Bulgaria. "totalitarian communist regime" - which condemned the
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This variety of totalitarianism most fully reflects the characteristic features of the regime, i.e. private property is liquidated, and consequently, any basis of individualism and autonomy of members of society is destroyed.
The economic basis of Soviet-type totalitarianism was a command-administrative system built on the nationalization of the means of production, directive planning and pricing, and the elimination of the foundations of the market. In the USSR, it was formed in the process of industrialization and collectivization. The one-party political system was established in the USSR already in the 1920s. The merging of the party apparatus with the state apparatus, the subordination of the party to the state became a fact at the same time. In the 30s. The CPSU(b), having gone through a series of sharp fights of its leaders in the struggle for power, was a single, strictly centralized, rigidly subordinated, well-oiled mechanism. Discussions, discussions, elements of party democracy are irrevocably a thing of the past. The Communist Party was the only legal political organization. The Soviets, formally the main organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat, acted under its control, all government decisions were made by the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and only then formalized by government decrees. Leading party figures occupied leading positions in the state. All personnel work went through the party bodies: not a single appointment could take place without the approval of the party cells. As for the Komsomol, trade unions, and other public organizations, they were nothing more than "transmission belts" from the party to the masses. Peculiar "schools of communism" (trade unions for workers, Komsomol - for youth, pioneer organization - for children and adolescents, creative unions - for the intelligentsia), they, in essence, played the role of representatives of the party in various sectors of society, helped it lead all spheres of life countries. The spiritual basis of the totalitarian society in the USSR was the official ideology, the postulates of which - understandable, simple - were introduced into the minds of people in the form of slogans, songs, poems, quotes from leaders, lectures on the study of " short course the history of the CPSU(b)”: the foundations of a socialist society have been built in the USSR; as we advance towards socialism, the class struggle will intensify; "who is not with us is against us"; The USSR is the bulwark of progressive society throughout the world; "Stalin is Lenin today." The slightest deviation from these simple truths was punished: "purges", expulsion from the party, repressions were called upon to preserve the ideological purity of citizens. The cult of Stalin as the leader of society was perhaps the most important element of totalitarianism in the 1930s. In the image of a wise, merciless to enemies, simple and accessible leader of the party and people, abstract appeals took on flesh and blood, became extremely concrete and close. Songs, films, books, poems, newspaper and magazine publications inspired love, awe and respect bordering on fear. The whole pyramid of totalitarian power closed on him, he was its undisputed, absolute leader. In the 30s. the previously established and significantly expanded repressive apparatus (the NKVD, extrajudicial reprisals - the “troikas”, the Main Directorate of the Camps - the GULAG, etc.) worked at full speed. Since the end of the 20s. waves of repressions followed one after another: the Shakhty case (1928), the trial of the Industrial Party (1930), the Academician Case (1930), repressions in connection with the assassination of Kirov (1934), political trials of 1936-1939. against former leaders party (G.E. Zinoviev, N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and others), leaders of the Red Army (M.N. Tukhachevsky, V.K. Blucher, I.E. Yakir and others). The "Great Terror" claimed the lives of almost 1 million people who were shot, millions of people passed through the Gulag camps. Repression was the very tool by which a totalitarian society dealt not only with real, but also with the alleged opposition, instilled fear and humility, readiness to sacrifice friends and loved ones. They reminded a confused society that a person “weighed on the scales” of history is light and insignificant, that his life has no value if society needs it. Terror also had economic significance: millions of prisoners worked on the construction sites of the first five-year plans, contributing to the economic power of the country. A very difficult spiritual atmosphere has developed in society. On the one hand, many wanted to believe that life is getting better and more fun, that the difficulties will pass, and what they have done will remain forever - in the bright future that they are building for the next generations. Hence the enthusiasm, faith, hope for justice, pride from participating in a great cause, as millions of people thought. On the other hand, there was fear, a feeling of insignificance, insecurity, and a readiness to unquestioningly carry out commands given by someone. It is believed that exactly this - an excited, tragically split perception of reality is characteristic of totalitarianism, which requires, in the words of a philosopher, "an enthusiastic affirmation of something, a fanatical determination for the sake of nothing." The Constitution of the USSR adopted in 1936 can be considered a symbol of the era. It guaranteed citizens the entire set of democratic rights and freedoms. Another thing is that the citizens were deprived of most of them. The USSR was characterized as a socialist state of workers and peasants. The constitution noted that socialism was basically built, socialist ownership of the means of production was established. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies were recognized as the political basis of the USSR, and the role of the leading core of society was assigned to the CPSU (b). There was no principle of separation of powers.
Civil War
A civil war is an armed struggle for state power between citizens - large masses of people belonging to different classes and social strata of society. The roots of the civil war in Russia are in the social injustice that has existed for centuries, in the fact that the political elite failed to realize the diversity of interests of all ...
Fight for independence
Under the influence of the revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire in 1905, a wave of mass strikes of workers swept across the territory of Estonia. The national bourgeoisie came forward with a demand for liberal reforms. Organized actions of workers resumed in 1912 and especially since 1916. After February Revolution based on polo...
Galician and Volyn lands
The development of agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts, crafts and trade led to the growth of the power of the Galician and Volyn principalities, located on the southwestern outskirts of Russia. The poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" glorifies the Galician prince Yaroslav Osmomysl (1153-1187), who "propped up the Ugorsky mountains with his iron regiments", closed "the gates of the Danube ...
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State Affairs Committee
Speaker Goran Lindblad, Sweden
I. Preliminary resolution
III. Explanatory note
I. Preliminary resolution
1 . The Assembly of the European Parliament submits Resolution 1096 (1996) to take measures to expose communist totalitarian systems.
2 . The totalitarian communist regimes that ruled Central and Eastern Europe in the last century, and that are still in power in some countries, are without exception characterized by massive violations of human rights.
These violations vary by culture, country, and historical period. They include individual and collective killings, executions, deaths in concentration camps, starvation, deportation, torture, slave labor, and other forms of mass physical terror.
3 . The theory of class struggle and the principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat served as justifications for committing crimes. The interpretation of both principles legitimized the "liquidation" of people who were considered harmful to the construction of a new society, in essence, enemies of the totalitarian communist regimes.
In countries with a communist regime, a huge number of people of their own nationality were destroyed. This is especially true of the peoples of the former Soviet Union, who far outnumbered other peoples in terms of the number of victims.
4 . The Assembly recognizes that, despite the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes, some European communist parties have contributed to the achievement of democracy.
5 .The fall of the totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe did not lead to an international investigation into the crimes committed by these regimes. In addition, the authors of these crimes were not brought to justice by the international community, as was the case with the horrific crimes committed in the name of National Socialism (Nazism).
6 . Consequently, the public is little aware of the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes. Communist parties are active and exist legally in some countries, even if they have not separated themselves from the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes in the past.
7 . The Assembly is convinced that awareness of history is one of the preconditions for avoiding similar crimes in the future. Moreover, the moral assessment and condemnation of the crimes committed will play an important role in the education of the younger generation. The clear position of the international community on the events that took place in the past is directly related to how events will unfold in the future.
8 In addition, the Assembly believes that the victims of crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes who are still alive or their families deserve sympathy and understanding for the suffering they endured.
9 . Totalitarian communist regimes are still active in some countries and crimes continue to take place. The concept of national interests should not prevent countries from adequately criticizing the currently existing totalitarian communist regimes. The Assembly strongly condemns all violations of human rights.
10 . The debates and condemnations that have taken place so far at the national level in some member states of the Council of Europe cannot relieve the international community from the obligation to take a clear position in relation to the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes. It is the moral duty of the international community to condemn these crimes without any further delay.
11 . The Council of Europe looks forward to such debates at the international level. All former European communist countries, with the exception of Belarus, are currently members of the Council of Europe. The protection of human rights and the rule of law are core values. advocated by the Council of Europe.
12 . Therefore, the Parliamentary Assembly strongly condemns the grave violations of human rights committed by the totalitarian communist regimes and expresses sympathy and understanding for the victims of crimes.
13 . In addition, she appeals to all communist or post-communist parties that have not yet done so, to reconsider the history of communism and their own past, to clearly separate themselves from the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes and condemn them.
14 . The Assembly believes that such a clear position of the international community will pave the way for further interaction. In addition, it is hoped that this will support historians around the world in their research aimed at determining and objectively confirming what took place.
1 . The Parliamentary Assembly submits resolution 1096 (1996) on taking steps to expose communist totalitarian systems, and a resolution on the need for international condemnation of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes.
2 . The Assembly is of the opinion that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive international debate on the crimes committed by the communist totalitarian regimes in order to express sympathy and understanding to all those who suffered from these crimes.
3 . It should be clear that the Council of Europe, as an organization that stands for the observance of the rule of law and the protection of human rights, must take a clear position in relation to the crimes committed by the communist regimes.
4 .Consequently, the Assembly insists that the Committee of Ministers:
i. established a committee consisting of independent experts whose task will be to collect and evaluate information and develop a bill related to the violation of human rights in countries with various totalitarian communist regimes;
ii. adopted an official declaration on the international condemnation of the crimes of communism committed by totalitarian communist regimes, and paid tribute to the victims of these crimes, regardless of their nationality;
iii. launched a campaign for public awareness of the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes at the European level;
iv. organized an international conference on the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes, with the participation of government representatives, parliamentarians, academics, experts and non-governmental organizations.
v. advised the member states of the Council of Europe that were under totalitarian communist regimes:
a. establish committees of independent experts whose task is to collect and evaluate information concerning human rights violations at the national level during the reign of totalitarian communist regimes, with a view to cooperating closely with the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe;
b. to rework the national bill in order to fully implement the recommendation (2000) 13 of the Cabinet of Ministers on the European policy of access to archives;
c. launch a campaign aimed at national awareness of the crimes committed in the name of communist ideology, including the revision of school textbooks and the introduction of a day of remembrance for the victims of communism, and the creation of museums.
d. support local authorities in the construction of memorials to pay tribute to the victims of totalitarian communist regimes.
