The Naked Communist (47 page)

Engels:
"Anyone who talks about freedom and equality within the limits of toiler democracy, i.e., conditions under which the capitalists are overthrown while property and free trade remain -- is a defender of the exploiters."
⁸⁰

Student:
"Do you believe in freedom at all?"

Lenin:
"While the state exists there is no freedom. When freedom exists, there will be no state."
⁸¹

Student:
"But the USSR still preserves the State. Does this mean the government of Russia is not intended to promote the freedom of the Russian people?"

Engels:
"So long as the proletariat still uses the state it does not use it in the interest of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries."
⁸²

Student:
"Then do I conclude from this that in Russia you do not even pretend to has the civil liberties which we enjoy over here?"

Vyshinsky:
"In our state, naturally there is and can be no place for freedom of speech, press, and so on for the foes of socialism. Every sort of attempt on their part to utilize to the detriment of the state, that is to say, to the detriment of all the toilers -- these freedoms granted to the toilers, must be classified as a counter-revolutionary crime."
⁸³

Student:
"Supposing I were living in Russia and wanted to publish a newspaper which criticized the government. Would I be granted the same freedom of press which I enjoy in America?"

Stalin:
"What freedoms of the press have you in mind? Freedom of the press for which class-- the bourgeoisie or the proletariat? If it is a question of freedom of the press for the bourgeoisie, then it does not and will not exist here as long as the proletarian dictatorship exists."
⁸⁴

Student:
"Then you mean freedom of the press is only for the privileged proletariat? It would not include a person like myself?"

Stalin:
"We have no freedom of the press for the bourgeoisie. We have no freedom of the press for the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, who represent the interests of the beaten and overthrown bourgeoisie. But what is there surprising in that? We have never pledged ourselves to grant freedom of the press to all classes, and to make all classes happy."
⁸⁵

Student:
"But how can a government fairly administer its laws unless they apply equally to all the people?"

Lenin:
"Dictatorship is power based upon force and unrestricted by any laws. The revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is power won and maintained by the violence of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie -- power that is unrestricted by any laws."
⁸⁶

Student:
"But if laws are against classes rather than violators, how can there be any justice?"

Vyshinsky:
"The task of justice in the USSR is to assure the precise and unswerving fulfillment of Soviet laws by all the institutions, organizations, officials and citizens of the USSR. This the court accomplishes by destroying without pity all the foes of the people in whatever form they manifest their criminal encroachments upon socialism."
⁸⁷

Moscow University -- where education is often used as a political
tool and professors are among the best paid people in the U.S.S.R.

Student:
"Let me ask a few questions about Soviet schools and the Communist theory of education. How would you describe the objectives of education in Russia?"

Official Statement:
"It is in the schools, at the desk, in the first class, that the foundations for a Communist outlook are laid in future Soviet citizens. The country entrusts the school with its most treasured possessions -- its children -- and no one should be allowed to indulge in the slightest deviation from the principles of the Communist materialistic upbringing of the new generation."
⁸⁸

Student:
"Would it not be better to give students a broad view of all governments and different economies so they could draw their own conclusions?"

Official Statement:
"The Soviet school cannot be satisfied to rear merely educated persons. Basing itself on the facts and deductions of progressive science, it should instill the ideology of Communism in the minds of the young generation, shape a Marxist-Leninist world outlook and inculcate the spirit of Soviet patriotism and Bolshevik ideas in them."
⁸⁹

Student:
"Is it fair to force the minds of the rising generation to accept only the values which a current political regime wishes to impose upon them?"

Official Statement:
"It is important that pupils should clearly realize the doom of the capitalistic world, its inevitable downfall, that they should see on the other hand the great prospects of our socialist system, and actively get prepared when they leave school to be ready to take their place in life, in the struggle for a new world, for Communism."
⁹⁰

Student:
"Since Communism claims to represent the interests of the laboring class, what is the official Communist attitude toward the labor movement?"

Lenin:
"It will be necessary ... to agree to any and every sacrifice, and even -- if need be -- to resort to all sorts of devices, maneuvers and illegal methods, to evasion and subterfuge, in order to penetrate into the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work in them at all
costs
."
⁹¹

Student:
"I think the average American working man would be interested in knowing what the Communists do when they control a labor union. How do the Communists treat labor unions in Russia where they have complete control?"

Victor Kravchenko (Former Government Official now defected):
"The local (Communist) party organization elects one of its suitable members to become president of the trade union. Generally speaking, the Soviet trade unions have to see that the workers execute the program."
⁹²

Student:
"But does that not make the union a subservient arm of government rather than an organization of workers? What if a nation wanted to strike?

Kravchenko:
"The union's job is to see that strict discipline is maintained, that there will be no strikes that the workers work for wages established by the central government that the workers carry out all the decisions, resolutions. et cetera, of the party."
⁹³

Student:
"But what would happen if I were a worker in Russia and wanted to quit my job?"

Kravchenko:
"Every citizen in the Soviet Union has a passport. On the passport is his photograph. There is also a special page on which a stamp is put which indicates the place, date and type of employment. If you leave your job in one factory and go to another without the permission of your director you will be prosecuted under the law for violation of the law prohibiting unauthorized change of employment. This refers not only to laborers but to any kind of employee."
⁹⁴

Student:
"In view of these statements I would like to conclude with one more question: Is this the hope for humanity which the Soviet offers the world?"

Official Statement:
"The Soviet is an inspiring example for the proletarian revolution in the rest of the world.... (It) shows the powerful achievements of the victorious proletariat and the vast superiority of Socialist to Capitalist economy. The Soviet Union is an inspiring example for the national self-determination of the oppressed peoples."
⁹⁵

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