Ways and Means of Accomplishing the Socialist Revolution

THE THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM

In the present epoch, which witnesses mankind’s movement towards socialism, tremendous importance attaches to the question of the concrete ways and means of effecting the transition to socialism in different countries.

Past experience teaches us that the ruling classes never voluntarily renounce their power, their numerous privileges or private ownership of the means of production, which enables them to exploit the working people. For that reason the socialist revolution is necessarily linked up with revolutionary violence, with the forcible overthrow of the capitalist system.

However, there are different kinds of violence. One is linked up with the use of weapons, with civil war, with foreign intervention. Another is, so to speak, of a peaceful nature: expropriation or restriction of private ownership, deprivation or restriction of the political rights of the exploiting classes, the drawing of these classes into labour by compulsion, and so on. This second kind of violence (peaceful violence) is inevitable in a socialist revolution, for the triumph of socialism is inconceivable without violence, without compulsion (economic and political). As regards armed force, the problem of whether to apply it cannot be settled without analysing the specific conditions, the alignment of class forces in the country concerned, and the international situation.

Aiming to discredit the lofty ideals of scientific communism and breed distrust for it, its opponents maintain that everywhere and under all conditions the triumph of socialism is linked up with armed force, with war. Yet scientific communism proceeds from the thesis that wars are not necessary for the victory of socialism. Socialism triumphs by virtue of the operation of objective laws of social development, which are studied and applied by the foremost class of modern times—the working class and its Marxist party. These laws operate inexorably, and by virtue of their operation socialism will ultimately triumph throughout the world just as it has triumphed in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

Scientific communism has always been and remains firmly opposed to all theories about “exporting revolution”, about “pushing” the revolution by armed force. Denouncing the “Left” adventurists, who call for a “ revolutionary war" against world imperialism, Lenin declared that perhaps the authors of these calls “believe that the interests of the world revolution require that it should be given a push, and that such a push can be given only by war, never by peace, which might give the people the impression that imperialism was being ’legitimised’? Such a ’theory’ would be completely at variance with Marxism, for Marxism has always been opposed to ’pushing’ revolutions, which develop with the growing acuteness of the class antagonisms that engender revolutions”. [97•*

The proletariat is the most humane class of our times. It seeks to preserve and multiply the achievements of human culture, raise the level of the productive forces, and protect people, working people, who are the principal wealth of our planet. For that reason it wants to seize power by peaceful means, to accomplish a peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. More than a century ago, in reply to the question whether it was possible to 98abolish private ownership by peaceful means Engels replied: “One would desire that this should be so, and Communists would be the last to object to it.” A peaceful transition safeguards huge material values and the lives of great numbers of people and, Lenin wrote, it “would have been the least painful" and the “easiest and most advantageous course for the people".

However, the choice of the road to socialism depends not on the desire of individuals or classes but primarily on the objective alignment of class forces in the country concerned. If the forces of the working class, of the working people predominate overwhelmingly over the forces of the bourgeoisie, and the latter, realising that resistance is useless, prefer to save their heads by conceding power to the proletariat, a peaceful transition to socialism is possible.

Historical experience, however, shows that the bourgeoisie, like any other class doomed by history, is unable to evaluate the balance of forces soberly. With the desperation of the doomed, it is doing everything in its power to preserve or recover its lost supremacy, to prolong its existence. Its principal means are weapons, which it always brings into play when its rule is menaced, when the oppressed threaten its supremacy and its privileges. The Paris Commune was drowned in torrents of blood. The Russian landowners and capitalists did not reconcile themselves to the victory of the working people in October 1917. They started a civil war and called in the assistance of the capitalists of foreign countries, who attempted to restore capitalist rule in Russia by sword and fire. But, led by its Party, the working class together with other working masses repulsed the attack of the bourgeoisie and upheld proletarian rule.

