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Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine – the Theoretical Journal of the Communist Party of China (1958-1977)

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Red Flag

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Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine – the Theoretical Journal of the Communist Party of China (1958-1977)

Hóngqí [Red Flag] was the Chinese language theoretical journal of the Communist Party of China from 1958 to 1988. Depending on the year it usually appeared monthly or twice-monthly. During the early-middle part of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution its publication was suspended (from December 1967 to July 1968) but after it resumed publication it again became an extremely important revolutionary leadership force during the rest of the Maoist socialist era along with the newspapers People’s Daily and People’s Liberation Army Daily.

Hóngqí was given its name by Mao and the Chinese characters used for the journal’s masthead were in Mao’s calligraphy. Its first editor was Mao’s secretary Chen Boda. It was the successor to the earlier CCP theoretical journal Xuexi [Study]. The capitalist-roaders replaced the by-then already totally revisionist Hóngqí journal with a new twice-monthly journal Qiúshì [‘Seeking Truth’] in July 1988.

The Joint Publications Research Service of the U.S. government translated into English many articles from issues of Hóngqí published during and after the Mao era and also many entire issues. We have made as many of these translated issues and articles as we can locate available here. However readers should keep in mind that these translations are unofficial and may not be entirely reliable.

A page for issues of Hóngqí in the years 1977-1988, which were published by the capitalist-roaders after Mao’s death, can be found here. 

Below we only include those issues for which we have an English translation. A much more complete collection of the magazine in Chinese can be found on the bannedthought website at Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine.

Theoretical and polemical documents can also be found in the pages of Peking Review, published weekly during the period of the construction of Socialism.

1958:

No English versions available.

1959:

No. 23 48 pages, with these articles:

The problem of being ‘Red’ and ‘Expert’ is a problem of world viewpoint
The slogan of so-called ‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity’
Carry out the revolution in the organization of production in the coal mining enterprises
One result of the labor competitions: introducing experiences of competition in technical demonstrations at Anshan
Use natural resources as effectively as possible in serving the cause of Socialist construction

No. 24 27 pages, with these articles:

Guarantee that industrial production will rise in balance while developing at high speed, by Hsu Hsin-hsueh
Overcome the weak cycles, realize an all-around leap
Forward in industrial production, by Sun Hung-chih
Mathematics and the realities of production, by Kuan Chao-chih

1960:

No. 6 45 pages, with these articles:

Develop the great people’s health work
A health Red-Flag city – Foshan in Kwangtung
The path of combining biological research work and production realities
Victory certainly belongs to the great African peoples

No. 8 19 pages, with these articles:

The new climate in the technical revolution in the factories
The great accomplishment of Vietnam in Socialist reformed construction

No. 9 62 pages, with these articles:

The ‘small foreign groups’ are promoting the Great Leap Forward in the iron and steel industry
Extensive operation of local railways
The laboring people must be the masters of machines
Realization of the automation of tea processing
The movement for the study of theory by the masses in Heilungkiang
The high tide of the national democratic movement in Latin America
The Czechoslovakian ideological and cultural revolution is advancing toward victory

No.13 21 pages, with these articles:

Develop the comprehensive use of lumber with artificial boards as the core
Engage extensively in the comprehensive use of lumber and in the chemical industry for lumber production

No.15 78 pages, with these articles:

Intensify the Socialist-Communist education campaign in the rural areas
Further develop the ‘two-participation, one-innovation and three-union’ system and raise the managerial standard in all enterprises
Fully utilize the wild fibers
Expedite the reform of agricultural techniques, intensify the farm tool innovation movement
Mass line in educational work
On the unity of opposites

1961:

No English versions available.

1962:

No English versions available.

1963:

No English versions available.

1964:

No English versions available.

1965:

No. 1

Part 1, 40 pages, with these articles:

Premier Chou En-Lai Reports on work of the Government
Resolution of National People’s Congress
Sixteen Poems

Part 2, 49 pages, with these articles:

Self-Reliance is magic wand
‘One into Two’ and Dynamic Thought
To seek the differences or the similarities?
Workers firmly oppose theory of ‘Class co-operation’
On scientific experiment

No. 2

Part 1, 34 pages, with these articles:

Lenin’s predictions about the Revolutionary Storms of the East
The Vietnamese People will win, U.S. imperialism will lose
How to view the enemy’s opposition

Part 2, 62 pages, with these articles:

Preface to Volume 3 of ‘Khrushchev’s Statement’
A new thing
The Red Lamp
The lamentations of a certain gentleman

No. 3 54 pages, with these articles:

Comment on March Moscow Meeting
An introduction to the Book Polemics on the General Line of the International Communist Movement
To inquire into everything
Comment on history of Imperialism’s use of Christianity to invade Africa
Selection of Revolutionary Songs

