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p . Lenin’s teaching of the forms of transition to socialism is a powerful weapon of the contemporary communist movement. Guided by this teaching many Communist parties have been conspicuously successful in the struggle against capitalism, for the socialist remaking of society. Communists aspire to apply Lenin’s theory creatively to the specific conditions of their countries, and they enlarge on it on the basis of their own experience, which takes cognisance of the new factors of social development. It was Lenin’s rule that revolutionary theory “cannot be thought up. It grows out of the sum total of the revolutionary experience and the revolutionary thinking of all countries in the world.... One cannot be a socialist, a revolutionary Social-Democrat, without participating, in the measure of one’s powers, in developing and applying that theory.”  [36•* 

p Lenin’s theory of revolution, above all, the teaching of the forms of transition, was the guideline of the Communist International. “For a quarter of a century the Communist International, guided by Lenin’s ideas, provided clear answers to the basic questions posed before the working class and all humanity—the question of war and peace, of the fight for democracy, against fascism; the question of the development of the national liberation movement, of the role of socialism and the ways leading the masses to the socialist revolution,” it is stated in the Theses of the CC CPSU under the heading On the Centenary of the Birth of V. I. Lenin. “Many of the ideas put forward by the Comintern found a lasting place in the arsenal of Marxism-Leninism.”  [36•**  The Comintern helped to establish many parties, armed them with revolutionary theory, placed the experience of the class struggle at their disposal and taught them to understand the lessons of the October Revolution creatively.

p On the basis of Lenin’s theory of revolution the Comintern framed the strategy of the world communist movement 37 and defined the place of the various contingents of the socialist revolution. This was a major prerequisite of the subsequent triumph of the revolution in the People’s Democracies, the growth of the revolutionary movement in the industrialised capitalist countries and the development of the national liberation movement.

p The enemies of the communist movement continue, as they have always done, to decry the Comintern’s contribution to the revolutionary movement and defame its work. The Comintern was again attacked in connection with its 50th anniversary. The fundamental principles of the communist movement and the teaching of the socialist revolution and of the forms of transition from capitalism to socialism were distorted under the guise of criticising the Comintern’s errors.

p Nobody denies that the work of the Comintern was free of shortcomings, but nothing can compare with its.immense positive contribution to the theory and practice of the communist and revolutionary movement, to the development of the strategy and tactics of the struggle for socialism.

p The Communist International consistently upheld the teaching of Marx and Engels of the ways of transition from capitalism to socialism against the attacks of the opportunists, and developed this teaching in line with the conditions that took shape in the world in the 1920-40s.  [37•*  It took into consideration new factors affecting the revolutionary struggle such as the far-reaching economic upheavals in the capitalist countries, the more uneven nature of capitalist development, the extension of state-monopoly tendencies and the rise of fascism. In working out the details of the question of transition from capitalism to socialism close attention was 38 paid to new features such as the successful building of socialism in the Soviet Union, the creation of a common working-class front against fascism in a number of countries, and so on.  [38•* 

p The Comintern summarised the experience of individual parties in the struggle for democracy and socialism and the experience of the “proletariat’s class battles throughout the world. It amplified Lenin’s teaching of the struggle for socialism. At its 5th Enlarged Plenary Meeting, held in 1925 after Lenin’s death, the Comintern Executive probingly analysed Lenin’s contribution to the theory of socialist revolution and the teaching of the forms of transition from capitalism to socialism. Questions of importance to the teaching of the forms of transition were studied at subsequent sittings of the Comintern Executive and at Comintern congresses. These questions included the international character of the socialist revolution, the role of the Soviet Union in the development of the world revolution, the fundamental features of the Bolshevik Party, the united front tactics in the struggle against fascism and in the defence of democracy, the relationship between the struggle for democracy and for socialism, the character and specifics of the national liberation movement, the essence of the anti-colonial revolution and the significance of the struggle for peace to the development of the revolutionary movement.

p A major contribution to defining the ways of the world revolutionary process was made by the 7th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Communist International. It denounced 39 the Trotskyite argument that it was not possible to build socialism in one country and that the socialist construction in the USSR was evidence of “national narrowness" and a “betrayal of the world revolution”. The plenary meeting’s resolution stated that objectively the Soviet Union was the principal organising centre of the international revolution. It placed on record that “in its past and in its present work the CPSU has proved its internationalism not in words, but in deeds, and has set brilliant examples of internationalism. The Enlarged Plenary Meeting considers the charges of narrow nationalism brought against the CPSU as slander.”  [39•* 

p The USSR’s significance to the world revolution was stressed in other Comintern documents. In the resolution of the 12th Plenary Meeting of the Comintern Executive, for instance, it is stated: “Victorious socialist construction in the Soviet Union is more and more becoming a mighty force, assisting the revolutionary upsurge, and accelerating the maturing of a revolutionary crisis in capitalist and colonial countries. "  [39•** 

p Incidentally, let us make the point that at no time had the Comintern recommended that the experience of the Soviet Union should be copied blindly. The 6th Comintern Congress, for example, made it plain that in determining the forms of building socialism it was imperative to take into account the specifics of the development of individual capitalist countries. In the Comintern Programme drawn up at this congress it was stated that the different socio- economic conditions of the development of individual countries “make it historically inevitable that the proletariat will come to power in different ways and at a different rate; that a number of countries must pass through certain transition stages leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat and that socialist construction will take different forms in the different countries”.  [39•*** 

p Farther down in this book we shall show the Comintern’s 40 contribution towards the elaboration of concrete problems of the theory of transition from capitalism to socialism.

