The victory of the Great October Revolution and the

successful construction of socialism

The greatest historical validation and confirmation of Marx’s
scientific theory
Article published in "Unity & Struggle" issue 15

November of this year will mark the 90th anniversary of the Great October Socialist
Revolution, the greatest event of the 20th century that resulted, for the first time, in
the rise of the workers, peasants and soldiers and the
establishment of the first proletarian state in human
history. All generations in the 20th century solemnly
honour the Great October Socialist Revolution.

The victorious outcome of the Proletarian

Revolution in Russia marked the beginning of a new
era in human history and constituted the greatest
historical validation and confirmation of Marx’s
scientific theory regarding three fundamental
questions.

First, regarding the historical necessity and

inevitability of the proletarian revolution and
socialism; that “the class struggle leads to the
communist Revolution (Marx). The historical
necessity and inevitability of the proletarian
revolution are rooted in the laws underlying the development of the material forces of
production and their conflict with the obsolete relations of production of the last
antagonistic socio-economic formation, capitalism. As Marx wrote: “Precisely as
capitalism succeeded feudalism, socialism likewise will inevitably succeed
capitalism”.

Second, regarding the possibility of the practical application of socialism, considered

by the bourgeois theorists a utopia and impossible. Until the victory of the October
Socialist Revolution, socialism was a scientific theory that hadn’t been applied yet.
Through the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union of Lenin-Stalin, it was
proved for the first time that socialism does not constitute merely a scientific theory
but a social system that can be established and demonstrate its superiority over
capitalism.

In this way, all claims made by the bourgeois theorists and economists that the
socialist economy is allegedly an “irrational” one (due to the absence of private
property, market and competition) and, therefore, unable to prevail and operate, are
refuted. (N.G. Pierson, L.v. Mises, M. Weber, A. Weber, and others).

Third, regarding the fact that the construction of socialism-communism is possible

only on the condition that the principles of revolutionary Marxism are steadfastly
upheld and followed. The incorrect conduct of the class struggle against the counter-
revolutionary and anti-socialist forces after Stalin’s murder resulted in the prevalence
of the Khruschevian revisionist counter-revolution.

The victory of the October Socialist Revolution also confirmed all the tenants of
the Leninist-Stalinist theory of Proletarian Revolution

Firstly, it confirmed that the revolutionary proletariat, being in close alliance with the
poor peasantry, is the main, decisive and leading force of the Proletarian Revolution.

Secondly, it confirmed the necessity for

a revolutionary party which is equipped
with the theory of Marx-Engels-Lenin-
Stalin in the role of organiser and leader
of the revolution which doesn’t share its
leadership with other parties.

Thirdly, it confirmed that the path of

armed insurrection is the only path to the
overthrow of capitalism.

Fourthly, it confirmed the necessity for

the smashing of the bourgeois state
machinery as an essential condition for
the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, “that will be led by a single
party, the party of communists, which will not and should not share its leadership
with other parties” (Stalin).

Fifthly, it confirmed that the dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary for the whole
transitional period from capitalism to communism.

The legendary events that took place in Russia during the “10 days that shook the
world”, in October of 1917, did not come out of the blue. After three years of
engagement in the imperialist First World War, the situation in the Eastern Front was
desperate. The ill-led, wretchedly equipped Russian Army had been cut to pieces by
the Germans. Shaken by the impact of the war and rotted from within the feudal
Tsarist regime tottered and fell. In March, thousands of exasperated soldiers poured
from the front to the cities and together with workers forced Tsar Nicholas II to
abdicate. A Provisional Government was established with Prime Minister Alexander
Kerensky. But even after the collapse of the autocracy, the Revolution was only
beginning.

The Provisional Government didn’t heed the cry for Peace, Bread and Land! that
swept across the vast country summing up the immediate longings and the ancient
aspirations of the war-weary, starved and dispossessed Russian millions. This brought
the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries in difficult position because while,
Kerensky’s partners in the Provisional Government, they were at the same time the
dominating forces in the Soviets; the elected bodies of the revolutionary workers,
peasants and soldiers. On the other hand, the influence of the Bolsheviks in the
Soviets and among the workers in general was constantly rising. Contrary to the
bourgeois and socialist parties, the Bolsheviks were adhered to the unfulfilled aims of
the February revolution. Moreover, at a time when the reactionary forces and the
Provisional Government kept postponing the convention of the Constituent Assembly,
the Bolsheviks went a step further demanding the transfer of all state power to the
Soviets.

