The Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is of paramount theoretical and practical importance for the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat and the communist party. I.V. Stalin emphasized that "the main thing in Leninism is the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in the development of this issue, in substantiating and concretizing this issue ... The main issue of Leninism, its starting point, its foundation is the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat " ( I.V. Stalin. Works, vol. 8, p. 16 ).
The classics of Marxism-Leninism - Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin paid the most serious attention to the theoretical development of the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in particular, in such works as "The Civil War in France", "Critique of the Gotha Program" (Marx), "The State and Revolution” (Lenin), “On the Foundations of Leninism”, “On the Questions of Leninism”, “Report Report of the Central Committee to the 18th Party Congress” (Stalin) and a number of other equally important works. The great teachers of the proletariat never invented anything, they only summed up the experience of the class struggle of the proletariat, the data of revolutionary practice.
The neo-Trotskyist Khrushchev group, which came to the leadership of the party after the XX Congress of the CPSU, began to revise the Marxist-Leninist theory, materialist dialectics, replacing it with sophistry and eclecticism, emasculating its revolutionary essence from it. The main thing in Leninism, the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat, was subjected to revision. The world communist movement, which is now in a deep crisis, followed Khrushchev's CPSU, sowing reactionary illusions among class-conscious workers about the possibility of a transition to a communist society without a period of proletarian dictatorship, without a period of fierce class battles both within the country and on the international arena.
The consequences of the revision of Marxism-Leninism were not long in coming - there was a rejection of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which led to the restoration of capitalism in most countries of the socialist camp, the restoration of the old capitalist order in them.
IN AND. Lenin pointed out what should be the criterion for evaluating the true communist nature of a particular party: “ Whoever recognizes only the struggle of classes, he is not yet a Marxist, he may not yet go beyond the framework of bourgeois thinking and bourgeois politics. To limit Marxism to the doctrine of class struggle means to curtail Marxism, to distort it, to reduce it to what is acceptable to the bourgeoisie. A Marxist is only one who extends the recognition of class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat . This is the most profound difference from the dozens of petty (and big) bourgeois. On this touchstone, one must experience a real understanding and recognition of Marxism ”( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 33, p. 34 ).
The rich revolutionary experience of the labor movement, summed up in the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, convincingly testifies that the transition from capitalism to a classless communist society is possible only through the dictatorship of the proletariat.
This article highlights the main issues of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat based on the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism. K. Marx and F. Engels formulated the general provisions of their doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat. IN AND. Lenin defended this doctrine from the attacks of the revisionists of the Second International and developed it further, taking into account the practice of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat in Russia, taking into account the victory of the first proletarian revolution in the world and the first steps of the Soviet state. I.V. Stalin, the coryphaeus of Marxist-Leninist science, raised the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat to the highest level, summarizing the rich practice of building socialism in the USSR, strengthening the proletarian state in conditions of capitalist encirclement and carrying out people's democratic and socialist revolutions in the countries of people's democracy.
The article provides a brief analysis of the dictatorship of the proletariat based on the experience of the Soviet state under Lenin and Stalin, since after the XX Congress of the CPSU (1956) and the coming to power of Khrushchev, the power of the working class in alliance with other working masses (the dictatorship of the proletariat) was eliminated.
1. Emergence, class essence and historical types of the state
The Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is inextricably linked with the Marxist doctrine of the state, and without knowledge of the latter it is impossible to understand the former.
The general theses of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the state can be formulated as follows:
1) the state arises on the basis of the opposition of antagonistic classes,
2) the state is the organized violence of one class to suppress another, and
3) with the abolition of classes and class antagonisms, the state will also disappear, it will wither away.
The state (officialdom, army, punitive organs, intelligence, prisons) arises with the split of society into hostile, antagonistic classes, when the need arises for a special apparatus of violence, a special machine for suppressing one class by another.
The history of human society knows the following types of exploiting states - slave, feudal and bourgeois. All these exploiting states are nothing but a machine of class domination by the exploiting classes (slave owners, feudal lords, capitalists) over the exploited classes (slaves, serfs, working class). But history also knows another type of state - a new, higher type of state - a socialist state (dictatorship of the proletariat), which differs significantly from all previous, exploitative types of state.
The state, as an apparatus for the coercion of one class over another, did not always exist. In the period of primitive communal society, when the means of production were considered the property of the entire tribal community and when there was no division of society into classes, there was no state either. Lenin noted that primitive society was dominated by " customs, authority, respect, the power enjoyed by the elders of the family ", but nowhere is there " a special category of people who stand out in order to manage others and in order to systematically, constantly own the known in the interests, for the purposes of management an apparatus of coercion, an apparatus of violence, which are at present ... armed detachments of troops, prisons and other means of subordinating someone else's will to violence - that is what constitutes the essence of the state”( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., v. 39, p. 69 ).
The state, as a special apparatus for coercion of people, arose only where and when the division of society into hostile, antagonistic classes appeared, when exploiters and exploited appeared, such groups of people, from which one can constantly appropriate the labor of others, where one exploits the other. As society became more and more divided into classes, the state arose.
The state is a machine for maintaining the dominance of one class over another.
The first major division of society into classes was the division into the class of slave owners and the class of slaves. Slave owners not only owned the means of production, land, but also slaves, they could not only sell, buy, but also kill a slave. Slaves were not considered as people, they were considered as a thing. Accordingly, the state was nothing more than a slave-owning state. The slave-owning state is an apparatus for maintaining the rule of the slave-owning class over the slave class. The entire history of the slave state, from the history of the Ancient East to the history of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, is filled with uprisings of slaves and other oppressed against the slave owners, who used the state to drown these uprisings in blood.
The next division of society into classes was serfdom, the division into the class of feudal lords and the class of serfs. However, the serf was no longer the property of the landowner, like a slave, but was dependent on him. The landowner could buy, sell, mortgage a serf, but he could not kill him. The state was nothing but a feudal, feudal state. The feudal state was an apparatus for the suppression of the serfs by the serf-owning class. The medieval history of feudal society is permeated with the bloody struggle of the peasants against the feudal lords, who used the army, the court, the inquisition to suppress peasant uprisings and maintain their dominance.
