On the People's Democratic Dictatorship

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of On the People's Democratic Dictatorship has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• On the People's Democratic Dictatorship, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• On the People's Democratic Dictatorship, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 10, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an essay written by Comrade Mao Zedong in commemoration of the 28th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China on the 30th of June, 1949. It was first published in the Renmin Ribao (1st of July, 1949).

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ON THE PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP

#IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 28TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#30th of June, 1949

#★

The 1st of July, 1949 marks the fact that the Communist Party of China has already lived through 28 years. Like a person, a political party has its childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. The Communist Party of China is no longer a child or a teenager, but has become an adult. When a person reaches old age, they will die; the same is true of a political party. When classes disappear, all instruments of class struggle — political parties and the State machinery — will lose their function, cease to be necessary, therefore gradually die out, and end their historical mission; and human society will move to a higher stage. We are the opposite of the political parties of the bourgeoisie. They are afraid to speak of the extinction of classes, State power, and political parties. We, on the contrary, declare openly that we are striving hard to create the very conditions which will bring about their extinction. The leadership of the Communist Party and the State power of the people's dictatorship are such conditions. Anyone who does not recognize this truth is no Communist. Young comrades who have not studied Marxism-Leninism and have only recently joined the Party may not yet understand this truth. They must understand it — only then can they have a correct worldview. They must understand that the road to the abolition of classes, to the abolition of State power, and to the abolition of political parties is the road all humanity must take; it is only a question of time and conditions. Communists the world over are wiser than the bourgeoisie, they understand the laws governing the existence and development of things, they understand dialectics, and they can see farther. The bourgeoisie does not welcome this truth, because it does not want to be overthrown. To be overthrown is painful and is unbearable to contemplate for those overthrown, for example, for the Nationalist reactionaries, whom we are now overthrowing, and for Japanese imperialism, which we together with other peoples overthrew some time ago. But for the working class, the working people, and the Communist Party, the question is not one of being overthrown, but of working hard to create the conditions in which classes, State power, and political parties will die out very naturally and humanity will enter the realm of Great Harmony.¹ We have mentioned in passing the long-range perspective of human progress, in order to explain clearly the problems we are about to discuss.

As everyone knows, our Party passed through these 28 years, not in peace, but amid hardships, for we had to fight enemies, both foreign and domestic, both inside and outside the Party. We thank Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin for giving us a weapon. This weapon is not a machine-gun, but Marxism-Leninism.

In his book, «Left-Wing» Communism, an Infantile Disorder, written in 1920, Lenin described the quest of the Russians for revolutionary theory.² Only after several decades of hardship and suffering did the Russians find Marxism. Many things in China were the same as, or similar to, those in Russia before the November Revolution. There was the same feudal oppression. There was similar economic and cultural backwardness. Both countries were backward, China even more so. In both countries alike, for the sake of national regeneration, progressives braved hard and bitter struggles in their quest for revolutionary truth.

From the time of China's defeat in the Opium War of 1840,³ Chinese progressives went through untold hardships in their quest for truth from the Western countries. Hong Xiuquan,⁴ Kang Youwei,⁵ Yan Fu,⁶ and Sun Yixian were representative of those who had looked to the West for truth before the Communist Party of China was born. Chinese who then sought progress would read any book containing the new knowledge from the West. The number of students sent to Japan, Britain, the United States, France, and Germany was amazing. At home, the imperial examinations⁷ were abolished and modern schools sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain; every effort was made to learn from the West. In my youth, I, too, engaged in such studies. They represented the culture of Western bourgeois democracy, including the social theories and natural sciences of that period, and they were called «the new learning» in contrast to Chinese feudal culture, which was called «the old learning». For quite a long time, those who had acquired the new learning felt confident that it would save China, and very few of them had any doubts on this score, as the adherents of the old learning had. Only modernization could save China, only learning from foreign countries could modernize China. Among the foreign countries, only the Western capitalist countries were then progressive, as they had successfully built modern bourgeois States. The Japanese had been successful in learning from the West, and the Chinese also wished to learn from the Japanese. The Chinese in those days regarded Russia as backward, and few wanted to learn from it. That was how the Chinese tried to learn from foreign countries in the period from the 1840s to the beginning of the 20th century.

