Title of a lecture given by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Nina Andreyeva, at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang on 6th October 1992.
Allow me to greet you heartily in the name of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which has emerged from the ruins of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on behalf of the Soviet people who have not surrendered in face of the treachery of the Gorbachev clique and also in the name of those who are fighting for the restoration of the Soviet Union and of socialism. I would also like to congratulate you on the 47th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Today there are many people asking themselves the following questions: what has happened in the Soviet Union?; how was it possible that the working people gave up their power without a fight?; why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union founded by Lenin dissolve itself?; what will now be the destiny of world socialism and the international communist movement?; how long can the offensive of reaction last in our country?
What happened in the U.S.S.R. in recent years? Tragically it has to be admitted that a bourgeois counter-revolution has taken place in the Soviet Union. It took place by turning socialism back into capitalism, that is to say, it began by introducing elements of capitalism into socialism and this later developed into the restoration of capitalist relations in all spheres of social life.
What were the sources and reasons for this retreat? It is no secret that the internal and external policy of the U.S.S.R. was guided by the C.P.S.U. Unlike feudalism and capitalism the building and development of socialism cannot take place spontaneously. The formation of socialist relations must be planned and organised and rely on a constantly developing scientific base. It is the working-class party that must give an organised, planned and scientific character to socialism. The might of the revolutionary working-class party lies in having a scientific programme and a correct understanding of how to achieve the strategic goals of the working class. For the party founded by Lenin these goals were primarily the interests of the working class, the peasantry and the working intellectuals. Any retreat from these interests meant and means socio-political betrayal -- the abandonment of communist positions to the class enemy.
In some communist parties and in our country the general belief is that this retreat started with the seizure of hegemony by Gorbachev and his clique. Today it is evident that such an appraisal is unsatisfactory. It cannot give an answer to the question why it was suddenly possible for the foundations of socialism to be destroyed, for the U.S.S.R., a multi-national state, to be broken up and for the communist party of the Soviet Union to be liquidated. It is impossible for a few renegades and traitors, however high their position, to destroy within a few years a politically mature party and a sound socio-economic system. In other words protracted preparations for the counter-revolution to destroy the socio-economic system of the C.P.S.U. and the U.S.S.R. were needed both within the country and outside it. The most important and necessary factor, however, was the degeneration of the ruling party, its opportunist deterioration. The position of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks is that the degradation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union into right opportunism and revisionism started from the end of the 50's when the leadership of the party and of the state was seized by Khrushchev and his associates. The starting point of the degeneration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union into opportunism was its 20th Congress. The ideological prelude and ideological premise here was the anti-Stalin campaign, which was launched under the false slogan of the criticism of the "Cult of Personality". The huge prestige of J.V. Stalin was treacherously proclaimed to the whole world as the "Cult of Personality" and the "disclosure" itself assumed a nasty petty-bourgeois and philistine character. In fact it soon became clear that most of the campaign was contrived by Khrushchev and others close to him. But the propaganda machine of "disclosure" was already in full swing. Those communists who opposed such policies were sacked from their jobs and excluded from the Communist Party.
Comrade Kim Il Sung rightly says that the driving force of the revolution and socialist construction is "none other than the unity of the leader, the party and the masses." It is not accidental that the opportunist Khrushchev dealt his first blow at such unity with a view to disorganising and weakening the motive force of socialist reforms. In this way the building of socialism was suspended and the international working-class and communist movement as well as the national liberation struggle of the peoples against imperialism suffered severe damage. The anti-Stalin campaign led to the impairment of the prestige of socialism, to the confrontation with the Communist Party of China and later to the clashes on the border of the U.S.S.R. and China, something shameful for our leadership and also to the activation of the enemies of socialism in the peoples' democracies of Europe. In the Soviet Union there was a mass replacement of party and government cadres, causing immense damage to the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism as the scientific outlook of the working class as well as of the socialist forces.
