HISTORIC LESSON OF CZECHOSLOVAK SITUATION
from Rodong Sinmun, August 23, 1968, p. 4
Now the situation in Czechoslovakia is very grave. All the events which have been going on in this country of late show that a grave danger has been created in the cause of socialism of its people owing to the hideous activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in conspiracy with the imperialists headed by U.S. imperialism.
We, who are linked with the Czechoslovak people by close internationalist bonds in the common struggle against the aggression and subversive moves of the imperialists and for the acceleration of socialist and communist construction, have closely watched the activities of the counterrevolutionary elements in Czechoslovakia from the first day of their coming to the fore.
The maneuvers of the counterrevolutionary forces to stamp out the socialist gains in Czechoslovakia and put that country on the road of reviving capitalism began coming out into the open coinciding with the adoption of the so-called new line of “democratization” at the beginning of this year.
As already known, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party held in January this year, the question of building “a highly developed democratic and developed socialist society” was put forth and a new line of “democratization” was adopted, and it began to find its “embodiment” in all the spheres of the party and state affairs.
Voices denying the leading role of the Communist Party, denying the centralized guidance of the state, and denying the class struggle under the signboard of “democratization” and “liberalization” were openly uttered. State censorship over publications, radios, and TV was abolished and a series of decisions were adopted on emasculating the guidance and control of the party and state organs over the political and social life.
An attack was launched on the measures taken by the public security organ in putting down reactionaries, events for praising the reactionary rulers in the period of the bourgeois republic were held, and the “restoration” of those who had been punished for their counterrevolutionary acts was carried out on a broader scale. This, in fact, meant the opening up of a counterrevolutionary road.
The counterrevolutionary elements raised their heads and openly hurled slanders and calumnies at the socialist system, abused the Communist Party, and cried for the restoration of capitalism. The antisocialist propaganda was openly carried out through the press, radios, and TV of this country.
The activities of the counterrevolutionary elements became all the more undisguised, particularly after the adoption of the so called “action program” of the Communist Party at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party held in April.
This “action program” is an anti-Marxist, counterrevolutionary document for creating conditions for the restoration of capitalism by totally emasculating the leading role of the party and destroying the system of proletarian dictatorship under the slogan of the establishment of a “new, democratic state political guidance system”.
This document, is aimed at denying the class nature of the working class party and reducing the party to a mere club. Moreover, the “action program” is intended to place the National Front, a united front organization, above the party and to melt the party in it, and it openly denies the direct guidance of the party to the state organs and public organizations.
The anti-Marxist nature and harmfulness of the “action program” finds concentric manifestation in the claim for “complete freedom” and “pure democracy” to be guaranteed uniformly to all the social collectives and all the people on the argument that “the dictatorial State of the working class in Czechoslovakia has fulfilled all its historic mission.”
Today, while imperialism still remains on the globe, particularly under the acute situation in which it is perpetrating incessant attacks on the socialist countries, trying hard to find a way out of its doomed lot in stepping up the policies of aggression and war, and under the condition in which there still exist the remnants of the hostile classes internally and in which the capitalist elements have not yet been completely uprooted from the ideas and consciousness of the people, the plan for “putting an end to the mission of the dictatorship of the proletariat” and “enforcing” “complete freedom” and “pure democracy for all the social collectives and all the people” is, in fact, nothing but an attempt to patronize the counterrevolutionary elements and paralyze the class awakening of the masses of the people and to disarm them before the enemy.
The aim pursued by the “action program” is glaring and revealed in the fact that it urges an early “restoration” of the counterrevolutionary elements who had been found guilty and encourages the press and radios in antistate propaganda.
After the announcement of this program, the counterrevolutionary elements in Czechoslovakia went so far as openly publishing a foul document called “2,000 Words” in newspapers of this country under the name of the “Czechslovak activists group.” This document is a counterrevolutionary action program which formulated their sinister aim of overthrowing the socialist system and restoring the capitalist society, the dark society where exploitation and oppression, poverty, and nonrights prevail.
In the “2,000 words”, the counterrevolutionary elements not only hurled every malicious slander and calumny at socialism and the Communist Party, expressing undisguised hostility against them, but also openly called for going over to an action against the Communist Party and the socialist power. Expressing hope for the development of “liberalization” in Czechoslovakia, they agitated that the “coming period is a decisive period” and this period “demands everyone act according to his determination.”
