16

p 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.

p 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.

p 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".  [16•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.

p 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 17 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.

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

18

p By 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.

p 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.

p 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- 19 making scientific discoveries, and, by their labour, continuing the glorious traditions of the first five-year plans. (Prolonged applause.)

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 20 state-farm production are forever inscribed in the annals of collective-farm glory. (Applause.}

p 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.

p 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."  [20•1 

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 21 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.}

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p The great successes achieved by the Soviet people, who in less than a quarter of a century turned their country 22 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.

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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 23 victory. (Applause.) And they did everything to ensure victory. (Applause.)

p 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.

p 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-

p sor.

p 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.

p 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 24 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.}

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 25 be borne in mind that the number of people engaged in farming has diminished by more than half.

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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.

p These new triumphs in outer space are a splendid gift for the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. (Applause?)

p In addition to remaking the entire economic system, socialism has radically transformed the class composition of our society.

p 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- 26 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.

p 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.}

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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.)

p 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 27 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.)

p 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.)

p 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.)

p 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.

p 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 28 whole people with the working class playing the leading role.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 29 the meaning of exploitation and unemployment. (Stormy applause)

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.}

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 30 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.)

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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.)

p 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.

p 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 31 October Socialist Revolution was accomplished. (Prolonged applause.)

p * 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.)

p 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.)

p 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.

p 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.)

p 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.)