III.explanatory a note.
I. Introduction.
1 . The fall of the communist regimes in the states of central and eastern Europe in the early nineties of the twentieth century gave rise to numerous discussions regarding the political and legal assessment of actions and crimes committed in the name of communist ideology.
The responsibility of the perpetrators and their likely prosecution became a matter of dispute. In all former communist countries, debates have been held on this topic, and in several countries special laws have been passed for “decommunization” and/or moral cleansing.
2. In all countries concerned, this issue was seen as part of a broader process of exposing the former system and transitioning to democracy. It was perceived as an internal problem, and the leadership coming from the international community, and in particular from the Council of Europe, focused on preventing possible violations of human rights.
3 In this spirit, two reports to the Parliamentary Assembly concerning the adoption of measures aimed at exposing the communist totalitarian systems were elaborated by Mr Espersen and Mr Severin on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, respectively in 1995 and 1996, the first report was referred back to the Committee, after deliberations in the Assembly, the second report resulted in the adoption of resolution 1096 (1996).
4 . However, so far, neither the Council of Europe, nor any other international organization has undertaken the task of giving a general assessment of the communist regimes, holding a serious discussion of the crimes committed in the name of communism, and publicly condemning these crimes.
Indeed, as hard as it is to understand, there has not been a single serious, comprehensive discussion of this ideology, which was the root cause of widespread terror, massive violations of human rights, the death of many millions of people, and the plight of entire nations.
Although another totalitarian regime of the 20th century, namely Nazism, was investigated, condemned on a global scale, and the criminals were brought to justice. Similar crimes committed in the name of communism were not investigated and received no international condemnation.
5 . The absence of such international condemnation can be partly explained by the existence of countries whose leadership is still based on communist ideology. The desire to maintain good relations with some of them may prevent some politicians from starting to consider this difficult topic.
In addition, many politicians who are currently still very active support the former communist regimes to one degree or another. For obvious reasons, they would prefer not to take any responsibility.
In many European countries there are communist parties that have not officially condemned the crimes of communism. Equally important, various elements of communist ideology, such as equality and social justice, still captivate many politicians who fear that condemnation of the crimes of communism will be identified with condemnation of communist ideology.
6 . However, the speaker is of the opinion that there is an urgent need for an open discussion of the crimes of communism and their condemnation at the international level. This must be done without any further delay. There are several reasons for this.
First, in the name of common awareness, it must be clear that all crimes, including those committed in the name of an ideology that praises the most revered ideas such as equality and justice, must be condemned.
And there should be no exceptions to this rule. This is especially important for the younger generations, who have not personally experienced the methods of communist leadership. A clear position of the international community in relation to the past can become a guarantee for their future activities.
7 . Apparently, in some countries, the nostalgia for communism is still alive. This creates the danger of a post-communist revenge. This report should contribute to the general awareness of the history of this ideology.
8 . Secondly, as long as the victims of communist regimes or members of their families are still alive, it is not too late to provide them with moral compensation for the suffering they endured.
9. Just as importantly, communist regimes are still active in some countries and crimes committed in the name of communist ideology continue to take place. In my opinion, the Council of Europe, an organization that advocates for human rights, has no right to remain indifferent and silent, even if those countries are not members of the Council of Europe.
Such international condemnation will provide more opportunity and more arguments for domestic opposition in these countries, and may encourage some positive action.
This is the least that Europe, the cradle of communist ideology, can do for these countries.
10. It should be emphasized that in this report there is no question of any financial compensation for the victims of the communist regimes, only one compensation of a moral character is recommended.
11 . The 15th anniversary of the fall of communist regimes in many European countries provides an opportunity for such action. The Council of Europe has an obligation to fulfill this task, since almost half of the member states of the Council of Europe survived communist rule.
12. As part of the preparation of this report, the Committee organized a hearing with the participation of dignitaries whose competence on this topic, in to a large extent contributed to the preparation of this report.
I also gave the details of visits to Bulgaria (May 16, 2005), Latvia and Russia. I would like to express my gratitude to the national parliamentary delegations of these countries for their assistance in preparing these visits.
13 I want to emphasize that this report is by no means intended to be a comprehensive assessment of communist crimes. Historical inquiry should be left to historians, and there is already quite a solid body of literature on the subject, which I have drawn upon in preparing this report. The purpose of this report is to give a political assessment of the crimes of communism.
2. General idea of communist regimes.
Communist regimes share common characteristics, such as being led by a single party devoted to communist ideology. Power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of party leaders who fall outside the bounds of the law.
The party controls the state to such an extent that the boundary between the party and the state becomes blurred. In addition, the party exercises its control over the population in every aspect of daily life, on an unprecedented scale.
The right to cooperate does not exist, political pluralism is simplified, and any opposition, as well as all attempts at independent self-organization, are severely punished. On the other hand, mass entry into the party or affiliated organizations is encouraged, and sometimes even enforced.
In order to increase their control over the society and prevent any action that escapes from this control, such communist regimes increase the police force to an unparalleled size, introduce a network of informers, and encourage denunciations.
The number of police structures and the number of secret informants varies from time to time and from country to country, but it always far outnumbers any other democratic state.
Mass media are monopolized and controlled by the state. And as a rule, strict preventive censorship is applied, the right of access to information is violated, and there is no free press.
The nationalization of the economy, which is a constant feature of the communist leadership and is the result of ideology, places restrictions on personal property and individual economic activity.
As a result, citizens become dependent on the state, which is a monopolized employer and the only source of income.
Communist rule lasted for more than 80 years in the country in which it first arose, namely Russia, later renamed the Soviet Union. In other European countries, it lasted about 45 years.
Outside of Europe, communist parties have been in power for over 50 years in China, North Korea and Vietnam, over 40 years in Cuba, and 30 years in Laos. The Communists ruled for some time in various African, Asian and South American countries under Soviet influence.
More than twenty countries on four continents have been and are under communist rule.
Apart from the Soviet Union and its six European satellite states, the list includes; Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Benin, Kampuchea, China, Congo, Ethiopia, North Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Mozambique, Vietnam, South Yemen, Yugoslavia. Until 1989, the number of people living under the communist regime was over one billion.
Geographical location, duration over time, suggest differences and changes in the implementation of communist rule in practice in different countries. The communist regime developed out of internal dynamics, or in response to international circumstances. It is difficult to compare communist rule in Russia in 1930, Hungary in 1960 or Poland in 1980.
However, despite the differences, it is possible to clearly identify the common features of the communist regime, whatever the country, culture or time. One of the most obvious characteristics is the appalling violation of human rights.
3. The crimes of communism
From the very beginning, communist rule has been characterized by massive violations of human rights. In order to achieve and maintain power, communist regimes have gone beyond individual assassinations and local massacres, they have integrated crime into their leadership system.
It is true that a few years after the establishment of the regime in most European countries, terror has lost its initial force and human rights violations have become less horrendous. However, the memory of terror plays an important role in society, and the hidden danger replaces the real cruelty.
In addition, if necessary, the regime will again turn to terror, as was demonstrated in Czechoslovakia in 1968, Poland in 1971, 1976 and 1981, or China in 1989. This rule applies to all past and present communist regimes, regardless from the country.
According to rough estimates, [exact data not available] the number of people killed by the communist regimes in different countries;
Soviet Union 20 million victims
China 65 million
Vietnam 1 million
North Korea 2 million
Cambodia 2 million
Eastern Europe 1 million
Latin America 150,000
Africa 1,7 million
Afghanistan 1,5 million
Behind these figures are mass executions and executions of individuals, deaths in concentration camps, victims of famine and deportations.
The numbers above are documented. They are rough estimates, there is reasonable reason to suspect that they should be much higher. Unfortunately, limited access to archives, in particular in Russia, does not allow us to accurately verify the correctness of the figures.
An important feature of communist regimes is the repression directly directed against whole categories of innocent people, whose only crime was that they belonged to these categories.
Thus, in the name of ideology, communist regimes killed tens of millions of wealthy peasants, kulaks, nobles, bourgeoisie, Cossacks, Ukrainians and other groups.
These crimes are a direct result of the theory of class struggle, the need to destroy people who were considered useless for the construction of a new society.
In the twenties in the Soviet Union, the GPU, the former Cheka, later the KGB introduced a quota; each area was supposed to deliver a certain number of "class enemies". The figures were set by the leaders of the Communist Party.
Thus, local officials had to arrest, deport and execute a specific number of people. If they failed to do so, they themselves became targets of persecution.
In terms of the number of victims, the list of the most important crimes of communism includes the following;
Individual or collective executions of people perceived as political opponents who have not been tried or tried by an arbitrary court.
4. Bloody repressions of participants in demonstrations and strikes.
The killing of hostages and prisoners during the war in 1918-1922. The lack of access to archives, as well as the absence of any documentation on the number of executions, makes it impossible to give exact figures, but the number of victims is in the tens of thousands.
Approximately 5 million people starved to death in 1921-1923 as a result of the confiscations, especially in the Ukraine. Hunger has been used as a political weapon in some communist regimes, not only in the Soviet Union.
Extermination of 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks between 1919 and 1920.
Tens of thousands of people died in concentration camps. Here, too, the lack of access to archives makes research impossible. 690,000 people arbitrarily sentenced to death and executed as a result of the so-called purges in the Communist Party in 1937-1938.
