ROLE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY IN THE ARMED DEFENCE OF THE SOCIALIST MOTHERLAND
introduction
The defence of the socialist motherland is a general regularity of the building of socialism and communism in the contemporary epoch. It is not achieved automatically, but is a result of the conscious and purposeful activity of the builders of the new society under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party. The Party is the inspirer and organiser of the defence of the socialist country.
Leadership by the CPSU of the Defence of Socialism
Anti-communists and all critics of the socialist system picture the leadership by the Party of all aspects of the activity of socialist society, including also of military development, of the army, as an anomaly, as a “deformation” of socialism, as a negative phenomenon. Moreover, all moral sins are ascribed to the leading party. 170However, the arguments of these critics, which are based only on their sentiments, contradict science and historical experience.
In all socialist countries the Marxist-Leninist Parties act as the leading and guiding force that ensures the successful development of the states and the peoples. Historical experience demonstrates that where the Party loses control over social processes even for a short time, the country’s development is inevitably confronted with a more or less serious crisis.
The need for Party leadership of socialist construction and of the defence of the socialist country is inherent in the nature of socialism, and is an economic, political and ideological requirement of the new society.
In the economic field socialism emerges not spontaneously, as do the formations based on private ownership, but is built consciously and according to plan under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninis.t Party by the efforts of the working class and the masses supporting it. It is the first society in history in which the guidance of social processes is both necessary and possible. New laws become operative and old economic laws stop to rule blindly over people and to make social development utterly spontaneous. This major advantage of socialism obliges the members of socialist society to be deeply conscious of their duties and to participate actively and in an organised way in the building of the new society. The laws of socialism are such that they promote socialism only if they are correctly understood and applied in social management, and if the working people are organised for their execution. These conditions can be secured only by Party leadership.
In the political system of socialist society the Party is the highest form of class organisation first of the proletariat and, after the complete victory of socialism, of the whole people. This corresponds to the nature of the working class, to its vital interests and aims. Only the Party is able to carry out the political leadership of the proletariat, and through it of all the working people. Without it there could be no proletarian dictatorship.
At present not only avowed enemies of socialism, but also some confused “Marxists” doubt whether the working class rule and Party leadership in socialist construction are really 171necessary. They are looking for speculative “models” of socialism which dispense with both. Let them but remember that no country has ever begun to build socialism, let alone completed its building, without the power belonging to the working class and without the leading role of the Communist Party. This should make them aware of the futility of all attempts to revise this fundamental Marxist principle.
To curb and eliminate bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology, to infuse the consciousness of the masses with communist ideas and on this basis to consolidate the working people, to ensure their high labour and political activity, are the ideological requirements of the new society. That is the task of the Party, which tolerates no ideological vacillations and distortions, political passivity, non-resistance with respect to anti-socialist forces, and organisational disunity among the working people.
The Party works out the political line, strategy and tactics of the struggle, enlightens the masses politically, raises their class consciousness, reveals the aims of the struggle, and organises and rallies the working people. It is only under the leadership of its party that the working class can accomplish its historic mission which is to bring about the revolutionary transformation of the exploiter system into a socialist one. Lenin was absolutely right when he wrote that the proletarian revolution develops an “... organising talent, collective if not individual, without which the million-strong army of the proletariat cannot achieve victory". [171•1
If we are guided by true science and take historical experience into account, we must admit that in the contemporary epoch the leadership of the revolutionary masses fighting for the socialist revolution by the Communist Party, its leadership of all the aspects of the life of socialist society are a historical inevitability and a command of the times springing from the objective requirements of social progress.
The Communist Party pursues no other interests than those of the working people, and it serves them devotedly. The people in their turn fully trust their party, rally around it and work according to its precepts.
The defence of their socialist country, the strengthening of its defence potential, military development, and 172everything connected with organising the masses to rebuff armed attacks by the enemy are cardinal questions of the socialist state’s policy. Only the Party is able to utilise fully the possibilities of socialist society and the people’s forces to safeguard the security of socialism and to win victory over its enemies.
