p The course of the class struggle today bears out the validity and viability of the Marxist-Leninist teaching, which has proved that the old social system is doomed and has shown the prospects for the world revolutionary process. Imperialism cannot reverse history. It cannot retrieve the positions and historical initiative that it has lost. The 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties had all grounds for its conclusion that the highroad of mankind’s development is determined by the world socialist system, the international working class and all other revolutionary forces. A new situation has arisen in the world in recent years as a result of the efforts of the socialist countries and other revolutionary forces. The growing international prestige enjoyed by the socialist countries and their successful peace policy in the struggle against the most aggressive and reactionary forces of imperialism have helped to effect a turn in international relations—from tension and the cold war to detente and peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems. The prospect of averting a world war has become real.

p The successes of the struggle for detente are not only political, but also socio-political factors that have become major elements fostering the development of the global class struggle. The active struggle of the socialist community and all other peace forces against the threat of war, for the consolidation of world security fuses with the active revolutionary struggle of the working class of the capitalist countries and of the peoples who have shaken off imperialist 329 colonial oppression. Frequently merging into a single torrent, and stimulating and supporting each other, these two processes have brought about essential changes on the international scene.

p The development of the trend toward detente in international relations by no means implies that imperialism has reconciled itself to the offensive of the revolutionary forces. Although it is doomed by history, imperialism remains a dangerous adversary who has a powerful military and economic potential and a ramified and highly developed mechanism of state power.

p The present crisis of imperialism’s anti-communist strategy as a result of the fiasco of the positions of strength policy does not mean that the danger from it has lessened. Despite the detente the opposite process—the arms race, which constitutes the material preparation for a world war —continues and is even gaining momentum. In the capitalist countries there still are forces that continue to act in the cold war spirit, oppose the relaxation of international tension and aspire to return the world to the past. These are the forces of extreme reaction, racism, overt and covert colonialism and various forms of present-day fascism. They include the military-industrial complex, which is a sinister alliance of the professional militarists with the monopolies, that are amassing wealth on the manufacture of armaments. Acting in a sort of united front, the opponents of detente are doing all they can to poison our planet’s political atmosphere. Myths about the “Soviet threat” and all sorts of anti- communist falsehoods are being unremittingly fabricated by imperialist reaction’s propaganda machine in order to justify militarism and the steady improvement of armaments.

p At the same time, anti-communism aspires to adapt itself to present-day conditions, and its policies and propaganda are becoming more flexible, subtle and insidious. Although the increased strength and influence of the world socialist community and the spread of the ideas of socialism and peaceful coexistence are compelling the ruling capitalist circles 330 to pursue a more realistic foreign policy, the anti-communist orientation of their class strategy is by no means evaporating. More, their leaders are redoubling the search for new ways and means of conducting the class struggle, especially those designed to disunite and subvert the forces opposed to the old world. A growing role in this political strategy of imperialism is assumed by Maoist policies and propaganda, which are directed against world socialism, the national liberation movement and the revolutionary vanguard of the working-class movement in the industrialised capitalist states.

p Imperialism’s “brain trusts” are evolving new forms and methods of anti-communist strategy and tactics, making the utmost use of state-monopoly capitalism’s military might, mass media and its possibilities for manoeuvring in politics and social relations. The practical results of these “ theoretical” quests are extremely diverse: local wars on the pattern of the Israeli aggression in the Middle East, the military-fascist coup in Chile and military coups in other Latin American states, the regrouping and regeneration of the fascist movement in Western Europe, especially in Italy, the carefully camouflaged activity relying on local reactionaries in African and Asian countries, and the worldwide slander campaigns against the Soviet Union and the socialist community as a whole.

p The intensity of anti-Soviet propaganda has been stepped up in recent years in view of the increasing accent on ideological warfare due to imperialism’s diminishing possibilities of bringing military pressure to bear on socialism.

