Sino-Soviet Split Document Archive
Source: Communist Party of China. The Polemic on the General Line of the International Communist Movement.
Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965. Pp. 481-92.
OCR and HTML: Juan Fajardo, for marxists.org, April 2010.
KHRUSHCHOV has fallen.
This arch-schemer who usurped the leadership of the Soviet Party and state, this number one representative of modern revisionism, has finally been driven off the stage of history.
This is a very good thing and is advantageous to the revolutionary cause of the people of the world.
The collapse of Khrushchov is a great victory for the Marxist-Leninists of the world in their persistent struggle against revisionism. It marks the bankruptcy, the fiasco, of modern revisionism.
How was it that Khrushchov fell? Why couldn't he muddle on any longer?
This question has aroused different comments from different political groups all over the world.
The imperialists, the reactionaries, and the opportunists and revisionists of all shades, whether they sympathize with Khrushchov or have had conflicts of interest with him, have expressed varied views on the sudden collapse of this seemingly "strong man", Khrushchov.
Many Communist and Workers' Parties have also published articles or documents expressing their opinion on Khrushchov's downfall.
In the present article we too would like to discuss the question of Khrushchov's downfall.
For Marxist-Leninists, this downfall is not something which is hard to understand. Indeed, it may be said to have been fully expected. Marxist-Leninists had long foreseen that Khrushchov would come to such an end.
People may list hundreds or even thousands of charges against Khrushchov to account for his collapse. But the most important one of all is that he has vainly tried to obstruct the advance of history, flying in the face of the law of historical development as discovered by Marxism-Leninism and of the revolutionary will of the people of the Soviet Union and the whole world. Any obstacle on the peoples road of advance must be removed. The people were sure to reject Khrushchov, whether he and his kind liked it or not. Khrushchov's downfall is the inevitable result of the anti-revisionist struggle waged staunchly by the people of the Soviet Union and revolutionary people throughout the world.
Ours is an epoch in which world capitalism and imperialism are moving to their doom and socialism and communism are marching towards victory. The historic mission this epoch has placed on the people is to bring the proletarian world revolution step by step to complete victory and establish a new world without imperialism, without capitalism and without the exploitation of man by man through their own efforts and in the light of the concrete conditions of their respective countries. This is the inexorable trend of historical development, and the common demand of the revolutionary people of the world. This historical trend is an objective law which operates independently of man's will, and it is irresistible. But Khrushchov, this buffoon on the contemporary political stage, chose to go against this trend in the vain hope of turning the wheel of history back onto the old capitalist road and of thus prolonging the life of the moribund exploiting classes and their moribund system of exploitation.
Khrushchov collected all the anti-Marxist views of history's opportunists and revisionists and out of them knocked together a fullfledged revisionist line consisting of "peaceful coexistence", "peaceful competition", "peaceful transition", "the state of the whole people" and "the party of the entire people". He pursued a capitulationist line towards imperialism and used the theory of class conciliation to oppose and liquidate the people's revolutionary struggles. In the international communist movement, he enforced a divisive line, replacing proletarian internationalism with great-power chauvinism. In the Soviet Union he worked hard to disintegrate the dictatorship of the proletariat, attempting to replace the socialist system with the ideology, politics, economy and culture of the bourgeoisie, and to restore capitalism.
In the last eleven years, exploiting the prestige of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of the first socialist country that had been built up under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, Khrushchov did all the bad things he possibly could in contravention of the genuine will of the Soviet people. These bad things may be summed up as follows:
1. On the pretext of "combating the personality cult" and using the most scurrilous language, he railed at Stalin, the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people. In opposing Stalin, he opposed Marxism-Leninism. He tried at one stroke to write off all the great achievements of the Soviet people in the entire period under Stalin's leadership in order to defame the dictatorship of the proletariat, the socialist system, the great Soviet Communist Party, the great Soviet Union and the international communist movement. In so doing, Khrushchov provided the imperialists and the reactionaries of all countries with the dirtiest of weapons for their anti-Soviet and anti-Communist activities.
2. In open violation of the Declaration of 1957 and the Statement of 1960, he sought "all-round co-operation" with U.S. imperialism and fallaciously maintained that the heads of the Soviet Union and the United States would "decide the fate of humanity", constantly praising the chieftains of U.S. imperialism as "having a sincere desire for peace". Pursuing an adventurist policy at one moment, he transported guided missiles to Cuba, and pursuing a capitulationist policy at another, he docilely withdrew the missiles and bombers from Cuba on the order of the U.S. pirates. He accepted inspection by the U.S. fleet and even tried to sell out Cuba's sovereignty by agreeing, behind the Cuban Government's back, to the "inspection" of Cuba by the United Nations, which is under U.S. control. In so doing, Khrushchov brought a humiliating disgrace upon the great Soviet people unheard of in the forty years and more since the October Revolution. 3. To cater to the U.S. imperialist policy of nuclear blackmail and prevent socialist China from building up her own nuclear strength for self-defence, he did not hesitate to damage the defense capabilities of the Soviet Union itself and concluded the so-called partial nuclear test ban treaty in collusion with the two imperialist powers of the United States and Britain. Facts have shown that this treaty is a pure swindle. In signing this treaty Khrushchov perversely tried to sell out the interests of the Soviet people, the people of all the socialist countries and all the peace-loving people of the world.