The collective wisdom of the Party, the all-sided consideration of the domestic and international situation, the correct decisions it takes, ensure the reliable defence of the country and of the whole socialist community, direct the development of the armed forces and their utilisation in the interests of the policies pursued by the socialist state. Characterising the victory achieved by the completely ruined, poverty-stricken, hungry, and virtually disarmed nascent Soviet republic, Lenin, this greatest of all realists, described as a miracle this heroic feat of the revolutionary people and of its army, this heroic feat of the Party. He wrote: “It was only because of the Party’s vigilance and its strict discipline, because the authority of the Party united all government departments and institutions, because the slogans issued by the Central Committee were adopted by tens, hundreds, thousands and finally millions of people as one man, because incredible sacrifices were made—it was only because of all this that the miracle which occurred was made possible. It was only because of all this that we were able to win in spite of the campaigns of the imperialists of the Entente and of the whole world having been repeated twice, thrice and even four times." [172•1
Having rebuffed the first attack of the imperialists in the Civil War, the CPSU headed the people and the army in peaceful socialist construction. It overcame enormous difficulties and privations, the machinations of its numerous enemies, multiplied the strength of the country, and consolidated its defensive potential, the Army and the Navy.
Under the leadership of the CPSU the Soviet people and its Armed Forces passed the heavy trials of the Second World War with honour. History knows no examples, when the course of a war begun in such adverse circumstances was changed with such mastery, so completely and skilfully, and the army, guided by the wise and firm hand of 173its inspirer and organiser—the Leninist Party—won such a great victory. This is now a fact recognised by all, a fact of world-historic significance.
The CPSU not only ensured the mobilisation of all the material and spiritual forces in the country for the rout of the enemy, but made the military organisation of the first ever socialist state the best in the world, so that the numerous enemies of the Soviet power were unable to vanquish it.
The extensive experience of other socialist countries has also proved that the military development of a socialist country must be carried out under the direct leadership of the Communist Party.
The irrefutable advantages of the socialist social and state system over the capitalist open up to the Communist Party, as the leading social force, the possibility of organising peaceful construction and the defence of the socialist country against armed enemies. The use of these possibilities presupposes the effective leadership of the millions of working people, a scientific and rational management of the complex social processes.
The Communist Party is armed with the knowledge of the Marxist-Leninist theory, knows the laws of social development and war, of military science. Scientific theory illuminates its great road of struggle and victories like a beacon, helps it to formulate a correct policy and to implement it. Characterising the politics of the Russian Bolsheviks, Lenin noted that their power was based on the complete clarity and the sober consideration of all class magnitudes, Russian and international, on the resulting indomitable energy, firmness, decisiveness and selflessness in struggle.
It is impossible to work out a correct policy, in general, and a military one, in particular, without knowing the laws of social development, without seeing the trends of events. Such groping in the dark is characteristic of the behaviour of the moribund reactionary classes and their parties. The Communist Party is armed with the knowledge of the victorious Marxist-Leninist teaching, which is a reliable theoretical compass. Its assessments taken on a large scale are always deeper and more correct than the assessments of bourgeois parties and politicians.
The Communist Party not only knows the laws of social development and war, but also skilfully applies them in all 174its actions and resolves all questions in accordance with them. Some leaders of bourgeois parties may also know the laws of social development. But neither they nor their parties can act consistently in accordance with the objective laws of history because they represent the interests of reactionary classes. The Communist Party, on the other hand, which follows a socialist line of struggle and decisively defends the interests of the working people, acts not in disagreement with historical necessity, but in accordance with it. This makes the Communist Party the political and ideological leader of the progressive forces, a great engine of history.
In pursuing its policy the Party has the working people’s complete trust and support. The Party’s links with the masses are determined by its close kinship with the people, are created by its consistent and resolute defence of the people’s vital interests; they are also a result of the systematic educational work the Party conducts among the working people, to whom it always explains its political course. Because of that the policy of the Communist Party becomes a programme of action for the working masses; its revolutionary ideas grip the minds of the masses and become a great material force.
In pursuing its policy of revolutionary transformations and of the country’s defence against imperialist attacks, the Communist Party displays firmness, tenacity and fearlessness. The Party resolutely tackles and overcomes the difficulties connected with the building and the armed defence of the new society, resolutely fights for unity in its ranks, and constantly multiplies its strength. Ideological and organisational cohesion is the most important source of the Party’s invincibility, a guarantee for the successful fulfilment of the great tasks of communist construction.
