V.M. Molotov speech at the meeting of the Moscow Soviet on November 6, 1939. 12th anniversary of the October Revolution.
1. The ways of capitalism and the Soviet
Union.
The October Revolution tore our
country out of capitalist society, and since then two worlds have been formed:
the old world of capitalism, which encompasses all capitalist countries and the
colonies and semi-colonies subject to them, and the new world of socialism,
born by Soviet power in our country. Rotten and decrepit capitalism is already
looking back and clearly living out its life. The new world born of the October
Revolution, gaining new strength every day, is raising its head ever higher.
Capitalism is tenacious, although it is no longer on the rise, but in its decline. Capitalism clings to everything in order to prolong its existence. But what does it bring to the peoples of the capitalist countries, and what is it capable of in our time?
Capitalism, which has amassed and
concentrated enormous wealth in the hands of the narrow elite of bourgeois
society, does not and cannot provide a correct way of using this wealth in the
interests of the masses of the people, in the interests of the working people.
The accumulation of this wealth in the hands of a few major capitalists,
bankers and money kings only gives rise to frenzied competition and struggle
for power in the ruling classes of modern capitalist society, both within these
countries and between capitalist states. At the top of such a society, living
in the pursuit of new wealth and not enduring any obstacles on this path, there
can only be wolf rules of life and public morality and complete disregard for
any and all interests of the broad masses of the working population.
The workers, peasants and broad
sections of the intelligentsia are left to drag out their share of a
half-starved existence, the existence of downtrodden and forced people without
a glimmer of a better life under capitalism. Capitalism breeds
ever new economic crises, murderous unemployment in the cities. Hopeless hunger
strikes in the countryside, increased burdens of national and colonial slavery
for many hundreds of millions of people, and endless bloody wars, without which
capitalism cannot exist. Still recently, in the years from 1929 to 1933, the
capitalist countries experienced the gravest world economic crisis with all its
disasters, unemployment and the decline of the material life of the masses of
the people in town and country. As soon as this grave crisis, more or less
subsided, a new economic crisis began in 1937,
Is there still any need for proof
that the accumulation of untold wealth by the top of capitalist society does
not give any light to the improvement of the life of the masses of the people? Is there any need for proof that internal affairs in the countries of
capitalism are bad as hell? That discontent is naturally accumulating here
among the exploited and oppressed masses and unavoidable new outbursts of
popular anger against the power of capital are being prepared in various forms,
but in all capitalist countries this takes place.
The more we learn about the internal situation and internal contradictions in the countries of capitalism, the clearer it becomes to us why the bourgeois countries of late are increasingly looking for a way out of the existing situation in external adventures, in the seizure and plunder of foreign lands and colonies, in new redivisions of the world by war. Even the richest and, so to speak, fattened by the riches of the country, do not find in their internal forces a way out of the situation that has arisen, and they are not able to look for a way out that will in any way satisfy the masses of the people. As can be seen, the source of the further upsurge of the internal forces of modern capitalist society has been exhausted and is generally coming to an end. This should be seen as the root cause of the new foreign adventures of the imperialist powers. This is the real root of modern wars, the number and scope of which are growing before our eyes.
In the well-known course
"History of the CPSU (b)" published last year and in the report of
Comrade Stalin, at the 18th Party Congress, a vivid picture of the second
imperialist war was given, which in recent years has captured a number of countries
in Europe and Asia. As you know, since then this war has not waned, but, on the
contrary, has significantly increased its scope.
What do we have today?
For the third year in the East, a
war has been going on between Japan and China. This means that Japan, with a
population of seventy-two million, is drawn into the war, as well as Japanese colonies
with a population of several tens of millions. It also means the participation
in this war of China with a population of 450 million people. Thus, about 570
million were involved in one way or another in the imperialist war in Asia. This
war has already caused millions of deaths, the devastation of many cities and
several thousand villages in China, and there is no end in sight to the bloody
victims and enormous disasters.
In recent months, a big war has
broken out in the West as well. Participating in this war are, on the one hand,
England, and France, which are increasingly drawing into the war not only their
own population, but also the population of their dominions and colonies, and,
on the other hand, Germany, the second largest state in Europe. This means that
up to 750 million people are involved in the war in the West - if we consider
that the colonies of England and France are to some extent involved in the war.
