WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
[1] ~ [2] __AUTHOR__ L.I. BREZHNEV __TITLE__ FOLLOWING LENIN'S COURSE __TEXTFILE_BORN__ 2007-03-08T07:02:14-0800 __TRANSMARKUP__ "Y. Sverdlov" __SUBTITLE__ Speeches and ArticlesPROGRESS PUBLISHERS
Moscow . 1972
[3]Translated from the Russian Designed by Y. Davydov
JI. H. BPEJKHEB
J1EHHHCKHM KVPCOM Ha anejiuucKOM naune
__COPYRIGHT__ First printing 1972CONTENTS
FIFTY YEARS OF GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOCIALISM. Report and Concluding Speech Delivered at the Joint Jubilee Meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. November 3-4, 1967...... 7
SPEECH AT A MEETING IN LENINGRAD COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION. November 5, 1967..............77
SPEECH AT A COMMEMORATIVE PLENARY MEETING OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE ALL-UNION LENIN YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE. October 25, 1968.....83
ON PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING THE DECISIONS OF THE 23rd CONGRESS AND THE PLENARY MEETINGS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION ON PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURE. Report Made at the Plenary Meeting of the CC CPSU. October 30, 1968.................102
SPEECH AT THE FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE POLISH UNITED WORKERS' PARTY. November 12, 1968.....
140OPENING SPEECH AT THE INTERNATIONAL MEETING
OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS' PARTIES. June 5, 1969 . 153
FOR GREATER UNITY OF COMMUNISTS, FOR A FRESH UPSURGE OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE. Speech at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, Moscow. June 7, 1969................156
[5]SPEECH AT A RECEPTION FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS' PARTIES. June 17, 1969.............203
FRESH UPSURGE OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT. Article in World Marxist Review No. 8, 1969........206
FRIENDS, ALLIES, BROTHERS. An Article from the book Fraternal Friends/tip and All-Round Cooperation. Moscow, 1969 . 225
SPEECH AT THE THIRD USSR CONGRESS OF COLLECTIVE FARMERS. November 25, 1969.............230
LENIN'S CAUSE LIVES ON AND TRIUMPHS. Report at a Joint Celebration Meeting of the CC CPSU, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on April 21, 1970, to Mark the Centenary of the Birth of VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN.....................252
SPEECH AT THE 16th CONGRESS OF THE KOMSOMOL. May 26, 1970...................307
SPEECH AT THE 10th CONGRESS OF THE HUNGARIAN SOCIALIST WORKERS' PARTY. November 24, 1970.....310
REPORT OF THE CPSU CENTRAL COMMITTEE TO THE 24th CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION. March 30, 1971...........325
CONCLUDING SPEECH. April 5, 1971.........444
SPEECH AT THE CLOSING OF THE 24th CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION. April 9, 1971....................447
SPEECH AT THE 10th CONGRESS OF THE BULGARIAN COMMUNIST PARTY. April 21, 1971..........453
SPEECH AT THE 14th CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA. May 26, 1971......461
SPEECH AT THE EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY OF GERMANY. June 15, 1971......471
SPEECH DELIVERED AT A MEETING AT THE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT FACTORY IN ZEMUN, YUGOSLAVIA. September 23, 1971.................482
SPEECH AT THE SIXTH CONGRESS OF THE POLISH UNITED WORKERS' PARTY. December 7, 1971......491
[6] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FIFTY YEARS Report and Concluding Speech
Delivered at the Joint Jubilee Meeting
of the Central Committee of the CPSU,
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses
November 3--4, 1967
Comrade members of the Central Committee,~
Comrade deputies,~
Our esteemed foreign guests,~
Dear friends,~
An epoch-making event took place fifty years ago, when the workers and peasants of Russia, led by the Communist Party, took state power into their own hands.
Lenin's words: "The workers' and peasants' revolution, the necessity for which the Bolsheviks had spoken all the time, has been accomplished,'' resounded throughout Russia and the whole world. (Applause.)
The assault on the Winter Palace was still in progress when the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened at the Smolny Palace. This Congress formed the Soviet Government with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of our Party and leader of the Revolution, at its head. (Applause.) This marked the birth of the world's first state of workers and peasants, and the Great October Revolution began its invincible march across the boundless expanses of Russia.
November 7 ushered in a new era in the history of mankind, beginning a new, socialist chronicle. On that day the cornerstone was laid in the foundation of the new, socialist society.
The victory of the October Revolution opened the door to the realisation of the ideals of socialism. Within a short span of time our country surmounted its age-old backwardness and became a powerful, highly developed state. 7 Led by the Communist Party the working people of our country were the first to build socialism and the first to begin the building of communism.
The October Socialist Revolution gave a mighty impetus to worldwide social development and accelerated the revolutionary and liberation struggle. The ideas of Marxism-Leninism, under whose banner the October Revolution triumphed, have today captured the minds and hearts of millions of people and become a great constructive force.
The historical result of the past half century is that the world balance of forces has changed radically in favour of the working class, in favour of all the forces of progress, democracy and socialism.
On the occasion of this memorable anniversary the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics warmly congratulate our dear compatriots---workers, collective farmers, intellectuals, men of the Soviet Army and Navy, all Soviet people. (Prolonged applause.}
Throughout the world millions of working people are commemorating this jubilee of the October Revolution as their own. On this anniversary the Party of Lenin and the whole Soviet people send cordial revolutionary greetings to their foreign friends, comrades and brothers. (Applause.}
Centuries will go by, mankind will achieve heights surpassing even the most daring fantasy of our contemporaries and many events will be forgotten. But November 7, 1917, the day when the first victorious socialist revolution was accomplished, will always be kept alive in the memory of generations to come. (Applause.}
The cause of the Great October Revolution will live through the ages! (Applause}
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION---Comrades, in the history of mankind there have been many revolutions that swayed the destiny of peoples and social development. Among them the October Revolution occupies a special place because of its nature and historical consequences. It put an end to exploitation of man by man and 8 started the reorganisation of society in the interests of the working people themselves. It ushered in the era of the liberation of the working class and all working people from the calamities, sufferings and humiliations stemming from the millennia-long rule of oppressors.
Past developments evoke different feelings. However important and instructive, some are seen only as pages of history. Others, even after decades, remain part, as it were, of our present, kindling the interest of historians and of all the people active in the political struggle of our days. The October Revolution was precisely such an event.
During the 50 years that have passed since the October Revolution the world revolutionary movement has accumulated extensive and many-sided experience, which has broadened out the notions of the ways and means of revolutionary struggle and shown how important it is to take into account the entire range of conditions under which revolutions of the working class mature and are accomplished. At the same time, in the light of this experience the significance of the general laws of the socialist revolution looms larger than ever before. Owing to the fact that the October Revolution brought these laws to light with such fullness and clarity the powerful impact that it made on the world revolutionary process has not relaxed over the past half century.
The road that brought Russia to socialism is the highroad of world history and of the whole of human civilisation. Despite the purely Russian conditions under which it was accomplished the October Revolution mirrored the basic, principal trends of a whole epoch, the epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism, a transition that was prepared by the entire course of world socio-economic development.
The replacement of capitalism by socialism became necessary and inevitable when private ownership of the means of production became an obstacle to the development of the productive forces. Capitalism created its own grave-digger--- the working class. The long and persevering struggle waged by the international proletariat gave birth to battle experience which became labour's formidable weapon in the class clashes with capitalism.
The development of advanced social thinking prepared the ground for the Great October Socialist Revolution. This development reached its peak in Marxism. By their truly creative feat which turned socialism from a utopia into a 9 science, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the great thinkers and revolutionaries, showed all oppressed and downtrodden people the road to freedom and happiness.
The socialist revolution matured in the bosom of the old world. And it broke out in its weakest link---in Russia, which was the storm-centre of all the basic contradictions of imperialism at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Russia the rapid development of capitalism gave rise to numerous insolvable problems and increasingly aggravated class antagonisms. Under the semi-feudal system the working people suffered not only from capitalist exploitation but also from landowner tyranny, ruthless political coercion and national oppression. In no other country at that time were the social and political contradictions of the epoch so acute and inflamed.
The First World War speeded up developments. It brought the privations and sufferings of the working masses to bursting point and laid bare the rottenness and helplessness of the tsarist autocracy and then of the Provisional Government. Lenin wrote that in those days the old machine of state was sitting on a volcano; great rumblings were beginning to rise from the depth of the people's consciousness and the air was becoming charged with electricity which unavoidably had to burst forth in a cleansing thunderstorm.
The experience of October thus demonstrated that a revolution triumphs only when the objective conditions for it have taken shape. Nobody can repeal this immutable law. At the same time, the October Revolution showed that besides the favourable objective conditions needed for the overthrow of the old system, the working masses must be properly prepared and organised for decisive battles with the class enemy.
The working class of Russia successfully coped with that task. (Applause.} It took shape as the most revolutionary contingent of the world proletariat. Its political role in the country's life was immeasurably greater than its numerical strength. It proved to be a worthy successor to the finest revolutionary traditions of the peoples of our country and it creatively assimilated the revolutionary experience of the world proletariat. It formed its own militant vanguard, the Bolshevik Party, which integrated socialism with the working-class movement and the spontaneous indignation of the masses. The teaching of Marx and Engels became the world 10 outlook of the foremost workers in Russia. BolsheviksLeninists upheld the purity of this teaching and developed it in conformity with the new historical conditions, the conditions engendered by imperialism, with the specific tasks of their revolutionary struggle.
Bolsheviks have always taken as their point of departure the fact that far from being either a coup at the top or a conspiracy by a group of heroes, a socialist revolution is a movement of the broadest masses of working people. By constantly being in the very thick of the masses and leading their struggle, the Party united millions of workers, peasants and soldiers into a single army of revolution. Bolsheviks tirelessly moulded the alliance between the working class and the working peasants, and this alliance became the bulwark of the revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country. In the Soviets, brought to life by the masses as far back as 1905, the Party of Lenin found a new form of political power of the working people.
In the course of many years of class struggle and in the battles fought during bourgeois-democratic revolutions, Lenin and the Leninists steadily improved revolutionary strategy and tactics. While preparing for the October upheaval the Party gained vast experience of all forms of struggle---legal and illegal, peaceful and non-peaceful, underground and open. It was prepared for a swift change from one form of struggle to another and had the skill to lead the working class in the most complex and tangled situation through all obstacles and twists and turns of history. And when the decisive moment came the workers and peasants of Russia, having seen for themselves that the policy of the Bolsheviks was correct, followed the Bolshevik Party, accepted its slogans and emerged triumphant. (Applause.)
The October armed uprising was prepared and accomplished with such consummate skill and understanding of the sentiments of the worker, peasant and soldier masses that it has rightly entered history as a model of revolutionary strategy and tactics. The flame of Revolution, ignited in Red Petrograd, enveloped the entire country, spreading to its remotest outskirts.
The triumph of the October Revolution was the result of the persevering and painstaking work and the heroic and tense struggle carried on by the Bolsheviks-Leninists over many years. The lesson of the October Revolution is that 11 even when conditions are most favourable the working class can accomplish a socialist revolution only if it is led by its vanguard, the Marxist Party, which has firm bonds with the masses and has mastered all forms of revolutionary struggle. That is another immutable law of revolution. ( Applause.)
