Mao Zedong directly linked the construction of the state of "new democracy"with the implementation of Sun Yat-sen's" three people's principles " .1 To some extent, these principles (nationalism, democracy, people's welfare) they affected the content of the theory and practice of new democracy. Both exercises were aimed at" preventing " the development of capitalism in China. New democracy as a special-third-path of revolution and modernization was considered by Mao Zedong as the only possible fate for China and all the colonial and dependent countries.

Keywords: Three people's principles, new democracy, CCP, Kuomintang, revolution, coalition government.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sun Yat-sen developed a program for building a modern state based on achieving national independence and implementing political and economic transformations based on the "three people's principles", which provided for the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty (implementing the principle of nationalism), which opened the way for political and economic modernization of the country (implementing the principles of democracy and In the struggle against Manchu domination, he initially counted on the support of the leading world powers, hoping to establish equal relations with them and expecting them to help implement his plan for China's industrial development by attracting foreign capital (private and public) under the control of the Chinese government. However, these powers continued to infringe on China's sovereignty, which led to the emergence of a massive anti-imperialist movement on May 4, 1919.

In the context of growing anti-imperialist sentiments, under the influence of the October Revolution and the friendly policy of Soviet Russia towards China, Sun Yat-sen gradually got rid of illusions about the West and gave a new interpretation to the principle of nationalism as liberation from imperialist aggression [Sun Zhongshan, vol.2, 1956, p. 525]. This was reflected in the Manifesto of the First Congress of the Kuomintang (1924), which proclaimed the liberation of China from foreign domination as the main task, and by gradually repaying loans provided for complete liberation from the dominance of foreign capital. In foreign policy, this was accompanied by a reorientation towards the Soviet Union. Rejecting Marxist theory

1 They were declared by Mao Zedong to be the " political foundation of the anti-Japanese United National Front." At the same time, he noted that the content of the three "people's principles" basically coincided with the "communist program of the democratic revolution in China." But this coincidence applied only to the new "three people's principles", reinterpreted by Sun Yat-tung in 1924 at the 1st Congress of the Kuomintang, where they were supplemented by "three great political attitudes" - an alliance with the USSR, an alliance with the CCP, and support for peasants and workers [Mao Zedong, 1944, pp. 40-42, 44].

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Sun Yat-sen was nevertheless interested in the experience of the victorious revolution in Russia and turned to it for help in party and military building.

Sun Yat-sen saw the" basis of the political revolution "in the implementation of the principle of democracy, which consisted in"power should belong to all the common people, and not to a handful of people." He tried to avoid class struggle, because he believed that due to its economic backwardness, China "has not yet entered the zone of class war", and therefore "it is easy to make a social revolution here." By social revolution, he understood not the struggle of classes, but social transformations that were supposed to lead to the creation of a society of national prosperity. Such transformations were based on the principle of mutual understanding, which meant the harmony of interests of various, including antagonistic, classes. The possibility of maintaining class harmony was determined by the fact that in China "there are no large capitalists capable of oppressing workers yet", the Chinese working class "is not oppressed by the national bourgeoisie", being the object of exploitation only by foreign capital [Sun Zhongshan, vol. 1, 1956, pp. 85, 337-338; vol. 2, 1956, pp. 526, 841-842].

The struggle for the liberation of the country from imperialist oppression, the realization of economic "self-strengthening" and the achievement of national prosperity were supposed to unite all the social forces of China. Sun Yat-sen attached decisive importance to the spiritual factor based on a common sense of national identity for all classes in the implementation of the social revolution, which, according to his definition, consisted in a gradual, evolutionary transition to the complete domination of the "social property of the Chinese people" by strengthening class harmony and preventing class struggle [Sun Zhongshan, vol. 1, 1956, pp. 438-439]. The state, which expressed the interests of the common people, was supposed to maintain harmony of class interests and provide assistance simultaneously to all classes and social groups in need, including workers and entrepreneurs. The program of economic modernization provided for the development of agriculture, industry and trade, and large-scale construction of railways.

To this end, Sun Yat-sen tried to lead China on a special path of development that would prevent the development of Western-style capitalism, since he saw it as a source of property inequality and social conflicts. He hoped to "prevent" this by implementing the principle of national welfare, which was based on" equalization of land rights " and nationalization of all land, as well as limiting private capital by nationalizing railways and some key sectors of the economy (the policy of state socialism) [Sun Zhongshan, vol.1, 1956, p. 88].