No. 4 62 pages, with these articles:

The great victory of Leninism
Drive US aggressors out of Vietnam
Publisher’s explanation of Volume 5 of ‘Khrushchev’s Statement’
Seventh anniversary of founding of Agricultural Middle Schools in Liangsu
Chairman Liu Shao-Ch’i commemorates Tenth Anniversary of Bandung Conference
Poems and cartoons on Aid-Vietnam Oppose-US Struggle

No. 5 44 pages, with these articles:

Commemorate victory over German Fascism
Carry struggle against US Imperialism to end
Historical experience of war against Fascism
Seeing the film ‘Conquering Berlin’ again

No. 6

Part 1, 34 pages, with these 2 articles:

Speech by P’eng Chen at the Indonesian Aliarcham Academy
Marx on Wages Prices and Profits in Capitalist Society

Part 2, 30 pages, with this article:

Pertaining to the discussion on the new view of Basic Particles by the Japanese physicist Sakada Shoichi

1966:

No. 1

Part 1, 40 pages, with these articles:

Speech by Chou Yang at All-China Conference of Spare Time Literary Creation Activists
Leaders of C.P.S.U. are betrayers of Declaration and Statement
Politics the Supreme Commander the very soul of our work

Part 2, 46 pages, with these articles:

High standard quality comes from high standard thinking
We cannot sit and wait for the development of the Socialist enterprise
A rural Film Projection Team
Deliver the books to the hands of the peasants
Course of mankind’s understanding of chemical elements

No. 2 124 pages, with these articles:

Confessions concerning line of Soviet-US collaboration pursued by new leaders of CPSU
Two books by new USSR Communist leadership advocate Soviet-American co-operation
Era of mastering theory by the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers has begun
Workers, farmers and soldiers study Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought with ingenuity and under real world conditions
Theories from ‘On Contradictions’ applied in cement kilns
Ten thousand kilometres: and one kilometre
How the ‘Old Procedure’ was broken time and again
Tend the store counter for the People and learn the skills in practice
Wu Han’s bourgeois view of history
A poor peasant family

No. 3

Part 1, 18 pages, with this one article:

The revolution in historiography must be carried to the very end (Unsigned article written in 1964.)

Part 2, 42 pages, with these articles:

Love weapons not make-up
Constant revolution in ideology and technology
Developing the determination to be a Revolutionary
The Victory of Mao Tse-Tung’s literary and artistic thinking

No. 4 106 pages, with these articles:

Letter of reply dated 22 March 1966 of Central Committee of CCP to Central Committee of CPSU
Letter of Central Committee of CPSU dated 24 February 1966 to Central Committee of CCP
Great revelations of the Paris Commune
Comrade Chien Po-tsan’s outlook on history should be criticized
Comrade Chiao Yu-lu is good example of creative study and application of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking
Philosophical story-telling meetings
Wisdom comes from practice
Dialectics in daily work
Simplicity or complexity?
Bring forth politics and oppose compromise-ism

No. 5

Part 1, 64 pages, with these 2 articles:

Give prominence to politics, put Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking in command of everything
‘Hai Shui curses the Emperor’ and ‘The dismissal of Hai Shui’ are two great poisonous weeds

Part 2, 38 pages, with this one article:

Literature and art must insist on Marxist Epistemology — A Critique of Substantialism

No. 6

Part 1, 28 pages, with these articles:

Worker-Peasant-Soldier masses criticize Wu Han’s anti-Party. anti-Socialist political stand and academic viewpoint
Participation by Worker-Peasant-Soldier masses in academic criticism is an epoch-making event

Part 2, 18 pages, with this one article:

Raise high the Great Red Banner of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking, take an active part in the Socialist Cultural Revolution, editorial in Liberation Army Daily on 18 April 1966 reprinted in Hongqi

Part 3, 28 pages, with this one article:

Commenting On Wu Han’s [Play] T’ou-Ch’iang-Chi by Shih Shao-pin

No. 7

Part 1, 32 pages, with this one article:

Criticism of San Chia Ts’un — The Reactionary Nature of Yen Shan Yeh-hua and San Chia Ts’un Tsa-chi by Yao Wen-yuan

Part 2, 16 pages, with this one article:

The standpoint of which class do the Editorial Departments of Ch’ien-Hsien and Peking Jih-Pao Take? by Ch’i Pen-yu

Part 3, 32 pages, with these three articles:

Never forget class struggle
Workers, Peasants and Soldiers attack anti-Party and anti-Socialist elements
Enhance politics, fully portray Heroes — Review of the novel: ‘Song of Ouyang Hai’

No. 8 50 pages, with these articles:

