Partition Wall - Stalin

Stalin

November 17, 1918

Works, Vol. 4, November, 1917 - 1920

Between socialist Russia and the revolutionary West a partition wall has been erected in the shape of the occupied regions.

Whereas in Russia the Red flag has been waving for over a year now, and in the West, in Germany and Austria-Hungary, outbreaks of proletarian uprisings are multiplying daily and hourly, in the occupied regions, in Finland, Estland, Latvia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, Poland, Bessarabia, the Ukraine and the Crimea, bourgeois nationalist "governments" continue to drag out a wretched existence by the grace of the imperialists of the West whose time is coming to an end.

Whereas in the East and in the West "great" monarchs and "sovereign" imperialists have already been relegated to the nether regions, in the occupied areas petty kinglets and puny robbers continue to rule, committing lawlessness and violence against the workers and peasants, arresting and shooting them.

More, these out-of-date "governments" are feverishly organizing their "national" white guard "regiments," are preparing for "action," are conspiring with the not yet abolished imperialist governments and laying plans for the "expansion" of "their" territories.

These shadows, rotting alive, of already overthrown "great" monarchs, and these puny "national" "governments" which have been placed by the will of fate between the two tremendous conflagrations of revolution, in the East and in the West, are now dreaming of extinguishing the general fire of revolution in Europe, of perpetuating their ludicrous existence, of turning back the wheel of history! . . .

That which the "sovereign" monarchs of "great" Germany and Austria-Hungary failed to accomplish, these petty "kinglets" dream of accomplishing "at one stroke," with the help of a couple of disorganized white-guard "regiments."

We do not doubt that the mighty waves of revolution in Russia and the West will ruthlessly sweep away the counter-revolutionary dreamers in the occupied regions. We do not doubt that the hour is near when the "kinglets" of these regions will follow in the footsteps of their former "sovereign" patrons in Russia and Germany.

We have no reason to doubt that the counterrevolutionary partition wall between the revolutionary West and socialist Russia will in the end be swept away.

The first signs of revolution in the occupied regions have already appeared. The strikes in Estland, the demonstrations in Latvia, the general strike in the Ukraine, the universal revolutionary ferment in Finland, Poland and Latvia—all these are the first signs. Needless to say, revolution and Soviet governments in these regions are matters of the very near future.

Proletarian revolution, awe-inspiring and mighty, is on the march through the world. The old "lords" of the earth in the East and the West bend their heads before it in fear and trembling, and their old crowns are falling. The occupied regions and their petty "kinglets" can be no exception.

Zhizn Natsionalnostei, No. 2, November 17, 1918

Editorial

Signed: J. Stalin