictly observe the principle of collective leadership, which protects the Party from the arbitrary actions of individual leaders.

What mostly distinguishes the Marxist-Leninist Party from all other parties is that all its activities rest firmly on a scientific foundation, on knowledge, and on adherence to the objective laws of social development. This enables it opportunely to take the requirements of social development into account and bring to light the trends of this development. In the same way that an artificial Earth satellite cannot be launched if the laws of gravity are not taken into account, socialism and communism cannot be built successfully without a knowledge of the objective laws of social development and without taking these laws into account. Disregard of these laws gives rise to errors that hinder society's advance towards socialism and communism.

Fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan in the USSR was started successfully. But economic difficulties arose soon after the Twenty-Second Congress of the CPSU. One of the reasons for these difficulties lay in the errors committed in managing the country's economy.

Commodity production remains under socialism. The prices of all manufactured goods and farm produce are regulated by the state. The Party submits recommendations on the question of prices to state and economic bodies. In socialist economy the prices policy is a highly important and intri-

cate matter. This instrument must be used skilfully by the state. The prices of commodities must not be fixed arbitrarily. Commodities are produced by people, by large production units, and the economic position of enterprises, salaries and the standard of living depend on the price level of the products of their labour.

Long years of economic management have given the CPSU and the Soviet Government considerable experience in the enforcement of a prices policy. But there have also been mistakes. Such was the case in the early 1960s, when so-called sliding purchase prices were established for farm products. These prices were fixed annually depending on the harvest. If the harvest was good the prices were lowered, and if it was poor they were raised. This instability immediately affected agriculture. It smothered the incentive of the collective farmers, who reasoned that inasmuch as incomes remained approximately the same no matter if the harvest was good or bad there was no reason to work for higher yields and increase output. Besides, the introduction of this sliding scale coincided with the crop failures of 1961 and 1963. The consequence of all this was that grain production and the livestock population diminished. State purchases of farm produce dropped, with the result that difficulties arose in supplying the urban population with bread and other farm products.

Economic management and the state of the economy were adversely affected also by the reorganisation of Party and state bodies that was undertaken at the close of 1962. This entailed a transition from the territorial production pattern to a purely production pattern. Prior to the reorganisation all Communists residing in one region or another, regardless of their place of work, belonged to single district or regional Party organisations. The reorganisation split these organisations into industrial and agricultural organisations, with the result that two leading Party bodies began to operate in one and the same region: one of them united rural Communists and directed agriculture, and the other Communists working in industry and directed industrial production. This switch was preceded by yet another reorganisation, under which the branch industrial ministries were replaced by economic councils functioning in the different localities.

These reorganisations hit the work of factories and build-

ing projects. The abolition of ministries made it difficult to centralise planning and direct the different branches of industry. Moreover, it seriously obstructed the implementation of a uniform scientific technological policy. Workers in industry began to lose interest in promoting, developing and mastering new machinery and technology. The rate of growth of the gross industrial product dropped in 1963 and 1964. Difficulties were encountered in agriculture as well.

As a first step towards the rectification of these errors the Party placed greater emphasis on collective leadership as one of the key conditions for a correct policy in all spheres of its activity.

At a plenary meeting in October 1964 the Central Committee of the CPSU granted N. S. Khrushchev's request to relieve him of the posts of First Secretary of the CC and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Attaching the utmost importance to collective leadership the plenary meeting found that it was inexpedient to continue the practice of letting one person combine the duties of First Secretary of the CC and Chairman of the Council of Ministers. L. I. Brezhnev was elected First Secretary of the CC, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appointed A. N. Kosygin Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

The October 1964 plenary meeting of the Central Committee was an important milestone in the Party's life and activities. It reiterated the policy, charted by the preceding congresses and recorded in the Party Programme, of promoting inner-Party democracy and emphasised the immutability of the pivotal Leninist principle of collective leadership and the importance of strengthening the Leninist style of work in all of the Party's links.

As soon as the October plenary meeting completed its business the Central Committee exhaustively examined the results of the reorganisation of Party bodies. The expectation that agriculture and industry would benefit from the division of Party organisations into industrial and agricultural bodies did not justify itself. The regions found themselves without an authority directing them as integral units. Assistance from town to country diminished, and the leading role of the working class grew weaker. Contact between urban and rural Communists waned. Besides, in the decision

23-1359

of political and economic problems the division prevented Party organisations from acting purposefully, in unison, and, naturally, devitalised their leading role.

The Party restored its single regional and territory organisations, which united all Communists regardless of whether they were working in industry or agriculture. Appropriate measures were taken in local government, trade union and Komsomol organisations. The Central Committee reinforced leading Party organs with experienced cadres.

The measures that were taken to strengthen collective leadership, animate inner-Party life and provide more room for initiative by Communists had a beneficial effect on the work of all state and mass organisations.

portant plan targets from above. On the one hand, this practice diverted the planning bodies from the study of important economic problems and, on the other, it gave the industrial enterprises very little room for deciding economic questions themselves. The interference of the planning bodies in the process of production at enterprises frequently upset the rhythm of work at the enterprises, introduced modifications into plan objectives and belittled the role and responsibility of the heads of these enterprises. This went on in spite of the fact that industrial enterprises are directed by highly trained specialists and experienced economic managers capable of directing them independently and correctly combining state interests with those of the workers. As a result, it was found necessary to change the forms and methods of managing industrial enterprises and go over to a new system of planning.

The Party considered that the state's centralised planned leadership of the economy must remain unchanged and maintain a grip on the main levers regulating economic life: concentrate the basic accumulations in its hands, determine the key spheres for investment, fix the volume of production and commodity prices for each branch of the economy, regulate the distribution of raw and other materials, and direct the introduction of new machinery and technology in production.

At the same time, the Party recommended giving industrial enterprises greater economic independence. The number of production indices established for enterprises from above was substantially reduced. Each enterprise was given a fixed state plan for its output, and the responsibility for the fulfilment of this plan was delegated to the management and staff. All the fixed assets---production premises, storehouses, machinery and other equipment---became the property of the enterprises concerned for the use of which they paid the state a definite sum of money. The economic councils were abolished, and the direction of entire branches of production was concentrated in the hands of the restored branch ministries.

While improving the planning system, the Party concerned itself with providing material incentives for increasing the volume and improving the quality of production. This is achieved through fixed output plans, a system of state prices for goods and a new system of relations between the state and enterprises, and between suppliers and customers.

Economic Reform

After normalising inner-Party affairs, the Central Committee turned to rectifying the errors and removing the shortcomings in the country's economy. It painstakingly analysed the situation in the economy and in social life, studied the pressing requirements of socialist society and charted the ways and means of carrying out the tasks of communist construction most successfully.

A searching analysis of the economic situation brought the Central Committee round to the conclusion that the increased potentialities of the socialist system of economy and the level of development achieved by the country's productive forces had made conditions ripe for a far-- reaching economic reform. The cardinal objectives of this reform were to enhance the efficiency of social production and secure a rapid growth of labour productivity and, consequently, the accumulation of material and cultural wealth. It was proposed to achieve these objectives by improving economic planning and providing industry with greater material incentives.