In September 1917 matters reached a crisis. Against the overwhelming sentiment of

the country, Kerensky formed a Coalition Government with the propertied classes. As
a result the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries lost the confidence of the
people forever. Around the same time the Tsarist General Kornilov, organised a revolt
with the object of crushing the revolution and of restoring czarism. The Central
Committee of the Bolshevik Party called upon the workers, soldiers and sailors to rise
in defence of the revolution. All this speeded up the Revolution even more and put the
armed insurrection on the order of the day. On Lenin’s proposal a Party Centre
headed by Stalin was set up to direct the insurrection.

By the morning of 7th of November (25 October, Old Style), the telephone exchange,
the chief telegraph office, the radio station, the bridges across the Neva, the railway
stations and the most important government offices were in the hands of the insurgent
proletariat. The Winter Palace, the seat of the Provisional Government, had also been
captured. The signal for the storming of the Palace by detachments of Red Guards and
sailors was a blank shot from the guns of the cruiser “Aurora”. The insurrection had
succeeded. At 10 a.m. the Military Revolutionary Committee issued its historic
manifesto drawn up by Lenin, addressed “To the Citizens of all Russia” proclaiming
to the masses of the people the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the
transfer of the state power to the Soviets. In the evening, the Second Congress of
Soviets was opened in Smolny. The transfer of all power, central and local, to the
Soviets was officially proclaimed.

Thanks to the heroism, faith and self-denial of the advanced working masses and the
ardent guidance of the Bolsheviks, the flame of the October Revolution spread in
almost a month to all cities and regions of Central Russia. In Moscow, Novgorod,
Ekaterinenburg the bourgeois-capitalist rule was overthrown and the new proletarian
rule was founded.

The great thinker Lenin, by creatively applying and further developing the Marxist
theory in accordance to the conditions of his time, showed the way to the October
Revolution that eliminated the vestiges of serfdom, liberated the people of tens of
nationalities from the bondage of the bestial tsarist regime, socialised all the means of
production and the natural resources of the country and established the workers-
peasants power. The October Revolution, by far the most significant event of the 20th
century, literally changed the course of human history. For the first time since the
dawn of civilisation, the ancient dream of the exploited toiling masses came true; the
exploitation of man by man was abolished. What’s more, the oppressed masses
became masters of their own land, of their own destiny.
The October Revolution awakened millions of working masses all around the
world and shook the foundations of the barbaric and brutal imperialism. It
helped the people of the capitalist countries, primarily Britain, France and Germany,
become even more aware of the utter futility of the imperialist war that served only
the interests of the European ruling circles. In one country after another, communist
parties were founded adhering to the Bolshevik revolutionary principles and tactics.
The class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat become bitter. In some
cases, socialist revolutions broke out like in Germany and Hungary where resulted in
short lived Soviet Republics. The people in countries under colonial rule, China,
India, Persia and elsewhere also rose against their rulers. The world colonial system
entered a period of prolonged and deep crisis that would eventually bring its end after
the Second World War.

The October Revolution proclaimed the advent of a new era in the history of all
mankind, the era of proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship, the era
of transition from capitalism to communism. The Russian workers by making their
“leap to heavens” paved the way for their brothers in other countries to follow suit. As
Lenin wrote: “We started this work. How long it will take and whose country’s
proletarians are going to finish is not the main issue. The main issue is that the ice is
broken, the road is open, and the course is set”. The October Revolution gave birth to
the International Communist Movement and favoured its gradual development. It led
to the establishment of the Third International (1919-1943) which replaced the
bankrupt and treacherous Second International. Henceforth, the Third International
became a force that imperialism had to reckon with in all its future plans. It was the
headquarters of the International Proletarian Revolution. Being members of the Third
International, the Communist Parties were able to draw from the long revolutionary
experience of the Bolsheviks and play a leading role in the struggle of the workers in
their own countries.

Leaders like Lenin and Stalin who

perform such feats are born
perhaps once in a millennium.
“Leaders” are not the ones named by
all kinds of adventurists, exploiters
and mobsters. Leaders are those who
have unshakable devotion to ideals
that fully express the true interests
and the wishes of the masses,
wretched by the exploitation and
oppression of the world tyrants.
Together Lenin and Stalin
annihilated the remnants of the tsarist armies and the hordes of intervention sent to the
land of Soviets by the imperialist and other European countries, including Greece, in
order to overthrow the proletarian power. After Lenin’s death, Stalin solemnly swore
before the great leader’s coffin to continue his work. He kept this oath up to the last
letter.

