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

the socialist countries or to make them degenerate intocapitalist countries. The international class struggle willinevitably find its reflection within the socialist countries.Lenin said:The transition from capitalism to Communism representsan entire historical epoch. Until this epoch has terminated,the exploiters inevitably cherish the hope of restoration,and this hope is converted into attempts at restoration. 1He also pointed out:The abolition of classes requires a long, difficult andstubborn class struggle, which after the overthrow of thepower of capital, after the destruction of the bourgeois state,after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat,does not disappear (as the vulgar representatives of the oldSocialism and the old Social-Democracy imagine), butmerely changes its forms and in many respects becomesmore fierce. 2Throughout the stage of socialism the class struggle betweenthe proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the political, economic,ideological and cultural and educational fields cannotbe stopped. It is a protracted, repeated, tortuous and complexstruggle. Like the waves of the sea it sometimes rises highand sometimes subsides, is now fairly calm and now veryturbulent. It is a struggle that decides the fate of a socialistsociety. Whether a socialist society will advance to communismor revert to capitalism depends upon the outcome of thisprotracted struggle.The class struggle in socialist society is inevitably reflectedin the Communist Party. The bourgeoisie and international1V. I. Lenin, “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”,Selected Works, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2,p. 61.2V. I. Lenin, “Greetings to the Hungarian Workers”, Selected Works,Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2, pp. 210-11.423