of the proletariat and formulated for us a basic line for the entire historical period of socialism, thereby guiding the socialist revolution in China to advance from victory to victory.

More than a century has elapsed since Marx and Engels put forth the brilliant concept of realizing the dictatorship of the proletariat. During this period of time, the proletariat and other labouring masses the world over have advanced wave upon wave and fought courageously and tenaciously to overthrow the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, for which so many revolutionary martyrs have shed their blood and laid clown their lives. The degeneration of the world’s first socialist country into a social-imperialist one as a result of revisionist rule has taught all revolutionary people aprofound lesson, enabling them to better understand the importance of opposing and preventing revisionism after the seizure of political power by the proletariat. The theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought on the dictatorship of the proletariat is precisely a scientific summing up of the experience gained from proletarian revolutionary struggles over the last century. Embracing extremely rich contents, it profoundly elucidates the law governing the development of the proletarian revolution, the sharp and complex nature of class struggle in the historical period of transition from capitalism to communism, the necessity for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the nature and tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the difference between the dictatorship of the proletariat and that of the bourgeoisie, the question of correctly handling the contradictions between ourselves and