p The theoretical apology of the personality cult in practice takes the form of a drive against the Chinese people’s democratic gains.

p Lenin used to say that the fullest and most consistent democracy is the most important distinctive mark of the new, proletarian, socialist state, as compared with the state in the “proper sense of the word”, which he saw as a “special 139 machine for the suppression of one class by another, and, what is more, of the majority by the minority".  [139•1  Lenin wrote: “Democracy, introduced as fully and consistently as is at all conceivable, is transformed from bourgeois into proletarian democracy; from the state (=a special force for the suppression of a particular class) into something which is no longer the state proper."  [139•2 

p Proletarian, socialist democracy is closely connected with the implementation of the rules of socialist law, with socialist legality, which serve as the constitutional expression of the general interests of the working people. Characterising socialist democracy and its class character, Lenin pointed to the broad range of rights enjoyed by citizens in socialist society, including election and recall of functionaries of the state apparatus, control by the masses of their work, and alternative participation by citizens in the conduct of affairs of state. Lenin never regarded socialist democracy as arbitrary rule by a faceless crowd, which ignored democratic institutions and civil rights. Nor had he ever contrasted direct action by the masses and the activity of representative institutions of the proletarian state. He wrote: “We cannot imagine democracy, even proletarian democracy, without representative institutions."  [139•3  According to Lenin, the representative institutions of the socialist state carry out legislation and organise its translation into life.

p It is a duty of every citizen and of every person in office, without exception, to observe socialist legality. The whole activity of the Communists should set an example of observance of socialist laws. With Lenin’s participation, the 8th Congress of the Party in 1919 adopted a resolution which said that “the Party must carry out its decisions through the Soviet organs, within the framework of the Soviet Constitution".  [139•4  The leader of the working people stressed the need consistently and steadily to consolidate legality. In 1921, he said: “The closer we approach conditions of unshakable and lasting power and the more trade 140 develops, the more imperative it is to put forward the firm slogan of greater revolutionary legality."  [140•1 

p Lenin held respect for socialist laws to be one of the most important marks of civilised behaviour. He wrote that legality and civilised behaviour are indissoluble, and attached vast importance to the use of legality in raising the standards of behaviour among broad masses of people.  [140•2  Lenin’s principles of socialist democracy and legality and Lenin’s experience in the struggle to implement them are the legacy of all true revolutionaries, of all the advanced culture of modern society. Socialist democracy and legality serve, according to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, as guarantees against subjectivism and arbitrary acts, and help to bring out and realise the people’s true will, to establish respect for human dignity, and the most consistent observance of the basic rules of any community living.  [140•3 

p The Main Document of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Moscow in June 1969 stressed that “the forces of socialism are strengthened and unity of will and action of the people is promoted by the steadily increasing political activity of the working people, by the greater activity of their social organisations, extension of the rights of the individual, irreconcilable struggle against manifestations of bureaucracy and by the allround development of socialist democracy".  [140•4  Neglect or distortion of these ideas in the practice of socialist construction breeds subjectivism, builds up political mistakes and may develop into highly dangerous political arbitrariness, gravely jeopardising the socialist gains of the working people.

p The tragic consequences of the policy pursued by Mao and his supporters are closely connected with the downright neglect of the key Marxist-Leninist ideas on socialist democracy and legality. Mao and his entourage contemptuously try to present their own unprecedented arbitrariness as being the theory and practice of “massive democracy under the proletarian dictatorship”, as being the use and development of the experience of the Paris Commune, as being an “ 141 epochal and brilliant development of Marxism-Leninism" and as its entry upon a totally new stage, that of the “thought of Mao Tse-tung”.

p The rampant political arbitrariness of Mao and his supporters, which reached a peak during the “cultural revolution”, has a fairly long and complex history behind it. It cannot be correctly understood without consideration, as has been said, of the fact that in the late 1940s and early 1950s there was in China an objective need to establish a strictly centralised political power capable of exercising control over the country’s vast territory, which had just been liberated in the course of the civil war from Chiang Kai-shek’s rule. The new power had to fight against the counter-revolution, the resistance of the exploiting classes, the vacillation of the petty bourgeoisie, and the criminal acts of the declasse elements.

p These problems were all tackled mainly through administrative repressions and outright armed suppression, both of which were used on a fairly large scale. The massive use of repression was accompanied by a number of mistakes and abuses, and now and again developed into brutal violence. However, political coercion, aimed at expropriating the landowners and compradores and safeguarding the gains of the revolution, had a progressive significance and yielded a tangible political effect. Let us stress that this coercion was being carried out simultaneously with extensive economic and cultural construction, in which the USSR and other socialist countries gave great assistance. Meanwhile, as practice has shown, some political leaders in China, who had mastered mainly violent, military and paramilitary methods of tackling various problems, came to believe that violence, administration by fiat, military orders, hand in hand with massive campaigns were the most effective and reliable means of solving any political, economic and other problems.