It turns out that in both the
West and the East, not even counting the colonies, about seven hundred million people
have already been drawn into the war, and together with the colonies this will
amount to over 1,300 million people. Thus, more than half of the world's
population of 2.120 million people is, to one degree or another, already
involved in the war in Europe and Asia.
Such is the main, so to speak,
"achievement" with which the capitalist world has come to this day.
Despite this, it cannot be said
that the further scope of the war has already been suspended. The case is quite
the opposite. True, there was a small misfire. Some plans to expand the war
were frustrated, for example, by drawing the Soviet Union into the war. We, the
Soviet people, showed once again in time that we live not with someone else's
mind, but with our own mind. (Applause. Voices: "Correct").
But if we talk about the
capitalist world, then now there is a most intense struggle between the warring
powers to increase the number of their allies, to win neutral countries over to
their side. We must not turn a blind eye to the fact that the drawing of
neutrals into the orbit of the war is carried out very actively and already has
known results. This prepares for the further expansion of the field engulfed in
war. We know, for example, what serious questions were raised by the conclusion
of the British and French mutual assistance pact with Turkey. A struggle is
unfolding to draw into the orbit of the war some Balkan countries, individual countries
of Scandinavia, as well as other states. If the European war is destined to
drag on - and the ruling circles of England and France are doing everything
precisely for this prolongation and kindling of the war, in order to use it in
the interests of strengthening their world domination and securing their
numerous colonies, then the number of neutral countries in Europe will
decrease, and the number of states drawn into the imperialist war will
inevitably increase. It is also known that for some countries neutrality serves
only as a mask to cover up the incitement and expansion of the war, from which
they hope to get high profits at the expense of the warring peoples, at the
expense of their grief, victims, and ruin.
Thus, so far not only is there no
end in sight to the war in Europe and Asia, but rather, on the contrary, the
passions around this war are all flaring up, since the imperialist circles,
apparently, have completely lost faith in the possibility of improving their
internal affairs and are building their calculations, mainly , on new
imperialist conquests, on a new redivision of the world in favor of the most
powerful imperialist powers, and on crushing and eliminating their competitors
and all claims to their colonies and colonial wealth.
Consequently, in the present war
the foundations have been laid for a new, and already worldwide, imperialist
war, provided, of course, the working class agrees to tolerate the continuation
of such a policy of the imperialist powers.
Today we face the danger that the
war in Europe, together with the war in Asia, will turn - if this is not
resolutely rebuffed - into a new, worldwide, bloody slaughter of nations. This
is what the capitalist world has produced today.
The Soviet Union meets the 22nd
anniversary of the October Revolution with different results. Thanks to the
consistent pursuit of its peace policy, the USSR, as before, enjoys the
benefits of peace in order to advance even more successfully along the path of
upsurge in all branches of the country's economic and cultural development. In
the light of the new successes of socialism, with which the Soviet Union has
come to this day, the hopeless crisis of capitalist society becomes even more
obvious.
Compare the state of affairs in
the multinational Soviet Union with what happened in Poland, which yesterday
still represented a multinational bourgeois state built on the oppression of
all non-Polish nationalities. The state created by the Polish landlords and
capitalists went bankrupt with all its leaders. Bourgeois Poland collapsed in
spite of the "guarantees" promised to it by certain great powers,
thereby showing not only its own weakness, but also some obvious trouble in the
policy of certain European powers. But, if the multinational Polish state,
built against the will of the Polish people themselves, on the oppression of
non-Polish nationalities, showed, at the first test, its weakness, fragility,
and failure, then the Soviet Union is a multinational state of a different
type, - built on a completely different basis, namely, on the basis of equality
and friendship of all its nationalities - showed, on the contrary, its strength
and indestructible strength. In the USSR, the friendly life of the entire family
of numerous Soviet peoples is ensured and the moral and political unity of the
Soviet, socialist society is steadily growing stronger, which is a guarantee of
the invincible might of our state, built on the basis of the great principles
of the Leninist-Stalinist national policy, on the basis of equality and the
fraternal union of the nations that make up into its composition.(Applause).
The internal fortress, military might, and international prestige of the Soviet Union are now making themselves felt more and more. As a result of this, in connection with the collapse of the Polish state and the successful actions of our Red Army, Western Ukraine with a population of eight million and Western Belarus with a population of almost five million are now reunited with Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Belarus. (Stormy applause.) This is one of the most remarkable successes of our foreign policy in recent times. To this day, this is one of our most glorious results, which the Soviet Union, faithful to the principles of its peaceful foreign policy and proletarian internationalism, can be proud of. (Applause).
