Even after the two successful Scientific Socialist Revolutions, in Russia and China, the capitalists were able to return to power. No one in his right mind is about to argue that point. It is also a fact that the capitalists in Russia, or more accurately the Soviet Union, were able to return to power after the death of Stalin, in 1953. It is to the credit of the Chinese Communist Party, that they conducted a proper criticism of Stalin, at that time, and concluded that Stalin was a fine Communist, but had made some serious mistakes. Yet as best I can gather- because I have been unable to get my hands on that ‘’proper criticism’’, due to the unofficial censorship by the capitalists- the Chinese made no mention of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
I consider this to be a significant oversight, which needs to be addressed. As Lenin stated, in Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder, written in 1920:
‘’In Russia today, the connection between leaders, Party, class and masses, as well as the attitude of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and its Party to the trade unions, are concretely as follows: the Dictatorship is exercised by the proletariat organized in the Soviets; the proletariat is guided by the Communist Party of Bolsheviks….The Party, which holds annual Congresses.…is directed by a Central Committee of nineteen elected at the Congress, while the current work in Moscow has to be carried on by still smaller bodies, known as the Organizing Bureau and the Political Bureau, which are elected at plenary meetings of the Central Committee, five members of the Central Committee to each Bureau. This, it would appear, is a full fledged ‘oligarchy’. No important political or organizational question is decided by any state institution in our republic, without the guidance of the Party’s Central Committee’’.
The astute reader may well have noticed that Lenin made no mention of the role of any ‘’President’’ or ‘’Prime Minister’’, if only because there was none! In fact, as the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and as the head of the government of the Soviet Union, his title was that of ‘’Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars’’. He was no doubt a Member of the Central Committee, and possibly also a Member of the Political Bureau, or of the Organizing Bureau, if not both. Yet he held no office independent of the Central Committee. Further, all Members of the Central Committee are elected ‘’annually’’, including the Chairman!
This brings us to his successor, Josef Stalin. Officially, his title was ‘’General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’’, as well as ‘’Premier of the Soviet Union’’, and ‘’Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars’’.
After the Nazi invasion of 1941, he was referred to as ‘’Supreme Leader of the USSR’’, as well as ‘’Marshall of the Soviet Union’’. It is very likely that these titles were ‘’honorary’’, for purposes of negotiating with foreign powers, which is to say Britain and America, in the interests of winning the ‘’Great Patriotic War’’, as that is the official name by which the Soviet Union referred to the Second World War.
This in no way changes the fact that Stalin was a Member of the Central Committee, and as such, was subject to a vote, held ‘’annually’’, which means once a year, at the Congress of the Communist Party. It also means that the other Members of the Central Committee were his ‘’closest advisors’’. It was the duty of all Members of the Central Committee, to point out any serious mistakes being made, by the ‘’General Secretary’’. Further, it is also the duty of all Members of the Central Committee, to remove from office any General Secretary, who persists in such inappropriate behaviour. Clearly, this never happened, and the Central Committee was never held accountable.
It is also a fact that upon the death of Stalin, in 1953, it was Khrushchev who became General Secretary of the Communist Party, and promptly restored capitalism in the Soviet Union. Here too, the Central Committee failed to perform their duty.
As is well known, the Chinese Communist Party responded to this, by launching the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. As a result of that Cultural Revolution, the common people were well schooled in the class struggle. As well, the capitalists who were hiding in various fields of culture, were ‘’rooted out’’. Yet as the Cultural Revolution was largely confined to culture, merely touching upon science, the capitalists who were hiding in various fields of science, remained hidden, biding their time.
The members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, were negligent in their duty to advise their Chairman, Mao Tse Tung, that the Cultural Revolution should have expanded to include all fields of science! As well, they should have further advised him to conduct a proper purging of the Party.
The reason I mention this lack of a proper purging of the Party, is because Mao chose to ‘’patiently struggle’’ with the revisionists, those who had ‘’weaselled’’ their way into the Party, pointing out to them the ‘’error of their ways’’. Not that there was any need to point out these ‘’errors’’, as they were deliberate revisions! This was generally followed by a fake ‘’self criticism’’, possibly complete with ‘’waterworks’’, which is to say ‘’tears of repentance’’, and a ‘’return to duty’’.
As a result, numerous revisionists remained embedded within the Party, even within the Central Committee. The true Communist Members of the Central Committee should never have allowed this to happen. They should have pointed out to Mao his mistakes, and if he persisted, they should have removed him from office, a true purging. The periodic purging of the Communist Party, as recommended by Lenin, must not be limited to the low ranking members of that Party.
Yet this never happened, and as a result, after the death of Mao, the revisionists ‘’made their move’’, and were able to restore capitalism in China. As I have documented this, in a previous article, there is no need to repeat it here.
As for those who may object, quite reasonably, that there is ‘’strength in numbers’’, may I suggest that applies to such mass organizations as trade unions and ‘’Associations’’, not to the Communist Party.
In the interests of stressing the importance of a proper periodic purging of the Communist Party, I have chosen to include a related article, by Lenin.
In June of 1919, Lenin wrote an article titled, A Great Beginning, Heroism of the Workers In the Rear, ‘’Communist Subbbotniks’’
For the benefit of those who have just recently become politically active, I should mention that it was only in June of 1919, almost two years after the successful October Revolution of 1917, that Soviet workers felt motivated to volunteer to go to work, generally on a weekend, on their own time. This was referred to as a ‘’subbotnik’’. They did this in the interests of building a proper Scientific Socialist Republic. Hence, the title of the article.