Experience has shown that it is an indispensable condition for the triumph of the socialist revolution that the working class masters the methods of armed struggle. It is quite another matter whether there will be a need to use weapons against the bourgeoisie. At a time when the bourgeoisie held undivided sway over the whole world, when it knew its strength and could unite to fight the oppressed who rose in revolt, weapons were, essentially, the proletariat’s only means of winning power. It was not fortuitous that Lenin did not rule out, in principle, the possibility of the proletariat winning power by peaceful means but considered this possibility unlikely and extremely rare.

Today the situation is different. The new balance of forces between capitalism and socialism that took shape in the world after the Second World War has appreciably advanced the possibilities for a peaceful transition to socialism. It will be recalled that in a number of European and Asian countries the transition from the bourgeoisdemocratic to the socialist revolution was accomplished by peaceful means.

As for the capitalist countries, the possibility of them accomplishing the transition to socialism peacefully is looming ever larger, thanks to the growth of the forces of democracy and socialism within these countries and to the mounting influence of the working class and its Marxist party over the broadest sections of the people. In this situation, by relying on the popular movement against imperialism, the working class of some countries has, as never before, the possibility of taking power into its own hands without bloodshed, without civil war. On this point the Declaration of the 1957 Moscow Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties of the socialist countries states: “Today in a number of capitalist countries the working class headed by its vanguard has the opportunity, given a united working-class and popular front or other workable forms of agreement and political co-operation between the different parties and public organisations, to unite a majority of the people, win state power without civil war and ensure the transfer of the basic means of production to the hands of the people.”

Provided the conditions fit the situation, the parliament may be a means of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat peacefully. By relying on a majority of the people and resolutely counteracting opportunists, the working class in a number of capitalist countries can turn the parliament into a weapon serving the working people, and, breaking the resistance of the reactionary forces, create the conditions for the transition to socialism.

Though a possible way of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, this is by no means a reformist way.

Lenin noted that there are different forms of parliamentarianism. Some people use parliaments to preach reforms to suit the bourgeoisie, to curry favour with their governments, others—to remain revolutionaries to the end. Lenin always emphasised that the parliament should be used not for reformist aims, i.e., to champion reforms that would please the bourgeoisie and yet be powerless to alleviate the lot of the people, but for propaganda purposes and the organisation of socialist reforms. The achievement of socialism with the utilisation of the parliament signifies basic revolutionary reforms supported by a nation-wide class struggle. Naturally, the opportunity for attaining this objective becomes all the greater when the strength of the working class and its allies becomes increasingly tangible and it has an ever bigger arsenal of means of struggle. It would be naive to expect that the working class can take and hold power only by winning parliamentary elections. Only when the victory in parliament is backed up by a real class force prepared to defend this victory, by armed strength if necessary, will there be a guarantee that the results of the vote are not trampled by the bourgeoisie, that they will be preserved, consolidated and developed with the purpose of carrying out socialist reforms in all spheres of social life.

The possibility of the socialist revolution triumphing by peaceful means should not be absolutised, its recognition should not be taken to mean that the proletariat has rejected armed force as a means of seizing political power. It should not be forgotten that the bourgeoisie is still supreme in a large part of the world, and that it has weapons which it can use and frequently does use against the proletariat, against the working people. For that reason the working class must be vigilant and prepared to utilise the most diverse forms of struggle, non-peaceful and peaceful. In order to accomplish the socialist revolution victoriously, the working class must master all forms of struggle, skilfully apply forms that satisfy the concrete situation and be prepared quickly and abruptly to go over from one form of struggle to another.

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Present-Day Communist Movement

At the Head of the Forces of Revolution

The international communist movement, the most powerful and numerically largest movement of our times, is the leading force of the revolutionary struggle of the working class.

The strength of the Communists lies, first and foremost, in the objective course of history itself, in the inevitable progress of mankind towards the socialist future, of the progress which they champion and lead. Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory, they are the spokesmen of social development, whole-heartedly serving the most advanced class, the proletariat, and, in return, enjoy its trust and support. During stern trials and grim battles, in defeat and in victory, the Communists remain true sons of their class, of their people, of the whole of progressive mankind. Being people in the loftiest and noblest sense of the word, they live, work, struggle and, when necessary, die for the sake of the working people.