p New factors appeared in the development of the world revolution after World War II. The socialist camp had been formed and strengthened and socialism had begun to act on the international scene as a system of friendly states. The strengthening of socialism meant that the world balance of forces had changed radically: the capitalist world had entered a new phase of its general crisis, and, on the whole, the positions of the capitalist countries had grown relatively weaker. The colonial system had disintegrated. Moreover, socialism’s victory in the war against fascism had greatly enhanced the prestige of the new social system and acted as a powerful stimulus for the entire world revolutionary proletariat, leading to the activation and rapid growth of democratic and revolutionary forces.

p Guided by Marxism-Leninism and utilising the favourable conditions, the communist movement fought for society’s progressive development, entered into broad alliances with other advanced forces and actively participated in the work of democratic state institutions. In 18 countries, including France, Italy, Finland, Denmark and Norway, the Communists accepted portfolios in the post-war governments.

p The new, post-war situation confronted the revolutionary movement with the problem of its further strategy, of the advance of the socialist revolution.

p In the very first post-war years the Communist parties devoted much of their attention to charting the ways and means of their further struggle for socialism. The Communist parties of a number of European countries came to the conclusion that in the new situation stemming from the increased might of socialism and the upsurge of the democratic and socialist movement it was possible to adopt an orientation towards the peaceful development of the revolution, i.e., the gradual conquest of power in the course of a prolonged struggle jointly with other democratic forces. This was precisely the programme that was mapped out by the Communists of France, Britain, Norway and other countries. In line with the new strategy and tactics, the Communists helped to promote a broad democratic movement aimed at the foundations of capitalist society.

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p Feeling the real menace to its rule, imperialism launched a broad counter-offensive against the revolutionary movement, giving rise to the cold war, a period of savage anticommunism and economic and political pressure on the Soviet Union and the People’s Democracies. In some countries, notably in Greece, Indonesia and Vietnam, imperialism had recourse to war in order to crush the revolutionary movement. In 1949 the USA and its allies set up the aggressive North Atlantic bloc, with the result that reaction managed somewhat to stave off the revolutionary and democratic forces.

p But imperialism could not achieve more. By the mid1950s there were obvious signs of the failure of the imperialist policy of suppressing the revolutionary movement, of its policy of “liberating” the People’s Democracies from communism and restoring capitalism in these countries. The forces of socialism imposed their own conditions of struggle on imperialism. The Communist parties learned much during this period of struggle, which revealed the main directions of imperialist strategy and the capabilities and potentialities of the Communists’ allies in the struggle for socialism.

p At their congresses in the mid-1950s some Communist parties introduced new propositions into their programmes, in which account was taken of the vast experience of the struggle against imperialism. These congresses were milestones in the elaboration of the strategy and tactics of the world communist movement. They made a further contribution to the theory of socialist revolution, indicated more effective ways of fighting for peace, democracy and socialism, and stimulated creative thought in the Communist parties. The fraternal parties noted that the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, which stressed the need for the creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory, had given enormous impetus to their work.

p The international meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties in 1957, 1960 and 1969 were of tremendous theoretical and practical importance in furthering the elaboration of the problems of the revolutionary movement. The following, for instance, is how the 1969 Meeting was assessed by the CC CPSU at its plenary meeting in June 1969: “The 42 documents of the Meeting and the speeches of the participants summed up the extensive experience of the communist movement, profoundly analysed present-day world development and made an important contribution to MarxistLeninist theory.”  [42•* 

p All the three international meetings supplemented and enlarged on the basic propositions of the Marxist-Leninist theory of revolution. Their documents show a clear-cut succession and consistency in working out the problems of the revolutionary struggle. One cannot, therefore, agree to the contrapositioning of one meeting to another, with the view that the propositions advanced at the different meetings do not dovetail.

p The meetings specified and enlarged on many of the problems of the transition from capitalism to socialism.

