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Let us now examine a most acute and pressing problem which has a direct bearing on the problems I have dealt with above. Really, is it possible for capitalism to be restored in the socialist countries? Were all those sacrifices made in the name of the socialist revolution and all that blood of its proletarian fighters shed for the sake of going back to the old outworn order and replacing its yoke upon the straightened shoulders of the world’s working people? To reverse the history of social development is unthinkable, impossible. The development of society is moving in an upward line and no temporary obstacles can change the course of history’s natural process. Nevertheless, this statement requires definite argumentation if truth is not to remain a mere phrase. It will be appropriate, therefore, if we turn to the historical facts, which are best able to confirm the validity of this postulate. In this context we shall have to consider the experience of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, where, for the first time in man’s history, the stately edifice of socialism has been raised.

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p The main thesis of the Leninist theory of the socialist revolution argues the quesiton as to whether it is possible for socialism to prevail initially in one or several countries which had won free from the rule of capital. History so shaped itself that our country, which was the first to pave humanity’s way towards a new world, was obliged in the course of a quarter of a century to build socialism on its own. Bound as it was on all sides by a hostile capitalist encirclement, it had to create for the first time a new social order that would be superior in all respects to all the social systems that had existed before it. Without this main condition the existence of a socialist country and its defence against outside enemies was unthinkable. There were no few prophets who harped on one and the same string—that the Soviet Union would not last, would not build socialism. And every time one and the same argument was put forward— that there were absolutely no guarantees against the restoration of capitalism.

p The argument about the inevitability of restoration was first put forward by Plekhanov at the Fourth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. in 1906 when he took issue with Lenin’s theory of nationalisation of the land and of the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution evolving into a socialist revolution. Events however showed that Russia’s historical development followed the path which Lenin had scientifically charted and not that which Plekhanov had prophesied. Eleven years passed after this and the socialist revolution in Russia won a brilliant victory. Equipped now with Lenin’s theory concerning the possibility of building socialism in a single country, the Party was able to start on the practical implementation of that great theory. And just at this decisive stage Plekhanov’s successors came out with the old argument about the inevitable restoration of capitalism, against which, they claimed, no barriers existed.

p This argument, in fact, was no simple one. It called for a profound analysis and correct scientific deductions. Obviously, no Marxist could give any guarantee against the restoration of capitalism, against this grave and very real danger. Nor could any capitalist state, for that matter, give a guarantee that it would withstand the onset of the revolutionary forces of the working class and all the working people. Consequently, the chances of capitalism’s restoration were more than outweighed by the possibility of resolute 201 action on the part of the revolutionary masses. Your true revolutionary is distinguished from the reformist precisely in that he has boundless faith in the inexhaustible revolutionary energy of the working class, who are the real creators and makers of socialism.

p Let us examine this question on its merits, in accordance with the concrete situation that prevailed in our country after the victorious October Socialist Revolution. Lenin pointed out that the deposed exploiter classes remain at first stronger than the working classes that had come to power; similarly, the old surviving economic relations, notably the then prevalent form of small peasant economy, favoured the restoration of capitalism rather than the development of communism. Furthermore, imperialism could not put up with the existence of the world’s one and only workers’ and peasants’ state and missed no opportunity to try and crush it by military force.

p Therefore, the restoration of capitalism in the one and only country that was building socialism was a very real and immediate danger. Potentially it could happen in two ways: one, by way of internal evolutionary processes, by the gradual consolidation of private economy and its preponderance over the inchoate socialist structure; the other, by way of direct armed intervention from outside by the united forces of the imperialist states backed by the remnants of the overthrown classes and elements hostile to the Soviets. In the intra-Party struggle that developed after the death of Lenin the question of the possibility of building socialism in a single country was a central issue, but the approach to its solution differed. Consequently, the issue centred on whether it was possible to prevent the restoration of capitalism.

p The Trotskyists maintained that these two groups of contradictions, namely, the internal and external, could be resolved only on the international stage, given a world proletarian revolution, failing which the restoration of capitalism was inevitable and the defeat of socialism inescapable. Such a concept disarmed the Party and the working class and condemned them to inaction and passivity. Indeed, how could you build socialism when you knew beforehand that it couldn’t be built? Could you be sure of building socialism if the restoration of capitalism was a certainty?