Imperialist aggression shattered the fond dreams of the Chinese about learning from the West. It was very odd — why were the teachers always committing aggression against their pupil? The Chinese learned a good deal from the West, but they could not make it work and were never able to realize their ideals. Their repeated struggles, including such a countrywide movement as the Revolution of 1911,⁸ all ended in failure. Day by day, conditions in the country got worse, and life was made impossible. Doubts arose, increased, and deepened. The First World War shook the whole globe. The Russians made the November Revolution and created the world's first socialist State. Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the revolutionary energy of the great proletariat and working people of Russia, until then latent and unseen by foreigners, suddenly erupted like a volcano, and the Chinese and all humanity began to see the Russians in a new light. Then, and only then, did the Chinese enter an entirely new era in their thinking and their life. They found Marxism-Leninism, the universally applicable truth, and the face of China began to change.

It was through the Russians that the Chinese found Marxism. Before the November Revolution, the Chinese were not only ignorant of Lenin and Stalin, they did not even know of Marx and Engels. The salvoes of the November Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism. The November Revolution helped progressives in China, as throughout the world, to adopt the proletarian worldview as the instrument for studying a nation's destiny and considering anew their own problems. Follow the path of the Russians — that was their conclusion. In 1919, the 4th of May Movement took place in China. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded. Sun Yixian, in the depths of despair, came across the November Revolution and the Communist Party of China. He welcomed the November Revolution, welcomed Russian help to the Chinese, and welcomed cooperation of the Communist Party of China. Then, Sun Yixian died, and Jiang Jieshi rose to power. Over a long period of 22 years, Jiang Jieshi dragged China into ever more hopeless straits. In this period, during the Anti-Fascist Second World War, in which the Council Union was the main force, three big imperialist powers were knocked out, while two others were weakened. In the whole world only one big imperialist power, the United States of America, remained uninjured. But the United States faced a grave domestic crisis. It wanted to enslave the whole world; it supplied arms to help Jiang Jieshi slaughter several million Chinese. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people, after driving out Japanese imperialism, waged the People's War of Liberation for three years, and have fundamentally won victory.

Thus, Western bourgeois civilization, bourgeois democracy, and the plan for a bourgeois republic have all gone bankrupt in the eyes of the Chinese people. Bourgeois democracy has given way to people's democracy under the leadership of the working class and the bourgeois republic to the people's republic. This has made it possible to achieve socialism and communism through the people's republic, to abolish classes, and to enter a world of Great Harmony. Kang Youwei wrote the Book of Great Harmony, but he did not and could not find the way to achieve Great Harmony. There are bourgeois republics in foreign countries, but China cannot have a bourgeois republic, because it is a country suffering under imperialist oppression. The only way is through a people's republic led by the working class, resulting in the dying out of classes and the achievement of Great Harmony throughout the world.

All other ways have been tried and failed. Of the people who hankered after those ways, some have fallen, some have awakened, and some are changing their ideas. Events are developing so swiftly that many feel the abruptness of the change and the need to learn anew. This state of mind is understandable, and we welcome this worthy desire to learn anew.

The vanguard of the Chinese proletariat learned Marxism-Leninism after the November Revolution and founded the Communist Party of China. It entered at once into political struggles and only now, after a tortuous course of 28 years, has it won fundamental victory. From our 28 years' experience, we have drawn a conclusion similar to the one Sun Yixian drew in his Testament from his «experience of 40 years»; that is, we are deeply convinced that to win victory, «we must mobilize the masses of the people and unite in a common struggle with those nations of the world which treat us as equals». Sun Yixian had a worldview different from ours and started from a different class standpoint in studying and tackling problems; yet, in the 1920s, he reached a conclusion fundamentally the same as ours on the question of how to struggle against imperialism.