As the leader of CPSU and the people of the Soviet Union, Stalin successfully carried
out the Leninist policy of industrialisation, and collectivisation of the country through
the launch of the five-year plans and surpassing enormous difficulties and problems.
But nothing would be possible without the monolithic unity of the Bolshevik Party.
And this Stalin maintained, like “the apple of his eye”, by crushing ideologically and
politically all the opportunistic factions that opposed the socialist construction; the
groups of Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin. All those who turned out to be
nothing more than common criminals, saboteurs and murderers, paid agents of
fascism and imperialism. Stalin led the party and the people of the Soviet Union in all
fields scoring huge successes in economy, defence, education, health, culture,
sciences, research, technology and generally, in social and cultural development. In a
slightly more than a decade, the country was transformed into an industrial and
military superpower. Stalin, CPSU and the Soviet Union became a legend and
humanity’s star of hope and pride.

The industrial and military might acquired with the first second and third five plan
allowed the Soviet people to achieve the greatest triumph of all centuries: the victory
over the German Nazism, the Italian and Japanese fascism in the Great Patriotic War.
Compared to its allies, the Soviet Union bore the greatest weight of the war and paid
an extremely high price for it. This, historically well-established, fact is evident not
only from the sheer size of the
human losses – more than 20
million dead – but also from the
devastation of the Soviet
homeland which was of shocking
scale.

Soon after the Great Victory, the

heroic and proud people of the
Soviet Union accomplished new
feats of labour by almost
completing the reconstruction of
their vast country from 1945 to
1952. Alas, the internal class enemies, though defeated, had not been totally
eliminated. As a matter of fact, throughout the whole period of the Great Patriotic
War and the reconstruction of the devastated homeland, the dark reaction, the crypto-
fascists and the revisionists in the ranks of the mass organisations, and especially
CPSU, were undermining the work of CPSU and the Soviet state using all possible
means, not excluding terrorist methods. They murdered Zhdanov, Schernbakov in
1948 and in 1953 I. V. Stalin himself. For this purpose, they employed a group of
doctors that had been recruited in a US-based secret organisation whose mission was
to eliminate the People’s Republics leaders, eminent scientists and state officials from
all progressive countries. The victims of the doctor’s gang, that numbered about 70
members in the Soviet Union, were many. Although they were all arrested, they were
acquitted and released later by Khrushchev apart from nine of them who had been
already executed for the murder of Zhdanov and Stalin.

The murder of Stalin was followed by the murder of a whole series of party and state
officials such as the Moscow and Kremlin Garrison Commanders, 29 top ranking
cadres of State Security, many cadres from the Soviet Republics, and the leaders of
almost all the People’s Republics; Wilhelm Pieck from Germany, Klement Gotvald
from Czechoslovakia, Boleslaw Beirut from Poland, Ana Pauker from Romania,
Vulko Chervenkov from Bulgaria, Matias Rakosi from Hungary and Nikos
Zachariades from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

Behind all these crimes they were the counter-revolutionary group of N. Khrushchev,
A. Mikoyan, L. Beria, Mikhail Suslov and others plotting against the Soviet power,
socialism and aiming at the restoration of capitalism. But coming out openly with
these goals, as early as 1953, would only amount to their suicide. They were
compelled to proceed gradually, being cautious in every step. Most importantly, they
had to find another target that would serve their sinister purpose indirectly. Of course
that target was Stalin and his world-historical work. By condemning (that is
slandering) Stalin and his alleged excesses and mistakes, the crypto-fascists
revisionists condemned the man who incarnated the very triumph of socialism not
only in USSR but in one-third of the world.

The next step was the official revision of Marxism-Leninism that started with the 20th
Congress (“peaceful transition” etc.) and continued with the decisions of the 22nd
Congress of CPSU (“state of all people” etc). Once revisionism seized political
power, it moved on with its economical programme; a series of individual reforms
carried out immediately after the 20th Congress (simultaneously with the overthrow
of the dictatorship of the proletariat) that culminated in the so-called Kosygin reforms
in 1964-65 resulting in the gradual but complete restoration of capitalism in the Soviet
Union and transforming it from the centre of world revolution into the centre of
revisionist counter-revolution.