Moreover, they egged people on to strengthen anticommunist propaganda by seizing the press organs such as central and local newspapers, journals, radios and TV, and to stage strikes, demonstrations, and slowdowns and to fight to realize one’s demand by “founding one’s citizen committee and commission.”
This was, in fact, an appeal for counterrevolutionary advance for overthrowing the socialist regime and establishing the reactionary bourgeois regime.
Praise and support of this “2,000 words” appeal are run through with despicable and malicious slander and calumny at socialism and the revolutionary cause of the people, and agitations for counterrevolution are voiced in a number of publications, radios, and TV of this country, and the support to it is openly expressed even among some leading figures of the party and the state.
Furthermore, the “K 231” — a reactionary organization comprised of released criminals — and various other anticommunist, counterrevolutionary organizations have made their appearance and are having things their way.
In order to overthrow the socialist system, the reactionaries of Czechoslovakia captured one position of socialism and put forward slogans and demands one by one to take the next position. They are trying to divorce the people’s militia organized with the core elements of the working class from the leadership of the party and, furthermore, to place it under their control or disorganize it. And they are disuniting the youth organization and drawing in youths under their influence.
An extremely grave danger has been created to the socialist cause of the people owing to the activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia today.
It cannot be overlooked in particular that the maneuvers of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia are being manipulated by the U.S. imperialists and West German militarists and other imperialists.
Now the U.S. imperialists and the West German militarists and the Tito clique of Yugoslavia, who betrayed the revolution long ago and became servants of U.S. imperialism, are in high glee over the situation created in Czechoslovakia and are actively encouraging the antisocialist elements of Czechoslovakia overtly and covertly. Tito, a despicable renegade in the revolution, visited Czechoslovakia recently and tried by hook or by crook to encourage and agitate the counterrevolutionary forces of this country, blaring that Yugoslavia warmly welcomed and supported the course of “democratization” in Czechoslovakia.
In this way Tito once again vividly disclosed that he was playing the role of a detached force in the maneuvers of the U.S. imperialists for disorganizing the socialist camp and the world revolutionary forces from within. The ruling circles of the United States shouted for joy over the “democratization” in Czechoslovakia and offered various “preferential treatment” to Czechoslovakia. According to reports, commanding centers of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and West German spies have been set up in Czechoslovakia and U.S.-made weapons are uncovered in many areas of this country.
On the other hand, the Czechoslovak authorities approached the U.S. imperialists and the West German revanchists, while weakening the relations of alliance with the socialist countries. The mines and barbed-wire entanglements which had been laid in the Czechoslovak area bordering on West Germany were removed and things went so far that in the May Day demonstration national flags of U.S. imperialism were carried and “Long live the United States” was shouted.
All these facts bespeak that the machinations of the counterrevolutionary elements to bring to naught the socialist gains of the Czechoslovak people and to turn Czechoslovakia back to the road of capitalism are closely linked with the unceasing maneuvers of the imperialists to beat socialist countries one by one.
Then, why has there been created in Czechoslovakia such a grave situation throwing in danger the revolutionary cause of the working class and the socialist system won at the cost of blood? This is by no means a fortuitous phenomenon nor an unexpected situation. All the developments in Czechoslovakia are a natural outcome of the revisionist policy that has been pursued in this country.
As Comrade Kim Il Sung instructed: “If one falls into revisionism step by step, in the end one is unable to get out of it and cannot but slide onto the road of capitalism.” It is a stark lesson furnished by the experiences of history that when one falls onto the road of revisionism, discarding the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism, one is bound to make a mess of the revolution and construction and, furthermore, plunge in danger the socialist system itself, the precious revolutionary gains attained at a high price of sacrifice. The present situation in Czechoslovakia gives a new serious lesson on this to the international communist movement.
In the recent period since revisionism came to the fore in the international communist movement, revisionism has been pursued in Czechoslovakia as party and state policy and this has brought about serious consequences in the social life as a whole. The grave situation that has been created in Czechoslovakia today is nothing but an extreme manifestation of such revisionist lines and policies.
As the experiences of the international communist movement prove, it is an unavoidable. and immovable rule for the party of each socialist country to uphold the general principles of Marxism-Leninism on socialist revolution and socialist construction, such as keeping up the class struggle and maintaining the dictatorship of the proletariat and insuring the party leadership of socialist construction and strengthening the ideological work among the masses of the people, and so forth.
