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

. . . in place of the old leaders, who hold ordinary humanviews on ordinary matters, new leaders are put forth . . .who talk supernatural nonsense and confusion. 1The Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSUslanders our stand in adhering to Marxism-Leninism, assertingthat we “are trying to impose upon other Parties the orderof things, the ideology and morals, the forms and methods ofleadership that flourished in the period of the personalitycult”. This remark again exposes the absurdity of the “combatagainst the personality cult”.According to the leaders of the CPSU, after the OctoberRevolution put an end to capitalism in Russia there followeda “period of the personality cult”. It would seem that the“social system” and “the ideology and morals” of that periodwere not socialist. In that period the Soviet working peoplewere under a “heavy burden”, there prevailed an “atmosphereof fear, suspicion and uncertainty which poisoned thelife of the people”, 2 and Soviet society was impeded in itsdevelopment.In his speech at the Soviet-Hungarian friendship rally onJuly 19, 1963, Khrushchov dwelt on what he called Stalin’srule of “terror”, saying that Stalin “maintained his powerwith an axe”. He described the social order of the time inthe following terms: “. . . in that period a man leaving forwork often did not know whether he would return home,whether he would see his wife and children again.”“The period of the personality cult” as described by theleadership of the CPSU was one when society was more“hateful” and “barbarous” than in the period of feudalism orcapitalism.1V. I. Lenin, “‘Left-Wing’ Communism, an Infantile Disorder”,Selected Works, Eng. ed., International Publishers, New York, 1943,Vol. X, p. 82.2Open Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Partyof the Soviet Union to all Party Organizations, to All Communists ofthe Soviet Union, July 14, 1963.135