The next major division of society into classes is the division of society into the class of capitalists and the class of wage-workers. Lenin wrote that “ any state in which there is private ownership of land and the means of production, where capital dominates, no matter how democratic it may be, is a capitalist state, it is a machine in the hands of the capitalists to keep the working class and the poorest in subjection. peasantry " (V.I. Lenin. Complete collection of works, vol. 39, p. 81). The history of capitalism and the class struggle of the working class for its emancipation, for its rights shows that the modern bourgeois state stands guard over the interests of the class of exploiters who are ready at any moment to use all the punitive means of the state to break the resistance of the workers and defend their rule.
The state is necessary for the exploiters not only to suppress the uprisings of the oppressed classes, not only to keep the exploited masses in check. Stalin noted two main functions of the exploiting states:The state arose on the basis of the split of society into hostile classes, it arose in order to keep the exploited majority in check in the interests of the exploiting minority. The instruments of state power were concentrated mainly in the army, in punitive organs, in intelligence, and in prisons. Two main functions characterize the activities of the state: internal (main) - to keep the exploited majority in check and external (not main) - to expand the territory of its own, the ruling class at the expense of the territory of other states, or to protect the territory of its state from attacks from other states. This was the case under the slave system and feudalism. This is how matters stand under capitalism ” ( I.V. Stalin. Works, vol. 14, ed. 2, p. 435 ).
The working class during the period of the socialist revolution, in order to suppress the resistance of its class opponents and then build a communist society, destroys the bourgeois state and creates a new one - the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat (socialist state) - a new, highest and last historical type of state .
2. Emergence, class essence, concept and main tasks of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat
As a result of historical development, capitalism, as the last antagonistic socio-economic formation, is being replaced by communist society, as the highest stage in the development of human society, where there will be no exploitation of man by man and division of society into classes. Marx and Engels, relying on the objective laws of social development they discovered, proved that the destruction of capitalism would take place through a socialist revolution and that the working class, one of the main classes of modern bourgeois society, would be the main driving force of this revolution.
During the period of socialist revolution, the working class expropriates the capitalist class and turns all the means of production into public property. But before expropriating the exploiters, the working class must take political power into its own hands and establish its own domination - the dictatorship of the proletariat . The working class needs the state, first of all, in order to crush the resistance of the capitalist class. “The proletarian state is a machine for the suppression of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat, and such suppression is necessary because of the frenzied, desperate, unstoppable resistance offered by the landlords and capitalists, the entire bourgeoisie and all its henchmen, all the exploiters, when its overthrow begins, when the expropriation of the expropriators begins " (IN AND. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 37, p. 457 ).
Marx wrote that the working class cannot simply take possession of the finished state machine and set it in motion for its own purposes. Summing up the experience of the revolutions of 1848-49. in Europe and especially the experience of the Paris Commune, Marx and Engels substantiated the thesis of the need to break the old state machine and create a new state machine in order to suppress the overthrown ruling classes. If Marx and Engels made an exception to this rule for some capitalist countries (England), then Lenin showed that under imperialism the breaking up of the military-police bureaucratic machine is obligatory for all capitalist countries. Despite all the subterfuges and subterfuges of former and contemporary opportunists, this thesis of Marx and Engels, confirmed by all the experience of the working-class movement and found its brilliant development in the works of Lenin, under modern conditions remains valid for all capitalist countries without exception. "... The law on the violent revolution of the proletariat, the law on the demolition of the bourgeois state machine, as a preliminary condition for such a revolution, is an inevitable law of the revolutionary movement of the imperialist countries of the world " ( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 6, p. 117 ).
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is still a state, i.e. a machine for the suppression of one class by another, organized violence of one class against another class. Lenin wrote what the dictatorship of a class is: “ The scientific concept of dictatorship means nothing more than power unrestricted by any laws, absolutely not constrained by any rules, based directly on violence ” ( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. op. , v. 12, p. 320 ). In this the dictatorship of the proletariat is no different from other types of state.
But the proletarian state, in its class nature, differs essentially from other, exploitative types of state. Stalin wrote: “The state is a machine in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing the resistance of its class opponents. In this respect the dictatorship of the proletariat is no different from the dictatorship of any other class, for the proletarian state is a machine for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. But there is one significant difference here. It consists in the fact that all hitherto existing class states have been the dictatorship of the exploiting minority over the exploited majority, while the dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of the exploited majority over the exploiting minority. And further: "In short: the dictatorship of the proletariat is the rule of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, unlimited by law and based on violence, enjoying the sympathy and support of the working and exploited masses ”( V.I. Stalin. Soch., vol. 6, p. 114 ).
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not only violence, and not primarily violence. “... The essence of the proletarian dictatorship is not in violence alone, and not mainly in violence. The main ... goal is to create socialism, to destroy the division of society into classes, to make all members of society workers, to take away the soil from any exploitation of man by man "( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 38, p. 385 ).
The main thing in the dictatorship of the proletariat is the building of a new socialist society, it is the leadership of the working class of all non-proletarian working masses in the building of socialism . The working class needs a state not only to crush the resistance of the exploiters, but also to unite all the working and exploited masses in the cause of building socialism, in order to “ lead the entire people to socialism, to direct and organize the new system, to be a teacher, guide, leader of all working people. ” and exploited in the organization of their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie ”( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 33, p. 26 ).
“The dictatorship of the proletariat is a special form of class alliance between the proletariat, the vanguard of the working people, and numerous non-proletarian sections of the working people (petty bourgeoisie, peasantry, intelligentsia, etc.), or the majority of them, an alliance against capital, an alliance for the complete overthrow of capital, the complete suppression of resistance of the bourgeoisie and attempts at restoration on its part, an alliance for the final creation and strengthening of socialism ” ( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 38, p. 377 ).
