The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most decisive events of the early 20th century that shaped the world in a different way after the WWI. In fact, the ‘Bolshevik Revolution’ was the first of a series of Communist revolutions that controlled more than one-third of the globe in the late 20th century. A nation, which was born in a coup d’etat, ironically ended in the aftermath of a failed coup d’etat against the reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. As the year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has decided to learn from the history of the rise and fall of the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The National Congress of the CPC is held in every five years. The party is all set to hold its 19th Congress in Beijing from October 18 during which the top CPC leadership will explore new ideas to run the state ‘smoothly’ under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.

Chinese President Xi Jinping

According to insiders, the CPC leadership is worried about the party’s future even after leading the country to the path of economic prosperity. The Chinese leaders are desperately trying to avoid a Soviet-like fate. So, the CPC has decided to send a team of senior party officials to former Soviet states, including Russia, in order to learn from the fall of the world’s first Socialist nation. The proposed tour has been named ‘Red Tours’. Apart from reading vital documents at archives, the Chinese delegates will exchange ideas on various issues with leaders and workers of the Russian Communist Party.
Some foreign policy experts are of the opinion that just like Soviet Union that was a centre of power in the bi-polar world, China wants to play a leading role in global geopolitics under Xi’s leadership. The Asian giant, which has emerged as a major military and economic power in recent times, has taken a number of initiatives to achieve the goal. Beijing is not only leading the ‘One Belt and One Road’ (OBOR) initiative, but also trying to create a new axis with Russia and Pakistan after establishing authority in the South China Sea. Experts believe that the main purpose of ‘Red Tours’ is to secure Russia’s support.
However, senior member of the Russian Communist Party’s Central Federation Dorokhin Pavel believes it’s not possible. He has argued that member countries of the Socialist bloc had accepted the leadership of Soviet Union. The situation in the contemporary world is completely different. According to Pavel, China can’t create a bi-polar world with the help of Vietnam, Cuba and some other Latin American countries.

Dorokhin Pavel

Pavel recently visited eastern Indian city of Kolkata to meet senior leaders of the Communist Party of India. The Russian leader admitted that Chinese leaders were in touch with their friends in Moscow. “The leadership of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) made some mistakes. It is necessary to learn lessons from those mistakes. We are sharing these facts with Chinese officials,” Pavel said while speaking at a press conference in Kolkata.
In the presence of Pavel, leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam Tran daak Laya said that the fall of the Soviet model was indeed a disaster, but it was not the death of an ideology. Laya further said: “The collapse of Soviet Union was not inevitable. The CPSU leadership’s betrayal led to the collapse.” Pavel and Laya admitted that China has developed ‘a different form of Socialism’ in order to survive in the changing world. They backed the Chinese government’s decision to strengthen rules and regulations in order to get rid of corruption and other problems.

The Russian communists told their Chinese friends that Soviet leaders had concentrated only on military power and refused to ‘change’ their age-old ideas. Their rigidity ultimately triggered the fall of the Socialist nation. When they suddenly decided to implement reform programmes in the 1980’s, they forgot the path of Marxism-Leninism, thus, triggering the collapse. So, the Russian leaders have advised CPC members not to follow Soviet’s path and to protect their own ‘brand’ of Socialism.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das