CALCUTTA: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary EMS Nambbodiripad said Thursday that one of the main reasons for the recent major political changes in eastern European countries was that the predictions made by Karl Marx, Frederic Engels and VI Lenin about the transition from capitalism to socialism would be ushered in only in developed capitalist countries. However, Lenin had argued that revolution in a backward country was also possible if the class conflict was very sharp.
“But in reality, none of the countries, where socialism was ushered in, was a developed capitalist state and as a result It has come to be believed that socialism could develop only in backward countries,” he said.
“As a result, there developed a gulf between the living standard in a developed capitalist country and the same in a developed socialist state. Even Stalin’s prediction that the pace of progress in socialist country will overtake capitalism also was proved wrong and hence repeated attempts at reforms in Soviet Union,” the CPI (M) leader said.
Nambbodiripad said the current reforms in Soviet Union attempted. To establish market economy in that country whereas economic reforms in China gave prime importance to socialist reconstruction.
While China has clearly declared its adherence to four basic principles of socialism leadership of the communist party, Marxism Leninism and Mao’s thoughts and the dictatorship of people’s democracy. The political reforms in Soviet Union only “served to bring back bourgeois democracy,” the CPI (M) leader said.
He said the coming years would see many more changes in both the socialist and capitalist countries and pointed out that the solidarity leader Lech Walesa in Poland was already facing sharp criticism.
The CPI (M) general secretary said it was important to remember that socialism in Eastern Europe was on the Soviet model because red army helped hoist the system.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 15, 1990