Sun Yat-sen conceived the implementation of the principle of people's power through the transformation of an authoritarian political system into a democratic one by establishing a democratic republic and creating a national government based on the equality of the state and the people, the participation of the people in government, and the policy of separating the "five powers": legislative, judicial, administrative, examination and control. This transformation had to pass through the intermediate stages necessary for the maturation of the conditions that would allow us to enter the period of "constitutional rule" that marks the democratization of the political system.

The idea of "new democracy" was put forward by Mao Zedong in 1937 (during the anti-Japanese war) as a program for uniting all patriotic forces around the CCP to fight for the national liberation of the country and create a "state of the union of workers, peasants and bourgeoisie", which he called the "new democratic republic" [Mao Zedong, 1946, pp. 234-235, 238].

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The main provisions of the theory of "new democracy" ("new democracy") developed by Mao Zedong in 1939-1940 were intended to justify the special nature of the Chinese revolution. Defining its current stage as a bourgeois-democratic one, Mao identified in it a "new historical feature" that "sharply distinguished" it from both the "democratic revolutions that took place in the countries of Europe and America" and the socialist revolution in Russia. It consisted in the fact that "the Chinese revolution is divided into two historical stages", the first of which is " a revolution of a special, new type... the "new democratic revolution" that began to develop in China and in all colonial and semi - colonial countries. The goal of this "anti-imperialist, anti-feudal revolution of the broad masses of the people "is to" transform colonial, semi-colonial, and semi-feudal society into an independent and democratic society", after which the Chinese revolution was to enter "the second stage - the stage of building a socialist society" [Mao Zedong, 1944, pp. 7-10, 16-17; Mao Zedong, 1946, p. 168, 185].

The driving forces of the new-democratic revolution included "the proletariat, the peasantry, and the small urban bourgeoisie, and at certain periods and to a certain extent the national bourgeoisie", which carried out "the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the revolutionary classes united to fight against the imperialists and traitorous reactionaries". Accordingly, the state organization of new democracy was supposed to be a "democratic republic of a revolutionary bloc of workers, peasants, intellectuals and all other anti-imperialist and anti-feudal elements", formed on the basis of the "dictatorship of several parties" of the anti-Japanese united national front [Mao Zedong, 1944, p. 20-21; Mao Zedong, 1946, p. 185-187; Mao Zedong, 1948, p. 197].

The basis of the new democratic economy was to be "large banks, large industrial and commercial enterprises" transferred to state ownership. In the agricultural sector, it was supposed to "take some necessary measures" to confiscate the land of large landlords and divide it between landless and low-land peasants in order to implement Sun Yat-sen's slogan "every plowman has his own field". These measures, Mao Zedong emphasized, were not intended to change the capitalist nature of the economy in the new democratic republic, but were to be implemented in such a way that private capital "could not control the life of the people." Nationalization affected only large capitalist enterprises; all other capitalist property remained intact. In addition, it was supposed to provide assistance to medium and small private enterprises from the state.

A similar course was planned for the agricultural sector of the economy. The purpose of confiscating the land of large landlords was limited to "eradicating feudal relations in the countryside", which was to be replaced by "not socialist agriculture, but peasant private property", which also implied the preservation of kulak farms, since" for a certain period of time " their products could not be dispensed with [Mao Zedong, 1944, pp. 26-27 Mao Zedong, 1946, p. 180, 185].

Mao Zedong emphasized that the only form of revolution in China is armed struggle, which in fact was "peasant guerrilla warfare", and "only these peasant wars and uprisings were the true driving forces of Chinese history". During the anti-Japanese war, the share of peasants exceeded 80% of the total population of China, " therefore, the peasant question became the main question of the Chinese revolution, the strength of the peasantry is the main force of the Chinese revolution "[Mao Zedong, 1944, pp. 47-48; Mao Zedong, 1946, pp. 159, 171].

