From Marx to Mao Tse-tung - BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET

4, Reuolution in the EastAfter the October Revolution it became clear rhat thenext advance of the world revolution would not necessarilybe confined to Europe. The imperialists hadsucceeded for the time being in containing the revolutionin the West, ibut they could not prevent thevictory of the October Revolution from reverberatinglike thunder all round the world :I think that what the Red At.ry hasaccomplished-its struggle and the history of itsvictory-will ,be of colossal, epoch-making significancefor all the peoples of the Bast. It will slhowthem that, weak as lhey may rbe, invincible as mayseem the power of their European oppressors, who inthe struggle employ all the marvels of technologyand military art-even so, a revolutionary warwaged 'by oppressed peoples, if it really succeeds inarousing the workers and the exploited in their millions,harbours such potentialities, such miracles, thatthe emancipation of the peoples of the East is nowquite practicable, from the standpoint not only of theprospects of the international revolution, but also ofthe direct military experience acquired in Asia, inSiberia-the experience of the Soviet republic, whichhas suffered armed invasion from all the powerfulimperialist countries. (LCW 30.r53)Hence, there was now being forged in the East, rvhereconditions were even more backward than they hadbeen in Russia, a new link in the chain of worldrevolution :Mean*hile, India and China are seething. Theyrepresent over 7oo million people, and together withthe neighbouring Asian countries, which are in allways similar to them, over half the world's inhabitants.Inexorably and with mounting momentumBz(IiIIithey are approaching their r9o5, with the essentialand important difference that in I9o5 the revolutionin Russia could still (at any rate in the beginning)proceed in isolation, that is, without other countriesbeing immediately drawn in; whereas the revolutionsnow maturing in India and China are being-havealready been-drawn into the revolutionary struggle,the revolutionary movement, the world revolution.(LCw 33.3so)The impact of the October Revolution in China hasbeen described by Mao Tse-tung :It was through the Russians that the Chinesefound Marxism. Before the October Revolution, theChinese were not only ignorant of Lenin and Stalin,they did not even know of Marx and Engels. Thesalvoes of the October Revolution brought usMarxism-Leninism. The October Revolution helpedprogressives in China, as throughout the world,to adopt the proletarian world outlook as the instmmentfor studying a nation's destiny and consideringanew their old problems. Follow the path of theRussians-that was their conclusion. (MSW +.+ry.)Ten years later, when the first wave of the Chineserevolution had expended itself, ending in defeat forthe revolutionary forces, many comrades, misled bythe outward appearance of things, despaired ofChina's future. In this situation Mao Tse-tung wrote :Althou$h the sutrjective forces of the revolution inChina are now weak, so also are ali organisations(organs of political power, armed forces, politicalparties, etc.) of the reactionary ruling classes, restingas they do on the lbackward and fragile social andeconomic structure of China. This helps to explainwhy revolution cannot hreak out at once in thecountries of Western Europe, where, although theB3