The revolutions in France in 1848 and 1871 came to grief chiefly because the peasant reserves proved to be on the side of the bourgeoisie. The October Revolution was victorious because it was able to deprive the bourgeoisie of its peasant reserves, because it was able to win these reserves to the side of the proletariat, and because in this revolution the proletariat proved to be the only guiding force for the vast masses of the laboring people of town and country.
J V Stalin
On Fighting Fascism
Secondly, it is not true that the decisive battles have already been fought, that the proletariat was defeated in these battles, and that bourgeois rule has been consolidated as a consequence. There have been no decisive battles as yet, if only for the reason that there have not been any mass, genuinely Bolshevik parties, capable of leading the proletariat to dictatorship. Without such parties, decisive battles for dictatorship are impossible under the conditions of imperialism.
J V Stalin
"To carry out correct politics, one might sow a revolutionary mood and evoke differences within the reactionary circles."
By Comrade Stalin in 1951 in a talk with Indian Communist delegation.
"The art of the strategist and tactician lies in skillfully and opportunely transforming an agitation slogan into an action slogan, and in moulding, also opportunely and skillfully, an action slogan into definite, concrete, directives." (J.V. Stalin)
Our Soviet society is socialist society, because the private ownership of the factories, works, the land, the banks and the transport system has been abolished and public ownership put in its place. The social organisation which we have created may be called a Soviet socialist organisation, not entirely completed, but fundamentally, a socialist organisation of society.
The foundation of this society is public property : state, i.e., national, and also co-operative, collective farm property. Neither Italian fascism nor German National-"Socialism" has anything in common with such a society. Primarily, this is because the private ownership of the factories and works, of the land, the banks, transport, etc., has remained intact, and, therefore, capitalism remains in full force in Germany and in Italy.
- J. V. Stalin
Hence, a victory of the right deviation in our party would add to the conditions necessary for the restoration of capitalism in our country' (J. Stalin, "Problems of Leninism", F.L.P.H., Moscow, 1954, p. 276.).
Speech Delivered by Comrade J. Stalin at a Meeting of Voters of the Stalin Electoral Area, Moscow
"I would like to give you some advice, the advice of a candidate to his electors. If you take capitalist countries you will find that peculiar, I would say, rather strange relations exist there between deputies and voters. As long as the elections are in progress, the deputies flirt with the electors, fawn on them, swear fidelity and make heaps of promises of every kind. It would appear that the deputies are completely dependent on the electors. As soon as the elections are over, and the candidates have become deputies, relations undergo a radical change. Instead of the deputies being dependent on the electors, they become entirely independent. For four or five years, that is, until the next elections, the deputy feels quite free, independent of the people, of his electors. He may pass from one camp to another, he may turn from the right road to the wrong road, he may even become entangled in machinations of a not altogether desirable character, he may turn as many somersaults as he likes—he is independent.
Can such relations be regarded as normal? By no means, comrades. This circumstance was taken into consideration by our Constitution and it made it a law that electors have the right to recall their deputies before the expiration of their term of office if they begin to play monkey tricks, if they turn off the road, or if they forget that they are dependent on the people, on the electors.
This is a wonderful law, comrades. A deputy should know that he is the servant of the people, their emissary in the Supreme Soviet, and he must follow the line laid down in the mandate given him by the people. If he turns off the road, the electors. are entitled to demand new elections, and as to the deputy who turned off the road, they have the right to blackball him. (Laughter and applause.) This is a wonderful law. My advice, the advice of a candidate to his electors, is that they remember this electors' right, the right to recall deputies before the expiration of their term of office, that they keep an eye on their deputies, control them and, if they should take it into their heads to turn off the right road, get rid of them and demand new elections. The government is obliged to appoint new elections. My advice is to remember this law and to take advantage of it should need arise".
Photo voting Feb 10, 1946
#communism #capitalism #vote
Stalin, when addressing the People's of the East had distinguished by 1925: "at least three categories of colonial and dependent countries":
"Firstly countries like Morocco who have little or not proletariat, and are industrially quite undeveloped. Secondly countries like China and Egypt which are under-developed industries and have a relatively small proletariat. Thirdly countries like India, which are capitalistically more or less developed and have a more or less numerous national proletariat. Clearly all these countries cannot possibly be put on a par with one another."
(J.V.Stalin. "Political Tasks of the University of Peoples of the East." May 18. 1925. Reprinted San Francisco, 1975 in: J.V.Stalin. Marxism and the National Colonial question. P.317-8)
Stalin on Restoration of Capitalism in USSR
'A victory of the right deviation in our party would mean an enormous accession of strength to the capitalist elements in our country. And what does an accession of strength to the capitalist elements in our country mean? It means weakening the proletarian dictatorship and multiplying the chances of the restoration of capitalism.
'Hence, a victory of the right deviation in our party would add to the conditions necessary for the restoration of capitalism in our country' (J. Stalin, "Problems of Leninism", F.L.P.H., Moscow, 1954, p. 276.).
It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.
