Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-7drxs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T17:08:25.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lenin, Mao and Aidit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Justus M. van der Kroef
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The international advance of Communism in our time is in no small measure due to the apparent flexibility with which Marxist and Leninist concepts have been applied—often with startling selectivity—to the problems of the newly emergent and underdeveloped countries of the world. While generally and carefully observing all strictures against “revisionism” and “subjectivism,” Communist leaders in these new nations dip with ease into the reservoir of the thought of Marx and Lenin and its practitioners for a justification of their particular tactics, pointing out that Communist thought itself invites flexibility and adaptability. Stalin could quote with approval Lenin's dictum that “We do not regard Marxist theory as something complete and inviolable; on the contrary, we are convinced that it has only laid the cornerstone of the science which Socialists must further advance in all directions if they wish to keep pace with life.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 10 , April 1962 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Stalin, J., Problems of Leninism (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954, 11th edition), p. 792.Google Scholar Italics in original.

2 The China Quarterly, No. 5, 01–03, 1961, p. 33Google Scholar; Piao, Lin, “The Victory of the Chinese People's Revolutionary War is the Victory of the thought of Mao Tsetung,” China Reconstructs, 01, 1960, Supplement, p. 2.Google Scholar

3 Cf. by van der Kroef, J. M.: “Indonesian Communism under Aidit,” Problems of Communism, Vol. VII (1958), pp. 15–23Google Scholar; “Communist Policy and Tactics in Indonesia,” The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. V (1959), pp. 163–179Google Scholar; “Agrarian Reform and the Indonesian Communist Party,” Far Eastern Survey, Vol. XXIX (1960), pp. 5–13Google Scholar; “Indonesian Communism and the Sixth Party Congress,” Pacific Affairs, Vol. XXXIII (1960), pp. 227–249Google Scholar; “Communist Theory and Practice in Indonesia,” Orbis, Vol. V (1961), pp. 43–63.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Aidit's essay, “Masjarakat Indonesia dan Revolusi Indonesia,” in Aidit, D. N., Pilihan Tulisan (hereafter DNAPT), (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan [for Pilihan Tulisan], 1960), Vol. II, pp. 299–300Google Scholar, and Aidit's address before the “Assembly of the 1945 Generation,” reprinted in Harian Rakjat (Djakarta), 03 18, 1960.Google Scholar

5 Hutapea, B. O., “Beberapa Paladjaran dai Konferensi Nasional Tani Pertama PKI,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XV (1959), p. 257.Google Scholar

6 Marx and Engels. Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, Ed. by Feuer, Lewis S. (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1959), pp. 17, 315, 419 and 451.Google Scholar

7 Lenin, V. I., Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution (Moscow: Library of Marxist-Leninist Classics, 1950), pp. 64–65.Google Scholar Italics in original.

8 Ibid., pp. 67–68.

9 Aidit, D. N., Peladjaran dori Sedjarah PKI (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1960), p. 24.Google Scholar Compare DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 299–300:Google Scholar

“Our Party has a double task in leading the Indonesian Revolution. First, under the slogan ‘Complete the demands of the August Revolution in their entirety’ we carry out to their completion the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution; secondly, after the first task has been carried out, we carry out to their completion the tasks of the revolution, which is proletarian and socialist in kind.” (My Italics.)

10 Marx and Engels. Basic Writings, op. cit., p. 44.Google Scholar

11 Lenin, V. I., “Left-Wing” Communism, An Infantile Disorder (Moscow: Library of Marxist-Leninist Classics, 1952), pp. 45, 89, 90, 92, 95.Google Scholar

12 Harian Rakjat, 03 18, 1960Google Scholar; DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 284–300.Google Scholar

13 Tse-tung, Mao, On New Democracy (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1954), pp. 10–12, 18.Google Scholar

14 DNAPT, Vol. II, p. 297.Google Scholar

15 Lenin, V. I., The National-Liberation Movement in the East (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1957), p. 43.Google Scholar Italics in original.

16 Ibid., pp. 44–47.

17 Ibid., p. 170, 266. Italics in original.

18 Cf. Tse-tung, Mao, Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), p. 2, 5Google Scholar, and DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 290–292.Google Scholar

19 Stalin, J., Problems of Leninism, op. cit., pp. 39–41.Google Scholar

20 See, e.g., Tung-hsiang, Shih, “The Distinction and Link-Up between the Two Stages of the Chinese Revolution,” Peking Review, 01 20, 1961, pp. 9–18.Google Scholar

21 Tse-tung, Mao, On New Democracy, op. cit., p. 12.Google Scholar It seems hardly necessary to stress the Leninist basis of this contention. In the “supplementary theses” to the “theses on the national and colonial question” adopted by the second congress of the Comintern as part of the Theses and Statutes of the Third (Communist) International (Moscow: Comintern Publishing Office, 1920)Google Scholar in 1920 “successive periods of development of revolutionary experience” in the colonial countries are emphasized, as is the concept that “the revolution in the colonies is not going to be a Communist revolution in its first stages.”