It will be recalled that at the close of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century opportunism, whose chief exponents were the leaders of the Second International, sank deep roots in the world working-class movement. There was a great debate on how to move towards socialism: through revolution or through reformism reducing the tasks of the working-class movement to a struggle for partial demands without affecting the foundation of the capitalist system. It was up to historical practice to decide this debate, to say the last word in it. This word was said by the October Revolution. It showed that the working class could achieve victory only through revolution, no matter in what form it was accomplished. (Applause.)
The October Revolution signified more than a change of political power. It signified a most profound socio-economic upheaval that virtually ploughed its way through the life of the nation and affected all aspects of Russian reality. By bringing the working class to power the October Revolution delivered the working people from exploitation, turned the factories, banks and railways over to them, gave land to the peasants, abolished national oppression that weighed heavily on half of Russia's population and took the country out of the imperialist war.
In face of incredible difficulties caused by the resistance of class enemies and by economic dislocation, the young Soviet state, as soon as it came to be, started to reorganise society. The tasks with which Soviet power began its activities were the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, the abrogation of all estate privileges, the introduction of an eight-hour working day, the granting of equality to women, a democratic reform of public education, the organisation of a public health service for the people, and concern for the advance of science and art.
All this was of fundamental significance. The peoples of the world, who witnessed the epic of socialist construction, could from the very outset see that the proletarian revolution was not confined to the destruction of the old. Its 12 underlying purport and grandeur was the building of a new life.
Marxists-Leninists have always based themselves on the fact that the key issue of any revolution is that of power. But for them the conquest of power has never been a purpose in itself. They have always regarded the dictatorship of the proletariat as the basic vehicle for the building of the new, socialist society, for promoting the well-being and happiness of the working people.
The entire experience of the class struggle teaches that a revolution is worth something only when it can defend itself. The Great October Revolution has demonstrated how important this truth is for a socialist revolution, against which all the forces of the old world take up arms. During the grim time when counter-revolutionary and interventionist hordes attacked the young Soviet Republic, when she found herself up against blockades, wrecking and kulak revolts, revolutionary Russia had to face the hardest tests. She passed this test and won the right to live. She passed it because in the Civil War, in the food requisitioning teams and on the labour front the workers and peasants fought for a cause that was dear to them, for a cause on which depended their own destinies, their freedom and their future. (Applause.)
The Red Army, born in the flames of the October Revolution, won unfading glory in those days. The heroism and devotion of the soldiers of the Revolution, their willingness to sacrifice themselves and endure any privation for the sake of victory to this day command the admiration of the world. The battles at Perekop, Kakhovka and Volochayevka, the heroes of the Chapayev division and of the Cavalry Corps are lauded in song. The feat performed by them is an example on which all the new generations of Soviet people are brought up. For us, heirs of the October Revolution, the traditions of self-sacrificing struggle for the socialist Motherland built up during the Civil War will always be an inexhaustible source of courage, staunchness and will for victory. (Stormy applause.)
A noteworthy feature of the October Revolution was its proletarian internationalism, which formed unbreakable ties between the workers of Russia and their class brothers throughout the world. There is every, justification for stating that the victory of the October Revolution was a triumph of the internationalist fraternity of working people, a triumph 13 of proletarian internationalism. (Applause.} In the Red Army along with the sons of the peoples of our country there were Hungarians, Poles, Serbs, Croatians, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Austrians, Germans, Finns, Rumanians, Mongolians, Koreans, Chinese and men of many other nationalities. This was a fighting international of revolutionaries. (Stormy applause.)
The Revolution was upheld not only by those who fought for it in the Civil War. The whole of Europe learned of the noble action of French sailors who forced the interventionists to withdraw their naval squadron from Odessa, and of the actions of English workers who moved forward the slogan "Hands Off Russia!''. Europe seethed. There was wave after wave of uprisings, strikes and demonstrations. This powerful upsurge of the working-class movement fettered the forces of the international counter-revolution and relaxed the pressure of the imperialist interventionists.
On behalf of Soviet Communists and all Soviet people allow me to express profound respect and warm gratitude to our foreign comrades, to everybody who in those glorious years deeply appreciated the significance of the October Revolution, to those who helped our people defend their revolutionary gains. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
Comrades, the triumph of October was a triumph of Leninism. All the preparations for the socialist revolution in Russia, the founding and the history of our Communist Party and Soviet state, our victories on the military fronts and our achievements in peaceful construction are indissolubly associated with the name and work of the immortal Lenin. (Applause.)
Vladimir Lenin has entered history as the founder of the Bolshevik Party, as the great leader and organiser of the working masses and as a scientist of genius. He was a revolutionary in the loftiest and most noble sense of the word. His whole life was one of unremitting struggle for the happiness and interests of the working people.
Moreover, the leader of the Revolution is incomparable as a strategist of revolution and unsurpassed in political tactics. He intuitively sensed every change in the alignment of political forces and in the mood of the masses and knew how to translate this mood exactly into the language of highlevel politics, put forward the most effective mass slogan in the given situation and chart the surest way to the objective.
14He was irreconcilable with regard to questions of principle in ideology and politics. But this never hindered him from displaying maximum flexibility in the approach to specific problems. An ardent revolutionary, he mercilessly ridiculed pseudo-revolutionary phrase-mongering. A born fighter, he could when necessary agree to compromise and retreat in order to muster forces and then take the offensive more successfully.
By his nature he could not tolerate anything smacking of bigotry or dogmatism. His creative approach to theory and politics enabled him comprehensively to develop and enrich the Marxist teaching of revolution and the science of building socialism. Despite being immersed in day-to-day work, in a host of urgent affairs, he mapped out the general line for socialist construction in Russia and laid down the principles underlying Soviet domestic and foreign policy.
Both as a statesman and as a person Lenin was an extraordinarily modest man. The leader of the world proletariat, the man whom the Revolution placed at the helm of the world's first state of workers and peasants was exceedingly exacting to himself, with absolutely no play-acting or vanity. (Prolonged applause.)
Lenin was 47 when from the rostrum of the Second AllRussia Congress of Soviets he proclaimed the triumph of the socialist revolution. He was 54 when his heart stopped beating. But death was helpless before the greatness of Lenin's genius. He was with us during the stirring period of the first five-year plans. He was with us on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War. He is with us today when the peoples of the USSR have entered a new stretch of history, solving in practice the tasks of building up communism. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
The cause of Lenin was continued by the Party created by him. To its lot fell the difficult but honourable task of translating into reality Lenin's immortal ideas, the deathless legacy of his thoughts. It may be said that our Party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, is coping with this task with flying colours. (Prolonged applause.)
The 50th anniversary of the October Revolution is a triumph of Leninism, a triumph of the ideals and practical deeds of the Leninist Party.
Our Party and the Soviet people feel that the best way 15 to express unbounded respect to the memory of Lenin is always and steadfastly to follow the course charted by him. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 2. THE BUILDING OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR---Comrades, after having upheld the Revolution with guns in their hands, the working people of Soviet Russia led by the Leninist Party began the ascent to the summits of socialism. This was a great and difficult road, a great and unforgettable feat of the Soviet people.
Soviet power inherited from tsarism a country with a low level of economic and cultural development, while seven years of war---at first the imperialist war and then the Civil War---flung the economy far back even compared with the prewar level. We were encircled by hostile capitalist states. The class enemies, defeated on the battlefield, did not cease their resistance; they sought to utilise the least possibility, the least loophole in order to undermine and weaken the young state of workers and peasants. Right and ``Left'' opportunists endeavoured to divert the Party from the Leninist general line.
Another reason why the building of socialism was a complicated business for us was that we were pioneering it. There was nobody from whom we could learn. Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory the Communist Party knew the general road towards socialism. But it neither knew nor could know all the problems that it would face on each sector of that road, much less did it have ready-made solutions to these problems. To use a figurative expression of Lenin's, while the bourgeoisie, when it came to power, received "a well-designed and tested vehicle, a well-prepared road and previously tested appliances" the proletariat which had seized power had "no vehicle, no road, absolutely nothing that had been tested beforehand".^^1^^ It was precisely our Communist Party that had to blaze the trail to socialism, to build and test the ``appliances'' of the new society in practice.
Such was the situation in which the building of socialism was started. From our present heights it is not at all difficult to see the miscalculations and mistakes of the past. Some _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 205.
16 things could unquestionably have been accomplished faster, better and with less cost. But in order to arrive at an objective assessment of the road that has been covered it should always be remembered that for us every step was a quest and every advance was achieved in unceasing struggle against enemies within the country and in the world arena.When the Party embarked upon the socialist transformation of our country it appreciated that in order to build socialism it was necessary to create a large-scale modern industry. This had to be done within the shortest possible period or there would be defeat---we had no other choice. For that reason the country's industrialisation became our prime target.
In those days the Soviet state was short of funds, of machinery and of trained personnel for the building of the industrial basis of socialism. We could not count on help from abroad. But we had the most advanced social system in the world. There was a tremendous charge of revolutionary enthusiasm among the masses and this enabled the Soviet people to accomplish the impossible. (Applause.)
Our country's first and the world's only state plan of economic development---the State Plan for the Electrification of Russia known as GOELRO---was approved on Lenin's initiative back in 1920, when the Civil War was at its height. The history of the scientific, planned, comprehensive development of the economy began with that plan.
The main targets of Soviet economic policy in the transitional period were formulated by Lenin and endorsed by the 10th Congress of the RCP(B) in 1921. They are known as the New Economic Policy, whose purpose was to defend the Revolution, deliver the country from ruin and famine, build the foundations of socialist economy and gradually oust and abolish capitalist elements. In many ways this plan was dictated by the situation obtaining at the time.
At the same time, Lenin looked far ahead. Already then he worked out the principles of socialist economic management that have fully retained their significance to this day. The Leninist principles of combining centralised planning with the promotion of popular initiative, of utilising commodity-monetary relations, cost accounting and material incentives, of integrating the interests of society as a whole /with the interests of every worker individually, continue to underlie the Party's economic policy.
__PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---938 17By utilising the signal advantages of the socialist system the Party was able in three five-year periods to resolve the key problems of the country's industrialisation as formulated in the decisions of the 14th Party Congress. By the 1940s the country already had a versatile socialist industry. For the total volume of industrial output and technical equipment the Soviet Union reached the level of the leading capitalist countries in Europe.
The farther the years of the first five-year plans recede into the past the more majestic becomes that difficult yet stirring period. Had the Soviet people not displayed the greatest political consciousness, organisation and courage our country would have never become socialist and a leading industrial power. Let us recall, comrades, how people lived in those years: there were bread ration cards, a shortage of clothes and footwear and an acute housing problem and other hardships. Yet, despite all the difficulties and privations, the country virtually seethed with the labour enthusiasm of the masses, and volunteers streamed to the building projects---the Dnieper Hydropower Station, the Magnitogorsk Project, the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, Komsomolsk-- onAmur and Berezniki, the giant Kharkov, Chelyabinsk and Stalingrad tractor works, and the Gorky and Moscow auto works---where the foreposts of socialist industry were being created.