Since the Chinese cities were in the hands of the Japanese and internal counterrevolution forces, Mao Zedong set the task of " creating from the backward peasant areas

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a stable, solid, advanced base" to achieve "the victory of the Chinese revolution first in rural areas", and then in a long struggle gradually win the complete victory of the revolution. Under these conditions, the war against the Japanese invaders essentially became a "peasant war". He proclaimed three new popular principles as the " ideology of the peasant revolution." Since the contradiction between the peasantry and the landowner class remained the main internal contradiction of Chinese society, and the peasantry was the main force of the revolution, Mao Zedong considered the new democratic revolution as a peasant revolution and, based on this, came to the conclusion that new democratic political power "is, in essence, the transfer of power to the peasantry" [Mao Zedong, 1944 Mao Zedong, 1946, pp. 170-171].

The stage of development of a new democratic society, Mao Zedong wrote, will continue for a relatively long time, depending on "changes in the camp of the enemy and in the composition of the allies", it may again be divided into a number of periods. The fulfillment of the tasks of this stage - the "minimum program "-was intended to create conditions for the implementation of the" maximum program " - the implementation of the socialist revolution, which, according to him, there can be no other way to achieve [Mao Zedong, 1944, p.10, 34, 39; Mao Zedong, 1946, p. 185].

According to this theory, in the modern era there are old-type democracies, embodied in "republics of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", and modern-type democracies, embodied in the "republic of the dictatorship of the proletariat" in the USSR. In China, however, a "new type of democracy - a new democracy" was to be established, embodied in the republic of "the united dictatorship of several anti-imperialist classes" (Mao Zedong, 1944, pp. 21-23).

In 1941, Mao Zedong set the task of creating a new democratic state on the territory of the liberated regions on the basis of the "three people's principles", and in 1944, he stated that Sun Yat-sen's "three revolutionary people's principles" had already been implemented in the liberated regions, i.e., the new democracy system had been established [Mao Zedong, 1947, pp. 283-284 Mao Zedong, 1948, p. 493]. This was reflected in the construction of political power on the basis of "three-thirds", which Mao Zedong declared to be the embodiment of "the true policy of the three people's principles". A third of the seats in government were held by CCP members (representing the proletariat and the poorest peasantry), a third by " progressive left-wing elements "(the petty bourgeoisie), and a third by so - called intermediate elements (Mao Zedong included the middle bourgeoisie and" advanced " landlords). The "three-thirds" system was designed to ensure the interests of all classes and social groups that were part of the united front, and above all the "intermediate classes" [Mao Zedong, 1947, p.284; Mao Zedong, 1948, p. 475].

The political leadership of the CCP was not concerned with achieving a numerical majority of Communist deputies, but with " ensuring the political superiority of the CCP... in political power according to the three-thirds system" [Ren Bishi, 1943, pp. 8-9], which required a significant organizational and political strengthening of the party. The CCP leadership's accelerated growth of the party at the expense of the peasantry (in the liberated areas) and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia (in the Kuomintang areas), which had been carried out since the late 1930s, was aimed at achieving this goal. Already in 1942, more than 80% of the party's members were Communists who had recently joined the party [Dandy Zilao, No. 2, 15.01.1942, 9b; ibid., No. 11, 07.11.1942, 6]. In particular, some of them joined the party, considering that the party is the " father of peasant unions "[Ibid., No. 8, 01.05. 1942, 22b; No. 11, 07.11.1942, 6].

In early 1942, official propaganda of Mao Zedong's ideas began in the party press, CCP members were encouraged to study and assimilate Mao Zedong's theory and strategy, and his works on new democracy were recommended as basic textbooks in theoretical studies.

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The CCP's economic course in the liberated areas was subordinated to the task of settling relations between various classes, including antagonistic ones, in order to strengthen the united front. It provided, on the one hand, for the introduction of a 10-hour working day and the implementation of appropriate changes in the lives of workers, on the other, for the struggle to increase the productivity of workers and guarantee the capitalists ' profit. The main attention was paid to the agrarian question as the most important condition for waging a long war. At that time, the goal of the CCP's agrarian policy was to weaken the feudal system, not to destroy it, in order to attract landlords and capitalists to the side of the democratic anti-Japanese government. Therefore, only a reduction in rent and loan interest was envisaged, which allowed, on the one hand, to raise the standard of living of the peasantry, on the other-to provide the landlords with the opportunity to exist, which was facilitated by a decrease starting in the summer of 1940. increase taxes on landlords and kulaks by one and a half to two times and give them the opportunity to engage in various types of economic activities, "in order to attract these landlords to fight the common enemy" [Mao Zedong, 1948, p. 498; Dandy Zilao, No. 3, 31.01.1942, 8a; ibid., No. 4, 15.02.1942, 8a-9a; ibid., No. 12, 17.08.1943; Zefang zhibao, 06.07.1943].

