Correspondence

On behalf of the editorial board of the unified organ of Russian Marxist-Leninists, Proletarskaya Gazeta, this first issue is sent to you enclosed with this letter. The Russian Marxist-Leninists have unified their efforts to draw firm steps towards the formation of a united Marxist-Leninist Party in Russia. The Russian communists are resolute in the struggle against revisionism for socialism, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country, following the guidelines drawn by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. The Russian communists stand for the revolutionary traditions of the party of Lenin and Stalin and express our resolve to condemn and fight against any form of revisionism, which unfortunately took over the Soviet Party and state after the death of comrade Stalin. Modern opportunism and revisionism uprooted socialism and restored capitalism already under the disguise of the red banner and false revolutionary phraseology, making use of the tremendous respect and recognition earned among the popular masses by the party of Lenin and Stalin over the years of socialist construction. In this light the courageous and principled struggle of the Albanian communists led by comrade Enver Hoxha against modern revisionism is of great significance. The works of Enver Hoxha, long forbidden in our country, represent a priceless contribution to the struggle against opportunism and revisionism for all communists in the world.

The Russian Marxist-Leninists regard the political work within the working class for the construction of the party of the working class as central to the life of communists. The class struggle in Russia is rapidly approaching decisive battles. The general crisis of capitalism, imperialism, has reached all parts of the world. The August 1998 crisis in Russia has further unveiled the profound contradiction existing in the Russian economy and society. Capitalist exploitation has reached unthinkable levels: tens of millions of workers left unpaid for months, in many cases for well over a year. The spontaneous struggle of the working class and working people in general is increasing by the day, involving millions of unpaid and downtrodden employees. As of today tens of large factories have been seized by the workers, the economic demands of the working masses are turning more and more political. Workers of individual factories are grasping the necessity to organise as a class, to unite their efforts with workers of other factories, with workers of other professions to face the evil government of the bourgeoisie, the superstructure of capitalist exploitation that they are being subjected to so ruthlessly. Today, more that ever before, there is the need for the unification of the workers' movement with revolutionary theory. And that is the task of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party. The duty of the revolutionaries is to establish class organisations, use all existing forms of class organisation, create new ones. Workers' unions, workers' soviets. Within the working class, revolutionaries must fight against reformist and anarcho-syndicalist illusions, expose the profoundness of the contradictions of our society and open the way for a new society. Revolutionaries clarify the meaning of socialism, its inevitability, also its superiority to capitalism in all spheres of social life, appeal to the glorious times of the socialist Soviet Union, the Soviet Union of our parents and grandparents.

The growing resistance of the working class is facing fascist repression that has recently taken the life of a worker leader, a founding member of the workers' union Zhashita (Defence). Striking workers all over the country are facing a belligerent response from the authorities. In a large number of regions, the central government is represented by elected members of the leadership of the so-called Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) led by a concealed social-fascist and Pan-Slavist, Gennady Zyuganov. The CPRF, the formal heir of the revisionist CPSU, has entered the central government taking up posts, has joined the reactionary government in order to perpetuate savage capitalist exploitation and to prevent a social revolution. Far from succeeding in preventing a social revolution, the CPRF is becoming the forefront for the repression against the working class today.

To conclude, we wish to reiterate to Marxist-Leninists in other countries that the Russian communists are determined to follow the revolutionary path drawn by the glorious party of Lenin and Stalin. Russian communists stand firmly on their revolutionary convictions despite the political and material difficulties they have to face. In this respect fraternal solidarity from Marxist-Leninists around the world would be crucial and greatly welcome.

The editorial board of Proletarskaya Gazeta wishes to establish fraternal links with your organization, receive materials in print from your organisation on a regular basis. From our side we commit ourselves to circulate translations of the most meaningful material published in the pages of Proletarskaya Gazeta. Enclosed with this letter you will find a copy of the first issue of our paper.

With communist greetings,

D.F. Priozhkov, Chief Editor
Proletarskaya Gazeta

I received Revolutionary Democracy yesterday only. Your journal made interesting reading. The obituaries of Nagbhushan Patnaik and Vinod Mishra were quite good and in good spirit, So also the information about the shooting of Rosa and Karl, about the Niyogi murder case, etc. However, the Inderprastha Apollo worker' demands (some of them) appeared too extreme. Anyway, it's a good and quite informative journal. Please keep it up.

Best wishes,
Your fraternally,
I.M. Sharma.

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