Our first five-year plans were real battles for socialism, and like any other battle they gave birth to talented commanders and selfless heroes. The Party embarked on extensive work and moved to the fore a galaxy of outstanding organisers of industry, of leaders of the national economy. The enthusiasm engendered by the great projects and the nationwide scale of the socialist emulation movement gave rise to thousands upon thousands of foremost workers---shock workers, Stakhanovites, the finest representatives of the working class---whose labour achievements gave a mighty impetus to the entire work of building the industrial basis of socialism. The staunchness and courage of these people and their unswerving devotion to the Party's cause, to the cause of socialism, are to this day an inspiring example that lives on in the valorous deeds of the working class, of the entire Soviet people, who are building new factories and power stations, developing the expanses of Siberia and the Soviet Far East, bringing forth epoch-- 18 making scientific discoveries, and, by their labour, continuing the glorious traditions of the first five-year plans. (Prolonged applause.)
In order to build socialism a large-scale industry had to be created and the countryside reorganised on socialist lines. That was an extraordinarily difficult task, which entailed overcoming the petty proprietor's age-old force of habit and the narrowness of his interests and views on life, and changing his psychology. The individualistic peasant had to be turned into an active participant of collective labour and social life.
The way to solving this gigantic social problem was indicated by Lenin in his famous co-operation plan, which the Party used as its guide in its work in the countryside. In addition to the organisation of state farms, the Party set the task of uniting the peasants in collective farms. In 1927 the 15th Party Congress set the course towards the collectivisation of agriculture.
Collectivisation was one of the key components of the socialist revolution. As any other revolutionary undertaking it was attended by a sharp struggle. The resistance of the last and numerically largest exploiter class, the kulaks, had to be broken. The complexity of the social situation in the countryside, the shortage of machinery, and the necessity for temporarily sacrificing many requirements of the countryside for the sake of industrialisation created many difficulties. But the purposefulness of the Party's work and the active efforts of the working peasants and the working class made it possible to surmount these difficulties.
When we speak of the socialist reorganisation of the countryside we cannot help but recall those who devoted their labour, willpower and energy to the solution of this colossal undertaking. In response to the Party's call the workers of Moscow, Leningrad, the Urals and the Donbas went to the countryside to help organise the new collective farms. They are known to history as the Twenty-Five Thousand, but there were many more of them. They brought to the peasants the ideas of the Communist Party, faith in the ideals of socialism, and the militant experience of the class struggle. The names of the Communists who headed the new collective farms, of the selfless workers of the machine-and-tractor stations and state farms, the organisers and veterans of collective- and __PRINTERS_P_19_COMMENT__ 2* 19 state-farm production are forever inscribed in the annals of collective-farm glory. (Applause.}
The triumph of the Leninist policy of industrialisation and collectivisation was of enormous socio-political significance. The economic foundation of socialism was built in town and country. The working class and peasantry changed and the alliance between them was consolidated. A lasting foundation was laid for the development of socialist social relations, for enhancing the country's defence capacity and for strengthening the moral and political unity of the Soviet people.
Comrades, the socialist remaking of our country would have been inconceivable if in the very first days after the October Revolution the Party had not energetically and purposefully launched a cultural revolution. This was a task of the greatest importance. It will be remembered that when the Revolution was accomplished three-fourths of the population of Russia were illiterate. Four years before the Revolution Lenin bitterly wrote: "There is no other country so barbarous and in which the masses are robbed to such an extent of education, light and knowledge---no other such country has remained in Europe; Russia is the exception."^^1^^
Lenin called upon the people to "Study, study and study!" And the whole country got down to study. After a hard day's work millions of workers and peasants learned to read and write and mastered the rudiments of culture, science and Marxist philosophy in order to have the knowledge for building the new life.
We do not fortuitously call the process of bringing culture to the masses a revolution. The task was not only to teach people to read and write; the new, socialist ideology had to be established in all spheres of the spiritual life of society. We had to train our own, Soviet skilled cadres. We had to create a socialist culture that would absorb all the best and advanced achievements of thousands of years of civilisation and take a new step forward in the spiritual development of all mankind.
In those years we had to save on everything. But for the promotion of education, science and culture the Party and the Government allocated funds with a generosity that _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 19, p. 139.
20 even the richest capitalist countries could envy. (Applause!) And if today the Soviet Union amazes the world with its scientific and cultural achievements it is due to the fact that the foundations of these achievements were laid back in those days when the Land of Soviets began to build a ramified network of schools, libraries, workers' faculties, technical schools, institutions of higher learning and scientific establishments. (Applause.}The socialist revolution opened the road to the solution of the nationalities problem. By tearing down the "prison of nations'', such as tsarist Russia was, the October Revolution brought complete emancipation to all the nationalities inhabiting our country. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a voluntary federation of nations welded together by a common struggle for a common objective, was formed in 1922. (Applause.} The formation of the USSR was a triumph of internationalism, a manifestation of the political wisdom of the Communist Party, the working class and all working people of the Union Republics, who regarded the pooling of their energies as the decisive condition for attaining the objectives of the Revolution and defending its gains.
The abolition of the exploiter classes, industrialisation, collectivisation and the cultural revolution were links of a single revolutionary process, which led to fundamental changes in the relations between classes and nations. Years of hard dedicated work yielded fruit. (Applause!) The titanic efforts of the Party and the people were crowned with success. Social and national antagonisms have forever departed from the life of our society. (Applause.} A new social system resting on the friendship and alliance between the working class, the collective-farm peasantry and the people's intelligentsia was created. Socialist principles became firmly rooted in all spheres of social life.
Communists and all Soviet people knew that the building of socialism was only the first step towards communism. Already in 1939 at its 18th Congress the Party began to chart the first steps of the transition to the next stage, to the building of communism. But before these steps were taken our country, our people had to withstand the sternest test in their history.
The great successes achieved by the Soviet people, who in less than a quarter of a century turned their country 21 into a flourishing socialist state, evoked fury in the imperialist camp. Those who failed to strangle our Revolution at its birth never ceased to plan the military defeat of the Land of Soviets.
We did not need war. The Soviet Government did all in its power to avert it. But this proved to be impossible to do. In 1941 the perfidious attack by nazi Germany cut short the peaceful labour of the Soviet people. A battle on a scale unprecedented in history broke out between the assault forces of imperialism and the first socialist power. Our Party foresaw the possibility of a military clash with the forces of imperialism and had been preparing the country and the people for defence. The socio-economic achievements gained during the prewar five-year plans and the ideological and political unity of Soviet society won in the building of socialism predetermined our people's victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The guiding role of the Communist Party, under whose leadership victory was forged, manifested itself in all its strength during the war years. The armed forces of our country covered themselves with undying glory in the unparalleled battles against nazism. The mass heroism displayed by officers and men and the selflessness of the partisans and underground fighters demonstrated that socialist patriotism is a tremendous invincible force. By smashing the nazis Soviet people upheld the cause of the October Revolution, the cause of socialism, their homeland. (Prolonged applause.)
The front and rear formed a single mighty fist. The country became a single military camp. It was difficult for everybody. People were undernourished and did not get enough sleep. Women took the place of their husbands in the workshops and children took over machine tools from their fathers. But the industrial heart of the Motherland never missed a beat. Our factories gave the Soviet Army the weapons to crush the military machine of Hitlerism which had behind it the industrial might of almost the whole of Europe. Despite the acute shortage of manpower and farm machines and despite the drastic reduction of the crop area our collective and state farms gave the country the food it needed for victory. It was a civic and patriotic feat of the people. It was a feat performed by people who saw the meaning of their life in labour for the sake of 22 victory. (Applause.) And they did everything to ensure victory. (Applause.)
This feat, which knows no precedent, lasted for four long years. The heroic defence of the Brest Fortress, and the great battles at Odessa and Sevastopol, at the approaches to Moscow, at the walls of Leningrad, Stalingrad and Novorossiisk, in the Orel-Kursk Bulge and on the Dnieper and the Vistula have entered the history of wars as models of military art, of valour by armed forces, and remarkable staunchness and courage by the population. The Soviet people marched towards their great victory through the grimmest tests such as nobody had experienced and through the fire and blood of unparalleled battles. Under the leadership of their Communist Party they defended the gains of the October Revolution, defeated the aggressors and cleared their country of invaders. (Applause.) They crushed nazism, that sinister creation of imperialism.
We have forgotten nothing of the chronicle of that heroic epic. We remember the contribution that was made to the victory over the common enemy by the peoples of Poland, Yugoslavia, Britain, France, Czechoslovakia, the USA and other members of the anti-Hitler coalition. We remember the courage and valour of the Resistance fighters in enemy-occupied countries. We pay tribute to those leaders of the allied countries of the West who in face of the threat of nazi enslavement took, in spite of the differences in social systems, the road of effective co-operation with the Soviet Union in the struggle against the aggres-
sor.
The defeat of nazi Germany and her allies in Europe and Asia, a defeat in which our country played the decisive role, was of historic significance, for it opened for many nations and countries the road to freedom, independence and social progress.
The heroic feat of the Soviet people gave the world fresh proof that no force exists which can defeat a people liberated from capitalist oppression, which can crush the social system, socialism, created and loved by this people. (Stormy applause.) When the red banner, planted by Soviet soldiers, unfurled over the Reichstag, it was more than the banner of our military victory. Comrades, it was the immortal banner of the October Revolution; it was the 23 great banner of Lenin; it was the invincible banner of socialism, the bright symbol of hope, freedom and happiness of all nations. (Stormy, prolonged applause.}
The losses and destruction inflicted on us by the war are beyond compare. The war brought the people grief which to this day wrings the hearts of millions of mothers, widows and orphans. For a man no loss is more painful than the death of relatives, comrades and friends. No sight is more heart-rending than that of destroyed fruits of labour into which he has put his strength, talent and love for his country. No smell is more acrid than the fumes of ashes. The Soviet soldier returning home to his beloved liberated land saw it lacerated by fire and metal and lying in piles of rubble.
But nothing could break the will of Soviet people or stop the triumphant onward march of socialism. The bitterness of loss was hard to bear. But side by side with it in the heart of every Soviet person there was the jubilant feeling of victory. (Applause?) The feat of those who fell inspired the living. The heroic people, who had won everlasting military glory, rallied closely round the Party and during the years of postwar rehabilitation once again demonstrated remarkable qualities such as staunchness, dedication and industry. The history of those years, I would say, still remains to be properly written. But we clearly remember the chief thing, which was that in the main the prewar level of output was reached by industry in 1948 and by agriculture by 1950. In the years that followed Soviet people completely healed the war wounds and created realistic prerequisites for further progress on a much higher scale than before the war and for the transition to the full-scale building of communism.
Today when we mark the 50th anniversary of the Socialist Revolution we can with satisfaction and pride sum up the majestic results of what has been achieved.
The developed socialist society, built in our country, is a society ruled by the principle: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work.'' Socialist relations of production ensure the planned, steady development of the entire economy at the modern technical level. Our industry is expanding at a rapid rate. This year its output will be 73 times greater than in 1913. Agricultural output has increased threefold in that period. Here it must 24 be borne in mind that the number of people engaged in farming has diminished by more than half.