The dictatorship of the proletariat is the state leadership of the working class of all non-proletarian working masses in the matter of building a classless communist society .
Stalin, summing up what Lenin said about the main tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat, formulated the thesis about the three sides of the dictatorship of the proletariat : “ The dictatorship of the proletariat is not only violence , but also the leadership of the working masses of non-proletarian classes, but also the construction of a socialist economy ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is: 1) violence unlimited by law in relation to the capitalists and landlords , 2) the leadership of the proletariat in relation to the peasantry , 3) the building of socialism in relation to the whole society. None of these three aspects of the dictatorship can be excluded without the risk of distorting the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Only all these three aspects, taken together, give us a complete and complete concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat ”( JV Stalin. Soch., vol. 7, p. 187 ).
The definition of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a special form of class alliance between the proletariat and the non-proletarian working masses by no means means that the working class shares power with them. The concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat means that the working class alone takes power into its hands and that it does not share it with anyone. “ The class that took political domination into its own hands took it, knowing that it was taking it alone . This is contained in the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat ” ( I.V. Stalin, Soch., vol. 8, p. 26 ). Dictatorship of the proletariat means autocracyof the working class, that is, such power of the working class that it does not and cannot share it with other classes. But this does not mean that the power of one class, the working class, does not need help, in alliance with other working masses, to achieve its goals. On the contrary, the power of the working class can be confirmed and carried through to the end only through a special form of alliance between the working class and the working masses of other classes, above all the working masses of the peasantry. “ It consists, this special form of union, in the fact that the leading force of this union is the proletariat ” ( JV Stalin. Soch., vol. 8, p. 26-27 ).
3. The main stages and functions of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat covers a whole historical period, the period of transition from capitalist society to classless communist society. Marx wrote: “ What I did new was to prove the following: 1) that the existence of classes is connected only with certain historical phases in the development of production , 2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat , 3) that this dictatorship itself constitutes only a transition to the destruction of all classes and to a society without classes ”( K. Marx and F. Engels. Soch., vol. 28, p. 427). In this vast historical period, the proletarian state goes through several stages in its development with corresponding tasks and functions, up to its complete withering away in the second, highest phase of communism.
Marxism teaches that communist society goes through two main phases in its development: the first, lower phase (socialism) and the second, higher phase (communism). In the first phase (under socialism), the "birthmarks" of capitalism still remain, namely: differences in property status among members of society (distribution according to work, not according to needs); class differences between workers and peasants, as well as between them and the working intelligentsia; essential differences between town and country, between mental and physical labor; preservation of vestiges of capitalism in the minds of the masses. In the second, higher phase of communism, these differences will be overcome, and communist society will develop on its own basis. It should also be noted
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat covers precisely this vast historical period between capitalist and communist society, between capitalism and the highest phase of communism.
“ Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the former into the latter. This period also corresponds to a political transitional period, and the state of this period cannot be anything other than the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat ”( K. Marx and F. Engels. Soch., vol. 19, p. 27 ).
“ The essence of Marx’s doctrine of the state was assimilated only by those who understood that the dictatorship of one class is necessary not only for any class society in general, not only for the proletariat that overthrew the bourgeoisie, but also for the whole historical period that separates capitalism from a “society without classes” from communism” (V.I. Lenin. Complete collection of works, vol. 33, p. 35).
The various stages of the historical period, encompassing the transition from capitalism to communism, also determine individual stages in the development of the proletarian state. These stages, as well as the tasks and functions of the proletarian state, are also significantly influenced by the presence of a hostile capitalist camp.
During the period of transition from capitalism to socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat fulfills the tasks of suppressing the resistance of the overthrown classes, organizing a socialist economy, and defending the country from outside attacks. During the period of socialism and the gradual transition to communism, the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is preserved and strengthened. Only in the second, highest phase of communism, provided that the capitalist encirclement is eliminated, does the state wither away.
After the liquidation of the exploiting classes and the building of socialism in the USSR, the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not only preserved, but also strengthened.
The preservation of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the period of socialism is mainly determined by the following factors: 1) the existence of class and other essential differences in society, 2) the survival of capitalism in society and the consciousness of the masses, and 3) the existence of the capitalist camp. All these circumstances, taken together, determine the preservation and strengthening of the proletarian state under socialism.
The first and main factor is the presence of class and other significant differences in society.
Under socialism, class differences still persist between the working class and the collective-farm peasantry, as well as differences between them and the working intelligentsia, between mental and manual labor, between town and country, although the opposition between them, which is characteristic of capitalism, has been eliminated. Consequently, the need for state leadership by the working class of the whole of society remains - the dictatorship of the proletariat - in the period of the gradual transition to communism . Stalin pointed out that under the conditions of victorious socialism, when there are no longer antagonistic classes in society, when society consists of two friendly classes, workers and peasants, when precisely these working classes are in power, “state leadership of society (dictatorship) belongs to the working class, as the advanced class of society "( JV Stalin. Soch., vol. 14, ed. 2, p. 148 ). At the same time, Stalin notes, “ the base of the dictatorship of the proletariat is expanding and the dictatorship is being transformed into a more flexible, and therefore, a more powerful system of state leadership of society ” ( ibid., p. 155 ).
Lenin, understanding the complexity of the historical process of overcoming class differences in society, wrote: “ It is clear that for the complete destruction of classes it is necessary not only to overthrow the exploiters, landowners and capitalists, not only to abolish their property, it is also necessary to abolish all private ownership of the means of production, it is necessary destroy both the difference between city and country, and the difference between people of physical and mental labor. This is a very long matter ” ( V.I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 39, p. 15 ).
Only in the second, highest phase of communism, when the class distinctions in society between the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia will be finally erased, when the workers will be raised to the level of engineering and technical workers, and the peasants to the level of agronomic workers, when there will be no more significant differences between the city and the village, between mental and physical labor, only then the state, in the words of Engels, will truly become the representative of the whole society and will cease to exist - it will wither away (K. Marx and F. Engels. Soch., vol. 20, p. 292).
