I
To Comrade Zhou Yang:
Well spoken. I fully agree.

Mao Zedong
November 8
Published based on the manuscript.

II
In our country, philosophy and social sciences, as one form of ideology and as part of the superstructure of society, serve, together with the natural sciences, the socialist economic base and the revolutionary political struggle. It is impermissible for them not to serve the economic base or the current political struggle. And politics is the concentrated expression of economics.

III
By scientifically analyzing capitalist society and summing up the experience of the workers' revolutionary movement, and through polemics against hostile ideas, the founders of Marxism laid its theoretical foundation—dialectical materialism and historical materialism, created the doctrine of surplus value, discovered that class struggle is the motive force of the entire course of historical development ever since mankind entered the era of civilization, and discovered that class struggle inevitably leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, thereby transforming socialism from a utopia into a science.

IV
Even during the lifetime of Marx and Engels, attempts to tamper with and abandon the theories of dialectical materialism, historical materialism, and class struggle which they had founded had already appeared among the German Social-Democrats.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* (People's Daily) of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's revisions)

V
This state of affairs may seem somewhat strange. How is it that some people who were once adherents of the revolutionary, scientific doctrine of socialism have degenerated to the point of taking the counter-revolutionary, anti-scientific revisionist road? Actually, it is not at all strange. Everything in the world invariably divides into two. So it is with doctrines; they invariably split. Where there is a revolutionary, scientific doctrine, its opposite, a counter-revolutionary, anti-scientific doctrine, is bound to emerge in the course of its internal development. Since society today is split into classes, and even in society ten thousand years from now there will still be differences between advanced and backward groups, opposites will constantly emerge. This theory has long been illustrated by the history of Marxist philosophy and the history of the various social sciences, and it has also been illustrated by the history of the natural sciences. Science itself and the history of science illustrate this unity and struggle of opposites, through which development occurs.

VI
You see, a unified thing divides into two and becomes two parts locked in mutual struggle.

VII
What is there to be surprised about? The huge revisionist leading group of the Second International, having become the running dogs of the bourgeoisie and being counter-revolutionary, anti-scientific, anti-communist, and anti-popular, was bound to tumble from its throne. The "nobodies" led by Lenin were bound to rise up and take their place.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's manuscript)

VIII
In China, Comrade Mao Zedong waged fierce polemics against various opportunist lines within the Party. Disregarding the ridicule of the "narrow empiricism" that had been imposed on him, and the political blows and isolation, he integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, and creatively developed Marxism-Leninism by using new revolutionary experience under new conditions.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's revisions)

IX
In China, everyone has seen with their own eyes that because the truth is in the hands of the Chinese Communists and the left-wing revolutionaries, the broad masses support these people. The huge monsters of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism were overthrown. People who were looked down upon (they led the broadest masses of workers, peasants, and intellectuals, who constitute over 90 percent of the population) seized political power and established the People's Republic. Things underwent an earth-shaking transformation.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's manuscript)

X
All revolutionary people and revolutionary parties and groups throughout the world increasingly place their hopes on the genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, factions, groups, and individuals in all countries, including the Communist Party of China. Their thinking is increasingly becoming the banner of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and the banner of the contemporary world people's revolution.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's revisions)

XI
The leadership of the CPSU, violating the correct principles of the Moscow Declaration and Statement, first brought internal disputes into the open before the enemy. At one of its own congresses, it arbitrarily declared another fraternal party—the Albanian Party of Labor—to be so-called "anti-Marxist-Leninists," and subsequently used all sorts of despicable acts against the Chinese Communists and all Communists in other countries who disagreed with its erroneous line. They thought this was a clever tactic and ran wild with it for several years. In fact, it is a very unwise tactic, one that is quite sufficient to ruin their own reputation and make life rather difficult for themselves. If they do not turn back and correct their mistakes, their days will certainly become even more difficult. If you do not believe this, just wait and see.

XII
The modern revisionists have three fears: first, they fear imperialism; second, they fear genuine Marxism-Leninism (which they call "dogmatism"); third, they fear the revolutionary people. They are as timid as mice. They dare not let the people of their own countries see the counter-criticisms made by those they call "dogmatists" in response to their criticisms, and they impose a strict blockade, as if sealing off a "plague." From this alone, one can determine what kind of days lie ahead for the modern revisionists.

XIII
True revolutionaries, true fighters of the proletarian revolution, true Marxist-Leninists—militant materialists—are dauntless. They are not afraid of isolation, nor are they afraid of the curses of the reactionaries and revisionists. For they know that it is not the seemingly terrifying huge monsters that represent the future, but themselves, these small people. All great figures were once small figures. Those who seem isolated at first will ultimately win victory as long as they hold the truth in their hands. This was the case with Lenin and the Third International. And because they lose the truth and forfeit the support of the masses, famous great figures and great organizations are bound to decline, to become small and stink. This was the case with Bernstein and the Second International. Things always transform into their opposites under given conditions.

