(May 15, 1958)
Comrade Xiaoping:
The letter from the CPSU to the League of Communists of Yugoslavia dated May 9, No. 121, is an excellent document and is entirely in line with our position. They have come to their senses and stood up. Please do two things: (1) Arrange a meeting with the person in charge of the Soviet Embassy to express our warm congratulations. Alternatively, I can meet with him after the Congress, No. 131. This is a major event: there is a turning point in the CPSU’s political theory, its style is changing, and there is great hope. (2) Immediately circulate the Soviet document to all delegates of the Congress for their perusal. If time permits, discuss it once in a small-group meeting, and delegates may take copies home. Since it is a remarkable document worthy of mutual appreciation, it should be printed and distributed without delay. This letter is to be appended to the Soviet document and placed at the front.
[1]
Xiaoping refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time served as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Mao Zedong
May 15
[2]
Refers to the letter dated May 9, 1958, from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which mainly set forth views on relations between the two parties and on the draft program of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. The letter argued that the program adopted at the Seventh Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was in opposition to the Declaration of the Conference of Parties of the Socialist Countries and of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, and that most of the speeches delivered by League of Communists of Yugoslavia leaders at the congress contained unfriendly and hostile criticism of the Soviet Union, the CPSU, and the fraternal communist parties.
[3]
Refers to the Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held from May 5 to 23, 1958.