History proves that the danger of opportunism increases greatly when it forms a ruling class, because under socialism a powerful propaganda apparatus is available to it and this is capable of misleading the communists and working people. This is precisely what happened in the Soviet Union. In his time J.V. Stalin defined very correctly the dangerous nature of right opportunism by stressing that for opportunists "Socialism means the growth and enrichment of the bourgeoisie." Opportunism is expressed in lack of principle, in the shortsighted pursuit of immediate individual gain, which runs counter to the fundamental interests of the working people. At first the harm of such a policy was disguised and was partly compensated by the real achievements of socialism in the past, achievements which had created an unprecedented reserve of stability.
If in the time of Stalin the basic aim of the economy was a reduction in the cost of goods (the main item of the plan of each enterprise) and the production of high-quality goods by making use of scientific achievements and new techniques and economizing in raw materials, power and labour, then in the time of Khrushchev and later of Brezhnev the main index of the economic effectiveness of production was the making of profit in monetary terms. They started to achieve this by artificially raising prices, that is they effected a reduction in the amount of goods produced, while increasing prices. The short-sighted pursuit of profit and other private interests for the enterprises led to a slowdown in the rate of development in the national economy, a decrease in the effectiveness of investment and a drop in the value of the rouble. Cheap goods disappeared, scientific and technical progress was impaired and labour productivity fell.
As a result of these opportunistic economic policies wage differentials rocketed and a "black" economy, based on elements of private enterprise, permitted the unlawful accumulation of capital by the new "Soviet" bourgeoisie. The "black" entrepreneurs conspired with the corrupt bureaucrats in the party and in the organs of government, destroying everything around them. Class distinctions reappeared, leading among the working people to negative attitudes towards labour and towards the state. The Soviet state lost its class character, changing from the state of proletarian dictatorship to the so-called "state of the whole people". By the 80's the bureaucracy had increased three-fold above the levels of the Stalin period, bribery and corruption were prevalent and efficiency had decreased. The state had become alienated from the working people and had lost their support. Thus the social basis of the Soviet state had crumbled.
With the seizure of the leadership by the Gorbachev-Yakovlev-Shevardnadze clique, rightist opportunism went over to restoring capitalism on a legal basis. Starting from Khrushchev's concept of the "complete and final victory of socialism in the Soviet Union", then through Brezhnev's false propaganda of "developed socialism", the upper stratum of the C.P.S.U. transformed itself completely and finally into traitors and renegades, tools of U.S. monopoly capital and its criminal bourgeoisie, destroying socialism, the multi-national Soviet state and the communist party. Rightist opportunism has thus completed its evolution. The opportunists in the party leadership, including Gorbachev, who quite recently were singing the Internationale in front of the TV cameras, are today prattling about "the downfall of socialism", the "historic dead end" and the "failed experiment". They have thus revealed their complete political and moral bankruptcy.
We must take three aspects into consideration: Firstly, that the frustration of socialism in the Soviet Union was not spontaneous and it is wrong to regard the counter-revolution there as finally and completely victorious. As Comrade Kim Jong Il has said: "The frustration of socialism and the revival of capitalism in some countries, when viewed in the light of the main tide of historical development, is only a temporary, local phenomenon". No matter what the machinations of the imperialists and reactionaries may be, the general current of history will flow through feudalism and capitalism to socialism and sweep away the fortress of imperialism.
Secondly, it was not socialism and the communist ideal that suffered defeat in the U.S.S.R., but opportunism which had usurped power. Political double-dealers and careerists who won the people's confidence by fraud had entrenched themselves in the hierarchy of the C.P.S.U. and the Soviet state. Today in order to remain on the people's backs, they are prepared to depend on any scum, criminals, fascists, despicable anti-Soviet exiles. They grovel at the feet of South African and Israeli racists or reactionary regimes such as in Seoul and Taiwan. It is quite clear, therefore, that it is not the party of communists that has ceased to exist but the rotten and paralysed structure born of opportunism. The opportunists have long since ceased to embody the Leninist party. Objectively they are opposed it. This is why the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks is against the revival of the C.P.S.U. which has become a party of right-wing social democrats.
