Student: “Based on experience, what are the most ideal circumstances for a successful insurrection?”
Lenin: “Combining of a mass political strike with an armed uprising.”{161}
The Communist International
Student: “Originally, what did you say about the organization which was supposed to run the world revolution?”
Official Statement: “The Communist International is the concentrated will of the world revolutionary proletariat. Its mission is to organize the working class of the world for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of Communism. The Communist International is a fighting body and assumes the task of combining the revolutionary forces of every country.”{162}
Student: “Was the purpose of the Communist International to spread dissension and build the Red Army?”
Official Statement: “In order to overthrow the international bourgeoisie and to create an International Soviet Republic as a transition stage to the Communist Society, the Communist International will use all means at its disposal, including force of arms.”{163}
Stalin: “The tasks of the Party in foreign policy are: 1—to utilize each and every contradiction and conflict among the surrounding capitalist groups and governments for the purpose of disintegrating imperialism; 2—to spare no pains or means to render assistance to the proletarian revolution in the West; 3—to take all necessary measures to strengthen the Red Army.”{164}
Student: “What was the program of the Communist International?”
Official Statement: “The Communist International must devote itself especially to… everyday organization work… in the course of which work legal methods must unfailingly be combined with illegal methods; organized work in the army and navy—such must be the activity of the Communist Parties in this connection. The fundamental slogans of the Communist International in this connection must be the following:
“Convert imperialist war into civil war;
“Defeat ‘your own’ imperialist government;
“Defend the USSR and the colonies by every means in the event of imperialist war against them.”{165}
Student: “Did the Communist International depend upon Communist parties in various countries or did it operate independently?”
Official Statement: “The successful struggle of the Communist International for the dictatorship of the proletariat presupposes the existence in every country of a compact Communist Party hardened in the struggle, disciplined, centralized, and closely linked to the masses.”{166}
Student: “What was the obligation of an organization such as the Communist Party of America when it affiliated with the Communist International?”
Official Statement: “Each party desirous of affiliating to the Communist International should be obliged to render every possible assistance to the Soviet Republics in their struggle against all counter-revolutionary forces. The Communist parties should carry on a precise and definite propaganda to induce the workers to refuse to transport any kind of military equipment intended for fighting against the Soviet Republics, and should also by legal or illegal means carry on a propaganda amongst the troops sent against the workers’ republics, etc.”{167}
Student: “Was it intended from the beginning that Communist leaders in Russia would dictate the policies of the Communist Party of America?”
Earl Browder: “The Communist Parties of the various countries are the direct representatives of the Communist International, and thus, indirectly of the aims and policies of Soviet Russia.”{168}
Official Statement: “Representatives of Soviet Russia in various countries, engaging in political activities, should co-ordinate these activities in some form or other with the activities and policies of the respective Communist Parties.”{169}
Alexander Trachtenberg: “Consistently supporting the Soviet Union since its inception, American Communists were acting as internationalists and as Americans.”{170}
Student: “In 1943 the Communist International was suddenly dissolved. Was this designed to pacify a rising wave of anti-Communist sentiments during World War II?”
Hans Berger: “Since correct strategy consists in uniting and concentrating all forces against the common enemy, necessitating the elimination of everything which makes such unification and concentration difficult, therefore, the dissolution of the Communist International, decided upon unanimously by the Communist Parties, was doubtless an act in the interests of facilitating victory over the fascist enemy.”{171}
Student: “Did the dissolution of the Communist International result in a weakening of the solidarity between Communist Parties throughout the world?”
Hans Berger: “Among the reasons which the leaders of the Communist Parties considered in supporting the dissolution of the Communist International was doubtless the question of strengthening the Communist Parties.”{172}
Student: “Did it weaken the plans for world revolution?”
Hans Berger: “The Communist Parties have thus never sacrificed their Marxist-Leninist principles, which know no boundaries, and which can never be given up by them, but guided by their principles fight on with the utmost consistency.”{173}
Student: “Would this represent the official view of the Communist Party of America?”
Gil Green: “Since November, 1940, our Party has not been an affiliate of the Communist International and has had no organizational ties with it. But who can deny that our Party has nonetheless fulfilled its obligation to the American Working class and people and in this way to the working class and people of the world?”{174}
“Nor is the further existence of the Communist International necessary as the living embodiment of the principle of internationalism and international working class solidarity. The fight for internationalism has not disappeared. It has been raised to new and more glorious heights.”{175}
“The dissolution of the Communist International does not, therefore, mark a step backward…. Millions all over the world live, work and fight under the bright banner of Marxism.”{176}
Diplomatic Intrigue
Student: “During World War II what did Stalin say the Russian policy was toward nations which were then under Nazi domination?”