As a result of its swift growth, the Soviet Union 's socialist economy had reached immense proportions. State planning bodies were no longer able to cope with the volume of work assigned to them. This was largely due to the fact that they were exercising a much too rigorous control over industrial enterprises, of which there were hundreds of thousands, establishing for them numerous and frequently unim-

23*

the type and volume of products it had to sell to the state annually. At the same time, state purchasing prices for basic farm products sold under the order plans were substantially raised. All the produce over and above the order plan remained at the disposal of the collective and state farms, and they could not be compelled, as was frequently practised in the past, to sell this produce. However, in order to interest them in the sale of surplus produce to the state, much higher purchase prices were established for such produce than for the produce purchased under the obligatory plans. The increase of state purchase prices for farm produce did not involve any change in the retail prices of foodstuffs.

The great merit of the economic reform in agriculture was displayed during the very first year after it was put into effect. The collective farmers found they had greater incentives to work harder. They began to make more efficient use of machines, take better care of the crops and livestock, and work more perseveringly to raise bigger harvests and improve livestock products. In 1965 alone, as compared with the previous year, the incomes of the collective farms from the sale of plan and above-plan produce to the state increased by more than 2,500 million rubles. Almost half of this money was paid out as remuneration for labour to the collective farmers. Many collective farms have set up cash funds and introduced monthly wages. The collective farms have spent large sums on the purchase of tractors and other machines and on the building of production premises, clubs and schools.

Industry has also been switched to a new system of management. As distinct from the collective and state farms, which sell produce to the state, industrial enterprises supply products to each other in the shape of raw and other materials, machinery and other equipment, and to the state trade network in the shape of consumer goods. In order to enhance the responsibility of enterprises for the timely delivery of high quality goods to consumers and place all enterprises on an equal footing, the reform introduced a uniform system of assessing their economic activities. The principal index of their work became not the total volume of output but the volume of goods sold.

Prior to the reform factories were paid for their products as soon as they delivered them to state warehouses. There

Leonid Brezhnev

General Secretary, Central Committee, Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Nikolai Podgorny

President, Presidium

of the Supreme Soviet

of the USSR

Alexei Kosygin

Chairman, Council

of Ministers

of the USSR

In agriculture the economic reform has had a favourable effect. In 1965 the state established a fixed plan of purchases of farm produce to embrace the period up to 1970. Under that plan each collective and state farm was given an order plan for the six-year period. Depending on the land area owned by the collective or state farm concerned, this plan stated

were cases of goods for which there was no consumer demand piling up at warehouses without any hope of their being sold. This brought the state losses, but those who produced these goods did not suffer materially. They fulfilled the total output plan and were not concerned with how this output was sold. The same situation was to be observed in the relations between suppliers and customers. No material loss was suffered by the supplier if he failed either to produce or supply equipment to the customer in time. The reform changed this situation. Under the new system no payment is made until the goods are sold, i.e., until they have reached the consumer. For each industrial enterprise the state draws up a plan giving the volume and price of the products and naming the date when these products have to be delivered to the customer.

The economic reform thus provides industrial enterprises with the inducement to work rhythmically and efficiently, and opportunely fulfil state plan assignments. In addition, it creates extensive possibilities for production over and above plan and, consequently, for increasing profits. Profits are received by every normally operating enterprise. Under the terms of the reform part of the profits go into the state fund, the rest remaining at the disposal of the enterprise concerned. This is done to stimulate production. The size of the profits depends on how an enterprise operates and on the quantity of goods it produces and sells. Part of the profits are spent on production requirements, chiefly for the purchase of new plant; another part goes into the material incentive fund, from which efficient workers receive pay increases and end-of-year bonuses. Considerable sums from this fund are spent on improving housing for employees and building cultural and every-day services establishments.

All this enhances the interest of individual employees and staffs as a whole in the results of their work. They find it worth while to work more productively, make better use of machinery, expend raw and other materials economically, increase output and reduce costs.

The economic reform planned by the Party Central Committee is founded on Lenin's wise precepts. It takes into account the entire experience gained in the process of building socialism. It happily combines centralised economic management and uniform state planning on a nation-wide scale

35S

Bratsk Hydropower Station, largest in the world

with broad economic independence and the initiative of individual enterprises, the interests of individual production collectives and individual workers with those of society as a whole.

The introduction of the new system of planning and economic incentives was started at the close of the seven-year plan period. Party organisations explained to factory and office workers and collective farmers the significance of the reform to communist construction and helped collective-farm boards, managers of factories and state farms and production staffs to prepare for work under the new conditions.

The economic reform aroused deep-going labour enthusiasm among workers, engineers and technicians. Movements aimed at economising on means and materials and rapidly introducing the latest achievements of science and technology were started at factories and new building projects. These movements enabled industry to fulfil the Sevcn-Year Plan ahead of schedule. Under the Seven-Year Plan, which ended in 1965, the Soviet Union's industrial capacity was nearly doubled. Some 5,500 large industrial enterprises were built and 30 giant power stations were placed in operation.

The world's largest power complex, the Bratsk Hydropower Station, began operating at full capacity.

The last years of the seven-year plan period witnessed an appreciable increase of the rate of agricultural production: the output of grain and industrial crops rose, and the livestock population showed a large increment. State and collective farms increased their sales of produce to the state, with the result that the food requirements of the urban population were fully satisfied. The mechanisation level of agriculture rose considerably. In 1959-65 the number of tractors at the collective and state farms increased by nearly 600,000, of self-propelled harvester-combines by 200,000, and of lorries by nearly 300,000.

During the seven-year plan period the growth of socialist production in the USSR was accompanied by an increase of social wealth. This allowed the state, particularly during the last years of the Seven-Year Plan, to take a series of measures to improve the standard of living. Wages rose, as did the incomes of the collective farmers, and more allowances were paid out from the social consumption fund. The salaries of doctors, teachers and state trade and municipal employees were substantially raised. Old age and disability pensions were instituted for collective farmers at the beginning of 1965. A total of 17 million apartments and individual homes for 40 per cent of the housing available in the country when the Seven-Year Plan was launched) were built in the period 1959-65.

By successfully carrying out the Seven-Year Plan, the Soviet people made considerable headway along the road to

communism.

Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU

The Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow at the close of March 1966. The delegates represented nearly 12,500,000 Communists. The congress was attended by guests---delegations from 86 Communist, Left socialist and national-democratic parties.

The report of the CC CPSU was delivered by L. I. Brezhnev. The congress unanimously endorsed the Central Committee's political line and practical work and also the recommendations and conclusions made in the report.

Twenty-Third Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

At the congress the CPSU demonstrated its fidelity to proletarian internationalism and the general line of the world communist movement as laid down collectively at the 1957 and 1960 Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties. The CPSU, it was declared by the congress, stood for the unity of the world communist movement on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. It opposed hegemonism in the communist movement and desired genuine equality, fraternal relations and close co-operation between all Marxist-Leninist Parties. The CPSU favoured the convocation of another international meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.