Soviet Belorussia almost doubled
in size and population and became a state with a population of ten million,
which many European states do not have. From now on, an end has been put to the
splitting of the Belarusian people. Throughout the territory, the Belarusian
people are united into one whole, and we can now say that Belarus is completely
reunited. The same should be said about the Ukrainian people, which for many centuries
was split into parts and survived for a long time the most severe national
oppression. Now the Ukrainian people throughout the entire territory are united
into one whole. The cherished dreams of the best of the Ukrainian
people, who made incalculable sacrifices for the cause of their national
liberation, came true. Finally, it's time to say: from now on, Ukraine is
reunited. (Applause). One must think that Ukraine, with its current thirty-nine million
inhabitants and rapid population growth, will soon be able to catch up with
some great countries, at least France, with its forty-two million population. Our
fraternal republics, Ukraine, and Belarus, grew up, and our brothers from
Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, with great joy and faith in their future,
joined the ranks of Soviet citizens. (Prolonged applause.) Thus, the entire
Soviet Union also grew, pushing its borders significantly to the West. There is
something to congratulate the Soviet Union on the 22nd anniversary of October!
(Stormy, prolonged applause.)
Of course, we must not forget
that 9/10 of humanity still lives within the framework of capitalist society,
under the domination of capitalism. The Soviet Union makes up less than 1/10 of
the world's population. But, as you can see, the capitalist world has recently
had to make some room and retreat (a cheerful revival in the hall), and the
Soviet Union, with the inclusion of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, has
grown in its territory, as well as in terms of population - by about thirteen million
people. On this basis, we have the right to congratulate the peoples of the
Soviet Union on the fact that our Soviet family of 170 million has become 183
million Soviet people. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
Thus, a comparison of the paths
of development of the countries of capitalism and the Soviet Union speaks not
in favor of the capitalist world, but quite the contrary.
Even at the beginning of the
first imperialist war, analyzing the present, highest stage of capitalism,
Lenin gave a brilliantly profound assessment of the modern capitalist world.
Even then, Lenin said that with all its achievements in the field of material
culture and technology, modern capitalism is decrepit, parasitic capitalism,
rotting in the bud. Approximately a quarter of a century has passed since then,
and the Marxist analysis given by Lenin has received countless practical and
scientific-theoretical confirmations. Since then, many gaping cracks and fetid
abscesses have been exposed in the entire organism of capitalist society, not to
mention the fact that the October Socialist Revolution practically raised the
question of the final demolition of the entire capitalist system.
Everything now points to the fact that the internal forces of capitalist society have been so undermined by the processes of decay of capitalism that without war, without new and new external imperialist adventures, capitalism can no longer exist.
For the vast majority of the
population of the capitalist countries, the workers, peasants, broad sections
of the intelligentsia, capitalism can no longer provide any tolerable and
stable position, despite all the enormous wealth that has accumulated in the
hands of the top of the ruling classes. The greater the size of these riches,
the more violent the imperialists' striving for world domination and the more
implacable they are towards their competitors, whom they are ready to put an
end to at any cost at the expense of their own people and other peoples, but
only not by concession in terms of their world domination.
Therefore, the former speeches of
the leaders of the bourgeoisie that the first imperialist war would also be the
last war have long been forgotten. On the contrary, the leaders of modern
capitalist states, especially the most powerful of them, and their accomplices
of the Blume and Attlee group are looking for an improvement in their affairs
and a way out of their internal difficulties in a new imperialist war. The
criminality of modern warfare lies on their responsibility, on the
responsibility of those who are prolonging and fomenting the current war, on
the responsibility of those who do not cease to be engaged in the criminal
deception of the broad masses, as if all this is done in the name of defending
democracy. From this it must be concluded that the modern rulers of capitalist
society and their "socialist" clerks cannot be expected to
voluntarily renounce war, its kindling and expansion, but, on the contrary, one can most likely expect the transformation of the present war in Europe and Asia into a new world bloody slaughter of peoples for the sake of preserving and strengthening the world domination of the interested imperialist powers.