Stalin: “We are waging a just war for our country and our freedom. It is not our aim to seize foreign lands or to subjugate foreign people. Our aim is clear and noble. We want to free our Soviet land of the German-Fascist scoundrels. We want to free our Ukrainian, Moldavian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Karelian brothers from the outrage and violence to which they are being subjected by the German-Fascist scoundrels….
“We have not and cannot have such war aims as the imposition of our will and regime on the slavs and other enslaved peoples of Europe who are awaiting our aid. Our aim consists in assisting these people in their struggle for liberation from Hitler’s tyranny and then setting them free to rule in their own lands as they desire.”{177}
Student: “What excuse could Stalin and the Communist leaders have for doing the very opposite of what they had promised?”
Lenin: “The strictest loyalty to the ideas of Communism must be combined with the ability to make all necessary practical compromises, to maneuver, to make agreements, zigzags, retreats and so on, so as to accelerate the coming to power.”{178}
Stalin: “Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water or iron wood.”{179}
Ethics and Morals
Student: “Doesn’t this approach to international relations sound more like a criminal code of conduct rather than sincere diplomacy? Does Communist Morality permit this?”
Lenin: “We say: Morality is that which serves to destroy the old exploiting society and to unite all the toilers around the proletariat, which is creating a new Communist society. Communist morality is the morality which serves this struggle….”{180}
Official Statement: “Morals or ethics is the body of norms and rules on the conduct of Soviet peoples. At the root of Communist morality, said
Lenin, lays the struggle for the consolidation and the completion of Communism. Therefore, from the point of view of Communist morality, only those acts are moral which contribute to the building up of a new Communist society.”{181}
Student: “But this sounds like an excuse for doing whatever one may find expedient rather than following a system of rules for right living. Assuming Communism was right; would that justify a communist in lying, stealing or killing to put Communism into effect?”
William Z. Foster: “With him the end justifies the means. Whether his tactics be ‘legal’ and ‘moral,’ or not, does not concern him, so long as they are effective. He knows that the laws as well as the current code of morals are made by his mortal enemies…. Consequently, he ignores them in so far as he is able and it suits his purposes. He proposes to develop, regardless of capitalist conceptions of ‘legality,’ ‘fairness,’ ‘right,’ etc., a greater power than his capitalist enemies have.”{182}
Student: “Would you then deny the possibility of there being an eternal, God-given code for moral or ethical conduct?”
Lenin: “We do not believe in eternal morality, and we expose all the fables about morality.”{183}
Marx: “Law, morality, religion are… so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.”{184}
Engels: “We therefore reject every attempt to impose on us any moral dogma whatsoever as an eternal, ultimate and forever immutable moral law on the pretext that the moral world too has its permanent principles which transcend history and the difference between nations. We maintain on the contrary that all former moral theories are the product, in the last analysis, of the economic stage which society had reached at that particular epoch. And as society has hitherto moved in class antagonisms, morality was always a class morality; it has either justified the domination and the interests of the ruling class, or, as soon as the oppressed class has become powerful enough, it has represented the revolt against this domination and the future interests of the oppressed.”{185}
The Bible
Student: “Then what is the Communist attitude toward the Bible which contains many moral teachings?”
Official Statement: “A collection of fantastic legends without any scientific support. It is full of dark hints, historical mistakes and contradictions. It serves as a factor for gaining power and subjugating the unknowing nations.”{186}
Engels: “It is now perfectly clear to me that the so-called sacred writings of the Jews are nothing more than the record of the old Arabian religious and tribal tradition, modified by the early separation of the Jews from their tribally related but nomadic neighbours.”{187}
Religion
Student: “If you reject the Bible, do you also reject all religion and all of the institutionalized morality which it represents?”
Official Statement: “The philosophy of Marxism-Leninism—the theoretical foundation of the Communist Party—is incompatible with religion.”{188}
Lenin: “Religion is a kind of spiritual gin in which the slaves of capital drown their human shape and their claims to any decent human life.”{189}
Student: “Could not a Communist enjoy religious activity as a matter of conscience and as a private right?”
Lenin: “To the party of the Socialist proletariat… religion is not a private matter.”{190}
Yaroslavsky: “Every Leninist, every Communist, every class-conscious worker and peasant must be able to explain why a Communist cannot support religion [and] why Communists fight against religion.”{191}
Student: “But supposing I were a Communist and still wanted to go to Church?”
Official Statement: “If a Communist youth believes in God and goes to Church, he fails to fulfil his duties. This means that he has not yet rid himself of religious superstitions and has not become a fully conscious person (i.e., a Communist).”{192}
Lenin: “A young man or woman cannot be a Communist youth unless he or she is free of religious convictions.”{193}
Lenin: “We must combat religion—this is the ABC of all materialism, and consequently Marxism.”{194}
Student: “What is your attitude toward individual churches? Take the Catholic Church, for example.”