A complicated situation prevailed in the world at the time the Twenty-Third Congress was in session. The imperialists had heightened world tension, intensifying their subversive activities and provocations against the socialist countries and the young national states. The US imperialists were fighting a criminal war against the Vietnamese people, continuing their provocations against Cuba and flagrantly interfering in the internal affairs of Asian, African and Latin American countries. Their NATO allies, the Federal Republic of Germany in particular, had aggravated the situation in Europe. Consistently pursuing its policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, the Soviet Union unremittingly worked to relax world tension and strengthen peace. It exposed the imperialist aggressors and gave its utmost assistance and support to the victims of aggression. It expanded economic and political co-operation with socialist countries and with young developing states.

At the congress it was underscored that the principle of peaceful coexistence was not applicable to relations between oppressors and oppressed, between colonialists and the victims of colonial tyranny, that the cessation of US aggression in Vietnam would open the door to fruitful peaceful coexistence. In line with the will and feelings of Soviet Communists and the Soviet people as a whole, the congress emphatically denounced the barbarous US aggression in Vietnam, demanded its cessation and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Vietnam. It expressed fraternal solidarity with the heroic Vietnamese people and declared that the CPSU was prepared to render them every possible assistance in order to defeat and drive out the aggressors. It called upon all

Communist and Workers' Parties to work tirelessly for unity of action in the struggle against US aggression in Vietnam and give effective assistance and support to the Vietnamese people and other victims of imperialist aggression.

In a situation marked by imperialist intrigues to increase world tension, the congress found it necessary to enhance the Soviet Union's defence might and, together with other socialist countries, ensure the collective security of the world socialist system. It called upon the Soviet people to sharpen their vigilance with regard to imperialist intrigues.

It comprehensively examined the Soviet Union's domestic situation and expressed its satisfaction over the results of the fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan, over the achievements in promoting economy and culture and in raising the Soviet people's standard of living. Fresh achievements had been registered by Soviet science. While the congress was in session, Soviet scientists launched an automatic station in the direction of the Moon, and it became the world's first space vehicle to orbit the Moon. It became the Moon's first artificial satellite.

The congress unanimously approved the measures proposed by the Central Committee for improving the forms and methods of economic management and introducing a new system of planning and economic incentives. The new approach to economic management, it was emphasised at the congress, had a firm scientific foundation and conformed to the requirements of developed socialist society, to the level of economic development reached by the Soviet Union and to the requirements of modern scientific and technological progress.

The congress examined and approved the Directives for the 1966-1970 Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union's eighth long-term economic development plan. This new Five-Year Plan is oriented on the fulfilment of the programme of communist construction, on the building of the material and technical basis of communism. Its cardinal economic objectives are to use the latest achievements of science and technology to enhance the efficiency of social production and increase labour productivity with the purpose of securing a further substantial growth of industry and steadily high rates of agricultural development and, on that basis, to achieve a considerable rise of the standard of living and the fuller satisfaction of the material and cultural requirements of all Soviet people.

The Directives provide for a series of important economic and social measures that give the new Five-Year Plan its own features.

Industry is to undergo substantial structural changes. The most advanced and economical branches of heavy industry are to continue to receive priority. Greater attention is to be given to the power, engineering, metal-working and chemical industries, which ensure the technical re-equipment of the entire economy. Emphasis is to be laid on the utilisation of the latest achievements of science and technology in industry and on the systematic mastering of new and more advanced products.

The rate of growth of the output of consumer goods is to be brought closer to that of the production of the means of production. The policy of giving priority to the development of heavy industry remains in force. In 1966-70 heavy industry output is to increase 49-52 per cent. However, the level reached by industrialisation in the Soviet Union makes it possible to achieve higher rates of growth in industries manufacturing consumer goods. Under the new Five-Year Plan the output of consumer goods is to rise 43-46 per cent, with greater stress on the manufacture of clothes, footwear, refrigerators, washing-machines, TV sets, radio receivers, and so forth, i.e., on the most diverse consumer goods. As a whole, industrial output is to increase approximately 50% in 1966-70. Provision is made for the further development and technical equipment of all forms of transport and communication.

The new plan calls for a stable rate of growth of agricultural production. In 1970 its annual growth rate is to be 25 per cent higher than in 1965. Particular attention is given to increasing the output of grain. In agriculture the principal objectives are to enhance soil fertility and achieve stable high yields of all farm crops. Greater production of grain and other crops will help to promote livestock-breeding, with the result that the country will have more meat, milk, eggs and wool. Stable rates of growth of farm output are ensured by large allocations by the state and by the collective and state farms for the building of irrigation systems in arid regions, land drainage in humid regions, a considerable increase of the output of mineral fertilisers, new farm machinery, the building of more power stations and the application of the latest achievements of agronomy in agriculture.

The standard of living of the rural population is to be brought appreciably closer to that of the urban population. The satiation of agriculture with new machinery and a higher man-to-power ratio in it will bring agricultural production closer to the technological level of industry. The building of townships with modern dwellings, clubs, libraries and everyday services are urbanising rural localities. At all collective farms the collective farmers are to receive a guaranteed monthly wage, and the same pension age is to be established for them as for factory and office workers.

The cultural and technical level of manual workers is to draw closer to that of mental workers. The general education level of the population is to rise considerably through the introduction of universal secondary education for young people. As from 1970 all young people in the Soviet Union will be starting out in life with a full secondary education. In 1970 the number of institutions of higher education is to be increased to such an extent that every third person finishing secondary school will be able to receive a higher education.

The growth of the living standard is to be accelerated. In terms of per head of population real incomes are to grow by almost one-third in the course of the five-year plan period. Wages and salaries are to be raised, and the incomes of the collective farmers are to increase. All factory and office workers are to go over to a five-day working week. Social consumption funds are to be considerably increased and this will make it possible to build more schools, hospitals, holiday hotels, health and holiday homes, tourist camps, Young Pioneer camps, pre-school children's institutions, and homes for old and disabled people, and raise old age pensions. Some 15 million apartments and individual dwellings are to be built in the course of the Five-Year Plan.

The Directives on the Five-Year Plan mirror the Soviet Union's economic relations with socialist countries and with young developing states. The CPSU regards economic cooperation with these countries as a matter of paramount importance. Through this co-operation the Soviet Union is helping to strengthen the world socialist system and cement its unity, and to consolidate the position and political and economic independence of the young national states in Africa and Asia.

3S4

The congress devoted considerable attention to strengthening the CPSU and enhancing its leading role in society.

The importance of improving the Party membership qualitatively and encouraging Communists to display initiative was stressed at the congress. One of the Party's laws, it was pointed out, was to guard the purity of its ranks and to make sure that every Communist justified the lofty title of member of the Leninist Party. In the Party ranks workers would continue to occupy a leading position.

In the period 1959-65 the Party enrolled more than 4,500,000 new members. The number of people desiring to join the Party grows in proportion to the growth of the Party's prestige. Under these conditions some Party organisations lowered the requirements for new members, admitting almost all applicants. In order to ensure that only really foremost workers, collective farmers and intellectuals joined the Party, the congress appropriately amended the Party Rules. Under these amendments recommendations to applicants may be given only by members with not less than five years seniority in the, Party. The decision of the primary Party organisation is valid if the applicant receives the votes of at least two-thirds of the majority of the Party members present at the meeting; young people under the age of 23 inclusively may join the Party only through the Komsomol and must have a recommendation from a Komsomol district or town committee.