No political movement in history has had to experience so many stern trials as the communist movement. Neither tsarist exile and prison, nor nazi torture-chambers and concentration camps, nor brutal murder could break the will of the Communists, their indomitable belief in the righteousness of their cause and their unflinching determination to fight for this cause. At the same time, no political movement in history has grown, broadened out and gone from one superb victory to another so doggedly as the communist movement.

A little more than a century ago, the founders of scientific communism set up the world’s first organisation of Communists. It consisted of a small group of people. Today the Communist Parties, of which there are 88, unite nearly 50,000,000 of the best, most courageous and finest sons and daughters of the working people. The world communist movement Has become the most influential force of modern times, and its influence continues to grow in length and breadth.

Communist Parties operate in the most diverse conditions and are faced with the most diverse tasks.

In the socialist countries the Communist Parties are at the helm of state, conducting extensive creative work, tackling challenging problems connected with economic development, the establishment of new, socialist relations and the communist education of the people, ensuring the defence of socialism’s gains and thereby helping the peoples of the non-socialist world in their revolutionary struggle. Under their leadership, the people have put an end to capitalist oppression and today are engaged in building socialism and communism. The creative work of the Communists of the socialist countries is of historic significance: it strengthens the international position of socialism and enhances the attractive force of its ideas throughout the world.

In the capitalist countries the Communist Parties operate in face of enormous difficulties created by the imperialist regimes. Many of them have been forced underground. They are persecuted, terrorised and, frequently, physically decimated by bourgeois reaction. They have still to lead the peoples of their countries to victory over capitalism, to the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Heading the struggle of the masses against the monopolies, they are forming the political army of the revolution in fierce class battles, working to extend their influence over the masses, for the interests of the proletariat and all working people. The Communists are the most active fighters for the unity of the working class. They come out against the treacherous policies of the Rightist leaders of the Social-Democratic Parties aimed at upholding capitalism and preserving the split in the working-class movement.

In Asia, Africa and Latin America the Communist Parties, born in the fire of the national liberation revolutions, are gaining strength, winning increasing influence and actively participating in the struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism. Their principal goal is successfully to complete the national liberation revolutions, consolidate national independence and lead their peoples towards progress, socialism and peace.

Despite the diversity of specific aims and tasks, the Communist Parties are promoting a single cause, directing the development of modern mankind from capitalism to socialism.

Strategy and Tactics

Marxism-Leninism, which studies general laws without which it is impossible to accomplish the socialist revolution and build socialist society, provides the theoretical foundation for the policy pursued by the Communist Parties. It adopts a specific historical approach to reality, underscoring the fact that the general laws of the building of socialism manifest themselves in their own way in each given country. An indispensable prerequisite of the success of the cause of communism throughout the world is that these specific conditions must be taken into consideration.

In the struggle against capitalism, for socialism and communism, the Communist Parties frame a definite political line, which finds concrete expression in strategy and tactics.

It will be remembered that in the pre-October period of the communist movement, the concept strategy was, practically speaking, never used, while tactics were taken to mean the entire Party policy. For example, in Two Tactics of the Social-Democratic Party in the Democratic Revolution, Lenin speaks of tactics as of the Party’s political line for the entire period of the preparations for and the actual consummation of the democratic revolution. He used the concept strategy to denote the Party’s political line only in some of his post-October works, but even then he did not strictly distinguish it from the concept tactics.

