Comments on the Report of the Moscow Conference [1]
(May 12, 1958)
To Comrade Deng Xiaoping:
I have read it once; it is acceptable. There are a few textual revisions—please decide as you see fit. Some points still require further discussion.
Mao Zedong
May 12
[1]
Refers to the draft report prepared by General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Deng Xiaoping for delivery at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, concerning the Moscow Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties of Various Countries. The report outlined the circumstances surrounding the CPC’s dispatch in November 1957 of a delegation headed by Mao Zedong to participate in the celebrations marking the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution in the Soviet Union and in the Moscow Conference itself. It elaborated on the following issues: (1) the international situation; (2) the mutual relationship between the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism and the national characteristics of each country; (3) ideological work and the struggle against revisionism; and (4) strengthening unity within the socialist camp and the international communist movement.
[2]
The principal revisions Mao Zedong made to Deng Xiaoping’s draft report were as follows: After the phrase “However, learning must be conducted in the correct manner and combined with independent creativity” in the passage discussing “studying the advanced experience of the Soviet Union, which is our firm policy,” Mao added the words “Marxism-Leninism tells us”; after the words “ideological work” in the sentence stating that “the Declaration of Twelve Communist Parties is, in fact, a general program for the ideological work of communist parties in the current period,” he inserted the words “and political work”; in the sentence noting that “revisionism among the right-wing social democrats still wields considerable influence among workers in modern capitalist countries,” Mao replaced “still wields considerable influence” with “still wields great influence”; in the passage referring to “the program recently adopted by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, regardless of the subjective aspirations of its proponents or how many socialist and anti-imperialist slogans it may superficially display, it precisely serves the needs of imperialism on the most important questions,” he changed “the program’s proponents” to “the creators of the program”; after the words “Yugoslav Communist Party” in the sentence explaining that “the Yugoslav Communist Party has become a major representative of modern revisionism precisely because of its capitulation to bourgeois ideology domestically and to imperialist pressure abroad,” Mao added the words “leading group”; and after the words “Moreover, all” in the statement that “not only can those who desire the victory of the socialist cause not sympathize with the Yugoslav Communist Party’s leadership group’s secessionist activities, but also those who seek the triumph of peace and national independence cannot sympathize with them either,” Mao inserted the word “genuine.”