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p Comrades, the victory of the October Revolution, the victory of socialism in our country is the victory of the ideas of the Communist Party and a great triumph of its Leninist general line. Since the beginning of the 20th century the history of our country has been indissolubly bound up with the activity of the Communist Party.

p In the past 50 years the Party has carried out work unprecedented for its content and scale: it solved major theoretical problems of socialism and communism and carried on day-to-day practical organisational work; guided the country’s economy in towns and villages and elaborated the most complicated problems of foreign policy; unceasingly worked to educate the people ideologically, promote culture and strengthen the Soviet state, and took measures to ensure the impregnable defence of the country; devoted constant attention to the consolidation of the alliance of the working class and the peasantry and the cementing of the fraternal friendship of all the peoples of our great country. In a word, there was not a single major problem to the solution of which the Party had not applied its wisdom, will and inexhaustible energy. (Applause.)

p Throughout these years the CPSU advanced under the unceasing fire of the opponents of communism. The forces of the old world madly attacked both our Party and the country for whose destiny it has assumed responsibility. But 64 the Party of Lenin was like an unshakable fortress against which the onslaught of the enemies and the numberless attacks of political and ideological opponents came to grief.

p The Party has travelled a long road; from scattered Marxist groups and circles it developed into a multi-million organisation which has become the leading force of Soviet society. (Applause.}

p In 1903, when the Second Congress of the RSDLP adopted the first Party Programme, which was a programme of struggle against tsarist autocracy and capitalism, its ranks numbered only a few thousand members.

p The Bolsheviks were shot, left to die in penal servitude or tortured in prisons. But whenever a fighter of the revolution fell tens of new fighters came to take his place. They were real heroes, people of indomitable will and fortitude, endowed with high principles, crystal honesty, and extraordinary staunchness and determination. They were inspired by their unshakable belief in the righteousness of their cause and in the inevitable victory of the Revolution. The cause of the Party, the cause of the Revolution was sacred for them and that is why they dedicated themselves to it. (Applause.} In February 1917, when the Party emerged from the underground, it had about 24,000 members. By October 1917, there were already 350,000 Bolsheviks. And that was all there were in Russia with her population of 160,000,000. What incredible energy these people had to have and what indestructible strength had the truth they carried to be able to lead tens of millions of workers and peasants.

p The Party came up to the October Revolution as a militant political organisation fused by iron discipline and supported by workers’ and soldiers’ masses, progressive intellectuals and a considerable section of the peasantry. It came up to the October Revolution armed with the Leninist theory of proletarian revolution, the theory which showed our people the road to socialism.

p The victory of the October Revolution and the formation of the Soviet state meant that the first Programme of the Party had been fulfilled. In 1919, the Eighth Congress of the RCP(B) adopted its second Programme, that of building socialism.

p To change over from demolishing the old social system to building a new one, the Party and the working class had 65 to effect a thorough reorientation—political, organisational and even psychological. We, history’s first ruling party of the working class, had to work out a political course capable of showing the way for solving problems which not a single society had hitherto encountered. It was necessary to elaborate new methods and forms of guiding the masses that would correspond to the requirements of peaceful construction. Finally it was necessary to achieve such a change in the sentiments of the Communists themselves which would help them to go over from the heroic spirit of the armed uprising and the Civil War to ordinary everyday labour.

p As the Party solved these tasks it waged a relentless struggle against the Trotskyites, Right opportunists and other oppositional groups, whose views mirrored the pressure of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois sections. The oppositionists, repudiating the possibility of building socialism first only in our country and not believing in the strength of the working class and in the stability of its alliance with the peasantry, tried to lead the Party away from the Leninist road. But it routed the opposition, ideologically and politically, retained the purity of Marxism-Leninism, the Leninist general line and consolidated the unity of its ranks. ( Applause.}

p The Party’s vast theoretical, political and organisational work produced its historical results. The building of socialism in the USSR meant that the second Programme had been fulfilled, too.

p Towards the beginning of the ’sixties the Soviet Union reached a new stage, it launched the construction of communism on a large scale. The principal content and the problems of this period found their expression in the third Programme of the CPSU adopted at the 22nd Congress. The main trends of development and the basic tasks indicated in this Programme are extremely important guidelines for our activity in the next decades.