4. In the name of "peaceful transition" he tried by every means to obstruct the revolutionary movements of the people in the capitalist countries, demanding that they take the so-called legal, parliamentary road. This erroneous line paralyses the revolutionary will of the proletariat and disarms the revolutionary people ideologically, causing serious setbacks to the cause of revolution in certain countries. It has made the Communist Parties in a number of capitalist countries lifeless social-democratic parties of a new type and caused them to degenerate into servile tools of the bourgeoisie.
5. Under the signboard of "peaceful coexistence" he did his utmost to oppose and sabotage the national liberation movement and went so far as to work hand in glove with U.S. imperialism in suppressing the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations. He instructed the Soviet delegate at the United Nations to vote for the dispatch of forces of aggression to the Congo, which helped the U.S. imperialists to suppress the Congolese people, and he used Soviet transport facilities to move these so-called United Nations troops to the Congo. He actually opposed the revolutionary struggles of the Algerian people, describing the Algerian national liberation struggle as an "internal affair" of France. He had the audacity to "stand aloof" over the events in the Gulf of Bac Bo engineered by U.S. imperialism against Viet Nam, and cudgelled his brains for ways to help the U.S. provocateurs get out of their predicament and to whitewash the criminal aggression of the U.S. pirates.
6. In brazen violation of the Statement of 1960, he spared no effort to reverse its verdict on the renegade Tito clique, describing Tito who had degenerated into a lackey of U.S. imperialism as a "Marxist-Leninist" and Yugoslavia which had degenerated into a capitalist country as a "socialist country". Time and again he declared that he and the Tito clique had "the same ideology" and were "guided by the same theory" and expressed his desire to learn modestly from this renegade who had betrayed the interests of the Yugoslav people and sabotaged the international communist movement.
7. He regarded Albania, a fraternal socialist country, as his sworn enemy, devising every possible means to injure and undermine it, and only wishing he could devour it in one gulp. He brazenly broke off all economic and diplomatic relations with Albania, arbitrarily deprived it of its legitimate rights as a member state in the Warsaw Treaty Organization and in the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, and publicly called for the overthrow of its Party and state leadership.
8. He nourished an inveterate hatred for the Communist Party of China which upholds Marxism-Leninism and a revolutionary line, because the Chinese Communist Party was a great obstacle to his effort to press on with revisionism and capitulationism. He spread innumerable rumours and slanders against the Chinese Communist Party and Comrade Mao-Tsetung and resorted to every kind of baseness in his futile attempt to subvert socialist China. He perfidiously tore up several hundred agreements and contracts and arbitrarily withdrew more than one thousand Soviet experts working in China. He engineered border disputes between China and the Soviet Union and even conducted large-scale subversive activities in Sinkiang. He backed the reactionaries of India in their armed attacks on socialist China and, together with the United States, incited and helped them to perpetrate armed provocations against China by giving them military aid.
9. In flagrant violation of the principles guiding relations among the fraternal countries, he encroached upon their independence and sovereignty and wilfully interfered in their internal affairs. In the name of "mutual economic assistance", he opposed the independent development of the economies of fraternal countries and forced them to become a source of raw materials and an outlet for finished goods, thus reducing their industries to appendages. He bragged that these were all new theories and doctrines of his own invention, but in fact they were the jungle law of the capitalist world which he applied to relations among socialist countries, taking the Common Market of the monopoly capitalist blocs as his model.
10. In complete violation of the principles guiding relations among fraternal Parties, he resorted to all sorts of schemes to carry out subversive and disruptive activities against them. Not only did he use the sessions of the Central Committee and Congress of his own Party as well as the Congresses of some fraternal Parties to launch overt large-scale unbridled attacks on the fraternal Parties which uphold Marxism-Leninism, but in the case of many fraternal Parties he shamelessly bought over political degenerates, renegades and turncoats to support his revisionist line, to attack and even illegally expel Marxist-Leninists from these Parties, thus creating splits without considering the consequences.
11. He wantonly violated the principle of reaching unanimity through consultation among fraternal Parties and, playing the "patriarchal father Party" role, he wilfully decided to convene an illegal international meeting of the fraternal Parties. In the notice dated July 30, 1964, he ordered that a meeting of the so-called drafting committee of the twenty-six fraternal Parties be held on December 15 this year, so as to create an open split in the international communist movement.
12. To cater to the needs of the imperialists and the domestic forces of capitalism, he pursued a series of revisionist policies leading back to capitalism. Under the signboard of the "state of the whole people", he abolished the dictatorship of the proletariat; under the signboard of the "party of the entire people", he altered the proletarian character of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and divided the Party into an "industrial" and an "agricultural" Party in contravention of the Marxist-Leninist principle of Party organization. Under the signboard of "full-scale communist construction" he tried in a thousand and one ways to switch back to the old path of capitalism the world's first socialist state which the Soviet people under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin had created by their sweat and blood. His blind direction of Soviet agriculture and industry wrought great havoc with the Soviet national economy and brought great difficulties to the life of the Soviet people.