24 years have passed since Sun Yixian's death, and the Chinese revolution, led by the Communist Party of China, has made tremendous advances both in theory and practice and has radically changed the face of China. Up to now, the main and fundamental experience the Chinese people have gained is two-fold:

• Internally, mobilize the masses of the people. That is, unite the working class, the peasantry, the urban small bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie, form a domestic united front under the leadership of the working class, and advance from this to the establishment of a State which is a people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.
• Externally, unite in a common struggle with those nations of the world which treat us as equals and unite with the peoples of all countries. That is, ally ourselves with the Council Union, with the People's Democracies, and with the proletariat and the broad masses of the people in all other countries, and form an international united front.

«You are leaning to one side.» Exactly. The 40 years' experience of Sun Yixian and the 28 years' experience of the Communist Party have taught us to lean to one side, and we are firmly convinced that, in order to win victory and consolidate it, we must lean to one side. In the light of the experiences accumulated in these 40 years and these 28 years, all Chinese without exception must lean either to the side of imperialism or to the side of socialism. Sitting on the fence will not do, nor is there a third road. We oppose the Jiang Jieshi reactionaries, who lean to the side of imperialism, and we also oppose the illusions about a third road. It is the same, not only for China, but for the whole world. It will not move toward imperialism, but toward socialism, with absolutely no exceptions. Neutrality is a sham, and there is no third way.

«You are too irritating.» We are talking about how to deal with domestic and foreign reactionaries, the imperialists and their lackeys, not about how to deal with anyone else. With regard to such reactionaries, the question of irritating them or not does not arise. Irritated or not irritated, they will remain the same, because they are reactionaries. Only if we draw a clear line between reactionaries and revolutionaries, expose the intrigues and plots of the reactionaries, awaken the vigilance and attention of the revolutionary ranks, heighten our will to fight, and crush the enemy's arrogance, can we isolate the reactionaries, vanquish them, or supersede them. We must not show the slightest timidity before a wild beast. We must learn from Wu Song⁹ on the Jingyang Ridge. As Wu Song saw it, the tiger on Jingyang Ridge was a carnivore, whether irritated or not. Either kill the tiger or be eaten by it — one or the other.

«We want to do business.» Quite right, business will be done. We are against no one except the domestic and foreign reactionaries who hinder us from doing business. Everybody should know that it is none other than the imperialists and their lackeys, the Jiang Jieshi reactionaries, who hinder us from doing business and also from establishing diplomatic relations with foreign countries. When we have beaten the internal and external reactionaries by uniting all domestic and international forces, we shall be able to do business and establish diplomatic relations with all foreign countries on the basis of equality, mutual benefit, and mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty.

«Victory is possible even without international help.» This is a mistaken idea. In the epoch in which imperialism exists, it is impossible for a genuine people's revolution to win victory in any country without various forms of help from the international revolutionary forces, and even if victory were won, it could not be consolidated. This was the case with the victory and consolidation of the Great November Revolution, as Lenin and Stalin told us long ago. This was also the case with the overthrow of the three imperialist powers in the Second World War and the establishment of the People's Democracies. And this is also the case with the present and the future of People's China. Just imagine! If the Council Union had not existed, if there had been no victory in the Anti-Fascist Second World War, if, with regard to us in particular, Japanese imperialism had not been defeated, if the People's Democracies had not come into being, if the oppressed nations of Asia were not rising up in struggle, and if there were no struggle of the masses of the people against their reactionary rulers in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and other capitalist countries — if not for all these in combination, the international reactionary forces bearing down upon us would certainly be many times greater than now. In such circumstances, could we have won victory? Obviously not. And even with victory, there could be no consolidation. The Chinese people have had more than enough experience of this kind. This experience was reflected long ago in Sun Yixian's deathbed statement on the necessity of uniting with the international revolutionary forces.

