VOROSHILOV SPEECH AT THE EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE C.P.S.U. (B.) March 13, 1939
Comrades, the report of Comrade Stalin is a highly valuable contribution to the treasure store of Marxist-Leninist theory. It is also a splendid guide for our Party, for our state and for the people in the struggle for the further building of socialism, the building of a communist society. Comrade Stalin’s brilliant Leninist analysis of modern capitalist society and of its relations with the country of victorious socialism has disclosed all the ulcers, the putrefaction and the agony of modern capitalism and has drawn a clear picture of the mighty progress of the socialist Soviet Union.
The world bourgeoisie is seeking to escape from its mesh of unsolvable contradictions by a bestial fascism, allowing it complete freedom of action. It is egging it on to military adventures and inciting it to fight the Soviet Union. This international policy, if we may call it so, of the ruling imperialist bourgeoisie has not only surrendered whole states to the power of fascism but has aided and abetted it in launching a second imperialist war, of which half a billion people and a number of peaceable countries are already victims.
Comrade Stalin said in his report that any war, however small, started by the aggressors in any remote corner of the world constitutes a danger to the peaceable countries. All the more serious then is the danger arising from the new imperialist war, which has already drawn into its orbit over five hundred million people in Asia, Africa and Europe.”
The country of victorious socialism is the most peaceable country in the world. But it is surrounded by hostile imperialist countries, and it is a thorn in the flesh to moribund capitalism, and it is therefore more in danger of military attack than any other country.
The peaceable countries, which include some of our near neighbours, are doing very little to strengthen the cause of peace and to prepare to resist the aggressors. We must therefore, as always, rely only on ourselves.
The blessings of peace which the peoples of the Soviet Union have been enjoying for over fifteen years are due to the tremendous work of our Party, the Government and the whole people. The peace of the state is the work of our own hands.
The mighty development of our socialist economic system as a result of the splendid fulfilment of the two Stalinist Five-Year Plans, and the unparalleled development of socialist culture in our country, have enabled the Party Central Committee and the Government, under the direct guidance of our Stalin, to steadily strengthen and perfect our armed forces—the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and Red Navy—which are a formidable power protecting the frontiers of our country and guaranteeing it against enemy invasion.
I want to tell the Eighteenth Party Congress in some detail, within the limits of what is permissible, of course, about the Red Army as it stands today.
But before passing to this, I want to dwell for a moment on the steady growth of armaments of the imperialist states, especially the fascist states. I know that this is widely known that it has already set everybody’s teeth on edge, nevertheless, something must be said on the subject.
On March 5 Pravda reprinted an article from a German fascist military magazine, Die Deutsche Wehr, dealing with the armies of the principal countries in peace time and their power of expansion for war purposes, and also quoting certain figures showing their equipment in artillery and aircraft.
This article prudently refrains from saying anything about the armed forces of Germany. It does not mention that the peace strength of the army of fascist Germany is 1,150,000 men, that the fascist militarized organizations number about 2,000,000 men, and that in war time Germany will expand her army five and a half or six times.
They say nothing about themselves, but what they say about others is worth noting.
The peace strength of armies and their estimated war strength are as follows:—
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