22 Tse-tung, Mao, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1959), pp. 9, 23.Google Scholar

23 Malaka, Tan, Naar de “Republik Indonesia” (Tokyo: 1925)Google Scholar and Benda, Harry J. and McVey, Ruth T., eds., The Communist Uprisings of 1926–1927 in Indonesia: Key Documents (Cornell Un., South-east Asia Programme, 1960), pp. 129–134.Google Scholar

24 Bukharin, , “Perspektiven der Chinesischen Revolution,” Die Kommunistische Internationale, 1927, pp. 669–671Google Scholar, and “Theses on the Chinese Situation,” by the Seventh plenum of the Comintern's Executive Committee, in Eudin, Xenia J. and North, Robert C., Soviet Russia and the East, 1920–1927: A Documentary Survey (Stanford Un.: 1957), pp. 356, 359–362.Google Scholar

25 Tse-tung, Mao, New Democratic Constitutionalism (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), pp. 1, 7Google Scholar and DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 276–277.Google Scholar In the “Supplementary Theses” to the “Theses on the National and Colonial Questions,” part of the Theses and Statutes of the Third (Communist) International adopted by the Second Congress, July 17-August 7, 1920 (Moscow, Publishing Office of the Communist International, 1920Google Scholar; reprinted by the United Communist Party of America, s.a.e.l.), Lenin—who was mainly responsible for these theses and statutes—indicates that the “revolution in the colonies” will have several stages, reflecting the interests of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, etc. Both Mao and Aidit faithfully adhered to this fundamental Leninist principle, announced as early as 1920 as the tactic of international Communism. Ho Chi Minh, writing in 1926, praised Lenin for his insight “into the conditions of the most complex tasks peculiar to the East” and declared that Lenin “was the first” to realise the importance of a correct solution to the colonial question as “a contribution to the world revolution.” Minh, Ho Chi, Selected Works (Hanoi, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960), Vol. 1, pp. 140–141.Google Scholar

26 Tse-tung, Mao, On People's Democratic Dictatorship (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1959), p 17.Google Scholar

27 Tse-tung, Mao, On Coalition Government (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), p. 49.Google Scholar

28 DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 297–300Google Scholar; Material for the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia (Djakarta: Indonesian Communist Party, Central Committee [Agitprop Dept.], 1959), pp. 94, 98, 99.Google Scholar

29 DNAPT, Vol. I, pp. 248–249Google Scholar; Vol. II, pp. 290–292.

30 Aidit, D. N., Peladjaran dari Sedjarah PKI, op. cit., p. 13Google Scholar, and Aidit, D. N., “Lenin and Indonesia,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XVI (1960), p. 110.Google Scholar

31 “Consolidate Unity to Defend Democracy and Straggle for an Improvement in the Living Conditions of the People” (New Year's Message of the Politburo of the PKI, December 30, 1959), (Djakarta: 1960), p. 3Google Scholar, and C.P.I. National Economic Seminar: Documents (Review of Indonesia, Supplement, 04–05, 1959), p. 7.Google Scholar

32 The resolution went through various editions and revisions, the last probably being Djalan Baru Untuk Republik Indonesia (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1953Google Scholar, 7th edition).

33 Review of Indonesia, 03, 1960, p. 3Google Scholar; August, 1960, p. 9. See also DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 554–555.Google Scholar

34 See van der Kroef, J. M., “Colonial Continuity in Indonesia's Economic Policy,” The Australian Outlook, Vol. XIV (1960), pp. 5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Tse-tung, Mao, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People, op. cit., pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

36 Hodges, Donald C., “The ‘Intermediate Classes’ in Marxian Theory,” Social Research, 04 1961, pp. 23–36Google Scholar; World Marxist Review, 05 1961, pp. 71–84Google Scholar, June 1961, pp. 75–82.

37 Lenin, V. I., Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, op. cit., pp. 169–170Google Scholar; Tse-tung, Mao, On People's Democratic Dictatorship, op. cit., pp. 11Google Scholar; DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 294–295.Google Scholar

38 Material for the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia, op. cit., p. 62.Google Scholar

39 Tse-tung, Mao, On New Democracy, op. cit., p. 54.Google Scholar

40 Lenin, V. I., The Agrarian Programme of Social-Democracy in the First Russian Revolution 1905–1907 (Moscow: Library of Marxist-Leninist Classics, 1954), p. 343.Google Scholar

41 Lenin, V. I., Alliance of the Working Class and the Peasantry (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1959), p. 124.Google Scholar

42 Cf. Wittfogel, Karl A., “The Legend of ‘Maoism,’” The China Quarterly, No. 1. 01–03 1960, pp. 77–78.Google Scholar

43 Stalin, J., Marxism and the National and Colonial Question (London: International Publishers, 1947, 4th ed.), p. 202.Google Scholar