Everything Khrushchov did over the last eleven years proves that the policy he pursued was one of alliance with imperialism against socialism, alliance with the United States against China, alliance with the reactionaries everywhere against the national liberation movements and the people's revolutions, and alliance with the Tito clique and renegades of all descriptions against all Marxist-Leninist fraternal Parties and all revolutionaries fighting imperialism. This policy of Khrushchov's has jeopardized the basic interests of the Soviet people, the people of the countries of the socialist camp and the revolutionary people all over the world.
Such are the so-called meritorious deeds of Khrushchov.
The downfall of a fellow like Khrushchov is certainly not due to old age or ill health, nor is it merely due to mistakes in his methods of work and style of leadership. Khrushchov's downfall is the result of the revisionist general line and the many erroneous policies he pursued at home and abroad.
Khrushchov considered the masses of the people as simply beneath his notice, thinking that he could manipulate the destiny of the Soviet people at his own sweet will and that the "heads" of the two great powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, could settle the destiny of the people of all countries. To him, the people were nothing but fools and he alone was the "hero" making history. He vainly tried to force the Soviet people and the people of other countries to prostrate themselves under his revisionist baton. Thus he placed himself in direct opposition to the Soviet people, to the people of the countries of the socialist camp and to the proletariat and revolutionary people of the whole world, and got himself into an impasse -- he was deserted by his own followers and could not extricate himself from internal and external difficulties. He put the noose around his own neck -- dug his own grave.
History has witnessed many buffoons who cherished the idle hope of turning back the tide of history, but they all came to an ignominious end. Countless instances have demonstrated that the evil-doer who goes counter to the needs of social development and the will of the people can only end up as a ridiculous good-for-nothing, no matter what kind of "hero" he may have been, and no matter how arrogant. To start with the aim of doing harm to others only to end up by ruining oneself -- such is the general law governing these people.
"Personages" such as Bakunin in the period of the First International were arrogant anti-Marxist "heroes" in their day, but they were soon relegated to the garbage-heap of history. Anti-Marxist "heroes" like Bernstein and Kautsky in the period of the Second International were once "formidable giants" entrenched in leading positions, but in the end history wrote them down as notorious renegades. Trotsky, the ringleader of the opposition faction, decked himself out as a "hero" after Lenin's death, but facts confirmed the correctness of Stalin's remark: ". . . he resembles an actor rather than a hero; and an actor should not be confused with a hero under any circumstances."
"But progress is the eternal law of man's world." History has taught us that whoever wants to stop the wheel of history will be ground to dust. As Comrade Mao Tse-tung has repeatedly pointed out, imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers, and the revisionists are too. However rampant and overbearing they may be, "heroes" representing reactionary classes and reactionary forces are actually paper tigers, powerful only in appearance; they are only fleeting transients soon to be overwhelmed by the surging waves of history. Khrushchov is no exception. Just think of his inordinate arrogance in the days when he viciously attacked Stalin and Marxism-Leninism at the 20th and 22nd Congresses, and when at the Bucharest meeting he launched his surprise attack on the Chinese Communist Party which upholds Marxism-Leninism. But it did not take long for this anti-Soviet, anti-Communist and anti-Chinese "hero" to meet the same fate as his revisionist predecessors. However much people reasoned with him and asked him to return to the fold, he paid not the slightest heed and finally plunged to his doom.
Khrushchov has fallen and the revisionist line he enthusiastically pursued is discredited, but Marxism-Leninism will continue to overcome the revisionist trend and forge ahead, and the revolutionary movement of the people of all countries will continue to sweep away the obstacles in its path and surge forward.
Nevertheless, the course of history will continue to be tortuous. Although Khrushchov has fallen, his supporters -- the U.S. imperialists, the reactionaries and the modern revisionists -- will not resign themselves to this failure. These ogres are continuing to pray for Khrushchov and are trying to "resurrect" him with their incantations, vociferously proclaiming his "contributions" and "meritorious deeds" in the hope that events will develop along the lines prescribed by Khrushchov, so that "Khrushchevism without Khrushchev" may prevail. It can be asserted categorically that theirs is a blind alley.
Different ideological trends and their representatives invariably strive to take the stage and perform It is entirely up to them to decide which direction they will take. But there is one point on which we have not the slightest doubt. History will develop in accordance with the laws discovered by Marxism-Leninism; it will march forward along the road of the October Revolution. Beyond all doubt, the great Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the great Soviet people, with their revolutionary traditions, are fully capable of making new contributions in safeguarding the great socialist achievements, the lofty prestige of the first socialist power founded by Lenin, the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the victorious advance of the revolutionary cause of the proletariat.
Let the international communist movement unite on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!