Thousands of others were exiled or imprisoned in concentration camps. In all, between October 1, 1936 and November 1, 1938, approximately 1,565,000 people were arrested and 668,305 of them were executed. According to many investigations, these figures are underestimated, and should be verified when all archives become available.
Mass destruction of approximately 30,000 kulaks during the forced collectivization of 1929-1933. And further deportation of 2 million in 1930-1932.
Thousands of ordinary people in the Soviet Union, accused of having links with the "enemies" and executed in the period leading up to World War II. For example, in 1937, approximately 144,000 people were arrested and 110,000 of them were executed.
They were charged with being in contact with Polish citizens living in the Soviet Union. Also in 1937, 42,000 people were executed because of links with German workers in the USSR.
6 million Ukrainians died of starvation in the course of a well-thought-out state policy in 1932-1933.
Destruction and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Moldavians, inhabitants of Bessarabia in 1939-1941 and in 1944-1945;
Deportation of Volga Germans in 1941, Crimean Tatars in 1943, Chechens and Ingush in 1944.
Deportation and extermination of a fourth of the population of Cambodia in 1975-1978.
Millions of victims of the criminal policies of Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il Sung in North Korea Here, too, the lack of documentation does not allow for accurate information.
Numerous victims in other parts of the world, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, in countries that call themselves communist and directly refer to communist ideology.
The concentration camps set up by the first communist regime in September 1918 have become one of the most shameful symbols of communism. In 1921 there were already 107 camps housing about 50,000 prisoners.
The extremely high mortality rate in these camps can be illustrated by the situation in the Kronstadt camp, out of 6,500 detainees placed in the camp in March 1921, only 1,500 survived a year later.
In 1940, the number of prisoners reached 2,350,000. They were placed in 53 concentration complexes, in 425 special colonies, in 50 juvenile colonies, and in 90 houses for newborns.
Throughout 1940, there were an average of 2.5 million people in the camps at any time.
In total, 15-20 million people passed through the camps between 1930 and 1953.
Concentration camps were also introduced in other communist regimes, most notably in China, North Korea, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
The invasion of the Soviet Army in a number of countries during the Second World War was accompanied by terror, arrests, deportation and destruction.
Among these countries, Poland was particularly affected, approximately 440,000 victims in 1939, including the destruction of captured Polish officers in 1944-1945, Estonia - 175,000 victims, including the extermination of 800 officers, which amounted to 17.5% of the total population, Lithuania, Latvia (119,000 victims ), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
The deportation of entire nations was a common political measure, especially during World War II. In 1940-41, approximately 330,000 Polish citizens living in the territory occupied by the Soviet army were deported to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union, most of all to Kazakhstan.
900,000 Germans from the Volga region were exiled in autumn 1941; 93,000 Kalmyks were deported in December 1943; 521,000 Chechens and Ingush were deported in February 1944; 180,000 Crimean Tatars were deported in 1944.
The list would be incomplete without mentioning Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Greeks, Bulgars, Armenians living in the Crimea, Meskhetian Turks and Kurds from the Caucasus.
Deportation was also used for political opponents. From 1920, political opponents in Russia began to be exiled to the Solovetsky Islands. In 1927, the camp built on Solovki contained 13,000 prisoners of 48 different nationalities.
The most brutal crimes of communist regimes, such as mass murder and genocide, torture, slave labor, and other forms of mass physical terror, continued in the Soviet Union and, to a lesser extent, other European countries until Stalin's death.
Since the mid-1950s, terror in the European communist countries has decreased significantly, but the selective persecution of various groups and individuals continued.
It included police surveillance, arrests, imprisonment, punishment by fines, forced psychiatric treatment, various restrictions on freedom of movement, discrimination at work, which often led to poverty and loss of professionalism, public humiliation and slander.
Post-Stalinist European communist regimes exploited the widespread fear of persecution that remained in the collective memory. However, the memory of past horrors gradually weakened and had less effect on the younger generation.
However, even during these relatively quiet periods, if necessary, the communist regimes were able to resort to mass violence. An illustration is the events in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, or in Poland in 1956, 1968, 1970 and 1981.
The fall of communist rule in the Soviet Union and other European countries has made it easier to access some of the archives documenting communist crimes. Until 1990, these archives were completely inaccessible.
The documents that were found there are an important source of information about the mechanisms of government and decision-making, and allow for a complete historical analysis of the activities of the communist systems.
it seems to be becoming clear that the criminal side of communist regimes is not the result of circumstances, but rather the result of well-thought-out policies carefully designed by the founders of such regimes, even before they took power into their own hands.
Historical communist leaders have never hidden their goals, such as the dictatorship of the proletariat, the destruction of political opponents and categories of the population that do not fit with the new model of society.
The communist ideology applied anywhere or ever, be it in Europe or elsewhere, has always led to mass terror, crimes and human rights violations on a large scale.
Analyzing the consequences of the application of this ideology, one cannot but attach importance to the similarity with the consequences of the application of another ideology of the 20th century, namely, Nazism. Although mutually hostile, the two regimes shared a number of similarities.
However, although the criminal nature of Nazi ideology and the Nazi regime has been undeniable for at least half a century, and its leaders and many criminals have been held accountable, communist ideology and communist regimes have not met with a comparable response.
Crimes committed in the name of communism were a rare topic of prosecution, and many perpetrators were never brought to justice.
Communist parties are still active in some countries, and they have not even separated themselves from the past when they supported and collaborated with criminal communist regimes.
Communist symbols are openly used and public awareness of the crimes of communism is very weak. This is especially evident when compared to public awareness of the crimes of Nazism. The education of the younger generation in many countries cannot, of course, help close this gap.
The political and economic interests of individual countries influence the degree of criticism of some still active communist regimes. This is especially evident in the case of China.
As speaker, I am of the opinion that there should be no further, unjustifiable, delay in denouncing communist ideology and communist regimes at the international level.
Personally, I do not share the view of some colleagues that it is necessary to make a clear distinction between ideology and what happened in practice. The latter follows from the former; and sooner or later the totalitarian one-party system will take over the original good intentions and pervert them.
However, it should be clear that these crimes were committed in the name of communist ideology and not by any particular country.
The Russians themselves became the first and most numerous victims of communist ideology. In any given country where the Communists were in power, the crimes were of a general nature.
At the same time, Council of Europe member states that have not yet done so should establish such committees at the national level as a matter of urgency. Such committees are expected to work closely with the committee of the Council of Europe.
The ultimate goal of such work by the Council of Europe and the National Committees will be to identify and propose concrete measures for the administration of justice and the rehabilitation of the victims of communist ideology, as well as for paying tribute to them.
A necessary condition for the successful work of these committees is access to the archives, especially in Russia. Therefore, the countries concerned and especially Russia, in accordance with Recommendation (2000) 13 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, should adopt an important bill concerning the European system of access to archives;
No less important is the fact that the Committee of Ministers must launch a campaign to expose and understand the crimes of communism. This also includes the revision of school textbooks. It is necessary to support the states that are members of the Council of Europe to do the same at the national level.
The communist regimes of Asia, created in the second half of the 20th century, had their own characteristics:
1. In Asia, unlike Eastern Europe, there was no single block of socialist states, so the death of socialism in the USSR did not lead to the automatic death of the Asian communist regimes.
2. Here, much stronger than in Europe, there were nationalist sentiments.
3. Much more successfully than in Eastern Europe and Russia, the ideas of the leadership of the communist parties were imposed on the entire society.
At the same time, the communist regimes in different Asian countries differed markedly from each other.
The most powerful communist regime in history was created in China. He won the final victory over the Kuomintang regime of Chiang Kai-shek during the civil war of 1946-1949. At first it was unsuccessful for the communists. In July-October 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's troops captured about 100 cities in the territory controlled by the CCP, including the capital of the "special region" Yan'an, but by the end of 1947 the strategic initiative passed to the communist army, called People's Liberation Army of China (PLA)). In the spring of 1948, she recaptured Yan'an from the Kuomintang, and then in the battle on the Huang He River (November 1948 - January 1949) defeated the main forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who lost a quarter of his army in this battle. After the PLA took both Chinese capitals, Beijing and Nanjing, the remnants of the Kuomintang troops fled to about. Taiwan, and the entire mainland China came under the rule of the CCP and its leader Mao Zedong.
The formation of a new, communist regime began in China already during the civil war of 1946-1949. In the provinces occupied by the PLA, the military control committees (MCCs) became the main form of power, to which all other local authorities were subordinate. The VKK liquidated the old Kuomintang administration and created new provincial authorities - local people's governments (executive authorities) and conferences of people's representatives (analogous to the Russian congresses of councils of 1917-1936). In June 1949, the Congress of the Left Chinese Parties (CPC, Revolutionary Kuomintang, Democratic League, etc.) began its work - a preparatory committee for convening a political advisory council (new Chinese parliament). Formed at this congress People's Political Consultative Council (PPCC), de facto - the Chinese Constituent Assembly, began its work in September 1949, he proclaimed the creation of a new state - People's Republic of China(October 1, 1949) and adopted the General Program of the CPP (de facto - the constitution of the PRC). The NPC itself took over the functions National People's Congress (NPC) and became its first session, at which the highest authority of the PRC was elected - Central People's Government Council (TsNPS). He formed other central government bodies - State Administrative Council(the highest executive body, analogue of the Soviet Council of People's Commissars), People's Revolutionary Military Council(PLA command), Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. Together with the TsNPS, all these bodies constituted Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. Thus, the de jure democratic structure of the new Chinese state was created. It represented various parties and organizations united in People's Front. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in the General Program of the PPCC as a "state of people's democracy" based "on an alliance of workers and peasants and uniting all the democratic classes of the country," and so on. But de facto in China in 1949 was established totalitarian communist regime.
