p Comrades, the period of history that started after the October Revolution was characterised by Lenin as the transition from capitalism to socialism. Lenin was unshakably convinced that the worldwide triumph of socialism was 286 inevitable, that it would come "sooner or later, twenty years earlier or twenty years later”, but would definitely come, and that other countries would follow Russia in her advance along the road of building the new society.

p The world revolution, Lenin wrote two years after the October Revolution, "judging by its beginning, will continue for many years and will demand much effort".  [286•1  The development of this revolution, he stressed, would not follow the line of an even “maturing” of socialism in the main capitalist countries; its development would, on the whole, be more complicated in view of the contradictory relations within the capitalist world and of the exploitation of some capitalist countries by others, linked with the exploitation of the colonial world. Lenin came to the conclusion that the socialist revolution "will not be solely, or chiefly, a struggle of the revolutionary proletarians in each country against their bourgeoisie—no, it will be a struggle of all the imperialistoppressed colonies and countries, of all dependent countries, against international imperialism".  [286•2 

p It is enough to glance at the world we live in today to become convinced how accurate were Lenin’s socio-political analysis and his forecasts based on this analysis, and how fully life has borne out their correctness in all essential features.

However contradictory the picture of the world is today, its main features, its cardinal, decisive trend of development are such as foreseen by Lenin. However much the components of the contemporary world differ from each other, each of them leads to and will ultimately arrive at communism! (Applause.)