p The historic conclusions drawn at the international meetings mirror not only the practical experience of the struggle of the working class but also the results of extensive theoretical work in the Communist parties. In the theoretical debates argumented criticism was levelled at the attempts to inject opportunism into the Marxist-Leninist theory of socialist revolution. It was demonstrated that the periodic outbursts of opportunism in some parts of the communist movement have their source in new phenomena in the development of modern capitalism, in the changes of the tactics employed by imperialism. Parallel with its brutal use of the repressive apparatus against the revolutionary forces, imperialism is more and more frequently having recourse to more subtle forms of exploitation and oppression, to concessions and to retreat in certain sectors with the aim of preserving and strengthening its influence. Among a section of the working-class movement, the refined stick and carrot tactics are, on the one hand, sowing uncertainty and fear of repressions and, on the other, the hope for better conditions of life under capitalism. A new stimulus has been given to the Social-Democratic illusions that socialism can be achieved through evolution, with the minimum effort, without sharp collisions with capitalism. This only reaffirms the urgency of Lenin’s injunction, made at the Second Comintern Congress, that the cardinal task of the Communist parties was 43 the struggle against Right opportunism, that “compared with this task, the rectification of the errors of the ‘Left’ trend in communism will be an easy one”.  [43•* 

p The conclusions of the communist movement issued from the sharp theoretical struggle against the exponents of opportunism in some Communist parties and also against Social-Democratic and bourgeois vilifiers of Marxism. Here, too, we find two extremes—Right and “Left”—in the interpretation of theoretical problems.

p The Right opportunists give their own interpretation of the changes taking place in the world.  [43•**  Employing the battered methods of the former revisionists, they contend that the main distinctions between capitalism and socialism have disappeared, that class criteria have grown obsolete, and so on. They offer the thesis that the working class has lost its revolutionary significance in social life. They identify the possibility of a peaceful road to socialism with parliamentarism and seek to justify the unscientific contrapositioning of the “democratic” road to the road of revolution. They deny that imperialism has grown more aggressive and belittle its anti-democratic and anti-popular tendencies. They set the national tasks of the revolutionary movement off against its internationalist tasks. They mechanically identify developing socialist democracy with bourgeois democracy.

p The offensive of Right opportunism was of the most violent nature in Czechoslovakia, where it threatened the socialist system. The Czechoslovak events were a further reminder of the importance of consistently fighting Right opportunism, which under the guise of “improving” socialism seeks to divest Marxism-Leninism of its revolutionary 44 substance and clear the way for the penetration of bourgeois ideology. Right opportunism exercises quite a lot of influence in the Communist parties of some capitalist countries.

p Communists, it goes without saying, do not deny that since Lenin’s death there have been momentous economic, social and political changes in the modern world. During the past few decades the deepening general crisis of capitalism, the class struggle and the scientific and technological revolution have given rise to new elements in capitalism’s economic and social structure and in its political methods. New factors also appeared in the struggle of capitalism and socialism on a global scale. However, these changes have not modified the substance of capitalism, they have not eradicated the contradictions and laws of development intrinsic to it, and neither have they put an end to its exploiting nature nor made it more “humane” and “progressive”. The contradictions of capitalism have only grown in number and partially assumed a different form. Imperialism remains the enemy of progress, democracy and socialism, and its objective is still to strangle the struggle of the peoples for social and national liberation.

p Today, as during the first decades of imperialism’s existence, there is only one force that can destroy capitalist rule. It is the revolution of the proletariat led by its vanguard— the Marxist-Leninist Party. This cannot be refuted by any attempts of the revisionists to revise the laws of socialist revolution in the epoch of imperialism revealed by Lenin.

p Left-opportunist views are preached by extremist forces, by the Trotskyites. In their efforts to provide theoretical arguments for their policy they belittle the significance of new phenomena in society’s development, run down the role of the socialist camp and the achievements of socialist construction, and maintain that in the capitalist countries the working class is degenerating and acquiring bourgeois features. The Left revisionists repudiate the specifics of the development of the revolutionary struggle in individual countries and fail to appreciate the importance of the peace movement. They accuse others of departing from MarxismLeninism and pose as the only continuers of the cause of Marx and Lenin.

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p The fraternal parties reject all distortions of MarxistLeninist theory.

p At recent congresses and Central Committee plenary meetings a number of Communist parties have reiterated the need for a determined struggle against opportunist tendencies, against the revisionist attempts to distort the party strategy and tactics and the Leninist teaching of the forms of struggle for socialism.  [45•*  In the documents adopted by them the party organs have reaffirmed their fidelity to the principles of the internationalist solidarity of all contingents of the communist movement.

p Theoreticians of the fraternal parties creatively develop individual propositions in the concept of revolution, applying them to the conditions obtaining in their countries. In recent years many interesting studies have been published, which theoretically interpret a wide range of problems of the socialist revolution and the transition from capitalism to socialism.  [45•**  These problems are studied at the scientific institutions of the Communist parties. Much of the research is conducted collectively, with the participation of representatives of different parties.

p The 1969 Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties set all Communists the task of creatively enlarging on the problems of the world revolutionary movement and looking for new forms of transition from capitalism to socialism.

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Since that Meeting the fraternal Communist parties have been actively continuing their work of analysing the problems confronting the revolutionary movement and developing the Marxist-Leninist ideas of the ways of transition from capitalism to socialism. The most pressing problems of the struggle for peace, democracy and socialism are thoroughly examined at congresses, Central Committee plenary meetings and theoretical conferences. The 24th Congress of the CPSU added substantially to the further creative elaboration of the theory, strategy and tactics of the world revolutionary movement.