The second factor is the preservation of the "birthmarks" of capitalism in society and especially in the consciousness of the masses.
Under socialism, there is still some property inequality between members of society, since the distribution of products takes place not according to needs, as in the second, highest phase of communism, but according to work, and, consequently, whoever works more, gets more. Lenin noted that this conditions the preservation of the state under socialism. “ Until the “higher” phase of communism comes, the socialists demand the strictest control on the part of society and the state over the measure of labor and the measure of consumption ... ”( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 33, p. 97 ). The proletarian state will begin to wither away only when "people gradually become accustomed toto the observance of the elementary, known for centuries, repeated for thousands of years in all prescriptions, the rules of the hostel, to observe them without violence, without coercion, without subordination, without a special apparatus for coercion, which is called the state "( V.I. Lenin. Full. collected. Op. ., vol. 33, p. 89 ).
Thus, under socialism, an apparatus of coercion is also needed, an apparatus of coercion, in order to protect the measure of labor and the measure of consumption, primarily from encroachments on the part of anti-social elements who want to give less to society and take more from it. Stalin wrote that under socialism, the function of the state to protect public property from thieves and plunderers of people's goods is preserved . This function of the socialist state will die out completely only in the second, highest phase of communism, when people get used to observing the elementary rules of socialist coexistence without coercion.
The third factor is the presence of a hostile capitalist camp (environment).
The formation and development of the proletarian state in the USSR took place in conditions of capitalist encirclement, in the presence of a hostile camp of capitalism. Consequently, there was a danger of military intervention against the USSR, and with it the restoration of capitalism. Moreover, the capitalist states sent or recruited spies, wreckers, saboteurs and assassins into the USSR, relying on them to restore capitalism from within .
Under socialism, when the hostile classes have been destroyed, the class struggle does not stop at all, but with the new advance of socialism it becomes sharper and takes on new forms, about which Lenin and Stalin warned more than once and which is confirmed by the experience of all socialist countries. “ The transition from capitalism to communism is a whole historical epoch. Until it is over, the exploiters inevitably have hope for restoration, and this hope turns into attempts at restoration” ( V.I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 37, p. 264 ).
All this led to the preservation and strengthening of the proletarian state in the USSR - the army, punitive agencies, intelligence, in order to repel military intervention from the outside and catch foreign intelligence agents inside the country. Stalin, noting the general and relative nature of Engels' formula that after the destruction of hostile classes, the state will wither away, writes: "...It is impossible to extend Engels' general formula about the fate of the socialist state in general to the particular and concrete case of the victory of socialism in one country taken separately, which has a capitalist encirclement around it, which is subject to the threat of a military attack from without, which cannot therefore be distracted from the international situation and which must to have at its disposal a well-trained army, and well-organized punitive organs, and strong intelligence, therefore, it must have its own sufficiently strong state - in order to be able to defend the conquests from outside attack "( J.V. Stalin. Op. , vol. 14, ed. 2, p. 434 ).
The emergence of the socialist camp after the Second World War does not fundamentally change the conclusions made by Stalin, since the powerful camp of capitalism and their agents in the socialist countries remained. Stalin pointed out that Engels' formula is correct if " socialism has already won in all countries or in most countries, instead of a capitalist encirclement there is a socialist encirclement, there is no longer a threat of attack from outside, there is no longer a need to strengthen the army and the state " ( ibid., p. 434 ).
Thus, the withering away of the dictatorship of the proletariat will begin only under the conditions of the victory of socialism on an international scale, in all countries or most countries of the world, when the capitalist encirclement will be replaced by a socialist encirclement, when, consequently, there will be no more danger of the restoration of capitalism, both from outside, with the help of military intervention, and from within, through corrupt agents .
Stalin, generalizing the practice of the formation and strengthening of the proletarian state in the USSR, substantiated the doctrine of the main phases and functions of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat .
The proletarian state in the USSR (under Stalin) went through two main phases in its development:
1) the first phase is the period from the October Revolution to the liquidation of the exploiting classes. The main task of this period was to suppress the resistance of the overthrown classes, to organize the defense of the country from the attack of the interventionists, to restore industry and agriculture, and to prepare the conditions for the liquidation of capitalist elements. In accordance with this, the state during the period of the first phase of development carried out two main functions: the function of suppressing the overthrown classes within the country and the function of defending the country from attack from outside . During this period, a third function also arose - the function of economic, organizational and cultural and educational work of state bodies;
2) the second phase is the period from the liquidation of the capitalist elements of the city and countryside to the complete victory of the socialist economic system and the adoption of a new Constitution. The main task of this period was the organization of a socialist economy throughout the country and the elimination of the last remnants of capitalist elements, the organization of a cultural revolution, the organization of a completely modern army for the defense of the country. In accordance with this, during the period of the second phase of development, a change in the functions of the socialist state took place: a) the function of military suppression within the country has disappeared - the function of military suppression within the country has died out, because there are no more exploiters and there is no one to suppress. Instead of the function of suppression, the state now has the function of protecting socialist property from thieves and plunderers of the people's property ;b) the function of the military defense of the country from outside attack has been fully preserved, therefore, the army has been preserved, as well as the punitive agencies and intelligence necessary to catch and punish spies, wreckers, saboteurs and murderers sent and recruited into the USSR by foreign intelligence; c) the function of economic-organizational and cultural-educational work of state bodies has been preserved and fully developed ( I.V. Stalin. Works, vol. 14, ed. 2, pp. 436-438 ).
It follows from this that in the period of socialism, in the presence of a capitalist encirclement, the proletarian state performs the following functions: 1) the function of protecting public property from thieves and plunderers of the people's property; 2) the function of protection against attack from outside, and its two sides - against the threat of military intervention and against spies, wreckers, saboteurs and murderers sent and recruited by capitalist intelligence services, and 3) the function of economic and organizational, cultural and educational work of state bodies .