The contemporary communist movement takes strategy to mean the main direction or objective of the workingclass movement in a definite epoch of social development or, to use Lenin’s words, “the general and basic tasks" of the working class, of its Party. To define strategy means to define the principal goal of the movement, to distinguish the main class enemy against whom revolutionary efforts must be directed and win allies in the struggle against this enemy. As regards tactics, they are the totality of forms, methods and means of attaining the main goal in concrete circumstances. Tactics embrace a large variety of issues: the forms of struggle (economic, political, ideological; non-peaceful or peaceful); combinations of various forms of struggle; offensive, defence or retreat; compromise and agreements on the utilisation of 104antagonisms, conflicts and friction in the enemy’s camp; a united front with non-proletarian masses, and so on; and the “routine”, day-to-day activities of the Party in educating and organising the proletariat and other working people with the purpose of leading them to a revolutionary offensive, to the achievement of the main goal of the workingclass movement. “Marxist tactics consist in combining the different forms of struggle, in the skilful transition from one form to another, in steadily enhancing the consciousness of the masses and extending the area of their collective actions.” [104•*

Communists underscore the unity between strategy and tactics, the need to subordinate tactical tasks to strategic objectives, and require that a change in tactics should not denude them of their revolutionary content or distort the historic aim of the proletariat. They emphatically oppose the Right opportunists, who bury the revolutionary objectives of the struggle in oblivion, and the Left opportunists, who lump strategic and tactical tasks together, absolutising one or another form of struggle that has become obsolete by virtue of changes in the concrete situation.

Strategy is relatively permanent and stable, the changes in it depending upon the stage of development of one contingent of the world communist movement or another or of one country or another. As a rule, new strategic tasks are formulated when the preceding tasks have been carried out and the country has entered a new stage of development. For instance, when the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution are carried out, the Communist Party advances a new strategy, that of preparing for and accomplishing the socialist revolution. Tactics, on the other hand, are more mobile and dynamic: the forms and methods of struggle change with changes in the balance of class forces, in the conditions obtaining in the country concerned, and in the international situation. An important aim of working-class revolutionary tactics is, as Lenin put it, to “study, detect and predict" the features of the objective movement to communism by various countries and different contingents of Communists.

The policy of the Marxist party, its strategic and tactical leadership is a science and art. Politics is a science, for it rests on a profound scientific analysis of reality, of the alignment of class forces in a concrete situation. However, it is important not only to work out a correct policy but also successfully to implement it. This requires consummate skill. Without this skill any policy, even the most correct, will remain an empty declaration. For that reason politics is also an art.

The art of implementing policy is learned, first and foremost, in the course of the class struggle. Without passing through this practical school of struggle with its contradictions and difficulties, without experiencing the bitterness of setbacks and defeat and the joy of success and victory, it is impossible to master the art of strategic and tactical leadership. But this in no way means that every party must base itself solely on its own experience or go through the entire gamut of setbacks, errors and defeats. In mastering the art of political leadership it is important to study the experience of other parties, of the entire world communist movement.

Political art embraces the ability to work among the masses; to pool the efforts of different parties and groups, including those with whom there are acute divergences; to choose forms of struggle and opportunely apply them in conformity with a change in the concrete situation; to take the offensive when conditions allow it; and, correctly, tactically to retreat; and of numerous tasks to select the basic one and concentrate the Party’s efforts on it, and so forth.

One of the most important problems of strategy and tactics under capitalist conditions is that of forming and strengthening the alliance of the working class with the non-proletarian working masses, chiefly with the peasants*

The position and the aims and tasks of the workers and peasants have much in common. Both classes are exploited by the capitalists and, naturally, seek to liberate themselves from bourgeois economic and political rule. This community of aims creates th’e objective foundation for a firm alliance between these classes. However this alliance does not form of itself, spontaneously. It is created by the Communist Parties in the course of the struggle against capitalism, for a new social system.

The idea of this alliance is one of the corner-stones of Marxism-Leninism, of scientific communism. Underlying it is the teaching that only the working class can settle the eternal agrarian problem in favour of the peasants, give them the possibility of tilling for their own benefit land belonging either to them or to society as a whole. On the other hand, the working class can destroy capitalism and build socialist society only with the support and active participation of the peasant masses in the revolution.

The alliance of the working class with the peasants and other non-proletarian masses constitutes the social and political force of the revolution and, therefore, the setting up and consolidation of this alliance is one of the cardinal aims of the Communist Parties.

