p The emergence of a revolutionary situation in one country or another is evidence that in the given country capitalism has been caught in the vice of unresolvable contradictions and can be supplanted by the socialist system. A revolutionary crisis manifests itself in a tense struggle between various class forces, in a sharp aggravation of acute contradictions, in stagnation, in anarchy in various spheres of social life, and in the destruction of the material values created by human labour. However, capitalism will not fall or die of itself. It may gradually iron out the crisis by intensifying the exploitation of the working people, adopting reactionary measures and suppressing the popular movement.

p The revolutionary forces have the historic duty of utilising the revolutionary situation to demolish the capitalist system, of turning the revolutionary situation into revolution. As Lenin emphasised, an indispensable element for this is the subjective factor, namely, “the ability of the revolutionary class to take revolutionary mass action strong enough to break (or dislocate) the old government, which never, not even in a period of crisis, ‘falls’ if it is not toppled over”.  [113•* 

p This ability of the working class is built up through long years of struggle for its interests under communist leadership. As the Communist parties see it, their task is not only to determine the correct road of revolutionary changes but to make the masses see the need for these changes, to convince and organise them.

p In The Collapse of the Second International, Lenin pointed out that a revolutionary situation obtained in most of the advanced countries and great powers in Europe, writing: “Will this situation last long; how much more acute will it become? Will it lead to revolution? This is something we do not know, and nobody can know. The answer can be provided only by the experience gained during the development of revolutionary sentiment and the transition to revolutionary action by the advanced class, the proletariat.”  [113•**  Further, he underscored: “...no Socialist has ever 114 guaranteed that this war (and not the next one), that today’s revolutionary situation (and not tomorrow’s) will produce a revolution. What we are discussing is the indisputable and fundamental duty of all Socialists—that of revealing to the masses the existence of a revolutionary situation, explaining its scope and depth, arousing the proletariat’s revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary determination, helping it to go over to revolutionary action, and forming, for that purpose, organisations suited to the revolutionary situation.”  [114•* 

p The importance of the subjective factor was constantly stressed by the Comintern as well. “The objective conditions for the victory of socialism in Europe are becoming more mature. More and more significance is acquired by the subjective factor, i.e., the question as to what extent the working class is becoming consolidated, to what extent the Communist parties are becoming strengthened, the degree in which they are becoming really Bolshevik parties, and as to how they will be able to prove equal to the historic situation,”  [114•**  states the decision of the sixth session of an enlarged plenary meeting of the Comintern Executive in 1926. Fortyfive years ago the Comintern attached immense importance to the subjective factor, and this is even more true today when the actual objective conditions for revolution are maturing not only in Europe but throughout the world.

p The maturity of the subjective factor is the cardinal condition for turning a revolutionary situation into revolution. In many countries revolutionary situations petered out precisely because the subjective factor was not ripe for revolution. One can cite, for instance, the revolutionary situations in Germany in the 1860s, in Russia in 1859-1861 and then in 1879-1880. Why was there no revolution in these cases? The answer is given by Lenin, who writes: “...because it is not every revolutionary situation that gives rise to a revolution; revolution arises only out of a situation in which the above-mentioned objective changes are accompanied by a subjective change.”  [114•***  One may make another reference to the crisis in Greece in 1965. The mass democratic movement 115 changed the alignment of forces in the country and led to a revolutionary situation. However, there was no explosion because the Communist Party, which was functioning underground, had been weakened and had no possibility of heading and influencing the movement.

p The impact of external political factors may also prevent a revolutionary situation from turning into revolution. Historians do not always give sufficient attention to the external political factor. Yet this factor has been crucial in past centuries as well. Revolutions have been strangled not only by imperialists but also by feudal lords.

p In modern times there have been several cases of a revolutionary situation failing to develop into revolution only because the crisis-hit ruling classes were saved by assistance from the imperialists of other countries. Such “mutual assistance”, naturally, does not imply the disappearance of contradictions between individual capitalist countries. Presentday political reality offers many examples of such contradictions. Nonetheless, the imperialists are prepared to help each other when the fate of the capitalist system is at stake.

p Developments in a number of West European countries after the Second World War show the role of the external political factor. After liberation from the nazis the possibility of a revolution was precluded in France and Italy by United States troops entering these countries. In Greece, the revolution, which had turned into a civil war, was crushed by the reactionaries with the help of British and United States troops. In subsequent years United States troops were used to strangle the revolutions in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.  [115•* 

p In Italy a revolutionary situation was precipitated in 1948 by the attempt on the life of Palmiro Togliatti. The entire country was controlled by the Communists. “The general strike which was staged after the events of July 14 116 would not have reached such a large scale and would not have had such consequences if the majority of the people of the whole country had not participated in it or, at least, had not supported or sympathised with it,”  [116•*  Palmiro Togliatti said at the time. However, United States war ships were anchored in Italian ports and in face of the possibility of United States troops quashing the revolution the Communists held the revolutionary situation from developing into revolution. “Had it not been for the assistance and the threat from the United States, the present Italian Government would not have remained in power another 48 hours,”  [116•**  Togliatti said in the Italian parliament quoting the words of an American journalist.