Whether or not the triumphed socialist system is defended and consolidated and developed and whether or not the successful carrying out of the construction of socialism and communism is insured, entirely depends on whether or not the party of each socialist country holds fast to these principles and correctly embodies them.
Accordingly, the parties which desire to truly maintain a revolutionary stand and correctly lead the people to the victory of the cause of socialism and communism along the road of Marxism-Leninism, should without exception remain faithful to these principles unconditionally. However, the entire course in Czechoslovakia in recent years has not been so.
One of the graphic manifestations of the revisionist policy is the fact that the political and ideological work among the masses of the people has been given up in the last period. The political and ideological work among the masses — this is one of the most important duties confronting each revolutionary party in the building of socialism and communism.
Particularly, under the conditions in which the world revolution has not yet been carried to completion and imperialism still remains, it stands out as a very acute and serious question for the party of the working class which has seized the power to firmly arm the masses of the people politically and ideologically.
Only when the working class and all the broad masses are tirelessly educated in the unshakable consciousness of the working class and its revolutionary ideas is it possible to effectively keep off the intensifying ideological offensive of the imperialists and the infiltration of all hostile bourgeois ideologists of all descriptions and to arouse them powerfully in revolution and construction.
Therefore, the ideological struggle against the infiltration of the hostile ideas and their manifestation and the ideological work of educating and remolding the masses must not be interrupted or weakened for a moment.
But, due attention has not been paid to this in Czechoslovakia in the last period. The struggle against the survival of obsolete ideas and the ideological work have been ignored and given up.
To abandon ideological work is in itself opening the door to infiltration of all trends of reactionary bourgeois ideologies and rendering the masses ideologically defenseless in the face of it.
As the realities of Czechoslovakia show, all the reactionary ideological trends spread by the imperialists began flowing unhindered into the windless zone where the ideological struggle and ideological education were given up and Western revisionism brought in, rapidly spreading the corrupt Western fashion of life.
With bourgeois influence widely spreading in the social life, the counterrevolutionary elements began again their activities within the country, using this hostile ideology as a springboard, and this did grave harm to the political and ideological life of the people.
The infiltration of the virus of bourgeois ideologies and the Western style of life degenerated many people ideologically and fostered to the extreme egoism seeking personal indolence and comfort, instead of working for the interests of the country and the revolution ; and furthermore, it drove them to a state where their class consciousness was paralyzed and they lost the capacity to see and judge things and phenomena in a revolutionary way.
As a result, no small number of the people have become unable to tell which is revolutionary and which is counterrevolutionary bourgeois virus — which is socialist and which is anti-socialist — and even unable to distinguish clearly between the friend and the enemy.
To paralyze and enervate the class awakening and the revolutionary spirit of the masses of the people and thus to create an erroneous illusion as to imperialism and disorganize the revolutionary ranks politically and ideologically — herein lies the consistent aim of revisionism.
The revisionist policy that has been pursued in Czechoslovakia finds concentric manifestation particularly in giving up the class struggle and denying the dictatorship of the proletariat. To deny the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat is the anti-Marxist, counterrevolutionary essence of revisionism.
Whether one continues the class struggle or casts it away, and whether one strengthens the dictatorship of the proletariat or destroys it, is the watershed always dividing Marxism-Leninism and revisionism — the revolutionary line and the opportunist line. Revisionism, proceeding from its reactionary nature, unwilling to make revolution, doggedly opposes the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The revisionist policy in Czechoslovakia proves this with clarity.
The activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia and their vicious machinations against the socialist system are the direct offspring of the abandonment of the class struggle and the paralysis of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The class struggle under socialism does not cease but continues. This is inevitable as long as aggressive and subversive maneuvers against socialism are ceaselessly perpetrated by the imperialists and reactionary forces from without and as long as remnant forces of the hostile classes lie low and, though overthrown as class, hatch subversive and destructive machinations both overtly and covertly, not giving up delusions about the old system. Therefore, the class struggle must not be given up halfway because the socialist system was established. But great attention must always be directed to this.
Comrade Kim Il Sung taught us: “It goes without saying that the class struggle must be continued under socialism. Those who deny the class struggle under socialism are revisionists and have no intention of making revolution. As socialist construction progresses, the dictatorship of the proletariat must not be weakened, but must be continuously strengthened and the class struggle must also be continued.”
