p M. Kapitsa

p The present-day national liberation movement is one of the three torrents of the world-wide revolutionary process alongside the world socialist system, whose peoples are engaged in the revolutionary work of building socialism and communism, and the working-class movement of the capitalist countries. The formation of the world socialist system, mainstay of the anti-imperialist struggle throughout the world, facilitated the downfall of the colonial system. Tens of countries have now achieved political independence and 1,500 million people have shed the chains of slavery. Currently, the principal objective of the national liberation movement is to secure economic independence and social progress. The economic and social changes taking place in the developing countries and the active struggle of the peoples of former colonies for peace and international co-operation are an important part of the world revolutionary process, whose vanguard consists of the socialist community and the organised working class.

p In many of the developing countries Communists play an active part in the struggle for socialism. As Lenin saw it, the task of the Communist elements in oppressed countries "is to arouse the working masses to revolutionary activity, to independent action and to organisation, regardless of the level they have reached; to translate the true communist doctrine, which was intended for the Communists of the more advanced countries, into the language of every people; to carry out those practical tasks which must be carried out immediately, and to join the proletarians of other countries in a common struggle”.  [231•*  He attached immense importance to close links between the national liberation movement and the world-wide struggle of the proletariat, which is "the only ally of the hundreds of millions of the working and exploited peoples of the East”.  [231•** 

p In recent years, however, the problem of relations between the three torrents of the world revolutionary movement has become the object of undisguised demagogy. Left-opportunist and chauvinist elements in China (the Mao group) are proclaiming that the epicentre of the world socialist revolution is now in the zone of the national liberation struggle and that the destiny of world socialism and the cause of revolution in the developed capitalist countries, therefore, depend on the outcome of that struggle. This is a patent distortion ol the Marxist-Leninist conception of world revolution. It ignores the historical role of the working class and is an attempt to destroy the cohesion of the world revolutionary process.

p Life has demonstrated that equally harmful to the interests of the national liberation movement are the attempts to dismember the liberation movement into separate contingents and groups and close them up within their national boundaries under the pretext that national specifics must be respected, and the attempts to distort the Marxist-Leninist teaching, belittle the role of the revolutionary experience accumulated by the international working-class movement, absolutise and substantiate the “universal” character of the experience of one country and impose on the national liberation forces stereotype tactics evolved without consideration for specific conditions.

p China’s liberation was a heavy blow to the colonial system of imperialism and accelerated its downfall. The victory of the revolution in China was greeted by the peoples of Asia and Africa. Diplomatic relations with People’s China were established by Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Ceylon and other countries. Friendly relations between China and the Afro-Asian countries were given a powerful boost when China and India proclaimed the famous five principles of peaceful coexistence and China took an active part in the Bandung Conference in 1955.

However, as the Chinese leaders slid further into GreatHan chauvinism and hegemonism and departed from Marxism-Leninism, their aspiration to influence and control the national liberation movement grew increasingly more pronounced.