All this is opposed by the Soviet
Union with its policy of peace, with its ardent striving to bring the war to an
end as soon as possible. From this it is clear that the peaceful foreign policy
of the Soviet Union not only meets the fundamental interests of the peoples of
our country and the interests of the states allied to us, but also the
interests of all mankind, if we actually mean the masses of the people of other
states, and not the ruling handfuls of bosses of the imperialist powers. This
means that the all-round growth of the internal forces of the Soviet Union and
the strengthening of its international prestige is not only our sacred duty,
the sacred duty of all Soviet people, but also meets the deep interests of all
peoples who yearn for peace and the speediest end to the war.
That is why the great names - the
name of Lenin, the father of the Soviet Union, and the name of Stalin, the
leader of the peoples of the USSR (stormy, long-lasting applause, turning into
an ovation. Everyone stands up), are pronounced with such love and faith in
the future, not only in our country, but and far, far beyond the Soviet Union.
The names of Lenin and Stalin give rise to bright hopes in all corners of the
world and thunder like a call to fight for peace and the happiness of peoples,
to fight for complete liberation from capitalism. (Prolonged applause.)
2. The growth of the internal forces of the
Soviet Union.
The growth of the internal forces
of the Soviet Union is now showing in everything—in our economic construction,
in the development of the culture of the Soviet peoples, in the increased power
of the country's defense, in all our policy and its successes.
In the economic field, we have
put forward a program, the implementation of which means that in a short 10-15
years we will be able to overtake and outstrip the most developed capitalist
countries also economically. This means that our country, despite all the
successes and the tremendous rise in the technical level of industrial
production and transport achieved, is still economically behind some of the
capitalist states. But this also tells all of us, the Soviet people, all the
workers, peasants, and intelligentsia of the Soviet Union, that the feelings of
Soviet patriotism in our hearts must be kindled even more strongly in order not
only to solve, but also to accelerate in every viable way the solution of
this basic economic task of the USSR.
Today we can sum up some of the
results of the development of the national economy over the past year, or, more
precisely, over the 10 months of 1939.
The relevant data, when compared
with last year, show that our industry, taken as a whole, shows a growth of 14.4
percent, while large-scale industry directly gives a growth of 15 percent. This
means that the growth rate of our industry this year is higher than the rate of
growth last year, when industry also showed not a slight increase, namely, by 12
percent. This also means that the rate of growth of our industry is not only at
the level of the targets of the third five-year plan, according to which the
average annual increase is set at 14 percent, but even exceeds this target. The
products of machine-building and defense enterprises stand out for their
growth. Here the increase reaches 29 percent. As for the defense industry
itself, which grew at an accelerated pace in past years, (Animation in the hall.
Applause).
It can be said that our industry
is fulfilling its tasks successfully for the most part. This does not relieve
us, however, of responsibility for the absolutely unacceptable lag in such
important industries as metallurgy and fuel. We would, of course, like greater
growth in our light industry, although we are well aware that even now, we must
still give unconditional priority to the needs of strengthening the country's
defense and its industrial might. However, our light industry, including the
textile industry, must be able to cope successfully with the fulfillment of the
annual plan set for it.
Further, we should note our
achievements in raising the productivity of labor in large-scale industry. The
implementation of certain measures to strengthen labor discipline and to bring
the management of industry closer to the enterprises themselves has already
yielded positive results. If last year we had an increase in labor productivity
in industry by 11 percent, then this year we have an increase in labor
productivity in excess of the established plan, namely, by 17 percent. This
means that we have been able to carry out a significantly increased volume of
industrial production compared to last year with the same and even somewhat
smaller composition of workers, which, given the shortage of skilled workers in
our country, is of a very positive sign.
In the field of agriculture, several significant measures for collective-farm construction have been
adopted over the past year. It suffices to point to such decisions of the Party
and government as the resolution on measures to protect the public lands of the
collective farms from squandering, measures to strengthen labor discipline on
the collective farms, and very important measures to promote public animal
husbandry on the collective farms. All these measures are imbued with one main
goal: to eliminate petty-bourgeois distortions in the practice of collective
farm construction, as a result of which the private interests of the collective
farmers often come out ahead of the public interests of the collective farm
economy.
The results of these activities
are visible. Despite some unfavorable climatic conditions, this year we have
achieved new significant successes in agriculture. Thus, the grain harvest
reached 6.5 billion poods, which is 11 percent higher than last year's harvest.
For raw cotton, we have a further increase in production by 5 percent, for flax
- by 16 percent, for sugar beet - by 26 percent, while for potatoes this
increase reaches 60 percent against last year. There is also a steady growth, one
might say, in all types of animal husbandry. Grain procurement this year also
showed an increase against last year.