At the back of these indices is a powerful industry embracing practically all branches of modern production. The Soviet Union has some of the world's biggest power stations using unique equipment. Suffice it to say that the capacity of only one of the turbines to be installed at the Krasnoyarsk Hydropower Station is almost equal to the capacity of the prewar Dnieper Hydropower Station. The Soviet engineering industry is annually manufacturing nearly 200,000 metal-cutting lathes and more than half a million tractors and harvesters. The output of our iron and steel industry has topped the 100 million ton mark. The chemical, radio engineering, electronics and atomic industries are growing swiftly.
The high level of development attained by our industry, technology and science is strikingly illustrated by Soviet achievements in the exploration of outer space. A short time ago the successful flight of an automatic station to Venus won the admiration of the world. It is hard to picture the technical skill and the precision that was required to make the space vehicle, created by Soviet people, touch down on Venus after a journey of hundreds of millions of kilometres and transmit over that astronomical distance data which has considerably broadened scientific knowledge. (Prolonged applause.)
Some days ago the world witnessed yet another outstanding achievement of Soviet scientists, designers and engineers. The highly intricate scientific and technological problem of accomplishing an automatic link-up of space vehicles in orbit was solved with marvellous brilliance. This has opened the road to the creation of large orbiting space stations.
These new triumphs in outer space are a splendid gift for the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. (Applause?)
In addition to remaking the entire economic system, socialism has radically transformed the class composition of our society.
In socialist society the leading role is played by the working class. The Soviet worker has inherited the finest qualities of the revolutionary proletariat. Profoundly devoted to the ideals of the Party, he is a politically-- 25 conscious fighter for the people's cause and the creator of the traditions in labour and life which bring us closer to communism. The workers building communism today are worthy successors of the proletarians who fought at the barricades in Moscow's Krasnaya Presnya district and stormed the Winter Palace, and of the heroes of the first five-year plans from whom the present working class has taken over the baton of revolution.
Socialism, collective ownership of the means of production and collective labour have moulded the new people of the Soviet countryside---our collective-farm peasants. In the Soviet Union the words "collective farmer" are pronounced with deep respect. Solidly united with the working class, the collective farmers are a considerable political force in our society. Therein lies one of the great gains of the Great October Socialist Revolution. (Applause.}
Important creative tasks are resolved by the people's intelligentsia, which is indissolubly linked up with the working class and the peasantry. The higher the cultural level of our society and the greater the progress in science and technology, the more appreciable will be the growth of the role played by intellectuals in carrying out the farreaching tasks confronting the Soviet people.
Welded together by a community of interests, objectives and ideals, all the contingents of the great army of builders of communism are moving forward in inviolable fraternal unity towards a bright future, towards the classless communist society. (Prolonged applause.)
Socialism brought women genuine emancipation. It gave them broad scope for creative activity, the development of talent and ability, and the mastering of many professions, which had formerly been closed to them. They are actively participating in the administration of the state. There are 425 women in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR alone, which is considerably more than in the parliaments of the entire capitalist West. (Applause.) Our Soviet woman, who is a worker, mother and heroine, is worthy of the most profound respect. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
The whole world knows of the success of the Leninist nationalities policy. All the nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union are flourishing and have achieved colossal progress in the promotion of industry, agriculture, science and culture. Socialism has set in motion a mighty driving force of 26 our development like friendship among nations. The unity of the multinational Soviet people is as solid as a diamond. In the same way as a diamond sparkles with multicoloured facets so does the unity of our people scintillate with the diversity of nations, each of which lives a rich, full-blooded, free and happy life. (Stormy applause.)
The 50th anniversary of the October Revolution is an occasion for genuine rejoicing by the fraternal family of all the peoples and all the republics forming the great Soviet Union. The Russian Federation, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldavia, Latvia, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenia and Estonia all live with the same thoughts and the same aspirations. (Applause.) They were together during the years of socialist construction. They were together during the stern years of war. And together they are building communism, working with dedication and by joint effort promoting the economy, science and culture of the Land of Soviets. (Applause.)
May the fraternal friendship of all the nations and nationalities of our country flourish! May the unity of the multinational Soviet people grow stronger! (Stormy applause.)
Comrades, the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, created by the October Revolution, was the principal vehicle enabling our people to demolish the old world, crush the resistance of the exploiting classes and fundamentally change the destiny of their country. Experience shows that the dictatorship of the proletariat can exist and continues to exist in various forms. But no matter what its form is, the political power of the working class led by its vanguard, the Communist Party, is the indispensable condition for the building of socialism. (Applause.) This is convincingly demonstrated by the experience of our Revolution and it is confirmed by the experience of socialist revolutions in other countries.
Today, when the abolition of the exploiting classes has become a thing of the distant past, when the triumph of socialism has brought about the unbreakable ideological and political unity of our society, the Soviet state, which originally was a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, has become a people's state, a political organisation of the 27 whole people with the working class playing the leading role.
The Party has done much to improve socialist democracy and create firm guarantees of socialist legality. A noteworthy part was played in this by the 20th Party Congress, which passed important decisions aimed at steadfastly and consistently implementing Leninist standards and principles in all spheres of our life and at further promoting the political activity of the people.
The Soviets of Working People's Deputies, which are the political backbone of our society, continue to be strengthened. The deputies to the Soviet and the aktiv giving them day-to-day assistance in their work total more than 25 million people, i.e., almost a quarter of the country's able-bodied population. The work of the Soviets directly mirrors the power of the people, who manage social and state affairs themselves.
The trade unions, which have more than 80 million members, actively help to draw the masses into various forms of the administration of state affairs. With the guidance of the Party they are demonstrating that they are a school of administration and economic management, a school of communism. The Leninist Komsomol, which has 23 million members, actively helps the Party to educate young people in a communist spirit and enlist their assistance in the fulfilment of specific tasks of communist construction.
In these and many other mass organisations, which are a dependable bulwark of the Party, Soviet people learn to adopt a state approach to affairs and to show concern for the interests of society as a whole, for the interests of the nation.
Comrades, the proletarian revolution is accomplished for the sake of the vital interests of the people, for the sake of the well-being and happiness of the working people, for the sake of freedom and social justice. That is why concern for the Soviet people's standard of living continues to be, as it always has been, in the focus of the Party and the Soviet Government.
Socialism has given our people what the working people of even the richest capitalist countries lack, namely, freedom from capitalist oppression and confidence in the morrow. Soviet people neither know nor will ever know 28 the meaning of exploitation and unemployment. (Stormy applause)
The Party and the Government show unflagging concern for improving working conditions and shortening the working day. During the years of Soviet power the average working week in industry has been shortened by 18 hours. This year the country is switching over to a five-day working week with two days off.
Under Soviet power the real incomes of workers have risen six and a half times and the incomes of the collective farmers have increased eight and a half times. During the past few years alone wage increases have been granted to some 25 million workers and employees, guaranteed remuneration for work and pensions have been introduced for collective farmers and disability pensions have been increased. Today more than 34 million people are drawing pensions either from the State or the collective farms.
It will be recalled that last September a plenary meeting of the CC CPSU and a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted new important decisions to raise the standard of living. These decisions affect more than 50 million people. We can say with deep satisfaction that never before in the history of our state have such large sums been allocated in a lump for raising the standard of living. (Applause.}
There has been a considerable increase in the consumption of basic foods and manufactured goods. Housing accommodation has been increased more than sevenfold in the towns; we are building more housing than any other country in the world. The number of health and holiday homes, holiday hotels, tourist camps and sports stadiums is steadily growing.
The USSR is the first country in which the government has shouldered concern for the health of the people, ensuring free medical assistance for all citizens. One-fourth of the doctors in the world are in the Soviet Union.
The conditions of a nation's life may be assessed by many indices. One of the most important of these is the expectancy of life. It is a summary, as it were, of all that is being done for man: the conditions of work and life, health protection and social insurance. In this respect, the Soviet Union has made colossal progress. In old Russia 29 the average life span was only 32 years. Today the average life expectancy in our country has reached 70 years, which is among the highest in the world. (Applause.)
Socialism is a society that has no privileged classes or estates. However, ever since the first days of Soviet power part of the population has been privileged. That part comprises our children, our youth. Every new citizen of the USSR begins to feel society's concern for the health and upbringing of the rising generation virtually from his very birth. We have secured outstanding results: during the years of Soviet power the child mortality rate has dropped more than 10 times. We have a large (but still not large enough) network of kindergartens and nursery schools catering for more than 9 million young citizens of the USSR.
Public education is promoted on a mammoth scale. The number of students in general-education schools, secondary specialised schools, institutions of higher learning and vocational schools is now drawing close to 60 million. That is one of the main achievements of the socialist system. (Applause.)
The future of the Land of Soviets will be shaped by today's Little Octobrists, Young Pioneers and YCLers. (Applause.) The Party is quite sure that this will be a wonderful future, that our children and grandchildren will honourably carry forward the great banner of the October Revolution. (Stormy applause.)
Comrades, to fathom the depth of the changes brought about by socialism would require the painstaking work of a scientist and the inspired song of a poet. In the course of the past 50 years absolutely everything has changed in the life of the people. We have built a totally new world, a world of new, socialist relations, a world of the new, Soviet man. The spiritual horizon of Soviet people has broadened out immensely; their morals and their attitude to work, society and each other have changed. Renewed and remade by socialism, our country stands before all mankind in all its might and grandeur, in all the brilliance of the talent of its superb people.
The majestic edifice of socialism, built in our country, is a fitting reward for the efforts and feats of the Soviet people, for the half century of dedicated work and heroic battles for the triumph of ideals in whose name the Great 30 October Socialist Revolution was accomplished. (Prolonged applause.)
* History is people and it is they who make it. Tens of millions of workers and peasants built socialism, tens of millions made the history of our epoch. The work performed by generations of revolutionaries and builders of socialism, of the statesmen moved to the forefront by the Revolution, of military leaders, scientists, captains of industry, shock workers and innovators will always be part of the history of our country and of world socialism. (Prolonged applause.)
Today, when we mark the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, we pay heartfelt tribute to those who are no longer with us, to those who fell at the hands of the class enemy while defending the Revolution and the cause of socialism. We pay tribute to those who died at their posts, giving all their strength to the service of the people. Soviet people are continuing and will continue their cause, the cause of communism. (Stormy applause.)
Comrades, today our society combines the wisdom of maturity and the energy of youth. In our ranks there are veterans of the Revolution and the Civil War, heroes of the first five-year plans and those who defended Soviet power in mortal combat with nazism. Also in our ranks are fine, talented and educated young people, who are worthily furthering the glory of their fathers.
Our present society is an alloy of the minds and talents of all the generations, of all the nations and nationalities, of all working people in the country. There is no task or accomplishment that is beyond the strength of such a society, of such a people. (Stormy applause.)
The feat performed by our people, their victories in labour and on the field of battle will never be forgotten by coming generations.
Glory to the Soviet people! Glory to Soviet man, the real hero of our times! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 3. FOR NEW ACHIEVEMENTSComrades, Soviet people regard the results they achieved not only as a measure of the work already accomplished. This, at the same time, is a point of advance from which 31 we look into the future, determining our tasks and prospects.
Life marches on, and each stage in our society's development brings up its own problems. There was a time when the main task was to hold out in face of the onslaught of the class enemy, to eliminate the backwardness inherited from the past and to introduce in life the basic principles of socialism. These problems have been solved, this stage has already been passed.
