The building and course of socialism under conditions of confrontation with capitalism

15. Socialism was built under conditions of confrontation and conflict with the capitalist system and especially with its most aggressive section, the imperialist powers and international organisations, under conditions of increasing internationalization of all aspects of economic, social and cultural life.

From the earliest victory of the October Revolution, imperialism set the overthrow of the new Soviet state as its paramount task, initially by means of armed intervention and force and then using the tactics of imperialist encirclement and isolation which caused the civil war. The imperialist powers encouraged Nazi Germany to turn against the Soviet Union in the hope that the latter would be defeated by the disasters and devastation of war.

Following World War II and after eleven countries, i.e. 26% of the world's territory, had broken away from capitalism, imperialism tried, using all available means, to prevent socialism from spreading and at the same time to regain lost territory, applying the tactics of the "cold war" and proclaiming the slogans of the "communist threat" and "communist chaos" in all tones. They violated post-war agreements in order to strengthen Germany and to make it an offensive bridgehead against the socialist countries and the Soviet Union.

Imperialism has been responsible for more than 150 military operations, conflicts and coups d' etat, by means of which dictatorial, terrorist regimes were installed. From the 1980s until the present, more than 1.5 million children were victims in the wars caused by imperialism.

Early in the 1970s, the cold war policy reached a dead end. New ways were then sought to undermine the socialist system and the communist movement throughout the world. The deeper causes of the new tactic can be found in the fact that the imperialist positions had been weakened militarily and politically by the economic, military and political rise of socialism, the achievements of the national liberation struggle and the fight of the peoples in capitalist countries.(6)

16. The Helsinki Conference, which was held under persistent pressure from socialist countries and the world peace movement, resulted in a form of compromise between the socialist and capitalist countries.

But imperialism was not prepared to respect the agreements. Right after the conference, it readjusted its tactics in regard to the socialist system, in order to derive unilateral benefits from the agreements. It used ideological subversion as a counterweight; it took advantage of internal difficulties and weaknesses that appeared in the socialist countries owing to objective but also subjective factors. It launched the policy of "bridges", the tactics of the so-called "convergence of the two systems" and acknowledged "some" successes on the part of socialism, always with the same goal, to strike a decisive blow against the socialist system.

17. The new readjustment of imperialist tactics was observed late in the    1970s, with the policy of "counter-detente". On the pretext of the alleged change in the military-strategic balance of forces in favour of the Soviet Union, imperialism developed a systematic revanchist effort. Headed by the USA, a new arms race was launched not only on earth but in outer space as well.

The powerful capitalist countries organised systematic and multiform "provocations" and anti-communist campaigns under the banner of defending "human rights". They used the most sophisticated ideological weapons to manipulate the peoples, to create a climate hostile to the socialist countries and to the communist movement more generally. They openly supported various anti-socialist and anti-communist elements and groups, as shown by the events in Czechoslovakia and Poland. They took advantage of the ideological and political differences between the communist parties. They provided economic, political and moral support to the least manifestation of dissatisfaction or disagreement with the CPSU and the Soviet Union. They made available billions of dollars through their countries' budgets for these purposes.

They used an inexhaustible list of methods, diversions and sabotage, according to the circumstances and the specificities of each country.(7), Alongside the old-time anti-communism whose banner bore the words "Better dead than Red", the modern version appeared, always aiming at the gradual restoration of the capitalist system.(8)

It has become plain that imperialist aggressiveness and the particular flexible tactics used on each occasion constituted a significant and serious factor affecting the socialist countries and international relations. Underestimating it and, even worse, cultivating illusions about the nature of imperialism, could not but have adverse, disastrous results for the labour and popular movement: But the consequences of the unified strategy and tactics of capitalism toward socialism did not encounter analogous action on the part of the international communist movement, under conditions which demanded not only a unified strategic response but also jointly elaborated tactics.