The congress made it binding upon leading Party bodies to ensure the further development of inner-Party democracy, create the conditions for criticism and self-criticism and pay more attention to and show more respect for the opinions and suggestions of Communists. At the same time, it was stressed that inner-Party democracy presupposed strict discipline in the Party. Unity of action by all Communists was the decisive condition for successful work by the Party.

In the decisions adopted by the congress attention was drawn to the need to improve the style and methods of Party leadership of all aspects of social life. In the resolution on the Report of the CC CPSU it was pointed out that a " scientific approach, team work and efficacy in directing the building of communism and in pursuing the home and foreign policy of the Soviet state, which have become the practice of the Central Committee, must continue to underlie its activities''.

The congress directed attention to the ideological education of Communists. The large influx of new members into the Party, the complexity of the tasks of communist construction and the sharp class struggle of the two social systems in the international arena urgently required a more intensive Marxist-Leninist education of Communists, an enhancement of their ideological tempering, and a rise of the ideological and political level of leading cadres. The education of Communists, the congress noted, had to be organised in such a way as to enable them creatively to master Marxist-Leninist theory, to apply theoretical knowledge ably in their individual sectors of work and intelligently implement the Party Programme and the Party's decisions. Communists were called upon resolutely to expose hostile ideology and give a rebuff to the intrigues of the imperialists.

The purpose of the Party's ideological and political work among the masses, the congress pointed out, was to reinforce the Soviet people's striving for the bright ideals of communism and foster lofty political consciousness, a communist attitude to work, Soviet patriotism, socialist internationalism. It was particularly important, the congress emphasised, to organise the education of the rising generation correctly. Young people were called on to apply themselves daily to the study of communism, acquire lofty communist consciousness, prepare themselves for fruitful work for the cause of communism, and value and make worthy contributions to the revolutionary and labour traditions of the Party and the Soviet people.

At a plenary meeting after the congress the Central Committee elected its Political Bureau and Secretariat. L. I. Brezhnev was elected General Secretary of the CC CPSU.

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

Fete of All Working People of the World

1967 was a jubilee year in the history of the Soviet people, witnessing the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The October Revolution anniversary is celebrated annually in the Soviet Union, but the 50th anniversary

was an outstanding event. Soviet people were proud that under the leadership of the Leninist Party they had built socialist society and were able to celebrate the glorious jubilee with the full-scale building of communism.

The preparations for the jubilee called forth a great upsurge of political and labour activity. In town and country people sought to present the Motherland with new achievements. A socialist emulation movement was started on a nation-wide scale. Factories, building projects, transport services, collective and state farms, scientific organisations and offices hummed with constructive work.

It was a year of conspicuous achievement.

The emulation movement was headed by workers. In 1967 metallurgists produced over 100 million tons of steel or onefifth of the world output. More than 400 large industrial enterprises were built. Power-generating capacities were greatly enlarged. In 1967 the Soviet Union's power stations generated almost 600,000 million kwh of electricity, i.e., they exceeded the pre-revolution level 300-fold. The first two 508,000 kw hydroturbines became operational at the world's largest hydropower station under construction at Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. An 800,000 kw turbo-generator was commissioned at the Slavyansk Hydropower Station in the Donbas. It was the first time that hydroturbines and turbo-generators of this capacity had been built anywhere in the world.

In the jubilee year the state and collective farms grew a good harvest of grain, sugar-beet, vegetables, sunflower seeds and cotton. The cattle population reached 97 million head or almost twice as many as before the revolution. During Soviet years the number of people engaged in agriculture has halved but the output of farm produce has topped the pre-revolution level by almost 200 per cent. In 1967 the state and collective farms had more than 1,700,000 tractors, nearly 600,000 grain combines and over 1,000,000 lorries.

Soviet science celebrated the jubilee year with outstanding achievements, particularly in space exploration. On October 14, 1967, the Soviet automatic space station, Venera-4 made a soft landing on the planet Venus, and on October 30, at a signal from the Earth, two Earth satellites docked and parted.

The results of the nation-wide jubilee year emulation

movement were summed up on the eve of the celebrations. A thousand factories, mines, power stations, building projects, collective and state farms, scientific institutions and offices, which had emerged victorious in the movement, were awarded Memorial Banners instituted in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. The people feted heroes of the revolution, veteran members of the Communist Party. Some 130,000 active participants in the October Revolution and the Civil War were decorated with Orders and Medals. Soviet Orders and Medals were awarded to a large group of citizens of foreign countries who had been active in the October Revolution and the Civil War on the side of Soviet power. The hero-cities of Moscow and Leningrad were decorated with the Order of the October Revolution.

The glorious anniversary of the October Revolution was celebrated as a fete of working people, of all the peoples of the USSR, as a triumph of the ideas of Leninism, of communism. Along with the Soviet people it was marked by the peoples of the fraternal socialist countries, the developing states, and Communists and progressive people throughout the world. At meetings and rallies and through the press, the radio, the cinema and photo exhibitions Communist and national-democratic parties explained to the people the significance of the October Revolution, the great achievements of the Soviet people in the building of socialism and communism and their courageous struggle against imperialism, in support of the working-class and national liberation movements.

During the jubilee year numerous foreign delegations of working people, civic leaders and statesmen visited the Soviet Union to see the life and achievements of the Soviet people at first hand. They went to many towns and villages and took part in international meetings and conferences. In September 1967 fighters of the national liberation movement gathered at another international conference at Baku, capital of Soviet Azerbaijan and the venue in 1920 of the first Congress of Oppressed Peoples of Colonial and Dependent Countries. There were many delegates from the young national states. The conference noted the October Revolution's decisive influence on the growth and achievements of the national liberation movement, called upon the peoples of

24-1359

Military parade on the 50th anniversary

of the Great October Revolution, Moscow,

November 7, 1967

the developing countries to expand co-operation with the peoples of the socialist states, and advocated closer unity between the national liberation movement and the world working-class and communist movement.

Delegations from 107 countries in all the five continents came to the Soviet Union to take part in the jubilee celebrations. Among the guests were delegations from socialist states and Communist Parties, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, the developing national states and national-democratic parties, progressive socialist parties, and numerous delegations of working people. Neither in the USSR nor in any other country have the peoples been so widely represented at celebrations. Soviet people expressed their deep respect for and gratitude to the welcome guests for their cordial congratulations and recognition of the great revolutionary services of the working class and working people of the Soviet Union.

The jubilee meeting in Moscow was attended by members of the CC CPSU, deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, veteran Party members, participants in the October Revolution and foreign guests. L. I. Brezhnev delivered a report, "Fifty Years of Great Achievements of Socialism". Representatives of socialist countries, and Communist Parties, young national states and national-democratic parties cordially congratulated the Soviet people and the CPSU on the glorious 50th anniversary of the October Revolution and on their successes in building communism.

The jubilee celebrations were a review of the world's revolutionary forces and their internationalist unity under the ideas and banner of the October Revolution.

On the Lenin Mausoleum leaders of the Communist Party

and Soviet Government---N. V. Podgorny, L. I. Brezhnev,

A. N. Kosygin and A. A. Grechko, Minister of Defence of the USSR

Fifty Years of Great Achievements of Socialism

The world's first socialist state---the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics---created half a century ago by the workers and working peasants of Russia under the leadership of the Leninist Party, continues to develop and flourish.

