Participants: Anastas Mikoyan, Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang, Liu Xiao, Li Yue
Archive: Archive of the President of the Russian Federation
URL: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/memorandum-conversation-between-anastas-mikoyan-and-mao-zedong-3

Memorandum of Conversation Between A.I. Mikoyan and Mao Zedong

January 20, 1956

Present: Wang Jiaxiang, Liu Xiao, Li Yue

Mikoyan: I would like to discuss with you some questions that are of interest to us.

Mao Zedong: Please do.

Mikoyan: First of all, the question of the cult of the individual. We have seriously taken up this question. We think that the cult of the individual is harmful, that it belittles the role of the party and the collective. We think that the cult of the individual is a phenomenon that is alien to Marxism-Leninism.

Mao Zedong: Yes, the cult of the individual is indeed harmful. The individual is not worth worshipping. The individual is not God.

Mikoyan: We think that the cult of the individual was to a certain degree characteristic of Stalin. Stalin made a great contribution to the party, to our country, and to the entire international communist movement. However, he also committed serious errors. He was excessively self-confident and excessively trusted his own person. He did not sufficiently value the role of the collective. All of this led to serious errors.

Mao Zedong: Yes, Stalin committed errors. It is necessary to speak about this openly.

Mikoyan: We are now preparing a report on this question for the 20th Party Congress. We would like to know your opinion on this question.

Mao Zedong: We agree with you that the cult of the individual is harmful. We also think that Stalin committed errors. However, we think that it is necessary to evaluate Stalin’s activities in a comprehensive way. We think that Stalin was a great Marxist-Leninist. He made a great contribution to the development of the Soviet Union and to the victory over fascism. Stalin’s errors were secondary. They should not overshadow his great achievements.

Mikoyan: We also think that Stalin made a great contribution. However, we cannot ignore his errors. We must speak about them openly in order to prevent such errors from being repeated in the future.

Mao Zedong: Yes, it is necessary to speak about Stalin’s errors. However, it is important to do this in a way that does not harm the international communist movement.

Mikoyan: We will take this into consideration. Now, allow me to move on to the second question. The question of relations between parties. We think that relations between parties should be built on the basis of equality and mutual respect. We think that each party should independently determine its own policies. No party should interfere in the internal affairs of another party.

Mao Zedong: We completely agree with you. Relations between parties should be built on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Mikoyan: We think that in the past there were instances when these principles were violated. In particular, this occurred in relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Mao Zedong: Yes, we know about this. We think that the Soviet Union was wrong in its relations with Yugoslavia.

Mikoyan: We are now taking steps to correct these errors. We have normalized relations with Yugoslavia. We are ready to develop relations with all socialist countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Mao Zedong: This is very good. This will strengthen the unity of the socialist camp.

Mikoyan: Now, allow me to move on to the third question. The question of the international situation. We think that the international situation is now more favorable for socialism than ever before. The forces of socialism are growing stronger. The forces of capitalism are weakening.

Mao Zedong: Yes, we agree with you. The international situation is developing in a direction that is favorable for socialism.

Mikoyan: We think that in these conditions it is possible to prevent war. We think that it is possible to achieve peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems.

Mao Zedong: We also think that it is possible to prevent war. However, we must not relax our vigilance. We must continue to strengthen our defense capabilities.

Mikoyan: Of course. We must be vigilant. However, we must also strive for peace. We must use all opportunities to achieve peaceful coexistence.

Mao Zedong: Yes, we agree with you.

Mikoyan: These are the questions that I wanted to discuss with you.

Mao Zedong: Thank you for the conversation.

[End of Document]