Fight for the Pacific -Lenin and Stalin on the revolution in China

Fight for the Pacific 

V.Y. Avarin

2. Lenin and Stalin on the revolution in China

Lenin and Stalin in their writings paid great attention to the social movement in China.

From the end of the last century, Lenin devoted several articles to an analysis of the situation in China; in these articles he exposed the predatory policy of the imperialists in China and outlined the paths to the liberation of the working masses of the great people of Asia.

Lenin repeatedly emphasized the great importance of the struggle of the Chinese and other peoples of the colonial countries in the world struggle against imperialism and tirelessly pointed out that it was the duty of the working class to give all possible assistance to the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the colonies.

In 1912, the Prague Conference of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks) adopted a special resolution “On the Chinese Revolution” proposed and written by V. I. Lenin, which stated that the conference “states the world significance of the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people, bringing the liberation of Asia and undermining the domination of the European bourgeoisie, salutes the revolutionary republicans of China, testifies to the deep enthusiasm and complete sympathy with which the proletariat of Russia follows the successes of the revolutionary people in China, and denounces the behavior of Russian liberalism, which supports the policy of conquest of tsarism ” (1) .

The brilliant theoretical works of Lenin and Stalin on the national question were of tremendous importance for the national liberation movement of the Chinese people, as well as for all the oppressed peoples of the world. Lenin's articles "On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination", "Critical Notes on the National Question", Comrade Stalin's work "Marxism and the National Question", published in 1913, and other works by Lenin and Stalin, were for the Chinese Communist Party, as well as for communist and the workers' parties of all countries, a revolutionary Marxist program on the national question, showing a clear path.

Lenin and Stalin showed that “the national question can be resolved only in connection with and on the basis of the proletarian revolution, that the path of the victory of the revolution in the West passes through a revolutionary alliance with the liberation movement of the colonies and dependent countries against imperialism. The national question is part of the general question of the proletarian revolution, part of the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Based on the ideas of Marx and Engels, Lenin developed the question of the highest stage of capitalism - imperialism as the eve of the social revolution of the proletariat and created a coherent system of views on national-colonial revolutions in the era of imperialism. He showed that the national-colonial question and the question of the overthrow of imperialism are closely linked, and that the national liberation struggle in the colonial world is an integral part of the international proletarian revolution.

Developing the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, and in particular the doctrine of the liberation struggle of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples, as applied to new historical conditions, Comrade Stalin paid special attention to the question of the hegemony of the working class in the revolutionary struggle in the colonies and dependent countries. He also showed that the only correct method for the liberation of the oppressed peoples is the proletarian, international method, which leads to a fraternal union of the workers and peasants of the most diverse peoples on the basis of voluntariness and internationalism.

In his teaching on the national liberation movement in the colonies and oppressed countries, Lenin always decisively pointed out that the revolutionary role of the working masses of the colonial and semi-colonial countries, who constitute the majority of the world's population, must be properly assessed and taken into account when determining the revolutionary tactics and strategy of the proletariat. . Speaking of the working masses of China and other countries of the colonial world, Lenin emphasized: 

“The imperialist war of 1914-1918 and Soviet power in Russia are finally turning these masses into an active factor in world politics and the revolutionary destruction of imperialism, although this is not yet seen by the stubbornly educated bourgeoisie of Europe and America, including the leaders of the 2nd and 2 1/2 Internationals" (3) .

Analyzing the state of the social movement in the colonial world, V.I. Lenin in 1916 pointed out that in the colonial and semi-colonial countries “...bourgeois-democratic movements are partly barely beginning, partly far from being completed ... socialists must most resolutely support the most revolutionary elements of the bourgeois-democratic national liberation movements in these countries and to help them rise up—and, on occasion, their revolutionary war—against the imperialist powers that oppress them” (4).

Considering inevitable anti-imperialist uprisings and national liberation wars in countries oppressed by monopoly capital, Lenin emphatically declared that "wars, through which the exploited popular masses achieve freedom and strive to take the path of progressive development, are undeniably revolutionary and deserve all the support of the international proletariat, " ... in China, Persia, India and other dependent countries," - said Lenin in 1915, -" over the past decades, we have seen a policy of awakening tens and hundreds of millions of people to the national life, liberating them from the oppression of the reactionary "great" powers. A war on such a historical basis can now be bourgeois-progressive, national liberation" (5) .