This policy favored the implementation of a policy of priority development of agricultural production by private farms. The CCP Central Committee Directive of February 4, 1942 described the content of the CCP's economic policy in the countryside as "seven-tenths to capitalism and three-tenths to feudalism", in order to "give priority to stimulating the development of capitalist production, but nevertheless preserve certain rights for the landlords". At the same time, the task was set to "weaken the feudal components of kulak economy and stimulate its capitalist components." At the same time, the creation of the simplest types of peasant cooperatives was encouraged in the form of "mutual labor assistance brigades" and "labor exchange groups" [Mao Zedong, 1948, pp. 498-499; Dandy zilao, No. 4, 15.02.1942, Za, 8a].

In April-June 1945, the Seventh Congress of the CPC was held, which defined the political line for the final stage of the anti-Japanese war and the post-war period, and legitimized Mao Zedong's leadership position in the party by electing him to the newly created post of chairman of the CPC Central Committee. The formation of a broad anti-Chinese coalition under the leadership of the CCP took place against the backdrop of the Kuomintang's efforts to win over the peasantry and other social strata in the run-up to the upcoming civil war with the CCP. Simultaneously with the Seventh Congress of the CPC, the Kuomintang held its Sixth National Congress (in May 1945), dedicated to bringing the war with Japan to an end and moving from a period of political tutelage to constitutional rule. A year earlier, the Kuomintang also adopted a post-war development plan for the country, which provided for industrialization with the help of foreign capital and the development of the agricultural sector of the economy. It was envisaged to carry out agrarian reforms in accordance with the principle "every plowman has his own field" by limiting large - scale land ownership, supporting tenants and peasant owners through reducing rents and developing cooperation between peasants under state control. This policy, in fact, was aimed at curbing the class struggle in the countryside, because both the landlords and the peasantry, who were the most important source of human resources for the army, depended on the outcome of the Kuomintang's struggle for power with the CCP.

Anticipating the imminent expulsion of the Japanese invaders, Mao Zedong, in his report to the seventh Congress of the CPC "On the coalition Government", put forward a program for the party's activities in the new conditions. His report focused on ideological, political and organizational preparations for the war with the Kuomintang and building a new democracy in the post-war period. Mao's political tactics

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Tse-tung's strategy provided for the isolation of the ruling elite of the Kuomintang by splitting it and moving away from it individual leaders of the Kuomintang, representatives of commercial and industrial circles, students, intellectuals, the Kuomintang army and "numerous progressive democratic elements" [Mao Zedong, 1945, p.2, 26-27, 41-42].

The Provisional Democratic Coalition Government was planned to include representatives of the Kuomintang, the Communist Party, the Democratic League and non-party figures, so that it could express the interests of the vast majority of the Chinese nation. This government was tasked with building a "rich and powerful state of new democracy" (Mao Zedong, 1945, p.2, 54-56).

This state had to rely on industrial and craft workers, peasants and farm labourers, the petty bourgeoisie, the liberal bourgeoisie, the advanced gentry2 and other patriots. But the main social support was still considered to be the peasantry, which formed "the main base of the democratic regime in China at this stage." Mao also considered the peasantry as a decisive socio-economic force, not only at this stage, but also in the future, since it was the main supplier of food and raw materials and consumer of industrial goods (Mao Zedong, 1945, pp. 38, 68-69).

Although the report referred to the proletariat as "the most consistent revolutionary-democratic force," the latter was not considered as the leading force of the Chinese revolution, its tasks were limited to "the struggle for the industrialization of China and the modernization of its agriculture," and the CCP's activities among the working masses were aimed at " providing workers with conditions for organizing industrial production in the interests of production" [Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 50, 65, 69, 74].