The Party courageously develops the criticism and selfcriticism of shortcomings in its ranks, is not afraid to reveal such shortcomings, and takes decisive measures to correct them. Lenin considered that the most important feature of a serious party is its willingness frankly to admit its mistakes, to uncover the causes responsible for them and to outline ways for correcting them—and considered its attitude to its own mistakes the truest criterion of the Party’s wisdom and of the practical fulfilment of its duties towards 175the working masses. The development of inner-Party democracy and criticism helps the Communist Party choose correct ways for the triumphant advance towards communism, to organise and lead the people of the country, and to ensure the reliable defence of the socialist country.
Main Directions of the Party’s Leadership of the Defense of the Socialist Country
The leadership of the defence of the socialist country by the Marxist– Leninist party is expressed first and foremost in the Party’s formulation of the states military policy on the basis of which the people and the army act to ensure the country’s security. The planning and manufacture of arms, the training of military personnel, military research, various mobilisation measures, the formation of defensive alliances, the diplomatic practice, etc., are all determined by that policy.
The Party works out the military doctrine of the state which, on the basis of an evaluation of the character of modern war and its requirements, on the basis of the political, economic, military and scientific and technological possibilities of one’s own country and the probable opponent, determines the main trends for the development in the military field, in general, and the main principles for the development of the armed forces, in particular. The doctrine expresses the main political principles guiding the state in its defence activities and the army in its development and combat activities.
The Party determines the aims and the content of the ideological work conducted among the people and the troops. This work ensures the political, patriotic and internationalist education of the civilians and troops, prepares them for the trials of war ideologically and psychologically. It keeps up the high morale of the people and the troops, and raises the fighting spirit and combat efficiency of. the soldiers.
A most important task of the Party is to prepare, educate and to place correctly the military leaders who are the main organising force in the troops. With their help it can give constant and comprehensive guidance to the life and the combat activities of all army organisms, from the sub-unit to the armed forces as a whole.
Through its Central Committee the Party directs the political work in the troops, guides and controls the activity 176of the central bodies of the Army and Navy, sees to it that they consistently and efficiently implement Party directives in the development of the armed forces. It acts as the organiser of all vitally important measures in defence and military development, and mobilises the working people and troops for the practical implementation of its military policy.
The ideological and organisational work of the Party is essential to secure the efficient, scientific management of the building of communism and of its defence.
Without corresponding ideas and without the working out in the masses of the necessary motives, without ideological work, it is impossible to rally and organise large masses of people and to mobilise them for the implementation of social tasks. In their turn, ideas alone cannot tangibly affect social activity. Ideas, Karl Marx said, become a material force, acquire material power that is able to change the world only if classes and peoples act in accordance with them. An idea can assume a material form only in man’s practical activity.
In its turn the practical activity of people, especially the actions of large masses of people, must be organised. Hence, for the activity of the Party in its leadership of the masses to be successful, it must combine ideological with organisational work.
The modern stage of historical development is characterised by a sharp exacerbation in the ideological struggle between capitalism and socialism. Alongside with its intensified preparations for a war against the USSR and other socialist countries, international, notably US imperialism, steps up its subversive political and ideological activity against the socialist states, the communist and the democratic movement as a whole. This makes it even more important to wage an irreconcilable struggle against hostile ideology, decisively to expose imperialist schemes, to extend the communist education of Party members and all working people, and to step up the entire ideological activity of the Party.
The Party’s ideological work is the decisive means for constantly strengthening the morale of the people and the army of a socialist state. Cultivating socialist ideas in the minds of people, the Party awakens in them love for their country, staunchness, resolve and fearlessness in struggle, 177the willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of victory over the enemy, mass heroism among the officers and men, an indomitable will to vanquish any aggressor.
The Communist Party ensures the ideological and psychological prerequisites needed for people to make the change from work in production or any other peaceful field of endeavour to the service in the army. By its ideological work it imbues the soldiers with a high sense of duty, a sense of their personal responsibility for the fate of the country, a willingness to stand any trial for the sake of the freedom and independence of the socialist country.
