Comments on the Situation Report Concerning Articles on International Issues Published in the Soviet Journal “Political Self-Education” [1], dated July 1960, were circulated [2].

The more right-leaning one becomes, the more one exposes oneself to the people—this is unseemly.

Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.
Notes [1] This telegram, sent by the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 16, 1960, reported that Issue No. 7 of the Soviet journal “Political Self-Education” had published four apologetic articles on international affairs written by members of the journal’s editorial board, including Vyshchankov and Frantsev.
These articles presented the Soviet position as “a model of creatively Leninist treatment of revolutionary theory.”
While acknowledging that “Lenin’s theory of imperialism retains its full validity in our time,” they also asserted that “anyone who calls himself a dialectical Marxist, anyone who adopts a creative Marxist–Leninist stance, should not only recognize the quantitative changes in modern imperialism but also the profound qualitative transformations occurring in modern imperialism and the international situation, so as not to mindlessly repeat the notion that, prior to the worldwide victory of socialism, imperialist wars are inevitable.”
The articles further maintained that within the ruling circles of modern imperialism there exists a rational faction capable of isolating reactionary forces and “eliminating them from the political stage.”
The telegram noted that, as a popular publication for political-theoretical education, the decision to devote such a large portion of this issue to international questions represented a new development, indicating that the Soviet leadership was intensifying its efforts to indoctrinate the broad masses at home with its rightist views. [ ] Refers to distribution among comrades then attending the CPC Central Committee Work Conference in Beidaihe.