To thoroughly carry out the class struggle against resisting hostile forces under socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat must be steadily strengthened, first of all. The dictatorship of the proletariat is in itself the class struggle of the working class waged through the state power. Therefore, only by strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and enhancing its functions in every possible way, can resistance of class enemies of all hues be thoroughly put down, the socialist system be firmly defended, and socialist and communist construction be successfully carried out.
Precisely for this reason, under no pretext must the class struggle be given up or the dictatorship of the proletariat be weakened.
In Czechoslovakia, however, machinations are being stepped up in an undisguised way against the dictatorship of the proletariat under the signboard of “democratization” and “liberalization.” The advocates of “democratization” and “liberalization” in Czechoslovakia are pouring out a spate of vile words as if the dictatorship of the proletariat has “eradicated” democracy, just as the counter-revolutionary elements and opportunists did through an historic period, opposing the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are fabricating the pretext that they give “humanitarianism” and “profound democracy” to socialism.
But no pretext or sophistry can cover up the reactionary nature of “democratization” and “liberalization.” In fact, things going on in Czechoslovakia under the slogan of “democratization” and “liberalization” are malicious slander and attacks against the organs of the proletarian dictatorship, including the public security organs which have the mission of putting down the class enemies. They are maneuvers to disturb the state and social order and revive a state of anarchy in which reactionaries and anyone else can speak and act at will without any class principle.
As is clear here, too, the so-called “democratization” and “liberalization” are “liberty” guaranteeing the revival of the bourgeois elements and hostile forces of all descriptions and “democracy” for restoring the bourgeois system and returning to the road of capitalism.
To all intents and purposes, this is nothing but bourgeois liberty and bourgeois democracy.
Genuine democracy, revolutionary democracy, is fundamentally contradictory to bourgeois liberty and democracy. Genuine democracy under socialism is only democracy based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and cannot be otherwise.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is the highest form of democracy which thoroughly enforces dictatorship against a handful of the exploiting classes and the enemies of the people and guarantees maximum democracy to the working class and the broad masses of the people.
As for liberty, there is no supra-revolutionary liberty. “Liberty” rejecting the leadership of the party and the dictatorship of the proletariat is bourgeois “liberty” for oppressing and exploiting toiling masses and benefiting only a handful of the exploiting classes. And liberty pursuing only unlimited individual enjoyment, ignoring the revolution and the masses of the people, is not liberty but licence.
Democracy and liberty demanding the enforcement of democracy for the class enemies and advocating unprincipled liberty are reactionary and anti-socialist no matter under what signboard of “liberalization” and “democratization” they may be put under.
Without the decisive and through anti-socialist forces, genuine liberty and democracy cannot be guaranteed for the people. The dictatorship of the proletariat is democracy for the people presupposing dictatorship against the enemies of socialism and it is thoroughly enforced through the struggle against them. Only democracy by the dictatorship of the proletariat is genuine democracy for the absolute majority of the people and defending and representing the interests of all the people.
The class struggle against all the hostile forces, therefore, must be thoroughly carried out and the dictatorship of the proletariat must be strengthened and its functions and role enhanced constantly in order to materialize genuine democracy under socialism.
The working class and communists throughout the world should draw a profound lesson from the situation of Czechoslovakia.
Today, the fierce class struggle is going on between socialism and imperialism and between the revolutionary forces in the international arena. As long as imperialism, exploiting classes, and their remnants exist, the communists must not lay down the weapon of the class struggle or weaken the dictatorship of the proletariat in the least. The revolutionary essence of Marxism-Leninism lies in the fact that it is a theory of the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat are the mightiest weapon in the hands of the working class and the inevitable demand for the victory of the cause of socialism and communism. Only through class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat can the working class win victory in the socialist revolution, defend the socialist gains, and build socialism and communism.
Imperialism, U.S. imperialism in particular, is the number one target of the struggle of the world revolution and the most heinous enemy of socialism.
As Comrade Kim Il Sung taught us, today the U.S. imperialists, while viciously manoeuvring to swallow up socialist countries one by one, are pursuing the policy of systematically assaulting the Asian, African, and Latin American countries which are making revolution and of disorganizing from within those countries which are indulging in revisionism and taking advantage of it. Under these circumstances, all socialist countries should jointly defend the socialist camp and safeguard their socialist ideological positions.
The socialist camp is the precious gain which the world working class has won through a century-old bloody struggle.
