Cult of personality
The cult of personality refers to the anti-communist, typically revisionist accusation. Although Karl Marx used the term, revisionists, opportunists, and anti-communists frequently appropriate the term to invalidate socialist progress or agitation.
Origin
While the term, cult of personality, existed before, Marx first discussed it within a political context in 1877. Marx, in a letter to Wilhelm Blos, declared,
"I ‘bear no ill-will’ (as Heine says) and nor for that matter does Engels. Neither of us cares a straw for popularity. Let me cite one proof of this: such was my aversion to the personality cult that at the time of the International, when plagued by numerous moves — originating from various countries — to accord me public honour, I never allowed one of these to enter the domain of publicity, nor did I ever reply to them, save with an occasional snub."[1]
Revisionist use
The cult of personality, as a term, can be delineated to either Menshevism or Trotskyism. Notably, the Mensheviks initially discarded the Bolsheviks as an "arbitrary, terrorist regime" that would establish "the new dictatorship of the aristocracy."[2] However, the direct use of "cult of personality" is not documented. After Vladimir Lenin's death, and thereby the "split" in Leninism, Trotskyists described Joseph Stalin as the initiator of his own cult of personality. The majority of the United Opposition bloc of Rights and Trotskyites supported the counter-revolutionary myth of a "Soviet Thermidor."[2] Leon Trotsky himself claimed,
"In the last period the Soviet bureaucracy has familiarized itself with many traits of victorious fascism, first of all by getting rid of the control of the party and establishing the cult of the leader."[3]
Khrushchev, after his coup in 1953 and subsequent rise to power in 1956, rehabilitated the claims that Stalin upheld the cult of personality in his speech, "On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences," to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev spread a series of lies against Stalin to allow liberalization and de-Stalinization.[4] The Chinese vehemently defended Stalin from such accusations and rejected the formulation of the "cult of personality" altogether.
In launching “the combat against the personality cult”, the leaders of the CPSU are not out to restore what they call “the Leninist standards of Party life and principles of leadership”. On the contrary, they are violating Lenin’s teachings on the interrelationship of leaders, party, class and masses and contravening the principle of democratic centralism in the Party.[5]
Chairman Gonzalo described the "cult of personality" as a solely revisionist concept. The concept, he noted, served to aid the revisionists and bourgeoisie and deprive the masses of their leadership who would be able to guide them to victory. Chairman Gonzalo likened this tactic as cutting off the head of the proletariat.[6]
Communist use
Mao Zedong detailed two types of cults of individuals. The first one was the correct type which existed around Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin as figures who ought to be revered for their contributions and achievements. The second type was lacking in scientific analysis and was composed solely of blind obedience and was therefore false.
"There are two kinds of cult of the individual. One is correct, such as that of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the correct side of Stalin. These we ought to revere and continue to revere forever. It would not do not to revere them. ... Then there is the incorrect kind of cult of the individual in which there is no analysis, simply blind obedience. This is not right. Opposition to the cult of the individual may also have one of two aims: one is opposition to an incorrect cult, and the other is opposition to reverence for others and a desire for reverence for oneself." —Mao Zedong, Talks At The Chengtu Conference
See also
References
- ↑ Karl Marx (1877). Marx to Wilhem Blos in Hamburg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ludo Martens. Another View of Stalin
- ↑ Leon Trotsky (1934). On the Eve of the Congress, 1934
- ↑ Grover Furr (2011). Khrushchev Lied (PDF). Available on the Internet Archive.
- ↑ Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), (1963). On The Question Of Stalin
- ↑ Interview with Chairman Gonzalo (1988).
"The cult of personality is a revisionist formulation. Lenin had warned us of the problem of negating leadership just as he emphasized the need for our class, the Party and the revolution to promote our own leaders, and more than that, top leaders, and a leadership. There's a difference here that is worth emphasizing. A leader is someone who occupies a certain position, whereas a top leader and Leadership, as we understand it, represent the acknowledgment of Party and revolutionary authority acquired and proven in the course of arduous struggle those who in theory and practice have shown they are capable of leading and guiding us toward victory and the attainment of the ideals of our class. Khrushchev raised the issue of the cult of personality to oppose comrade Stalin. But as we all know, this was a pretext for attacking the dictatorship of the proletariat. Today, Gorbachev again raises the issue of the cult of personality, as did the Chinese revisionists Liu Shao-chi and Deng Xiaoping. It is therefore a revisionist thesis that in essence takes aim against the proletarian dictatorship and the leadership and leaders of the revolutionary process in order to cut off its head. In our case it aims specifically at robbing the People's War of its Leadership."