In order to prevent class conflicts between the working class and the national bourgeoisie in the new democracy, Mao Zedong proposed a policy of "regulating the relations between labor and capital", in which, on the one hand, "the rights of workers will be preserved", and on the other, "corresponding profits will be guaranteed to entrepreneurs" [Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 74].

The report considered the national bourgeoisie as an important ally in the new democratic bloc. In politics, this was manifested in the indispensable participation in the coalition government of parties and groups representing the interests of the national bourgeoisie. In economics , it is based on the "broad development of the private capitalist economy" (Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 44).

At the same time, calling for "ensuring the protection of legitimate private property" in a new democracy, Mao Zedong reiterated the inadmissibility for the bourgeoisie to "control the life of the people." To this end, in addition to confiscating and placing at the disposal of the new democratic coalition government "the enterprises and property of the invaders and main traitors themselves", it was considered necessary to transfer into the hands of the state all enterprises that "either have a monopolistic character or are very large in scale and cannot be managed by private individuals" (banks, railways, etc.). This is exactly what Mao Zedong saw as the implementation of Sunyatsen's principle of "limiting capital". In fact, the property of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie associated with the Kuomintang elite fell under the restriction. As for the national bourgeoisie (represented mainly by the middle bourgeoisie), in the "new democratic" state, it was provided with all the "conditions for the free development of private capital" (Mao Zedong, 1945, pp. 9, 41-42, 75).

2 English term. The word is sometimes used to refer to a class of wealthy landowners outside the Anglo - Saxon tradition-for example, in relation to landlords in late Imperial China.

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The goal of the new democracy's economic policy, according to Mao Zedong, was "to transform China from an agricultural country into an industrial country", to create "a solid economic foundation in the form of agriculture many times more advanced than it is now, large-scale industry that occupies a dominant position in the country's economy, and accordingly, developed communication and trade routes." money circulation, etc.", i.e., in carrying out a large-scale modernization of the national economy and turning China into a highly developed power. This goal was ultimately achieved through new democratic political transformations designed to free up the productive forces of Chinese society. At the same time, the creation of a modern economy was considered by Mao Zedong as the key to the successful formation of the political system of the new democracy [Mao Zedong, 1945, pp. 72-73].

The implementation of the new democracy economic program required huge investments, which created a problem of funding sources. Mao Zedong called for "relying mainly on the savings of the Chinese people themselves and at the same time resorting to foreign aid." Speaking about internal sources of accumulation, he did not specify at the expense of which sector of the national economy it will be produced. Real savings for the development of industry were available to the national bourgeoisie, which was supposed to provide all the conditions for the development of private entrepreneurship. Other sources of accumulation were to be the bureaucratic bourgeoisie and national traitors, whose property was subject to confiscation.

An important source of financing for China's modernization was supposed to be foreign investment "subject to Chinese laws and the interests of the Chinese economy." China's industrialization, Mao Zedong told the American representatives in Yan'an, is possible "only through free enterprise and with the help of foreign capital. Chinese and American interests are interrelated and close to each other. They coincide in economic and political relations", " the Chinese Communists will continue to seek friendship and mutual understanding with America, as China will need it in the post-war period "[Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 74; Lost Chance in China..., 1974, p. 307, 373-374, 383].

Mao Zedong saw the main obstacle to China's development in the dominance of feudal relations, so he considered the main task of socio-economic transformation of the country to be "transferring land from feudal exploiters into the hands of peasants and turning it into the property of peasants", which would allow "transforming agriculture from old and backward to modern agriculture." Stating in the report on the Coalition Government that the dispute between the CCP and the Kuomintang "is in its content a dispute about agrarian relations," he nevertheless put forward an agrarian program that is moderate at this stage of the new democratic revolution, confirming his commitment to the policy of rejecting the principle of "every plowman has his own field"in the liberated areas Mao Zedong, 1945, p.65-66, 68, expressed his readiness to "pursue this policy in the post-war period" and replace it with a policy of reducing rents and loan interest for the sake of "uniting landlords and peasants" as part of a united anti-Japanese front.