When the socialist state is compelled to wage war, the Communist Party shows the people the seriousness of the danger threatening the country, reveals the predatory aims of the imperialist aggressors, makes the people deeply aware of the just character of the war waged by them, fosters their patriotism, their national and military pride, instils in them confidence in the ultimate victory over the enemy.
The high morale of the people and the army of the socialist state is their main advantage over the imperialists. But, for the moral force to become a material one and to secure victory, it must be expressed in practical deeds, in the labour enthusiasm of the people, in the organised and resolute actions of the troops on the fields of battle, in the insistent acquisition of combat skills in peacetime.
Speaking of the political forms of struggle Lenin said that “only with the aid of an excellent organisation can we turn our moral strength into material strength". [177•1 Such excellent organisation is ensured by the leadership of the Party. By its active organisational work the Party directs the spiritual and physical strength of the people and the army to the fulfilment of the tasks ensuring victory in the war. The high conscientiousness and military enthusiasm of the people and the troops, the patriotic feelings and will for victory developed in them by the Party are transformed into organised, decisive actions by the troops at the front and into labour heroism by the people in the rear.
The organisational work of the Communist Party embraces the entire extensive and diversified army organism. 178Possessing a flexible and mobile system of organisation, using a great variety of methods, skilfully combining educational and administrative measures, discipline and the creativity of the masses, and notably the force of the personal example of Communists, the Party uses all material and moral possibilities of the Army and Navy to raise their combat efficiency and combat preparedness, to educate and organise the troops.
Naturally, the growth in the number of Communists in the Soviet Armed Forces brings with it an improvement of their combat efficiency.
During the Great Patriotic War the CPSU carried out several mass mobilisations of its members into the army in the field and made it easier for the best officers and men to join the Party. At the end of 1941 there were about 1,300,000 Communists in the army or 42.4 per cent of the total Party membership, in 1942 there were more than 2 million Communists under arms, or 54.3 per cent of the total Party membership, this despite the fact that the Party lost about 400,000 of its members on the front during the grimmest period of the war. Work is underway to set up effective Party organisations in Army and Navy units, primary Party organisations in battalions and equivalent units. At present 22 per cent of the Army and Navy ranks are Party, and over 60 per cent, Komsomol members.
Thus, by its ideological and organisational work the Party mobilises all the material and spiritual strength of the socialist country and people for securing the reliable defence of the country.
The content of the above enumerated basic directions in the Party’s leadership depends on the country’s concrete development conditions and the specific features of the relevant war. The Communist Party works out a scientific programme of action for the state and Party bodies, voluntary organisations and the entire people. It determines the ways for switching the economy and the whole life of the country to military lines, mobilising the working people for the rebuff of the enemy, directly guides the armed struggle at the fronts and the partisan movement, carries out enormous ideological work, takes care to build up the moralpolitical potential during the war, and transforms it into a material force.
Every war the Soviet people had to fight proceeded in very specific international and domestic conditions and set to the people and the Party concrete tasks in overcoming the difficulties standing in the way of victory.
During the Civil War the Bolshevik Party faced seemingly unsurmountable difficulties—the population was tired of the imperialist slaughter, dislocation and hunger reigned supreme, the requisite arms and materials were unavailable, there was a shortage of commanders in the army, then in the formative stage. The entire bourgeois world prophesied that Soviet Russia was about to collapse. The Party, however, was able to mobilise forces to overcome all these difficulties and to defend the gains of the revolution.
The experience of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 is also instructive. This war was the most difficult of all wars the Soviet Union ever had to fight. The trials the Soviet people had to stand in the beginning of the war were particularly grim. The enormous army of the nazis and their satellites, in a frenzy* of chauvinism and racialism, penetrated deep into the USSR.
The nazis used the temporary advantage given them by the militarisation of the economy and all of life in Germany; by the long preparations for the annexationist war and their experience in military actions gained in the West; by the superiority in equipment and manpower they had concentrated on the borders of the Soviet Union. They also had at their disposal the economic and military resources of virtually all of Western Europe.
Mistakes in the assessment of the time of the German attack of the USSR, and the consequent neglect in the preparations to repel the initial attacks also had a telling effect. Also, the Soviet troops had at that time little experience in the waging of large-scale operations typical of modern warfare. However, even the early stages of the war demonstrated that the nazi military adventure was doomed to failure.
