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p LEONTE RAUTU

p MEMBER OF THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVE OF THE
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE ROMANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
RECTOR OF THE STEFAN GHEORGHIU ACADEMY

p Permit me first of all to express my sincere gratitude for your kind invitation to take part in this important scientific conference and to convey to you, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, our warmest congratulations and to wish the Soviet people new brilliant successes.

p In these six decades, the Soviet Union, founded as a result of the great revolution, has carried out great revolutionary transformations. The Soviet people have successfully built a socialist society, a great socialist state with an enormous economic potential, outstanding achievements in science and technology, broad access to, and the flourishing of, public education and a new, socialist culture, and with constantly growing material and cultural standards of the people. The structural changes in the social and economic life of the Soviet peoples, which determine the characteristic features of Soviet society at its present stage, are vividly reflected in the new Constitution adopted in this jubilee year.

p Because of its tremendous achievements in all spheres of social and economic life and because of its peace policy, the Soviet Union has been able to play an extremely important role in modern international affairs and in the 149 struggle for socialism and social progress, for security in Europe and in the world, and for co-operation and friendship between nations.

p The October Revolution, inspired by the profound, creative thought of Lenin and carried out by the broadest masses who had been roused to the active making of history, was one of the turning points in world history. As is noted in the Programme of the RCP, adopted at its llth Congress, the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution "marked a new epoch in the development of human society, the epoch of the transition from capitalism to socialism”. The formation of the first workers’ and peasants’ state under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin, "gave powerful impetus to revolutionary battles throughout the world, aggravated class contradictions and the contradictions between the imperialist states and their colonies, and added vigour to the struggle for national and social liberation in the world”.

p The epoch ushered in by the October Revolution has become an epoch of triumphs of socialist revolutions and of the transition to the building of a new society in a number of countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. This is a logical result of historical development, of the implementation of socialism’s ideals in vast areas of the globe, and an expression of the indispensable, objective condition for mankind’s advancement towards a new type of civilisation and social progress.

p In each of these countries the revolution and socialist construction have borne and continue to bear the imprint of specific conditions inherent in it. Historical experience has shown that the victory of socialism depends in a decisive measure on the creative application of the general principles of scientific socialism to the concrete social, economic, and political conditions of each country, to their historical and national peculiarities.

p Practice shows that socialism is the only way for bringing about a fundamental solution of complex social, 150 economic, and national problems within a historically short period.

p Confronted with the necessity of overcoming the consequences of age-old backwardness which was typical of almost all the countries that have today embarked on the socialist path, and acting in the course of many decades in an extremely complicated international situation created in the first place by the policies of world imperialism, the peoples of those countries, beginning with the Soviet Union, the first country of victorious socialism, have had to search for new solutions and new methods of action and social organisation and to accumulate new historic experience. All this shows the real scale of the profound changes brought about by the new system and the scope of the remarkable achievements in all spheres of social and economic life, which account for the socialist countries’ increasing influence on the entire course of present-day historical development.

p Dear comrades, for more than three decades our people have been building a new life under the tried and tested leadership of the Romanian Communist Party. Revolutionary transformations in all decisive spheres of social life have been carried out: in the development of the productive forces and their balanced distribution throughout the country, the establishment and strengthening of new production relations and socialist social relations, and the development of a virtual revolution in education, science, and culture. There have been radical improvements in society’s social structure and quantitative and qualitative changes in the way of life of the working people.

p Because of the onerous legacy left by the bourgeoislandowner regime, the people had to exert every effort to achieve high rates of economic development and create the conditions for closing the gap that separated us from the economically developed states. As a result of carrying out steadfastly the policy of socialist industrialisation, which is the basis of economic development and the country’s 151 overall progress, and of the continuous process of modernising agriculture, Romania’s industrial output is now 38 times greater than it was in 1938, her agriculture produces 150 per cent more than in the record years between the two world wars, and her national income has increased 11-fold.

p The additional material resources created owing to the outstanding achievements of our economy, its dynamic development, and ever broader introduction of scientific and technological achievements have enabled our Party to work out a programme for rapidly improving the working people’s wellbeing in the next few years. Our people, the working people, regard this programme as fresh proof of the correctness of the Party’s policy which, in the course of socialist and communist construction in Romania, shows basic concern for man, for the full satisfaction of his vital material and intellectual requirements, and for the raising of our socialist nation to a higher stage of progress and civilisation. In this lies the essence of our revolutionary policy, the essence of our socialist humanism.

p As the tasks of building a harmoniously developed socialist society become more complex, the role of the Communist Party as the guiding political force responsible for the nation’s destiny will also increase. The providing of unified direction of social and economic processes, the fostering of socialist awareness among the masses and the strengthening of the principles of socialist ethics and justice in the life of society, the elimination of contradictions inherent in the epoch of profound revolutionary changes in the material and non-material spheres, the establishment of proper relations between the Party, the classes, and the mass of the people, and between the Party and the state, the development of socialist democracy by employing the forms of joint work and collective leadership at all levels, the creation of the necessary conditions for effective participation by all working people in administering social and economic affairs-these are the basic domains of Party 152 work in our society. While successfully directing the building of socialism in Romania and carrying out its national tasks, our Party at the same time contributes to the growth of socialism’s strength and prestige in the world and to the common cause of peace, democracy, and socialism.