I will say a few more words about
the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, especially since next year it will have
its continuation. Almost three and a half million people visited the exhibition. Familiarization of the collective farmers and the population in general
with the outstanding achievements of our agriculture will be of great
importance for the further development of the creative initiative of the
advanced collective farmers and for the development of collective farm economy
in general. The exhibition gave many thousands of collective farmers the
opportunity to get acquainted with the numerous outstanding achievements of collective
farms and collective farmers, often of world significance. So, links TT.
Efremov and Chumanova in the Altai Territory served as an impetus for a whole
movement on collective farms for a harvest of 400-500 pounds of wheat per
hectare. Moreover, the exhibition widely spread throughout the country not only
that the collective farmer Chumanov received a wheat harvest of 512 pounds per
hectare, and the collective farmer Kovbas - 510 pounds of wheat per hectare,
but also such a fact as the achievement this year by the collective farmer
Sergeeva of 607 pounds of wheat per hectare. The exhibition also widely
popularized such achievements as the yield achieved by the unit of the
collective farmer-Azerbaijani Aliyeva, 151 centners of cotton per hectare, or
the yield achieved in Uzbekistan by the unit of the collective farmer Khudoev,
125 centners of cotton per hectare. As you can see, the world American cotton
harvest record of 60 centners per hectare was broken several times in the
Soviet Union. The news about the many remarkable achievements of the collective
farms in the field of animal husbandry has now spread widely throughout the
collective farms.
A number of measures were taken
at the exhibition in order to widely popularize the best examples of work in
our agriculture and to facilitate the transfer of the experience of the best
collective farms, collective farmers and collective farmers to new areas and
new branches of agriculture. But it must be admitted that the agricultural
exhibition can do much more than it has already done for the development of
competition between collective farms, between districts, between regions and
republics, and that it has a lot to do in the future to ensure an even faster
rise of collective-farm and state-farm economy.
In the area of raising the
culture of the peoples of the Soviet Union, we have made a major new step
forward in the past year. This is evidenced by the growth of our schools and
libraries, the steady growth of our press, theater, cinema, and other arts. We
are witnessing not only the rise of national cultures, but also the
rapprochement of these cultures with each other. All the new decades of
displaying national art in Moscow, testifying to the great achievements of our republics,
and arousing great interest in our capital, clearly testify to this. This is
also evidenced by such facts that the nationwide celebration of the
anniversaries of such great people as the Russian poet Pushkin and the
Ukrainian poet Shevchenko is joined by new famous names of national poets and
legendary heroes of other peoples of our country.
It must be admitted that
socialist culture has already made considerable progress in our country. The
profoundly revolutionary character of this new culture does not signify a
denial of the cultural achievements of the past, does not signify a rejection
of the cultural heritage of the peoples. On the contrary, all the real
achievements of the culture of the peoples, no matter how far they go back in
time, are highly valued in a socialist state and now stand up before their people
and before the peoples of the entire Soviet Union revived, in their real
ideological splendor. The Bolsheviks are not among the people who do not
remember kinship with their people. We, the Bolsheviks, have come from the very
midst of the people; we appreciate and love the glorious deeds of the history
of our people, as well as of all other peoples. We know very well that real
progress, which is possible only on the basis of socialism, (Stormy applause.)
The most important thing in the achievements of the Soviet Union to date is that we, all over the country, among all the Soviet peoples, have grown cadres of new, conscious Soviet people who are leading millions and tens of millions. These people have a new way, not in the way that is encountered at every step, in capitalist society, and not in the way it was until recently in our country, but really in a new way, in a socialist way, regarding their work and their duties to state. This does not mean that there are no backward people in our Soviet environment. No, there are many more. Moreover, it must be admitted that the social and cultural level of the broad strata has not yet risen quite enough, judging from the point of view of the prospects of communism. But our people, the people of the Soviet country, have gone through 22 years of the October Socialist Revolution. They already have to a certain extent, new ideas about relations between people and new views on duties to the people and the socialist state have grown, which are fundamentally different from the ideas of people imbued with the bourgeois prejudices of capitalist society. It is these new people who set the tone in our country, right down to the plants, factories, and collective farms.