p The 23rd Congress generalised the experience accumulated by the Party in recent years and charted concrete paths for the further development of our society. The road covered by our country in the course of half a century shows that the Party’s words are never at variance with its deeds. ( Applause.} The third Programme of the Party, the programme for the building of the foundations of communist society will likewise be fulfilled. (Applause.} The Soviet Union, the 66 birthplace of socialism, shall become the birthplace of communism on our planet. (Prolonged applause.)

p Comrades, the life-giving source of our Party’s invincible strength is its inviolable link with the people.

p Lenin had repeatedly underlined that the vanguard alone, the Party alone cannot build socialism. The vanguard, he said, "performs its task as a vanguard only when it is able to avoid being isolated from the mass it leads and is able really to lead the whole mass forward".  [66•1  Through the preceding fifty years our Party viewed the consolidation of its links with the people as one of its more important tasks.

p The great Lenin, describing the content of the Party’s work among the masses, said that the main thing is to mould in them the will, readiness and the ability to build communism. To all appearances it is a simple idea. But in order to translate it into practice truly gigantic work embracing all spheres of human activity, all sections of our society has to be carried out.

p To mould the will of the masses and make them prepared to build a new society it was necessary first and foremost to arm the people ideologically and to work out ways, forms and methods of building socialism. And today we cannot but pay tribute to the wisdom and courage of our Party which captained the search for means and ways to build up a new society and, unafraid of sharp turns, effected extremely deep-going social changes. (Applause.)

p The Soviet working class and all the working people of our country have firmly identified themselves with the Party. Proof of the boundless trust of the working people in the Party can be seen in the fact that the influx of the working people into the Party was the greatest during the most difficult and crucial stages in the history of the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of people joined the Party during the hard period of the Civil War when the enemy was approaching Tula and Moscow. In 1924, during the Lenin enrollment, 240,000 workers became Communists. More than 5,000,000 people joined the Party in the years of the Great Patriotic War.

p The ideas of building communist society advanced by the Party have gripped the hearts and minds of Soviet people becoming a matter of vital concern for all of them; they 67 inspire them to perform remarkable feats of labour. In the current year in which we are marking the great anniversary of the emergence of a new world, half a million people have joined the ranks of the Leninist Party (applause), more than 50 per cent of them being workers. (Applause.)

p The Party highly appreciates the trust people have in it and regards it as an earnest of success in the building of communism.

p Tens of thousands of Party organisations, beginning with the Central Committee down to the smallest Party cell, had to perform gigantic organisational work in order to endow the masses with ability to build socialism. And today, too, the task is to help each member of society better to determine his place in the process of communist construction. Moreover, it has to be a place where his talent and ability will give the best results.

p The revolutionary creativity of the people produced an extensive and smooth-working system through which the Party maintains its daily links with the masses and leads them. This system, made up of Soviets, trade unions, the Komsomol and the voluntary societies of working people, has stood the test of time over the past fifty years and showed its indubitable advantages.

p The purport of Party leadership is to ensure the inviolable ideological and political unity of the whole society, and the purposeful and co-ordinated development of all the components of the social organism. We do not have and cannot have any political organisation other than the CPSU which would take into account the interests and the specific features of our classes and social groups, of all nations and nationalities, and of all generations and would embody these interests in its policy. The Party takes care that even the smallest streams of everyday activity harmoniously merge into a single mighty torrent.

p A solution of all these complex political and organisational problems requires consistent improvement of the forms and methods of Party work. Today we have 13 million Communists. To embody in a single policy the thoughts and will of all Party members it is essential always to combine a correct political course with competent organisational work. Only observance of this condition will enable the Party to fulfil its role as a leading and guiding force in the country’s development.

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p Bearing this in mind we shall continue to consolidate our Party and improve the activity of all Party organisations from bottom up. We shall continue to perfect inner-Party democracy, consolidate the principles of collective leadership, promote the initiative of Party members, see to it that all Communists actively participate in discussing, working out and implementing the Party line, and strengthen Party discipline. We have a reliable foundation for this work, namely the Leninist principle of democratic centralism and the Leninist standards of Party life. For us the observance of these standards is an immutable law. (Prolonged applause.)

p The strength of the Party consists in that at every historical stage it is self-critical of its activity and uses this approach as a basis for rectifying whatever errors there are. The Party will continue to be more exacting to all Communists and promote criticism and self-criticism. We are sure that whatever difficulties or problems might stand in our way they will be successfully overcome. (Applause.)

p The Party is fully conscious of the fact that its role and its responsibility for the destiny of the people and the country increase as the scope of communist construction grows. This accounts for the heightening role of Party Congresses, and the plenary meetings of its Central Committee at which major foreign and home policy problems are discussed. The Party is consistently perfecting its work by combining the priceless wealth of the MarxistLeninist theory with the experience accumulated by our people.