Put Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought in the forefront, Cadres give the lead at every level
Long Live the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Sweep away all monsters
Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought is the telescope and microscope of our revolutionary cause
Workers, Peasants, Soldiers and Students denounce ‘Three-Family Village’ Counter-revolutionary clique

No. 9 90 pages, with these articles:

Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art — May 1942
Trust the masses rely on the masses
The compass for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution — Note on the reprinting of ‘Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art’
Thoroughly criticize and repudiate the revisionist line of some of the principal leading members of the former Peking Municipal Party Committee
Chou Yang’s Black Arrow to Turn History Upside Down — Comment on a note in the complete Works of Lu Hsun Vol. VI
‘National Defense Literature’ is a slogan of Wang Ming’s Right Opportunist Line

No.10 70 pages, with these articles:

Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
A Programmatic Document of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Energetically launch the mass campaign for studying Chairman Mao’s Writings speed up the Proletarian Revolutionization of Peasants’ Thought
Comment on Sun Yeh-fang’s reactionary political stand and economic program
The Three Poison Weeds of Hou Wai-lu’s comments of T’ang Hsien-tsu’s Plays

No.11 60 pages, with these articles:

Communique of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Our greatest leader, our dearest person
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech
Grow up braving storm and stress victoriously march forward along the road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
Selection of Revolutionary Big-Character Posters

  • What have Sung Shuo Lu P’ing and P’ei-yun done in the Cultural Revolution?
  • Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • More on Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • Third comment on Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • Bring out the proprietary attitude
  • A letter to seven comrades

Hail the Big-Character Poster of Peking University
Saluting the revolutionary youths and teenagers
The General Election system of the Paris Commune

No.12 60 pages with these articles:

Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech (31 August 1966)
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech (15 September 1966)
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech (31 August 1966)
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech (15 September 1966)
Hold fast to the main orientation in the struggle
Take firm hold of the Revolution and stimulate production
In praise of the Red Guards
Selected articles of the Red Guards
Chou Yang is not allowed to attack and disparage Lu Hsun

No.13

Part 1, 48 pages, with these 9 articles:

Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech
Follow along the high road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
For greater victories in revolution and production
Advance under the illumination of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking
Ideological revolution motivates production revolution
Chairman Mao, you are the Red Sun of Our Heart!
The People’s Warriors remain loyal to Chairman Mao forever
The New Peking University forces ahead
Contribute your whole lifetime to the revolutionary cause

Part 2, 30 pages, with these 2 articles:

Build the company into a good school for Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
Manage well the oil wells for the People

Part 3, 20 pages, with this one article:

Arm the peasants with Thought of Mao Tse-tung, the basic experience of the Tachai Production Brigade in politico-ideological work

No.14 70 pages, with these articles:

Victory for the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao
Commemorate Lu Hsun and carry the Revolution through to the end
Learn from Lu Hsun, be faithful to Chairman Mao forever
Rebutting Simonov
Mao Tse-tung’s Thought illuminates Lu Hsun
Commemorating Lu Hsun’s rebellious spirit
Concluding speech at meeting in commemoration of Lu Hsun
Commemorating Lu Hsun Cultural Revolution
We must truly master the Thought of Mao Tse-tung
Dare to struggle, be good at struggle
Change the Thought of Mao Tse-tung into one’s own soul
Regard revolutionary interests as primary in life
New people nurtured and brought up by the Thought of Mao Tse-tung

No.15 65 pages, with these articles:

Comrade Mao Tse-Tung’s Message of Greetings
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech at Peking Mass Rally
Literature and Art workers hold rally for Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Seize new victories
Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The true features of Chien Po-Tsan an anti-Communist intellectual

1967:

No. 2

Part 1, 18 pages, with these articles:

Respond to Chairman Mao’s call, go among the masses
Long Live ‘To rebel is justified’
Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s
Writings in Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Labor must stand on the front ranks of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Part 2, 69 pages, with these articles:

Message of greetings to Revolutionary Rebel Organizations in Shanghai
Take firm hold of the Revolution, promote production and utterly smash the new counter-attack launched by the bourgeois reactionary line
Revolutionary workers of newspapers send telegram saluting Chairman Mao
32 Shanghai Revolutionary Rebel Organizations issue ‘Urgent Notice’
Shanghai Revolutionary Rebels launch major attack on bourgeois reactionary line
Shanghai Revolutionary Rebel Organizations send telegram saluting Chairman Mao
Letter saluting Chairman Mao
Oppose economism and smash the latest counter-attack by the bourgeois reactionary line
Proletarian revolutionaries unite, thoroughly smash the new counter-attack of the bourgeois reactionary line
Firmly put in check the evil wind of economism
Money cannot change our will to rebel
Resolutely oppose economism
Proletarian Dictatorship and Proletarian Extensive Democracy
First step in forming one with the workers