p At the 8th Congress of the CPC in September 1956, some delegates expressed concern over these attitudes. In its resolution, the Congress, having remarked on the successes of socialist construction in China, declared: “It is a matter of urgency and of great importance, now that we have entered the period of socialist construction, to further extend the scope of democracy in our country, and to combat bureaucracy."  [141•1  142 The Congress outlined a number of concrete measures to develop socialist democracy in China and condemned the views of those who were trying artificially to sharpen the class struggle in the country. The Congress also noted that the provisional laws adopted in the initial period after liberation and direct action by the masses as a mode of combating reaction, had already played their part. The CPC Central Committee’s report said that together with the changing tasks in the struggle “a corresponding change in the methods of struggle will consequently have to follow, and a complete legal system becomes an absolute necessity".  [142•1  Tung Pi-wu, a founding member of the CPC, made some trenchant criticism of the state of legality in the country and advanced important proposals for strengthening it. He said: “The problem today is that we still lack several urgently-needed, fairly complete basic statutes such as a criminal code, a civil code, rules of court procedure, a labour law, a law governing the utilisation of land and the like. At the same time, because of the changes that have taken place in our political and economic situation, a number of our laws should have been revised or framed anew."  [142•2  He added: “It would have to be regarded as a serious problem, if we allowed our legal system to remain incomplete or unduly deferred its completion."  [142•3 

p At the Congress much was also said about the fact that “while carrying out our work in a number of localities and departments, we have often discovered violations of the law and encroachments upon the people’s democratic rights".  [142•4  It was further said that there had been arrests without observance of the established legal procedure, that the defendants’ exercise of the rights of defence and appeal had been restricted and that those arrested were brutally treated.  [142•5  The material of the Congress contains an analysis of the historical and social reasons for these negative developments in the life of the country. It said: “Before our Party, as the leading force of the people, seized state power throughout the 143 country, we were an outlawed party with no legal means of waging the struggle and all revolutionary work had to be carried on by outwitting the legal system of the old regime; after we seized state power throughout the country, we did a thorough job of destroying the old state apparatus and the old legal system. For this reason there was a deep-seated hatred for the old legal system among our Party membership and the revolutionary masses, and it is very natural that this hatred for the old legal system should have caused a lack of respect for all legal systems in general."  [143•1  And: “The petty bourgeoisie make up the preponderant majority of all the classes existing in our society. People from the petty bourgeoisie also form the biggest part of our Party membership. ... It may be said that all forms of disregard for the legal system are, in essence, manifestations of the anarchist thinking of the petty bourgeoisie."  [143•2 

p One important and alarming conclusion that rang out at the 8th Congress of the CPC was this: “Apart from the fact that the causes of disregard and non-observance of the legal system are deeply embedded in our history and in our society, we have today a vast number of new and inexperienced cadres, and the propaganda and education work that has been done in this connection among them is by no means adequate."  [143•3 

p Some speakers at the Congress stressed the danger of subjectivism and adventurism. The Congress announced a line to strengthen and develop socialist democracy and legality in China. There is reason to assert that a number of political leaders took a highly serious view of this line, which was a novel one for China in every respect, and sought to implement it in political and legal practices. Meanwhile, as has been noted above, Mao himself, being forced to accept the line proclaimed by the 8th Congress, had no intention of putting it into practice. Already in the summer of 1957 a fresh tide of repressions was generated. Among the victims, alongside the elements truly hostile to the revolution, were a large mass of people who were sincerely responding to Mao’s “Hundred Flowers" call, which implied freedom of criticism 144 and expression within the framework of the law. They were labelled (sometimes literally) with the “Right element" tag. These “Right elements" were placed on a par with war criminals, Chiang Kai-shek’s agents and counterrevolutionaries. Being declared a “Right element" meant dismissal from work, expulsion from school, and other repressions.

p The campaign against the “Right elements" was no exception. Subsequent practice showed that Mao and his followers had decided to put down criticism of their acts by every possible means. Far from abandoning the extensive use of violence in the new conditions, they in fact applied it against all their opponents, stifling criticism, and hoping that reliance on violence, combined with generation of “enthusiasm” among the masses, would help them to solve the most complex problems.

p In August 1957, the State Council of the CPR adopted a decision on labour education, under which virtually any citizen of the CPR, without trial or the sanction of the prosecutor, simply under a decision by an administrative agency, could be transported for labour education, which for all practical purposes meant exile or the concentration camp for an indefinite period. An announcement broadly circulated at the end of 1957 revealed that a number of responsible workers^t the Ministry of Control of the CPR, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procurator’s Office had been dismissed from their office and qualified as “Right elements who had infiltrated into the Party”. They were accused of a Right-wing deviation for having stood up for the independent powers of the organs of state control, the procurator’s office and the court. This was followed by a corresponding purge in the agencies of state control, the courts and the procurator’s office.

p The proposals on the adoption of the new criminal, civil and procedural codes, which speakers at the 8th Congress of the CPC said were extremely necessary, were soon branded as “undermining the democratic dictatorship of the people".  [144•1  Some of the drafted codes are being applied in secret, without publication, and the practice of intimidating criminal punishments, like execution by shooting deferred for two 145 years, deprivation of liberty for an indefinite period, and so on, is being continued.

The wider use of violent methods in implementing policy, and neglect of legality have gone hand in hand with political and economic adventurism, Maoist plans for “Great Leaps Forward”, “communisation” and world hegemonism. Characteristically, the National People’s Congress, the highest organ of state power, was ignored when such extremely important measures for the people as the “Great Leap Forward" and the introduction of the people’s communes, were being prepared. Implementation of this line was accompanied with an intensification of criminal and other repressions. Mobile teams, consisting of security men, and functionaries of the courts and the procurator’s office, were formed to speed up the infliction of mass repressions. Here and there, the execution of death sentences was carried out in the presence of vast crowds. The labour of prisoners was being widely used in all the provinces. Fierce attacks were launched in the political and juridical press against assertions that the main functions of the state in China had now become the function of economic organisation and cultural education, and that there was no longer any need to intensify the function of suppression at home. “The fundamental reason for the existence of our law consists in the existence of the class struggle in the period of transition from capitalism to communism, and since contradictions exist between our enemies and ourselves the main role of law always consists in exercising a dictatorship over the enemies, and in resolving the contradictions between us and the enemies; it is not the main role of law to resolve the contradictions within the people."  [145•1  Consequently, the primary function of law as an instrument of repression and retribution was being emphasised in every way.