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Lenin, Mao and Aidit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Justus M. van der Kroef
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Extract

The international advance of Communism in our time is in no small measure due to the apparent flexibility with which Marxist and Leninist concepts have been applied—often with startling selectivity—to the problems of the newly emergent and underdeveloped countries of the world. While generally and carefully observing all strictures against “revisionism” and “subjectivism,” Communist leaders in these new nations dip with ease into the reservoir of the thought of Marx and Lenin and its practitioners for a justification of their particular tactics, pointing out that Communist thought itself invites flexibility and adaptability. Stalin could quote with approval Lenin's dictum that “We do not regard Marxist theory as something complete and inviolable; on the contrary, we are convinced that it has only laid the cornerstone of the science which Socialists must further advance in all directions if they wish to keep pace with life.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 10 , April 1962 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1962

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References

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