Many principles of democracy did not operate in the PRC - the separation of powers (the Administrative Council was not only an executive, but also a legislative body; "people's courts", the creation of which began in 1951, were included in the structure of local governments), representative democracy (the first elections to the NPC were held only in 1953-1954 and not in all regions of the PRC, assemblies of people's representatives were not convened locally).
Huge power was concentrated in the hands of Mao Zedong, chairman of the CPC Central Committee, who in 1949 also took over the posts of chairman of the Central People's Government, chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Council, and head of the Central People's Party. As a result, Mao's dictatorship was de facto established in China.
The Mao regime began a policy of mass repression as early as the years of the civil war, which continued into the 1950s. Hundreds of thousands of captured Kuomintang became the first prisoners laogai(corrective labor camps, combining the "re-education" of prisoners and their isolation from society). During the agrarian reform of the early 50s. about 5 million Chinese peasants were killed, and about 6 million were sent to the Laogai. In 1949-1952. 2 million "bandits" (criminal elements associated with prostitution, gambling, opium sales, etc.) were destroyed and another 2 million were thrown into prisons and camps. A super-violent regime was created in laogai. Torture and murder on the spot were widely used (in one camp, a prisoner - a priest died after 102 hours of continuous torture, in other camps the head of the camp personally killed or ordered 1320 people to be buried alive). There was a very high death rate among prisoners (in the 1950s, up to 50% of prisoners in Chinese camps died within six months). The uprisings of prisoners were brutally suppressed (in November 1949, 1 thousand people out of 5 thousand who participated in the uprising in one of the camps were buried alive in the ground). The minimum sentence was 8 years, but the average sentence was 20 years in prison. By 1957, as a result of a grandiose purge in the city and in the countryside, 4 million "counter-revolutionaries" (opponents of the communist regime) were destroyed. Suicide among those under investigation and convicts took on a mass character (in the 1950s, there were 700,000 of them; in Canton, up to 50 people committed suicide a day). As a result of the "hundred flowers" campaign (its slogan was Mao's words "Let hundreds of flowers bloom, let thousands of schools compete") in 1957, the Chinese intelligentsia was defeated, which did not recognize the dominance of communist ideology and the dictatorship of the CCP. About 700 thousand people. (10% of the Chinese scientific and technical intelligentsia) received 20 years in the camps, millions were temporarily or permanently sent to certain areas to "introduce rural labor."
The instrument of terror was a powerful repressive apparatus - the security forces (1.2 million people) and the police (5.5 million people). China has created the most powerful in the history of mankind prison camp system- about 1 thousand large camps and tens of thousands of medium and small ones. Through them until the mid-80s. 50 million people passed through, 20 million of them died in custody. 80% of prisoners in 1955 were political prisoners, in the early 60s. their number has dropped to 50%. It was almost impossible to get out of prison under Mao. Persons under investigation were kept in detention centers (pre-trial detention centers) for a very long time (up to 10 years), while short sentences (up to 2 years) were served here. Most of the prisoners were sent to the laogai camps, where they were broken up according to the army principle (into divisions, battalions, etc.). They were disenfranchised, worked for free, and very rarely received family visits. In the camp laojiao the regime was softer - without fixed terms, with the preservation of civil rights and salaries (but the main part was deducted for food). In the camp jue“free workers” were kept (twice a year they received short-term leave, they had the right to live in the camp with their families). In this category until the early 60s. 95% of prisoners released from camps of other categories fell into this category. Thus, in China in the 50s. any term automatically became life.
The entire population of China was divided into two groups - "red"(workers, poor peasants, PLA soldiers and "revolutionary martyrs" - persons who suffered under the Chiang Kai-shek regime) and "black » (landowners, wealthy peasants, counter-revolutionaries, "harmful elements", "right deviationists", etc.). In 1957, "blacks" were forbidden to be admitted to the CCP and other communist organizations, to universities. They were the first victims of any purge. Thus, the "equality of citizens before the law" proclaimed by the 1954 PRC Constitution was a fiction.
Until the mid 60s. Chinese totalitarianism was masked by "democratic" institutions. In January 1953, the Central People's Congress adopted a resolution on the convening of the National People's Congress and local people's congresses. In May 1953, the first general elections in Chinese history began, which dragged on until August 1954. At the first session of the new NPC (September 1954), First Constitution of the People's Republic of China. It proclaimed the task of building socialism (this task was not set in the "General Program" of 1949), consolidated certain democratic freedoms (equality of citizens before the law, national equality, etc.) and made some changes to the political system of the PRC. Introduced post Chairman of the People's Republic of China(heads of state) with broad powers (command of the armed forces, development of proposals "on important state issues", etc.). The Administrative Council was transformed into State Council(the highest body of central government).
However, by the end of the 1950s Chinese "democracy" is beginning to collapse. The influence of the party-state apparatus is strengthened at the expense of representative bodies of power. The legislative functions of the NPC were transferred to its Standing Committee (Chinese government), the powers of local people's congresses were transferred to people's committees (an analogue of the Soviet executive committees), the composition of which completely coincided with the composition of the provincial, city and county committees of the CPC. Party committees replaced the court and the prosecutor's office, and their secretaries replaced judges. In 1964, the campaign "Learn the style of work from the PLA" began, during which the establishment of barracks procedures in all areas began. public life(according to Mao's formula "All the people are soldiers"). The militia was subordinated to the army, since 1964 army patrols and posts appeared on the streets of cities and in villages.
Thus, by the mid-60s. in China, the foundation was laid for the military-bureaucratic dictatorship of Mao, but for its complete victory he had to "cultural revolution" 1966-1976
Its main goal was to strengthen the regime of Mao's personal power, shaken as a result of the failure of the "Great Leap Forward" in 1958. In the early 60s. under pressure from the right, moderate wing of the CCP, Mao had to abandon his economic utopias. The peasants were returned part of their property, requisitioned during the "agrarian reform" of the 50s. (livestock, agricultural implements, etc.) and personal plots. The principles of material interest were restored at industrial enterprises. The post of Chairman of the People's Republic of China was taken by the leader of the right Liu Shaoqi, the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC - his associate Deng Xiaoping.
The instrument of Mao's reprisal against the Liu and Deng group was first the Chinese youth, then the army. At the same time, the nature of the "cultural revolution" was controversial, because. it combined the struggle for power within the Chinese elite, an anarchist revolt of the marginal layers of Chinese cities (in this regard, the French historian J.-L. Margolin called the events of 1966-1976 in China "anarchist totalitarianism") and a military coup.
The "cultural revolution" began in May 1966, when Mao announced the resignation of a number of top leaders of the party, government and army at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, and the headquarters of the "cultural revolution" was created. Cultural Revolution Group (GCR), which included Mao's inner circle - his wife Jiang Qing, Mao's secretary Chen Boda, secretary of the Shanghai CPC city committee Zhang Chunqiao, secretary of the CPC Central Committee in charge of state security organs, Kang Sheng and others. Gradually, the GKR replaced the Politburo and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and became the only real power in the PRC.
Immediately after that, detachments were created in Chinese schools and universities. Red Guards("red guards"), in December 1966 - detachments zaofan("rebels"), consisting mainly of young unskilled workers. A significant part of them were "blacks", embittered by discrimination and striving to improve their status in Chinese society (in Canton, 45% of the "rebels" were children of the intelligentsia, whose representatives in the PRC were considered second-class people). Fulfilling Mao's call "Fire at headquarters!" (made at the Plenum of the CPC Central Committee in August 1966), they, with the help of the army (its units suppressed resistance to the "rebels", controlled communications, prisons, warehouses, banks, etc.), defeated the party and state apparatus of the PRC. 60% of personnel leaders, participants in the "Long March" of 1934-1936, were removed from their posts, including many top officials - Chinese President Liu Shaoqi (he died in prison in 1969), Foreign Minister Chen Yi, Minister State Security Luo Ruiqing and others. The party leadership has changed radically. General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Deng Xiaoping and four out of five vice-chairmen of the CPC Central Committee were dismissed from their posts (Mao's only deputy, Defense Minister Lin Biao, devoted to him, remained). The state apparatus was paralyzed (with the exception of the army, which did not interfere in events before Mao's order). As a result, China was dominated by the Red Guards and Zaofans. They dealt with impunity with everyone they considered "class enemies" - the intelligentsia (142 thousand teachers of schools and universities, 53 thousand scientific and technical workers, 2600 writers and other cultural figures, 500 professors of medicine), officials, "black " etc. 10 thousand people were killed, there were mass searches and arrests. In total, during the years of the “cultural revolution”, 4 million members of the CCP were arrested out of 18 million and
400 thousand military. Gross interference in the privacy of citizens has become commonplace. It was forbidden to celebrate the Chinese New Year, wear modern clothes and Western-style shoes, etc. In Shanghai, the Red Guards cut off the braids and shaved the dyed hair of women, tore tight trousers, and broke shoes with high heels and narrow toes. At the same time, the attempts of the “rebels” to create a new state (their detachments actually turned into a “parallel communist party”, in schools, in administrative buildings they created their own judicial and investigative system - cells, torture rooms, etc.) failed. The result was chaos in China. The old party-state apparatus was destroyed, a new one was not created. There was a civil war - "rebels" with "conservatives" - the defenders of the pre-revolutionary state (in Shanghai for a whole week they repulsed the assaults of the city party committee by the Red Guards), various groups of "rebels" with each other, etc.
