The revisionist leaders of the Communist Party of China naturally welcomed whole-heartedly the usurpation of power in the Soviet ”Union by their revisionist counterparts.
In his opening address to the 8th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in September 1956, Mao Tse-tung referred in glowing terms to the infamous 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which had been held in February of that year.
At its 20th Congress held not long ago, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union formulated many correct policies and criticised shortcomings which were found in the Party. It can be confidently asserted that very great developments will follow this in its work.” (Mao Tse-tung: Opening Address, in: ”Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China”, Vol. l, Peking; 1956).
And, on the basis of discussions at enlarged meetings of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, two widely publicised articles were published in ”Renmin Ribao” (People’s Daily) in April and December 1956 which put forward the modern revisionist viewpoint on the 20th Congress, and on the denunciation of Stalin and the ”rehabilitation” of the Yugoslav revisionists.
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union .... took a series of momentous decisions ... on the criticism of shortcomings within the Party. ...
The Congress very sharply exposed the prevalence of the cult of the individual which, for a long time in Soviet life, had given rise to many errors in work and had led to ill consequences. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union... made appalling mistakes, and, what is more, it was Stalin himself, that widely renowned and honoured leader, who made them!
Stalin erroneously exaggerated his own role, and counterposed his individual authority to the collective leadership, and as a result certain of his actions were opposed to certain fundamental Marxist-Leninist concepts. ... When any leader of the Party or the state places himself over and above the Party and the masses instead of in their midst, when he alienates himself from the masses, he ceases to have an all-round, penetrating insight into the affairs of state. As long as this was the case, even so outstanding a personality as Stalin could not avoid making unrealistic and erroneous decisions on certain important matters. Stalin failed to draw lessons from isolated, local and temporary mistakes on certain issues and so failed to prevent them from becoming serious mistakes of a nationwide or prolonged nature. During the latter part of his life, Stalin took more and more pleasure in this cult of the individual, and violated the Party’s system of democratic centralism and the principle of combining collective leadership with individual responsibility.
As a result he made some serious mistakes such as the following: he broadened the scope of the suppression of counter-revolution; he lacked the necessary vigilance on the eve of the anti-fascist war; he failed to pay proper attention to the further development of agriculture and the material welfare of the peasantry; he gave certain wrong advice on the international communist movement; and, in particular, made a wrong decision on the question of Yugoslavia.
On these issues, Stalin fell victim to subjectivism and one-sidedness, and divorced himself from objective reality and from the masses. ...
The struggle against the cult of the Individual which was launched by the 20th Congress is a great and courageous fight by the Communists and the people of the Soviet Union to clear away the ideological obstacles in the way of their advance. ...
The Chinese Communist Party congratulates the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on its great achievements in this historic struggle against the cult of the individual ... Stalin was ... a Marxist-Leninist who committed gross errors without realising that they were errors. ... True to the behest of Lenin, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is dealing in a serious way both with certain mistakes of a grave nature committed by Stalin in directing the work of building socialism and with the surviving effects of such mistakes.
Because of the seriousness of the effects, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union while affirming the great contributions of Stalin, deemed it necessary to sharply expose the essence of his mistakes, to call upon the whole Party to take them as a warning, and to work resolutely to remove their ill consequences. We Chinese Communists are firmly convinced that as a result of the sharp criticisms made at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, all those positive factors which were previously suppressed as a result of certain mistaken policies will inevitably spring everywhere into life, and the Party and the people of the Soviet Union will become still more firmly united in the struggle to build a great communist society. (“On the Historical Experience of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”; Peking, 1956; p.3, 4, 9-10, 11, 13, 19, 20-21).
Stalin made some serious mistakes in regard to the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet Union. His arbitrary method of work impaired to a certain extent the principle of democratic centralism both in the life of the Party and in the state system of the Soviet Union, and disrupted part of the socialist legal system.
Because in many fields of work Stalin estranged himself from the masses to a serious extent, and made personal, arbitrary decisions concerning many important policies, it was inevitable that he should have made grave mistakes. These mistakes stand out most conspicuously in the suppression of counter-revolution and in relations with certain foreign countries. ... He wronged many local communists and honest citizens, and this caused serious losses. ... In relations with brother countries and parties, Stalin ... showed a tendency towards great-nation chauvinism. ... Sometimes he even intervened mistakenly, with many grave consequences, in the internal affairs of certain brother countries and parties. ...
A series of victories and the eulogies he received in the latter years of his life turned his head. He deviated partly, but grossly, from the dialectical materialist way of thinking and fell into subjectivism. He began to put blind faith in personal wisdom and authority; he would not investigate and study the complicated conditions seriously or listen carefully to the opinions of his comrades and the voice of the masses. As a result, some of the policies and measures he adopted were often at variance with objective reality. He often stubbornly persisted in carrying out...these mistaken measures over a long period and was unable to correct his mistakes in time.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has taken measures to correct Stalin’s mistakes and eliminate their consequences. These measures are beginning to bear fruit. The Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union showed great determination and courage in doing away with the blind faith in Stalin, in exposing the gravity of Stalin’s mistakes and in eliminating their effects. ... Stalin committed some grave mistakes in his later years. ...
His tragedy lies in the fact that, at the very time when he was doing things which were mistaken he believed they were necessary for the defence of the interests of the working people against encroachments by the enemy. Stalin’s mistakes did harm to the Soviet Union… The Yugoslav comrades bear a particular animus against Stalin’s mistakes. In the past, they made worthy efforts to stick to socialism under difficult conditions. Their experiments in the democratic management of economic enterprises and other socialist organisations have also attracted attention. The Chinese people welcome the reconciliation between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries on the one hand and Yugoslavia on the other. ....
One of the grave consequences of Stalin’s mistakes was the growth of doctrinairism. ..
Stalin and the former leaders in some socialist countries committed the serious mistake of violating socialist democracy. ...
After the elimination of classes, the class struggle should not continue to be stressed as being intensified, as it was done by Stalin with the result that the healthy development of socialist democracy was hampered. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is completely right in firmly correcting Stalin’s mistakes in this respect. ...
As we have already said, Stalin displayed certain great-nation chauvinist tendencies in relations with brother parties and countries. ... Stalin’s mistakes aroused grave dissatisfaction among people in certain Eastern Europe countries.....
The Soviet Government’s efforts to improve relations with Yugoslavia .... manifest the determination of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to thoroughly eliminate past mistakes in foreign relations. (“More on the Historical Experiences of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”; London; 1957; p. 12, 14-16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 27).