MIA: Subjects: Yugoslavia

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Quotes compiled from Selected Works of Mao Zedong except where otherwise indicated

 

As to what Acheson calls a "Rightist totalitarian government", the U.S. government has ranked first in the world among such governments since the downfall of the fascist governments of Germany, Italy and Japan. All bourgeois governments, including the governments of the German, Italian and Japanese reactionaries which are being shielded by imperialism, are governments of this type. The Tito government of Yugoslavia has now become an accomplice of this gang. The U.S. and British governments belong to the type in which the bourgeoisie, and this class alone, exercises dictatorship over the people. Contrary in all respects to the people's government, this type of government practices so-called democracy for the bourgeoisie but is dictatorial towards the people. The governments of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Franco and Chiang Kai-shek discarded the veil of democracy for the bourgeoisie or never used it because the class struggle in their countries was extremely intense and they found it advantageous to discard, or not to use, this veil lest the people too should make use of it. The U.S. government still has a veil of democracy, but it has been cut down to a tiny patch by the U.S. reactionaries and become very faded, and is not what it used to be in the days of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. The reason is that the class struggle has become more intense. When the class struggle becomes still more intense, the veil of U.S. democracy will inevitably be flung to the four winds.

Why it is Necessary to Discuss the White Paper
by Mao Zedong, August 28, 1949

When we won the war, Stalin suspected that ours was a victory of the Tito type, and in 1949 and 1950 the pressure on us was very strong indeed. Even so, we maintain the estimate of 30 per cent for his mistakes and 70 per cent for his achievements. This is only fair.

On the Ten Major relationships
by Mao Zedong, April 25, 1956

According to a survey made in Peking, most college students are children of landlords, rich peasants, the bourgeoisie and well-to-do middle peasants, while students from working-class and poor and lower- middle peasant families account for less than 20 per cent. Probably this is roughly the case too in the rest of the country. This situation should change, but it will take time. Gomulka has been very popular with a number of our college students, and so have Tito and Kardelj. On the other hand, at the time of the riots in Poland and Hungary, most of the landlords and rich peasants in the countryside and the capitalists and members of the democratic parties in the cities behaved better and made no attempt to stir up trouble or come out with threats to kill thousands and tens of thousands of people. But one should be analytical about their behaviour. For they no longer have any political capital, the workers and the poor and lower- middle peasants won't listen to them, and they have no ground to stand on. Should something happen like atom bombs blowing up Peking and Shanghai, wouldn't these people change? You can't be too sure they wouldn't. In that eventuality, there would be a process of realignment of the landlords, the rich peasants, the bourgeoisie and the members of the democratic parties. They have worldly wisdom, and many of them are lying low. Their offspring -- those school kids -- are inexperienced, and it is they who expose such wares as "I will have thousands and tens of thousands of people shot" and "Socialism is in no way superior".

Talks at a Conference of Secretaries of Provincial, Municipal
and Autonomous Region Party Committees

by Mao Zedong, 1957

We should be courageous in thinking, speaking, and doing, with Marxism-Leninism as the foundation. Tito has courage in thinking, speaking, and doing, but his foundation is imperialism and capitalism, not Marxism-Leninism. Our foundation is Marxism-Leninism; therefore, we are correct, and we will not get into trouble when we think, speak, and do with courage.

[...]

Tito specialized in being disappointed. His energy belongs to that side. The Moscow Declaration is the strength of our side. The Yugoslavia program checks the ambition of the proletariat and encourages the arrogance of the enemy.

[...]

The revisionists are also guilty of excessive modesty. Tito, for instance, does nothing but copy from Eduard Bernstein and borrow from his bourgeois mentors.

[...]

The revisionists are influenced by the bourgeoisie; they copy the bourgeoisie. Tito's copying Eduard Bernstein is one example.