p Imperialism does not conceal its claim to the role of champion of capitalist practices throughout the world. NATO assumes the right to engage in counter-revolution in any capitalist and even socialist country. This right is usually asserted on the pretext of safeguarding democracy, which in fact signifies protecting the interests of the capitalists to the detriment of the interests of the working class and preserving imperialist rule.

p Conspicuously indicative in this respect is the war in Vietnam. In order to stifle the revolution in that country the Americans are using the illegally proclaimed South Vietnamese “state” to fight a dirty colonial war.

p In the formation of the subjective factor of revolution increasing importance is being acquired by the ideological struggle. The bourgeoisie are using ideological means in an effort to halt the maturing of the subjective factor, falsify revolutionary ideas, weaken the vanguard of the working class and brainwash the working people. Today this ideological subversion by the bourgeoisie against the working class takes the form of well-organised and heavily financed campaigns directed with the aid of state agencies. The most modern mass media, which have been undergoing a real revolution in recent years, have been placed in the service of bourgeois ideology. Particularly wide use is made of the radio and television.

p The forms of capitalist propaganda have also grown 117 more sophisticated. Preference is being given to information which presents a digest of current events in a manner advantageous to the ruling circles. This information fosters hatred of the socialist countries and communist ideals. Ever greater efforts are being made to camouflage as subtly as possible the bourgeois substance of this propaganda, particularly in philosophy, art, literature and morals. Every sphere of life is used to promote the bourgeois world outlook beginning with broadly advertised pop-music and ending with spectacular research which is far from always dictated by expediency.

p Symbolic changes are taking place also in political propaganda. As was shown, for example, by the events in Czechoslovakia, the direct anti-communist indoctrination of the people is accompanied by the preaching of “pure socialism" rid of elements of a “dictatorship” and of the Communist Party. The fact that bourgeois propaganda is using new methods in its fight against the revolutionary movement testifies to its awareness of the role played by the socialist states and the socialist community as a whole, of their significance as the external political factor of the socialist revolution in other countries.

p In view of the external political factor’s importance in the socialist revolution, revolutionary strategy should, evidently, give more attention to elements such as the relations between various countries and the situation in international blocs and organisations, and utilise the cracks in the imperialist alliances. Moreover, the slogans under which revolutionary changes are being accomplished in some countries should find a response among people in other countries. It is also exceedingly important to take into account whether the proletariat of other imperialist countries is able to stay the hand of the imperialists of their countries and throttle an armed counter-revolution. Lastly, it should be ascertained whether at the given moment the world socialist system is in a position to give the fighting proletariat all the assistance it needs. A correct assessment of the external political factor is thus crucial to the choice of the time of the revolution and to the charting of the ways of its development.

p Reinforced as a result of increasing political awareness on the part of the working people, the strengthening of their revolutionary vanguard and the growing influence of the 118 socialist countries, the subjective factor can help to form some objective prerequisites of the socialist revolution. In this connection Ib N0rlund, a leader of the Communist Party of Denmark, raises an interesting point in his book The Communist Point of View, writing that “the implementation of a broad programme of anti-monopoly reforms may, if it gets sufficiently wide support from the people, create a situation in which the ’upper classes’, i.e., the monopolies, will be unable ’to continue administering in the old way’. This means that a revolutionary situation affecting the ’ upper’ and the ‘lower’ classes may be created in a different way than before—- The new element here is that it is created chiefly on the initiative of the masses themselves and not only when a catastrophe engendered by the old system hits society.”  [118•* 

p Touching on the problems of Latin America, Rodney Arismendi, First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Uruguay, had every feason to assert that “both the objective conditions on the continent and the general peaceful course of development determined by the enhanced role of the socialist camp and the deepening of the crisis of capitalism make the maturing of the revolutionary situation more and more dependent on the ability of the vanguard to lead the masses in struggle, on the flexibility of its tactics, the energy and militancy of its actions”.  [118•** 

p The value of pronouncements of this sort is that they show an important aspect of the strategy employed by the Marxist-Leninist parties, namely, that in strict conformity with the changing conditions of socio-political life and faithfully expressing the interests of the masses, they do not adapt themselves to the given situation but, in view of the fact that the world balance of strength is now tipped in favour of socialism, take the initiative into their own hands and pursue an energetic revolutionary policy.

p The subjective factor of revolution is thus not inextricably tethered to objective conditions. It has a certain independence with regard to these conditions. Within the framework of more or less mature objective conditions the subjective factor has sufficient leeway in which to manoeuvre and for the creative utilisation of these objective conditions. 119 If the subjective factor can exercise a certain influence on the development of objective conditions, it is all the more able to make use of the changing conditions and to prepare the masses for these changes. As a result, a change of the objective conditions does not necessarily lead to the eradication of a revolutionary crisis, the diminution of the revolutionary energy of the masses or the abandonment of revolutionary transformations.

