Lin Biao
Lin Biao
Delivered: November 6, 1967
Source: Advance Along the Road Opened up by the the October Socialist Revolution (pamphlet)
Published: Foreign Languages Press, 1967
Online Version: Lin Biao Internet Archive, January 2004
Transcribed/HTML Markup: Kenneth Higham and Roland Ferguson
Comrades, Young Red Guard Fighters and Friends:
Today the Chinese people join the proletarians and revolutionary people throughout the world in grand and solemn commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The October Revolution led by the great Lenin was a turning point in human history.
The victory of the October Revolution broke through the dark rule of capitalism, established the first state of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the world and opened a new era of the world proletarian revolution.
For more than one hundred years since Marx and Engels formulated the theory of scientific socialism, the international proletariat, advancing wave upon wave and making heroic sacrifices, has been waging arduous struggles for the great ideal of communism and has performed immortal exploits in the cause of the emancipation of mankind.
In his struggle against the revisionism of the Second International and the great practice of leading the October Socialist Revolution, Lenin solved a series of problems of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the problem of victory for socialism in one country, thus developing Marxism to the stage of Leninism. Leninism is Marxism in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. The salvoes of the October Revolution brought Leninism to all countries so that the world took on an entirely new look.
In the last fifty years following the road of the October Revolution under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, the proletariat and the revolutionary people of the world have carried the world history forward to an entirely new the era in which imperialism is heading for collapse and socialism is advancing to worldwide victory. It is a great new era in which the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are locked in the decisive battle on a world wide scale.
Led by the great leader Chairman Mao, the Chinese people have followed up their victory in the national-democratic revolution with greatest victories in the socialist revolution and socialist construction. Socialist China has become the mighty bulwark of world revolution. Adhering to the road of the October Revolution, the heroic people of Albania have raised a bright red banner in Europe. By their war against U.S. imperialist aggression and for national salvation, the Vietnamese people have set a brilliant example of struggle against imperialism for the people of the whole world. The movement of national-democratic liberation in Asia, Africa and Latin America is developing vigorously. The ranks of the Marxist-Leninists are growing steadily, and a new situation has emerged in the international communist movement.
Compared with half a century ago, the world proletarian revolution today is deeper in content and far broader in scope and far sharper in its struggle. The new historical era has posed a series of important new problems for Marxist-Leninists. However, in the final analysis, the most fundamental problem remains that of seizing and consolidating political power.
Chairman Mao says: “The aim of every revolutionary struggle in the world is the seizure and consolidation of political power.” This is the great Marxist-Leninist truth.
The struggle between the Marxist-Leninist and the revisionists always focuses on this fundamental issue. The modern revisionists, represented by Khrushchov and his successors, Brezhnev and Kosygin and company, are wildly opposing the revolution of the people of the world and have openly abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat and brought about and all-round capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union. This is a monstrous betrayal of the October Revolution. This is a monstrous betrayal of Marxism-Leninism. It is a monstrous betrayal of the great Soviet people and the people of the whole world. Therefore, if the proletariat fails to smash the wanton attacks of the modern revisionists, if it does not firmly defend the road of the October Revolution opened up by the great Lenin, continue to advance along this road under the new historical conditions and thoroughly solve the question of how to seize and consolidate political power, it will not be able to win the final victory, or will probably loose political power even after seizing it, and, like the Soviet people, will come under the rule of a new privileged bourgeois stratum.
It is our good fortune that because Comrade Mao Tse-tung has comprehensively inherited and developed the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, the must fundamental issue of the world proletarian revolution, that is, the road to the seizure of the consolidation of political power, has been brought to a higher stage in theory and in practice. Our great leader Chairman Mao has developed Marxism-Leninism and raised it to an entirely new peak. The ever-victorious thought of Mao Tse-tung is Marxism-Leninism in the era in which imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing toward worldwide victory.
In the course of leading the great struggle of the Chinese revolution, Chairman Mao has with genius solved a whole series of complicated problems concerning the seizure of power by force of arms. Under his leadership, the Chinese people went through the most protracted, fierce, arduous and complex people’s revolutionary war in the history of the world proletarian revolution and founded the red political power, the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The way the Chinese people seized political power by force of arms under Chairman Mao’s leadership may be summarized as follows: Under the leadership of the political party of the proletariat, to arouse the peasant masses in the countryside to wage guerrilla war, unfold an agrarian revolution, build rural base areas, use the countryside to encircle the cities and finally capture the cities. This is a great new development of the road of to the seizure of political power by force or arms indicated by the October Revolution.
Chairman Mao has said: “As a rule, revolution starts, grows and triumphs first in those places in which the counter-revolutionary forces are comparatively weak.”. Since in our time all the reactionary ruling classes have a tight grip on the main cities, it is necessary for a revolutionary political party to utilize the vulnerable links and areas of reactionary rule, fully arouse the masses, conduct guerrilla warfare, establish stable revolutionary bases and so build up and temper their own forces and, through prolonged fighting, strive step by step for complete victory in the revolution. Hence, reliance on the masses to build revolutionary base areas and use the countryside to encircle the cities is a historic task which the oppressed nations and peoples in the world today must seriously study and tackle in their fight to seize political power by force of arms.