p The name Communist imposes many duties. Communists have no privileges except the privilege to devote more efforts to the common cause and to fight and work for its triumph better than the others. Communists have no special rights except the right always to be in the forefront where difficulties are the greatest. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p Today, when the land of the October Revolution is at the threshold of the second half-century of its existence, we Communists with a full sense of responsibility declare that we shall continue to devote all our knowledge, strength and ability to the people and to the struggle for their interests and happiness. (Prolonged applause.)

p Our Party has a great and eventful history, and if we have successfully traversed a long and difficult road and 69 withstood all trials with honour it is above all due to the fact that we have always used our most reliable weapon, the Marxist-Leninist teaching, undeviatingly adhered to it and developed it further. And if our Party, the big tightly-knit family of Soviet Communists, is today successfully coping with all problems, and if the Communists with honour fulfil their vanguard role in all matters whether big or small, it is because our Party has been reared in the spirit of MarxismLeninism and imbued with the ideas of this great teaching. For us Leninism has become in the true sense of the word the science of how to win, and such it will remain for ever. (Applause.)

p We Communists often heard discourses that MarxismLeninism has become obsolescent and lost its purport. Bourgeois ideologists, reformists and revisionists, and petty- bourgeois muddlers keep on asking: how is it possible to be guided in practical activity today by a theory that was created many decades ago? And we tell such critics: it all depends on what kind of theory it is.

p Yes, history knows of tens and even hundreds of examples when theories, concepts and whole philosophic systems which had laid claim to renewing the world did not pass the test of time, fell to dust and perished ignominiously upon coming into contact with life. This is the common lot of all those who tried or are trying to replace Marxism-Leninism with all sorts of cunningly devised falsifications adapted to the interests of the bourgeoisie, or with half-baked unrealistic pseudo-revolutionary theories.

p Theories which are based on dogmas and cannot march in step with social development are doomed to become obsolescent. But the historical fate of the theory of scientific communism has been and will be different. MarxismLeninism is strong because it rests on the revolutionary materialistic dialectics which always requires a concrete analysis of a concrete situation. The living spirit of Marxism-Leninism lies in its close permanent contact with practice, with life itself and in its strictly scientific approach to reality. This is the secret of its eternal youth. (Applause.)

p We preserve as a great achievement of social thinking all the knowledge about society and the class struggle, about the laws of historical development, about the socialist revolution and ways of building socialism which Marx, Engels and Lenin had given us. We preserve them not as an archivist 70 keeps old documents, but in a way befitting the heirs of this great teaching, boldly employing this priceless capital of knowledge in practice and constantly developing and multiplying the great theoretical wealth that has been handed down to us. Without developing Marxism-Leninism there is no moving forward for us.

p Marxism-Leninism has become the ideological banner of the Soviet people. It is the greatest gain of our revolution and the key to the victory of communism. (Applause.) The Party wants every Soviet person to view Marxism-Leninism as a trustworthy compass and a reliable guide to action.

p The strength, influence and the prestige of our Party comprise one of the great gains of the dedicated struggle and colossal labour effort of generations of revolutionaries who had devoted themselves body and soul to the service of the people.

p The glory and pride of the Party are its Leninist old guard, the Bolsheviks who took part in underground activity and fought in the Revolution and the Civil War. Together with Lenin they waged the first battles against the enemies for the happiness and freedom of the people and laid the foundations of socialism. (Applause.) Their life is an exploit and a great example of dedicated service to the cause of the Party and the Revolution. (Applause.) On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution more than 128,000 persons who had fought in the Revolution and the Civil War have been decorated with Soviet orders and medals. (Applause.) We extend our heartiest greetings to the Party veterans still militant today. (Prolonged applause.)

p Working fruitfully in the Party is the generation of Communists who had built up the economic might of the Soviet state and in the stern years of the Great Patriotic War defended the gains of the October Revolution arms in hand. The younger generation of Communists is marching shoulder to shoulder with their elder comrades. They are devoted to the ideas of communism and are confidently following the road charted by the fathers. Profound belief in the triumph of our cause, boundless devotion to the interests of the working class and of the people, and staunchness in struggle, all these magnificent traits are handed down by one generation of Communists to another.

p There is no loftier duty for all Communists and for all Soviet people other than to safeguard the prestige of the 71 Party, to consolidate its bonds with the people and to multiply its strength. (Applause.)

