p Today the war of ideas has become an inalienable part of international relations, particularly of relations between states belonging to different social systems. Naturally, this makes it one of the objects of the debate raging round the basic principles underlying these relations.

p This debate has been going on for a long time, in fact ever since the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia breached the front of imperialism and the question of relations between countries representing antipodal societies became a fundamental issue of international politics. This was a major issue both for the young Soviet Republic and for the capitalist powers encircling it.

p In this great historic contention between the two social systems, the two sides made their choice immediately after the October Revolution of 1917. Capitalism opted for war in an effort to strangle the revolution, to use Winston Churchill’s words, in its cradle. Socialism, on the other hand, chose the principle of peace between states as the cornerstone of its policy. This was proclaimed in the Decree on Peace, the Soviet Government’s first foreign political act; it was promulgated on Lenin’s initiative. Since then the idea of peaceful coexistence, advanced and substantiated by Lenin, has become a key principle of socialism’s foreign policy towards capitalist countries.

But the debate over the basic issue of present-day international relations—the question whether the contradictions between socialism and capitalism will be resolved by war or peacefully—only began in 1917. Subsequent history had to provide the answer.

p For the socialist states and for the Communist parties this debate had two aspects—internal and external.

As regards the internal aspect the cardinal task was to uphold the Leninist political line in the struggle against both “Left”- and Right-opportunist distortions. This task was carried out in a sharp ideological struggle.