"Let's finish like the Soviets": the Chinese have learned the lessons of the USSR

For the past 30 years, the rank-and-file members of the CPC in party committees have not been frightened by the invasion of the American imperialists, but by our fate.

- If you work badly, Comrade Wang, the same will happen to us as to the Russians.



“You don’t react, Comrade Zhang, to the bourgeois influence of the West, let’s end as the Soviets.

- It is not possible, comrade Liu, to organize a subbotnik, maybe you should have joined the CPSU?

This is also confirmed from overseas:


The Chinese Communist Party attaches great importance to the history of the USSR and especially to the experience of the disintegration of the CPSU and the collapse of our country. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is actively studying the entire post-Stalin period of the history of the USSR, trying to arm the party leadership with knowledge of the mechanism of decay of the CPSU and the lessons of history. But for the rank-and-file members of the CPC and the general public, documentaries are being made about the demise of the USSR, and political circles and discussions are held on this topic. In China, entire collections of articles devoted to the reasons for the self-destruction of the USSR are regularly published, and calls "not to repeat the mistakes of our Russian brothers" are heard not only within the walls of party committees.

Xi Jinping's words have become legendary:


True, the opinions of Chinese scientists and politicians do not always coincide. However, they are all within the framework of three prohibitions:

It is forbidden to positively assess the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is forbidden to assert that Marxism-Leninism is wrong.

It is forbidden to criticize Mao Zedong's ideas beyond the official position given by Deng Xiaoping.

Chinese view of the collapse of the USSR

The following theses about the collapse of the USSR prevail in the Chinese scientific literature.

First, the destruction of the USSR was "the greatest catastrophe for the peoples of the Soviet Union, the world communist movement and the peoples of the world as a whole." According to the Chinese, three main events took place in the XNUMXth century: the October Revolution, the formation of the PRC and the death of the USSR.

Secondly, the degradation of the CPSU and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to the destruction of the socialist countries in Europe and the restoration of capitalist relations, are regarded as a victory for the "forces of imperialism," that is, essentially NATO countries.

Third, the process of the decline of the USSR begins not with perestroika, but with the rule of Khrushchev. From the Chinese point of view, Khrushchev is the kind of Soviet Deng Xiaoping who failed to carry out the correct leadership of the reforms in a timely manner. Which, in turn, gradually developed into "a denial of the basic political and economic system of socialism." Khrushchev, according to the Chinese, took the first step towards the future collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of the CPSU.

Khrushchev's assessment in modern China is given largely in the context of Mao Zedong's position:


Li Shenming, professor and vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Honorary Doctor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, writes:


Moreover, in China they believe that there were shortcomings in the “Stalinist political model” that needed to be eliminated by reforms.

Fourth, a certain role in the process of destruction of the USSR is assigned to "external factors", including the military threat of the West led by the United States and the USSR's struggle for world hegemony.

In China, not only the Gorbachev's, but also the Khrushchev-Brezhnev USSR's foreign policy is reprehensible. Of course, not the way it was in the days of Mao Zedong, when the Chinese called the USSR a "social-imperialist", but even today "the USSR's striving for hegemony" is emphasized. This is done as if in opposition to modern China, which presents itself as the main fighter against any world hegemony.

The Chinese rightly point out that the "Iron Curtain" was erected and the arms race was unleashed by the United States, not the USSR. They emphasize the destructive role of Western intelligence services in destabilizing the situation in the Soviet Union throughout its entire existence.

Fifthly, the leadership of the CPSU admits "miscalculations and mistakes in the course of the practical implementation of socialism". However, it says that all failures in the economy and politics were the consequences, not the cause, of the problem within the ruling party. Moreover, miscalculations and mistakes were not the decisive factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Sixth, the disintegration of the ruling party of the CPSU, which was the result of "insufficient theoretical preparation of the party leadership, which led to the shaking of faith in communist ideals," is recognized as the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In other words, according to the Chinese, after Lenin and Stalin, the party leadership included theoretically illiterate people who did not believe in communism.

The collapse of the USSR, unlike modern Western and Russian historiography, is not considered historically inevitable in China, and its causes are not considered objective. On the contrary, the Chinese are deeply convinced that if it were not for the incompetent leaders of the CPSU, the USSR would not have destroyed itself.

Lessons China learned from the collapse of the USSR

Officially, the Chinese Communist Party has learned the following lessons from the historical experience of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

First. It is necessary to deal with theory, and theory should be dealt with, among other things, by the leaders of the party. For example, Xi Jinping regularly writes articles and delivers lengthy speeches on theoretical issues. The Chinese believe that neither Khrushchev, nor Brezhnev, nor Gorbachev have a worthy theoretical legacy, since they were illiterate. Even if you look into the library of Peking University, there are thousands of Soviet books and books about the USSR, they carefully study our history and studied everything that we know about them. However, there are neither the works of Brezhnev, nor the speeches and notes of Khrushchev, much less the "works" of Gorbachev. From the moment the new Russia was formed, books about Russians have disappeared abruptly, there is nothing more to study.

Second. It is necessary that the party be led by people loyal to the country and ideas, to ensure the continuity of leadership. In China, as you know, each new generation of party leaders replaces the former, not in the order of competition and struggle, but in the order of their preparation and transfer of power.

The third. Party democracy must be strictly observed, that is, there must be discussions, freedom of speech, and election. The Chinese see the reason for the appearance of destructive democracy in the CPSU during the years of perestroika precisely in the clamping down of the internal party regime before that.

Fourth. It is necessary to rely on the masses of the people. The Chinese believe that the CPSU has become detached from the people, especially in the person of the leadership, mired in privileges. In modern China, the asceticism of leaders is preached. Xi Jinping himself is always emphatically modestly dressed; you cannot see any expensive watches from Chinese party members. In the photo from China, you can, for example, spot the simply indecently worn belt of Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang. In China, leaders are regularly shot for corruption, hundreds of thousands of people are expelled from the party.

The fifth. It is necessary to fight both external and internal enemies, to strengthen vigilance. The Chinese believe that the United States and NATO want to destroy their social system, turn the country into a colony as it was before 1949. It is difficult to argue with this, given that the United States, represented by Pompeo, essentially declared a cold war on China, and the US national security adviser Robert O'Brien recently called Xi Jinping "the successor of Joseph Stalin."

The Chinese also believe that these Western forces, both within China itself and within the Communist Party, have agents of their supporters, which must be fought permanently.

Time has shown whether China has learned our lessons. Now even the most notorious liberals have stopped making noise about the impending overthrow of the CCP.