p ...The speeches of the candidates to the Supreme Soviet that have been published in our press all ring with a feeling of pride, because it is a proud thing to have the people place their trust in you. Comrades, the same feeling fills my being too. But in me this feeling of justifiable pride is mixed with personal joy because it is one of the Don election districts which has nominated me. I was born in the Don country, I grew up here, went to school and matured here as a man and a writer, and also as a member of our great Communist Party. And while being a devoted son of our great and mighty Motherland, I proudly state that I am also a patriot of my native Don region.

p Comrades, yours is an old town and it has heard many a patriotic speech. In the years of the Civil War too. Ataman Krasnov and other political schemers also spoke here of their love for their Motherland and in the same breath invited the Germans to occupy our Don lands, and subsequently the socalled allies—the English and the French. They spoke of their patriotism and at the same time traded in the blood of the Cossacks, bartering it for weapons with which to fight against Soviet power and the Russian people.

p History tests people by their deeds, and not their words. History tests the measure of a man’s love for his country, and also what this love is worth. Krasnov and other scoundrels profaned and besmirched the concept of genuine patriotism. They traitorously misled the working Cossacks and got them involved in the Civil War.

p Today, the entire multimillion population of the Soviet Union speaks of its love for the country, and everyone is ready to defend its boundaries with his very life. It is a man’s sacred duty to love the country that has reared him with the tenderness of a fond mother. And our Motherland has the filial devotion of 170 million working people.

p The Cossacks who had produced such great rebels against the autocracy as Razin and Pugachev were deceived by the generals in the years of the Revolution and dragged into the fratricidal war against the toiling Russian masses. The Cossacks understood their mistake, withdrew from the White counter-revolutionary movement, and are now building up their new and happier life under the guidance of the Bolshevik Party.

p The efforts of the Bolshevik Party and the efforts of our multinational working people have transformed our povertystricken land into a wealthy state. We have built up heavy industry and socialist agriculture. With every day we are increasing our economic potential.

p Look how the life of the Don Cossacks has changed in the Soviet years. In practically every family—not just in the stanitsas  [34•*  but at the lone farmsteads too—there are children who are getting a school education. Cossack collective farmers no longer want to bring up their sons as illiterate peasants capable only of working out in the fields. They want their sons to become engineers, Red Army officers, agronomists, doctors or teachers. A new Soviet Cossack intelligentsia is in the making. The Don country is taking on a new look.

p We are boldly and confidently striding on towards our radiant future!

p Long live the Communist Party!

p Long live our great Soviet people and the working Don Cossacks!

1937