p The Leninist Bolsheviks argued from an opposite position. 202 On the basis of a dialectical analysis of the internal and external contradictions they upheld Lenin’s concept to the effect that the existing internal and external contradictions were quite resolvable, that these contradictions were far from being uniform and that they would be resolved by different methods and means. Hence the victory of socialism had to be viewed in accordance with these two diverse contradictions: a complete victory and a final victory.

p The first group of contradictions related to the sphere of internal socio-economic relations. It was resolved by means of profound transformative processes, by a complex of political and economic measures: the industrialisation of the country, the collectivisation of agriculture and the cultural development of the people. The alliance between the working class and the peasantry was the chief motive force in dealing with these problems. Consequently, the Leninists argued, there were sufficient forces and means within the country to prevent the restoration of capitalism. And that is what happened. It took the Soviet people twenty years of creative effort to secure the complete victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. In the Marxist sense this meant fulfilment of the first phase of communism.

p The second group of contradictions concerned the relationships of the socialist country with the hostile capitalist world. This was a far more difficult and complicated sphere than the first. Nevertheless, here too there were sufficient levers for ensuring the safety of the land of socialism and making its victory final and conclusive. The most secure guarantee, which appealed to all honest people in the world, was the proclamation of a policy of peace and co-operation among the nations which the Soviet government consistently pursued from the very first days of its existence. The Soviet people was able to rely on the mighty international strength of the world’s working class which staunchly defended the Soviet socialist state—the true homeland of all the world’s working people.

p No wonder, therefore, that every time the imperialists lifted a hand against the Soviet Republic the working class of the capitalist countries raised a bastion against the aggressors and oppressors. "Hands Off the U.S.S.R.!", " Safeguard the Cradle of the Revolution!", "Defend the U.S.S.R. —the home of all the world’s working people!"—were the memorable international slogans of the world’s proletariat.

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p If we add to this the profound antagonisms among the capitalist countries themselves, which were skilfully made use of by the Soviet Union, we find the second contradiction, too, resolved in favour of the construction of socialism in a single country. In fact, thanks to the heroic steadfastness of the Soviet people and the international unity of the proletariat socialism in the U.S.S.R. was built in the course of two decades.

p The Second World War was a serious test of the vitality of the socialist country’s forces. It revealed both the inner strength of the socialist system and the strength of the unity of the international working class, which rose to its full stature in defence of the U.S.S.R. Having won a victory over the world forces of reaction and broken the chain of capitalist encirclement the Party could say with full justice that socialism in the U.S.S.R. had gained not only a complete, but a final victory. Events now confirmed how farsighted and accurate had been Lenin’s theory demonstrating the possibility of building socialism initially in one country and the inevitability of other countries gradually taking the socialist road. This process is unavoidable and it has now spread along a wide front on all continents.

p And so the progress made by the Soviet Union since the October Revolution can be summed up as the complete and final victory of socialism in a single country. The crowning point of this epoch-making victory was that socialism was no longer confined to a single country and became a world system. Thus the objective conditions point to the fact that the danger of capitalism being restored in our country has sunk into oblivion.

p Given such a real factor as the complete and final victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the choice of a socialist path by a number of new countries, our Party drew from this the theoretically correct conclusion that the transition from capitalism to socialism which was taking place on a world scale formed the sum and substance of our epoch. This conclusion proceeded from a profound theoretical analysis of the international situation and will always stand as an example of a creative approach to the solution of urgent issues of high policy.

p On what real motives were these far-reaching conclusions based?

p First, the triumphant successes of socialist construction in 204 the U.S.S.R., which gave substance to the scientific ideas of socialism, made them a permanent causative factor of the world revolutionary process. Socialism’s emergence from a single country as a worldwide factor radically changed the balance of social and material forces in favour of socialism and secured strong positions for the socialist system on a world scale. It could now be a question, not of the restoration of capitalism in this or that socialist country, but of these countries, by their joint efforts and in close unity with all revolutionary, progressive forces, contributing to the speedy downfall of capitalism all over the world.