Today we are facing new tasks, new not only in magnitude but also in character. The thing is to utilise most fully the possibilities created by developed socialist society. We must learn to employ with maximum effect both our social gains and the tremendous productive forces our country possesses, the achievements of science and technology and the rising level of the Soviet people's culture and education. Only on this basis can we successfully build communism and advance along the path charted by the Party Programme. The scale and complexity of the tasks we have to accomplish make ever greater demands on everything we do, on the style and methods of our work.
The economy, the creation of communism's material and technical foundation, is the main bridgehead of the Soviet people's struggle for the victory of communism. Soviet society's rate of advance, the course of competition between the two world systems and our contribution to the development of the world revolutionary process will depend to a decisive degree on how we develop the economy.
The economy of the Soviet Union has entered a stage when a rise in the efficiency of social production and an improvement of qualitative performance indicators in all sectors, based on the latest scientific and technological achievements, are increasingly becoming the main source of economic growth.
This means that production must grow not only by commissioning new capacities and developing new lands but largely by making better use of each enterprise, each machine, each hectare of land. This implies such an allocation and use of capital investments when each invested ruble would yield a maximum return. This implies a reduction in per unit outlays of raw and other materials and fuel.
32An important prerequisite for successful advance is to achieve a balance of social production and set proportions and rates which would optimally meet the requirements of both production and consumption.
We shall continue to devote primary attention to heavy industry. At the same time agriculture, the industries producing consumer goods and the public services will be developed at accelerated rates. This is necessary for further raising the country's potential, for ensuring scientific and technological progress, for further advancing the living standard of the Soviet people.
Life has set important tasks in improving the methods of managing and guiding the economy, improving the system of planning and economic stimulation. To cope with these tasks the Party and the Government have launched a broad economic reform. It is the main aim of the reform to raise the efficiency of social production and to ensure a further rise in the productivity of labour. To achieve this it is necessary, first of all, to make wider use of economic instruments and ably to combine centralised guidance with the initiative of the personnel of industrial enterprises, of state and collective farms.
The main trends of economic policy, in line with the present stage of the country's development, were mapped out in the decisions of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU and the plenary meetings of the Central Committee held from 1965 to 1967. Not so much time has passed since the implementation of these decisions began, but the very first results show that we are on the right road. In the last three years the growth rates of industrial and agricultural production have noticeably risen. Key sectors of the national economy have begun to operate more profitably. All this has made it possible to carry out new measures for improving the people's well-being.
Our Party will continue to devote unflagging attention to the elaboration of scientifically based economic solutions aimed at further advancing the country's productive forces.
We have everything to build up an industry that will be the most powerful and advanced in the world as regards total output, scientific and technical level, the quality of the goods produced and the main economic indicators. Our social system enables us to utilise all the advantages of __PRINTERS_P_83_COMMENT__ 3---938 33 planned economy. We have at our disposal modern, wellequipped production and technical facilities. We possess one-third of all the oil-bearing areas in the world, more than one-fourth of all the natural gas resources, huge sources of water power and coal deposits and exceedingly rich reserves of metal ores and timber. Remarkable personnel capable of coping with any problem have grown up in our country.
A fresh advance of Soviet industry will make it possible further to strengthen the defences of our great power and to cement the positions of socialism in the world.
The, interests of the Soviet people, the interests of communist construction require that we have not only a powerful industry but also a highly developed agriculture capable of fully meeting the growing needs of the population in foodstuffs and industry in raw materials.
Since time immemorial agriculture has depended on the climate, on the whims of nature. Man has always sought to get rid of this dependence or, at least, lessen it. This is particularly important for our Motherland, which extends from the Baltic plains to the Pacific, from the mountain ranges of the Caucasus and the Pamirs to the Arctic tundra. Only in this way can we achieve high and stable growth rates in crop raising and animal husbandry.
That is why we attach prime significance to fulfilling the long-term programme of land reclamation and land improvement, to the use of chemicals in agriculture and to efficiency of farming. Our country is now able to allocate more resources for the development of agriculture. We want agriculture to achieve the same level as socialist industry as regards labour productivity, technical facilities and the use of scientific achievements. This is a fully feasible task at the present stage of scientific and technological progress. (Applause.}
Mankind has entered an age of a sweeping revolution in science and technology. The Soviet Union is proud of the splendid achievements of its scientists. The great successes of physics and chemistry open up new sources of energy, make it possible to create new materials and extend the horizons of all key industries. Discoveries in biology create new possibilities in agriculture and medicine. The achievements of cybernetics help raise the productivity of mental labour and blaze trails in automating various types 34 of business activity and management. Science is becoming a direct productive force in the real meaning of the word. This role of science will rise in future.
Scientists are faced with tremendously important tasks of penetrating the finest structure of matter, probing the secrets of life, transforming some kinds of energy into others, controlling thermonuclear reactions, further exploring space, influencing processes in the atmosphere and studying the depths of the earth and the sea. Much is to be done in the social sciences both in elaborating problems of communist construction in our country and studying questions of world development.
Paying due tribute to the achievements of scientists, the Soviet people expect of them ever greater achievements. Socialism develops, drawing on the most advanced, progressive things created by the human genius. We associate our future with science and are confident that Soviet science, our scientists will be in the forefront of world progress. (Prolonged applause.)
The tempestuous growth of science and technology makes the eternal problem of the relationship between man and nature especially important and timely. Even the first socialists held that the bringing of man and nature closer together would be a characteristic of the future society. Centuries have passed since then. Having built a new society, we translated into reality many of the things which the predecessors of scientific socialism could only dream of. But nature has not lost for us its tremendous value both as the primary source of material wealth and as an inexhaustible well-spring of health, happiness, love of life and the spiritual wealth of every man.
All this should be recalled to stress how important it is to treasure nature, to protect and augment its wealth. (Applause.) Economical, efficient use of natural resources, concern for the land, forests, rivers and pure air, for the flora and fauna---all this is our vital, communist cause. We must preserve and beautify our land for present and future generations of Soviet people. (Stormy applause.)
The more rationally we utilise nature's riches, the greater the successes industry, agriculture and science will score, the higher the productivity of social labour will rise and the richer, finer and more cultured the life of the Soviet people will become.
__PRINTERS_P_36_COMMENT__ 3* 35We have every ground to speak of our successes but we see that we also have unsolved problems. We know that not all Soviet people, not every family live today the way we all would want them to. That is why in all its work, in all its plans the Party pays particular attention to raising the people's living standard. As our national income grows, wages of the working people will steadily rise and the production of consumer goods expand. We will continue to build houses and cultural and service establishments on a large scale so as to ensure an improvement of the housing and living conditions of every Soviet family. (Applause.)
Observing the glorious 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, our Party, fully aware of its responsibility, declares: with each passing year the might of the Soviet Union will grow and the life of the Soviet people will improve. The Soviet citizen will ever more fully enjoy the fruits yielded by our gains, feel ever more tangibly the advantages of the socialist way of life. (Applause.)
Comrades, Marxists have always acted on the principle that the development of social production underlies social progress. This, however, does not at all mean that it is possible to relegate to the background the solution of other important social and political problems. All aspects of communist construction are closely interconnected. It is well known that the solution of socio-political problems depends on economic achievements. And conversely, economic development is largely determined by the extent to which socio-political problems are resolved. Improvement of social relations, development of socialist democracy and statehood, ideological educational work---all this is a matter of paramount importance.
Essential distinctions between the working class, collective-farm peasantry and intelligentsia of our country are being obliterated at the present stage. Today we see more definitely and clearly how these problems will be solved. We know better what has to be done for this purpose.
The nature of agricultural labour is increasingly changing. Today the peasant has to deal with intricate machines, electricity, chemical products, with the sciences related to farming and livestock raising. Here you have the process of practically converting agricultural labour into a variety of industrial labour.
36In recent years no little has been done to accelerate the drawing together of town and country in the way of life and culture. Now that telling successes have been registered in consolidating the economy of the collective and state farms, the basis for transforming the village, its face and way of life is becoming ever more substantial. It is a matter of large-scale building of houses and cultural and service establishments, of the completion of rural electrification and road construction. These are immense undertakings and much time will be needed to achieve them on the scale of a country like ours. But we consider this a matter of state importance and are tackling it in earnest. (Applause.)
The present-day level of production and scientific and technological progress are increasingly bringing closer together the labour of the worker and peasant with that of the engineer, technician and agronomist. The swift cultural advance of the entire population is playing an important part in this respect. The Party strives to have all workers, all peasants become intellectuals in the broadest sense of the word, to have them apply to the full their creative abilities and actively participate in society's spiritual life.
All this, of course, will not come of itself. Here the purposeful activity of the Party and the state is needed. Our plans provide for the further development of all spheres of cultural life, for the improvement of the entire system of education---general, higher and technical. Formulating economic plans for the future, we deliberately build into them elements which lead to the automation and mechanisation of production processes and a curtailment of the field of unskilled labour. The latter is very important because, in addition to the economic effect, it will also ease the conditions and nature of the work performed by millions of Soviet people.
The Party attaches great significance to creating the most favourable conditions for the all-round development of the personality. Big possibilities in this respect are opened up by the increase in the free time the working people have. Free time means not only rest and leisure, but, as Marx stressed, it provides a kind of ``room'' for the development of the personality. Everything should be done so that the extension of this ``room'' should give all 37 members of society greater opportunities to enjoy the benefits of culture, to study, to engage in their favourite occupation in various fields of scientific, technical and artistic endeavour.
As our society advances, the role of literature and the arts will rise still further. Today the treasure-house of world culture is available to the masses of the working people. This elevates the social mission of art and thereby the responsibility of writers, composers, workers in the theatre, cinema and pictorial arts. The Party and the people highly value their creative efforts. Men of letters and the arts are called upon to create works which would ideologically enrich the builders of the new society, spread communist morality among the masses and satisfy the rising aesthetical requirements of our people.
Improvement of socialist social relations presupposes the further strengthening of the Soviet state, the enhancing of its organisational role in the economy. It concerns the development of socialist democracy. What is needed is precision, co-ordination and high efficiency in the work of all links of the state apparatus, consolidation of law and order and state discipline, elimination of the elements of red tape and a formal attitude we still encounter in our life. All this is of prime significance for communist construction.
By its nature communism is a society created by the masses themselves and in the interests of all the people. To advance to communism means to draw the people more widely into the practical work of administering state, economic and social affairs. Utmost enhancement of the role of the Soviets of Working People's Deputies and public organisations will make for greater participation of the people in handling state and public affairs, and stimulate the people's initiative and their constructive activity. Our Party is regularly doing much work along all these lines.
The Soviet system has brought up the working people in the spirit of devotion to the cause of socialism, of collectivism and developed the feeling of being master of their country. But to be master means that, alongside great rights, you also have great duties. It means to bear high responsibility not only for one's own personal work and behaviour, but also for the affairs of the collective, the enterprise, the entire country. The development of these 38 qualities, which must be inalienable traits of the inner world of every Soviet citizen, is one of the most important tasks of the Party in communist construction. (Applause.}
Comrades, great are the deeds and the exploits accomplished by the Soviet people in the past 50 years. Sweeping vistas are opening up before them at the present halfcentury milestone. We are convinced that the years of the second half century of our country, too, will be marked with new accomplishments of epochal significance. ( Applause.) The revolutionary flame, kindled in the hearts of the people by the October Revolution, illumines our path forward, towards the triumph of communism! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 4. THE GREAT OCTOBER REVOLUTIONComrades, the October whirlwind fanned the sparks of the revolution into a mighty flame. The half century which passed after the October Revolution convincingly demonstrated its tremendous international significance. During these years, the entire face of the world has changed, changed in large measure under the impact of the October Revolution and its ideas, under the influence of socialism's victories.