As follows from the content of the report, the theory of new democracy was a program for the development of national capitalism and under the control of the new democratic state as the third way to develop the revolution in China and in all colonial and dependent countries. The" Third Way " as a specific form of modernization of Chinese society and its productive forces was considered by Mao Zedong as an objective pattern of China's development, distinguishing it from the developed countries, which already had conditions for the transition to socialism due to the high level of development of capitalism. With the creation of a new democratic political system, Mao Zedong directly linked the " liberation of the productive forces

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the Chinese people and thus creating the prerequisites for their full development" [Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 46, 73], thus considering the political system of the new democracy in indissoluble unity with its economic basis, i.e., precisely as a special socio-economic system.

The dramatic change in the internal political situation in China after the Japanese capitulation in August 1945 and during the civil war that followed it required serious adjustments in the implementation of the new democracy policy. In a series of articles published in 1948, Mao Zedong declared the CCP's commitment to Marxism-Leninism and the international significance of the CPSU(b) experience. The "right-wing Klonistist ideology" of party workers who ignored the working class when working in cities was criticized. And in the middle of 1949. Mao recognized the need for China to "follow the path of the Russians" (Mao Zedong, 1964, pp. 1360-1362, 1476).

Mao Zedong's interpretation of the question of class hegemony in the new democratic revolution was also radically changed. On January 18, 1948, in one of the directives of the CPC Central Committee, he stated that "the new democratic power is the anti - imperialist and anti-feudal power of the broad masses of the people led by the working class...; the leadership of the state of the broad masses of the people and the government is carried out by the working class through its vanguard-the Communist Party of China" [Mao Zedong, 1964, pp. 226-227].

At the same time, while officially declaring the political leadership of the working class in the new democratic revolution, Mao Zedong at the same time demanded "to draw a clear line between the correct course for the development of production and the prosperity of the economy, taking into account both public and private interests, and one-sided... a course on "assistance"...in fact, it undermines industry and trade and damages the revolutionary cause of the people." To solve the problem of ensuring the mutual interests of labor and capital, the CPC Central Committee in February 1948 called for the joint organization of production management committees by workers and capitalists under the leadership of local governments, "to make every effort to reduce production costs and increase production... achieve the security goal... mutual benefits for labor and capital and support in the conduct of war "[Mao Zedong, 1964, p. 245, 301; Ibid., 1964, p. 1283].

The revision of the basic thesis of the theory of new democracy - the question of class hegemony, despite all reservations about its practical implementation, meant the beginning of a revision of the party's ideological and theoretical platform itself in relation to the new historical stage associated with the coming rise to power of the Communist party. As early as March 1948, Mao Zedong changed the definition of the current stage of the new democratic revolution from bourgeois-democratic to people's-democratic [Mao Zedong, 1964, p. 1255]. A new interpretation of the theory of new democracy formed the basis of party and state documents that defined the post-war development of China.

After completing the tasks of the recovery period, in the context of the aggravation of the situation around China (the Korean War), the economic and diplomatic isolation of the PRC by the leading capitalist countries, the leadership of the PRC, led by Mao Zedong, decided in the early 1950s to abandon the continuation of the policy of new democracy and adopt the general line of building socialism with the help of the USSR, however, it soon developed into a leftist course in domestic and foreign policy.

Put forward as a special third way, designed to prevent the development of capitalism in China by curbing social contradictions and "limiting capital," the theory of new democracy was in many ways similar to the teachings of Sun Yat-sen's "state socialism." The Communist Party of China's recognition of this doctrine, which enjoyed great authority among the Chinese people and formed the ideological platform of the Kuomintang, was primarily due to the tasks of creating and strengthening the anti-Japanese united national front. Detailed Description

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a comparison of the main propositions of the theory of new democracy with the three popular principles allows, in my opinion, to consider the latter, in essence, as the main ideological source of the theory of new democracy.

Mao Zedong directly linked the construction of a new democratic society with the implementation of the three popular principles and considered these principles as the ideological basis of the new democratic state, while noting their coincidence with the ideological and theoretical platform of the CCP "only in some basic provisions, and not at all completely", without specifying the essence of the differences. "The three people's principles of Sun Yat-sen are essentially the three people's principles of new democracy, the new three people's principles that are different from the old three people's principles", so " for Chinese Communists, the struggle for the minimum program and the struggle for the revolutionary, i.e. new, three people's principles of Sun Yat-sen is mainly (but not in many cases) the same as all) the same, but not two different tasks" [Mao Zedong, 1948, p. 317].