Thirdly, capitalism which has been saved by the renegades and opportunists can solve none of the problems of mankind. The present "triumph" of imperialism is an illusion, it merely sows the seeds of a deeper crisis, heralding a sharpening struggle for the redivision of the world. Only socialism can save the peoples of the world from further disaster.
In the Soviet Union itself the counter-revolution has brought the people a catastrophe from which there is no way out, because capitalism is in deep crisis, a crisis which expresses itself in the destruction of the productive forces, the uniquely integral production complex of the country. Thousands of enterprises are closing, production levels have dropped to those of the early 1970's, valuable equipment is being lost, rare supplies of raw materials stolen, coal-mines inundated, farm animals butchered because of shortage of fodder. Cold and starvation are threatening this winter and unemployment is increasing. All this is happening when the working class as a result of "Perestroika" has become non-political, ceasing to be a class. By organising genocide, the counter-revolutionaries are taking their revenge on the previous generation which had built and defended socialism. In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for example, those who participated and who were disabled in the great patriotic war, have lost their pensions. Instead the national bourgeoisie that has come to power has awarded high pensions to those who fought the Red Army in the war, who hiding in forests after the war, raided and plundered villages and murdered true communists. And similar things are taking place in the Ukraine, Moldavia and in Russia, where war veterans, who saved our lives, are now being humiliated not only in words but also physically.
We may ask when did the coup take place which has plunged the Soviet people into bloodshed and misfortune? We consider that it took place after the events of August 1991 in Moscow, which were neither a "revolt" nor a "coup d'etat". It happened after the formation of the so-called state emergency committee. Up till that point the revival of capitalism had been conducted under the guidance of the opportunist leadership of the C.P.S.U. and had been camouflaged under the slogan of "socialist renewal". By the summer of 1991 the counter-revolution was ripe and a scenario was prepared for the move to the next stage, a scenario we believe was planned abroad. In this anti-communist drama the role of producer was played by Gorbachev and others and the role of actors was played by the pseudo-democrats who mobilised for the defence of the white house. The result of the provocation and the whole farce was that the working people were deprived of political power and the promotion of capitalism moved forward without any serious obstacle. A purge took place in the army, starting with those who had remained faithful to the oath to the Soviet state. Members of the state emergency committee such as Yanayev, Pablov, Krychikov and Shwenin were thrown into prison, while Minister of Internal Affairs Pugo and some other leading officials of the C.C. of the C.P.S.U. committed suicide in very strange circumstances. Gorbachev on his return from his so-called "detention" in the Crimea issued decrees prohibiting the activities of the C.P.S.U. and party organisations in the capital and local areas. One may ask why no one came forward to express support for the C.C. of the C.P.S.U. and for the regional and city party committees. The answer is clear of course: the party founded by Lenin and educated by Stalin ended its existence long ago and was converted over the last thirty years from a working-class party to a so-called "party of the whole people", a receptacle for social democrats, anti-communists, nationalists and anarchists. The party was not dissolved by anyone in fact; it simply crumbled, because only its signboard remained communist.
Nina Andreyeva concludes by stressing that the survival of the present regime is made easier by the dispersal of the opposing forces. More than a hundred parties have emerged on the ruins of the C.P.S.U., some taking an anti-communist stand, some middle-of-the-road but others have begun to form a front opposing the restoration of capitalism. One of these is the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, founded on November 8th 1991 and based on the Bolshevik programme. We believe the U.S.S.R. will rise again as the homeland of the Great October Revolution.
The above is an abridged version of Nina Andreyeva's speech, distributed by
THE STALIN SOCIETY
London, December 1992
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