With the birth of the Soviet state the struggle between the working class and the imperialist bourgeoisie has acquired a new character; its main hub has become the struggle between the two opposite socio-economic systems. A dividing line has been sharply delineated; on one side of it are gathered all the forces of the old world, the forces of reaction, social and national oppression, while on the other side are the forces of socialism, democracy and progress.
At that time, the old world dominated five-sixths of our planet's territory, it was incomparably stronger economically and possessed big military superiority. But the revolutionary epoch, alongside the demolition of obsolete regimes, is also blasting the traditional notions of strength. The new world had on its side the laws of social development, the revolutionary energy of the masses and the most advanced ideas of our age. And even in the days when 39 socialism was represented by only one country this gave it the strength to hold out and then go over to an historymaking offensive.
In the course of the half-century struggle the correlation of forces in the world has fundamentally changed. One-third of mankind has embarked on the socialist path. The break-up of the system of colonial slavery is being completed: more than 70 new states have arisen on the debris of former colonial empires. The organised workingclass movement in the capitalist countries has become a tremendous force. Its influence is a big factor in the political life of these countries. Democratic movements, in which broad sections of the population take part, have grown tremendously. As a result of all these changes, it is no longer imperialism but socialism, the anti-- imperialist forces that determine the main content and the main trend of social development. (Applause.)
The peoples of the world have been able to see for themselves that socialism has abolished exploitation of man by man and national oppression and provided broad possibilities for the elimination of backwardness, for the advance of the productive forces, for progress. They have become convinced that socialism blazes the path to genuine democracy and freedom of the individual, to a lasting peace, to the banishing of wars from society's life.
Against the background of socialism's successes it has become even more obvious that capitalism is incapable of solving the fundamental issues facing mankind. It is the source of immeasurable calamities and suffering for the masses. Imperialism breeds aggressive wars and today the threat of a world thermonuclear conflict emanates from it. It is imperialism that caused the death of tens of millions of people slaughtered in the two world wars. It is through its fault that immense resources are wasted on the arms race, on the manufacture of mass destruction weapons. Imperialism is the obstacle which prevents the greatest potentialities discovered by science and technology from being utilised already now to wipe out starvation, poverty and disease. Imperialism is responsible for the fact that the countries which had been kept in colonial bondage fell behind many decades in their development. Imperialism is a system which brutally subjugates the working people and suppresses democracy, a system which has begotten 40 fascism, the most extreme embodiment of reaction, obscurantism and terror.
The half-century separating us from the October Revolution has been a period when capitalism's general crisis has deepened, when imperialism has been exposed in the eyes of the peoples and its influence undermined. But imperialism is not laying down arms. It is a strong and perfidious enemy. It has learned a great deal and is trying to draw lessons from its defeats, to adapt itself to the new situation.
Under the pressure of the class struggle imperialism is manoeuvring, making partial concessions and widely employing social demagogy. The exacerbation of internal contradictions and the successes of socialism in the competition with capitalism are compelling the bourgeoisie increasingly to resort to state-monopoly regulation of the economy in order to mitigate crisis phenomena and maintain production growth rates. On losing its colonies, imperialism is going over to more crafty and refined methods of exploiting other peoples. Imperialism spares no effort and resources in the battle for the minds of the people. The growing influence of socialism is compelling the imperialists constantly to adapt their ideological weapons, their propaganda to the changing situation.
All politically conscious participants in the revolutionary movement are taking into consideration these changes in the enemy camp and the complexity of the situation in which the class and liberation struggle develops today. They are devising the most effective ways of this struggle and are working to rally all the forces into a united antiimperialist front.
In recent decades, the revolutionary process has gained a truly worldwide scale. There is no area in the world where the struggle for social and national liberation has not spread in one or another form. Imperialism is attacked from different sides. Even its positions which but recently seemed invulnerable have been shaken. Lenin's prediction that in the struggle against capitalism the most diverse forces and movements will merge in a single torrent is coming true.
We Communists are well aware of the scale and complexity of the tasks facing the revolutionary forces. Many tense battles have to be fought and obstacles surmounted 41 on the road to the triumph of the ideals of socialism and progress throughout the world. But we are confident that the present stage signifies a tremendous step forward on this road and it will take a worthy place in the annals of mankind's struggle for progress and freedom, for socialism. (Applause?)
Successful development of the world socialist system is the most striking and important feature of this stage. The world working class and all revolutionary forces rightly regard it as their greatest gain, their remarkable achievement. The emergence of socialism beyond the bounds of one country and the establishment of a system of socialist states marked a sharp turn in world development. This victory weakened the forces of imperialism still more. It instilled in the hearts of the masses greater confidence in the Tightness of socialism and the invincibility of its great ideals. New conditions for a further upswing of the revolutionary and liberation struggle, for all democratic movements arose in the world under the influence of living and developing socialism and the magnetic force of its example.
In the past 20 years most socialist countries registered big achievements in the economy and culture, in the development of new social relations and socialist democracy. A fundamental achievement of world socialism which should be stressed is the creation of a new type of relations between states in which the socialist system triumphed. Fraternal relations between socialist countries rest on growing mutual trust and respect of the peoples and are based on socialist internationalism. Life shows that within the framework of the socialist community each country receives the most favourable opportunities for strengthening its sovereignty, its independence and at the same time enjoys all the advantages afforded by mutual assistance and comradely support.
The entire experience of the world socialist system with its great gains and its difficulties shows that with the victory of socialist revolutions in a number of countries relations of a new type do not come to of themselves. Socialist countries encounter new, intricate problems and they have to overcome the hard legacy of the capitalist past, to resist the intrigues of imperialism which seeks to split our ranks.
By their common efforts the fraternal Parties have 42 considerably strengthened the socialist community. Each nation contributes its own specific features to the common cause of building the new life. We value the contribution of each people, of each Marxist-Leninist Party to the international treasure-house of socialism. The common constructive efforts, expressing all the multiformity of reality, produce the great experience of world socialism, which is the possession of all mankind.
Speaking of the socialist system and its development problems, we cannot ignore the events which deeply agitate all of us. It is the situation in the Chinese People's Republic. The victory of the revolution in China was of great importance. It exerted a deep impact on the development of the national liberation and revolutionary movement in all countries of Asia and Africa.
Unfortunately, the chauvinist and Great-Power course of Mao Tse-tung's group, pursued in recent years, greatly harms the cause of socialism in China. This policy, aimed at undermining the unity of the world socialist community and the international communist movement, runs counter to the interests of the peoples' revolutionary struggle.
The events in China have fully laid bare the ideological and political degradation of some leaders of the Communist Party of China. At the same time they have shown that socialism in that country, even in a brief period and in the most intricate conditions, has succeeded in striking roots, in winning over the masses to its side. It is this that explains the stubborn struggle waged by the finest sons of the Communist Party of China, by the progressive forces of the Chinese people for preserving the gains of socialism. (Applause.}
The Chinese Communists have what to defend and what to fight for. The general line of the Chinese Communists is that of building socialism, the line charted by the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1956. This is the line of planned balanced economic development and "maximum satisfaction of the people's material and cultural requirements''. This is the line of "developing a democratic life''. This, the Congress decisions stressed, is the line of "eternal and unbreakable friendship with the great Soviet Union and all the People's Democracies''. (Applause.)
We believe that the present events in China are a historically transient stage of her development. We believe that 43 despite all difficulties the cause of socialism will triumph in the Chinese People's Republic. (Applause.)
Comrades, the path followed by the socialist countries involves intensive labour and vigorous struggle. We know that ahead of us is much work, great tasks, whose accomplishment requires the joint efforts of the fraternal Parties and peoples. In their turn, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the entire Soviet people will spare no effort for the strengthening of the world socialist community and for the winning of fresh victories by it. (Prolonged applause.)
Allow me today on behalf of all the Soviet people cordially to greet the fraternal peoples who are building the new life. (Applause.)
We address our first words of greetings to the courageous people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam who arms in hand are defending their freedom and independence, their socialist gains. (Stormy applause.)
We warmly greet the peoples of Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, the Korean People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia who are confidently marching forward under the banner of socialism. (Stormy applause.)
We greet the Chinese and Albanian peoples who are fighting for the preservation of the socialist gains in their countries. (Applause.)
We wish the peoples of all the socialist states the greatest success in their noble endeavours. (Applause.)
Comrades, an important place among the forces opposing imperialism is held by the working class in the developed capitalist states which is waging a struggle in the citadels of world imperialism. We know how difficult this struggle is. It demands not only great effort and courage but also the ability to pit a high degree of organisation and great political art against the imperialist bourgeoisie and all its manoeuvres and artifices.
Despite all difficulties the working-class movement in the developed capitalist countries is steadily gaining in strength and accumulating new experience. The activity, persistence and growing organisation of the working people in the struggle for their vital interests characterise the present stage of the class struggle in the capitalist world. At times strikes involve entire countries. The working class more and more 44 succeeds in getting its demands satisfied. These demands go farther, become more radical, developing into a programme of struggle against the economic and political omnipotence of the monopolies.
For the working class division of its ranks has been, and remains, the main stumbling block on the road to victory. But the experience accumulated by the working-class movement shows that unity is a vital necessity. This experience proves that differences in views between Socialists and Communists must not be an obstacle to uniting the ranks of the working class against the monopolies, against the war danger, and in the struggle for socialism. Despite the policy of the Right-wing Social-Democratic leaders who are hidebound in their anti-communist positions, the striving for unity is growing, and definite successes along these lines have already been registered in a number of countries.
In the period after the October Revolution the role of the working class in the capitalist states substantially rose, and not only because it now comprises a majority of the population in these countries and is the decisive force in material production. The working class most consistently expresses the interests of the entire nation, rallying round itself the masses of the working people, all the anti-monopoly forces. It is beyond doubt that the proletariat in the capitalist world will ultimately score decisive successes in the struggle for its ideals. (Applause.)
A major feature of the 50-year period after the October Revolution is the merging of the national liberation movement and the struggle of the working class into one revolutionary torrent. The 1,500 million people living in the former colonies and semi-colonies have gained independence and emerged as an active force in the political scene. This has extended the bounds of the world revolutionary movement and accelerated social progress.
The winning of political independence, however, has not solved all the important issues confronting the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Considerable effort will be required to uphold and consolidate their sovereignty, to achieve economic independence and eliminate backwardness. The progressive forces of these countries are energetically demanding an anti-imperialist policy. The success of such a policy is guaranteed by an alliance of the national liberation movement of states, which have cast off the colonial 45 yoke, and world socialism, and by the strengthening of their co-operation with the socialist countries.
Deep social processes are under way in the newly free countries. The struggle over the fundamental question---the ways of their further development---is growing sharper. Influenced by the victories of world socialism, the Asian and African peoples are increasingly striving for progressive forms of social organisation. That a number of young states has embarked on the road of non-capitalist development is an event of great importance.