Under these conditions, Mao in 1967 tried to normalize the situation by creating new government bodies - revolutionary committees based on the "Three in One" formula (revolutionary committees included representatives of the old state-party apparatus, "rebels" and the army). However, this attempt to reach a compromise between the "rebels", "conservatives" and the "neutral" army failed. In a number of provinces, the army united with the "conservatives" and inflicted a heavy defeat on the "rebels" (their detachments were defeated, the emissaries of the GKR were arrested), in other regions the "rebels" began an escalation of violence, which reached its climax in the first half of 1968. Shops and banks were looted. The "rebels" seized army warehouses (only on May 27, 1968, 80 thousand firearms were stolen from military arsenals), artillery and tanks were used in the battles between their detachments (they were assembled by order of the Zaofans at military factories).
Therefore, Mao had to use his last reserve - the army. In June 1968, the army units easily broke the resistance of the "rebels", and in September their detachments and organizations were disbanded. In the autumn of 1968, the first groups of Red Guards (1 million people) were exiled to remote provinces, by 1976 the number of exiled "rebels" had grown to 20 million. Attempts to resist were brutally suppressed. In Wuzhou, troops used artillery and napalm against the "rebels", hundreds of thousands of "rebels" died in other provinces of South China (in Guangxi - Zhuang Autonomous Region - 100 thousand people, in Guangdong - 40 thousand, in Yun'an - 30 thousand). At the same time, the army and the police, cracking down on the "rebels", continued the reprisals against their opponents. 3 million dismissed officials were sent to "re-education centers" (camps and prisons), the number of prisoners in laogai, even after the amnesties of 1966 and 1976 reached 2 million. In Inner Mongolia, 346 thousand people were arrested. in the case of the People's Party of Inner Mongolia (in 1947 it joined the CPC, but its members continued illegal activities), as a result, 16 thousand people were killed and 87 thousand were maimed. In South China, during the suppression of unrest of national minorities, 14 thousand people were executed. Repressions continued in the first half of the 1970s. After the death of Lin Biao (according to the official version, he tried to organize a military coup and, after its failure, died in a plane crash over the territory of Mongolia in September 1971), a purge began in the PLA, during which tens of thousands of Chinese generals and officers were repressed. The purge was also taking place in other departments - ministries (out of 2,000 employees of the PRC Foreign Ministry, 600,000 were repressed), universities, enterprises, etc. As a result total number 100 million people suffered during the Cultural Revolution, including 1 million dead.
Other results of the "cultural revolution":
1. The defeat of the right, moderate wing of the CCP, the seizure of power by the ultra-left group of Mao Zedong and his wife Jiang Qing.
2. The creation in China of a model of barracks socialism, the features of which are the complete rejection of economic methods of management (planting "people's communes", cruel administration, equalization of wages, rejection of material incentives, etc.), total state control over the social sphere ( identical clothes and shoes, the desire for maximum equality among members of society), the utmost militarization of the entire life of the country, an aggressive foreign policy, etc.
3. Organizational and legal formalization of the results of the “cultural revolution” by the 9th Congress of the CPC (April 1969), the 10th Congress of the CPC (August 1973) and the new Constitution of the PRC (January 1975), which was a complex and controversial process. On the one hand, the party-state apparatus destroyed by the “cultural revolution” (the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPC, provincial party committees, primary organizations of the CPC, the Komsomol, trade unions, etc.) was restored, to which some officials who were repressed during the years of the “cultural revolution” returned , including right-wing leader Deng Xiaoping. On the other hand, Mao's faction consolidated the fruits of its victory in the "cultural revolution". Almost all of its headquarters (GKR) became part of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. Revolutionary committees were declared the political foundation of the PRC (in the Constitution of the PRC of 1975). Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao and other opponents of Mao were condemned. This inconsistency was especially clearly manifested in the PRC Constitution of 1975, which dealt a heavy blow to the system of Chinese representative bodies of power (revolutionary committees were de jure declared permanent bodies of local people's congresses, de facto they replaced them, since people's congresses all the years of the "cultural revolution" were not convened, and their powers were transferred to the revolutionary committees, the deputies of the NPC were not elected, but appointed; the powers of the NPC and its Standing Committee were sharply narrowed) and other elements of Chinese "democracy" (the post of chairman of the PRC was liquidated, and his powers were transferred to the chairman of the CPC Central Committee, the prosecutor's office and autonomous regions were abolished, articles on national equality and equality of citizens before the law disappeared, etc.), but at the same time legally secured some concessions to the right (the right of commune members to household plots, recognition as the main unit agricultural production is not a commune, but a brigade, a declaration of the principle of payment according to work, etc. .), although in practice the system of barracks socialism was preserved and strengthened. During the new political campaign "studying the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat", which began immediately after the adoption of the new Constitution of the PRC, there was a struggle against the right (Deng was again removed from all posts in early 1976), and their demands (distribution according to work, the right of peasants to household plots, the development of commodity-money relations, etc.) were declared a "bourgeois right", which must be limited. This led to the destruction in China of the last elements of a market economy and the victory of the administrative-command system. In the PRC, financial incentives and personal plots were abolished, and overtime work became commonplace. This led to an aggravation of the socio-political situation in the country (strike and demonstrations began in China).
Thus, by the mid-1970s Mao's dictatorship was finally formed, and a cruel totalitarian regime was established in China.
However, the apogee of Mao's dictatorship was short-lived. In the mid 70s. In China, the struggle between two groups in the country's top leadership intensified: the radicals led by Jiang Qing and the pragmatists led by the head of the Chinese government Zhou Enlai and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Deng Xiaoping. Zhou's death (January 8, 1976) weakened the position of the pragmatists and led to a temporary victory for Jiang Qing's leftist faction. At a meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in April 1976, a decision was made to resign Deng Xiaoping from all posts and exile him.
However, the death of Mao (September 9, 1976) and the arrest of radical leaders Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, whom the pragmatists called the "Gang of Four" (October 6, 1976), led to fundamental changes in the alignment of political forces in China and a decisive change in the course of its leadership. The leader of the pragmatists was elected vice chairman of the CPC Central Committee, but his de facto role in post-Maoist China was higher than the role of the official leaders of the PRC, the chairman of the CPC Central Committee and the chairman of the PRC; It is no coincidence that the new political course was called the “Deng Xiaoping Line”.
Under the leadership of Deng, a series of radical socio-economic reforms were carried out in China, which led to the replacement of the military-communist-type economy with a multi-structural market economy, a sharp acceleration in the pace of economic development (the average growth rate of the Chinese economy in the 1980s and 1990s was 10% per year). year, in some years - up to 14%) and a significant increase in the standard of living of its population.
In agriculture, administrative methods of management were replaced by economic ones. The land of communes and brigades was divided among peasant families, who received the right to freely dispose of the products of their farms. As a result, in 1979-1984. the volume of agricultural production and the average income of a peasant household doubled, crop yields increased sharply (the grain harvest in 1984 exceeded 400 million tons, 2 times more than in 1958 and 1.5 times more than in 1975), and for the first time in the history of China, the food problem was solved. At the same time, the main role in the rise of agriculture was played by the private sector (independent peasant farms), and in the public sector in the 80s. only 10% of the Chinese peasantry remained.
In industry, the creation of free economic zones began (they allowed the investment of foreign capital and the operation of the civil and labor laws of capitalist states, the export of profits and higher wages were guaranteed), joint and other foreign enterprises, individual labor activity. As a result, a modern highly developed industry was created in China, the products of which in the 80s. conquered the global consumer market.
AT social sphere the Chinese leadership abandoned the policy of equality in poverty and the forcible suppression of the wealthy sections of the population (Deng put forward the slogan "Being rich is not a crime"), and the formation of new social strata began - the bourgeoisie, the prosperous peasantry, etc.
The democratization of the Chinese state and law began. In 1978, an amnesty was announced for 100,000 prisoners. Two-thirds of the exiles from the era of the "cultural revolution" returned to the cities, the rehabilitation of its victims and the payment of compensation to them for each year spent in prison or in exile began. The mass repressions have stopped. Among the new court cases, political cases accounted for only 5%. As a result, the number of prisoners in China in 1976-1986. decreased from 10 million to 5 million (0.5% of the population of China, the same as in the United States, and less than in the USSR in 1990). The situation of the prisoners improved markedly. The administration of labor camps was transferred from the Ministry of State Security to the Ministry of Justice. In 1984, ideological indoctrination in prisons and camps (in the 1950s it took at least 2 hours a day for the entire period, sometimes it continued continuously from one day to three months) was replaced by vocational training. Guaranteed return to the family at the end of the term. It was forbidden to take into account the class affiliation of prisoners (when determining the term and regime of imprisonment). Early release (for exemplary behavior) was envisaged. The judiciary was taken out of party control. In 1983, the competence of the MGB was limited. The prosecutor's office received the right to cancel illegal arrests and consider complaints about illegal actions of the police. Number of lawyers in China in 1990-1996 has doubled. In 1996, the maximum penalty for administrative offenses was one month in prison, while the maximum in laojiao was three years.
Legally, the softening of the political regime was formalized by the Constitutions of the People's Republic of China in 1978 and 1982. In the Constitution of 1978, the provisions of the Constitution of 1954 on national equality, guarantees of civil rights and the prosecutor's office were restored (in this regard, it was restored), but the revolutionary committees were preserved (they were liquidated in the early 80s). The Constitution of 1982 eliminated all the institutions born of the “cultural revolution” and restored the state system formalized by the PRC Constitution of 1954. the right to convene the Supreme State Conference), the rights of the PC of the NPC and the State Council of the PRC were expanded. The 1982 constitution also legally fixed the multistructural nature of the Chinese economy, based on state, state-capitalist and private property. At the turn of the 80-90s. a number of amendments were made to the PRC Constitution that consolidated the results of Deng's reforms - on private peasant farms, land inheritance, a multi-party system, a "social market economy", etc.