44 Tse-tung, Mao, On New Democracy, op. cit., p. 55.Google Scholar

45 Tse-tung, Mao, On Contradiction (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), p. 49.Google Scholar

46 Tse-tung, Mao, Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society, op. cit., pp. 2, 4, 8–9, 13–15.Google Scholar See also Tse-tung, Mao, Selected Works (London: Lawrence Wishart, 1954), Vol. I, pp. 138et seq.Google Scholar

47 DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 292–293, 542–543Google Scholar; Aidit, D. N., “Kibarkan Tinggi Pandji-Pandji ‘Tanah Untuk Petani’ dan Rebut Kemenangan Satu Demi Satu,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XV (1959), pp. 217–219.Google Scholar

48 Material for the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia, op. cit., p. 94.Google Scholar Adoption of the Leninist and Maoist principle of outright individual landownership for the peasant did not come about until 1954. Between 1945 and 1953 the PKI advocated that though land should be redistributed, the land from the landlords should be vested in the village collectivity as a whole, to be re-allocated to the peasant's use as the village government decided. (Cf. Bintang Merah, 11 17, 1945Google Scholar, and Djalan Baru Untuk Republik Indonesia, 1953, op. cit., p. 29).Google Scholar This deference to traditional village communalism may have been framed with a view to direct “sovietisation” of the land. In March 1954, Aidit, however, advocated that land be taken from the landlords and be given directly to the peasants “as their own private property” and this principle the party adopted. Aidit, D. N., The Road to People's Democracy for Indonesia (General Report on the Political and Organisational Situation, delivered at the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia, March 1954) (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1955), p. 32.Google Scholar

49 Tse-tung, Mao, The Question of Independence within the United Front (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), p. 1Google Scholar; Tse-tung, Mao, Selected Works, Vol. IV (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1961), p. 209.Google Scholar

50 DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 287–288.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 292–293.

52 Cf. the remarks of PKI parliamentary deputy Nungtjik in Review of Indonesia, 09–10 1960, p. 20.Google Scholar

53 Asmu, , “Masalah Land Reform,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XVI (1960), pp. 14–28.Google Scholar

54 “Kesimpulan Mengenai Laporan Tentang Pekerdjaan Parlai Dikalangan Kaum Tani,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XV (1959), pp. 190–194Google Scholar; Aidit, D. N., Asmu, , Tje-tung, Mau, Untuk Bekerdja Lebih Baik Dikalangan Kaum Toni (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1958)Google Scholar; Undang-Undang no. 2, tahun 1960 Tentang Perjandjian Bagi Hastt (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1960)Google Scholar; Suara Tani, 11 1959, pp. 3–4Google Scholar; January 1960, p. 3; Kehidupan Partai, 06 1960, pp. 97–100.Google Scholar

55 “Kesimpulan Konferensi Nasional Tani PKI Tentang Masaalah Nelajan di Indonesia,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XV (1959), pp. 196–200.Google Scholar

56 DNAPT, Vol. II, pp. 294–295.Google Scholar

57 Harian Rakjat, 04 5, 1958.Google Scholar

58 Tse-tung, Mao, Problems of War and Strategy (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1954), p. 6.Google Scholar

59 See Lukman, M. H., Tentang Front Persatuan National (Djakarta: Jajasan Penibaruan, 1960)Google Scholar and Madju Terus Menggempur Imperialisme dan Feodalisme! (Djakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan, 1961).Google Scholar

60 DNAPT, Vol. I, p. 249.Google Scholar

61 Tse-tung, Mao, The Question of Independence Within the United Front, op. cit., p. 4.Google Scholar

62 See Crankshaw, Edward, “Khrushchev and China,” The Atlantic Monthly, 05 1961, pp. 43–47.Google Scholar

63 Tse-tung, Mao, A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1953), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

64 See, e.g., DNAPT, Vol. I, pp. 410–412.Google Scholar

65 Aidit, D. N., “Pembangunan Organisasi Peating, Tapi Lebih Penting Lagi Pembangunan Ideologi,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XV (1959), p. 244.Google Scholar

66 Hutapea, B. O., “Dua Sjarat Utama dari Partai Tipe Lenin: Sentralisme dan Disiplin,” Bintang Merah, Vol. XVI (1960), pp. 124–130.Google Scholar

67 DNAPT, Vol. I, pp. 421–422Google Scholar

68 Lenin on the Revolutionary Proletarian Party of a New Type (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar See also Lenin, V. I., The National Liberation Movement in the East, op. cit., p. 18Google Scholar: “The international revolutionary movement of the proletariat does not and cannot develop evenly and in identical forms in different countries. … Every country makes its own valuable contribution, adding new features to this common stream. …”

69 Material for the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia, op. cit., p. 97.Google Scholar

70 See by Tse-tung, Mao, Combat Liberalism (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1954)Google Scholar; On Practice (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1958), pp. 19–22Google Scholar; and On the Rectification of Incorrect Ideas in the Party (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1953), pp. 6–7, 13–15, 18.Google Scholar

71 “Beberapa Pengalaman Dalam Melawan Subjektivisme,” Kehidupan Partai, 06 1960, pp. 102–105.Google Scholar