p Imperialism’s leaders are well aware that the alliance of the socialist states is a decisive factor behind the new successes of world socialism, the new triumphs of the revolutionary movement and the preservation of lasting peace. That explains the efforts of imperialism to use the expanding political, economic and cultural relations between countries for intensified ideological infiltration into the socialist community. The entire arsenal of ideological warfare is used to exercise pressure in political, trade and commercial talks 331 as a means of weakening the positions and cohesion of the socialist countries, expecting them to make concessions in ideology and creating the conditions for broader subversion against the socialist system. They dream of resurrecting, by methods of ideological diversions, survivals of petty- bourgeois thinking in the minds of the peoples of the socialist countries—nationalism, Great-Power chauvinism, egoism and indifference to politics—and of bringing these peoples into the orbit of the “Western way of life” and fostering proprietary-consumer instincts that would supersede communist aims and moral principles.

p International reaction is trying to weaken the role played by the peace-loving states and peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the struggle against imperialist aggressive policy, for national independence and social progress. Imperialism seeks to use detente notably to drive a wedge between these nations and the socialist community, above all, the Soviet Union.

p In the anti-communist campaign to misrepresent Soviet foreign policy, a large part is accorded to the “conspiracy of the super-powers” thesis of Peking propaganda. The untenability of this thesis has been demonstrated by the history of the development of the Soviet Union’s relations with the capitalist countries, including the major capitalist powers, in the course of which the USSR had always acted on the principle that these relations cannot and should not prejudice the security and legitimate interests of other countries. Besides, detente and promotion of inter-state co-operation are not the prerogative of any limited region of the world. Peace is indivisible, and the socialist countries are making every effort to spread detente throughout the world. Although their military, economic, scientific and technical potentials are objectively influencing the international situation as a whole, particularly in questions of war and peace, the relations between the Soviet Union and the United States of America do not exclude but, on the contrary, imply an active contribution by every country to the 332 development of detente. In international relations, the part played by every country is determined chiefly by the content of its policy. A truly lasting peace can only be a democratic peace based not on strength, but on respect for the rights, sovereignty and legitimate interests of all countries without exception, big or small, for the right of all nations to freedom and social progress. In consistently championing peaceful coexistence, the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries proceed from the premise that it must cover all countries. The Maoists’ distortion of this fact exposes their striving to discredit the Soviet Union and its foreign policy, to pose as the champions of small and medium states and thereby reinforce Peking’s chauvinist claim to the leadership of the Third World.

p Naturally, Peking’s ideological subversion with its aim of disuniting the anti-imperialist forces is welcomed and backed by international reaction. The reactionary propaganda mouthpieces in some Western states, including the USA, have joined the chorus propagating Peking’s thesis that the super-powers are imposing their will on all other countries. In a situation where the shattered myth about the “Soviet threat” no longer impresses the public mind, anti-communist propaganda strives to discredit Soviet foreign policy by denying its principled class character and identifying it with the policy of the biggest imperialist power. At the same time, they endeavour to camouflage the actual aims of US imperialism. Anti-communists of all shades—from ultra-Right imperialist ideologists to “ultra-Left” revisionists—join hands in their efforts to sow distrust of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries.

p While spearheading their ideological subversion against Soviet foreign policy, the anti-communist strategists and their accomplices are trying to discredit the very idea of detente not only as a foreign-political, but also as a sociopolitical development and, at the same time, undermine the broad peace front, whose unity is a key prerequisite to the 333 irreversibility of detente. This ideological subversion is directed against the revolutionary forces in the non-socialist states with the aim of undermining faith in proletarian internationalism, in the solidarity of the CPSU and the entire Soviet people with their class brothers waging a struggle in foreign countries, in their solidarity with the liberation, anti-imperialist movements. Combined with anti-communist hysteria, the ideological subversion against the Soviet Union pursues the purpose of preventing the further enlargement of the socio-political base for detente. In this area subversion seeks to kindle among circles with different ideological and political orientation, who had recently joined this movement, a feeling of alienation and suspicion relative to the Communists, who, true to the spirit of proletarian internationalism, are combating anti-Sovietism in all its manifestations. Moreover, this ideological subversion aims to sow among the ruling circles of capitalist countries pursuing a realistic policy, doubt in socialist foreign policy’s firmness and consistence, which are major factors of the process of detente.

