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The “National Democratic State”: A Communist Program for Less-Developed Areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

William T. Shinn Jr
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Extract

At the international Communist conclave that assembled in Mos-Cow in November 1960, the Soviet delegation introduced a new formula, designed to serve as an ideological blueprint for Communist policy in the less-developed areas of the world. The formula consisted of two parts: a statement of immediate objectives and a tactical plan to achieve them. Of these, the objectives were set forth in the form of a theoretical governmental model, described as a transitional state structure appropriate for less-developed societies. It was christened the “national democratic state,” and the tactical plan chosen as the proper means for its establishment was correspondingly designated the “national democratic front.”

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , April 1963 , pp. 377 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1963

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References

1 The Soviet initiative was revealed by East German Politburo member Matern, Hermann in a speech published in Neues Deutschland, December 23, 1960.Google Scholar

2 See especially Gye, V. N., Novaia stranitsa istorii [A new page of history] (Moscow 1962)Google Scholar; Bochkaryov, V., “New Paths for New States,” New Times, No. 41 (1961), 14–16Google Scholar; Chesnokov, I. D., “O gosudarstve natsional'noi demokratii” [On the national democratic state], Politicheskoe samoobrazonvanie, No. 6 (1961), 61–64Google Scholar; Kirichenko, M. G., “O nezavisimom gosudarstve natsional'noi demokratii” [On the independent national demo cratic state], Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo, No. 11 (1961), 104–15Google Scholar; Ponomarev, B. N., “O gosudarstve natsional'noi demokratii” [On the national democratic state], Kommunist, No. 8 (1961), 33–49Google Scholar; Agafonov, V., “Godsudarstvo natsional'noi demokratii” [The national democratic state], Leninskoe znamia, June 27, 1961Google Scholar; Bagdash, Khalid, “Programma KPSS i sobremennyi etap natsional'no-osvoboditel'nogo dvizheniia” [The program of the CPSU and the present stage of the national liberation movement], Pratkda, March 23, 1962Google Scholar; Volskii, D., “Kogda podniat flag nezavisimosti” [When they raise the flag of independence], Krasnaia zvezda, April 24, 1962Google Scholar; Zhukov, Ye., “Polnyi krakh kolonializma neminuem” [The complete collapse of colonialism is inevitable], Pravda, January 5, 1961Google Scholar; and articles in Literarni Noviny (Prague), December 31, 1960, and Narodna armiia (Sofia), January 3, 1961.

3 Lenin expatiated on this theme in another article written in the spring of 1916 entitled, “The Socialist Revolution and the Rights of Nations to Self-determination.” Classifying China, Persia, and Turkey as “semi-colonies,” he urged the Communists to support all “bourgeois-democratic, national-liberation movements” in these countries in order to drive out Western influence. Lenin, V. I., Sochineniia [Works] (3rd edn., Moscow 1935), XIX, 44.Google Scholar

4 Kommunisticheskii internatsional v dokumentakh, 1919–1932 [The Communist International in documents, 1919–1932] (Moscow 1933), 322–23.

5 Ponomarev, B. N., “Mezhdunarodnoe kommunisticheskoe dvezhenie na novom etapc” [New stage of the international Communist movement], Kommunist, No. 15 (1958), 12–30.Google Scholar

6 The fourth criterion did not appear in the original definition in the Statement of December 6, 1960, presumably because of Chinese Communist objections. It was first mentioned in Zhukov's Pravda article of January 5 and has since been included in virtually all Soviet literature on the subject.

7 See the speech by Ulbricht, Walter on the Moscow Conference (Neues Deutschland, December 18, 1960)Google Scholar, the speech by Hermann Matern, and the Agafonov article—all of which credit Cuba with having attained the status of a “national democratic state.”

8 Pravda, April 15, 1962.

9 Gye, 22.

10 The only Soviet reference to the national democratic state antedating the Statement of December 6, 1960, that has come to the author's attention appears, interestingly enough, in an African context. It is mentioned in a doctoral dissertation written by I. I. Potekhin in the 1930's and published in a very limited edition in 1955: Formirovanie natsional'noi obshchnosti Yuzhno-Afrikanskikh Bantu [The formation of national communities of the South African Bantu] (Moscow 1955), 47. This reference, as well as a further discussion of national democracy in Africa, will appear in the chapter on Africa by William Lewis, in C. E. Black and Thomas Thornton, eds., Political Violence and Communist Theory (forthcoming).

11 Some of these difficulties were listed in an editorial in the Soviet journal Narody Azii i Afriki, No. 5 (1961), 3–14, which concluded that “A thorough study of the problems related to a government of national democracy remains a first-priority task of Soviet researchers.”

12 Pravda, March 15, 1962.

13 Agence Guinéenne de Presse, January 10, 1962.

14 Pravda, January 13, 1962.

15 Jen-min Jih-pao, December 7, 1960.

16 While the “new democracy” called for industrial nationalization and agrarian reform carried out by a “transitional form of state to be adopted by revolutions in colonial and semi-colonial countries,” Mao asserted that this should be accomplished by a “joint dictatorship of several revolutionary classes,” meaning in effect complete Communist control. In contrast, the national democratic state is to be governed by the “national bourgeoisie.” Selected Worlds of Mao Tse-tung (New York 1955), Vol. III.

17 Jen-min Jih-pao, October 10, 1961.

18 The issue of Kommunist signed to the press on January 30, 1962 (No. 2), editorialized: “In our epoch, when the socialist camp is exerting increasing influence on the pace of world events, the possibilities for attaining the goals of national liberation by peaceful means have been increased.” In the next paragraph the editorial outlined the goal of the “national liberation movement” as the formation of national democratic states (pp. 19–20).

19 See, for example, Khrushchev's speech of May 30, 1962.