The October Revolution overthrew the exploiting classes and established rule by the people, i.e., Soviet rule. Socialist

Missiles on parade

24*

democracy developed and improved side by side with the development of Soviet society. Emerging as a dictatorship of the proletariat, the Soviet state became a state of the whole people with the working class playing the leading role. Co-operating in the Soviets of Working People's Deputies, workers, collective farmers and intellectuals administer all the affairs of society and the state. They are united by common interests and aspirations, namely, the strengthening of socialism and the attainment of communism. The deputies to the Soviets and the aktiv giving them day-to-day assistance in their work comprise nearly onefourth of the gainfully employed population. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR is the highest organ of power in the land. About half of the deputies in it are workers or collective farmers. All the peoples of the Soviet Union are represented in the Supreme Soviet.

The October Revolution opened the road to communism for the peoples of the Soviet Union. Led by the Communist Party they built the world's first socialist society and are now accomplishing the transition to communism. That is the main result and feat achieved by them in the course of the past fifty years.

Renewed and remade by socialism, the Soviet land and its heroic people appear before mankind in all their might and majesty, demonstrating socialism's colossal advantages over capitalism in all spheres of human activity.

In economic development the USSR's socialist system has shown its indisputable superiority over capitalism. In the course of half a century the Soviet people have turned their country, once relatively backward, into a highly developed socialist state with a mighty industry and a largescale mechanised agriculture. Socialism ensures stably high rates of economic advancement. In the period 1929-67 the annual rate of growth of industrial output averaged over 11 per cent in the USSR, 4 per cent in the USA and 2.5 per cent in Britain and France. In 1913 tsarist Russia accounted for roughly 4 per cent of the world industrial product. In 1967 the Soviet Union exceeded the 1913 level 73-fold, and today accounts for about 20 per cent or almost one-fifth of the world's industrial output.

The past half-century provides incontestable evidence that socialism brings the working people a basic improvement of

their life and a steady rise of their standard of living. In social relations socialism's principal gain is the abolition of all exploiting classes and the eradication of exploitation of man by man. In the Soviet Union there are no privileged classes or strata, and there is no unemployment or poverty. The socialist principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work" guarantees every Soviet citizen the right to work and material security. The high and stable rates of development of socialist production and the growth of the national wealth bring about a steady rise of the standard of living of all the working people.

Socialist society shows concern for the working man from the day of his birth to the last days of his life.

It spends considerable sums of money on the upkeep of children of pre-school age. In 1967 the nursery schools and kindergartens catered for 9 million children or nearly one-fourth of the children of pre-school age in the country.

At the age of seven children begin to go to school where tuition is free. Every fourth young person who finishes secondary school has the opportunity of continuing his studies at an institution of higher education, where tuition is likewise free. Moreover, a considerable number of students receive state scholarship grants. The state employs an army of 3 million teachers.

Every young person finishing a secondary school or an institution of higher learning is guaranteed employment and the corresponding payment for his work. Factory and office workers have a five-day working week. Real incomes are growing uninterruptedly. Compared with the pre-revolution level they have risen 6.5-fold in the case of workers and 8.6-fold in the case of the peasants. A large section of factory and office workers are exempt from income taxes, while the rest pay an income tax amounting to only a small percentage of their earnings or income.

The pension age for men and women is 60 and 55 respectively. Socialism guarantees citizens a secure old age. The Soviet pension scheme embraces all factory and office workers and collective farmers. Pensions are also paid to all war and labour invalids and to invalids from childhood. In 1967 pensions were received by 34 million people or every seventh citizen of the USSR.

Free medical assistance is guaranteed to the entire population. The state pays for the upkeep of all medical personnel and all medical institutions. In the Soviet Union there are 600,000 doctors (or one doctor per 400 of population). Thousands of health and holiday homes and holiday hotels have been built in attractive localities where people can spend their holidays or regain their health.

Socialism solves the housing problem in the interests of the people. In the course of 50 years more than 2,000 million square metres of floor space have been built by the state and the population. Since the war nearly three-quarters of the population have been rehoused. In the USSR rents comprise 4-5 per cent of the wages of factory and office workers.

A striking indication of the improved life of Soviet people is the longer expectancy of life and the lower child death rate. Today the expectancy of life is 70 years as compared with only 32 years before the revolution. The child death rate has been reduced 90 per cent.

The October Revolution and the triumph of socialism have brought Soviet people education and enlightenment. The level of literacy in pre-revolution Russia was among the lowest in the world. Three-fourths of the population could neither read nor write. A fundamental change has taken place in the cultural life of the people in the course of half a century. Today the Soviet Union leads the world in education. More than half of the working population have a higher, secondary or middle-school education. There is a numerous army of highly trained specialists and scientists in the Soviet Union. This is the new Soviet intelligentsia, which is furthering socialist production, science and culture. The socialist culture created in the Soviet Union has absorbed all the best achievements conceived by the human mind in the course of thousands of years. Animated by the ideals of scientific communism, socialist culture is one of the key vehicles of the communist education of Soviet people. It enriches the cultural life of all mankind and raises it to a new level.

One of the greatest achievements of the half-century since the October Revolution and the triumph of socialism is that the peoples of the USSR have been brought together into a close-knit family. All the nations and nationalities of the

Soviet Union have risen to the level of present-day progress. In the lifetime of a single generation and with the fraternal assistance of the more developed Soviet peoples, many of them have moved from the patriarchal clan system to socialism without having to go through capitalist development, which is a tormenting stage for working people. The make-up of Soviet nations and nationalities has undergone a fundamental change. All the republics have made tremendous headway in economic and cultural development. They have their own skilled workers and intelligentsia. The peasantry has been transformed by the collective-farm system. Education has become universal. Science has reached a high level of development. All the peoples of the Soviet Union equally share the blessings of socialism.

The October Revolution proclaimed peace among nations. Socialism and peace are indivisible. Ever since the October Revolution the Soviet Union has been pursuing a foreign policy based on the equality of all nations, respect for their sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs. The USSR has become the bulwark of peace and a centre attracting and uniting all the world's peace-loving forces. The Soviet people have created powerful armed forces to protect the gains of the October Revolution and socialism. The Soviet Army dependably guards the peaceful labour of the people, and along with the armies of other socialist states it ensures the security of their peoples.

The Soviet Union was the first country to raise the banner of struggle against imperialism, face an assault by it and inflict crippling losses on it. Refusing to become reconciled to the existence of the first socialist state, the imperialists made attempts to strangle it. In the Second World War the Soviet Union saved mankind from nazi enslavement. In directing Soviet foreign policy, the CPSU continues, as it has always done, to support revolutionary and peaceloving forces, and to champion the freedom and independence of nations. The Soviet Union is a powerful factor preserving world peace. It serves as a formidable barrier to the aggressive aspirations of the imperialists to kindle another world war, and curbs the grasping appetite of the aggressors for foreign territories and domination over other nations. The victory of the October Revolution and the impressive achievements of socialism are a triumph of Leninism.

