When a[4-536]civil war develops to the point of threatening the very existence of imperialism and its running dogs, the domestic rulers,[4-537] imperialism often adopts other methods in order to maintain its rule; it either tries to split the revolutionary front from within, for example, the treachery of the Chinese bourgeoisie in 1927, or sends armed forces to help the domestic rulers[4-538] directly, for example, the latter period of the civil war in the Soviet Union, and the present war in Spain (editor’s note: the Spanish civil war lasted from 1936‒39). At such a time,[4-539] imperialism and the domestic feudal classes and even the bourgeoisie stand completely at one pole while the masses of the people stand at the other pole.[4-540] It is clearly evident at such a time that the principal external contradiction between imperialism and the semi-colony, and the principal internal contradiction between the feudal forces and broad masses of people, [p. 261] almost merge to form a principal contradiction which determines the development and status of the other contradictions.
But whatever happens, there is no doubt at all that at every stage in the development of a process, there is only one principal contradiction which plays the leading role.
Hence, if in any process there are a number of contradictions, one of them must be the principal contradiction playing the leading and decisive role, while the rest occupy a secondary and subordinate position. Therefore, in studying any process,[4-541] we must firstly ascertain clearly whether it is a simple or a complex process. If it is a complex process in which there are two or more contradictions, we must devote every effort to finding its principal contradiction. Once this principal contradiction is grasped, all problems can be readily solved. This is the method Marx taught us in his study of capitalist society. Likewise Lenin in his study of imperialism,[4-542] and Lenin and Stalin in their study of the economics of the transitional period in the Soviet Union, have taught us this method. There are thousands of scholars and men of action who do not understand it, and the result is that, lost in a fog, they are unable to get to the heart of a problem and naturally cannot find a way to resolve its contradictions.
As we have said, one must not treat all the contradictions in a process as being equal but must