Home › Features › Essays › The New Communist Bible

The New Communist Bible

By Anonymous
January 1929
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.

A COMPREHENSIVE restatement of revolutionary creed issued from the Third or Communist International at the conclusion of its six-weeks Congress in Moscow last summer. This Congress, sixth in number since the Third International was organized by Lenin in 1919, was a meeting of particular significance. Over five hundred delegates were present, one hundred of them representing countries outside of Europe. The most important result was the formulation of a "Program of the Communist International," which was unanimously adopted at the closing session on September 1. This Program, a document of over twenty thousand words, is a complete exposition of Communist theory, practical aims and methods.[i] It was supplemented by a revolutionary appeal in the form of a Manifesto.[ii] Finally, an illuminating commentary on the Program was given by Bukharin, the President of the Third International and its principal theoretician, in a report to the Moscow Communist Center.[iii] The documents taken together constitute the new bible of world revolution.

The quotations below aim to reflect the spirit of the Program and cover its principal features, particularly those of practical tactics. Unless specifically attributed to the Manifesto or to Bukharin, all of them are from the Program. The following sentences from the Manifesto will serve to indicate the spirit of all the documents, besides revealing certain characteristics of the brand of Communism that is being preached from Moscow at the present time.

The Sixth Congress of the Communist International has adopted an International Program, equally binding on all of its sections. For the first time in the annals of the revolutionary labor movement the labor class receives into its hands a document whose provisions are law for millions of organized proletarians in all parts of the world, among all races and nations of the universe. . . . It is a guide in the struggle against their oppressors for millions of toilers -- white, yellow, or black -- under the tropics and in the remotest corners of the earth -- in factories and on plantations -- in mines and on railroads--in forests and desert steppes--wherever the class struggle unfolds. . . . It is a Program of Unity for the laboring class in its struggle against the bourgeoisie. It is the Program of the inevitable World Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Says Bukharin:

This is a premium article

You must be a logged in Foreign Affairs subscriber to continue reading. If you wish to continue reading this article please subscribe , or activate your online account to get full online access.

Buy PDF

Buy a premium PDF reprint of this article.

Related

Essay, Jan 1929
The Politbureau the Supreme Power in Soviet Russia
Anonymous

POLITICAL power in Soviet Russia is not divided and is delegated only in respect to minor matters; it rests firmly concentrated in the hands of one small group, the steering committee, or "Politbureau," of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The nine members of the Politbureau, together with their eight alternates, are the spear-head of the Communist Party's force of a million and a half members. On the one hand they dominate and direct the Government of the U. S. S. R.

Read
Essay, Jul 1962
IS COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY BECOMING IRRELEVANT?
Chester Bowles

Is Communism gaining strength as a world ideology? Is it really destined to sweep new nations and old peoples before it with the force and inevitability that it still claims? Or has it unhinged itself from historical truth and modern reality, thus losing both relevance and momentum?

Read
Essay, Special 1982
U.S.-Soviet Relations: A Turning Point?
Michel Tatu

Is an East-West policy necessary, and what should it be? Such a question would seem to go without saying and, in the eyes of countless academics and other observers, requires an affirmative response. More vigorously than ever, they are demanding from their governments, and, above all, from the United States, a "clear," "coherent," and "global" East-West policy. The question will become still more pressing in 1983, which will see the playing out of one of the most difficult matches in the game of nuclear arms negotiations since the beginning of the cold war, after the close of a year marked by two major events. In Moscow, the death of Leonid Brezhnev and the rise to power of Yuri Andropov may offer an opportunity for a new approach to old problems, and open up new perspectives on Soviet behavior. In Washington, in 1982, we have seen Ronald Reagan's policies run into their first serious problems in two areas that are supposed to be the main pillars of his "doctrine" regarding the Soviet Union: the philosophy of trade with the communist nations and the rearmament program.

Read