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

the United States, could settle the destiny of the people ofall countries. To him, the people were nothing but foolsand he alone was the “hero” making history. He vainly triedto force the Soviet people and the people of other countriesto prostrate themselves under his revisionist baton. Thus heplaced himself in direct opposition to the Soviet people, to thepeople of the countries of the socialist camp and to the proletariatand revolutionary people of the whole world, and gothimself into an impasse — he was deserted by his own followersand could not extricate himself from internal and externaldifficulties. He put the noose around his own neck —dug his own grave.History has witnessed many buffoons who cherished theidle hope of turning back the tide of history, but they allcame to an ignominious end. Countless instances have demonstratedthat the evil-doer who goes counter to the needsof social development and the will of the people can only endup as a ridiculous good-for-nothing, no matter what kind of“hero” he may have been, and no matter how arrogant. Tostart with the aim of doing harm to others only to end up byruining oneself — such is the general law governing thesepeople.“Personages” such as Bakunin in the period of the FirstInternational were arrogant anti-Marxist “heroes” in theirday, but they were soon relegated to the garbage-heap ofhistory. Anti-Marxist “heroes” like Bernstein and Kautsky inthe period of the Second International were once “formidablegiants” entrenched in leading positions, but in the end historywrote them down as notorious renegades. Trotsky, the ringleaderof the opposition faction, decked himself out as a “hero”after Lenin’s death, but facts confirmed the correctness ofStalin’s remark: “. . . he resembles an actor rather than ahero; and an actor should not be confused with a hero underany circumstances.”“But progress is the eternal law of man’s world.” Historyhas taught us that whoever wants to stop the wheel of history490