Speeches At The Second Session Of The Eighth Party Congress
by Mao Zedong, May 8-23, 1958

Marxism tells us that to examine a question, it is necessary to consider the essence, the main trend and the line. This is to see whether or not he builds socialism at home, opposes imperialism internationally and works for internationalism within the socialist camp. These three items constitute a line. As members of the Chinese Communist Party, we also are a party, which opposes imperialism and is for socialism and internationalism. So are the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries. These aspects manifest the essence of the Marxist-Leninist line. We can make a comparison to see if they are steadfast or not. Take Tito. Is he steadfast? It seems to me that all three items are lacking in the things that he does. He does not want any part of anti-imperialism. He is always talking about how good American imperialism is and how bad the Soviet Union is.

Examples Of Dialectics (Abstracted Compilation)
by Mao Zedong, 1959

Then came the conference of the Two Communist Parties, the Twenty-six- Country Drafting Committee, the Eighty-one-Country Moscow Conference, and there was also a Warsaw Conference, all of which were concerned with the dispute between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. We spent the w! hole of 1960 fighting Khrushchev. So you see that among socialist countries and within Marxism-Leninism a question like this could emerge. But in fact its roots lie deep in the past, in things which happened very long ago. They did not permit China to make revolution: that was in 1945. Stalin wanted to prevent China from making revolution, saying that we should not have a civil war and should cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek, otherwise the Chinese nation would perish. But we did not do what he said. The revolution was victorious. After the victory of the revolution he next suspected China of being a Yugoslavia, and that I would become a second Tito. Later when I went to Moscow to sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance, we had to go through another struggle. He was not willing to sign a treaty. After two months of negotiations he at last signed. When did Stalin begin to have confidence in us? It was at the time of the Resist America, Aid Korea campaign, from the winter of 1950. He then came to believe that we were not Tito, not Yugoslavia. But now we have became "Left adventurists", "nationalists", "dogmatists", "sectarians", while the Yugoslavs have become "Marxist-Leninists". Nowadays Yugoslavia is quite all right, she's doing fine. I hear that she has become "socialist" again. So the socialist camp is internally highly complicated too. It is, in fact, also very simple. There is only one principle involved: that is the problem of the class struggle — the problem of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the problem of the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and anti-Marxism-Leninism, the problem of the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism.

Speech At The Tenth Plenum Of The Eighth Central Committee
by Mao Zedong September 24, 1962

However, they cannot easily perceive and are often off their guard or not vigilant against another form of capitalist restoration, which therefore presents a greater danger. The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat takes the road of revisionism or the road of "peaceful evolution" as a result of the degeneration of the leadership of the Party and the state. A lesson of this kind was provided some years ago by the revisionist Tito clique who brought about the degeneration of socialist Yugoslavia into a capitalist country. But the Yugoslav lesson alone has not sufficed to arouse people's attention fully. Some may say that perhaps it was an accident.

Refutation of the So-Called Party of the Entire People
by Mao Zedong, July 1964

People have seen how in Yugoslavia, although the Tito clique still displays the banner of "socialism", a bureaucratic bourgeoisie opposed to the Yugoslav people has gradually come into being since the Tito clique took the road of revisionism, transforming the Yugoslav state from a dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the bureaucrat bourgeoisie and its socialist public economy into state capitalism. Now people see the Khrushchov clique taking the road already travelled by the Tito clique. Khrushchov looks to Belgrade as his Mecca, saying again and again that he will learn from the Tito clique's experience and declaring that he and the Tito clique "belong to one and the same idea and are guided by the same theory". This is not at all surprising.

On Khrushchov's Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World:
Comment on the Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU (IX)

by the Editorial Departments of Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) and Hongqui (Red Flag), July 1964

The revisionist leading clique of the Soviet Union, the Tito clique of Yugoslavia, and all the other cliques of renegades and scabs of various shades are mere dust heaps in comparison, while you, a lofty mountain, tower to the skies. They are slaves and accomplices of imperialism, before which they prostrate themselves, while you are dauntless proletarian revolutionaries who dare to fight imperialism and its running dogs, fight the world's tyrannical enemies.

The Soviet Leading Clique is a Mere Dust Heap
by Mao Zedong, October 25, 1966

 

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