Lenin regarded revolution as the result of active creative work by the broad masses. But in order to convince the masses of the need for a revolution, of the need for their active participation in it, the Party must be able to work among the masses. The ability to work among and with the masses is the main feature in the Party’s political art. This applies not only to the ability to conduct agitation and propaganda but also the ability to make the masses see the need for carrying out the tasks set by the Party.

Lenin formulated the basic principles underlying the art of leading the masses, principles by which Communists are guided in pursuing their policy. They are:

“Link with the masses.

“Live in the thick of the masses.

“Know their mood.

“Know everything.

“Understand the masses.

“Know how to approach them.

“Win their absolute trust.

“Leaders must not isolate themselves from the masses whom they lead, the vanguard must not isolate itself from the army of labour.”

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General Line

Drawing upon Marxism–Leninism and generalising the more than century-long experience of the proletarian class struggle, the Communist Parties have, at their international Meetings in Moscow in 1957 and 1960, collectively charted the general line of the world communist and working-class movement.

This general line proceeds from an analysis of the nature of the present epoch, from the fact that the world working class and its principal creation, the world socialist system, stand at the hub of this epoch, whose content is the transition from capitalism to socialism. The socialist system is increasingly becoming the decisive factor of human development. Together with the revolutionary working-class movement of the capitalist countries, the national liberation movement and various democratic movements, the peoples building socialism and communism form a single, anti-imperialist revolutionary torrent that is undermining capitalism and establishing the new, socialist and communist society in the world.

The general line of the world communist movement is that of class struggle and socialist revolution. Communists believe that the revolutionary destruction of capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat are the means for transition to socialism, and that this transition can, as we have already pointed out, be accomplished in diverse forms.

The Communist Parties have always been and remain opposed to colonialism. They unconditionally support the national liberation movement, and press for the completion of the democratic, anti-imperialist revolution, the winning of genuine national independence and noncapitalist development.

Everywhere Communists are active fighters against imperialist reaction, for the democratic liberties and rights of the working people. They regard every anti-imperialist, democratic movement as an ally in the common struggle against capitalism, for socialism and social progress.

The communist movement is the most humane movement of the present epoch. It regards the struggle for peace and peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, for the preservation of the lives of millions of people, for the preservation of the material and spiritual values created by working people as one of its paramount tasks. In order to carry out this task the Communists unite the efforts of all peace-loving, anti-imperialist forces.108

Such is the general line of the present world communist movement. In short, it is a line of revolutionary struggle against capitalism, for the complete triumph of socialism and communism throughout the world, a line of struggle for national independence and democracy, to avert another world war. This line accords with the most cherished aspirations of the working people, with the loftiest human ideals.

It would be a grave delusion to think that the communist movement develops without contradictions and difficulties. Today, in the same way as decades ago, the Communists have to wage a Herculean struggle not only against the bourgeoisie, against the theoreticians and champions of the bourgeoisie, but also against opportunist trends within their own ranks, against revisionism and dogmatism.

Just as they used to do before, the revisionists, like the Social-Democratic leaders, renounce the socialist revolution and the proletarian dictatorship, the building of socialism and communism, and slur over the antagonisms of capitalism.

Arguing that Marxism arose in the 19th century and that we live in the 20th, the modern revisionists say that Marxism has become obsolete, that it must be “specified” and “corrected”, and in so doing they strip Marxism of its revolutionary essence. They claim that the new phenomena of modern capitalist reality, linked up with the growth of state-monopoly capitalism, with capitalist nationalisation and the attempts of the bourgeois state to regulate economic development, are indications that the very foundations of capitalism are changing, that capitalism is drawing ever closer to socialism, that it is “ crawling" into socialism.

The arguments that present-day capitalism is automatically developing into socialism obviously imply a renunciation of the class struggle, of the socialist revolution, of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of socialism. It is no secret that all the above-mentioned new developments in modern capitalism do not affect the foundations of capitalism—private ownership and exploitation. Capitalism has remained unchanged and it can be transformed into 109socialism only by a socialist revolution and the proletarian dictatorship.