p While being legitimately proud of and satisfied with our achievements, we are at the same time conscious of the complex problems facing us. We consider it the most important historical task of our Party to utilise fully the great advantages of the socialist system in all fields of social life. The idea of continuity of the revolutionary process is found in all the major documents of our Party. This provides the basis for our comprehensive development programme. From this also follows the concept of the developed socialist society as opposed to any narrow understanding of socialism, a concept whose essence lies in the conviction that socialism is called upon to prove its superiority not only in material production and the development of the productive forces, but also in relations between people, in social ethics, in the harmonious, unfettered, and creative development of the human personality and in the establishment of true democracy. To the “models” of growth which characterise modern capitalism we counterpose an entirely different pattern of social and economic development that has none of the glaring contradictions of capitalist society. This development is characterised by a theoretically substantiated rationale and the ability consciously to govern social processes and impart a social and humane purpose to economic progress.

p As Nicolae Ceausescu, General Secretary of the RCP, has said, the historic mission of Communists consists in both social and national liberation of the peoples and the struggle to ensure lasting peace on our planet, these two aspects of their activity constituting an integral whole. The establishment of an atmosphere of peace and international detente, democratisation of international relations, and elimination of centres of conflict, and of serious 153 dangers jeopardising peace on earth-all this promotes social progress and the struggle against imperialism, the struggle for national independence, democracy and progress, and the victory of socialism, limits the possibilities of the reactionary forces to intervene in the internal affairs of other peoples, and wards off the harmful influence of either cold war or hot war on social processes.

p In the field of foreign policy our Party holds that all states, irrespective of their size, economic potential or military strength, must actively contribute to the solution of pressing international problems.

p Our Party and state have consistently come out for friendship and co-operation with all socialist countries and for the strengthening of their unity and solidarity; our Party and state are expanding relations with the developing and non-aligned nations, and are guided by the principles of peaceful coexistence in their relations with the developed capitalist states. In her international relations Romania invariably abides by the principles of equality, respect for independence and sovereignty, non-intervention in internal affairs, mutual benefit, renunciation of the use or threat of force, respect for the right of each nation freely to develop and determine its own destiny.

p We live at a time of profound social and political changes in the life of mankind. In a number of capitalist countries Communist parties have become a powerful national political force, and the social and political forces calling for a radical renovation of society have grown considerably.

p Deep social and national changes are under way in the countries which have cast off the yoke of colonial slavery. All these developments give rise to a multitude of new problems which the classics of Marxism, for all their foresight, had not been able to foresee. These new problems demand a creative approach to Marxism-Leninism and to the theory of scientific socialism and the spirit of innovation in revolutionary theory and practice.

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p The Communist and Workers’ parties of the nonsocialist countries work in highly diverse conditions, with highly varied correlations of social and political forces. That is why our Party shows full understanding for their efforts to map out independently their strategy and tactics in accordance with the specific historical, national, and international conditions in which they function. We consider it natural that there should be discussion of practical ways and forms of transition from capitalism to socialism and of the struggle for socialism and the building of the new system in conditions which differ drastically from those in which it was accomplished in the socialist countries existing today.

p We follow with particular attention the efforts directed to ensuring unity of action of Communists, Socialists, and other democratic parties and groups for the purpose of establishing a correlation of forces that would make it possible to carry out progressive changes in society.

p The RCP works consistently for the strengthening of international solidarity and unity of a new type between the Communist and Workers’ parties on the basis of their full equality, mutual respect, autonomy, and independence. At the same time, we extensively develop contacts with the Socialist parties, Social-Democratic parties, national liberation movements, and all forces striving for democracy, progress, peace, and international co-operation.

p Dear comrades, in these festive days the Romanian Communists and all people of Romania express brotherly feelings of sympathy and of deep satisfaction with the successes achieved by the Soviet people advancing along the road opened by the October Revolution. Our two countries are bound by long-standing traditions of militant revolutionary solidarity. Many Romanian revolutionaries took up arms to defend the gains of the October Revolution against the forces which tried to strangle the young Soviet state. In the difficult years of underground work Romanian Communists fought heroically for the 155 establishment of friendly ties between Romania and the Soviet Union. The Romanian-Soviet friendship, sealed with the blood of our soldiers and the soldiers of the glorious Red Army in the battles against fascism, was raised to a still higher level in the years of building socialism.

p The meetings of Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu and Comrade Leonid Brezhnev, the visit of the General Secretary of our Party to the USSR last year and the visit of the General Secretary of the CC CPSU to our country, and the Joint Declaration signed during that visit made an outstanding contribution to the development of friendly contacts. We are firmly convinced that friendship and co-operation between socialist Romania and the Soviet Union and between the Romanian Communist Party and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, will become stronger and more fruitful, and this will be of benefit to our peoples and to the common cause of socialism, progress, and universal peace.

A sober assessment of the correlation of forces in the modern world has convinced us that despite all the zigzags and turns of history our cause will win and the road to the complete victory of socialism and communism will open before mankind.