In conditions when socialism is victorious on an international scale, in all countries or in most countries of the world, the function of military protection against attacks from outside will disappear. The function of protecting public property from thieves and embezzlers of the people's wealth will die out only in the second, highest phase of communism, when people get used to fulfilling the elementary rules of community life without coercion, without violence. The function of the economic-organizational and cultural-educational work of the organs of the state in the conditions of the withering away of the state will be transformed into the function of the organs of communist self-government.
But a situation may arise when the building of communism, its second phase, will take place in the conditions of the preservation of the capitalist encirclement, the preservation of the danger of military intervention, then the state will also remain, its function of protecting the country from attack from outside (I.V. Stalin. Works, vol. 14, ed. 2, p. 438 ).
4. The leading role of the Communist Party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat
The Communist Party is the party of the working class, the most conscious, the vanguard of the working class, its vanguard. The main task of the Communist Party is to introduce the Marxist-Leninist ideology into the consciousness of the working class and organize it to fight for the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie, for the victory of the socialist revolution. Under socialism, the Communist Party acts as the organizing and guiding force of society, uniting and rallying all the working masses around the working class in the cause of building socialism and the gradual transition to communism.
The system of the dictatorship of the proletariat is understood as the structure of the proletarian state, its mechanism, that is, the totality of the mass organizations of the proletariat, without whose help it is impossible to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat. The guiding and guiding force in the system of dictatorship of the proletariat is the party of the proletariat.
" The Party is the main guiding force in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat " ( Stalin ). " The party is the highest form of class association of the proletariat " ( Lenin ).
Stalin singled out the main mass organizations of the proletariat, which represent the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat:
“ So: trade unions , as a mass organization of the proletariat, linking the party with the class, primarily along the line of production; The soviets, as a mass organization of the working people, linking the party with the latter, primarily through the state; cooperation, as a mass organization, primarily of the peasantry, linking the party with the peasant masses, primarily along the economic line, along the line of drawing the peasantry into socialist construction; the youth union , as a mass organization of young workers and peasants, designed to facilitate the socialist education of the new generation and the development of young reserves for the vanguard of the proletariat; and finally the party, as the main directing force in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat, called upon to lead all these mass organizations - such is the general picture of the "mechanism" of the dictatorship, the picture of the "system of the dictatorship of the proletariat "" ( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 8, p. 35-36 ). “... It turns out, on the whole, not formally communist, flexible and relatively broad, very powerful, proletarian apparatus, through which the party is closely connected with the class and with the masses and through which, under the leadership of the party, the dictatorship of the class is carried out ” ( ibid. , p.36 ).
The main task of the Communist Party under the dictatorship of the proletariat is to unite the work of all mass organizations of the proletariat without exception and direct their action towards one goal - the building of a classless communist society .
Stalin emphasized that the party does not replace trade unions, Soviets and other mass organizations. The Communist Party exercises leadership of the proletarian state, its organs - the Soviets, but does not replace them , does not merge its apparatus with the state apparatus. "... The Soviets exercise dictatorship, and the party leads the Soviets " ( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 6, p. 258 ). “ The Party implements the dictatorship of the proletariat. But it does not carry it out directly, but with the help of trade unions, through the Soviets and their ramifications ”( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 8, p. 36 ). And further: "The Party, which has hundreds of thousands of members, leads the Soviets and their ramifications in the center and in the localities, encompassing tens of millions of people, both Party and non-Party, but it cannot and must not replace them ” ( ibid., p. 41 ).
The highest expression of the leading role of the party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the fact that not a single important political or organizational issue is resolved by Soviet and other mass organizations without the guiding instructions of the party ( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 8, p. 37 ) .
Stalin pointed out that the party wins a leading role in the mass organizations of the proletariat through prolonged work among the masses, through the correct policy of the party, through convincing the masses of the correctness of its policy, through winning the trust and support of the working masses, that is, by methods of persuasion , and not by force. Only in this case is it possible to have a correct relationship between the party and the class, and to preserve the mutual trust of the party and the class. The party wins the confidence of the masses not by using its "unrestricted" rights, but by persuasion. If the party imposes its decisions on the masses by force, then such " leadership," wrote Stalin, cannot be of any length. "The party, if it wants to remain the party of the proletariat, must know that it is, first of all and mainly, the leader, the leader, the teacher of the working class "( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 8, p. 49 ).
The leading role of the Communist Party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat also lies in the fact that “the head of the state, the leader in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat is one party, the party of the proletariat, the party of communists, which does not and cannot share leadership with other parties ” ( I.V. Stalin, Works, vol. 8, pp. 26-27 ).
The experience of the power of the working class, especially in the countries of people's democracy (as well as the experience of cooperation between the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries), shows that other, non-communist friendly parties that share the goals and tasks of building socialism, can also be allowed to participate in government , sharing the goals and tasks of building socialism, but on condition that the leadership of the state belongs to the communist party.
Under socialism, when hostile, antagonistic classes have been destroyed, there is no social ground for the so-called "freedom" of political parties, which is characteristic of bourgeois "democracy". Stalin, responding to the bourgeois “critics” of the new Constitution of 1936, who were dissatisfied with the fact that the dictatorship of the working class remained intact in the USSR, the freedom of political parties was not allowed and the leadership of the Communist Party remained in force, wrote: “ As for the freedom of various political parties, then we hold here somewhat different views. The Party is part of the class, its advanced part. Several parties, and hence freedom of parties, can exist only in a society where there are antagonistic classes whose interests are hostile and irreconcilable, where there are, say, capitalists and workers, landlords and peasants, kulaks and the poor, and so on. But in the USSR there are no longer such classes as capitalists, landlords, kulaks, and so on. In the USSR there are only two classes, workers and peasants, whose interests are not only not hostile, but, on the contrary, friendly. Consequently, in the USSR there is no basis for the existence of several parties, and hence for the freedom of these parties. In the USSR there is ground for only one party, the Communist Party. Only one party can exist in the USSR - the Communist Party, which boldly and to the end defends the interests of the workers and peasants .IN AND. Stalin. Soch., v. 14, ed. 2, p. 156-157 ).