Subjectively speaking, the dogmatists and sectarians are for revolution. Moreover, they regard themselves as genuine revolutionaries and press for the immediate destruction of capitalism by a “revolutionary war”. They seek to push the development of the world revolution by force of arms, to impose socialism on nations from without, caring nothing whether the conditions for socialism are ripe in the given country or whether the people of a given country are prepared to accept socialism. They turn a blind eye to the fact that today, when monstrous weapons of destruction are available, a “revolutionary war" against world capitalism will inevitably become a world thermonuclear catastrophe. This war would claim hundreds of millions of lives, wipe entire nations and countries off the face of the earth and civilisation would be thrust far back.

In spreading views that are incompatible with the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, the dogmatists usually allude to quotations, in particular, from the works of Lenin, who, some half a century ago, wrote that wars are the inescapable fellow-traveller of imperialism. True, the aggressive nature of imperialism has not changed, and it is, therefore, quite possible that the reactionary imperialist forces will try to start another war. But, as nobody can fail to see, this would be much more difficult to do today than before. World peace is guarded by the mighty socialist system, many non-socialist countries and the broad masses. And this has enabled Marxists-Leninists to draw the conclusion that world wars are not inevitable in the present epoch.

Dogmatism, as we can see, consists of inability and unwillingness to take into account the concrete situation, the changes that have taken place in the world, of blind devotion to obsolete and outworn quotations. Is this not also the substance of revisionism, whose adherents have likewise failed or refused to understand the changes in modern capitalism? The inability to analyse and assess the new situation and to formulate tactics in accordance with this situation is a feature of all kinds of opportunism, from revisionism to dogmatism. The revisionists are 110against the socialist revolution. The dogmatists clamour for an immediate “world revolution”, which, whether they want it or not, will damage the revolution irreparably. Both the dogmatists and the revisionists thereby bring grist to the mill of the bourgeoisie, and it turns out that revisionism and dogmatism are the two sides of one and the same coin.

As was noted in the decisions passed by the 23rd Congress of the C.P.S.U., “deviations to the ‘left’ or right of the Marxist-Leninist line are doubly dangerous when associated with nationalism and hegemonistic ambition".

Differences among Communists are a serious matter, but it does not mean that they are insuperable. They can and must be overcome, because the cohesion of the world communist movement is a key condition for the success of the struggle against capitalism, for socialism and communism.

Differences among Communists in theoretical and political issues can be settled only on the principled foundation of Marxism-Leninism, of proletarian internationalism. The basis of this unity, which the Communists of the Soviet Union and all other real Marxists-Leninists work with such perseverance to attain, is fidelity to MarxismLeninism, to the cause of the world socialist revolution, the cause of the working class and all other working people.

Practice, the development of political life itself is an important means of settling differences. These differences, Lenin wrote, are frequently resolved “by those with incorrect opinions going over in fact to the correct path of struggle, under pressure of the course of developments that simply brush aside erroneous opinions, making them pointless and devoid of any interest”. He said that decisions should be verified as frequently as possible in the light of new political developments. [110•*

Inasmuch as the world communist movement embraces equal and independent parties and, inasmuch as in this movement no party can be predominant or subordinated to the domination of another party, the only possible way of resolving outstanding issues is by joint, collective discussion.

This implies debating the issues, stating and listening to opinions, finding the view of the majority, expressing this majority view in a decision and conscientiously abiding by the decision. That is the road chosen by the international conferences of Communists, at which pressing problems of the day are discussed and agreed decisions are taken on major problems of the revolutionary struggle.

Naturally, differences between Communist Parties cannot be settled at once. Time and patience are required. Moreover, as was noted at the Consultative Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Moscow in March 1965, it is important to accentuate not differences but points of agreement, to focus attention on finding ways and means enabling all fraternal parties to take joint, co-ordinated action against the common enemy, for the earliest attainment of the common goal.

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Notes

[110•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 9, p. 146.

[104•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 210.

[97•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, pp. 71–72.