From whom did Marx, Lenin, and Mao mean to liberate the world?

From the Western rich and those political and military forces that defend the rich against the just wrath of the poor.

Marx saw the four stages of world history: slavery, feudal serfdom, capitalism (the power of the rich), and communism (in which there will be no government or any other authorities, no prisons, and no money, and all work will be "creative and voluntary"). The trouble was that Soviet Russia and later the People's Republic of China could not move to communism straight after the People (read: Lenin and Mao) had seized power. Hence Lenin permitted capitalism, and Gorbachev (who worshiped Lenin) intended to repeat Lenin's capitalism and quoted him as saying that "it is serious and for long."

In China, Lenin's capitalism is of additional and inestimable value: it helps the dictatorship to obtain Western geostrategic technology.

At the stage between capitalism and communism, other intermediate measures are also necessary. Since many non-Marxists do not believe in the innermost profundities of Marxism, they would ask, pending the delay in the advent of communism: "But who rules the country NOW?" The People, of course! How do they do it?

In 1936 Stalin introduced general elections, with universal suffrage and secret ballot, and Stalin himself was elected by more than 99% of the voters. I voted AGAINST — at the risk of my life! The Chinese speak of "democratic centralism," an authentic Soviet propaganda clichι. The People elect "deputies" (an authentic Soviet term) of the People's Congress (the Supreme Soviet), and one of the deputies becomes the President of the People's Republic of China. How?

Well, how does or did one of the gangsters become the Godfather? How did Lenin (Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev) come to the top?

In Lenin's Russia there should have been no authorities, since in communism there are none. But in Lenin's Russia, the Communist Party existed, since Lenin had created it before 1917, and it was proper for him to call his gang "a party." Pending the coming of communism, in which there would be no authorities, the party remained, and surely every party must have secretaries to carry out secretarial work, and so Stalin became the General Secretary of the Communist Party. No, no authority, but just the chief secretary to be in charge of secretarial work. Hu Jintao is the President of the People's Republic of China AND the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He is also "the 1st member" of the Politburo — another Soviet word going back to 1917.

The whole "political system" of Stalin's Russia allegedly obeyed and that of China today allegedly obeys the Constitution! The Constitution of Soviet Russia could, and the Constitution of the People's Republic of China can, be envied by any person in the world as long as he or she did not or does not know it existed or exists only on paper. Russia in 1937 (the year of Stalin's "great terror") and China in 2005 (the year when members of Falun Gong were tortured to death though it is not clear what for) was the world's constitutionally freest countries (on paper).

"China Internet Information Center" has posted a long dissertation to explain in English to the English-speaking countries "China's Political System." The dissertation consists of 11 chapters. The first chapter is "The Constitutional System." Here are bits from this 4-page chapter:

All individuals, political parties and social organizations must abide by the Constitution in all their acts and shall not be privileged to be above the Constitution or the law. All acts in violation of the Constitution and law must be investigated. The rule of law is practiced to build China into a socialist [not yet communist!] country with the rule of law. All citizens are equal before the law. All citizens who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or place of residence, except persons deprived of political rights according to law. All citizens enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. No citizen may be arrested except with the approval or by decision of a people's procuratorate or by decision of a people's court, and arrests must be made by a public security organ.

Unlawful detention or deprivation or restriction of citizens' freedom of the person or by other means is prohibited, and unlawful search of the person of citizens is prohibited. The personal dignity of the citizens is inviolable, so are their residences.

The question is why Soviet Russia and the People's Republic of China created such a grandiose and detailed system of theatricals to seem more democratic than any democratic country — to be a "genuine democracy" as Stalin put it?

The promised communism had not come either in Soviet Russia by 1991 or in the People's Republic of China by 1989. A certain number of Chinese and Russians began looking to the democratic West instead of expecting the advent of the Marxist paradise. In China, the Tiananmen Square, in which a replica of the Statue of Liberty was ensconced, was "cleared" by armor on June 4, 1989. In Russia, the Soviet dictatorship fell in 1991, without much resistance, despite the armed forces, the police, and the secret political police.

A dictatorship has to assure its own population and the outside world that prior to the advent of communism it is more democratic than any Western democratic country — indeed, it is not just a democracy, but it is a "genuine democracy" as Stalin put it. Nor was private enterprise amiss. Communism? Look, China will soon be as prosperous as any Western country. Why do you need communism so quickly — 56 years after Mao seized power in the name of Marx and Lenin?

Also, according to Marx and Lenin, communism must and will be global! And if it becomes global, no Tiananmen Square movements will be possible since there will be no alternative to the People's Republic of China to look to.

If "the leaders of China" make such an effort to create a spurious "political system" to deceive their own population and the outside world, surely they will make an even greater effort to develop post-nuclear superweapons in order to make communism (their power) global. Indeed, this goal was proclaimed by Marx, Lenin, and Mao, and hence there is no goal greater than this apotheosis of the history of mankind.

However, there are two differences between Soviet Russia and the People's Republic of China. First, the latter's demographic and hence geostrategic size: its population exceeds 1.3 billion while that of Russia today is below 150 million, less than 1/8.

Second, the development of post-nuclear superweapons by Soviet Russia was parochial, while their development by the People's Republic of China has been global: the dictatorship of China has been drawing on the best global science and technology in the relevant fields and employing the world's best scientists and technologists in these fields. It is the world, including the West, vs. the West, preoccupied with projects like the conquest-liberation of Iraq and possibly the bombing of Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons (which were tested in Soviet Russia in 1949 and the People's Republic of China in 1964).

Lev Navrozov's (navlev@cloud9.net] new book is available on-line at www.levnavrozov.com. To request an outline of the book, send an e-mail to webmaster@levnavrozov.com.