History shows that the elimination of backwardness and the advance to socialism, by-passing capitalism, presuppose the solution of many intricate social problems and require the creation of modern productive forces. The peoples of the countries which have chosen socialism as their guiding star still have to solve these problems, to do that in conditions when the heritage of colonialism has not been eradicated and conservative elements enjoy as yet considerable influence. Selfless defence of the revolutionary gains, unity of all the democratic forces of the people, hard work and persistent effort to advance the economy and culture--- in all this the progressive representatives of the young developing states see a guarantee of their forward movement.
The Soviet people extend warm greetings to all the fighters of the working-class and the national liberation movements. (Applause.) We wish you, dear comrades, fresh great successes in the struggle for the vital interests and rights of the peoples, for peace and democracy, for national liberation and socialism. We are convinced that our militant alliance will continue to grow and gain in strength. ( Applause.)
The experience of the past 50 years has conclusively demonstrated that the efficacy of the efforts of the revolutionary movement largely depends on the cohesion and cooperation of all its detachments.
The unity of the revolutionary forces rests on a reliable foundation. Each of these forces accomplishes its own tasks, but they have a common enemy---imperialism, they have common aims---the struggle for the interests of the working people, for peace, democracy and freedom. All this makes it imperative to unite the efforts of the world socialist system, the working-class and the national liberation 46 movements in a common offensive on imperialism. (Applause.) The international communist movement is the vanguard of the revolutionary forces, the standard-bearer of the idea of the unity of the revolutionary process. The contemporary communist movement, heir and continuer of the First International founded by Marx, arose on the crest of the mighty revolutionary wave set off by the victory of Russia's workers and peasants. The Communist International played a historic role in creating and consolidating the militant MarxistLeninist Parties.
The communist movement has traversed a long path in the past 50 years. While in 1917 there were only several hundred thousand Communists in the world, at present there are already 50 million fighters united in 88 Communist and Workers' Parties. (Applause.) Among them are Parties which are directing the building of the new society in the socialist states. Among them are Marxist-Leninist Parties which are heading the struggle of workers in developed capitalist countries. In Western Europe, where more than 100 million factory and office workers are concentrated, Communist Parties have grown into a national political force, which is a development of great importance. The Communist Parties of Latin America are waging a tense struggle against the sworn enemy of the peoples, US imperialism, and internal reactionary regimes. The Communist Parties of Asian and African countries are rallying broad democratic sections and are increasingly winning the confidence of the masses.
We know what courage and selflessness the Communists need in the capitalist countries. Imperialism is doing everything in its power to undermine the Communist Parties, to compel the Communists to renounce their ideals. In nearly 40 capitalist countries working-class parties are outlawed. For loyalty to the ideals of communism people are thrown out of work and deprived of their livelihood, imprisoned and executed.
During the jubilee celebrations of the October Revolution we say to all Communists, to all revolutionaries who languish in dungeons and are persecuted: our hearts are with you, dear brothers and friends! (Stormy applause.) We are confident that no trials can break the spirit of Communists, no barriers can stop the development of the communist movement. (Applause.)
47Communism has become a mighty force and its ideas are triumphantly marching over our planet. Their deeds have made the Communists the vanguard of social progress and earned them the reputation of the most consistent fighters for the interests of the working class, of all the working people. Communists have proved their ability to head the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism. They have proved that they are the staunchest defenders of the working class in the capitalist countries. They have proved that they are selfless fighters for national freedom and social progress of the peoples in the colonies. They are upholding peace, freedom and democracy for all the peoples. (Applause.)
Favourable conditions have arisen for a fresh powerful advance of the communist movement, for its new victories. But we must never forget that the mission entrusted to the Communists is a sweeping and intricate mission of remaking society's entire life in a revolutionary way. Mankind's transition from capitalism to socialism is an involved and multifarious process. In the course of it certain setbacks, temporary retreats and even defeats on some sectors are possible. The communist movement draws lessons from this.
Experience shows that such a strong and perfidious enemy as imperialism can be defeated only if it is opposed, alongside determination and selfless readiness for struggle, by sober political analysis, cool-headedness and tenacity. The Communists put up against this enemy a strategy which rests on a scientific analysis of the relation of forces within a given country and in the world. They counterpose it with a tactic and forms and methods of struggle which most fully take into consideration the concrete conditions. Naturally, it is not easy to find at once correct solutions for the problems that arise. The world is changing and the ranks of fighters against imperialism are extending. All this requires constant study and generalisations, creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory and the spreading of its influence in the ranks of the revolutionary movement.
Utmost extension of the struggle against the policy and ideology of imperialism acquires particular importance in present-day conditions. In an attempt to raise a barrier to the liberation movement imperialism is stepping up its activity and is launching new reckless ventures and 48 provocations. To successfully resist imperialism, to repulse its attacks and inflict fresh defeats on it, the Communists, all revolutionaries must exert tremendous efforts and mobilise the forces on all the main sectors of the battle.
The Communist Parties are stepping up the offensive on the ideological positions of the bourgeoisie and are exposing the policy and ideology of anti-communism. Widely popularising socialism's successes, they blast the slander and falsification, the anti-communist fables and myths circulated by imperialist propaganda. The Communist Parties are revealing the groundlessness of the various new cunning ``theories'' which are devised to whitewash capitalism. The Parties see in ideological work a requisite for winning the masses to their side and strengthening the anti-imperialist front. Our Party, for its part, will continue to exert greater effort in repulsing anti-communism and exposing imperialism's entire policy and ideology. (Applause.)
The Communists of all countries draw from the experience of the class struggle the conclusion that strengthening the militant co-operation, cohesion and active co-ordination of effort by all the fraternal Parties of the world is a prime requisite for solving the difficult, diverse problems confronting them. Only by acting as a united international movement will world communism be able to attain its great goals. The feeling of comradely support and constant co-- ordination of action on an international scale is important for all of us today.
The building of socialism and communism in countries of the socialist community, rebuff to the aggressive actions of imperialism, defence of universal peace and the security of the nations; the rallying of the masses under the banner of democracy, national liberation and socialism; further improvement of the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary struggle against capitalism---such are the main problems for the solution of which the world communist movement is closing its ranks. "Workers of all countries, unite!" ( applause)---this slogan, which resounded like a tocsin at the dawn of the revolutionary struggle of the working class, today too calls for the unity of all the anti-imperialist forces. (Applause.)
We are convinced that the further consolidation of our movement is dictated by the vital interests of each fraternal Party. It goes without saying that each Party has its own __PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---938 49 tasks and applies in each situation the appropriate forms and methods of struggle. All Parties are doing it on the basis of full independence. But the striking power and efficacy of a Party's struggle depend not only on its achievements in its own country but also on the achievements of other fraternal Parties, on extensive and deep co-operation among all the detachments of the communist movement. {Applause.) Experience shows that deviation from the principles of internationalism, attempts to put up the interests of separate detachments of our movement in contrast to the general tasks of the revolutionary struggle and manifestations of national seclusion inevitably weaken the positions of the Communists in face of the common enemy.
We note with great satisfaction that the position of the CPSU fully coincides with the positions held by the overwhelming majority of fraternal Parties which resolutely call for the consolidation of our ranks on the principles of Marxism-Leninism. (Applause.) A big role in working out the common ideological and political positions of the communist movement was played by the meetings ot representatives of the fraternal Parties in 1957 and 1960. The growing desire to strengthen unity is evidenced by such indicative recent developments as the Karlovy Vary Conference of European Communist Parties, the regional and bilateral meetings of representatives of fraternal Parties and the movement of solidarity with heroic Vietnam and the peoples of Arab countries who became victims of aggression. Today it is perfectly clear that the majority of fraternal Parties favour the convening of a new international conference. Our Party fully supports this idea and is ready to do everything for the success of such world meeting of Communists. (Prolonged applause.)
Comrades, today the entire communist movement, together with us, is celebrating the jubilee of the Great October Revolution. Observing it, Marxists-Leninists summarise the results scored until now and outline the prospects of further struggle for the triumph of our common communist ideals.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has always considered, and considers now, its activity and its experience an integral part of the activity and experience of the world communist movement. The CPSU has always derived strength and inspiration for its struggle and endeavours in 50 unbreakable friendship, in the militant alliance with the fraternal Parties. (Stormy applause.)
Allow me, comrades, on behalf of our Party to voice the most sincere gratitude to all fraternal Parties, to all Communists, for their friendship, for sincere support of the Soviet people in their effort to build communism. (Prolonged applause.)
Allow me to convey to all Marxist-Leninist Parties heartfelt greetings and wishes of fresh great successes. (Applause.) Glory to the world communist movement, the leading political force of our epoch! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 5. THE LENINIST FOREIGN POLICYComrades, our foreign policy plays a major role in our great constructive work, in ensuring favourable conditions for the building of socialism and communism.
The victory of the Great October Revolution has initiated truly revolutionary changes in international relations. For the first time in the world there appeared a state which opposed the imperialist policy of oppressing and enslaving the peoples, the policy of colonial exploitation, violence and predatory wars, with a policy of upholding the freedom and independence of the peoples, of safeguarding peace against the imperialist aggressors. The struggle of these two opposite policies has continued for half a century now.
The nature of the Soviet Union's foreign policy and its distinctive features stem from the very essence of the socialist social system.
What are its major features?
Our foreign policy was born in the crucible of the socialist revolution. It has been, and remains, an instrument serving the revolutionary transformation of society in our country. Defence of the revolution's gains---this is the task Lenin set before Soviet foreign policy immediately after the victory of the October Revolution. Addressing leading Party functionaries in January 1918, he urged them to solve questions of foreign policy "from the point of view of the conditions which best make for the development and consolidation of the socialist revolution which has already begun".^^1^^ _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. T. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 445. 4*
51 The foreign policy of the Soviet state is invariably based on this Leninist directive. Its main task is to defend the gains of the October Revolution, to frustrate the imperialist intrigues against the homeland o.f socialism and to ensure the necessary external conditions for building communist society. It was this that Lenin regarded also as the supreme internationalist duty of the Soviet Land to the world revolutionary movement.
Our foreign policy is internationalist, because the interests of the Soviet people coincide with those of the working masses in all countries. It is infused with the spirit of solidarity with the revolutionary, progressive forces throughout the world and represents an active factor of the class struggle on the international arena.
Many splendid examples of revolutionary internationalism are inscribed in the half-century annals of our state. We find there striking manifestations of solidarity of young Soviet Russia with the proletarians of Germany and Hungary who rose up in rebellion, numerous facts of support over many years of the struggle the Chinese people waged against the forces of imperialism and reaction. The glorious epic of the brotherhood-in-arms with revolutionary Spain is unforgettable. Our country went to the aid of the Spanish people with everything it could---from diplomatic support and economic help to the personal contribution of thousands of Soviet volunteers who to the last day, together with the Spaniards, fought at Barcelona barricades and in the Madrid sky. Throughout the ages there will shine the liberatory exploit of our people in the Great Patriotic War when the victory won at the cost of millions of lives of Soviet men and women delivered many counjj^es from fascist enslavement. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the persistent struggle the Soviet Union has been waging in the postwar period for a just democratic peace and, above all, in defence of the independence of the new, people's democratic states.
