p 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

p Dear comrades,

p Esteemed foreign guests,

p It is one hundred years since the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, that man of genius, brilliant thinker and revolutionary, the founder of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the creator of the world’s first socialist state, the leader of the working people of Russia and the international working class. (Applause.} Lenin’s life, the whole of his life, his struggle, and his activity were dedicated to a single cause—the cause of liberating labour from the oppression of capital. The name of Lenin, who inspired and organised the Great October Socialist Revolution, is linked with a radical turn in mankind’s history, the turn from capitalism to socialism.

p The scope of Lenin’s thoughts and deeds was so vast, his understanding and expression of the pressing needs of his epoch were so profound that even today Lenin’s ideas are a powerful weapon in the hands of the fighters for the happiness of peoples. There is no place on earth where Lenin’s name does not ring as a fiery call to struggle against oppression, deprivation and exploitation, as a symbol of fighting unity, as an earnest of victory in the historic battle for the triumph of communist ideals. (Applause.)

p The centenary of Lenin’s birth is being marked with affection and respect by the peoples of the Soviet Union, the fraternal countries of socialism, the communist and working-class movement and all progressive mankind.

p On this great day the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Presidium of the Supreme 253 Soviet and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics address heartfelt greetings on the occasion of the great Lenin jubilee to 

p all our compatriots, Soviet people, 

p all our brothers in the socialist countries, our friends and men who are of one mind with us in all countries of the world, 

p those who are building the new, free society, and those who are fighting for liberation from social and national oppression, 

p all those who cherish the cause of peace and progress. (Applause.)

p Today, we address the warmest words of gratitude to the veterans of our Party, to those who are justly called the Lenin guard. Your experience, dear comrades, your energy and your whole life dedicated to the revolution, serve and will continue to serve as an example for the coming generations of builders of communism. (Applause.)

We greet in this hall our comrades-in-arms who have come from the socialist countries and the young progressive states, representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties, Left Socialist Parties, and national-democratic parties and movements from every continent. Your presence here, friends, is in itself an indication of how the world has changed, and how it is being renovated under the influence of the revolutionary forces armed with Marxism-Leninism. We wish you fresh great successes in your fine endeavour, in the struggle to translate into life the invincible teaching of Marx-Engels-Lenin! (Prolonged applause.)