The whole Soviet people rose in a body in defence of the country. The Party’s slogan “Everything for the front, everything for victory!" was enthusiastically taken up by the working class, the collective farmers and the Soviet intelligentsia. The CPSU headed the people’s war against the invaders.
Faith in the great ideals of communism, in the correctness of the Party’s policy and leadership, the selflessness of Communists in the struggle for the just cause and for the freedom and happiness of the working people, all this indissolubly united the Party and the people in the struggle against the enemy. This unity formed that miraculous alloy that stood the acid test to which the Soviet people were subjected in defending their socialist homeland.
“The Communists were a fount of strength in the defence of the Soviet country. Their heroic exploits at the front and in the rear inspired the people in their fight against the invaders. Mass heroism was displayed by the people who at this critical juncture were deeply aware of the need for it.
In revolutionary liberation wars of the past people also displayed heroism in battle. But, in wars of the presocialist epoch the broad masses could not use their potentialities to the full, could not fully dedicate themselves to the fulfilment of the tasks advanced by the revolutionary war. Class contradictions, the ideology of« the ruling exploiter class, the low level of political consciousness and weak organisation, all told on their actions.
True heroism is born of a feeling of high responsibility to one’s people, to one’s country. In summing up the results of the heroic struggle of the young Soviet republic against the counter-revolutionaries, Lenin drew the conclusion that “a nation in which the majority of the workers and peasants realise, feel and see that they are fighting for their own Soviet power, for the rule of the working people, for the cause whose victory will ensure them and their children all the benefits of culture, of all that has been created by human labour—such a nation can never be vanquished". [180•1
The Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) proved the correctness of Lenin’s words with special force.
The working class demonstrated outstanding heroism during the evacuation of industrial plants from frontline areas to the eastern parts of the country. In all, some 1,360 big state enterprises were evacuated and soon began to produce arms and ammunition for the front.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party the Soviet people exerted heroic efforts to overcome the enemy’s numerical superiority in tanks, aircraft and automatic 181weapons. In 1944 the country produced 8 times the number of tanks it had produced at the beginning of the war, 7 times the number of guns, 4 times more planes, 8 times more mortars, and 4 times more ammunition. The Soviet people stayed for days, weeks, and sometimes months at their enterprises, refused to take days off and vacations.
The collective-farm peasants too exhibited heroic selflessness. Despite the sharp decrease in farming machinery and labour power, they managed to supply light industry with raw materials and the army and population with food.
The Party and the Soviet people did everything possible to build up the Armed Forces, who were faced with a task of enormous difficulty. They had to stem the nazi advance, stabilise the front, exhaust the enemy in defensive battles and to accumulate sufficient strength to mount a decisive offensive and to rout the invaders.
From the first days of the war people of all the nationalities inhabiting the Soviet Union joined the Armed Forces, hundreds of thousands of patriots volunteered. In Moscow, in the first three days of the war, for example, 50,000 Komsomol members volunteered for the front. Applications flooded the Military Commissariats in other towns as well. Many thousands of citizens, who because of their age and state of health were not subject to conscription, asked to be enlisted in the army in the field.
A people’s voluntary corps was formed immediately after the nazi invasion. In Moscow 11 voluntary divisions, incorporating 137,000 people, were formed in four days, more than 300,000 people joined the corps in Leningrad alone.
When the war was in the second month anti-sabotage battalions had been formed in all towns and district centres. In Moscow and the Moscow region there were 87 of them.
The Party and Government worked hard to raise the combat efficiency of the Army and Navy. Alongside with improving the combat training of the troops, and supplying them with everything necessary, all persons of draft age and reservists were mobilised as quickly as possible.
The Communist Party took a number of important measures which raised the political consciousness of the troops, made them more disciplined and staunch in battle, and improved the troop leadership. The Party directed its best people to the army. Almost one-third of the members and 182candidates to the Central Committee of the CPSU, many Secretaries of the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics, territorial and regional committees were appointed members of the military councils of the fronts and the armies.