Joseph Stalin
The Chinese path was good for China. But it is not sufficient for India where it is necessary to combine the proletarian struggle in the cities with the struggles of the peasants. Some think that the Chinese comrades are against such a combination. This is incorrect. Would Mao Zedong have been discontented if the workers of Shanghai had gone on strike when his army left for Nanking, or if the workers had struck work in the armaments factories? Of course not. But this did not take place as Mao Zedong's relations with the towns were severed. Of course, Mao Zedong would have been happy if the railwaymen had struck work and Chiang Kai-shek was deprived of the possibility of receiving projectiles. But there was an absence of relations with the workers – it was a grievous necessity, but it was not an ideal. It would be ideal if you strive for that which could not be done by the Chinese – to unite the peasant war with the struggle of the working class.
- J. V. Stalin
In India, some left groups are still hegitant to recognize capitalist order in Indian Society; they are saddled with semi-feudal concept of Indian society and they dream of democratic revolution as if induction and growth of capitalist order negates the stage of democratic revolution. It is because they fail to understand even the material basis of democratic revolution. The growth of capitalist order does not avert the democratic revolution, it does accelerate it. Stalin has said :
"The bourgeoisie revolution usually begins when there already exist more or less ready made forms belonging to the capitalist order, forms which have grown and matured within the womb of feudal society prior to the open revolution. J V. Stalin " Problems of Leninism P-168
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What Stalin commented on the European 'Left', gives light to understand our parliamentarian 'left', 'socialist' etc.
"Take any bourgeois-radical party— in France, let us say. It will unfailingly call itself a socialist party—"Radical Socialist," "Independent Socialist," etc., etc. Before the electors, the masses, the "lower orders," these parties always scatter "Left" phrases, particularly on the eve of elections, and particularly when they are being hard pressed by a competitor, a genuine socialist party. But "at the top," the "Radical Socialist" and "Independent Socialist" government ministers calmly carry on with their bourgeois work, totally regardless of the socialist aspirations of their electors."
Ludo Martin -Another view of Stalin
This book was hailed by many unsuspected and well intentioned communists all over the world as an "excellent pro-Stalin book". However, at the same time a number of Khruschevian revisionist and opportunist parties that have traditionally adopted an anti-Stalinist line advertised and promoted the book in many ways.
A review of this book was published under the title "Concerning certain distortions of Stalin's work and L. Martens' revisionist view of socialism" explaining that the mistake theory of Stalin was advanced to tarnish the image of Stalin, dilute the principle of Marxism Leninism on the nature of Socialist society and in fact was contrary to Marxism Leninism.
So, where did Mao's criticisms of Stalin come from? Obviously, Mao had no insider experience of what was happening among the Soviet leadership while he was in Yenan. The only information Mao could have had about Soviet events before 1949 would only come from either published sources or report-backs from deputies who had traveled to the USSR. Mao would have had no access to archival documents relative to Soviet decisions or internal disagreements — the very archival materials Grover is now uncovering. So, where did Mao's information about Stalin's "errors and abuses" come from?
They came from Khrushchev.
If one looks at Mao's criticism of Stalin and the indictments made by Khrushchev against the former Soviet leader, they are pretty much identical. The difference between the two being one of perspective and interpretation; with Khrushchev making his charges to condemn Stalin, while Mao accepted those charges, but argued that Stalin's "mistakes" were outweighed by his contributions. One is saying these charges are damning, the other saying the charges are "minor". But both accept the same charges.
Thus, by proving Khrushchev's charges to be false, Grover is not only revealing Khrushchev to be a liar and opportunist, but he is also removing the foundation for much of Mao's criticism of Stalin.
"In the so called mistakes of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the historical context in which he moves, you don't have to look at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical context . . . I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn't read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I'm not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a series of things that are very good." – Ernesto Che Guevara
M N Roy, a Marxist revolutionary from India, who helped to establish the communist Party in Mexico was invited by Lenin to attend a conference of the Communist International in 1920. Later, Roy became a member of the Presidium of the Communist International 's Political Secretariat. Roy had close association with Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. He was known for his sympathy for Trotsky, which he changed later. (Roy was also expelled from the Commintern, he thought he was a victim of a conflict in the CI.) Roy was present at the meeting that expelled Trotsky from the CI in 1927. The following excerpt from Roy's obituary when Trotsky died shows graphically why Roy changed his position on Trotsky: ""Having agreed that it is not possible to build Socialism in the Soviet Union in the midst of a capitalist world there are two alternatives – either we should continue doing whatever is possible by way of advancing towards the ultimate goal of Socialism, pending the success of revolution in other countries; or we should lay down power in the Soviet Union and go back to emigration to wait for the time when there will be a revolution simultaneously throughout the world. I asked whether Trotsky would choose the latter alternative.
He shouted "No". Then I would vote for his expulsion, because he had been advocating a policy without understanding its implications or without meaning to put it into practice if he had the opportunity to do so.
Trotsky looked crestfallen. All through the night, he had heckled the speakers with challenging questions. He kept quiet while I spoke and hung his head in answer to my question. The historic vote was cast against him – unanimously. The Revolution went over the head of one of its most brilliant products".
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