«We need help from the British and US governments.» This, too, is a naive idea in these times. Would the present rulers of Britain and the United States, who are imperialists, help a people's State? Why do these countries do business with us and, supposing they might be willing to lend us money on terms of mutual benefit in the future, why would they do so? Because their capitalists want to make money and their bankers want to earn interest to extricate themselves from their own crisis — it is not a matter of helping the Chinese people. The Communist Parties and progressive groups in these countries are urging their governments to establish trade and even diplomatic relations with us. This is goodwill, this is help, this cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the conduct of the bourgeoisie in the same countries. Throughout his life, Sun Yixian appealed countless times to the capitalist countries for help and got nothing but heartless rebuffs. Only once in his whole life did Sun Yixian receive foreign help, and that was Soviet help. Let readers refer to Dr. Sun Yixian's Testament; his earnest advice was not to look for help from the imperialist countries, but to «unite with those nations of the world which treat us as equals». Dr. Sun had experience; he had suffered, he had been deceived. We should remember his words and not allow ourselves to be deceived again. Internationally, we belong to the side of the anti-imperialist front headed by the Council Union, and so we can turn only to this side for genuine and friendly help, not to the side of the imperialist front.

«You are dictatorial.» My dear friends, you are right, that is just what we are. All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.

Who are the people? At the present stage in China, they are the working class, the peasantry, the urban small bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie. These classes, led by the working class and the Communist Party, unite to form their own State and elect their own government; they enforce their dictatorship over the lackeys of imperialism — the landlord class and bureaucrat bourgeoisie, as well as the representatives of those classes, the Nationalist reactionaries and their accomplices — suppress them, allow them only to behave themselves and not to be unruly in word or deed. If they speak or act in an unruly way, they will be promptly stopped and punished. Democracy is practised within the ranks of the people, who enjoy the rights of freedom of speech, assembly, association, and so on. The right to vote belongs only to the people, not to the reactionaries. The combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people's democratic dictatorship.

Why must things be done this way? The reason is quite clear to everybody. If things were not done this way, the revolution would fail, the people would suffer, the country would be conquered.

«Don't you want to abolish State power?» Yes, we do, but not right now; we cannot do it yet. Why? Because imperialism still exists, because domestic reaction still exists, because classes still exist in our country. Our present task is to strengthen the people's State apparatus-mainly the people's army, the people's police, and the people's courts — in order to consolidate national defence and protect the people's interests. Given this condition, China can develop steadily, under the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party, from an agricultural into an industrial country and from a new-democratic into a socialist and communist society, can abolish classes and realize the Great Harmony. The State apparatus, including the army, the police, and the courts, is the instrument by which one class oppresses another. It is an instrument for the oppression of antagonistic classes; it is violence and not «benevolence».

«You are not benevolent!» Quite so. We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries and toward the reactionary activities of the reactionary classes. Our policy of benevolence is applied only within the ranks of the people, not beyond them to the reactionaries or to the reactionary activities of reactionary classes.

The people's State protects the people. Only when the people have such a State can they educate and remould themselves by democratic methods on a countrywide scale, with everyone taking part, and shake off the influence of domestic and foreign reactionaries (which is still very strong, will survive for a long time, and cannot be quickly destroyed), rid themselves of the bad habits and ideas acquired in the old society, not allow themselves to be led astray by the reactionaries, and continue to advance — to advance toward a socialist and communist society, and to complete the historical task of eliminating classes and achieving Great Harmony.

Here, the method we employ is democratic, the method of persuasion, not of compulsion. When anyone among the people breaks the law, they, too, should be punished, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death; but this is a matter of a few individual cases, and it differs in principle from the dictatorship exercised over the reactionaries as a class.