p Secondly, under the impact of the victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the brilliant successes achieved by a number of countries of Europe and Asia who had taken the socialist road, the national liberation movement in the colonial and dependent countries built up with tremendous force on an unprecedented scale. This led to the disintegration and collapse of the shameful colonial system of imperialism and to the creation of new national independent states, which now number over seventy. As a result of the establishment of a world socialist system and the collapse of colonial empires there has occurred not only a sharp cut-back in the sphere of capitalist relations and imperialist exploitation, but a general weakening of imperialism. Great masses of people and vast territories with their boundless wealth are ceasing to be the reserves of imperialism.

p Thirdly, the growth of communist forces throughout the world. Arising as an organised movement on the crest of the Great October Socialist Revolution, spreading steadily in depth and breadth all over the world, international communism in a brief historical period has become the greatest progressive force in the world today exercising a powerful impact on the development of society and the destinies of nations. The communist movement developed most rapidly during the years of the war and after it. Where, before the war, communist parties existed in 43 countries, chiefly in Europe, and numbered approximately 4,200,000 members, today organised contingents of Communists are functioning in 89 countries and their ranks have increased more than 12-fold during the same period.

p I have cited only three factors, but these suffice to show what a change has come over the face of man’s world and how favourably for world socialism conditions have shaped 205 themselves. How, given such an objective line-up of economic and material and technological factors in the world today, can one speak seriously about the restoration of capitalism in the socialist countries? How, for that matter, can one speak seriously about the restoration of capitalism under such a favourable line-up of socio-political forces in the world, -when even the subjective factors have clearly shaped in favour of world socialism? It can safely be said that never have such favourable conditions existed for the deployment of both the democratic and the socialist movements as those that obtain today.

p Of course, the imperialists, as before, will do everything they can to prevent and check the spread of the ideas of socialism, and weaken the liberative influence of the socialist countries on the nations of the world. This is the direction in which the imperialist mechanism of the so-called Eastern policy is now working. The strategy of this policy is one of long range, calculated, on the one hand, on splitting and sundering the socialist countries in order to deal with them piecemeal, on the other hand, on the gradual disintegration of the socialist system through changes in its constituent elements in each given country. In the realisation of their strategic plans the imperialists count first of all on the revisionist, nationalist and hostile class elements.

p “In conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat," L. I. Brezhnev, General Secretary of the C.G. C.P.S.U., pointed out, "the revisionists and opportunists are the vehicle of the pressure exerted by the non-proletarian, bourgeois and petty-bourgeois strata of the population, the pressure of habit, the pressure of views and survivals, nationalist sentiments inclusive, inherited from the past. Encouraged by the imperialists from abroad and playing up certain difficulties and contradictions of social development, the revisionists are active to influence the policy of the Communist Parties in power and to emasculate its class proletarian content. The 1956 events in Hungary and the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia have shown that the revisionists and opportunists are in fact preparing the ground and clearing the way for counter-revolution. That is why the struggle against revisionism and opportunism has been and continues to be an important task of the Communists.”  [205•* 

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p Speaking on the same subject, G. Husak, First Secretary of the C.G. of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, said: "We believe that our development will serve also as a lesson for the international communist and workers’ movement, first of all as regards the harm caused by all kinds of opportunist and petty-bourgeois illusions, anarchistic and nationalistic tendencies, and how dangerous it is to underestimate the efforts of imperialism to disintegrate the socialist states from within and break the friendly ties between them. Not to fight against the anti-communist forces means giving them full scope.”  [206•* 

p Although the imperialists do not give up hope of restoring capitalism in the socialist countries their efforts are doomed to failure. Events have shown that if they did not succeed in doing this before, when the Soviet Union was the only land of socialism, still less chances do they have of achieving their end now. In this context I shall examine the two channels of a possible restoration of capitalism which the imperialists have tried to use against the U.S.S.R. and by which they are now trying to infiltrate into the socialist countries with the aim of overthrowing the political and socio-economic system existing there.

