On The Time Value Of Sino-Soviet Debate

The Sino-Soviet debate was a significant event of 20th centurynot only in the history of international communist movement, but alsoin the political field of the world. It began from the appraisal questionabout Stalin in 1956, to that the Communist Party of China refused toattend the 22nd representative assembly of Russian Communist Partyin March of 1966, and then the relations between the two parties werecut off. The debate lasted for 10 years, so it was also called "ten-yeardebate". The debate swept across all communist parties and workersparty in the world, and involved a series of basic questions of thecontemporary international communist movement. The extensivescale, the wide content and the fierce struggle were all unprecedented.The debate not only exerted a far-reaching influence on the economicand social development of the two countries, made the Sino-Sovietrelations worsen, but also caused the disintegration of the socialistcamp and division of international communism, and changed thepolitical pattern of the world greatly. Just as Deng Xiaoping saidwhile reviewing the debate later that looking back after practice ofmore than 20 years, both countries had said a lot of empty verbiage.Some changes have taken place after Marx being dead for more than100 years, and we have not found out how to realize and developMarxism under the situation of changing. In the debate, none of thetwo countries is winner. We have no right to criticize them for makingthis or that mistake, but we are obligated to switch back to scrutinizethe debate again and summarize experience and enlightenment it gaveus in the lessons. The past success was our wealth; the past mistakewas our wealth too. Though it was a tragic incident, we are unable todeny its far-reaching meaning and time value. It opened a new ballgame of the international communist movement, deepened the understanding of socialism and socialist construction, provided us thelesson of solving the problem of ideology difference and highlightedthe importance of proletariat incumbent party construction. The studyon contemporary value of Sino-Soviet debate had significant meaningto present modernization construction, to adhere to the basic line ofone center and two basic points, and to play the role in internationalpolitical pattern for China.