XIV
In Europe, North America, and Australia, some leaders of Communist parties, in order to safeguard the interests of imperialism and capitalism, are increasingly singing the same tune as the Social-Democrats, making themselves indistinguishable from the Social-Democrats in both form and essence. Moreover, they use methods of creating splits, such as expulsion from the party, to deal with genuine Marxist-Leninists. At such a time, parties capable of representing the proletarian revolutionary faction are bound to emerge there. This process is also occurring among some Communists in Latin America and Asia. Some people who for a time cannot see clearly, who are hoodwinked by revisionism and follow it, will one day be taught by facts to part company with revisionism and return to the side of Marxism-Leninism. In short, in the world, no matter what country, no matter what place, wherever there is oppression, there is bound to be resistance; wherever there is revisionism, there is bound to be Marxism-Leninism opposing it; wherever splittist methods such as expulsion from the party are used against Marxist-Leninists, new and outstanding Marxist-Leninists and powerful revolutionary parties are bound to emerge. Changes unexpected by the modern revisionists and modern dogmatists are taking place. They are creating their own opposites, and in the end they will surely be buried by the opposites they themselves have created. This is an inexorable law.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's manuscript)

XV
In this great era, the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat, leading the revolutionary people who constitute over 90 percent of the world's population, will overcome all kinds of difficulties on the revolutionary path and march forward toward the complete victory of the cause of the world people's revolution.
Published based on Mao Zedong's revisions.

XVI
The old revisionists were once keen on the fashionable slogan "Back to Kant." Bernstein openly declared that dialectics was a "trap" hindering correct understanding and a treacherous element in the Marxist doctrine. The Russian philosophical revisionists, represented by people like Bogdanov and Lunacharsky, after the defeat of the 1905 Revolution, developed a mood of pessimism and despair about the revolutionary future. They believed that the only good way out was to resort to subjective idealism and theology, and openly advocated combining Marxist materialism with Machism, and combining socialism with religion, turning revolutionaries into "god-seekers." This reactionary tendency within the Second International and the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party at that time was thoroughly criticized by Lenin. His great work *Materialism and Empirio-criticism* was written precisely to criticize the god-seekers.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's revisions)

XVII
The representatives of modern revisionism are all political worshippers of the United States, and what they actually follow in all their policies is the American brand of pragmatist philosophy.
Published based on Mao Zedong's revisions.

XVIII
Whether one dares to face squarely and recognize the contradiction between the imperialists headed by the United States and the people of the whole world, whether one dares to face squarely and recognize the class contradictions and class struggle existing in any country in the world, and whether one dares to face squarely and recognize the two types of contradictions within socialist society (namely, antagonistic contradictions and non-antagonistic contradictions)—this is the touchstone for whether one can thoroughly and consistently uphold the revolutionary dialectics of Marxism-Leninism.

XIX
They hold that the contradictions between imperialism and socialism, between imperialism and the oppressed nations, between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, among the imperialist countries, and among the various monopoly capitalist groups within a single imperialist country—all these should and can be reconciled and merged.

XX
We fully appraise the positive, enlightening role historically played by the bourgeois humanist trend of thought in Europe from the Renaissance movement that began in Italy in the 14th to 16th centuries up to the mid-19th century. In the contemporary era, there are also bourgeois humanists, and we are willing to establish relations of unity with them in the common struggle against imperialism and in defense of world peace.

XXI
In his *Reform Our Study*, Comrade Mao Zedong repeatedly stressed the principle of integrating theory with practice, which Marxist-Leninists have always emphasized.
Published based on the *Renmin Ribao* of December 27, 1963. (With Mao Zedong's revisions)

**Notes**
[1] Zhou Yang, then Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] *The Fighting Task of Philosophical and Social Science Workers* was the text of a speech delivered by Zhou Yang on October 26, 1963, at the Fourth Enlarged Meeting of the Committee of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was later published in *Renmin Ribao* on December 27, 1963.
[3] Part (I) of this piece is Mao Zedong's comment written on Zhou Yang's report of October 31, 1963, submitting the draft speech *The Fighting Task of Philosophical and Social Science Workers* for review. The report stated that the meeting was attended by approximately 500 people, including social science workers from both inside and outside the Party and leading comrades from Party propaganda departments. The Chairman's *Reform Our Study* and Comrade Shaoqi's speech at the Vietnamese Party School were distributed as the main study documents for the meeting, along with some other documents and both positive and negative materials. It was also planned to invite Comrade Shaoqi to speak at the meeting. This was a study and mobilization meeting for academic circles to oppose revisionism, and everyone's morale was very high. Parts (II) to (XXI) are Mao Zedong's revisions to this draft speech. The text printed in Song typeface represents passages he added or rewrote. In addition, he made some minor textual revisions.
[4] Bernstein, leader of the right wing of the German Social-Democratic Party and the Second International.
[5] Kant, German philosopher, founder of classical German idealist philosophy.
[6] Bogdanov, Russian philosopher and economist. Lunacharsky, Soviet politician, literary critic, and philosopher.