[An international seminar on Stalin was recently held somewhere in Europe. The paper presented by Comrade M.B. Singh at the seminar is given below. The paper will soon be translated and published in Nepali.]
– Mohan Bikram Singh
Stalin was a great leader of the world communist movement. Marx and Engels formulated the theory of scientific socialism. Under Lenin’s leadership, the socialist revolution succeeded in Russia. Stalin was also Lenin’s comrade-in-arms in the Russian socialist revolution. After Lenin’s death, he worked to give practical form to socialism in Russia and developed it to a high level. This was a very important and unique achievement in the history of whole mankind. In addition, he worked to explain Marxist-Leninist theory and developed it to a high level of creativity. He will always be remembered in the history of mankind for his role in World War II. He played a pivotal role in the Battle of Stalingrad, and the defeat of Hitler in that war marked his final downfall. He also played an important role in building a world socialist system too.
In the course of building socialism in Russia, he had to wage a fierce struggle against both domestic and foreign powers. But at the same time, he also had to wage uncompromising struggles against various types of deviation within the party. Without such internal struggles, it would not have been possible to build the Bolshevik Party and build socialism in the Soviet Union. It was only by developing Marxist-Leninist theory and dialectics at a high level that Stalin was able to achieve significant revolutionary achievements both inside and outside the party.
Marx and Engels were criticized and hated by the capitalist class for evolving the theory of socialism. Lenin was attacked even more by the capitalists because he had worked to make the socialist revolution successful. The capitalists attacked Stalin more than Marx, Engels, or Lenin, because he had worked to give practical form to the socialist system, abolishing the capitalist system in the USSR which was a great blow to the world capitalist system.
He had been criticized or condemned not only by the class enemies, but also by various types of leftists. First of all, he was criticized or attacked heavily by Trotsky. He also opposed the construction of socialism in one country, the united front against fascism with America, Britain, and France, etc. He even accused Stalin of betraying the world revolution. Later, Khrushchev, at the 20th Party Congress of the Soviet Union, condemned Stalin vehemently and carried out a slanderous character assassination against him.
The criticism of Stalin by Khrushchev was followed by revisionist movements throughout the worldwide.
Khrushchev and Soviet revisionists worldwide claimed that their criticism of Stalin was due to his personality cult. However, their main attack was directed against the principles of Marxism-Leninism, the socialist system as a whole, and for the restoration of capitalism. Later, their actions proved this fact to be true.
At first, they claimed that their attack was only against Stalin’s personality cult. But later, they also attacked Lenin. In the name of the struggle against Stalin’s personality cult together with many other things. The word “Stalin” was removed from the name of the city of Stalingrad, which was renamed Petrograd. Later, the city of Leningrad was also renamed St. Petersburg.
The Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao, took a strong ideological stand to defend Stalin and challenged Soviet Revisionism. The CPC put forth the view that Stalin had some weaknesses, but in the main, he was right. In that context, the Chinese Party concluded that Stalin was 70 percent right and only 30 percent wrong. Such an approach towards Stalin was dialectical one.
After the socialization of all the means of production in USSR and the termination of the feudal and bourgeois classes, Stalin came to the conclusion that class struggle was no more required there. Such a conclusion on the part of Stalin was mistaken. He failed to take into account that even after the end of capitalist ownership of the means of production in USSR and the end of the old exploiting classes, new capitalist classes had emerged from the sphere of distribution. So, there was still a need for class struggle against them. In other words, the justification for the dictatorship of the proletariat had not yet ended. The idea that class struggle was no longer necessary in Russia weakened the dictatorship of the proletariat there. As a result, the new capitalist class that emerged from the sphere of distribution captured the means of production. Consequently, the socialist system in Russia came to an end, and the capitalist system was restored.