5. The main forms of the dictatorship of the proletariat - Soviets and states of people's democracy
Marx and Engels, summarizing the experience of the revolutions of 1948-49. in Europe, and especially the experience of the Paris Commune, came to the conclusion that the Paris Commune was, finally, an open political form under which the economic emancipation of labor could take place. This important indication of Marx and Engels was later forgotten by the leaders of the Second International and was not developed further.
During the reign of the Second International, Engels' position was recognized, which he put forward when criticizing the Erfurt Program, that the democratic republic should be the political form of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The opportunists interpreted this proposition of Engels in the sense that the proletariat, having come to power, uses the parliamentary republic as the most democratic. But the revolutionary movement in Russia, primarily the experience of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, put forward a new form of the dictatorship of the proletariat - the soviets . Lenin initially believed that the Soviets were the Russian form of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But when the Soviets and organizations similar to them arose in other countries, in Germany, Hungary, Bavaria, England, Lenin substantiated the thesis that the Soviets were finally found an internationalform of the dictatorship of the proletariat. “The Republic of Soviets is, therefore, the political form sought and finally found, within the framework of which the economic emancipation of the proletariat, the complete victory of socialism, must be accomplished ” ( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 6, p. 122 ) .
The Soviets arose on the shoulders of the Paris Commune. Lenin wrote that “the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, in a different situation, under different conditions, continue the work of the Commune and confirm the ingenious historical analysis of Marx ” ( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch. , vol. 33, p. 56)
The soviets as a political form of the state are fundamentally different from all existing forms of bourgeois states.
The Soviets are a new type of state, a new higher type of democracy, it is a form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a way of governing the state without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. “... Soviet power is a new form of state organization, fundamentally different from the old, bourgeois-democratic and parliamentary form, a new type of state, adapted not to the tasks of exploitation and oppression of the working masses, but to the tasks of their complete liberation from all oppression and exploitation, to the tasks dictatorship of the proletariat ” ( V.I. Stalin. Works, vol. 6, p. 120 ).
The soviets of workers and peasants, as Lenin noted, are essentially different from a parliamentary republic. Tips:
1) united only the working and exploited masses with the exclusion of representatives of the exploiters from the Soviets,
2) ensured in the organs of the state the leading role of the working class among other working and exploited people, primarily in relation to the peasantry,
3) destroyed parliamentarianism and combined the legislative and executive work of the state, when legislators were at the same time executors of laws,
4) ensured closer contact with the masses, along the line of arming the workers and peasants, along the line of greater ease of elections and the right to recall deputies, along the line of communication with production units (elections for factories and factories),
5) shifted the center of gravity from formal democracy to the practical exercise of the enjoyment of the freedoms of the working people (buildings for meetings, printing houses for publishing newspapers, etc. now belonged to the working people).
The Soviets are the finally found political form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the help of which the emancipation of the working class must take place.
At the same time, Lenin noted that the period of transition from capitalism to communism cannot but give a variety of political forms of the proletarian state. “ The transition from capitalism to communism, of course, cannot but give an enormous abundance and variety of political forms, but the essence will inevitably be the same: the dictatorship of the proletariat ” ( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 33, p. .35 ).
The emergence of the states of people's democracy after the end of the Second World War (in the countries of Eastern Europe and also East Asia) and their fulfillment of the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat showed that the emancipation of the working class could also take place in another form, not necessarily in the form of Soviets. Later, Lenin's conclusion was also confirmed by the experience of the Cuban revolution.
The emergence of the states of people's democracy and filling them with the content of the dictatorship of the proletariat took place in special concrete historical conditions. Their emergence became possible as a result of the defeat of the Nazi forces, as a result of the historic victory of the Soviet Union and the Red Army in World War II and the struggle of the masses under the leadership of the working class for national freedom and independence.
The states of people's democracy at the first stages, by their class nature, represented the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry . In this they differed from the Soviets as a form of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
But the states of people's democracy drew close to the Soviets, since they also arose on the basis of the breakdown of the police-bureaucratic state machine of fascism, on the basis of the alliance of the proletariat and the working peasantry under the leading role of the working class, and were directed against the big bourgeoisie and landlords .
That is why the regimes of people's democracy, which differ from the Soviets in the form and methods of forming the organs of state power, successfully began to fulfill the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Georgy Dimitrov wrote:In embodying the rule of the working people under the leadership of the working class, the regime of people's democracy can and must, in the given historical situation, as experience has already shown, successfully fulfill the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat in eliminating capitalist elements and organizing a socialist economy. He, the regime of people's democracy, can break the resistance of the overthrown capitalists and large landowners, suppress and liquidate their attempts to restore the power of capital. It can organize the construction of industry on the basis of public ownership and planned economy. The people's democracy regime will also be able to overcome the instability of the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle peasantry,”( G. Dimitrov. Political report of the Central Committee of the BRP (k) to the V Congress of the Party. M., 1958, p. 172 ).
Thus, in the new historical conditions, it became possible to exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat in a different form - in the form of people's democratic states, and not in the form of a Soviet republic .
But regardless of the form in which the dictatorship of the proletariat arises, the law of the proletarian revolution remains in force - to break the old police-bureaucratic state machine, create new organs of power and forcibly suppress the resistance of the class enemies of the proletariat.This condition is an indispensable feature of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a new type of state, regardless of its form. The revolutionary experience of all socialist countries (USSR, East European countries, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba) shows that the working class must destroy the bourgeois state, which was previously used to oppress the working masses, and create a new, proletarian state in order to forcibly suppress resistance of their class enemies and move on to building a socialist society with the leading role of the working class.
6. Basic forms of the Soviet socialist state
In its development, the Soviet socialist state (until 1953) changed its forms, depending on changes in the economic basis and class structure of society.
