Sino-Soviet Split Document Archive
Source: "The Anti-Soviet Policy of Mao Tse-tung
and His Group," Soviet News, No. 5370 (February 17, 1967), pp.
93-96. The original editorial article, of which this is a translation, appeared in Pravda
on February 16, 1967.
Transcription: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/geoghist/histories/histdocts/Biblio20/A20/Pravda/1967pravda-china.html.
HTML: Adjusted for marxists.org, April 2010.
During the past half century our party and our people have more than once had to withstand fierce attacks by hostile forces against the first socialist state in the history of mankind. If, however, we omit the periods of war, the periods of direct armed aggression against the Soviet Union, it can be said that never before has such a fierce campaign been waged against it as the one launched by the present leaders of China....
In their shameless violations of the existing standards and customs of international law the Chinese authorities go to lengths which even the most reactionary of imperialist governments have rarely permitted themselves....
What are the organisers of the campaign of hatred against the Soviet Union trying to achieve?
The facts show that the persons who are today directing the policy of China, are setting themselves the goal not only of bringing up the Chinese people in a spirit of enmity towards the U.S.S.R. but of worsening SovietChinese relations to the limit, and, in the last analysis, bringing those relations to the point of a complete break. . . .
Another question arises in this connection: Why does the Mao Tse-tung group need this worsening of the position and what goals is it pursuing? The answer to this question should be sought in the entire nationalistic, greatpower policy of the present Chinese leadership....
Nor can there be any doubt either about the fact that one of the direct reasons for the anti-Soviet policy and the anti-Soviet propaganda of the present Chinese leadership is a desire to divert the attention of the Chinese people from the privations and difficulties they are experiencing and from the many mistakes and failures in the domestic and foreign policy of China. Here we are actually confronted with the old and hackneyed method employed by all unprincipled politicians when facing bankruptcy....
It was by no means accidental that they fired their first shots in the political war against the Soviet state and the C.P.S.U. shortly after the failure of the ill-starred policy of the "Great Leap" and the "people's communes." As the scale of the setbacks in domestic policy and the failure of the line in the foreign policy pursued by the C.P.C. leadership, which led the country to isolation, became increasingly clear, the intensity of the anti-Soviet campaign grew more and more. . . .
In an atmosphere of tense struggle inside the party and among the people, Mao Tse-tung's group needed this slander precisely in the interests of the power struggle. Mao Tse-tung simply could not have remained in power without such slander, because the Soviet Union's successes in building communism and the successes in building socialism in other countries expose his apostasy and the bankruptcy of his political line..
The entire practice of the C.P.S.U. and the other Communist Parties which are consistently developing Lenimst standards in inner-party life, strengthening the principles of collective leadership and strictly adhering to democratic principles in the activities of all party organisations from top to bottom, naturally creates a danger to Mao Tse-tung and his power, for Mao Tse-tung's group has long been attacking its own party. The most elementary standards and principles of inner party life-the elective nature of party bodies, the responsibility of leaders to the party and party organisations, publicity in the discussion of the party line, etc.-bave been trampled underfoot in China. The cult of the personality of Mao Tse-tung has reached absurd lengths and has become actual idolatry ...
The anti-Soviet campaign of the Chinese leaders is being waged in the most outrageous ways, with real hooliganism.
However, the fact that it apparently assumes the character of an offensive should not deceive anyone. In reality, the actions of Mao Tse-tung's group are motivated not by their strength but by their weakness, by their fear of their own party and their own people. The most recent events show that the Peking leaders have sufficient grounds for that fear. The "cultural revolution " has brought to light the great degree of dissatisfaction that exists among the workers, peasants and in tellectuals -dissatisf action which has spread even to the army and the youth on whom Mao Tse-tung's group is gambling. The events which began under the banner of the "cultural revolution" have actually developed into a fierce struggle by Mao Tse-tung and his followers to retain power, Their policy shows that for the sake of power they are ready to sacrifice everything - the interests of socialism, the interests of their people and the interests of the revolution....
The main thing is, however, that already today Mao Tse-tung and his entourage, by their policy, are rendering invaluable services to the imperialists.
This group has actually replaced the struggle against imperialism by a struggle against the Soviet Union and the otlier socialist countries, and against the communist movement. It is thereby weakening the front Of the anti-imperialist forces and worsening the entire political situation in Asia. All this is, in the first place, a stab in the back for the heroic Vietnamese people in their struggle against the American aggressors, Imperialist circles fully approve of this line of Mao Tse-tung's group. The Washington Post has said that officials in Washington believe that Mao is serving American interests and they are therefore even thinking of cultivating Maoism as a means of bringing pressure to bear on Moscow. The magazine United States News and World Report has directly stated in this connection that the United States is gambling oil Mao and that American officials tend to prefer a victory for Mao Tse-tung in his struggle to destroy more nioderate elements, because that would mean more trouble for Soviet Russia.
Such is the reaction of imperialist Circles to Mao Tse-tung's policy, which is advertised in Peking propaganda as the very latest thing in "revolutionariness." Praise of this kind from the class enemy is yet another proof of the extent to which the domestic and foreign policy of Mao Tse-tung and his group is contrary to tbe interests of socialism, to the interests of the revolution, and plavs into the bands of imperialism, and in the first place, United States imperialism. . . .
Having replaced the struggle against imperialism with a struggle against the Soviet Union, against the whole socialist community, and against the international communist and liberation movements, Mao Tse-tung's group is doing considerable harm to the cause of world socialism, including harm to the Chinese people and the cause of building socialism in China. The adventurist anti-Leninist policy of this group has in store for the Chinese people only a further worsening of economic difficulties, a lowering of living standards, a deterioration in the international situation and the prospect of China becoming completely isolated from the socialist community.