Overall result All these changes in Chinese society in the last quarter of the 20th century were aptly expressed by a simple Chinese who, in a conversation with a foreign journalist, said: “I used to eat cabbage, listen to the radio and keep quiet. Today I watch color TV, chew a chicken leg and talk about problems.”
At the same time, the dismantling of the totalitarian system in China was not completed. The PRC retains a one-party system: according to the PRC Constitution of 1982, the Chinese parties operate according to the formula of "multi-party cooperation under the leadership of the CPC." Its leaders occupy all the highest government posts - the chairmen of the PRC, the State Council, the National People's Congress and others. Opposition to the communist regime is brutally suppressed. Chinese Democratic leader Wei Jingsheng, who claimed that Maoism is the source of totalitarianism and tried to create a social democratic movement in China, was arrested and convicted twice. In 1979, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for passing classified information to a foreigner (contact with a foreign journalist), and in 1995 to 10 years in prison for "actions aimed at overthrowing the government." Student unrest under anti-communist slogans in 1989 on Tiananmen Square was suppressed with the help of the army. More than 1,000 people died in Beijing, and tens of thousands were injured and arrested. More than 30 thousand people were arrested in the province, hundreds were shot without trial or investigation. Thousands of participants in the democratic movement were convicted, and its organizers received up to 13 years in prison. China retains 100,000 political prisoners, including 1,000 dissidents.
The Chinese state-legal system has not become completely democratic. In the criminal law of the PRC, there is no institution of the presumption of innocence; such a corpus delicti as a “counter-revolutionary conspiracy” remains. Court hearings remain closed, sentences are passed hastily, without a thorough preliminary investigation. The Chinese communist elite, closely associated with the new bourgeoisie, is de facto excluded from the sphere of law (CCP members make up 4% of the Chinese population and 30% of those brought to trial in the 80s, but only 3% of those executed). China ranks first in the world in terms of the number of executions (more than half of all executions in the world are carried out here, although the population of China is only 1/6 of the world's population). In 1983, more than 10 thousand people were executed here, many executions were public (although this is prohibited by the Criminal Code of the PRC 1979.).
Thus, Chinese totalitarianism at the end of the 20th century turned not into democracy, but into authoritarianism (de jure, according to the Chinese Constitution of 1982, into a “democratic dictatorship”).
A kind of communist regime ("hermit state") was created in the second half of the forties in North Korea. In 1910-1945. Korea was a Japanese colony. In August 1945, North Korea (north of the 38th parallel) was occupied by Soviet troops, South American. In the Soviet zone, with the help of the USSR, a communist regime of the Stalinist type was established, the leader of which was Kim Il Sung (until 1945 - the commander of a small partisan detachment who fought the Japanese in Manchuria). Kim's rivals, the leaders of the Korean Communist Party, were destroyed.
The totalitarian nature of the North Korean regime was masked by a "democracy" of the Soviet or East European type. In 1946, elections were held to provincial, city, and district people's committees (analogous to Russian soviets), and in 1947, to village and volost people's committees. In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed and its Supreme People's Assembly (North Korean parliament) was elected, which in 1949 adopted the Constitution of the DPRK.
However, there was no de facto democracy in North Korea, and mass repression began. 1.5 million people died in the camps, 100 thousand - during the party purges. 1.3 million people died in the Korean War unleashed by the Kim regime of 1950-1953. Thus, over half a century, about 3 million people became victims of the communist regime in North Korea (the entire population of the DPRK is 23 million people).
The organs of state security became an instrument of communist terror. In 1945, the Department of Public Security (political police) was created in North Korea, later transformed into the Ministry of National Security
(since the 90s - the National Security Agency). The employees of these special services created a system of total control over the entire population of North Korea, from the elite to ordinary citizens. All Koreans once a week are “invited” to political classes and “results of life” (sessions of criticism and self-criticism, in which you need to convict yourself of political misconduct at least once and your comrades at least twice). All conversations of the North Korean bureaucracy are tapped, their audio and video cassettes are constantly checked by NSA employees who act under the guise of plumbers, electricians, gas workers, etc. Any travel requires an agreement from the place of work and permission from local authorities. There are about 200,000 prisoners in North Korean camps. Of these, about 40,000 die each year.
In the second half of the 40s. citizens of the DPRK were divided into 51 categories, on which their career and financial situation depended. In the 1980s, the number of these categories was reduced to three:
1. "Core of society" or "center" (citizens loyal to the regime).
The victims of the genocide in North Korea were physically handicapped people (disabled people, dwarfs, etc.). The new North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, son of Kim Il Sung, declared: "The dwarf breed must disappear!" As a result, the latter were forbidden to have offspring and were sent to camps. Disabled people are evicted from major cities and exiled to remote areas of the country (to the mountains, islands, etc.).
The totalitarian regime has a huge impact on North Korean law. The Criminal Code of the DPRK names 47 offenses punishable by death. In North Korea, people are executed not only for political crimes (high treason, rebellion, etc.), but also for criminal ones (murder, rape, prostitution). Executions in North Korea are public and often turn into lynchings. The nature of the punishment is determined by belonging to one of three categories (citizens of the “central” category are not executed for rape). Lawyers are appointed by party bodies. Legal proceedings in North Korea are simplified to the limit.
Simultaneously with the North Korean regime, a communist regime arose in Vietnam. In the first half of the twentieth century. it was a French colony. In 1941, it was occupied by Japanese troops, but as a result of the August Revolution of 1945 (a communist-led uprising against the Japanese occupiers), the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was proclaimed. The power in it belonged to the Viet Minh organization (full name - the League of Struggle for the Independence of Vietnam), which was the Vietnamese analogue of the European Popular Fronts. main role it was played by the communists, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). From the first days of its existence, this party pursued a policy of communist terror. In 1931, when creating Chinese-style soviets, the communists massacred local landowners by the hundreds. Immediately after the August Revolution of 1945, the extermination of members of other Vietnamese parties that actively participated in the struggle against the Japanese invaders (Nationalists, Trotskyists, etc.) began in Vietnam. The Soviet-style state security organs and the “Committee of Assault and Destruction” (an analogue of Hitler’s assault detachments), whose members, mostly urban lumpen, staged a French pogrom in Saigon on September 25, 1945, during which hundreds of French citizens were killed, became an instrument of repression.
After the invasion of Vietnam by French, British and Chinese (Kuomintang) troops (autumn 1945), the protracted Indochinese War of 1945-1954 began, during which repression in the territory controlled by the communists intensified. In August-September 1945 alone, thousands of Vietnamese were killed and tens of thousands arrested. In July 1946, the physical extermination of members of all Vietnamese parties, except for the CPIK, began, including those that actively participated in the national liberation movement. In December 1946, in North Vietnam (the south of the country was occupied by French troops at that time), political police and camps for enemies of the communist regime were created. Two thousand French prisoners of war out of 20 thousand captured in 1954 died in these camps (reasons - brutal beatings, torture, hunger, lack of medicines and hygiene products). In July 1954, the Geneva Accords were concluded, according to which French troops were withdrawn from Indochina, but until the general elections were held (they were scheduled for 1956, but were never held), only North Vietnam (north of 17th parallel).
Here began the construction of a socialist state. In 1946, the People's Parliament and the government of the republic were created in North Vietnam, and the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was adopted, according to which the president, endowed with broad powers, became the head of state. This post was taken by the head of the CPIK, Ho Chi Minh, the de facto North Vietnamese dictator. Under his leadership, mass repression began in North Vietnam. During the agrarian reform of 1953-1956. about 5% of Vietnamese peasants were repressed. Some of them died, others lost their property and were thrown into camps. Torture was widely used in the FER. In 1956, the most grandiose purge of the party and state apparatus in the entire history of Vietnam of the socialist era began here. 50 thousand people (0.4% of the population of the DRV) were executed, 100 thousand were thrown into camps and prisons. The victims of the purge were 86% of the members of the CPIK, renamed in 1951 as the Workers' Party of Vietnam (PTV), and 95% of the members of the anti-French Resistance.
In 1958, when the Vietnamese “thaw” that began in 1956 was curtailed under Chinese pressure, 476 intellectuals were sent to the camps, declared “saboteurs of the ideological front.”
A new round of repression was associated with the beginning of a new Vietnam War against the United States (1964-1975). In South Vietnam, in the second half of the 50s, a pro-American military regime was created, and a civil war began between its troops and the pro-communist National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, created in 1960. In 1964, the American army came to the aid of the South Vietnamese troops, which was withdrawn from Vietnam only in 1973 (according to the Paris Agreement, concluded in January 1973). In the conditions of the war with the Americans in the south, political structures were created that were alternative to the Saigon regime (the Provisional Revolutionary Government, the Consultative Council of the Republic, etc.), in which the communists dominated. However, the Republic of South Vietnam proclaimed by them in June 1969 was a puppet state completely subordinate to the authorities of the DRV. This has been proven by events.
1975, when units of the regular North Vietnamese army, with the help of the PRP troops of the Republic of South Vietnam, occupied the entire territory of South Vietnam. Immediately after this, mass repressions began in the south. About one million people out of 20 million who lived in South Vietnam (intelligentsia, students, clergy, politicians, etc.) were sent "for re-education" (to camps). Thus, the number of prisoners in the South under the new regime increased fivefold (prisoners of the pro-American Saigon regime were only
200 thousand) Ordinary soldiers of the Saigon army spent three years in the camps, although they were promised only "three days of re-education", officers and officials - 7-8 years (instead of the promised month). Having broken the resistance to the communist regime, the authorities of the DRV carried out the unification of Vietnam. In 1976, all-Vietnamese elections (for the National Assembly and the President) were held in the country and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) was proclaimed.