Marxism-Leninism teaches that changes in the economic basis of society lead to a change in the superstructure of society, which is a combination of political, legal, religious, artistic, philosophical views and their corresponding political, legal and other institutions. Changes primarily take place in the political and legal superstructure of society, which is most closely connected with the economic structure of society and its class structure. This explains why the socialist state, the methods and forms of its construction, do not and cannot remain unchanged throughout the entire period of the dictatorship of the proletariat and change following the changes that take place in the country. Stalin wrote that "the forms of our state are changing and will continue to change depending on the development of our country and changes in the external situation ”( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 14, ed. 2, p. 436 ).
At the first stages of the Soviet state, from 1917 to 1936, the elections to the legislative bodies of power - the Soviets were not universal (the exploiting elements and their accomplices were deprived of voting rights), unequal (1 vote of a worker was equated to 25 votes of peasants) and not direct (elections for peasants were four-stage, and for workers - three-stage, and plants and factories were considered electoral units for workers). In conditions when there were still exploiting classes, capitalist elements and a large layer of small peasants, the Bolsheviks went to deprive the electoral rights of the exploiting elements (since they resisted the Soviet regime) and limited the voting rights of the peasantry by giving advantages to the working class in elections to councils at all levels. This was done in order toto consolidate the leading role of the working class in the soviets, to ensure in elections to the soviets the advantages of the working class over the small peasants, who at that time greatly outnumbered the working class .
However, in the period up to 1936, significant changes took place in the economic basis and class structure of society in the USSR.
During this period, the socialist economic system was established in the USSR in all spheres of the national economy, the exploitation of man by man was abolished, and socialist ownership of the instruments and means of production was established as the unshakable foundation of Soviet society. All exploiting classes, the class of landlords and capitalists, kulaks, merchants and speculators were liquidated. Only the friendly classes of socialist society remained - the working class and the class of peasants, as well as the working intelligentsia as a separate stratum of socialist society, relations between which were based on the principles of friendly cooperation. But the working class, the peasant class, and the intelligentsia also underwent significant changes. The working class has been transformed from an oppressed class under capitalism into the ruling class of socialist society. owning the means and instruments of production that previously belonged to the capitalist class. Small peasant farms were transferred to large-scale socialist production, a completely new peasantry arose - the Soviet collective farm peasantry. Significant changes also took place with the intelligentsia, which, in the main, became the socialist intelligentsia that emerged from the workers and peasants and associated with them.
Noting these significant changes in the development of Soviet society and their impact on the implementation of the constitutional reform of 1936, Stalin wrote: “ A feature of Soviet society of the present time, unlike any capitalist society, is that it no longer has antagonistic, hostile classes, the exploiting classes have been eliminated, and the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, who make up Soviet society, live and work on the basis of friendly cooperation... On the basis of this commonality, such driving forces as the moral and political unity of Soviet society, the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, and Soviet patriotism unfolded. On the same basis, the Constitution of the USSR, adopted in November 1936, and the complete democratization of elections to the supreme bodies of the country arose "(I.V. Stalin. Soch., v. 14, ed. 2, p. 418-419 ).
Under the new Stalinist Constitution, elections to councils at all levels, including the Supreme Soviet, became universal, equal and direct, without the restrictions that were introduced during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.
7. Proletarian, socialist democracy - the highest type of democracy
If the exploiting states have defended and continue to defend the class interests of the exploiting minority, then the dictatorship of the proletariat expresses the interests of the exploited majority, the interests of the working masses. This is the true democracy of the proletarian state. This is proletarian, socialist democracy, this is a new, higher type of democracy. Lenin wrote that the dictatorship of the proletariat, as a new type of state, must inevitably be a state “ in a new democratic way (for the proletarians and the have-nots in general) and in a new dictatorial way (against the bourgeoisie) ” ( V.I. Lenin. Full. sobr. op., vol. 33, p. 35 ).
Lenin, exposing the sophisms of the leaders of the Second International that the dictatorship of the proletariat was destroying democracy, liquidating democratic rights and freedoms, emphasized that, when deciding on democracy, it is necessary to talk about the class for which democracy is being implemented, it should be about class democracy . There is no "pure" democracy, as the bourgeois ideologists and their accomplices, the opportunists, trumpet .
In the conditions of bourgeois society, one must speak only of bourgeois democracy, with its formal proclamation of "rights" and "freedoms", but in reality it is nothing but a form of bourgeois dictatorship. There can be no question of any real democracy in conditions when the workers are subjected to merciless exploitation by the capitalists, when poverty and unemployment prevail among the working people, when exploiters and corrupt bureaucrats are mainly represented in all organs of state power, including parliaments. when printing houses, newspapers, premises, etc., necessary for the exercise of freedom of speech, press, organizations, are in the hands of the bourgeoisie and their henchmen, when class-conscious workers who have embarked on the path of struggle against capital are subjected to pressure and repression. And the bourgeoisie stops at nothing, using any, even the most monstrous methods of terror and violence, up to the establishment of an open fascist terrorist dictatorship, as soon as the working people begin to threaten the existence of private ownership of the means of production, the very system of exploitation of man by man. "...In the most democratic republics, in fact, terror and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie reign, manifesting itself openly whenever it begins to seem to the exploiters that the power of capital is wavering ”(V.I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 37, p. 496 ).
The essence of proletarian democracy, as a new, higher type of democracy, is precisely expressed in the fact that the means of production and state power under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat belong to the working masses, the oppressed classes, hitherto subjected to exploitation by capital . This is where the heart-rending cries of the bourgeois ideologists and their agents in the labor movement about the violation of “democracy” and the introduction of “dictatorship” come from - after all, the dictatorship of the proletariat deprives the exploiters and their lackeys of those unspeakable rights and freedoms that they enjoy under capitalism, and most importantly of them - to exploit the working people with impunity and mercilessly and enrich themselves by their labour.