No. 3

Part 1, 62 pages, with these 10 articles:

On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party by Mao Tse-tung (1929)
On the proletarian revolutionaries’ struggle to seize power
On revolutionary discipline and revolutionary authority of the proletariat
The People’s Liberation Army firmly backs the proletarian revolutionaries
A great victory in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in Shansi Province
Great alliance is the key factor
Spring thunder over Southwest China
A new dawn breaks over the Northeast
Get rid of ‘self-interest’, forge a great alliance of revolutionary rebels
After seizure of power

Part 2, 33 pages, with these 6 articles:

Shansi Revolutionary Rebel General Headquarters Public Notice No. 1
Tsingtao Municipal Revolutionary Rebel Committee Notice No. 1
Public Notice of the Kweichow Proletarian Revolutionary Rebel General Headquarters
Public Notice No. 1 of the Revolutionary Committee of Red Rebels in Heilungkiang Province
Power to exercise leadership over newspapers must be seized
Let us grasp the destiny of the seaport

No. 4

Part 1, Not yet available.

Part 2, 7 pages, with 1 article:

Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s Writings in supporting the struggle of proletarian revolutionaries to seize power by Wang Tse-chun

No. 5

Part 1, 82 pages, with these 10 articles:

Letter from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
On the revolutionary ‘Three-way alliance’
Patriotism or national betrayal?
The bourgeois reactionary line on the question of cadres must be criticized and repudiated
Go all out to mobilize the masses, smash the scheme for counter-revolutionary restoration
How we supported proletarian revolutionaries
Bravely advance in the teeth of class struggle
Tachai marches on under the brilliance of Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought
Resolutely carry out Chairman Mao’s Cadres Policy
Put Revolution in the first place

Part 2, 34 pages, with these 4 articles:

‘Hit hard at many in order to protect a handful’ is a component part of the bourgeois reactionary line
Follow Chairman Mao, carry the Revolution through to the end
Transportation situation exceedingly favorable after power seizure in Harbin Railway Bureau
Put Revolution in command of production

No. 8 46 pages, with these articles:

We Workers, Peasants and Soldiers must dominate the arena of literature and art
Long Live Chairman Mao’s revolutionary literary and art line
‘Taking the Bandits’ Stronghold’

No. 9 61 pages, with these articles:

The Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art is a revolutionary program for carrying out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Dockers have ascended the dramatic stage
‘Raid on the White Tiger Regiment’ is a good play manifesting the Thought of Mao Tse-tung
Workers, Peasants and Soldiers must occupy the art stage
Long Live Chairman Mao’s boundlessly brilliant revolutionary line on literature and art
A new victory of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line for art and literature
Long Live the all-conquering Thought of Mao Tsetung on art and literature

No.10

Part 1, 70 pages, with these articles:

‘On the correct handling of contradictions among the people’ by Mao Tse-tung
A theoretical weapon for making revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
A great strategic measure
Stop the encroachment of bourgeois ideology
Never forget the general orientation of the struggle

Part 2, 46 pages, with these articles:

Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s Writings, correctly handle contradictions among the people
Make a strict distinction between the two different types of contradictions, correctly handle the deceived masses
Be forever loyal to Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line
Correctly understand and practice extensive democracy under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Shantung Provincial Revolutionary Committee’s Regulations on conscientiously improving Cadres’ style of work
Combine the Big Criticism with each unit’s struggle, criticism and reform

No.11 100 pages, with these articles:

Mao Tse-tung’s Thought illuminates the road for our Party’s victorious advance
The Military Government of Ne Win, the Chiang Kai-shek of Burma, is bound to fail! The People are bound to win!
People of Indonesia Unite and Fight to overthrow the Fascist Regime
Statement by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Indonesian Communist Party
Self-criticism by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Indonesian Communist Party
It is necessary to topple self-interest in order to realize the great alliance of revolutionaries
Rely on the masses and realize a great revolutionary alliance
Realize the great alliance of revolutionaries, return to school to make Revolution
Forever preserve the revolutionary color of the proletariat
Only by eliminating self-interest and fostering devotion to public interest can we hold and exercise power well
Transact business in strict accordance with Party policies
Hold high the banner of revolutionary great alliance
Resolutely support revolutionary cadres in coming forward

No.12 98 pages, with these articles:

Chairman Mao Tse-tung on People’s War
Long Live the Victory of People’s War!
The proletariat must take a firm hold of the gun
Open fierce fire on the chief enemy of the people
Politically and ideologically overthrow completely the handful of Capitalist Roaders within the Party
Recommending one good article
Let us go forward triumphantly along Chairman Mao’s proletarian line of army building
Resolutely defend Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line