Both exercises focused on the principle of nationalism in the sense of achieving full national sovereignty, without which modernization and" self-strengthening " of the country is impossible. Mao Zedong's pragmatic orientation towards the United States in implementing post-war modernization is characteristic, while simultaneously freeing the CCP from the ideological, political and organizational influence of the Soviet Union, which was carried out before 1943 through the Comintern. Like Sun Yat-sen, Mao's writings on new democracy emphasize China's special place in Asia. The path of a new democratic revolution on the Chinese model was considered by him as the only possible one in colonial and dependent countries, and the implementation of plans for the creation of a new democratic state was associated with the "historical mission of China", not to mention the" decisive role " of China "in ensuring peace in the East" [Mao Zedong, 1944, p. 6, 15, 21-22; Mao Zedong, 1945, p. 9, 34; Mao Zedong, 1946, p. 162].

Although socialism was proclaimed as the ultimate prospect of the new democratic revolution, the new democratic path of development, like Sunyatsen's plan for building "state socialism", was a course for the development of capitalism. At the same time, if Sun Yat-sen thought of the implementation of the principle of "equalization of land rights" through nationalization of land, considering it a means to eliminate property inequality and "prevent" capitalism, then Mao Zedong understood this principle as the transfer of land to private ownership of peasants while preserving the kulak, i.e. "equalization of land rights" was associated with development capitalism in the countryside.

There is a noticeable similarity between the new democratic political attitudes and the principle of democracy. Mao Zedong interpreted the new democracy in fact as a super-class state formation designed to prevent the development of social antagonisms and thereby ensure the socio-political stability necessary for the implementation of the "self-strengthening" of the country. The political core of such a state was to be a national party built on the principles of strict centralization, headed by an ideological leader-Mao Zedong (in the state of national prosperity - the Kuomintang, led by Sun Yat-sen, then Chiang Kai-shek, built on the same principles). The class character of the new democratic state, which was identified with the power of the peasantry, corresponded to the policy pursued by Mao Zedong to "intoxicate" the party. In the end, the policy of relying on the peasantry paid off, allowing the creation and strengthening of a combat-ready mass army, a military-political and economic base in the liberated areas, and with broad support from the peasant masses to win the long-term revolutionary war with the Kuomintang and begin to implement the modernization of China on a socialist basis.

Thus, the theory of new democracy included a number of important provisions of the teachings of Sun Yat-sen, which, however, does not give grounds to consider it as a kind of modification of this teaching, given that the theory of new democracy was put forward

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Mao Zedong as a justification for the Chinese Communist Party's own path of social revolution, for which the CCP was created, which by then had been fighting for power with the Kuomintang for twenty years. This theory was put forward by Mao Zedong as a new stage in the development of Marxism, its "Sinification" based on the specifics of China as a huge peasant semi-colonial and semi-feudal country with its own unique cultural and political tradition. As for the three popular principles in the theory and practice of new democracy, it seems that they primarily played the role of a political slogan to attract the broadest strata of Chinese society to the CCP's side, including the "intermediate elements" and the moderate part of the Kuomintang itself.

The victory of the new democratic revolution is considered in the PRC as the result of Mao Zedong's search for a way to modernize China based on "combining the basic provisions of Marxism with the specific practice of the Chinese revolution" and as Mao Zedong's first contribution to the theory and practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which became one of the components of the CPC's theory of party building. The phrase about the victory of the new democratic revolution under the leadership of Mao Zedong's ideas, which led to the creation of the People's Republic of China - "the state of the democratic dictatorship of the people" - was preserved in the Charter of the Communist Party of China, adopted with partial amendments at its last, XVIII Congress in November 2012.

In the content of the new democratic revolution, Chinese researchers distinguish the following main provisions: orientation against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism; leadership of the proletariat, alliance of the working class and peasantry, tactics of rallying all the forces that can be united; duration of this revolution, carried out by armed means, using the tactics of creating rural support bases in order to surround the city with the countryside; implementation of the "each plowman has his own field", joint development of the public and private sectors of the economy, mutual consideration of the interests of labor and capital in the interests of economic development; finally, the reflection in the theory of new democracy of China's national characteristics, which allowed to unite broad socio-political forces around the CPC, without which the revolution would have been doomed to defeat [Zhang Wenzhu, 1993, pp. 3-4, 24-25; Zhonghua renmin..., 1999, pp. 246-247; Jin Huiming, 2000, pp. 423-430; Li Shenming, 2010, pp. 4-5].