In the second half of the 80s. under the influence of the Soviet "perestroika", the transformation of the totalitarian Vietnamese regime into an authoritarian one began. In 1986, most political prisoners were released in Vietnam and the last victims of the “re-education” of 1975 were released. In 1988, suicide camps in mountainous areas were closed in Vietnam; market reforms of the Chinese type began.
The communist regime in Laos was closely associated with the Vietnamese regime. The French and then the American invaders supported the right-wing monarchist regime here, the Vietnamese communists supported the local communist organization Pathet Lao. The civil war between these political forces continued until 1961. In 1962, a coalition government of national unity was created in Laos, which included representatives of the royal government, communists and other political forces of the country. However, after the beginning of the American aggression (1964), the war began again in Laos. American aviation subjected to constant bombing the eastern regions of the country, where the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" (the strategic road from North Vietnam to South) passed, and the royal troops launched an attack on areas controlled by the communists. In 1973, an agreement was concluded on the restoration of peace and national accord, according to which the communists not only legalized their control over the eastern regions of Laos, but also received the right to send their troops to its capital. As a result, by 1975 they controlled 75% of the territory of Laos, where a third of its population lived. As a result of the communist victory in South Vietnam (May 1975), the pro-American regime in Laos also fell. The troops of the People's Revolutionary Party of Laos, created on the basis of the CPIK, practically without resistance occupied the entire territory of the country.
Convened in December 1975, the National People's Congress accepted the king's abdication and proclaimed the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPR). Its highest authorities were coalition. Prince Souphanouvong, a relative of the king, became the head of the Lao PDR government, and Souvanna Fuma, the prime minister of the royal government, received the post of special adviser to the new government. However, a purely communist regime of the Vietnamese model was soon established in Laos. Almost all the officials of the old regime (about 30 thousand people) were sent to "classes" (in camps) in remote areas on the Vietnamese border, where they spent an average of five years. Three thousand army and police officers were thrown into high-security camps, and many of them died in custody. In 1977 the royal family was arrested and the last crown prince died in prison. Fleeing from repression, 300 thousand people. (10% of the population of Laos), including about 90% of the intelligentsia and officials, fled to Thailand. After the withdrawal of the 50,000-strong Vietnamese army from Laos and the start of market reforms in Vietnam, the softening of the political regime began in Laos as well. The number of political prisoners in this country in 1985-1991 decreased from 7 thousand to 33 people. The border with Thailand was opened and communist propaganda began to roll back. Thus, the totalitarian communist regime in Laos turned into an authoritarian one.
The most terrible totalitarian regime in the history of mankind was established in 1975 in Cambodia. Since 1863, this country has been a French protectorate of the Khmer Kingdom (Khmers are the main population of Cambodia). The head of state in it was Prince Norodom Sihanouk (his father, after Cambodia was occupied by Japanese troops in 1941, abdicated in favor of his son, but he did not become crowned). He managed to prevent Cambodia from being drawn into the Indochina War of 1945-1955. and achieve independence from France by peaceful means (1953).
In 1970, the head of the Cambodian government, General Lon Nol, staged a coup d'état and proclaimed the Khmer Republic. The dethroned prince fled into the jungle to the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists, who from the mid-60s waged a guerrilla war against the royal government) and together with them began civil war against the pro-American regime of Lon Nol (1970-1975). Already in these years, mass repressions began in Cambodia. Captured soldiers of the Lonnol army, their relatives, Buddhist monks, “suspicious” travelers, etc. were sent to “re-education centers” (concentration camps). Most of the prisoners and all the children soon died in these camps from starvation and epidemics. 10 thousand people was destroyed after the Khmer Rouge captured the former royal capital of Oudong.
After the fall of the Lon Nol regime (April 1975), Sihanouk lost real power (although de jure he remained the head of state until 1976, when Cambodia was proclaimed the Republic of "Democratic Kampuchea"), which passed to the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Salot Sar (since 1963 - General Secretary of the People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea, created in 1950 on the basis of the CPI). Thus, a totalitarian communist regime was established in Cambodia.
Its main feature is genocide, unprecedented even for totalitarian regimes. The entire population of Cambodia was divided into three categories:
3) "Hostile elements" (bourgeoisie, officials, servicemen and police of the Lonnol regime, intelligentsia, clergy, etc.).
The third category was subject to complete destruction, the second - "cleansing" and "re-education", the first was considered the backbone of the new government. However, in practice, all three categories became the object of genocide. In 1978, during the suppression of the uprising in the Eastern Zone, which had been under the control of the Khmer Rouge since the 60s, out of 1,700 thousand inhabitants of this area, 200 thousand were destroyed, and the survivors were deported and died in "cooperatives" ( concentration camps) of the Northwestern zone. In one of these "cooperatives" a few months later, the Vietnamese troops found about a hundred deportees out of three thousand, the rest died. The exact number of victims of the communist genocide 1975-1979 impossible to determine. The leader of the "Democratic Kampuchea" Pol Pot called the figure 2.5 million, Vietnamese propaganda and the pro-Vietnamese authorities of Cambodia in the 80s - 3100 thousand. Some categories of the population of Cambodia were completely or almost completely destroyed. In "Democratic Kampuchea", all newspaper photographers, about 90% of doctors, 83% of officers of the Lonnol army, 80% of school teachers and university professors, 52% of people with higher education, 42% of metropolitan residents were killed. The goal of the genocide was to reduce the population of Cambodia to a minimum (the formula of the new government was “one million good revolutionaries will be enough for the country we are building”, therefore 7 million people out of 8 million inhabitants of Cambodia turned out to be “superfluous” and they were mercilessly destroyed) and the creation of people, completely controlled by the communist regime.
Another feature of the communist regime in Cambodia is the creation of a society unprecedented in the history of mankind - without a family (marriages were contracted by order of the authorities), cities (the entire urban population was relocated to the village), religion (all 2,800 Buddhist temples were closed or destroyed, 100 thousand Buddhist monks killed), industry (power plants were blown up, factories destroyed), education (education of children aged 5-9 years was limited to one hour of classes a day, they were taught only reading, writing and revolutionary songs, and all other educational institutions, from secondary schools to universities , were closed), cultural institutions (all theaters, cinemas, libraries and museums were closed) and the media (radio, newspapers, television in communist Cambodia was not). The entire population was driven into "cooperatives" and turned into absolutely disenfranchised slaves. They worked 12-16 hours a day (against the norm of 11 hours) and received an extremely meager ration - 250 g of rice porridge (it was prepared from four teaspoons of rice) for 5-8 people, with a minimum pre-revolutionary norm of 400 g of stew per person.
At the same time, not only a unique society was created in Cambodia, but also a unique totalitarian state. It did not have the usual one-party system for totalitarian regimes. The Communist Party in Cambodia was a very small and weak party (4,000 members in 1971 and 14,000 in 1975) that could not control a country of 8 million people. In this regard, Salot Sar relied not on the party, but on the army, the core of which was children and adolescents (they were mobilized from the age of 10). Therefore, after the collapse of the Lonnol regime, the party and its leader "disappeared" for two years. Communist Party in 1975-1977 did not show any signs of life, and was later replaced by the Angka organization, which did not have a clear organizational structure, which actually merged with the army. The name Salot Sara since April 1975 has disappeared from official reports, and only in April 1976, under the new name Pol Pot, he became the head of the Cambodian government. According to the official version spread by the Khmer Rouge, Salot Sar "died underground" and Pol Pot was a "rubber plantation worker." In Pol Pot's Cambodia, there was no police, including political, and other law enforcement agencies (they were replaced by the army), a court and a legal system. During the four years of Pol Pot rule in Cambodia, there was not a single trial, and completely different punishments were imposed for the same “crime”. Prisons and camps, unlike China and Vietnam, were not a means of "re-education", but a tool for the mass extermination of prisoners (they were given 250 g of rice porridge for 40 people).
Another feature of the Khmer Rouge regime is the radical "solution" to the national question. By a decree of the Pol Pot government, it was announced that "in Cambodia there is one nation and one language - Khmer", therefore "from now on ... there are no other nationalities." After that, the systematic destruction of national minorities began, during which 38% of the Cambodian Chinese and Vietnamese, 40-50% of the Chams (the largest people of Cambodia after the Khmers), etc. were killed.
In 1978, the crisis of the Pol Pot regime began. In the eastern regions, an uprising of the army units of the local population stationed there began, supported by the Vietnamese troops invading the country (this was the response of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the constant attacks of the Pol Pot troops on the border Vietnamese villages, accompanied by mass destruction of the civilian population of Vietnam). In December 1978, Vietnamese troops and the armed forces of the pro-Vietnamese United Front for the National Liberation of Kampuchea (Cambodia was renamed Kampuchea in 1976) launched an offensive against the country's capital, Phnom Penh. In January 1979, they occupied Phnom Penh and all other cities of Cambodia, but the Khmer Rouge retained control over a strip of 300 km along the Thai border and an army of 40 thousand people. As a result, in the 80s. Cambodia actually had a dual power. Most of the country's territory, including all the cities, was under the control of the Vietnamese troops and the administration of the former Pol Pots completely subordinate to them (de jure, this was formalized by the proclamation in June 1981 of the puppet pro-Vietnamese state of the People's Republic of Capuchia), in the western regions dominated " the Khmer Rouge."