No.13 109 pages, with these articles:

Bombard the headquarters
Along the Socialist or the capitalist road?
Completely smash the bourgeois headquarters
Resolution of 8th Plenary Session of 8th Central Committee of C.P.C. concerning the anti-Party clique headed by Peng Teh-huai
From the defeat of Peng Teh-huai to the bankruptcy of China’s Khrushchev
Scheming to betray the Party is aimed at usurping the Party
The bankruptcy of China’s ‘devotee of Parliament’
Song of Triumph on Tsinghai Plateau
Message saluting Chairman Mao Tse-tung
Socialist enterprises can never be allowed to be dragged astray onto the road of capitalism
Thorough criticism of the ‘Three-self, one-guarantee’ system geared to restoration of capitalism
Angry rebuke of the capitulationist program of the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road
Lessons of the Arab war against aggression

No.14 49 pages, with these articles:

Comments on Tao Chu’s two books by Yao Wen-yuan
Bring about the revolutionary great alliance in the course of the high tide of revolutionary mass criticism and repudiation
Steadfastly stand behind the proletarian revolutionaries
The great Chinese People’s Liberation Army is a reliable pillar of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Further implement Chairman Mao’s great principle for grasping the Revolution and stimulating production
Resolutely trust and rely upon the great majority of Cadres

No.15 36 pages, with these articles:

Chairman Mao inspects North Central-South and East China
Comrade Lin Piao’s speech
Long Live Victory of the Great Cultural Revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
A great revolution to achieve the complete ascendancy of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
‘Combat self-interest, criticize and repudiate revisionism’, carry out well the struggle-criticism-transformation in various schools and unite
Working class unite

No.16 78 pages, with these articles:

Carry out revolutionary great alliances according to fields of work
Comrade Lin Piao’s speech
Advance along the road opened up by the October Revolution
Struggle between the two roads in China’s countryside
Thoroughly establish the absolute authority of the Great Supreme Commander Chairman Mao and of his great thought
Study classes for Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought based on Three-way Combination are very good indeed
A good way to combat self-interest and criticize and repudiate revisionism
Carry out the activity of ‘One helping another to form a red pair’, develop and consolidate the revolutionary great alliance

1968:

No English versions available.

1969:

No English versions available.

1970:

No English versions available.

1971:

No English versions available.

1972:

No English versions available.

1973:

No English versions available.

1974:

No.10 One article, 5 pages:

Grasp the dialectical method of one dividing into two

1975:

No English versions available.

1976:

No. 1 Only a few articles presently available:

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by Chung Shih, 7 pages. (Article starts in the middle of the page.)
Firmly grasp the class struggle as the key link by Chih Heng, 7 pages.
Two articles, 13 pages:

Uphold Party’s basic line – a study of ‘On the correct handling of contradictions among the people’ The splendid poems that inspire us in our struggle – a study of the Two Poems of Chairman Mao by Yen Shui-kai

Communist Party Digest, No. 195, Author and Title Index to Hung-ch’i [Hongqi] for the years 1966-1967, 43 pages.

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7th November – The October Revolution

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Attack on the Winter Palace

Attack on the Winter Palace

More on the ‘Revolutionary Year’

7th November – The October Revolution

Today is probably the most important day in the history of the international working class. Ninety seven years ago workers, sailors and soldiers under the organisation of the Russian Social Democrat Workers Party (Bolshevik) stormed the Winter Palace, the symbolic centre of Tsarism and latterly the headquarters of the ineffectual Provisional Government. That action took place on, and became known as, the 7th November – The October Revolution.

Some people are confused that the October Revolution in Russia took place in November. The simple answer is that the backwardness of the Russian society under the Tsars, an autocratic and theocratic state, was demonstrated not only by its almost feudal relations with the peasantry but also by the fact that the country was still using the Julian calendar which had been dropped by most other countries hundreds of years before. This meant that the day that saw the cruiser The Aurora fire the shot to signal the beginning of the attack on the palace was reckoned as the 25th October in Russia but the 7th November elsewhere. As soon as was practically possible the new Bolshevik government brought the country into the 20th century, at the end of January 1918, by adopting the more accurate Gregorian calendar.

Although this revolution was to change the course of history, as no other had done in the past, it was relatively bloodless on that chaotic morning. There used to be a ‘joke’ in revolutionary circles that there were more people injured in the making of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1928 film ‘October’ (recreating the events of just over a decade earlier) than the real event.

If reaction and oppression couldn’t stop the revolution at the time it did all it could in the next 4 to 5 years to strangle the nascent workers’ and peasants’ state. Those imperialist powers that had been slaughtering each other (or more exactly had convinced their own workers to kill fellow workers of different countries) for almost four years – the start of which is now being cynically and hypocritically commemorated at this moment – banded together against a common enemy, the working class.

