The historic victory of the Chinese people

(The following editorial appeared in the October 5, 1949, edition of Pravda and has been translated and condensed from the Russian.)

The October 1 People's Political Consultative Conference, expressing the will of the peoples of all China, solemnly proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese People's Republic. The central organs of power of the Chinese People's Republic were formed. A Central People's Government was organized, headed by the glorious son of the Chinese people and experienced leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung.

The announcement of the Chinese People's Republic is an outstanding historic event. A new, bright page has been opened in the life of a great people, 475,000,000 strong. The victorious results of the prolonged and stubborn struggle of the democratic forces of China against the united forces of domestic reaction and international imperialism have been summed up. Relying on the support of the mighty camp of socialism and democracy, the broad masses of Chinese people, headed by the working class and its militant communist vanguard, overthrew the decaying reactionary Kuomintang regime -- a regime of national betrayal, feudal oppression and colonial exploitation.

The creative and constructive activity of the masses of people is in full swing in the liberated territory of China. Under the leadership of the Communist Party they are reorganizing social relations.

The union of the working class and the basic masses of peasantry is becoming stronger. The Chinese working class, with its glorious revolutionary traditions, leads the many millions of peasants in the general struggle for the democratic transformation and rebirth of China. The land reform carried out in a number of liberated areas (Manchuria, North China) has undermined the bases of feudal landholding. The land of national traitors and landlords has been confiscated and distributed among landless peasants and those owning very little land. More than 100,000,000 Chinese peasants have received land allotments during the past two years.

Industrial, agricultural and other enterprises belonging to the reactionary Kuomintang clique and to the magnates of the Chinese bourgeoisie, closely connected with foreign capital, have been confiscated and handed over to the state. Railroads, mills, factories and mines are being rapidly restored. A sector of the state economy, subordinated to the interest of the people, is being formed. It will occupy the leading place in the national economy of democratic China.

Extensive state measures are now being introduced to raise the material and cultural welfare of the working people of city and village. Young workers, peasants and members of the intelligentsia will constitute the main body in schools and universities. ...

The great October socialist revolution marked a radical change in the world history of mankind. It undermined the domination of imperialism in colonial and dependent countries, aroused the oppressed masses of Eastern peoples and opened a new chapter in their struggle for liberation. It opened a new stage in the history of China as well. ...

The great geniuses of mankind, Lenin and Stalin, foresaw the inevitable revolutionary upsurge in China. They developed the teachings on the national-colonial revolution in the epoch of imperialism -- a revolution taking place under the leadership of the working class and under the banner of internationalism. The Chinese Communist Party, guided by the scientific theory of communism, has been the major force in the struggle for national independence and for the victory of people's democracy in China.

The historic victory of the Chinese people is a demonstration of the invincible strength of Marxist-Leninist teachings. ...

The collapse of the German and Japanese military machine, the growth of democratic forces throughout the world and the weakening of the camp of imperialism -- these are the factors of which, fettering the forces of the international imperialism, facilitated the unprecedented upsurge of the national-liberation struggle of the Chinese people and its historic victories. "If the Soviet Union did not exist, if there had been no victory in the anti-fascist Second World War, if -- especially important for us -- Japanese imperialism had not been shattered, if the countries of new democracy had not appeared in Europe -- then, it stands to reason, the pressure of the international reactionary forces would be far stronger than at present. Would we really have been able to gain victory under such circumstances? Of course not!" wrote Mao Tse-tung in his article "On the Dictatorship of the People's Democracy."

The glorious Chinese Communist Party was the inspirer and organizer of the national liberation struggle and the historic victories of the Chinese people.

During the years of the Second World War the corrupt Kuomintang rulers, the saboteurs of the common war against the imperialist occupants, advanced tactics of "passive resistance" against the enemy, frequently concealing outright deals with the Japanese aggressors. Only the Chinese Communist Party immediately undertook to organize the national armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists. The Chinese Communists proved reliable, courageous, self-sacrificing fighters for the honor, freedom, and independence of the country.

After the Second World War the Kuomintang clique, representing the interests of all domestic reactionary forces, hated and despised by the people, tied their fate to the ruling circles of the United States which were preparing to replace their defeated competitor -- Japanese imperialism -- in China. The Second World War had scarcely ended when new clouds loomed over China. Grasping American monopolies planned to transform China into a ... colony. With the aid of their contemptible Kuomintang lackeys they began to strangle the democratic forces of China, once again consigning the broad masses of people in the country to a half-starved, poverty-stricken, servile existence. Under the pretext of disarming the capitulating Japanese, American troops began to arrive in China after the end of the war. U.S. ruling circles spent billions of dollars for an armed suppression of the people's liberation movement in China -- for the enslavement of the Chinese people. In granting financial and other economic assistance to the reactionary government of Chiang Kai-shek, in modernizing and arming the Kuomintang army, on controlling the Kuomintang military staff, intelligence and secret police, the American imperialists actually intervened directly in China.

Just as during the anti-Japanese war, the Chinese Communist Party united all patriotic elements in the struggle for the national independence of the country against the new terrible danger of its enslavement by American capital.

The victories of Chinese democracy constitute not only the defeat of Kuomintang reaction but also the smashing of American predatory plans in China. American imperialism, dreaming of transforming China into its colony, into a gigantic place d' armes for a new aggressive war, suffered a complete defeat.

China, with its many millions of people, enters the family of democratic peace-loving states. "The Chinese People's Republic," reads the general program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Council, which has now become the character of the Chinese people, "unites with all peace-loving and freedom-loving countries and peoples of the whole world, and, first of all, with the Soviet Union, all the countries of people's democracy and all oppressed nations. It will be found in the camp of international peace and democracy and will struggle jointly against imperialist aggression and defend a lasting peace throughout the world."

The Chinese people once and for all take their fate into their own hands. Comrade Stalin's inspired foresight has proved correct. As far back as 1925 he declared that "the forces of the revolutionary movement in China are incredible. They have not yet manifested themselves as they should. They have yet to disclose themselves in the future. The rulers of the East and the West who do not see these forces and do not take them properly into account will suffer for this. Here truth and justice are wholly on the side of the Chinese revolution. That is why we sympathize and will sympathize with the Chinese revolution in its struggle for the liberation of the Chinese people from the yoke of imperialists and for the unification of China into one state. He who does not take this force into account now and who does not take it into account in the future will certainly lose." ...

Our people warmly approve the published note of the Soviet government to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central People's Government of China, which states that the Soviet government, motivated by the constant desire to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese people, and feeling certain that the Central People's Government of China is the embodiment of the will of the overwhelming majority of Chinese people, has decided to establish diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Chinese People's Republic. ...

Soviet people fervently wish the young Chinese People's Republic great success in meeting all its historic tasks. ...