Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

from reality and from the masses. In struggles inside as wellas outside the Party, on certain occasions and on certain questionshe confused two types of contradictions which are differentin nature, contradictions between ourselves and theenemy and contradictions among the people, and also confusedthe different methods needed in handling them. In the workled by Stalin of suppressing the counter-revolution, manycounter-revolutionaries deserving punishment were duly punished,but at the same time there were innocent people whowere wrongly convicted; and in 1937 and 1938 there occurredthe error of enlarging the scope of the suppression of counterrevolutionaries.In the matter of Party and government organization,he did not fully apply proletarian democratic centralismand, to some extent, violated it. In handling relationswith fraternal Parties and countries, he made some mistakes.He also gave some bad counsel in the international communistmovement. These mistakes caused some losses to the SovietUnion and the international communist movement.Stalin’s merits and mistakes are matters of historical, objectivereality. A comparison of the two shows that his meritsoutweighed his faults. He was primarily correct, and hisfaults were secondary. In summing up Stalin’s thinking andhis work in their totality, surely every honest Communist witha respect for history will first observe what was primary inStalin. Therefore, when Stalin’s errors are being correctlyappraised, criticized and overcome, it is necessary to safeguardwhat was primary in Stalin’s life, to safeguard Marxism-Leninism which he defended and developed.It would be beneficial if the errors of Stalin, which wereonly secondary, are taken as historical lessons so that theCommunists of the Soviet Union and other countries mighttake warning and avoid repeating those errors or commitfewer errors. Both positive and negative historical lessons arebeneficial to all Communists, provided they are drawn correctlyand conform with and do not distort historical facts.121