But under the leadership of the party that was to become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) and its great leaders, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the workers and peasants prevailed and started along the difficult and uncharted road towards Socialism.

The reason that the Party, having to surmount unimaginable obstacles and at a great human cost, was due to the Bolsheviks keeping their promise to the Russian people, downtrodden in both the countryside and the cities and tired of the slaughter that was the First World War. The very day after the revolution (26th October) a decree giving land to the peasants was passed and the following day (27th October) the Bolsheviks declared that they were not prepared to continue with the crime of worker killing worker.

Revolutions are not the same as dinner parties, as Chairman Mao said, and however well they are organised they rarely go to plan, there being too many variables and this happened to the intention to cease military action on the eastern front. Foolishly Lenin gave the task of the negotiations with the German High Command at the city of Brest-Litovsk to the recent ‘convert’ to Bolshevism Leon Trotsky.

Playing a role that his followers have played in the intervening years Trotsky went against the instructions of the Central Committee of the Party and dragged out the negotiations, thereby acting as the tool for those nations fighting against the German alliance (who wanted Russians to die and keep a large percentage of German troops away from the western front), causing the needless death of thousands of Russian workers and peasants and finally making an agreement that was more disadvantageous to the new Soviet State than it would have been if he had followed orders. (The erroneous ‘theories’ of Trotskyism, demonstrated by this approach, having failed to lead a successful revolution anywhere in the world in the last, almost, hundred years.)

Attempts at revolution in Hungary and German came to nought and the other capitalist nations went through crises and economic depression without the workers following the lead of the Soviets, thereby weakening themselves and the first socialist state.

Being the first is always difficult. Mistakes, as well as many successes, were made but capitalism never tires in its aim to maintain the system of oppression and exploitation. Whilst it had failed in the intervention with the 14 nations in the Civil War it hoped that the Fascists in Europe would finish the job. Unfortunately for imperialism the dogs of war decided to go for the easy touch first and France, Belgium and the Netherlands capitulated at the first opportunity and the British had to scuttle back across the English Channel, a disorderly retreat which is now depicted as a victory.

But the megalomania of the Nazis knew no bounds and it was inevitable that they would seek to destroy socialism in the Soviet Union. However, at a huge sacrifice in terms of human life and the material advances that had been made since the end of the Civil War (with industrialisation and collectivisation) the ‘Thousand Year Reich’ was utterly destroyed. The men and women of the Soviet Union had saved the world from Fascism.

Although defeated on the battlefield Fascism did have the effect of weakening the Soviet Union, the best and most committed communists being prepared to make the supreme sacrifice in order to save their revolutionary gains. This meant that when the revolution was attacked this time from the inside, following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, those revisionist elements within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were able to move the country off the road of socialism.

The Soviet Union as an entity ceased to exist in 1991 but it ceased to be a socialist country long before that, the date being accepted by most Marxist-Leninist is that of the time of the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, when Khrushchev made his attack upon Stalin – but really on the whole concept of revolutionary socialism.

But in the same way that the October Revolution was made by the people so the defeat of that same revolution less that 40 years later was also the responsibility of the Soviet people. If they are treated as nothing more than pawns by their rulers then they have accepted that situation. If the working class is the class to move society to a higher level they can’t then cry that they are victims of forces beyond their control.

The slogan ‘ye are many, they are few’ is as valid today as it was when Shelley wrote the line almost 200 years ago.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Russian people have seen virtually all the advances made in those 40 years of socialism destroyed completely in the last 20 or so years, with gangsters and thieves using the natural wealth and the labour of the workers to buy football teams, huge yachts, a myriad of palaces and countless whores no one can take away from their grandfathers and grandmothers the achievements they made in the first half of the 20th century.

The men and women who make revolutions are rare and if a country can produce such a generation once in a millennium they are doing well. Despite the arrogance that oozes out of the capitalist propaganda machine that socialism is dead what those men and women started on 7th November 1917, the October Revolution, will forever be a beacon to the oppressed and exploited of the world.

More on the ‘Revolutionary Year’

The Centenary of the October Revolution of 1917

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Lenin, Stalin and Dzerzhinsky at the Smolny

Lenin, Stalin and Dzerzhinsky at the Smolny

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The Centenary of the October Revolution of 1917

The centenary of the most important event in the history of the world occurs on the 7th November 2017. On that day a hundred years ago the working class and peasantry of Russia took power into their own hands and attempted to build a new world order.