As for the members of the reactionary classes and individual reactionaries, so long as they do not rebel, sabotage, or create trouble after their political power has been overthrown, land and work will be given to them as well in order to allow them to live and remould themselves through labour into new people. If they are not willing to work, the people's State will compel them to work. Political work, propaganda, and educational work will be done among them, too, and will be done, moreover, with as much care and thoroughness as among the captured army officers in the past. This, too, may be called a «policy of benevolence» if you like, but it is imposed by us on the members of the enemy classes and cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the work of self-education which we carry on within the ranks of the revolutionary people.

Such remoulding of members of the reactionary classes can be accomplished only by a State of the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the Communist Party. When it is well done, China's major exploiting classes, the landlord class and the bureaucrat bourgeoisie (the monopoly-capitalist class), will be eliminated for good. There remain the national bourgeoisie; at the present stage, we can already do a good deal of suitable educational work with many of them. When the time comes to realize socialism, that is, to nationalize private enterprise, we shall carry the work of educating and remoulding them a step further. The people have a powerful State apparatus in their hands — there is no need to fear rebellion by the national bourgeoisie.

The serious problem is the education of the peasantry. The peasant economy is scattered, and the socialization of agriculture, judging by the Council Union's experience, will require a long time and painstaking work. Without socialization of agriculture, there can be no complete, consolidated socialism. The steps to socialize agriculture must be coordinated with the development of a powerful industry having State enterprise as its backbone.¹⁰ The State of the people's democratic dictatorship must systematically solve the problems of industrialization. Since it is not proposed to discuss economic problems in detail in this article, I shall not go into them further.

In 1924, a famous Manifesto was adopted at the Nationalist Party's First National Congress, which Sun Yixian himself led and in which Communists participated. The Manifesto stated:

The so-called democratic system in modern States is usually monopolized by the bourgeoisie and has become simply an instrument for oppressing the common people. On the other hand, the Nationalist Party's Principle of Democracy means a democratic system shared by all the common people and not privately owned by the few.

Apart from the question of who leads whom, the Principle of Democracy stated above corresponds as a general political programme to what we call People's Democracy or New Democracy. A State system which is shared only by the common people and which the bourgeoisie is not allowed to own privately — add to this the leadership of the working class, and we have the State system of the people's democratic dictatorship.

Jiang Jieshi betrayed Sun Yixian and used the dictatorship of the bureaucrat bourgeoisie and the landlord class as an instrument for oppressing the common people of China. This counter-revolutionary dictatorship was enforced for 22 years and has only now been overthrown by the common people of China under our leadership.

The foreign reactionaries who accuse us of practising «dictatorship» or «totalitarianism» are the very persons who practise it. They practise the dictatorship or totalitarianism of one class, the bourgeoisie, over the proletariat and the rest of the people. They are the very persons Sun Yixian spoke of as the bourgeoisie of modern States who oppress the common people. And it is from these reactionary scoundrels that Jiang Jieshi learned his counter-revolutionary dictatorship.

Zhu Xi, a philosopher of the Song Dynasty, wrote many books and made many remarks which are now forgotten, but one remark is still remembered: «Deal with a person as they deal with you.»¹¹ This is just what we do; we deal with the imperialists and their lackeys, the Jiang Jieshi reactionaries, as they deal with us. That is all there is to it!

Revolutionary dictatorship and counter-revolutionary dictatorship are by nature opposites, but the former was learned from the latter. Such learning is very important. If the revolutionary people do not master this method of ruling over the counter-revolutionary classes, they will not be able to maintain their State power, domestic and foreign reaction will overthrow that power and restore its own rule over China, and disaster will befall the revolutionary people.

The people's democratic dictatorship is based on the alliance of the working class, the peasantry, and the urban small bourgeoisie, and mainly on the alliance of the workers and the peasants, because these two classes comprise 80 to 90% of China's population. These two classes are the main force in overthrowing imperialism and the Nationalist reactionaries. The transition from New Democracy to socialism also depends mainly upon their alliance.