Comrade Kim Il Sung said: “The socialist camp and the international communist movement are the decisive factors in the development of the history of mankind at the present time. They are the greatest revolutionary forces of our times that stand face to face with imperialism and all the forces of reaction. The existence of the united and powerful socialist camp and international communist movement checks the imperialist policy of aggression and war and inspires the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the whole world.”
To defend and safeguard the socialist camp is the sacred duty of each socialist country and all communists and an important guarantee of the ultimate victory of the world revolution.
To defend the socialist camp and safe guard the socialist gains of each country, we should and must strengthen in every way the dictatorship of the proletariat, firmly holding the weapon of class struggle. What is most important in strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and consolidating and developing the socialist system is to educate and remold all the working people in communist ideas by energetically conducting the ideological revolution.
Comrade Kim Il Sung taught us: “The work of educating and remolding all the masses is a deepgoing ideological revolution to finally eliminate capitalism even in the sphere of consciousness of the people and to completely liberate the masses of the people from all the old things handed down through centuries. This is the most difficult work to be carried out after the seizure of power by the working class and requires a long period of time.”
The ideological revolution is the basic duty of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the period of transition to communism and is the main form of the class struggle after the victory of the socialist system.
Following the victory of the socialist system, the remnants of capitalism exist more than in any other spheres in the consciousness of the people, and the old ideological survivals are the last foothold of capitalism. Using this as a hotbed, the imperialists and reactionaries spread the virus of corrupt bourgeois ideology and perpetrate counterrevolutionary machinations.
Without eliminating the remnants of capitalism existing in the consciousness of the people, we cannot consolidate the socialist system, defend this system from the encroachment of the enemy, or go over to communism no matter how solidly the material and technical foundations of socialism have been built up. We can check the infiltration of the virus of the bourgeois ideology, build socialism and communism successfully, finally remove the foothold of the reactionaries, and insure the complete victory of socialism and communism only by eliminating the survivals of bourgeois ideology, such as individualism, egoism, and liberalism, and by firmly arming all the working people with the communist ideas through energetically carrying out the ideological revolution. To start from the ideological awakening of the people and finish with the completion of their ideological transformations — this is the law of the socialist and communist revolution.
If we ignore or violate this law, we cannot win victory in the socialist revolution, nor can we defend the socialist gains. As historical facts show, if we fall into revisionism and give up the ideological revolution and take the direction of “liberalization,” we cannot eliminate the survivals of bourgeois ideology or check the infiltration of the virus of bourgeois ideology. As a result, the corrupt bourgeois ideology will spread and paralyze the revolutionary consciousness of the people and degenerate and degrade them. This, in the final analysis, is to open the road to reaction and return to capitalism and imperil the socialist gains.
Another important question in defending the socialist gains is to inherit and develop the revolutionary traditions.
In bringing the revolutionary cause to naught, the revisionists, without exception, take the course of denying revolutionary traditions. They describe as a “dark age” the age of glorious revolution in which the revolutionary forerunners achieved the revolutionary cause through a bloody struggle against the exploiters, oppressors, and aggressors. They maliciously slander and vilify the leaders of the revolution. After all, this paralyzes the sense of honor of revolution and the revolutionary zeal of the people, undermines the preciousness of the revolutionary gains, degenerates the party, cuts off the generations of revolution, gives up revolution, and opens the road to counterrevolution. To deny the revolutionary traditions cannot be otherwise.
Therefore, to defend the revolutionary traditions is an indispensable condition for carrying forward the revolutionary cause and completing it to the end.
It is the steadfast line of our party to constantly revolutionize the whole society by pushing the ideological revolution ahead of all other work and to defend, inherit, and develop the revolutionary traditions.
Our party will, as ever, sharpen the weapon of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat and constantly proletarianize and revolutionize the whole society, thoroughly oppose all reactionary ideas, such as revisionism, dogmatism, flunkeyism, and bourgeois and feudalistic ideologies, and will defend like the apple of the eye the purity and revolutionary spirit of Marxism-Leninism.
Today we are living in the age of revolutionary storm, in the period of world-historic turn in which socialism is triumphing and imperialism is going to ruin throughout the world. No desperate efforts of the imperialists and their stooges can reverse the wheel of revolution or save them from ruin. Capitalism has lived its days. The future belongs only to communism. There may be twists and turns, but socialism and communism will certainly triumph throughout the world, and imperialism and reactionaries of all hues will eventually perish.
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