I have already looked at that event in another, earlier post, but as we live in a world that is obsessed with anniversaries (and I’m falling into that trap, being in Leningrad at the time of the centenary) perhaps it’s time to re-address the issues that were brought up by that tremendous, earth shattering event.

We can gauge the magnitude of the events in that year by the way capitalism did it’s best to destroy the nascent Soviet state.

Lenin – the leader of the Bolsheviks – together with James Connolly of the Irish Republican Army, were the only socialist leaders to condemn the slaughter of the First World War as soon as it started. Social democratic apologists for capitalism (such as the British Labour Party) reneged on their declarations against war (made at Stuttgart and Basel in 1907 and 1912 respectively) as soon as they were put to the test. Only the true Communists had kept to their principles and the imperialist countries knew they were dealing with a dangerous proletarian force when Lenin was at the head of the revolutionary party.

The capitalist countries saw red and realised that the Bolshevik Revolution was like no other that had preceded it. What the Parisian workers had attempted to achieve, in the Paris Commune of 1871, had been suppressed with the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of men, women and children. Capitalism would go to the same extremes to achieve a similar result in Russia. As the tools for this they used their pathetic, confused and ignorant workers (who had spent more four years killing each other for the benefit of their own oppressors) who were told to attack the first workers’ state. Like the sheep they had become they fed the resulting ‘Civil War’ when more people were killed than in the imperialist war itself.

The Revolution was celebrated by revolutionary workers all over the world as the harbinger of a new society, free from exploitation and oppression. A revolution ‘is not a dinner party’, as Chairman Mao said, and the ignorant, pusillanimous and forelock tugging workers and their collaborationist ‘Labour/Socialist’ parties have attacked and condemned the October Revolution for the necessary measures taken to defend, promote and develop the workers state on the road to build Socialism – and eventually Communism.

The road followed by the Soviet Union, alone, until joined by the People’s Republic of Albania in 1944, the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and much later, after an heroic battle against American Imperialism, the People’s Republic of Vietnam in 1975, was tortuous, long and hard.

Massive achievements were made – as well as mistakes. If a revolution is predictable it’s not a revolution. But what was achieved by the Soviet people, in the field of industrial production, the collectivisation of agriculture and the fearless, heroic and self-sacrifice that led to the defeat of the Nazi beast, was of immeasurable benefit to the people’s of the world – and a lesson which those exploited and oppressed of the world need to understand and emulate.

But those that inherit a revolution are not those who made it. They benefit from the achievements but want more – those ‘benefits’ of capitalism with which no socialist state can compete. And that’s things. Things like consumer goods, the fickle trinkets of mass production, that entice stupid people away from what is truly meaningful for a full and fruitful life – those necessities, like health, education and the ability to contribute to society through productive activity.

The revolution in the Soviet Union was lost in 1956 at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) where Nikita Khrushchev denounced Comrade Joseph Stalin and all the achievements of the previous 29 years and the period of Socialist construction in a sixth of the world’s land mass ended.

For a further 24 years the ‘Revisionist’ version of Communism promoted by the CPSU spread like a virus throughout the world, creating confusion and division within the working class. This was the task that had been taken on board by Social Democracy, after it’s betrayal of the working class in 1914 (by calling upon the workers in their respective countries to kill each other for the benefit of capitalism) but the Soviet renegades sowed more confusion by continuing to call themselves Communists and claiming to follow the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism. Their pathetic demise in 1991 was too long in coming.

A hundred years after the magnificent event (the images of which are more influenced by those who have seen the film’ October’ by the revolutionary Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein than what actually happened) the situation is very different.

Capitalism has been re-introduce in tooth and claw. Instead of free health, education, secure employment, pensions and an infrastructure that benefits the majority everything has now been privatised. The collective wealth created by Socialist workers has been stolen by opportunist thieves. One of these scumbag ‘oligarchs’ has a boat sitting of the coast of Turkey which is bigger than the Cruiser ‘Aurora’ that signalled the start of the attack on the Winter Palace and the virtual beginning of the Socialist Revolution.

(Perhaps it’s a sign of our times that a grand, ancient name has been given to a bunch of opportunist thugs and common thieves.)

But that’s the problem for the people of Russia of today. They are not the brave and courageous innovators of the past. Revolution is not passed down through the genes. They are the submissive, afraid and confused that populate most countries, especially those in the ‘so-called’ civilized ‘west’, Europe, North America and certain parts of the South-eastern Asia.

Putin plays the nationalist card, courts the church – of whatever denomination – in an attempt to maintain his power. After Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Gobshite, and the Vodka Soaked Drunk Yeltsin, Putin is just a greedy opportunist who prays on civil society. After this bunch of cretins how can anyone, with a modicum of sense, criticise Uncle Joe’s policy of purging the Party of opportunist elements?

