The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 10
to the camp of reaction, you put your stakes on Wang Ching-wei, and then on Tang Cheng-chih, I wrote
a letter to the E.C.C.I. It was on May 28. "The shipwreck of this policy is absolutely inevitable." What
did I propose? Here is literally what I wrote. On May 28, I wrote: "The Plenum would do the right thing
if it buried Bukharin's resolution, and replaced it with a resolution of a few lines. In the first place,
peasants and workers should place no faith in the leaders of the Left Kuomintang but they should,
instead, build their Soviets jointly with the soldiers. In the second place, the Soviets should arm the
workers and the advanced peasants. In the third place, the Communist party must assure its complete
independence, create a daily press, and assume the leadership of creating the Soviets. Fourth, the land
must be immediately taken away from the landlords. Fifth, the reactionary bureaucracy must be
immediately dismissed. Sixth, perfidious generals and counter-revolutionists generally must be
summarily dealt with. And finally, the general course must be towards the establishment of a
revolutionary dictatorship through the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies." Now, compare this
with: "There is no need for a civil war in the villages," "Do not alarm the fellow travellers," "Do not
irritate the generals," "Minimum arming of the workers," and so on. This is Bolshevism! While our
position is called in the Political Bureau . . . Menshevism. Having turned yourselves inside out, you have
firmly resolved to call white, black. But your misfortune is that international Menshevism-from Berlin to
New York-approves of the Chinese policy of Stalin-Bukharin, and being fully cognizant of the issue,
solidarizes with your political line on the Chinese question.
Please try to understand that in question here is not the individual betrayals of the Chinese members of
the Kuomintang, or of the Right and Left Chinese army commanders, or English trade unionists, and
Chinese or English communists. When one rides in the train, it is the earth that appears to be in motion.
The whole trouble lies in the fact that you placed hopes on those who were not to be relied upon; you
under estimated the revolutionary training of the masses, the principal requirement for which is
inoculating the masses with mistrust towards reformists, vague "Left" Centrists, and all vacillators in
general. The fullest measure of this mistrust is the supreme virtue of Bolshevism. Young parties have still
to acquire and assimilate this quality. Yet, you have acted and are acting in a diametrically opposite
direction. You inoculate young parties with the hopes that the liberal bourgeoisie and the liberal labor
politicians from the trade unions will move to the Left. You hinder the education of the English and
Chinese Bolsheviks. That is the source whence come these "betrayals" which each time catch you
unaware.
ON "CENTRISM," AND THE POLICY OF ROTTEN ROPES
The Opposition warned that the Chinese Communist Party under your leadership would inevitably come
to Menshevist policies -- for which the Opposition was at the time mercilessly condemned. It is with
certainty that we now warn you that the British Communist Party, under the influence of the policies that
you are foisting on it, is becoming inevitably poisoned by Centrism and conciliationism. If you do not
turn the helm sharply, the consequences with respect to the British Communist Party will not be any
better than those with respect to the Chinese party. The same thing applies to the Comintern as a whole.
It is high time to understand that the Centrism of Bukarin-Stalin is unable to withstand the test of events.
The greatest events in the history of mankind are revolution and war. We have put the Centrist policy to
the test on the Chinese Revolution. The revolution demanded decisive conclusions from vacillating
directives. The Chinese Communist Party found itself compelled to draw these conclusions. That is why
it has arrived -- and it could not have failed to do so at Menshevism. The unprecedented collapse of your
leader ship in China demands that you finally repudiate the policy which compelled you under the most
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