Explaining after the victory of the socialist revolutions in Russia that the victory of the forces of socialism over world capitalism would be achieved as a result of the joint struggle of the first socialist country and the oppressed peoples of China, India, and other countries against the system of imperialism, Lenin pointed out that "in the very mass character of the liberation movement lies the guarantee of the final victory of socialism".

“The outcome of the struggle,” Lenin wrote, “depends, in the final analysis, on the fact that Russia, India, China, etc. constitute the gigantic majority of the population. And it is precisely this majority of the population that has been drawn with extraordinary rapidity in recent years into the struggle for its liberation, so that in this sense there can be no shadow of doubt as to what the final solution of the world struggle will be. In this sense, the final victory of socialism is completely and unconditionally assured..

Sun Yat-sen bowed before Lenin as before a great revolutionary leader, whose teaching is a beacon leading all enslaved peoples to freedom. Speaking at a morning meeting dedicated to the memory of Lenin, Sun Yat-sen said:  “You showed us the way for a joint struggle ... I want to follow your path, and although my enemies are against it, my people will greet me for it.” In another speech, Sun Yat-sen declared: "Lenin was the leader of the revolutionary movement of the whole world and the greatest man, a fighter for the liberation of the oppressed peoples, who showed everyone a new path to liberation."

The teachings of Lenin and Stalin, which indicated the paths of the national liberation struggle in the colonies and semi-colonies, and in particular in China, the greatest semi-colony in the world, were a guiding star for the Chinese Communists. The great successor of Lenin's work, Stalin, paid special attention to the liberation struggle of the Chinese people. He inspired the working people of China to this sacred struggle and strengthened their confidence in victory. “The strength of the revolutionary movement in China is incredible. They haven't shown up properly yet. They will still have an impact in the future" (7). These prophetic words of Comrade Stalin were heard in December 1925 from the rostrum of the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party. And even earlier, in the spring of 1925, Comrade Stalin said with unshakable confidence that the Chinese people "will not obey the laws of foreign robbers." “Does the growth of the revolutionary movement in China,” asked Comrade Stalin, “do not mean that the machinations of foreign imperialists are doomed to failure?” (8) .

In 1925-1927, in a whole series of his works and speeches devoted to the great liberation struggle of the Chinese people, Comrade Stalin exposed the wrecking inventions of the Trotskyite traitors on the questions of the Chinese revolution and revealed the features of the Chinese revolution, only by taking into account which it was possible to implement a correct policy and correct leadership of the revolutionary movement.

Developing the Marxist-Leninist theory as applied to the conditions of China, Comrade Stalin established the laws governing the people's liberation struggle in that country. A theoretical generalization of the experience of the Chinese revolutionary movement with exhaustive completeness was given by Comrade Stalin in his works devoted to the struggle of social forces in China. In these works, the prospects for the revolutionary struggle were clearly defined, and based on the brilliant Stalinist analysis, strategic and tactical principles were put forward, following which the Chinese proletariat and its vanguard, the Communist Party, could overcome all hostile forces and lead the Chinese working masses to complete victory.

In the historical work The Revolution in China and the Tasks of the Comintern, Comrade Stalin explained that “the revolution in China is a combination of two streams of revolutionary movement—the movement against feudal survivals and the movement against imperialism. The bourgeois-democratic revolution in China is a combination of the struggle against feudal survivals with the struggle against imperialism” (9) .

In "A Conversation with Students of the Sun Yat-sen University," Comrade Stalin gave a detailed program of strategy for the Chinese Communist Party. In particular, posing the question: “What is required in order to make it easier for the Chinese proletariat to play the role of leader, the role of hegemon in the present bourgeois-democratic revolution?” Comrade Stalin replied: "This requires, first of all, that the Chinese Communist Party be a solid organization of the working class with its own program, with its own platform, with its own organization, with its own line." Further, Comrade Stalin pointed out that the communists should lead the peasants in carrying out the agrarian revolution, strengthen themselves in the army and turn it into an instrument of revolution, and pursue "a resolute policy for the further unleashing of the revolution both against the landlords and against imperialism" (10) .