It was a mistake on the part of Stalin to conclude that class struggle was no longer necessary in the USSR. However, it would certainly not be correct, as Mao said, to argue that this mistake was due to “a fair amount of metaphysics” in his thinking. Stalin’s mistaken conclusion was a result of the historical limitations existing at that time. Before the socialist revolution in Russia, no country in the world had ever built socialism. Therefore, Stalin had not had the opportunity to learn from any previous historical experiences. He had not been able to learn that even after the socialization of the means of production, the cessation of the ownership of the means of production by feudal and capitalist classes, and the end of private property in society, new capitalist classes could emerge from the sphere of distribution. Consequently, class struggle or the dictatorship of the proletariat would still be necessary against them. This failure to pay attention to that aspect was not due to metaphysical thinking inherent in him, but was a result of historical limitations.
Another root cause for the restoration of capitalism in USSR was the individual mentality of the people in general. The mentality of individual ownership of the pretty bourgeois existing on the bottom also paved the way for the restoration of capitalism. Drawing lesson from the historical experience of Russia, Mao paid serious attention to that aspect and attempted to transform it through the Great Cultural Revolution. However, that effort did not succeed, and eventually, capitalism was restored in China too. In this context, we should not overlook the mistake Mao made in the struggle against “centrist” opportunism, which had appeared in China under the leadership of Zhou-En-lai in the Communist Party of China. However, some of the criticism of Mao does not in any way minimize the great role he played in the World Communist Movement or his contributions during the era of Lenin, just as some of the criticism of Stalin does not in any way minimize his great role and contributions to the World Communist Movement.
The great achievements Stalin attained, such as building socialism in the USSR under the most challenging world domestic and international situations, successful struggles against various types of deviations within the party, achieving victory over fascist Germany, developing Marxist-Leninist principles into new level during Lenin ear, and building a world socialist system, would not have been possible in lack of dialectical approach. In this context, the criticism of Stalin by Mao – a fair amount of metaphysics – should not be taken as correct.
Later, the RCP (USA) also leveled many accusations against Stalin. These accusations were largely in line with those leveled against Stalin by Trotsky. They particularly referred to Stalin’s strategy in the context of World War II and claimed that he had shamefully abandoned the principles of Marxism-Leninism. They accused Stalin of being a reformist, rightist, and a narrow nationalist, and of betraying the interests of the world revolution in order to defend the Soviet Union.
In fact, after the invention of Germany upon USSR the inter-imperialist character of the World War II has changed into Patriotic War. RCP (USA) fully disagreed with such an analysis of Stalin and Comintern and maintain that the war from beginning to end was inter-imperialist one and the conclusion of Stalin was misleading. So, they claimed, Stalin’s strategy of alliance with the imperialist powers against fascist Germany was not only wrong, but even betrayal with world proletarian revolution.
In 1984, the founding conference of the RIM was held in France. No doubt, it played positive role to censure Chinese revisionism. A pole Mao Zedong thought and Great Chinese Cultural Revolution. But as the leading role in the conference was that of the RCP, USA, they tried their best to run the conference along Trotskyite lines. They tried their best to include the Trotskyist analysis concerning the evaluation of WW II and in this way to prove the line of Stalin wrong. However, due to strong opposition from the Communist Party of Cylong, led by Com. Sammukhadasam, the TKP (ML), and the NCP (Mashal), the RCP (USA)’s attempt to steer the RIM conference toward a Trotskyist position against Stalin did not succeed. Not only that, but in the declaration, they had to accept the inclusion of this term: ‘Armed with the scientific teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Zedong, we are fully conscious of the tasks expected of us in the present situation…’.”
Stalin has made a very large and historical contribution to the world communist movement. The opponents of Marxism, Leninism, or socialism have made many efforts to remove Stalin from the map of the world communist movement. Such efforts are actually directed toward the goal of eliminating socialism itself. However, Stalin played a very important role in the great interests of the world socialist revolution, and for the great interests of the world socialist revolution, we must always continue to struggle to protect his revolutionary legacy for the great sake of world socialist revolution.