Glory to the Party of Lenin, the militant vanguard of the Soviet working people! (Stormy applause.) May the inviolable unity of the Party and people, the key earnest of all our victories, go from strength to strength! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p Comrades, commemorating the anniversary of the October Revolution, all Soviet people take legitimate pride in their gains. A vast socialist emulation movement in honour of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution has unfolded in the country. News of the pre-schedule commissioning of new factories and mills and of the wonderful achievements of industrial and agricultural workers and men of science and culture are flowing in from all areas.

p All that is said in these reports cannot but gladden us. In the ten months of the current year industrial output increased 10.4 per cent. Today we note with particular gratification that the plan for this period has been overfulfilled by all industrial ministries and by all the Union Republics. (Prolonged applause.)

p Our farmers have also registered important achievements in the anniversary year. They are marking the great holiday in a befitting manner. Despite this year’s adverse weather conditions, the collective farmers and state-farm workers reared a good harvest and overfulfilled the grain procurement plan. The state has received about 3,500 million poods of grain. (Applause.) Plans for the purchases of animal products, potatoes, sunflower seeds, beet and tea leaves have also been overfulfilled. Purchases of cotton, vegetables, fruits and other agricultural products are proceeding apace. (Applause.)

p As you know, the personnel of hundreds of enterprises, organisations and collective and state farms recognised as winners of the socialist emulation movement in honour of the 50th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution have been awarded memento banners of the^CC CPSU, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Council of Trade Unions. Permit me to extend hearty congratulations to the 72 glorious winners of the jubilee competition and sincere thanks to all the working people for their dedicated labour and for the fresh successes in economy, science and culture which they achieved this jubilee year. (Prolonged applause.}

p The 50th anniversary of the October Revolution is not only a holiday for the Soviet people. It is also a holiday for the peoples of the fraternal socialist countries, for the Communists of all countries, for the international workingclass movement and for all the working people. On behalf of our Party and the whole people we extend cordial gratitude to our friends in other countries for their participation in the great holiday of the Soviet Land. (Applause} Your friendship and solidarity, your victories, dear friends and brothers, will continue to be a source of inspiration for the Soviet people in their effort to build communism. (Applause} We highly appreciate the contribution of the fraternal Parties to the common cause of struggle for human progress. (Applause}

p On these anniversary days we cannot omit mentioning our enemies. Of course, they too tried, after their own fashion, to contribute their so-called bit to the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. The enemies of communism toiled virtually in the sweat of their brow. The huge imperialist propaganda machine worked in high gear. Moth-eaten remnants of old Russia went into action and a hullabaloo was raised by apostates and renegades, the paid agents of imperialism and its accomplices in different countries. But we live at a time when no one can detract from the greatness of the Land of Soviets, or pervert the true purport of our deeds and the gains of socialism. (Applause} The efforts of our foes, their slander and lies will boomerang against them. And the country of the October Revolution, the land of the victorious socialism, has been, is and will continue to be the hope and the mainstay of all the oppressed people, the mainstay for those who are fighting for peace, freedom and happiness of the people. (Prolonged applause}

p Comrades, the banner of socialism raised by the October Revolution waves in the world today as a symbol of the future of the whole of humanity.

p The Communist Party and the whole Soviet people are firmly convinced that the gains scored by the Soviet state in the first 50 years of its existence and the achievements 73 which all the contingents of the world revolutionary movement have won in this period are a prologue to a still more magnificent future of both our country and the peoples of other countries. Communism is mankind’s tomorrow! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Before the working people of the world the Leninist Party solemnly declares: the Communists of the Soviet Union, the great Soviet people will fulfil their historic mission and will build the world’s first communist society! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Long live the Great October Socialist Revolution which has ushered in a new era in the history of mankind! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Long live the heroic Soviet people—the builder of communism! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Long live the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the stronghold of friendship and happiness of the peoples of our country and a reliable bulwark of peace and progress! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Long live the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Party of the great Lenin—the inspirer and organiser of all our victories! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p Long live Marxism-Leninism, the all-conquering revolutionary teaching of our epoch! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

p May the unity of the socialist countries, the Communist Parties, the international working class, of all revolutionary and progressive forces strengthen in the fight against imperialism, for peace, democracy, socialism, national independence, and the security and freedom of the peoples! (Stormy, prolonged applause}

Forward to the victory of communism! (All rise. Stormy, prolonged applause. Ovation. Cries of "Hurrah!"}