Yaroslavsky: “The Catholic Church, with the pope in its van, is now an important bulwark of all counter-revolutionary organizations and forces.”{195}
Student: Are you against all Christianity?”
Lunarcharsky: (Russian Commissioner of Education): “We hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. Down with love of one’s neighbor! What we want is hate…. Only then can we conquer the universe.”{196}
Student: “How do you justify Communist ‘hate’ propaganda of this kind?”
Official Statement: “Hatred fosters vigilance and an uncompromising attitude toward the enemy and leads to the destruction of everything that prevents Soviet peoples from building a happy life. The teaching of hatred for the enemies of the toilers enriches the conception of Socialist humanism by distinguishing it from sugary and hypocritical ‘philanthropy.’”{197}
Stalin: “It is impossible to conquer an enemy without having learned to hate him with all the might of one’s soul.”{198}
Student: “And what is your attitude toward the Jewish people and their religion?”
Marx: “What was the foundation of the Jewish religion? Practical needs egoism. Consequently the monotheism of the Jew is in reality the Polytheism of many needs…. The God of practical needs and egoism is money…. Money is the jealous God of Israel, by the side of which no other God may exist…. The God of the Jews has secularized himself and become the universal God…. As soon as society succeeds in abolishing the empirical essence of Judaism, the huckster and the conditions which produce him, the Jew will become impossible…. The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism.”{199}
Student: “In view of all this, why is it that Communist propaganda sometimes pretends a tolerance for religion?”
Yaroslavsky: “In our work among religious people we must bear in mind Lenin’s advice to utilize every method available to us, or, as he said, we must ‘approach them this way and that way’ in order to stimulate them to criticize religion themselves.”{200}
Student: “If religion is so bad, do you think it will gradually die out?”
Yaroslavsky: “It would be a great mistake to believe that religion will die out of itself. We have repeatedly emphasized Lenin’s opinion that the Communist Party cannot depend upon the spontaneous development of anti-religious ideas—that these ideas are molded by organized action.”{201}
Student: “Do you think a person’s attitude toward religion should be changed by friendly persuasion?”
Lenin: “The fight against religion must not be limited nor reduced to abstract, ideological preaching. This struggle must be linked up with the concrete practical class movement; its aim must be to eliminate the social roots of religion.”{202}
Official Statement: “The struggle against the Gospel and Christian legend must be conducted ruthlessly and with all the means at the disposal of Communism.”{203}
Student: “Is it true that you have already suppressed the clergy in Russia?”
Stalin: “Have we suppressed the reactionary clergy? Yes, we have. The unfortunate thing is that it has not been completely liquidated. Anti-religious propaganda is a means by which the complete liquidation of the reactionary clergy must be brought about. Cases occur when certain members of the Party hamper the complete development of anti-religious propaganda. If such members are expelled it is a good thing because there is no room for such ‘Communists’ in the ranks of the Party.”{204}
Student: “What do you propose to substitute for religion?”
Lenin: “We said at the beginning… Marxism cannot be conceived without atheism. We would add here that atheism without Marxism is incomp
lete and inconsistent.”{205}
Student: “If you are going to take away the concept of God, what spiritual substitute do you propose to offer your people?”
Official Statement: “What better means of influencing pupils than, for example, the characteristic of the spiritual figure of Stalin given in the Short Biography: ‘Everyone knows the irresistible, shattering power of Stalin’s logic, the crystal clearness of his intellect, his iron will, devotion to the party, his modesty, artlessness, his solicitude for people and mercilessness to enemies of the people.”{206}
Student: “I understand Soviet leaders missed no opportunity when Stalin was alive to indoctrinate the children with the idea of Stalin as a spiritual figure. What was the slogan stamped on children’s toys?”
Official Statement: “Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for my joyous childhood.”{207}
Individual Freedom and Civil Liberties
Student: “Is there any opportunity for freedom and democracy under Communism?”
Engels: “We say: ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre’; we do not promise freedom nor any democracy.”{208}
Student: “Then you do not believe that men should be free and equal in the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”
Engels: “As long as classes exist, all arguments about freedom and equality should be accompanied by the question: Freedom for which class? And for what purpose? The equality of which class with which? And in what relation?”{209}
Student: “But is it not your desire to have freedom and equality for all classes?”
Engels: “We do not want freedom for the bourgeoisie.”{210}
Student: “Do not the people in Communist satellites want freedom and equality for their citizens?”
Engels: “Anyone who talks about freedom and equality within the limits of toiler democracy, i.e., conditions under which the capitalists are overthrown while property and free trade remain—is a defender of the exploiters.”{211}
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