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

Let us now examine Lenin and Stalin’s policy of peacefulcoexistence and the stuff Khrushchov and others call thegeneral line of peaceful coexistence.LENIN AND STALIN’S POLICY OF PEACEFULCOEXISTENCEIt was Lenin who advanced the idea that the socialist stateshould pursue a policy of peaceful coexistence towards countrieswith different social systems. This correct policy waslong followed by the Communist Party and the Governmentof the Soviet Union under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin.The question of peaceful coexistence between socialist andcapitalist countries could not possibly have arisen prior to theOctober Revolution, since there was no socialist country inexistence. Nevertheless, on the basis of his scientific analysisof imperialism, Lenin foresaw in 1915-16 that “socialism cannotachieve victory simultaneously in all countries. It willachieve victory first in one or several countries, while theothers will remain bourgeois or pre-bourgeois for some time”. 1In other words, within a certain period of time, socialist countrieswould exist side by side with capitalist or pre-capitalistcountries. The very nature of the socialist system determinesthat socialist countries must pursue a foreign policy of peace.Lenin said, “Only the working class, when it wins power, canpursue a policy of peace not in words . . . but in deeds.” 2These views of Lenin’s can be said to constitute the theoreticalbasis of the policy of peaceful coexistence.After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin proclaimedto the world on many occasions that the foreign policyof the Soviet state was one of peace. But the imperialists1V. I. Lenin, “The War Program of the Proletarian Revolution”,Selected Works, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1950, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 571.2V. I. Lenin, “Draft Resolution on the Current Moment in Politics”,Collected Works, Russ. ed., SPPL, Moscow, 1949, Vol. XXV, pp. 291-92.262