p A. Rumyantsev,
A. Sterbalova

p The political chaos into which Mao Tse-tung and his group have plunged China is bombastically called the "great proletarian cultural revolution”. At the llth plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CPC it was declared that the "broad masses of workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary intellectuals" comprise the main force of this “revolution”"  [111•* . It has been proclaimed that its aim is to further the "class struggle" of the proletariat against survivals of capitalism in the state and social system of China, and its official task is to destroy "bourgeois degenerates”, who are trying to steer the country’s development into capitalist channels.

p History knows of many cases when reactionary aims were camouflaged with revolutionary verbiage and a regressive movement was accomplished under the guise of social progress. But it would be hard to name a historical precedent where propaganda has diverged so far from the essence of developments. The “revolutionary” slogans shouted in China today mask counter-revolutionary actions. The "proletarian revolution" is, in fact, a military reactionary coup put into effect by the top leadership. The "struggle against bourgeois degenerates" has turned out to mean the destruction of proletarian political and economic organisations, the shattering of the proletarian Party and the uprooting of the most progressive segment of the intelligentsia.

As the turbulent and tragic events developed, it became obvious that the "cultural revolution" was mostly hitting the working class, the mainstay of socialism in China.