Some of Khrushchev’s other despicable political actions include the following: 1) The
purge of almost all CPSU cadres (c.a. 98%) 2) The discharge and replacement of elite
officers of all ranks and fighting services 3) The replacement of the administrative
machinery (c.a. 94%) in all branches of production, in educational and research
institutes, in hospitals and cliniques 4) The liquidation of the World Peace Movement
5) The violent intervention and liquidation of the communist movement throughout
the world 6) The establishment of a system of corruption, bribery, and embezzlement.
7) The encouragement of unlimited consumption of alcohol and the emergence of an
increasing criminality in all socialist countries. 8) The formation of a capitalist caste
of privileged officials – the “nomenclature” – in all fields. 9) The introduction of
cosmopolitanism and the exhibition of the capitalist way of life and culture in socialist
societies. 10) The blemish, the vulgar slandering of the work and history of CPSU, its
leadership and the Soviet people. 11) The extortion of recantations (about 1000 a day
published in Pravda) from party, science economy cadres. All this turned the country
into a vast breeding-ground for the final figures of the treason, such that has never
been witnessed by humanity throughout the centuries: M. Gorbachev, B.Yeltsin, A.
Yakovlev, E. Sevardnadze and Co.

The prevalence of the Khruschevites in CPSU resulted in a new status quo in the
communist movement and in the socialist camp. They tried to impose the new
counter-revolutionary line adopted in the infamous 20th Congress to all communist
parties in the world. In order to achieve this, they employed every possible means of
intervention in the internal affairs of the fraternal parties, every kind of pressure and
threat, political and economical blackmail. All the communist parties that adopted the
ideological-political line of the 20th Congress degenerated into bourgeois,
socialdemocratic parties. The case of our party, KKE, is worth mentioning briefly
because it was the first party in the world that experienced a violent revisionist attack.
The peculiar circumstances under which our party was working during that period
were favourable to this intervention. In 1949, after the end of a heroic three-year
armed struggle against the Greek royal-fascism and Anglo-American imperialism, the
majority of the KKE members and cadres were forced to leave their country and settle
in the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries.

Even before the 20th Congress, when the Khrushchevites realised that the KKE
leadership headed by Nikos Zachariades is not going heed their calls to abandon the
revolutionary Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist course and follow the anti-Stalinist
revisionist course, they made a further step. They proceeded to form a right
opportunist faction in the Tashkent Party Organisation (KOT), and to promote this
faction right up to the Organisation’s leadership. KOT was the largest KKE Party
Organisation in the socialist countries and the Khrushchevites knew that if they
managed to subjugate it then it would be much easier to subjugate the whole Party.
However, the revolutionary KKE leadership headed by Nikos Zachariades
immediately took measures and removed fraction’s cadres from the leadership of
KOT. This was just the pretext for the pre-planned open provocation that followed.
On the 9th of September 1955, around 400 factionists, armed with knives and sticks,
attempted to capture by force the offices of KOT, serving at that time as a temporary
seat of some visiting members of the CC of KKE. This bloody pogrom failed thanks
to the overwhelming resistance of the Greek communists in Tashkent many of whom
suffered knife injuries in the clash with the factionists. The whole operation was under
the guidance of Saakov, KGB Colonel Saakov who, in turn, was employed by Boris
Panomariov, the member of the CC of CPSU entrusted with the KKE affairs.

The overwhelming majority of the Greek communists in Tashkent and other Party
organisations wholeheartedly condemned this despicable act of violence and
provocation and supported the lawful leadership of KKE headed by Nikos
Zachariades. The Party’s unity was evidently expressed in the elections of
representatives for the KOT Conference which would appoint a new KOT Bureau; the
majority of the elected representatives were loyal to the lawful KKE leadership. It was
evident that the KOT Conference would amount to the political death of the faction
but following an order from CC of CPSU the Conference was cancelled.

In the 20th Congress of CPSU, the Khruschevites formed the so-called “International
Committee of Fraternal Parties” consisting of cadres from the Soviet, Romanian,
Hungarian, Polish, Czechoslovak and Bulgarian parties. However, their behaviour
towards KKE was anything but fraternal. The International Committee openly and
without pretexts intervened in KKE by arbitrarily summoning the infamous 6th
Plenum (March 1956). This illicit body was convened by summoning a whole bunch
of former, i.e. removed, KKE cadres but not the General Secretary of the Party Nikos
Zachariades. The report was read by the Romanian opportunist Georgiu Dez. The 6th
Plenum illegally and forcibly removed the lawfully elected revolutionary leadership
of KKE, including the Party’s General Secretary Nikos Zachariades, who was arrested
and isolated, and appointed a right opportunistic puppet leadership that consisted of
individuals like K. Koligianis, K. Tsolakis (who participated in the bloody pogrom in
Tashkent aiming at the murder of Zachariades), M. Partsalidis and others. The 6th
Plenum adopted the counter-revolutionary social-democratic line promulgated in the
20th Congress of CPSU. What followed was the expulsion from the party of
thousands of communists who were staunch Marixst-Leninists and loyal to the lawful
KKE leadership.