The Party created by Lenin was the first to apply Marxism in the struggle to achieve a transition from capitalism to socialism. Its efforts have been crowned with success: socialism has been built in the USSR and the building of communism has been started. Marxism has been enriched with experience of international significance. Lenin brilliantly generalised the experience of the revolutionary struggle and the first socialist transformations in the USSR, enriched and creatively developed Marxism and evolved a universal theory of mankind's transition from capitalism to socialism. He gave this theory to the CPSU, the world communist and working-class movement and the national liberation movement. That is why we speak of an integral, single MarxistLeninist teaching, of Marxism-Leninism, of the triumph and mighty impact of its ideas on world development.

The nature of the October Revolution is profoundly internationalist. It ushered in the era of mankind's transition from capitalism to socialism and continues, as it has done from the very beginning, to exert a powerful influence on the entire course of world development, on the world revolutionary process. During the half-century since it was accomplished, the face of the planet has undergone a transformation, and the balance of forces has changed fundamentally largely under the impact of its ideas.

In October 1917 there were only a few hundred thousand Communists in the world. Since then communism has grown into a mighty force that is remaking the world. Today, in most countries, in all the five continents of the world, there are Communist Parties which unite 50 million Communists and head the struggle of the working masses against imperialism, for the transition to socialism and communism.

In October 1917 socialism was represented by only one country, the Russian Soviet Republic. Imperialism ruled five-sixths of the globe. Since then socialism has substantially widened its frontiers. Today there is a powerful world socialist system in whose countries one-third of mankind is building a new life.

In October 1917 the first contingent of the world proletariat---the Russian working class---made an assault upon a capitalist fortress. Its heroic feat and glorious victory inspired all the other contingents of the world proletariat,

People on their way to pay homage to Lenin, Red Square, Moscow

who adopted the experience and ideas of the October Revolution, of Marxism-Leninism. Led by Communist Parties they are taking ever more militant action, becoming more organised and inflicting increasingly telling blows on monopoly capitalism.

In October 1917 a large part of the world with a population of 1,500 millions was fettered by the chains of colonialism. The national liberation movement was only embryonic. Under the impact of the ideas of the October Revolution and the achievements of socialism it has grown into a powerful movement of hundreds of millions of people, a movement that has smashed the colonial system. Seventy new countries have emerged from the debris of that system. The assault upon and abolition of the last bastions of colonialism are continuing.

We are witnessing the realisation of the brilliant forecast made by the great Lenin, leader and organiser of the first victorious socialist revolution, that the downfall of capitalism and mankind's transition to socialism are inevitable.

25-1359

COMMUNISTS OF THE WORLD IN THE VANGUARD - OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM

broader offensive against imperialism, against the forces of reaction and war. An International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties was needed to allow these problems to be thoroughly scrutinised and a joint platform to be worked out on the basis of a collective exchange of views. In 1966 the Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU declared itself in favour of such a Meeting. After the congress the CPSU leadership discussed this question at meetings with representatives of many fraternal Parties. In November 1967 eighteen Communist and Workers' Parties, the CPSU among them, called upon all Parties to hold a Consultative Meeting early in 1968 to exchange views on the possibility of convening an International Meeting.

The Consultative Meeting, attended by 67 Parties, was held in February 1968 in Budapest, Hungary. It was agreed to hold another International Meeting to deliberate pressing tasks of the struggle against imperialism and consider united action by Communists and all anti-imperialist forces. A Preparatory Committee was set up and it was settled that all the preparations for the Meeting would be conducted collectively, on a democratic and equal basis. After considering and generalising the suggestions from the Communist and Workers' Parties, the Preparatory Committee drafted the documents of the Meeting.

For Greater Solidarity of the Communist Movement

The 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was marked in a situation witnessing an intensification of the struggle between the forces of progress and reaction, of socialism and imperialism. The world revolutionary movement pressed on with its offensive, but the dangers springing from imperialism likewise mounted. The USA became increasingly aggressive, steadily laying bare the nature of US imperialism as the world exploiter and policeman. Imperialism uses every possible means in an effort to undermine the positions of socialism, hinder the struggle of the working people in the capitalist countries, crush the national liberation movement, and obstruct progress in the new national states. It thereby creates a threat to peace. Imperialism spearheads its policy of aggression against socialist countries. This is shown by the armed US intervention in Vietnam.

The revisionism, Right and ``Left'' opportunism and nationalism, which penetrated into the communist movement, impeded the unity of the anti-imperialist forces and successful action by them. Communists throughout the world were greatly disturbed by the position taken by the leaders of the Communist Party of China, who rejected the line worked out at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in 1960, made attacks against Marxist-Leninist Parties and hurled vicious insults at their leaders. The Chinese leaders most violently attacked the CPSU and its Central Committee for their determined defence of MarxismLeninism and proletarian internationalism. This inflicted enormous harm on the international communist movement, the community of socialist countries and the entire world revolutionary movement, and weakened the general front of anti-imperialist forces.

The situation imperatively demanded united action by Communists and all other anti-imperialist forces so that the new possibilities could be used to the utmost to start a

International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties

The International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties was held in Moscow in June 1969. It was attended by delegations from 75 Parties, each delegation being headed by its Party leader. The delegation of the CPSU was led by L. I. Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CC CPSU. Problems common to all the Parties were considered and a joint platform was formulated collectively. An atmosphere of fraternal co-operation and wide publicity reigned. The attention of the whole world was focused on the Meeting. Nothing came of the calculations of enemies, who would have been glad if the Meeting ended in a failure.

The central problems at the Meeting were the unity of the communist movement and the struggle against imperi-

25*

alism, the chief enemy of peace, freedom and independence of nations. Representatives of all the Communist and Workers' Parties attending the Meeting spoke on these problems. Their speeches were permeated with the desire to enhance the unity of the anti-imperialist forces in order to cut short imperialist aggression, primarily in Vietnam and against the peoples of the Arab countries, strengthen peace, avert another world war, and unite the communist movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.

An important speech was made by L. I. Brezhnev, who stated the CPSU's stand on cardinal issues of the contemporary international situation, the struggle against imperialism and the unity of the world communist movement and of all other anti-imperialist forces. The CPSU believed that the world situation was conducive to greater unity and the vitalisation of these forces. To achieve this it was necessary to foster the utmost development of the world socialist system and the working-class and national liberation movements, unite the Communists of all countries more closely and enhance their vanguard role in the general revolutionary process. Proletarian internationalism had always been and remained the tested factor contributing towards the unity and cohesion of the world communist movement. The CPSU delegation told the fraternal Parties how Soviet Communists and all Soviet people were discharging their internationalist duty in the common struggle of the revolutionary forces against imperialism, and assured them that they would continue to make a steadily larger contribution towards the implementation of the tasks of the anti-imperialist struggle and steadfastly uphold the cause of peace, democracy, national independence and socialism.