After the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia (1989), the process of national reconciliation and the transition from a communist totalitarian regime to democracy began here. In 1990, the Supreme National Council of Cambodia was created, which included Pol Pot, pro-Vietnamese forces and monarchists. In 1993, the monarchy was restored (Sihanouk became king), free parliamentary elections were held under the control of the UN, and a coalition government was formed, which included representatives of all the political forces of Cambodia (monarchists, Lonnolovites, Pol Potites and pro-Vietnamese elements). It was headed by two prime ministers - the protege of the monarchists Norodom Renarit (the illegitimate son of King Sihanouk) and the leader of the pro-Vietnamese People's Revolutionary Party of Cambodia Hun Sen. However, the period of national accord was short-lived. In 1994, the National Assembly of Cambodia outlawed the Khmer Rouge, who boycotted the elections and fought against UN troops and the government army, and a few months later, fighting broke out in Phnom Penh between communists and monarchists. A split began in the Khmer Rouge camp as well. In 1996, 10 thousand fighters of the Pol Pot army went over to the side of the government, and in June 1997, Pol Pot was removed from all posts, arrested and sentenced to life under house arrest, who was trying to start another purge among his associates. After his death (April 1998), the remnants of the Khmer Rouge surrendered to government forces.
a doctrine proclaiming the creation of a classless and stateless society based on the destruction of private property and the imposition of state property, the elimination of the old state machine, the creation of new principles of management and distribution.
Great Definition
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COMMUNISM
from lat. commi-nis - general) - 1. An ideology whose supporters advocate building a society without a state, class exploitation and private property. 2. System, coming, according to Marxists, to replace the capitalist socio-economic formation.
The ideas of social justice already in ancient times motivated the activities of entire groups, estates, classes, determined social psychology mass movements, riots, uprisings and became the causes of heresies, sects, political organizations.
The proto-communist ideas of the social structure were manifested both in myths about the "golden age" of mankind, about the lost and sought after paradise in various religious systems, and in philosophical utopias about the ideal system - like Plato, T. Campanella, T. More, representatives of the socialist thought of the end XVIII - beginning. XIX centuries: A. Saint-Simon (1760–1825), R. Owen (1771–1858), C. Fourier (1772–1837), E. Cabet (1788–1856).
Later, the founders of Marxism tried to scientifically substantiate the principles of the structure of communist society. According to K. Marx, communism is a natural stage in the progressive development of mankind, a socio-economic formation that is coming to replace capitalism, in the depths of which its socio-economic prerequisites ripen. The transition from the old system to a more progressive one will take place during the proletarian revolution, after which private property will be abolished, the bourgeois state will be abolished, and a classless society will emerge. “At the highest phase of communist society,” wrote K. Marx, “after the subjugation of man to the division of labor disappears; when the opposition of mental and physical labor disappears along with it; when labor ceases to be only a means of life, and becomes itself the first need of life; when, along with the all-round development of individuals, the productive forces also grow, and all sources of social wealth flow to the fullest, only then will it be possible to completely overcome the narrow horizon of bourgeois law, and society will be able to write on its banner: To each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
The basis of the Marxist understanding of communism as the goal of social development, with the achievement of which the true history of mankind will come, is the belief in the truth, the objective nature of the laws of social development, first discovered and formulated by K. Marx (1818–1883) and F. Engels (1820–1895) .
The system of views on society, called "scientific communism", is based on the idea of the universal nature of the method of dialectical and historical materialism, suitable for explaining all the phenomena of social life. "Scientific Communism", one of the "three constituent parts Marxism” (along with materialist philosophy and political economy), from the point of view of his followers, theoretically substantiates the special mission of the proletariat in history and its right to revolution to overthrow the domination of capital.
After its victory, the place of the destroyed bourgeois state is replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat, carrying out revolutionary violence in the interests of the working people. This is the first stage of the communist formation - socialism; under it, although private property has been abolished, class distinctions still remain, there is a need to fight the overthrown exploiting classes and defend against external enemies.
K. Marx, F. Engels and later V. Lenin (1870–1924), who developed the ideas of their predecessors about the two phases of the communist formation, were convinced that the transition to the highest stage of communism would occur when high level productivity of labor under the dominance of public ownership of the means of production will make it possible to embody the distributive principle of the new society - according to needs, and classes will disappear. Then the need for a state will disappear, but it will not be abolished as a bourgeois one, but will gradually die out on its own.
Even during the life of the creators of "scientific communism", their ideas were subjected to serious criticism even from like-minded people, not to mention their outright opponents. Marx was condemned for economic determinism, accused of reducing the entire diversity of social life to a conflict between productive forces and production relations. The latter, according to Marx, being the economic basis, determine the entire set of "superstructural" relations - not only the political and social class spheres, but also the cultural, spiritual life of society, including family ties, relations between the sexes, religious feelings of people.
Criticizing F. Lassalle and other leaders of the German Social Democracy, Marx spoke out against freedom of conscience: Communists must fight against the right of a person to believe as with "religious intoxication." This line was consistently continued by the Russian Bolsheviks when they came to power in 1917.
Among the Marxists there were many who, unlike the founder of the doctrine, saw in the capitalist system a significant potential for development and colossal reserves. The absence of objective prerequisites for revolution, industrial growth in most European states, America, Russia, a noticeable improvement in the material situation of workers, the opportunity for working people to participate in political life by legal means through parties, trade unions, using the parliamentary platform - all this has made the slogan of the proletarian revolution irrelevant everywhere. by the end of the 19th century.
Replacing the International Association of Workers, created by K. Marx and F. Engels in the middle. XIX century, the Second International actually abandoned the slogan of an immediate proletarian revolution and advocated reforms with the aim of gradually "growing" the bourgeois state into socialism and communism.
E. Bernstein (1850–1932), and later K. Kautsky (1854–1938) argued most convincingly that such a path was preferable for the world communist movement, for the proletariat.
In Russia, G. Plekhanov (1856–1918) was an ardent opponent of an immediate revolutionary seizure of power. In his opinion, a conscious proletariat has not yet formed in the country, and due to the insufficient development of capitalism, there are no economic prerequisites for socialism.
His opponent was V. Lenin, who already in one of his early works tried to prove that the development of capitalism in Russia was proceeding at a rapid pace, and the absence of a large conscious proletariat was not an obstacle to the revolution. The main condition for its success is the presence of a strong organization of revolutionaries, a "new type" party. It differs from the social-democratic parliamentary parties of Europe by a strong discipline based on the principle of "democratic centralism" (in practice, the absolute subordination of ordinary members to the decisions of the leadership).
Since the emergence of the Bolshevik Communist Party in Russia, the process of preparing a revolution began, the purpose of which was to overthrow the existing government and accelerate the construction of a communist society.
The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia for the first time in world history brought to power a political force that in practice began to put into practice the theoretical principles of Marxism and build a communist society.
Marx himself called the seizure of power in Paris by the Communards in 1871 the first proletarian revolution. But this communist experiment did not have any serious impact either on the European labor movement or on the historical fate of France.
The October Revolution was of world-historical significance not only because it opened the first experience in world history of building real communism on the scale of a huge country, but also provoked revolutionary processes in many countries. In a relatively short period, a number of countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America took a course towards building a new society based on the Marxist theory of scientific communism.
For many decades it remained the official ideology in these states. In reality, the ruling communist parties, following the example of the Bolsheviks, "creatively developed" the communist ideology in relation to local conditions, adapting Marxist slogans and schemes to the needs of the ruling elites. Leninism was already radically different from classical Marxism: the Bolsheviks great value gave the role of the subjective factor in history, in fact asserting the primacy of ideology over the economy. I. Stalin abandoned the basic position for scientific communism about the need for the victory of the revolution on a global scale (on which L. Trotsky insisted) and set a course for the actual construction of state capitalism.
The communist state was to be built on the principle of a single corporation, where the apparatus itself and the government acted as managers, while the workers and the whole people were both employees and shareholders. It was assumed that shareholders would receive dividends in the form of free housing, medicine, education, by reducing food prices and reducing the working day up to 6 or 4 hours, while the rest of the time would be spent on cultural, spiritual and sports development.
From similar positions, communist construction was approached in China. In addition, Mao Zedong (1893-1976) brought an even more voluntaristic flavor to the theory of the communist movement. He attached great importance to conducting large-scale propaganda campaigns ("people's communes", "great leap", "cultural revolution") to mobilize the people to solve economic problems. The fact that at that time there were no real opportunities for an economic breakthrough in the country was not taken into account.
To an even greater extent, the departure from Marxism was manifested in the DPRK, where the ideas of the Korean dictator Kim Il Sung (1912–94) - "Juche", which are based on the principle of "reliance on one's own strength" were announced as the theoretical justification for the country's special path to communism.
Ideological voluntarism and disregard for economic laws manifested themselves to one degree or another in all countries of the socialist camp. It is characteristic that in most of them (with the exception of Czechoslovakia and Hungary) capitalism was poorly developed or completely absent. Then the theory was formulated about the transition of backward countries to socialism and communism, bypassing the capitalist stage (for example, in relation to Mongolia). The only condition for the possibility of such a breakthrough was declared to be all-round support from the socialist camp and the world communist movement.
The doctrine of the "non-capitalist path of development", the support in the backward states of the "socialist orientation" of the ruling regimes, using communist phraseology, completely contradicted Marxism. It is not surprising that from October 1917 until the early 1990s, when the socialist camp collapsed, Western socialist thought, including Marxist thought, categorically opposed the theory and practice of communist construction in the USSR and other states of people's democracy. Soviet communists were criticized for the fact that instead of the gradual implementation of economic and political reforms, which should lead to democratization, a totalitarian system was created in the USSR with the suppression of dissent.
AT modern Russia there are several communist parties and movements (primarily the Communist Party of the Russian Federation). However, they no longer have a serious impact on the political process.
Great Definition
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