At the same time, in the first years of the era of reform and openness, some Chinese researchers raised the question that in the 1950s it was necessary to continue the policy of "new democracy" for another 8-10 years, preventing the transition to socialist transformations [Wang Yapiao, 1981, No. 2, pp. 1-10; Zhang Shaoyu, 1981, No. 4, pp. 90-91]. At the beginning of the noughties, similar calls were made by "liberal Marxist scholars" who proposed to abandon the concept of class struggle in connection with the rapid growth of the middle class in China and to "reassess socialist transformations", considering it necessary to return to the new democracy and the lessons of capitalism [Xuyoshi shibao, 29.05.2000; Dandy Wenxian, 2000, No. 5, p. 57; Dandai sichao, 2000, No. 1, p. 2-15; Zhengming, 2001, No. 9, p. 2-3; 6-8; No. 10, p. 14-16].

The theory of new democracy was more or less considered in the works of many Soviet (Russian) Sinologists - L. A. Berezny, Yu. M. Garushyants, V. I. Glunin, A.M. Grigoriev, K. V. Kukushkin, M. L. Titarenko, etc. According to A.V. Meliksetov, for Mao Zedong, "the adoption of the concept of' new democracy 'was tactical in nature, it was only a means of gaining power" [Problemy..., 1996, No. 1, p. 83]. E. P. Pivovarova notes that the promotion of the platform of new democracy was due to "the need for long-term coexistence dictated by the specific conditions of China to mobilize all the active factors for achieving economic progress in the country". In the new democracy platform, the path of socio-economic development was "outlined in general parameters".

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the development of post-revolutionary China, although in the early 1950s there was a sudden revision of the new democracy program in the face of the country's unpreparedness for taking concrete steps towards socialist transformation [Pivovarova, 1999, p.8-10]. What all these works have in common is that new democracy is seen as a necessary step towards the subsequent implementation of socialist transformations, due to the specifics of China.

list of literature

Wang Yapiao. On the question of the character of Chinese society in the initial period after liberation. Xiamen. 1981. № 2.

Dandai sichao.

Danda wenxian.

Dandy zilao.

Ren Bishi. Guanyu jige wenti yijian (Considerations on some issues). B. M., 1943.

People's Daily.

Li Shenming. Quanqiuhua beijing sn du zhongguo da danjian (Great Party Building in China in the context of globalization). Beijing, 2010.

Mao Zedong. Selected Works, vol. 4. Peking, 1964.

Mao Zedong. Xinminzhuzhui lun (On New Democracy), B. M., 1944.
Mao Zedong. Lun lianhe zhengfu (On the Coalition Government), B. M., 1945.
Mao Zedong. Xuanji (Selected works). Dalian, 1946.

Mao Zedong. Xuanji (Selected works). Harbin, 1947.

Mao Zedong. Xuanji (Selected works). Harbin, 1948.

Mao Zedong. Xuanji (Selected works). Vol. 4. Peking, 1964.

Pivovarova E. P. Socialism with Chinese characteristics: results of theoretical and practical search, Moscow, 1999.
Problems of the Far East. 1996. № 1.

Sun Zhongshan. Xuanji (Selected Works), Vol. 1, 2. Peking, 1956.

Shueyoshi shibao.

Jin Huiming. Shehuizhui lishi, lilun yu xianshi (History, theory and practice of socialism). Hefei, 2000.

Zefang daily.

Zhang Wenzhu. Mao Zedong yu zhongguo xiangdaihua (Mao Zedong and China's Modernization). Beijing, 1993.

Zhang Shaoyu. What was the character of society in old and new democratic China? // Shehui kexue. Shanghai. 1981. № 4.

Zhonghua renmin gunghego goshi baike quanshu (Encyclopedia of the History of the People's Republic of China). Beijing, 1999.

Zhengming.

Lost Chance in China. The World War II Dispatches of John S. Service. N.Y., 1974.

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