The CPSU delegation sharply and in a principled manner raised the question of combating revisionism, Right and ``Left'' opportunism and manifestations of nationalism in the communist movement. The position regarding China was also stated. As it had always done, the CPSU would continue to wage a struggle against anti-Leninist ideological trends and divisive and anti-Soviet activities of the Chinese leaders, and it had done and would go on doing everything in its power to safeguard the interests of the Soviet people and the security of the Soviet Union. The CPSU believes that the basic interests of the Soviet and the

Chinese peoples coincide. It will continue to safeguard and support the friendly feelings which exist among the Soviet people for the Chinese people, and which unquestionably also exist among the Chinese people for the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

The Meeting was a major success of the communist, working-class and liberation movements and a milestone of the struggle against imperialism on the basis of united action by the broadest sections of the people throughout the world. It adopted an important document headed "Tasks at the Present Stage of the Struggle Against Imperialism and United Action of the Communist and Workers' Parties and All Anti-Imperialist Forces", and with unbounded enthusiasm approved the Address "Centenary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin". Other documents passed by it were the "Appeal in Defence of Peace", the call "Independence, Freedom and Peace for Vietnam", a statement in support of the just struggle of the Arab peoples against Israeli aggression, and a statement of fraternal solidarity with Communists and democrats waging a selfless struggle under conditions of the most brutal repression against dictatorial regimes maintained in power by international imperialism.

The Meeting's point of departure was that the main guideline of world development continued to be determined by the forces of revolution, socialism, peace, and national liberation, who were pressing forward with their offensive. The platform formulated by the Meeting pursued the objective of strengthening the unity of the anti-imperialist forces, making their struggle against imperialism more purposeful and allowing it to be raised to a new level in order to secure decisive superiority over imperialism and put an end to its policy of aggression and war.

The immediate objective of united action of the antiimperialist forces was to render the heroic Vietnamese people the utmost support in their struggle to stop the imperialist intervention and drive the United States forces out of Vietnam. Its principal goal was to safeguard peace, combat the threat of war and avert a world thermonuclear conflagration. To achieve this goal it was imperative to compel the imperialists to accept the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, nip their acts of aggression in the bud, halt the militarisation of the imperialist

states, avert the proliferation of nuclear weapons, ban the use of such weapons and disband military blocs.

The world socialist system was the decisive force in the anti-imperialist struggle. Socialism had shown mankind the road of deliverance from imperialism. The emergence and growth of the world socialist system and the inspiring influence of socialism had created the requisites for accelerating the historical process and opened up new possibilities for socialism's advance and triumph throughout the world. The world socialist system's contribution to the common cause of the anti-imperialist forces was determined primarily by its growing economic and military might. Relying on this might, it was fettering imperialism and limiting its possibility of exporting counter-revolution. Every liberation struggle invariably received the support of the world socialist system, particularly of the Soviet Union. The Meeting called upon the Communist and Workers' Parties of the socialist countries to bend every effort to strenghten the world socialist system, correctly combine national and international tasks and promote fraternal mutual assistance. The internationalist duty of the Communists of all countries was to safeguard socialism.

In the capitalist countries the working class was the main force of the anti-imperialist movement. Under the impact of its revolutionary actions working peasants, intellectuals and young people were actively joining in the struggle. The contemporary situation was making it possible for these forces to unite under the leadership of the working class. Through united anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist actions they could disrupt the aggressive plans of their imperialist governments, limit the role played by the monopolies in the national economy, put an end to the rule of big capital, carry out basic political and economic reforms, and ensure favourable conditions for continuing the struggle for socialism.

The anti-imperialist movement of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples had begun to play an ever growing role. In Asia and Africa, where a large number of new national states had emerged, the national liberation movement had entered a new phase. In most of these countries along with the consolidation and defence of political independence, one of the cardinal tasks of social development

was to surmount economic backwardness and build an independent national economy. They had to attain these goals in struggle against neo-colonialism and internal reaction. Imperialism was particularly hostile to countries with progressive regimes, to countries that had chosen the non-- capitalist way of development. Great importance was attached to the struggle of the peoples in the south of Africa against colonial rule and the struggle of the Arab peoples against imperialism and neo-colonialism. The peoples of Latin America were courageously fighting US imperialism and tyrannical dictatorships. Their struggle for genuine national sovereignty and economic independence intertwined with the class struggle against capitalist exploitation, in which a steadily growing role was played by the proletariat and the Communist and Workers' Parties.

At the Meeting it was emphasised that to facilitate the struggle for socialism it was of paramount importance to strengthen the alliance between the socialist system and the working-class and national liberation movements.

The Meeting addressed the following militant appeal to the working people of the whole world:

"Peoples of the socialist countries, workers, democratic forces in the capitalist countries, newly liberated peoples and those who are oppressed, unite in a common struggle against imperialism, for peace, national liberation, social progress, democracy and socialism!"

The Parties attending the Meeting reaffirmed their determination to carry on the struggle against imperialism in a united front. They stated that to this end they were prepared to co-operate with all progressive, patriotic and peaceloving forces. At the same time, they pointed out that Communists regarded the struggle against imperialism for democratic reforms as a component and necessary stage of the struggle for socialism.

The Meeting was an important landmark on the road towards strengthening the unity of the communist movement. Underlying this unity was the community of interests and aims of the international working class, and an integral ideology, the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. Fidelity to Marxism-Leninism, to proletarian internationalism was the guarantee that Communists would fulfil their historic mission. The Communist and Workers' Parties attending the

Meeting declared that they would firmly uphold revolutionary principles, oppose Right and ``Left'' opportunist distortions of ideology and policy, militate against revisionism, dogmatism and Left-sectarian adventurism, propagandise scientific socialism in the working-class movement, among the broad popular masses and young people, and perseveringly work for the triumph of Marxism-Leninism.

In the Meeting's Address on the "Centenary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" it was underscored that this anniversary was a historic date. Lenin's name had come to symbolise the victory of the Great October Revolution and those immense revolutionary advances which had radically changed the social face of the world and signified the turning of mankind to socialism and communism. The entire experience of world socialism and the working-class and national liberation movements had confirmed the international significance of Marxism-Leninism. Under the banner of Leninism the revolutionary movement had risen to a new height, Communist Parties had emerged and grown strong, and the international communist movement had become a truly world-wide political force, the most influential political force of today.

For Communists, for all fighters for the revolutionary renewal of the world, great Lenin's teaching and his works are an inexhaustible fund of inspiration for struggle against reaction and oppression, for socialism and peace. A study of these works allows the younger generation to see more clearly the revolutionary prospects of our era.

The Communist and Workers' Parties attending the Meeting called on all Communists, on all fighters for the socialist renewal of society, on all fighters for progress and peace to mark the Lenin birth centenary worthily. The Address stated:

``Working people in all countries, peoples of the world! "In the name of the triumph of Lenin's ideals, we call upon you to join actively in the great and noble battle of the working class for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism!''

CONCLUSION

In this book we have briefly outlined the militant, revolutionary work and heroic history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The principal conclusion to be drawn from this outline is that in order to put an end to imperialism and colonialism and build a new, socialist society the working people must have their own independent revolutionary party. Organisation, Lenin said, is the only weapon of the working class, of the working people, as a whole, against the oppressors. The revolutionary party must consist of staunch, experienced revolutionaries, of foremost representatives of the working people---workers, peasants and intellectuals---enjoying the trust and support of the masses. These were the kind of people who rallied round Lenin to form a revolutionary Marxist Party, the Communist Party.