The people's democratic dictatorship needs the leadership of the working class. For it is only the working class that is most far-sighted, most selfless, and most thoroughly revolutionary. The entire history of revolution proves that without the leadership of the working class revolution fails and that with the leadership of the working class revolution triumphs. In the epoch of imperialism, in no country can any other class lead any genuine revolution to victory. This is clearly proved by the fact that the many revolutions led by China's small bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie all failed.

The national bourgeoisie at the present stage is of great importance. Imperialism, a most ferocious enemy, is still standing alongside us. China's modern industry still forms a very small proportion of the national economy. No reliable statistics are available, but it is estimated, on the basis of certain data, that before the War of Resistance Against Japan the value of output of modern industry constituted only about 10% of the total value of output of the national economy. To counter imperialist oppression and to raise its backward economy to a higher level, China must utilize all the factors of urban and rural capitalism that are beneficial and not harmful to the national economy and the people's livelihood, and we must unite with the national bourgeoisie in common struggle. Our present policy is to regulate capitalism, not to destroy it. But the national bourgeoisie cannot be the leader of the revolution, nor should it have the chief role in State power. The reason it cannot be the leader of the revolution and should not have the chief role in State power is that the social and economic position of the national bourgeoisie determines its weakness; it lacks foresight and sufficient courage and many of its members are afraid of the masses.

Sun Yixian advocated «mobilizing the masses of the people» or «giving assistance to the peasants and workers». But who is to «mobilize» them or «give assistance» to them? Sun Yixian had the small bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie in mind. As a matter of fact, they cannot do so. Why did 40 years of revolution under Sun Yixian end in failure? Because, in the epoch of imperialism, the small bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie cannot lead any genuine revolution to victory.

Our 28 years have been quite different. We have had much valuable experience. A well-disciplined political party armed with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-criticism, and linked with the masses of the people; an army under the leadership of such a political party; a united front of all revolutionary classes and all revolutionary groups under the leadership of such a political party — these are the three main weapons with which we have defeated the enemy. They distinguish us from our predecessors. Relying on them, we have won fundamental victory. We have traveled a tortuous road. We have fought against opportunist deviations in our Party, both Right-wing and «Left-wing». Whenever we made serious mistakes on these three matters, the revolution suffered setbacks. Taught by mistakes and setbacks, we have become wiser and handle our affairs better. It is hard for any political party or person to avoid mistakes, but we should make as few as possible. Once a mistake is made, we should correct it, and the more quickly and thoroughly, the better.

To sum up our experience and concentrate it into one point, it is: the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class (through the Communist Party) and based upon the alliance of workers and peasants. This dictatorship must unite as one with the international revolutionary forces. This is our formula, our main experience, our main programme.

28 years of our Party are a long period, in which we have accomplished only one thing — we have won fundamental victory in the revolutionary war. This calls for celebration, because it is the people's victory, because it is a victory in a country as large as China. But we still have much work to do; to use the analogy of a journey, our past work is only the first step in a long march of 10'000 li [5'000 kilometres]. Remnants of the enemy have yet to be wiped out. The serious task of economic construction lies before us. We shall soon put aside some of the things we know well and be compelled to do things we don't know well. This means difficulties. The imperialists reckon that we will not be able to manage our economy; they are standing by and looking on, awaiting our failure.

We must overcome difficulties, we must learn what we do not know. We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know. We must not put on bureaucratic airs. If we dig into a subject for several months, for a year or two, for three or five years, we shall eventually master it. At first, some of the Soviet Communists also were not very good at handling economic matters, and the imperialists awaited their failure, too. But the Communist Party of the Council Union emerged victorious and, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, it learned not only how to make the revolution, but also how to carry on construction. It has built a great and splendid socialist State. The Communist Party of the Council Union is our best teacher, and we must learn from it. The situation both at home and abroad is in our favour, we can rely fully on the weapon of the people's democratic dictatorship, unite the people throughout the country, the reactionaries excepted, and advance steadily to our goal.