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:—
Country Peace
strength
Estimated
war
strength
Coefficient
of expansion
U.S.A........ 384.000 2,500,000 6.5
Great Britain... 529.200 2,000,000 3.6
France........... 760,000 5.100,000 6.7
Italy....... 400.000 2,000,000 5.0
.
Japan............ 328.000 1,500,000 4.6
Turkey...........203,000 1,300,000 6.4
Rumania.........217,000 1,600,000 7.4
Poland............302,000 3,600,000 11.9
Latvia ....... 25 500 150,000 5.9
ESthonia...... .. 11,000 100,000 9.0
Finland............28,000 310,000 11.1
The figures given for the Italian and Japanese armies stand in
need of very serious amendment; they are too low.
The Japanese army, for example, already has over one and a half
million men under arms, and it is continuing to grow. As for Italy,
the fascist leaders of that country promise to expand their army to
nine or ten million men.
As regards the other armies enumerated—with the exception of
the Red Army, the figures for which the fascist Deutsche Wehr muddles in a most unholy fashion—without placing complete confidence
in these figures, it may nevertheless be said that they are not very
far from the truth and, at any rate, are good enough to allow us to
draw certain conclusions.
And the conclusions are obvious.
The first thing that strikes the eye is the high coefficient of mobilization expansion of armies in war time. If we exclude Great Britain,
which will expand her army only four times, all the other armies will
in case of war be increased five, six, seven and nine times, and the
Polish and Finnish armies even twelve times or thereabouts.
This testifies to the disastrously tense situation which will prevail
in all these countries the moment they go to war.
Yet the experience of all wars has shown that no army on active
service can keep its formations and numbers within the original limits, and in a very short space of time is obliged to swell and expand.
This is particularly true in prolonged wars. And modem wars,
as the second imperialist war eloquently shows, will be prolonged,
protracted, ruinous.
This tenseness is also borne out by the military budgets of the
principal capitalist countries, and especially of the fascist countries.
Growth of Military Budgets
Country
Percentage of military budget
to total budget
1934-35 1937-38
Germany .............21.0 67.0
Japan ..................43.4 70.0
Italy.....................20.0 52.0
Poland.................32.9 33.6
Great Britain.........15.5 32.2
U.S.A..................14.2 17.7
France ................24 4 37.7
These figures only relate to the officially published military budgets. But it requires no great insight to guess that the fascist states
directly or indirectly engaged in aggressive war have other sources to
cover the military expenditures about which the public knows nothing.
The furious race in air armaments in the capitalist countries has
already been going on for several years and it is undoubtedly one of
the most characteristic and decisive factors rendering a universal
armed collision inevitable.
What was the state of the air forces of the principal world powers
at the end of the first imperialist war and what is it today?
Leaving aside the question of types of aircraft, and without going
into a detailed analysis of their quality, but taking only the aggregate
figures published from time to time in the world press, we get the
following picture (see opposite page),.
Such was the state of the air forces of the principal capitalist
countries in 1938; but, of course, it is entirely different now, in
March 1939.
All the capitalist countries are continuing to develop their air
forces at an accelerated pace. Aviation—that young branch of the
service—is regarded by all the imperialist armies as a panacea for
all military ills. The imperialists have placed their stakes bn aviation,
and with its aid the bourgeois imperialist and fascist ruling cliques
hope to win the next war.
I shall speak about our air force later.
Comrades, these few figures are enough to show the tremendous
growth in the armaments of the imperialist, and especially the fascist states, and what huge sums are being spent for the new, the second
universal imperialist slaughter.
Comparative Table
Showing tho Size of the Air Forces of Foreign Countries, Their Bombing Power and Their Fire-Power in Bullets per Minute in 1918, 1934 and 1938
18—263
Year
Number
of airplanes
Increase
1918=100 Bombing power TonsIncrease
1918=100
Bullets
per
minute
Increase
1918=100
Great Britain
1918.....................1,758 100 149 100 605,400 100
1931..................... 1,072 61 608 408 1,651,200 273
1938 ..................2,238 128 1,476 991 5,600,000 925
Germany
1918..................... 2,730 100 134 100 984,800 100
1934 ..................... 620 23 350 261 954,000 97
1938 ..................... 4,020 147 2,995 2,235 10,400,000 1,054
France
1918..................3,321 100 146 100 1,439,700 100
1934 1,970 59 385 264 2,595,000 180
1938 ..................... 4,000 120 1,680 1,150 9,160,000 636
Italy
1918..................... 812 100 —. — — —
1934 ..................... 931 115 489 100 1,352,000 100
1938 ..................... 2,161 416 1,534 314 5,248,000 388
Japan
1918..................... 250 100 —. — — ——
1934 ..................... 2,050 820 480 100 2,820,000 100
1938 ..................... 3,005 1,200 793 160 6,400,000 227
Poland
1918.....................
_ — — — — —
1934 ..................... 634 100 23 100 783,600 100
1938 ..................... 1,101 176 61 265 2,376,000 303
In consequence of this altogether unrestricted and furious armament race, and of those entangled and profound contradictions of
capitalism of which Comrade Stalin has spoken in his report, the
international situation today is such that a second universal imperialist war has become inevitable.
The second imperialist war for a new redivision of the world is
already in swing. The fascist aggressors, meeting with no impediment
to their course, are intoxicated by their first easy successes and are
looking around for new victims. It is difficult to foresee how this
second imperialist wiar will develop, what other countries will be
engulfed in its bloody torrent, and when.
But one thing is unquestionable—it follows from the whole
analysis of the present international situation made by Comrade
Stalin—namely, that we must always have an unfailingly strong and
invincible Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and an equally strong
and invincible Red Navy.
We know now more than ever that the only reliable guarantee
against military attack on the Soviet state is to keep the Red Army
and Navy in a state of real and constant military preparedness, and
that only in this way, by still further strengthening and perfecting
the military forces of the state, can we insure ourselves against the
foul attempts of the fascists to enrich themselves by easy pickings at
the expense of our country, attempts to destroy the territorial integrity of the Soviet state by military attack.
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