At the decision of the CC several large-scale mobilisation campaigns were launched to enlist Party and Komsomol members. Up to October 1941, some 94,000 Party members were sent to the army in the field. In July and November 1941, at the decision of the Central Committee, the Party sent 48,000 of its members holding leading posts to the army in the field. Studies were interrupted at many Party schools and courses and the students became political instructors in the army. During the first year of the war up to 1,000,000 Party members joined the ranks. The Party had become a fighting body.
The Party CC adopted measures to increase the proportion of Party members in the armed services by drawing servicemen into the Party. In the first half of 1941 about 27,000 people became members of the Party or candidates for membership, while more than 126,000 joined in the second half-year. By the end of the war there were 3.5 million Party members in the Army and Navy, that is, almost 60 per cent of the Party membership.
The heroic efforts of the people and the army under the leadership of the Communist Party foiled Hitler’s plan of a Blitzkrieg against the USSR. Conditions were created for a decisive counter-offensive by the Soviet Army. The Soviet people succeeded in bringing about a radical turning point in the war. The Soviet armies took the offensive near Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, on the Dnieper and in other places. Later the Soviet Armed Forces drove the enemy back to Germany, where the rout of the Wehrmacht was completed.
In the battles against the German invaders and Japanese militarists the Soviet troops displayed a high political awareness and morale, which found expression in the mass heroism of all ranks. About 13 million soldiers received high government awards for their courage and bravery in battle. Heroism and bravery were exhibited by soldiers of all nationalities of the Soviet Union.
In the course of the war the Soviet servicemen insistently 183improved their combat skills, perfected the means and forms of armed struggle. The CPSU created the requisite conditions for the development of military art, for the commanders to be able to show their military talents. It reared a great body of commanders and political instructors of all levels, who showed exceptional ability, high political consciousness and exceptional skill in leading their men under any conditions.
The mass heroism of the Soviet people was strikingly demonstrated by the powerful partisan movement in the occupied areas. The success in the struggle against the enemy was greatly promoted by the creation at the very beginning of the war of strong underground Party organisations, which rallied a great number of activists round them and headed the mass partisan movement.
A few figures will serve to illustrate this. In 1942 fifteen underground Party district committees were functioning in the Orel Region, 9 underground regional committees, uniting 174 Party committees and over 1,297 primary organisations, in Byelorussia. Three regional committees and 15 district committees were functioning in the Smolensk Region. In the Ukraine there were 14 underground regional committees, 154 town and district committees and 725 primary Party organisations. Two regional, 20 district and town committees were set up in Lithuania, 2 regional and 3 district underground Party committees in Latvia, 2 area and 11 inter-district Party centres were functioning in the Leningrad Region. Underground Party and Komsomol organisations were set up in many other enemy-held areas.
Between 1942 and 1943, over a thousand partisan detachments, uniting hundreds of thousands of Soviet patriots, were active in these areas. During the first two years of the war alone the partisans destroyed over 300,000 invaders, among them 30 generals, 6,336 officers, 1,520 pilots, and took 2,747 prisoners. During that time they blew up 3,263 bridges, 3,000 enemy trains, destroyed or captured 476 planes, 1,267 tanks and armoured cars, 541 guns, 2,320 machine guns, 14,645 lorries and cars and a lot of other equipment. The Soviet partisans greatly assisted the advancing Soviet troops in liberating several regions and republics.
The nazi Command was compelled to throw enormous forces into battle against Soviet partisans. As early as the 184autumn of 1942, they numbered 144 police battalions, 27 police regiments, 8 other regiments, 10 police guard and punitive SS divisions, 2 guard corps, up to 15 German field, 5 Hungarian infantry divisions and 72 special units. As of mid-1942 some 10 per cent of the German land forces on the Soviet-German front were used against the partisans. In addition the nazis had to pin down considerable forces for “passive” operations against partisans (the guarding of railway lines and other vital communications). However, these measures were unable to curtail the scale of the partisan movement noticeably.
The Party led the country to victory by using to the full the advantages of the socialist system, mobilising the people and the army for the war against the invaders, uniting all the forces of Soviet society and directing them to the task of routing the enemy.
International Importance of the CPSU’s Experience in Defending the Socialist Motherland
The historical experience of the CPSU in organising the defence of the socialist country and winning the war has become property of all the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the socialist countries. In using this experience they take into account the new alignment of the socio-political and military-political forces in the world, the concrete situation in the individual countries and their relations with other states.