p The Communists are not at all predisposed to wait for an ideal, thoroughly mature revolutionary situation. Under the concrete conditions of socio-economic development some elements of the revolutionary process develop more rapidly than others. Favourable external political factors may arise before all the elements of a revolutionary crisis distinctly manifest themselves, before all the strata of the people fully realise that revolutionary changes are necessary and before the ruling classes finally lose the ability to administer in the old way. The task of the revolutionary vanguard is to determine correctly whether the conditions are ripe for a successful revolution.

p The immaturity of some elements of the revolutionary situation naturally makes its mark on the revolutionary process and on the tactics of the communist movement. In the course of the revolution much has to be completed and the results of the revolutionary explosion that has led to a change of power have to be deepened and consolidated.

p In their attacks on the Marxist-Leninist assessment of the objective and subjective factors of revolution, the “Left” theoreticians declare that a “push from without" is the main factor of revolution. They argue that during a war the revolutionary forces have better possibilities for an assault on capitalist rule, that war weakens the positions of capitalism. To back up this thesis they point out that almost all the socialist revolutions were linked with war.

p Arguments of this sort are untenable. The wars during which revolutions were accomplished expressed an aggravation of the contradictions between the capitalist countries (often, undoubtedly, linked with acute internal contradictions). They were by no means evidence of the maturity of the objective and subjective factors of revolutionary change. On the contrary, in time of war the democratic forces find their sphere of activity sharply curtailed, while 120 nationalistic passions which hinder class demarcation blaze up.

p The prerequisites of revolution are by no means linked with war. They derive from the objective laws governing society, from the situation created by the class struggle, by the actions of the working people of the given country and by the forces and might of world socialism. To regard war as indispensable for the triumph of the revolution, as a bridge along which “mankind will cross into a new historical epoch" (to quote Mao Tse-tung) means to whittle down the role of the working class, of the working masses and to provide grounds for the imperialist propaganda about the “export of revolution" and the “designs of international communism”. Bourgeois ideologists smear the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and represent them as aggressors, and, at the same time, try to justify their own pseudoscientific assertions that capitalism is ever-lasting, that the threat to it comes not from internal forces but from without, from the socialist countries.

p Marxists-Leninists have always made it plain that revolution is a matter of the masses, that the proletariat and other working people of each country prepare and accomplish the revolution solely on the basis of the revolutionary experience of struggle. That is why Marxists-Leninists oppose, as they have always done, the so-called theory of pushing revolution, especially with the help of war. In his time Marx said that “with the best intentions in the world the English cannot accomplish this (revolution—Ed.} for them" (the Irish—Ed.).  [120•*  In his criticism of the “Left Communists" who wanted to speed up the course of history by a “revolutionary war”, Lenin wrote: “... the authors believe that the interests of the world revolution require that it should be given a push, and that such a push can be given only by war, never by peace, which might give the people the impression that imperialism was being ‘legitimised’? Such a ‘theory’ would be completely at variance with Marxism, for Marxism has always been opposed to ‘pushing’ revolutions, which develop with the growing acuteness of the class antagonisms that engender revolutions.”  [120•** 

p Lenin disproved and demolished the “revolutionary war" theory evolved by the Trotskyites to push the revolutionary process. He called it “the vile itch of phrase-making”, writing that any peasant would say to its author: “... you, sir, ought not to be managing the state but should join the company of wordy buffoons or should simply put yourself in a steam bath and get rid of the itch”.  [121•* 

p Communists are not afraid of revolution or a people’s war. During revolutionary storms they courageously march at the head of the working people and accept the challenge to fight. They take up arms if reaction declares war on the revolution. They are prepared to lay down their lives for the ideals of the revolution. Millions of Communists have given their lives in the revolutionary battles. However, an armed struggle by revolutionaries is justified only if it helps them to achieve their aims, if it conforms with the objective conditions of revolutionary development and with the class education of the proletariat and broad sections of other working people.

p The increasing internationalisation of the class struggle likewise gives the problem of the revolutionary situation a new context. This has been noted earlier, and in this connection we should like to accentuate the fact that in the present epoch the class struggle is taking place not only in individual capitalist countries but also between the two opposing social systems, between socialism and capitalism.

p Thus, when we speak of subjective factors we have in mind chiefly two cardinal principles: the vigorous and welltimed revolutionary policy of the Marxist-Leninist parties and the open-eyed scientific analysis of the obtaining alignment of political forces, the ability to see the fundamental trends of their development and on that basis frame revolutionary policy.

The teaching of the subjective factors of revolution mirrors the profoundly dialectical, creative nature of the revolutionary process. It shows that proletarian parties and leaders can exercise a decisive influence on the revolution. But being linked with the teaching of objective factors, it clearly defines the boundaries of historic determinism, the will of individuals and the initiative of political parties, and 122 determines their inter-relation and inter-dependence. However, this teaching does not offer mandatory recipes. In this, as in no other question, it is exceedingly important to take the experience of the entire revolutionary movement into account, and to have the ability to analyse the concrete situation quickly and accurately.