The dictatorship of the proletariat, wrote Lenin, is an enormous expansion of democracy, democracy for the working people, for the oppressed, but at the same time, the exploiters who must be crushed and their resistance must be crushed are excluded from democracy. “Democracy for the gigantic majority of the people and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, exploiters, oppressors of the people - this is what the modification of democracy during the transition from capitalism to communism ” ( V.I. Lenin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 33, p. 89 ).
“ Democracy under capitalism, ” writes Stalin, “ is capitalist democracy, the democracy of an exploiting minority, based on restricting the rights of the exploited majority and directed against this majority. Only under a proletarian dictatorship are real freedoms for the exploited and real participation of the proletarians and peasants in the government of the country possible. Democracy under the dictatorship of the proletariat is a democracy of the proletariat , a democracy of the exploited majority, based on the restriction of the rights of the exploiting minority and directed against this minority ”( I.V. Stalin. Soch., vol. 6, pp. 114-115 ).
Under the conditions of the victory of socialism, proletarian democracy reaches its highest peak. In the USSR, a further flourishing of proletarian, socialist democracy, hitherto unprecedented, was expressed in the adoption of the new Stalinist Constitution.
In the USSR, a socialist economic system and socialist ownership of the instruments and means of production were established as a result of the liquidation of the capitalist economic system, the abolition of private ownership of the instruments and means of production, and the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. Land, its bowels, water, forests, factories, factories, mines, mines, railway, water and air transport, banks, means of communication, large agricultural enterprises organized by the state (state farms, MTS), as well as public utilities and basic housing stock in cities and industrial centers in the USSR were a public property that belonged to all the working people. Unemployment and poverty were eliminated in the USSR, and the material and cultural well-being of the working people grew steadily.This is the basis of the truly broad democratism of the socialist state.
Stalin, exposing the statements of bourgeois ideologists about the alleged absence of fundamental freedoms in the USSR, wrote: “ Mr. Morrison is silent about other freedoms that are of deeper significance than freedom of speech, nothing about the freedom of the people from exploitation, about freedom from economic crises, from unemployment, from poverty. Perhaps Mr. Morrison does not know that all these freedoms have long existed in the Soviet Union? But it is precisely these freedoms that are the basis of all other freedoms. Is it not because Mr. Morrison shamefacedly keeps silent about these fundamental freedoms that, unfortunately, these freedoms do not exist in England and that the English workers still continue to be under the yoke of exploitation by the capitalists, despite the fact that in England for six years now they have been the Labor Party in power? » (I.V. Stalin. Works, vol. 18, p. 559 ).
In the USSR, under the conditions of victorious socialism, political power belonged to the Soviets of working people's deputies at all levels, up to the Supreme Soviet, and their composition consisted exclusively of workers, peasants, labor intelligentsia, the best people of the country of socialism . The elections were the most democratic in the world, based on universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, without the restrictions that were introduced during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. Voters actually had the right to recall deputies if they did not justify the confidence placed in them.
“ General elections, ” wrote Stalin, “ are taking place and taking place in some capitalist countries, the so-called democratic ones. But in what conditions are elections held there? In an atmosphere of class clashes, in an atmosphere of class hostility, in an atmosphere of pressure on voters by capitalists, landlords, bankers and other sharks of capitalism. Such elections, even if they are universal, equal, secret and direct, cannot be called completely free and completely democratic elections.
In our country, on the contrary, elections are held in a completely different environment. We have no capitalists, no landlords, and therefore no pressure from the propertied classes on the have-nots. Our elections are being held in an atmosphere of cooperation between the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, in an atmosphere of their mutual trust, in an atmosphere of, I would say, mutual friendship, because we have no capitalists, no landowners, no exploitation, and no one, in fact, to put pressure on the people for to bend his will.
That is why our elections are the only truly free and truly democratic in the whole world ” ( I.V. Stalin, Soch., vol. 14, ed. 2, pp. 305-306).
Under the conditions of victorious socialism, the working masses had such rights and freedoms as the right to work, to rest, to social security, to free education and treatment, freedom of speech, press, assembly, organizations, etc. Moreover, all these rights and freedoms for workers were not only proclaimed, as in bourgeois constitutions, but also guaranteed and securedthe entire socialist economic system, namely, the elimination of unemployment and economic crises, the provision of free education and medical care, the provision of printing houses, public buildings, etc. to the working people and their organizations. This is the real, genuine democracy of the proletarian state, in contrast to the false, curtailed democracy of the bourgeoisie, democracy for the rich, for a small handful of exploiters, with its formal proclamation of rights. “ At every step, ” wrote Lenin, “ in the most democratic bourgeois state, the oppressed masses encounter a crying contradiction between the formal equality proclaimed by the “democracy” of the capitalists and the thousands of actualrestrictions and subterfuges that turn the proletarians into wage-slaves. It is this contradiction that opens the eyes of the masses to the rottenness, deceit, and hypocrisy of capitalism ” ( V.I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 37, p. 255 ).
The rights and freedoms enshrined in the Stalin Constitution belonged to the peasants, workers, working intelligentsia, all honest workers of socialist society. But the enemies of the people do not and cannot have such rights and freedoms. All the heart-rending cries and cries of bourgeois ideologists that, supposedly, under socialism, in the USSR, there is no freedom of the press, speech, organizations, individuals, express precisely the fact that, as Stalin wrote, “in the USSR there is no freedom of speech, of the press, of organizations for the enemies of the people, for the landowners and capitalists overthrown by the revolution. There is also no freedom for incorrigible thieves, for saboteurs sent by foreign intelligence, terrorists, murderers, for those criminals who shot at Lenin, killed Volodarsky, Uritsky, Kirov, poisoned Maxim Gorky, Kuibyshev. All these criminals, ranging from landowners and capitalists to terrorists, thieves, murderers and demolitionists, are striving to restore capitalism in the USSR, to restore the exploitation of man by man and to flood the country with the blood of workers and peasants. Prisons and labor camps exist for these gentlemen, and only for them ”( JV Stalin. Soch., vol. 18, p. 558 ).
A.V. Denisyuk,
Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus (Nina Andreeva)