Not only has Comrade Mao Tse-tung creatively developed Leninism on the question of the seizure of political power by the proletariat, he has made an epoch-making creative development of Leninism on the most important question of our time - the question of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing the restoration of capitalism.
From the first day of the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin paid close attention to the consolidation of the new-born Soviet state power. He recognized the sharp and protracted nature of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat, pointing out that “the transition from capitalism to communism takes an entire historical epoch. Until this epoch is over, the exploiters inevitably cherish the hope of restoration, and this hope turns into attempts at restoration.”
The biggest lesson in the history of the international communist movement in the last fifty years is the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. This harsh fact has strikingly brought the Marxist-Leninists of the world face to face with the question of how to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and prevent the restoration of capitalism.
It is Comrade Mao Tse-tung, the great leader of the world proletariat of our time, who in the new historical conditions, has systematically summed up the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the world, scientifically analysed the contradictions in socialist society, profoundly shown the laws of class struggle in socialist society and put forward a whole set of theory, line, principles, methods and policies for the continuation of revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. With supreme courage and wisdom, Chairman Mao has successfully led the first great proletarian cultural revolution in history. This is an extremely important landmark, demonstrating that Marxism-Leninism has developed into the stage of Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
The victory of the great proletarian revolution has opened up in China, which has a quarter of the world’s population, a bright path for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and for carrying the socialist revolution through to the end. The proletariat and the revolutionary people of the world who are fighting imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction resolutely support our great proletarian cultural revolution. They find in the victory of this revolution tremendous inspiration, bright prospects and greater confidence in victory.
The imperialists headed by the United States and their lackeys the modern revisionists and all the reactionaries have taken great pains to curse and vilify our great proletarian cultural revolution. This proves by negative example that our victory has dealt the enemy a very heavy blow and that they are nothing but a bunch of vampires that are bound to be destroyed.
The world is moving forward. And theory which reflects the laws of the world, is likewise developing continuously.
Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the banner of our era.
Once Mao Tse-tung’s thought - Marxist-Leninist at its highest in the present era - is grasped, the oppressed nations and peoples will, through their own struggles, be able to win liberation.
Once Mao Tse-tung’s thought - Marxism-Leninism at its highest in the present era - is grasped, the people of those countries where political power has been usurped by the revisionists will, through their own struggles, be able to overthrow the rule of revisionism and re-establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Once Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought is integrated with the revolutionary practice of the people of all countries, the entire old world will be shattered to smithereens.
Comrades, young Red Guard fighters and friends:
The fifty years since the October Revolution have been years of fierce struggle between socialism and capitalism and between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism., with the former winning one victory after an other. The imperialist system resembles a dying person who is sinking fast, like the sun setting beyond the western hills. The emergence of Khrushchov revisionism is a product of imperialist policy and reflects the death-bed struggle of imperialism. Although imperialism and revisionism will go on making trouble in collusion with each other, the reactionary adverse current can, after all, never become the main current. The dialectics of history is irresistible. Henceforth the proletariat and the revolutionary people of the world will raise still higher the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought, and march forward in giant strides along the road opened up by the October Revolution!
Those who betray the October Revolution can never escape the punishment of history. Khrushchov has long since fallen. In redoubling its efforts to peruse the policy of betrayal, the Brezhnev-Kosygin clique will not last long either. The proletariat and the working people of the Soviet Union, with their glorious tradition of revolution, will never forget the teachings of the great Lenin and Stalin. They are sure to rise in revolution under the banner of Leninism, overthrow the rule of the reactionary revisionist clique and bring the Soviet Union back into the orbit of socialism.
Comrades, young Red Guard fighters and friends!
The situation in our great motherland is excellent. Under the guidance of the latest instructions of the great leader Chairman Mao, the great proletarian cultural revolution is forging ahead victoriously.
We must raise still higher the great banner of the October Revolution and the great banner of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought, and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end.
We must build our great motherland into a still more powerful base for world revolution.
We must give ever more vigorous support to the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat and the people of all countries.
We must together with the revolutionary people everywhere, carry through to the end the struggle against U.S.-led imperialism and against modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique at its centre.
We must intensify our efforts in studying and mastering Mao Tse-tung’s thought and disseminate it still more widely throughout the world.
These are glorious tasks entrusted to the people of our country by history, and they are our incumbent internationalist duty.
Our great leader Chairman Mao has given the call: “Let the Marxist-Leninists of all countries unite, let the revolutionary people of the whole world unite and overthrow imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction. A new world without imperialism, without capitalism and without exploitation of man by may will surely be built.”
Let us fight with courage for the realization of this great call of Chairman Mao’s!
Long live the Great October Socialist Revolution!
Long live the great proletarian cultural revolution!
Workers of all countries unite!
Workers of all countries unite with the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations!
Long live the invincible Marxism, Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought!
Long live the great teacher, great leader, great supreme commander, great helmsman Chairman Mao! A long, long life to him!