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

In the well-known editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper,“Once More on the Historical Experience of the Dictatorshipof the Proletariat” (December 1956), the Chinese comradeswrote:“The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the SovietUnion displayed tremendous determination and courage ineliminating the Stalin cult, in exposing Stalin’s grave errorsand in eliminating the consequences of Stalin’s errors.Throughout the world Marxists-Leninists and those whosympathize with the cause of communism support the effortsof the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to correct theerrors and wish the Soviet comrades complete success in theirefforts.”And that is how things really stood.Any unbiased person who compares these pronouncementsof the Chinese leaders with the CPC Central Committee letterof June 14 will see that they have made a 180-degree turnin their evaluation of the 20th Congress of our party.But are vacillation and inconsistency permissible on suchquestions of principle? Of course, they are not. Either theChinese leaders had no differences with the CPSU CentralCommittee on these questions of principle before, or all thesestatements were false.It is well known that practice is the best criterion of truth.And practice has convincingly proved that realization ofthe line of the 20th, 21st and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU hasproduced splendid results in the life of our country. In theten years since the time when our party made a sharp turntowards restoration of the Leninist principles and norms inparty life, Soviet society achieved truly majestic results ineconomic, scientific and cultural development, in raising prosperitystandards, in consolidating its defence potential, in thesuccessful pursuance of its foreign policy.The atmosphere of fear, suspicion and uncertainty whichpoisoned the life of the people in the period of the personalitycult became a thing of the past. No one can deny that the558