You know that the best
representatives of these new people in the working class are the Stakhanovites
and Stakhanovites, who really break the old, low standards of labor
productivity and provide remarkable examples of highly productive socialist
labor. The number of such Stakhanovists is growing, which, in turn, is a good
indicator of the rise in the cultural and technical level of the working class.
Their ranks are now replenished by the initiators of multi-machine work, who
have switched from working on one machine to working on several machines, not
only not lowering, but even increasing the productivity of each machine
separately. Among them should be included the initiators of the combination of
professions, as well as the initiators who came out from among Soviet women in
the development of some new professions and industries for women. The new
technology, which is widespread in our industry, and the presence of increased
production experience and knowledge among a wide circle of workers and working
women, allow us to hope that these new forms of the Stakhanovist movement will
continue to develop successfully. This will advance labor productivity,
alleviate the shortage of qualified production personnel and, at the same time,
will further raise the cultural and technical level of the working class and
bring it closer to the level of engineering and technical workers. The
Stakhanovite movement, in all its forms of growth, is an indication that the
new people brought up by the Soviet government have gained great weight in the
Soviet Union and there is a broad and growing desire among the masses to be
equal to these advanced people of our country.
The Stakhanovite movement is
growing in our country, and the new socialist-conscious attitude to work is
capturing ever broader masses of the working class and the collective-farm
countryside, making special progress where there are worthy leaders of the
cause.
In our country, among young
people, and even just among children, a new attitude to learning is becoming
stronger, imbued with a sincere desire for knowledge and, at the same time, a
deep desire to become truly useful citizens of their state, their people. Every
true leader, teacher, educator knows this and finds the greatest satisfaction
in it.
We have a great desire for culture, for art and for various forms of social life among the broadest masses of the working people in town and country. We should learn to satisfy these growing demands and the craving of the masses of the people better and more widely for culture and for a new, brighter life.
We have laid the reliable
foundations of Soviet patriotism, for which our Red Army is famous and for
which the peoples of the Soviet Union are so widely embraced. This Soviet
patriotism took its toll off the coast of Khasan and on the Mongol-Manchu
border. The campaign of our Red Army in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was
imbued with the spirit of high Soviet patriotism, when our Red Infantry made
transitions of 60-70 kilometers a day. We know the high qualities of Soviet
patriotism, we know that when our fighters selflessly, like heroes, rushed into
battle with exclamations: “For the Motherland!”, “For Stalin!”, then all of us,
brought up by the Lenin-Stalin party and the peoples of all The Soviet Union
saw in this that for Soviet patriots, the motherland and communism are united
into one inseparable whole. (Loud applause.)
All this means that the Soviet
Union is not only a powerful advanced industry, with its rapid and steady
Bolshevik rise, and not only the collective farms created by the Soviet
government, representing the highest form of organization of the peasant
economy, but it is, first and foremost, millions and tens of millions. Soviet
people, new people on the globe, imbued with a socialist-conscious attitude to
work and study, inspired by Soviet patriotism to do glorious deeds for their
people and for the common cause of the peoples of the whole world.
(Applause). Much has already been done for the communist education of the Soviet
people. But this is only the beginning of the work. Even now we must recognize
as one of the main tasks of our domestic policy the task of communist education of the workers, peasants, office workers and our entire
intelligentsia. Helping the advanced people of our country in everything and
raising high the names of the selfless heroes of socialism, we must take
special care of the backward and the lagging behind - those who especially need
Bolshevik leadership. At the same time, we must in many ways intensify our
concern for cultivating cadres of our own, the Soviet intelligentsia, who are
second to none in their cultural level and completely devoted to the people and
the socialist state. (Applause). Needless to say, forgetting about the enemies
of the people in the field of domestic politics or giving them some kind of
indulgence means committing a crime against your people, against your homeland.
Next in line are new elections to
workers' councils. The scope of this election campaign is evidenced by the fact
that throughout the Soviet Union 1,300,000 deputies are to be elected to
village, district, city, and regional soviets. The number of these deputies
exceeds, as you see, the number of inhabitants of small European states.
(Laugh). In these elections we must further consolidate the bloc of communists
and non-party people. We will not only not regret, but we will welcome if the
elections carry out a purge of the Soviet apparatus of useless and corrupted
bureaucratic elements. That's what the new elections are for, in order to do a
good job of cleaning our bodies from any bureaucratic mold. For this, by the
way, it is necessary to strengthen the bloc of communists and non-party people
in every possible way.