p Imperialist reaction is striving to rally all its forces in order to sustain its attempts to prevent the consolidation of the positive changes on the international scene. In a situation tipped in favour of detente this striving increasingly finds stumbling blocks in the shape of the economic and political contradictions and conflicts between the capitalist states. However, the purposeful international strategy of anticommunism is powerfully stimulating the trend toward the worldwide unity of international reaction. In noting the possibility of the alliance of the imperialists of all countries breaking down as a result of the aggravation of inter- imperialist struggle, Lenin stressed that the trend toward this alliance “must ultimately make itself felt with inevitable force”.^^1^^ This trend is accompanied by the deepening of old and the appearance of new inter-imperialist contradictions, by the aggravation of the class struggle and by the further internationalisation of the world revolutionary process. All 334 this bears out the perspicacity of Lenin’s forecast that the contradictions and conflicts in the worldwide “ultra- imperialist” amalgamation of national finance capitals will bring about the downfall of imperialism before this amalgamation can take final shape.^^2^^

p Detente creates favourable conditions for the peaceful labour of the peoples of the socialist countries, for the building of a new society in these countries, for the growing cohesion of the socialist community. The successes in the building of socialism and communism and the unswerving energetic struggle of the socialist countries for international security and cooperation, for the triumph of peace, freedom and social progress are exercising a beneficial influence on the political atmosphere of the entire planet.

p The peoples, their organisations and political parties are steadily widening their participation in the struggle for peace and security, for the democratisation of international relations. This struggle is being joined by new strata of the population of different countries, who are surmounting their inertia and the anti-communist prejudices of the cold war days spread by imperialist propaganda. As a result of the active struggle of the socialist community for the further deepening of detente and for the irreversibility of that process, the broad mass of the people are increasingly linking the ideas of peace, freedom and democracy with the ideas of socialism. Imperialist propaganda is trying to belittle the attractiveness of socialism in the eyes of public opinion either by openly attacking the existing socialist system or by counterposing to it an idealised picture of a “perfect” bourgeois society, as is being done, in particular, by the organisers of the laudation of the US bicentennial.

p The dissemination of socialism’s ideas is a powerful ideological means facilitating the deepening and widening of detente and the consolidation of the principles of peaceful coexistence in international life. However, this possibility can be translated into reality only given an unremitting and uncompromising struggle against all forms of anti- 335 communism, against the “Left” and Right opportunist trends hostile to scientific communism, against ideological subversion by imperialist and Maoist propaganda.

p The further consolidation of the unity of the world communist movement on the basis of the principles of MarxismLeninism and proletarian internationalism and co-ordinated action within that movement are a key prerequisite to the success of that struggle. The importance of co-ordinating ideological work and of collectively analysing current theoretical and political problems was underscored at the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, at friendly meetings between the leaders of the fraternal parties of the socialist countries and at other multilateral meetings of representatives of Communist and Workers’ parties. In this context, the joint study of present-day anticommunism by scholars of the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic is a large contribution toward exposing the theoretical concepts and practical activities of imperialist reaction.

Mankind’s steady advance along the road of peace and social progress can only be assured by halting the ideological subversion and other manoeuvres of imperialist reaction directed against the implementation of the principles of peaceful coexistence in international relations. An uncompromising attitude by the proponents of Marxism-Leninism in the ideological struggle does not, as is claimed by anti- communist propaganda, signify a return to the cold war spirit or political intolerance of all people holding different views. This attitude is directed toward exposing slander, giving the truth about socialism as a really existing system and as a teaching, and showing the actual aims and policy of the Communist parties. The proponents of Marxism- Leninism are profoundly convinced that this teaching is invincible because it is true, because the policy founded on it best of all meets the requirements of the epoch—the unity of all the peace forces in the name of assuring the peaceful development of all countries, of all nations.