The spirit of revolutionary internationalism permeates all the activities of the Homeland of the October Revolution on the world arena and we Soviet people will always be loyal to this lofty principle.
Profound and genuine democracy is one of the primary features of the Soviet Union's foreign policy.
Having resolutely broken with the traditional foreign 52 policy of the exploiting classes, with the methods of secret diplomacy and the policy of collusion behind the backs of nations, the Soviet state abrogated all secret treaties concluded by tsarist Russia. On major questions affecting the destinies of mankind, our country began to address itself not only to the governments of other states, but also directly to the peoples.
In our relations with all countries we follow the unshakable democratic principle: recognition in practice of the equality of all nations, big and small, and recognition of the equality of all races and nationalities.
On Lenin's initiative the Soviet state solemnly proclaimed a "complete break with the barbarous policy of the bourgeois civilisation which has built the prosperity of the exploiters belonging to a few chosen nations on the enslavement of hundreds of millions of the working people in Asia, in the colonies in general and in the small countries".^^1^^
The Soviet Republic unhesitatingly recognised the right of all peoples, including those of the former Russian Empire, to self-determination, that is, the right to decide their fate for themselves. It was the first power which approached such countries as Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and China with an unprecedented proposal---to conclude genuinely egalitarian agreements and to establish relations resting on disinterested friendship and mutual support.
Adhering to Lenin's behests, the Soviet Union always was and will continue to be a tireless champion of democratic rights, freedom and independence of all peoples, a faithful ally of those who are for eradicating all forms of colonial or national oppression and for genuine equality of all nations.
Finally, still another fundamental feature characteristic of the Soviet Union's foreign policy is its consistent line of promoting peace, security and friendship of the peoples. Socialism knows no goal other than concern for the interests of the people, which above all presupposes the fight against war, that, as Lenin had said, greatest scourge of the people of labour.
One of the slogans which the Party had advanced to raise the people to revolutionary action was the peace slogan. For us the fight for peace is still a task with a profound class and _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 424.
53 revolutionary meaning, because to work for peace means to isolate the more bellicose, aggressive circles of the imperialist bourgeoisie, to turn public opinion against them and to thwart their anti-popular designs.The record of our state's existence is one of persistent, unceasing struggle against the aggressive policy of the imperialists and for safeguarding the peoples against the calamities of war. A few hours after the victory of the Revolution the new workers' and peasants' government issued the Lenin Decree on Peace in which it proposed to the governments and peoples of all countries to conclude a just peace without annexations or contributions. In 1919, a Congress of Soviets adopted Lenin's resolution which proclaimed that the "Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic wishes to live in peace with all peoples and devote all its forces to internal development".^^1^^ In 1922, in Genoa at the first international conference to which Soviet Russia received access, our country tabled a comprehensive programme of peaceful co-operation and disarmament.
During the years when the threat of fascist aggression loomed over the world, the Soviet Union persistently worked for a system of collective security which could have bridled the aggressors and prevented a second world war. When the appearance of nuclear weapons and rockets had made the prevention of a new war a particularly urgent issue, the USSR proposed a concrete plan for general and complete disarmament under strict international control.
The banner of peace and friendship between peoples raised aloft by the Soviet Union is winning for socialism the sympathy and support of millions on all continents. People throughout the world see that in its foreign policy the Soviet Union is consistently implementing the new principles that were proclaimed by our great Revolution. (Applause.)
Comrades, such are the principal features of our foreign policy course. It was shaped under the leadership of Lenin and further developed by the Party in its subsequent decisions. This Leninist course forms the permanent and principled foundation of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. (Applause.)
The Party considers it of tremendous significance that the _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 231.
54 foreign policy of the USSR should be consistent and resolute, that it should be firm in defending the interests of the Soviet people and of the great communist cause and irreconcilable towards aggressors while remaining flexible and realistic. Alongside major issues of the country's development, foreign policy issues are always in the focus of attention of the Politbureau of the CC CPSU and the Soviet Government. They are regularly discussed at Central Committee plenums, at Party congresses and at the sessions of the USSR Supreme Soviet.The 23rd Congress of the CPSU has charted the main directions and tasks of our foreign policy for the next few years, and we are undeviatingly adhering to the Congress decisions in our practical activity on the international arena.
Taking into account the enormous historical role played by the world system of socialism in the destiny of mankind, our Party and Government deem it their duty to do everything to strengthen the might and unity of the great community of. socialist states.
We are firmly steering the course aimed at furthering political co-operation with the fraternal socialist countries, maintaining still closer and more systematic contacts with the leaders of the Communist Parties and Governments of the fraternal countries, co-ordinating our policies and developing diverse forms of ties and exchanges between our peoples.
In recent years the Soviet Union concluded new treaties of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance with the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Mongolia, Bulgaria and Hungary. We highly treasure these charters of fraternal friendship whose rich content mirrors the new, higher stage which we have reached in our relations.
Jointly with the leadership of the fraternal Parties and countries, the Central Committee of our Party and the Soviet Government unceasingly work to further the fruitful economic co-operation of the socialist states on a bilateral and multilateral basis taking into consideration the great significance of the long-term division of labour and the attainment of scientific and technical progress.
The co-operation of the socialist countries in strengthening their defences is extremely important in present-day conditions, and we are devoting unremitting attention to 55 this matter. This, above all, concerns relations with the countries of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation which is a powerful instrument of the political and defensive co-- operation of the socialist countries.
Our friendship with the fraternal socialist countries is strengthening and blossoming. (Applause.} It is becoming still more profound and multisided and is turning into an indispensable requirement for the peoples of our countries. Permit me to assure you, comrades, that the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet Government will continue to do everything in their power to consolidate, develop and defend the gains of world socialism. (Prolonged applause.)
The fight of the Soviet state for the democratic rights of the peoples, for the complete eradication of all forms of colonial and national oppression is also acquiring new forms in present-day conditions. On the initiative of the Soviet Union and with the active support of other socialist states the UNO by majority vote adopted the Declaration on Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and then the Declaration on the Impermissibility of Interference into the Internal Affairs of States, and on Protecting Independence and Sovereignty.
Today, too, our militant union with peoples which still have to carry on an armed struggle against the colonialists constitutes an important element of our line in international affairs. Now that the colonial system of imperialism has practically disintegrated a new task has come to the fore, that of developing co-operation with states that have already cast off the colonial yoke and are fighting to strengthen their independence and for social progress.
Today we have good relations, which are based on mutual trust and respect, with the young national states. The extent and the concrete forms of these friendly relations depend on the general political course which a particular state pursues. We have closer economic and political ties, closer relations with countries which in their development are heading towards socialism.
The countries that have freed themselves from colonialism regard the Soviet Union as their sincere and selfless friend. They are well aware that the policy of the USSR and even the very existence of our socialist power is an important factor in safeguarding their independence from imperialist encroachments. (Applause.)
56The Soviet Union is, as is known, rendering the newly free countries extensive friendly assistance in developing their independent national economy. Factories and mills, power-station dams, hospitals and institutes built with Soviet assistance and co-operation have risen in the jungles and in the arid deserts of many Asian and African countries. Each of these projects is a monument of friendship and co-- operation between the Soviet Union and the countries that have discarded the colonialist yoke.
An important source of our strength on the international arena is the union with the national liberation movement and with the anti-imperialist forces throughout the world. By marching in step and supporting each other, it is easier for us to find solutions to many international problems, including the problems of consolidating peace.
Comrades, in its struggle to thwart the threat of a new world war our Party and the Soviet Government are taking into account the specific features of the present-day international situation.
The war in Vietnam, the US intervention in Laos, the Middle East developments, the reactionary coups engineered by the imperialists in some Asian, African, European and Latin American countries, the demands to remake European frontiers and for access to nuclear weapons stubbornly made by West German revanchists, and their absurd and insolent claim to speak on behalf of the "whole of Germany'', as they say, show that imperialism has not changed its aggressive nature. It remains the embodiment of the worst reaction, bloody violence and aggression, and presents a serious threat to peace and security of all peoples, and we cannot, nor do we have the right, to forget this.
It is all the more necessary to be vigilant with regard to imperialist provocations and gambles considering that in present-day conditions a world nuclear and rocket war could kill hundreds of millions of people, destroy whole countries and contaminate the earth's surface and its atmosphere. The Communists cannot but draw the most serious political conclusions from this. The struggle to prevent a new world war has now become an important condition for solving problems of the construction of socialism and communism and the development of the entire world revolutionary process.
Those who want to save mankind from a world nuclear and rocket war must struggle against the aggressive intrigues 57 and sorties of the imperialists with redoubled energy. It is necessary to counter the imperialist actions with a united front of anti-imperialist forces.
The imperialists do not achieve their goals where the aggressors are firmly rebuffed by the freedom fighters. This is exemplified by the events in Vietnam.
In an effort to suppress the national liberation struggle of the South Vietnamese population, prevent a democratic unification of the country, hinder the construction of socialism in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and intimidate the fighters for national emancipation and progress in other countries, the American imperialists have thrown their armed forces against the South Vietnamese patriots and then directly attacked the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The crimes of the US military in Vietnam bring back to memory the atrocities of the fascist brutes. The killing of tens of thousands of peaceful inhabitants, the methodical destruction of towns and villages, the reduction of schools and hospitals to ruins and the destruction of crops, all this marks the disgraceful path of the US interventionists on Vietnamese soil. The murderers, under the guise of defenders of the so-called free world, have not forced and never will force the Vietnamese people to their knees (stormy, prolonged applause) nor intimidate the fighters for freedom and independence. (Applause.} The peoples of the whole world, including millions of Americans, are branding the sanguinary aggression against Vietnam with shame. The intervention in Vietnam is increasingly undermining the international prestige of the United States.
Neither the half million American soldiers in the jungles of South-East Asia, nor the powerful navy, nor heavy bombers, nor the army of the Saigon puppets, nor the regiments dispatched by the obedient satellites of the USA can win the day for the aggressors.
Displaying heroism which evokes the admiration of the whole world and overcoming tremendous difficulties, the Vietnamese people are repulsing the hordes of the interventionists and dealing them blow after blow. In doing so they have the support of progressive peace-loving forces throughout the world and primarily the constant extensive assistance of the Soviet Union and other socialist states. Weapons, munitions, food, clothes, transport facilities and equipment are all concrete manifestations of the solidarity 58 of the socialist countries which are helping the Vietnamese people in their heroic struggle.
The military successes of the Vietnamese people could have been still more significant if not for the stand of Mao Tse-tung's group which hampers co-ordinated assistance to Vietnam from all socialist countries, including China. We regret that the Peking leaders have taken this line. For its part, the Soviet Union is fully resolved to render every assistance and support to the fraternal Vietnamese people who are fighting for their just cause. (Prolonged applause.} This assistance will continue until the American imperialists stop their shameful and criminal venture and get out of Vietnam. (Stormy applause.}
The people of Vietnam are fighting for a just cause, and they will win. There can be no doubt about it. (Prolonged applause.}
The actions of the USA, Britain and the FRG which are encouraging the aggression of their puppets, the Israeli rulers against the neighbouring Arab states, have once again disclosed the predatory nature of the imperialist policy and have aroused the indignation of all progressive forces in the world and the just i