At the same time, we have full
confidence that the new elections to the workers' councils will be a powerful
new demonstration of the invincible moral and political unity of Soviet
society, rallied around our party and government. (Applause). In these
elections questions of the daily life of the working people and the improvement
of the work of local soviets should take center stage. This is, of course,
correct. But it is also correct that these elections will in many ways help to
raise all our political work, to make even more understandable to the broad
masses not only the internal but also the foreign policy of the Soviet Union.
* * *
There is no need for me to dwell
on the foreign policy of the Soviet government today. All the main things were
said recently at the Supreme Council, and you are well aware. Nevertheless, it
is useful to recall certain events and the lessons we have learned in
connection with the underestimation of the dangers in our midst associated with
the existence of the Soviet Union in the conditions of an external capitalist
encirclement.
The now defeated enemies of the
people, from among all these Trotskyist-Bukharin agents of foreign
intelligence, as you know, drew their treacherous conclusions from the fact of
the capitalist encirclement. They went for the sale of the Soviet Union, for secession
in favor of the capitalist powers and Primorye, and Ukraine, and Transcaucasia,
as well as Central Asia and Belarus. These crimes against the peoples of the
Soviet Union were not destined to be committed, because the peoples of the
Soviet Union strongly believe in their cause, because our ship is being led by
Comrade Stalin. (Stormy applause, turning into an ovation. Everyone
rises.) Despite the intrigues of enemies, internal and external, the criminal
plans failed and covered their heads with shame. The Soviet Union remained
unshakable, even stronger and, as you see, stepped forward, expanded Soviet
territory, and our country became even more formidable for enemies and even
more dear to the Soviet peoples, all their sincere friends throughout the world.
(Prolonged applause.)
We are rightfully proud of the
successes of our domestic policy, but we also speak with satisfaction of the
major successes of our foreign policy.
The capitalist world is beginning
to learn more and more that the USSR is not what they would like to see it.
They would like to see our country weak, succumbing to pressure from outside,
but in reality, it turns out the opposite (applause), because the Soviet Union
has been and remains firmly united, powerful, and indestructible. (Applause).
And this is because all these years we have been tirelessly concerned about the
security of our state, about the strength of our defense. It cost considerable
material sacrifices, but we ensured peace for the peoples of the Soviet Union.
(Stormy applause.)
We cannot know what external
tests we will have to face. But we know one thing very well: we must not
weaken, but even more and more persistently strengthen the defense power of our
state. (Applause).
The Bolshevik policy provided the
Soviet Union with an enormous growth of internal forces, and now our country is
no longer afraid of any external trials. (Applause). The mighty source of the
internal forces of the Soviet Union is inexhaustible, and every year our
enemies have to reckon more seriously with this indisputable historical fact.
(Applause). And yet we know that the best foreign policy of the Soviet Union is
our tried-and-true peace policy, which has already ensured us no small success.
We must continue to pursue this
domestic and foreign policy unswervingly. In this we see the will of the
peoples of the Soviet Union, inspired by the great party of Lenin-Stalin.
We are entering the twenty-third
year of the October Socialist Revolution. We will go forward along the same
true, tried, and tested Leninist Road, as we have been going through all these
years. This is the path that leads us to the final victory of Soviet power.
Long live our October Socialist
Revolution! (Stormy applause.)
Long live our powerful defense
and its indestructible strength - our Red Army, our Navy! (Applause).
Long live the great invincible
banner of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin! (Stormy applause, turning into an ovation.
Everyone rises.)
Long live Leninism! (Applause).
Long live the Bolshevik Party and
long live our Stalin! (Stormy, prolonged applause, turning into an ovation.
Everyone rises. The orchestra plays the Internationale. Shouts in honor of
Comrade Stalin are heard in the hall.). Comrades! The anniversary of the October
Revolution has always given us, and today again gives us the opportunity to
celebrate the major successes of the Soviet Union in the past period. It is as
if Soviet power was born under a lucky star if we Soviet people can do this on
every anniversary of the October Revolution. But you, comrades, will agree that
the point, of course, is not in some kind of "lucky star" and not at
all in the help of heaven to the Bolsheviks, but in the fact that since the
October Revolution the peoples of our country have thrown off the power of the
bourgeoisie, freed themselves from oppressive fetters of capitalism and
therefore became capable of great deeds and miracles of creating a new life.
Translated for the evaluation process of current issue
Marxist Leninist Discussion Group
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