In order successfully to lead the liberation struggle of the working people and, after power is won, to direct the building of socialist society, a revolutionary party must have discipline and unity of views and action in its ranks. Without inner agreement in its ranks and leadership a party cannot operate harmoniously. All decisions in the Party must be drawn up and adopted collectively. A party cannot tolerate indiscipline. All its local organisations must implement the decisions and instructions of the Party leadership.

Without this condition the revolutionary party cannot play the leading role in the liberation movement or in the building of the new life. All Party organisations and members must act according to a single plan drawn up by the leadership. This lends organisation to the party's actions and leads to success.

The CPSU owes its successes to the fact that throughout its history it has been invariably guided by the theory of scientific communism. Without a knowledge of scientific theory and without applying this theory the revolutionary party cannot work purposefully towards the building of the new social system---socialism. This scientific theory, which reveals the laws of social development, is called MarxismLeninism. Its validity has been tested and proved by the long experience of the CPSU and the practical results of the building of socialism and communism in the USSR.

Naturally, functioning under the conditions obtaining in its own country, each revolutionary party must creatively apply the provisions and conclusions of Marxist-Leninist theory. But if a party, which calls itself revolutionary, for some reason ignores Marxist-Leninist theory or tries to replace it with some theory of its own creation, nothing useful comes of this for the working people. Marxism-Leninism is the only all-embracing scientific theory that can be used successfully both by revolutionary workers' parties and progressive national-democratic parties.

The revolutionary party's strength lies in its close ties with the working people and in the support it gets from them. By its dedicated struggle for the interests of the people, for their freedom and happiness, the Leninist Party has won lasting prestige among the masses and become the universally recognised leader of society. Its broad and close ties with the masses keep it abreast of the people's sentiments, aspirations and thoughts and enable it to respond opportunely to their requirements. The people's unanimous support of the CPSU and its policies is the main source of the monumental achievements of socialism in the USSR.

If the revolutionary party is constantly and inseparably linked with the people its work will be purposeful and it will invariably be successful. If it becomes isolated from the masses and ceases to take their requirements into account

it will lose their support. Such a party inevitably loses its militancy, withers and degenerates into a sect.

An important task of a genuinely revolutionary party is to master the art of leadership and become proficient in all forms of struggle and work. To a large extent the CPSU's successes are due to the fact that in all cases it can soberly assess the balance of opposing forces and the real situation, as well as the pressing requirements of social development and the mood of the masses, and determine what means and forms of struggle are most appropriate to the situation. The experience it has gained in the course of many years of work under diverse conditions, the challenging problems and the difficulties it has had to solve and surmount, and the tense situations it has had to deal with have taught it to be flexible, staunch and circumspect.

The Party's leading role in society was enhanced after the October Revolution when it accepted the responsibility for the destiny of the nation and took over the reins of government. It uses its leading position to carry out its programme of building communism. All its practical work is subordinated to the attainment of this main goal. Its leadership of Soviet society rests on a scientific foundation, which explains its efficacy and success. In directing Soviet society's advance towards communism, the CPSU systematically and regularly sets the people new tasks whenever the situation requires them.

The CPSU unites the activities of local government, trade union, Komsomol and other mass organisations, directing their efforts into the single channel of communist construction. It does not issue orders to them, resorting to persuasion instead, offering them advice and recommendations, explaining the significance and necessity of its advice and recommendations and making sure that the working masses united in these organisations understand and actively implement its policies.

In the half-century since the October Revolution the CPSU has consolidated its leading role in Soviet society and won the complete trust of the working masses and their organisations. It continuously improves the style and methods of its leadership and provides every facility for the initiative of state and mass organisations and of all working people.

Candid criticism of own shortcomings and errors is an indispensable condition for successful work by the revolutionary party. From his own experience every person knows that it is almost impossible to live a life without blunders and mistakes. This applies to revolutionary parties as well, which for various reasons commit errors and blunders. The important thing is that the party should not conceal them. On the contrary, it must bring them to light opportunely itself, and openly criticise and quickly rectify them. At the same time it must attentively heed to the criticism of the masses led by it. If a revolutionary party conceals its errors and shortcomings and gives them the opportunity to sink deep roots it may, willy nilly, depart from revolutionary positions and degenerate, with the result that the masses which had trusted it will turn away from it.

The CPSU moves from success to success because it has always courageously and resolutely admitted errors and shortcomings and relentlessly rectified and removed them. This is one of the points on which Lenin was adamant. Criticism and self-criticism is an indispensable and immutable norm of the CPSU's inner life and work. Thanks to this, the CPSU has never lost its militancy. Its members are exacting to themselves and show initiative, and the Party enjoys the unbounded respect of the people.

The revolutionary party must consistently implement the principle of proletarian internationalism, of the international solidarity of working people.

All revolutionary parties, the CPSU among them, function in their own countries. But not one of them, if it is really revolutionary, has the right to forget about the existence of other countries where working people live and revolutionary parties are active. In most of the countries of the world imperialism still reigns supreme, the working people are ruthlessly exploited and revolutionary parties are persecuted. It is particularly important to keep in sight the fact that the forces of peace, democracy, national liberation and socialism are opposed by a united front of imperialist reaction.

This obligates the revolutionary parties of all countries to strengthen internationalist solidarity to the utmost and support one another. The relations between revolutionary parties must, it goes without saying, be founded on com-

BCEFflA CI1APTHEH!

Forever with the Party!

plete equality, respect for the independence of every party and non-interference in its internal affairs. No party may be allowed to dominate the world revolutionary movement. Hence, each revolutionary party must educate its members in a spirit of proletarian internationalism and international solidarity and perseveringly foster this spirit in the masses.

A genuinely revolutionary party cannot tolerate national exclusiveness, Great-Power chauvinism and hostility for other revolutionary parties and peoples in its ranks, and it must never act in isolation from other contingents of the world liberation movement.

Ever since it was founded the CPSU has unshakably pursued a policy of proletarian internationalism and international solidarity of working people. All its activities are permeated with the spirit of internationalism. It functions in a multi-national country, and this fact alone has required from it the ability to organise fraternal co-- operation between the working people of different nations and nationalities. It has coped successfully with this task: the friendship among the Soviet peoples is unbreakable. All the nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union are equal; none have privileges over the others. The fraternal co-operation .among Soviet nations and nationalities in the building of socialism and communism leaves a deep imprint in the minds of Soviet people. Chauvinism and nationalism are alien to them. This is the result of long years of patient and consistent effort by the CPSU in promoting the internationalist education of the Soviet people, and it is proud of this historic achievement.

Soviet Communists, all Soviet people clearly appreciate the importance of and need for the internationalist unity of all the world's revolutionary forces in the struggle against imperialism, for the liberation of mankind. The CPSU is working perseveringly to unite the world communist, working-class and national liberation movements. It is doing everything in its power to expand co-operation with socialist and developing countries, strengthen its links with Communist, Workers' and national-democratic parties and support the struggle of the peoples against imperialism and colonialism.

As it has always done, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union considers that its prime task and obligation are to discharge its internationalist duty to the world liberation movement. It unfailingly demonstrates its fidelity to the great internationalist slogan: "Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!''

REQUEST TO READERS

Progress Publishers would be glad to have your opinion of this book, its translation and design and any suggestions you may have for future publications.

Please send your comments to 21, Zubovsky Boulevard, Moscow, USSR.