So no real celebration of the most important event in the history of the world in the place where it occurred.

That’s good.

Leningrad (it will always have that name to me), the cradle of the revolution, has been renamed St Petersburg (the Germanic name that was used before the First World War, and not even the Russified version of Petrograd) was where it all started 100 years ago. If there’s any ‘official’ attempt to recognise the event this is manifested in museum gallery exhibitions that seek to denigrate the success of the Bolsheviks rather than celebrate it.

Re-writing of history is the name of the game.

Denigration of the Socialist past is almost at a fascist level. Having had to suffer the ‘impartiality’ of the British media for so long, it’s quite refreshing to see a total ideological war against the past.

The Russian state has not decided to ignore the past – that would be impossible even in the present circumstances – rather they have chosen to re-interpret it.

Exhibitions in both Moscow and Leningrad at the end of 2017 that relate to the events of 1917 are a propaganda attempt to undermine the Revolution. In an effort to denigrate the importance of both Lenin and Stalin (as well as other truly revolutionary leaders) they promote Trotsky – if anyone was unsure of his counter-revolutionary nature the adoption of him as a ‘revolutionary icon’ by Putin’s state should clarify matters. (There was even an advert on Russian TV about a mini series around Trotsky’s life. He was considered a capitalist agent in the times of Socialism and he is becoming a ‘revolutionary’ icon by those who have been restoring total capitalist control of the country.)

For some reason, which I don’t really understand, Voroshilov has been added to the ‘devils’ of the past alongside JV Stalin. There’s obviously an agenda there but I’m not sure what. As with the so-called ‘rehabilitation’ of the traitors and foreign agents of the 1930s those who have been chosen by the present, capitalist regime are chosen for a reason – they are symbols of their aspirations.

This has been taken to bizarre extremes at times. At an exhibition in Leningrad, for example, in a section about propaganda (I don’t see this word as necessarily having a negative connotation) during the building of Socialism the information cards declare that the Soviet State only sought to eliminate illiteracy because this would make more people susceptible to brain washing Soviet propaganda.

The perfidious Communists were trying to out-do the obsfucators of the past, in Britain for example, who used Latin in the church and the courts so that the ordinary people wouldn’t be able to understand what was being said. By actually teaching them to read and write the Soviet ‘propaganda machine’ could be more easily absorbed by the basically ignorant workers and peasants. The double thinking here is remarkable.

Socialism goes contrary to all previous social systems based on class, exploitation and oppression. The most important aspect of the creation of a new kind of man and woman is the changing of the selfish mindset that is a close partner of class systems. This is the cultural revolution that all socialist societies have instituted in one form or another. Socialist values of collectivity and respect for all is an anathema to capitalism. Only an intellectually adept people are capable of building a society free from all the evils of the past.

Those in power in Russia today are quite happy to feed their population with the garbage that capitalism has to offer, from the likes of McDonald’s, KFC and Coca-Cola to the cheap, nasty and moronic TV shows copied from western Europe, the only difference being the language. Shit in,shit out.

If you placed these cretinous curators of exhibitions in a novel nobody would believe them credible.

But that’s not really an issue. The country has betrayed its revolutionary past. It has no right to claim the Revolution as its property as it’s people have rejected that revolution for a capitalist lifestyle – together with all the consequences of a capitalist society. If they complain about their present reality then they only have themselves to blame.

The present ‘Communist Party of the Russian Federation’ is more akin to the revisionist party that betrayed the Revolution than the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Stalin. I wouldn’t trust them to change a light bulb let alone a country. They make token gestures to the event of a hundred years ago but chose to hold a meeting in Moscow at the exact time of the centenary. If nothing else they display no concept of history – something important for a revolutionary. If you don’t know, care or understand where you come from how can you know where to go in the future?

The people of St Petersburg walk the same streets as the revolutionaries but they don’t walk in their footsteps. The chances of them reversing the changes of the last 60 years are nil – unless the country has to confront another major crisis such as WWI. (But then they are no different from the workers of any other country where revolutions are only made when people are weak and in crisis rather than from positions of strength and stability.) If the lesson of the October Revolution is anything else it’s that we haven’t learnt the lessons of the October Revolution.

If the workers, peasants and poor of the world made a revolution when they wanted rather than waiting until it was a necessity then their future would be easier. They wait until the last moment and build the new from the literal ruins of the old rather than using the old as a foundation for the new.

Whether the centenary of the October Revolution will prompt the exploited and oppressed to look at their own situation anew is doubtful. But one thing is certain, for those who want to exert their own dignity the Great October Proletarian Revolution will remain a beacon which lights the future.

Long Live the Revolution of the 7th November 1917!

More on the ‘Revolutionary Year’

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