I mention this for a reason. The fact of the matter is that certain advanced workers will soon be taking part in the creation of a Scientific Socialist Communist Party. As that is the case, it is necessary to bring them ‘’up to speed’’, to the level of ‘’Conscious People’’, at least in regard to Party activity, and this must be done immediately. As well as becoming aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, a certain knowledge of our revolutionary history is helpful.
Lenin: ‘’The heroism of the workers in the rear is no less worthy of attention. In this connection, the communist subbotniks, organized by the workers on their own initiative, are really of enormous significance. Evidently, this is only a beginning, but it is a beginning of exceptionally great importance….for it is a victory over our own conservatism, indiscipline, petty bourgeois egoism, a victory over the habits left as a heritage to the worker and peasant by accursed capitalism.’’ (italics by Lenin)
In honour of that ‘’momentous occasion’’, Lenin called for the purging of the Communist Party:
‘’In the early period following the revolution…when the bourgeois intellectuals ….played the lackeys to the bourgeoisie and carried on sabotage, it was absolutely inevitable that adventurers and other pernicious elements, should hitch themselves, to the ruling party. There has never been, and there never can be, a revolution without that. The whole point is that the ruling party should be able, relying on a strong and advanced class, to purge its ranks….The mobilization of Communists for the war helped us in this respect; the cowards and scoundrels fled from the Party’s ranks. Good riddance! Such a reduction in the Party’s membership means an enormous increase in its strength and weight. We must continue the purge, and that new beginning, the ‘communist subbotniks’, must be utilized for this purpose.’’ (italics by Lenin)
Such a purging is commonly referred to as ‘’clearing out the deadwood’’. We need dedicated Scientific Socialists, true Communists, in our Communist Party, not people who are merely trying to ‘’get ahead’’. Such ‘’career seekers’’, tend to view membership in the Party as merely a ‘’stepping stone’’, as part of ‘’climbing the ladder of success’’. Then too, there are loyal, dedicated, die hard flunkies of the Oligarchy, technically referred to as ‘’sycophants’’, who will join the Party, in an effort to sabotage any and all revolutionary work. They seem to take great delight in degrading themselves, as they make every effort to serve the Oligarchy. Both types must be purged from the Party, at the earliest opportunity.
As for those who consider it important to ‘’struggle’’ with those who are considered to be ‘’centrists’’, who tend to ‘’vacillate’’, I can only respond that you should struggle with such people outside the Communist Party! We need dedicated revolutionaries, not members who are unreliable. Bear in mind that the Chinese capitalists were able to return to power in China, partly because many of their agents had infiltrated the Party, and succeeded in rising to high ranking positions.
Now to return to Soviet Russia, at the time of Lenin. An individual, by the name of Karl Kautsky, earned the dubious distinction of incurring the wrath of Lenin. In fact, Lenin referred to Kautsky as his ‘’bitterest enemy’’. He said that there was no point in fighting with Kautsky, it was merely a matter of ‘’exposing his apostasy’’.
I should mention, for the benefit of those who are not familiar with the term- as I was not- that an ‘’apostasy’’ is defined as ‘’an abandonment of a religious or political belief’’. There can be no doubt that, at one time, Kautsky was a fine Marxist theoretician. His early writings leave no room for doubt, in that department. Yet once he ‘’turned his coat’’, and became a traitor, a renegade, he became a superb revisionist! To this day, the capitalists are ‘’singing his praises’’! His distortions of the revolutionary theories of Scientific Socialism remain a masterpiece of deception.
It has been suggested, by various well meaning Communists, that Kautsky was a centrist, and that Lenin never broke with him, but patiently struggled with him. Such is hardly the case. Kautsky was a master of ‘’illusion’’. He ‘’appeared’’ to ‘’take a stand’’, he ‘’implied’’, he ’’led people to believe’’ something, which was not true. For example, he would say, ‘’If that were true…’’, which is not a denial, nor is it an admission! Yet people would tend to believe that it was a denial!
In 1918, Kautsky wrote an article titled, ‘’The Dictatorship of the Proletariat’’, in which he distorted and revised this key revolutionary theory of Marx. Lenin responded to this in 1919, with his own article, ‘’The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky’’. As Lenin stated, in his Preface to that article, ‘’By means of patent sophistry, Marxism is stripped of its revolutionary living spirit; everything is recognized in Marxism except the revolutionary methods of struggle, the propaganda and preparation of these methods, and the education of the masses in this direction’’. (italics by Lenin)
As we take part in the creation of a true Scientific Socialist Communist Party, we can expect ‘’career seekers’’ and ‘’revisionists’’, to attempt to ‘’weasel’’ their way into the Party. It is best to ‘’stop them cold’’, to ‘’nip this in the bud’’. Those who do succeed in penetrating, must be purged, at the earliest opportunity. Party members who insist in ‘’struggling with centrists’’, with a view to ‘’bringing them into the fold’’, must also be purged. The members of the Central Committee must also be held responsible for advising the General Secretary, assuming that is the title given. Any and all members of the Party must be held responsible for their actions. In this way, we can ensure that the Oligarchy will never return to power.
With Most Sincere Scientific Socialist Communist Greetings, Gerald McIsaac
Gerald McIsaac Science Project 