without which the problem of the final victory of socialism in one country cannot be solved.”{135}
Student: “I am in favor of cordial relations between nations. Would you call me an Internationalist?”
P. E. Vyshinsky: “At present the only determining criterion… is: Are you for or against the USSR, the motherland of the world proletariat? An internationalist is not one who verbally recognizes international solidarity or sympathizes with it. A real internationalist is one who brings his sympathy and recognition up to the point of practical and maximum help to the USSR in support and defense of the USSR by every means and in every possible form.”{136}
Student: “I thought that during World War II the Communist leaders said they wanted to be friends with the United States. I hoped we could continue to be friends.”
Varga: “The fact that the Soviet Union and the greatly shaken capitalist countries showed themselves to be in one powerful camp, raged against the Fascist aggressors (during World War II), showed that the struggle of the two systems within the democratic camp was temporarily alleviated, suspended, but this of, course does not mean the end of the struggle.”{137}
Marshall Tito: “Our collaboration with capitalism during the war which has recently ended, by no means signifies that we shall prolong our alliance with it in the future. On the contrary, the capitalistic forces constitute our natural enemy despite the fact that they helped us to defeat their most dangerous representative. It may happen that we shall again decide to make use of their aid, but always with the sole aim of accelerating their final ruin.”{138}
Student: “In other words, you pretended to be our friends merely as a matter of expediency? Why would it not be to our mutual advantage to continue being friends?”
Dimitry Z. Manuilsky: “War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable.”{139}
Student: “Then why do you even try to maintain peaceful relations with the West?
Stalin: “We cannot forget the saying of Lenin to the effect that a great deal… depends on whether we succeed in delaying war with the capitalist countries… until proletarian revolution ripens in Europe or until colonial revolutions come to a head, or, finally, until the capitalists fight among themselves over the division of the colonies. Therefore, the maintenance of peaceful relations with capitalist countries is an obligatory task for us.”{140}
Student: “Do you think we should expect this “inevitable” conflict soon or far in the distant future?”
Lenin: “To tie one’s hands beforehand, openly to tell the enemy, who is at present better armed than we are, whether and when we will fight him, is stupidity and not revolutionariness. To accept battle at a time when it is obviously advantageous to the enemy and not to us is a crime; and those political leaders of the revolutionary class who are unable to ‘tack, to maneuver, to compromise’ in order to avoid an obviously disadvantageous battle, are good for nothing.”{141}
Student: “Perhaps this explains why you Communists continue building up a tremendous war machine while proclaiming that you want peace. Don’t you think the West sincerely wants peace and would like to disarm?”
Official Statement: “There is a glaring contradiction between the imperialists’ policy of piling up armaments and their hypocritical talk about peace. There is no such contradiction, however, between the Soviet Government’s preparation for defense and for revolutionary war and a consistent peace policy. Revolutionary war of the proletarian dictatorship is but a continuation of a revolutionary peace policy by other means.”{142}
Student: “But would not a so-called revolutionary peace policy by ‘other means’ simply be a demand for unconditional surrender under threat of extermination? Why do you perpetuate the myth of peaceful coexistence when you openly consider the West your enemy?”
Dimitry Z. Manuilsky: “Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack…. To win we shall need the element of surprise. The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will jump at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist.”{143}
Illegal Operations
Student: “Perhaps this helps to explain why the Communist strategists have never been able to take over a single country by persuasion or by the popular election of legal candidates. Must you Communists always resort to subversion and illegal political operations?”
Lenin: “The absolute necessity in principal of combining illegal with legal work is determined not only by the sum total of the specific features of the present period… but also by the necessity of proving to the bourgeoisie that there is not, nor can there be, a sphere or field of work that cannot be won by the Communists…. It is necessary, immediately, for all legal Communist Parties to form illegal organizations for the purpose of systematically carrying on illegal work, and of fully preparing for the moment when the bourgeoisie resorts to persecution. Illegal work is particularly necessary in the army, the navy and police.”{144}
Student: “What happens to a person who is selected for illegal operations?”
Lenin: “A working class agitator who in any way shows talent and promise should not work eleven hours a day in a factory. We should see to it that he lives on the funds of the Party, that he is able in good time to adopt an illegal manner of existence, that he has the opportunity of changing his sphere of activities; otherwise he will not gain experience, he will not broaden his outlook, and will not be able to hold out for at most several years in the struggle against the police.”{145}
Revolutionary Violence
Student: “Could an American who might be converted to Communism belong to the Party but still hold out for peaceful reform instead of revolutionary violence?”
Lenin: “It is not enough to take sides in the question of political slogans; we must take sides also in the question of an armed uprising. Those who are opposed to armed uprising, those who do not prepare for it, must be ruthlessly cast out of the ranks of the supporters of the revolution and sent back to the ranks of its enemies, of the traitors or cowards; for the day is approaching when the force of events and conditions of the struggle will compel us to separate enemies from friends according to this principle.”{146}
Student: “Then apparently you believe social progress is possible only by revolutionary violence rather than by legislative reform?”
Lenin: “Marxists have never forgotten that violence will be an inevitable accompaniment of the collapse of capitalism on its full scale and of the birth of a socialist society. And this violence will cover a historical period; a whole era of wars of the most varied kinds—imperialist wars, civil wars within the country, the interweaving of the former with the latter, national wars, the emancipation of the nationalities crushed by the imperialist powers which will inevitably form various alliances with each other in the era of vast state-capitalist and military trusts and syndicates. This is an era of tremendous collapses, of wholesale military decisions of a violent nature, of crises. It has already begun, we see it clearly—it is only the beginning.” {147}
Student: “Do you mean it is impossible for an American to be a true Communist without