The wise Stalinist instructions brightly illuminated the path of the heroic Chinese Communist Party. This party put forward figures of the Bolshevik type, who, as a result of a decisive struggle, repulsed the attacks of the agents of the class enemy. Talented revolutionary leaders, hardened in the struggle, led the party along the Leninist-Stalinist path, which alone could lead the Chinese people to victory. The tried and tested leader of the popular masses of China, Mao Tse-tung, always taught the Chinese Communists to follow unrelentingly the teachings of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, to wage a ruthless struggle against deviations from the Bolshevik line.

In 1939, at a meeting in Yan'an dedicated to Comrade Stalin's 60th birthday, Mao Tse-tung again reminded the Chinese revolutionaries that they should learn from Comrade Stalin both in theory and practice. The words of Mao Tse-tung, full of hope and confidence in ultimate success, have penetrated deep into the heart of every Chinese patriot, although they were uttered at a time when the Chinese people were fighting under particularly difficult conditions against Japanese imperialism, armed to the teeth and occupying the most important regions of China. The leader of the Chinese Communist Party said then: 

“The fact that Stalin has appeared in the world is truly a blessing. Now that the Soviet Union exists, the Communist Party exists, and there is Stalin, things in this world have gone smoothly” (11) .

Mao Tse-tung urged the Chinese Communists to use Comrade Stalin's great work, A Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, as the most important teaching material in the study of Marxism-Leninism. In his work Let's Rebuild Our Education, Mao Tse-tung wrote: “The history of the CPSU(b) is the highest synthesis, the highest generalization of the communist movement throughout the world over the past hundred years, the only full-fledged example of the unity of theory and practice in the whole world. From the example of how Lenin and Stalin connected the general theoretical truths of Marxism with the concrete practice of the October Revolution and developed Marxism on this basis, we can learn how we should work in China” (12) .

The Leninist-Stalinist doctrine of the great significance of proletarian internationalism, of the close connection and interdependence of the revolutionary struggle of all the peoples of the world, was firmly assimilated by the revolutionaries of China. Having adopted the Marxist-Leninist theory, the Chinese Communist Party has become an invincible force.

The Chinese Communist Party has absorbed all the best elements of the working class and the entire working people, their experience, their revolutionary spirit. In accordance with Comrade Stalin's teaching on the Party, it has become a genuine vanguard of the working class, capable of raising the masses to the level of the class interests of the proletariat, has become the military headquarters of the proletariat.

The Communist Party has also become a highly organized detachment of the working class, strictly adhering to the principle of subordinating the minority to the majority, the principle of systematic leadership of party work from the center.

The Communist Party of China has shown itself in all its activities as the highest form of class organization of the proletariat, which determines the general direction of the work of other people's organizations and develops the general line of all their activities. The Chinese Communist Party has become a reliable tool for the proletariat to win the leadership of the liberation struggle; it has shown itself to be a united organization with firm discipline, which does not allow the existence of factions in its ranks, and resolutely purifies its ranks of opportunist elements.

Precisely because the Chinese Communist Party was guided by Stalin's doctrine of a new type of party, it followed the path of success and victories. This party, led by hard-fought revolutionary leaders led by Mao Tse-tung, deserved the endless gratitude with which the working masses of China address it in songs and folk tales. The party of brave fighters for the cause of the people is truly worthy of such words as the words of the poet Wang Xue-bo:

The communists opened the

way for us to victories,

and without the communists

there is no China.

A communist loves

his people, a

communist

fearlessly goes into battle.

The will of the communists

gave

us life.

The path of the communist, like

an arrow, is straight.

(1) V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 17, p. 435.

(2) J. V. Stalin, Soch., vol. 6, p. 141.

(3) V. I. Lenin, Soch. ., vol. 32, p. 430.

(4) V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 22, p. 140.

(5) V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 21, p. 276.

(6) V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 33, p. 458.

(7) I. V. Stalin, Soch., vol. 7, p. 293.

(8) Ibid., p. 99.

(9) I. V. Stalin, Soch., vol. 9, pp. 286-287.

(10) Ibid., pp. 264-265.

(11) Bolshevik, No. 17, 1950, p. 53.

(12) Ibid., p. 61.