The Communist and Workers’ Parties take into account, firstly, that peace offers the best conditions for the building of socialism and communism in the countries where the socialist revolution has triumphed, and for the development of the world revolution in general. They therefore consider it their prime task to fight for the consolidation of peace, for averting a new world war and for banning wars from the life of society even before the victory of socialism on a world scale. The Marxist-Leninist Parties fight untiringly for the establishment of new relations between peoples and countries, based on the principles of equality, sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs and peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems.
Secondly, the Communist and Workers’ Parties realise that the struggle for peace does not in itself guarantee the security of socialism, does not make it unnecessary for the 185socialist community to strengthen its defence. The dialectics of modern world development are such that peace cannot be preserved if the military might of imperialism is not confronted by the superior military might of the socialist system. The forces of peace and socialism have to do with an opponent to whom considerations of humaneness, morality, international law, the natural right of all peoples for independent development are no more than a fig leaf they use to conceal their aggressive aims. US aggression against the Vietnamese people demonstrates this strikingly. US imperialism has never rejected the idea of armed struggle against socialism and the people’s liberation movement but, on the contrary, constantly builds up military power for such a battle. Imperialism has great military strength and is ready to use it as soon as the opportunity arises.
Armed resistance cannot be crushed by other than military means. The revolution must know how to defend itself—the law of the class struggle demands that. So long as there is armed imperialism—and hence the danger of war—the Party has no way out but to strengthen the defensive capacity of the Soviet state and the entire socialist system, to maintain it at a level sufficiently high totally to destroy any aggressor who would dare to attack the socialist countries.
Historical experience demonstrates that whereas the growth of the military might of an exploiter state inevitably intensifies its aggressiveness, the growth of the military might of socialism plays a directly opposite social role; it serves as a bulwark of peace, becomes an international force in the struggle against aggression, an insurmountable obstacle to the unleashing of wars by the imperialists.
The Communist Parties therefore do everything to strengthen the defence capacity of their states, to redouble their economic, scientific, technological, moral-political and military potentials. They take measures to provide the army with the latest equipment, to improve the principles guiding military development, the combat training and political education of the troops, to develop military science and to raise the combat preparedness of the armed forces.
Thirdly the Communist and Workers’ Parties take into account that the defence of socialism has now become a direct internationalist concern. It is secured by the efforts of 186all socialist states, the friendship and co-operation of their armies. The Communist Parties strengthen the political and military unity of the socialist countries, which is expressed in their co-ordinated foreign policy, the co-ordination of their economic plans, the development of the defence efforts of the states, the education of their peoples and armies in the spirit of socialist internationalism and fraternal mutual assistance. The Communist Parties give much attention to consolidating the friendship and co-operation of the armies of the socialist states, to exchanging experience in armed forces development, training and educating the troops, training commanders and developing military science.
To defend socialism and promote the revolutionary process it is necessary to consolidate the world communist movement, strengthen the unity of the socialist states and their defence potential, utterly to smash ideologically and isolate the splitters and renegades of socialism. The MarxistLeninist Parties fight insistently to strengthen the cohesion of the world communist movement and the socialist countries. The constant growth of the economic and military might of the socialist system, of the unity of all socialist forces, their greater vigilance against enemy schemes guarantee the security of the socialist countries and their future victories over imperialism.
Fourthly, when faced with the necessity directly to rebuff imperialist military attacks, the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the socialist countries use the rich experience the CPSU has in transforming the entire country into a single military camp. They direct their efforts to switch the economy and the whole life of the country to military lines, to make the masses aware of the great danger threatening their socialist country and to raise the morale of the people, who are defending their independence and socialist way of life.
Fifthly, the Marxist-Leninist Parties attentively study and generalise the experience of the “little wars" unleashed by the imperialists and use it to strengthen the defence of their countries and to raise the combat efficiency and combat readiness of their armed forces. This experience shows that today, more than ever before, it is necessary to be vigilant and able to repel any aggression.
* * *
Notes
[171•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 94.
[172•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works. Vol. 30, p. 446.
[177•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 8, p. 145.
[180•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 319.
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