K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

THE SECOND IMPERIALIST WAR
undertook by themselves a robbers’ war of pillage.
The Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations lasted from April 15 to
August 23 . . . but from beginning to end, England and France refused
to recognize the principle of equality and reciprocity. They
wanted the Soviet Union to guarantee their security, but they were
absolutely unwilling to guarantee the security of the Soviet Union
or of the small countries of the Baltic. . . . In addition, they would
not allow the Soviet Army to cross Poland to fight the aggressor.
Naturally, the Soviet Union was not willing to conclude a treaty like
that proposed by England and France, which would not have been
adapted to revolutionary aims but only to counter-revolutionary aims.
. . . This is the basic reason for the rupture of the Anglo-Franco-
FROM MARX
TO MAO
Soviet negotiations. At this point, Germany abandoned her anti-
⋆
Soviet position and in fact was ready to abandon the so-called “anti-
Comintern Pact”; she recognized the inviolability of the Soviet frontier,
and so the German-Soviet Non-aggression Treaty was concluded.
The absolute lack of sincerity of England and France in their negotiations
with the Soviet Union, their absolute refusal genuinely to
oppose aggression, the way in which they decided to break off the
Three Power Negotiations, proves nothing less than that Chamberlain
had already decided on war. Consequently, if the great war broke
out, it was not only Hitler, but Chamberlain, who wanted to fight,
for if he had really wanted to avoid the war, he could have done so
only with Soviet participation. . . .
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL
6. THE PECULIARITIES OF
THE SECOND STAGE OF THE WAR
DISTRIBUTION
At the present time, now that war has broken out, the situation
has undergone a fundamental change. The distinction that existed
in the past between the fascist states and the democratic states has
lost all meaning. At the present time, if one wishes to distinguish
between things of different natures, there are only the following two
categories: (1) all the countries that are waging an imperialist war
of pillage, as well as all the countries that are in reality supporting
this war; and (2) those who are waging not wars of pillage, but just
wars of national liberation and popular liberation, as well as the
countries that support these war. . . . Today England had become
the most reactionary country in the world, and the number one anti-
283