p In speaking of the first channel, that of methods of military force to restore capitalism, this, in our view, is definitely ruled out. The imperialists themselves realise it only too well. In the early fifties, it will be remembered, they proclaimed the Dulles concept of “containment” and “ brinkmanship”. They tried out this concept in a number of proving grounds: in Korea, in the Hungarian putsch in 1956, then in Vietnam. Now the imperialists realise only too well that military provocations attempted with socialism are much too hazardous to their own existence. The U.S.S.R., as the bulwark of socialism, is not only well able to look after itself, but to act as a reliable shield for any other socialist country. Besides, every socialist country possesses sufficient means to enable it to stand up for socialism. Therefore, any kind of military interference by the imperialists in any socialist country is bound to meet with an organised rebuff to the enemy on the part of the whole socialist community of nations.

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p As regards the second channel, that of safeguarding socialism against evolutionary degeneration, the solution of this problem depends wholly on the correctness of the political line taken by one or another ruling party. It should always be borne in mind that socialism is a young socioeconomic system in which the hallmarks of the old, bourgeois society still linger on. It would be naive to think that socialism will establish itself on its own, spontaneously, without the organising, guiding and directing role of the revolutionary vanguard—the Communist Party.

p It is clear that the socialist countries are at different stages of development and in each of them quite different historical, economic, social and political conditions prevail. Needless to say, all these factors have to be reckoned with and taken into good account in running the country. Moreover, it is very important, as events themselves have shown, that the party’s leadership of the masses should not run ahead or skip uncompleted stages, which would lead to loss of communication between the vanguard and the masses. No less dangerous for the cause are such phenomena as passivity, stagnation and immobility, which inevitably involve a loss of direction, loss of the party’s vanguard role and its ties with the masses.

p Consequently, given strict adherence to a Marxist-Leninist line, the evolutionary road of capitalist restoration in the countries of victorious socialism stands no real chance of succeeding. The question arises, what if the conductor’s baton in one or another ruling party finds itself in the hands of opportunist, revisionist leaders? It goes without saying that the gains of socialism would be seriously jeopardised. Even so, this would not mean that the restoration of capitalism was a foregone conclusion. We are convinced that no socialist country can be switched offhand to capitalist rails, as this would immediately call into action counter forces. Faced with the prospect of losing their socialist gains the healthy forces of the party and the community are bound to come out in defence of socialism. And as a last alternative the political struggle could develop into a victorious civil war against the enemies of socialism.

p Socialism is a complexus of diverse gains. It is characterised by basic features common to all socialist countries. These are a workers’ and peasants’ rule, social ownership of the means of production, socialist principles of distribution 208 of material benefits, socialist democracy, the prevalence of a socialist ideology and so on. Let us assume that by reason of some mistakes or inaccuracies damage is done to one of the constitutive elements of socialism. Does that mean that the whole structure is doomed? Of course not. It is affected, its development is retarded, but socialism’s "safety factor", its reserves of strength among the masses, are ample enough to withstand temporary trials and set the cause of socialism back again on secure rails.

p At the same time it is important for every socialist country that no single element in the complexus of socialism should be disturbed or allowed to fall out. We must know the strategy of the imperialists, who are compelled to reckon with the new conditions of alignment of class forces and refrain from attempts to directly overthrow socialism. Therefore, in their extremist actions they aim at gradually eroding one of its supports after another by underhand means, by way of "creeping counter-revolution". This is distinctly traceable in the case of the events in Czechoslovakia. If the former leadership of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia had discovered in time and properly rebuffed the adroit strategy of imperialism the events which caused such grievous consequences might never have taken place. "The attempts of external and internal reaction to weaken the positions of socialism and to shatter the socialist community can only be given one answer: greater cohesion of the fraternal countries on the basis of socialist internationalism, mutual assistance in the struggle against imperialism’s intrigues, for strengthening the socialist system.”  [208•* 

And so the events of the last few years have clearly shown that imperialism is by no means a "paper tiger", but a powerful, extremely well-organised, experienced and cruel adversary. In fighting it the most subtle and flexible means and methods must be used. Most important of all, we must always be on the alert, always keep our powder dry, be vigilant and not weaken our fundamental positions an inch. To fight for the consolidation of socialism is to fight determinedly, fearlessly and consistently against both anti- communism and revisionism.