The years that followed 1956 were years of fascist persecutions of all the Greek
communists, who remained faithful to Stalin and Zachariades by the Soviet and Greek
Khrushchevian revisionists. These persecutions took various forms: surveillance,
spying, arrests, imprisonments, exile to Siberia, etc. Thousands party cadres were
exiled to Siberia and among them the Party’s General Secretary, Nikos Zachariades,
who, after 17 years of exile, was murdered in Sorgut by the treacherous Brezhnev-
Florakis clique so that he wouldn’t return alive to Greece and upset their plans.

Essentially a new party emerged out of 6th Plenum. This new party shamelessly
usurped the name “K”KE although it has been, from the very beginning, a bourgeois
social democratic party which bears no political, ideological or organizational relation
with the revolutionary KKE. The anti-Stalinism of this 6th Plenum abortion is
evident even today not only from its everyday political tactics but also from its
hypocritical statement for the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution.

We mention only a few: a) No reference is made to the vital and irreplaceable role of
Stalin in the October Revolution, in the Civil War and, above all, in the construction
of socialism during the whole period 1924-1953. b) The line promulgated by the 7th
Congress of the Third International in 1935 that set as primary task for the
Communist parties the anti-fascist struggle is considered mistaken. c) The absolutely
right decision on the self-dissolution of the Third International in 1943 is said to have
deprived the Communist Movement of the decision centre needed to devise a strategy
against imperialism. At the same time, it is held that Comniform didn’t manage to
fulfil this role after the war. d) The Stalinist leadership of CPSU is actually blamed
for underestimating the intra-imperialist antagonisms and entertaining pacifistic
illusions. e) Of course, the 20th Congress of CPSU and Khruschevian revisionism
didn’t amount to the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the
restoration of capitalism. f) The line of peaceful co-existence is shamelessly attributed
to Stalin and the 19th Congress of CPSU g) The anti-revisionist attitude of the
Communist Parties of Albania and China is bluntly called “antisovietism”.

The perception of the 20th Congress, Khruschevian revisionism and the anti-stalinist
slandering as the gravediggers of the great October Revolution is the dividing line
between communism and anti-communism. The question that should be asked is then:
How did the class enemy manage to commit treason of such scale and such
dimensions? It is a fact that after the glorious victory over Nazism, Italian fascism and
Japanese militarism, the peace finally prevailed around the world. The Soviet Union
was seething with fruitful productive work. The living standards were constantly
rising. Life was becoming again pleasant, happy and much comfortable. The public
respect and esteem for the leaders of the country were beyond doubt and this is the
reason why it was so difficult for the soviet citizen to perceive the treacherous and
subversive intentions of some of the leaders who were in the spotlight? Who could
think that somebody like Nikita Khruchev was working to sell out their country to the
imperialists, to overthrow the social system??

Later, the treason was been fully completed by the all those “worthy” successors of
crypto-fascist revisionism, the agents of imperialism that bear the names of M.
Gorbachev, B. Yeltsin, A. Yakovlev, D. Medvedev, E. Sevardnadze and Co. These
agents of the class enemy within the CPSU ranks, seized offices, offended against the
toiling masses in every step they take, and they transformed the heavenly society of
their country into the dark hell of Dante. The outcome of this despicable treason is
wretchedness in every part of the country, terror and crime reaching their climax,
despair and isolation for the majority of the citizens. This was the upshot of the
capitalist restoration and the New Order. We believe that history, humanity as a whole
will condemn and severely punish the unprecedented treachery of working people not
only of the socialist camp but also of the whole world.

We believe that all proletarians, toilers, the socialist intellectuals and fighters will
always honour the Great October Revolution, focus attention on the society created by
the October Revolution and that the temporary prevalence of the counter-revolution
cannot delay the society’s necessary progression to communism.

There are, of course, nowadays well-meaning people who shout and yell that we have
reached the end of our dreams, that we have entered an era that marks the defeat of
the worker’s and communist movement, an era of despair and disappointment, of
demobilisation of the proletarian classes. But the communists, as all progressive
people, are well aware that capitalism is a system plagued with unresolved class
contradictions, a system that gives rise to phenomena of permanent crisis and
instability and shows clear signs of decay and collapse. They realise the downfall
and total annihilation of capitalism is inescapable and it will be facilitated by the
working class. After the Great October Revolution, this change is not any more a
mere vision but a historical necessity.

Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55