1. SPEECH IN MEMORY OF Y. M. SVERDLOV AT A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE ALL-RUSSIA CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON MARCH 18, 1919.1
Comrades, today when the workers of all countries are honouring the memory of the heroic rise and tragic fall of the Paris Commune we have to inter the remains of Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov.
In the course of our revolution and of its victories Comrade Sverdlov expressed the chief and most important features of the proletarian revolution more fully and integrally than anybody else, and this, even more than his boundless devotion to the cause of the revolution, made him a significant leader of the proletarian revolution.
Comrades, those who judge by what they see on the surface, like our numerous enemies do, and those who to this day vacillate between the revolution and its foes, esteem that the most striking feature of our revolution is its resolute, relentless, firm treatment of exploiters and enemies of the working people. There is no doubt that the proletariat could not have triumphed without this attribute of revolutionary violence. Nor can there be any doubt that it was a necessary and legitimate feature at certain stages of the revolution but only under specific and special conditions. However a sturdier fixture by far and a fundamental feature for the success of our revolution was and still is the ability to organize the proletariat and the toilers. And this organizing of millions of working people was the best stimulus for the revolution, its prime source of victory, precisely what previous revolutions had lacked and what also brought Yakov Sverdlov to the fore, a man who was first and foremost an organizer.
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Comrades, all those who, like myself, had occasion to work with Comrade Sverdlov day after day had it vividly brought home to them that the exceptional organizing talent of this man gave us what we have been so justly proud of until now. He enabled us to concert productive meetings and activities for the proletariat in tandem with the needs of the proletarian revolution—invaluable activities without which we could not have obtained a single victory or overcome the innumerable difficulties we had to face, or have stood up to the severe trials we were exposed to then and are exposed to presently.
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The fact that for over a year we bore the incredible burdens that fell to the lot of a narrow circle of devoted revolutionaries, the fact that the leading groups could solve the most difficult problems so firmly, quickly and unanimously, is entirely due to the prominent role played by such an exceptionally talented organizer as Yakov Sverdlov. He alone possessed an amazing acquaintance with the leading figures of the proletarian movement, he alone displayed throughout the long years of struggle—to which I can refer here only very briefly—the wonderful intuition of a practical worker, the wonderful talent of an organizer.
His prestige was absolutely unquestioned. He took sole responsibility for some of the largest work departments in the All-Russia Central Executive Committee. He won for himself such a reputation for profound practical knowledge and organizational intuition that on a large number of extremely big and important organizational issues, his mere word sufficed to secure an unchallenged final settlement without a need for conferences or formal vote; and everyone from the hundreds and thousands of advanced workers to the masses felt certain that the issue had been settled; they took Sverlord's word as final.
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2. YAKOV SVERDLOV. 1940 SOVIET FILM CLIP.
3. DRAFT PROGRAMME OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS)1
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As regards religion, the policy of the Russian Communist Party is not to be confined to decreeing the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church, that is, to measures promised by bourgeois democrats but never fully carried out anywhere in the world because of the many and varied connections actually existing between capital and religious propaganda.
The Party's object is to destroy the connection between the exploiting classes and organized religious propaganda completely and to really liberate the working people from religious prejudices. For this purpose it must organize the most widespread scientific education and anti-religious propaganda.2 It is necessary, however, to take care to avoid hurting the religious sentiment of believers, for this only serves to increase religious fanaticism.
In the military session the Congress resolved to strengthen the regular Red Army, to inculcate iron discipline [italics mine] and to stress the role of Party commissars and cells in the training of the Red Army. The Congress acknowledged the need to employ old army specialists and the latest innovations of bourgeois armies. The Congress vehemently rejected the "Army Opposition" group which deplored the creation of a regular Red Army instead of a people's militia.3
The Congress also defeated the opportunist group headed by Sapronov and Osinsky which rejected the Party's dominant role in the Soviets.
2 Bolshevik alliances/rapports with non-Bolsheviks are transient, expedient affairs (Chapter 4, Item 6).
3 the "Army Opposition"...deplored the creation of a regular Red Army instead of a people's militia. Their stand was in line with Lenin's own tenet as expressed in Vperyod, 4 (Chapter 6, Item 6).
4. REPORT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE AT THE EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY.
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(Stormy prolonged applause. Cries of "Long live Ilyich!" "Long live Comrade Lenin!")
Comrades, permit me to begin with the political report of the Central Committee. To present a report on the Central Committee's political activities since the last Congress is tantamount to presenting a report on the whole of our revolution; and I think everybody will agree that not only is it impossible for one person to do this in so short a time but that the task is in general beyond the powers of one person.
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In particular take the administration of the War Department. We could not have solved that problem [of administration] had we not trusted the General Staff and the top specialists in organization. There were some differences of opinion among us on particular questions, but fundamentally there was no room for doubt. We availed ourselves of the assistance given by bourgeois experts thoroughly imbued with the bourgeois mentality who were disloyal to us and will remain so for many years to come.
The notion that we can build communism without the assistance of bourgeois experts is childish. We have been steeled in the struggle, we are strong and we are united and we must continue our organizational work using the knowledge and experience of those experts. This is an indispensable condition for building socialism. Socialism can not be built unless we exploit our capitalist heritage. The only material we have to build communism with is the material left to us by capitalism.
We must now build in pragmatic fashion, we have to build a communist society with the aid of our enemies. This looks like a contradiction, an irreconcilable one perhaps. Withal it is the only solution to the problem of building communism. And reviewing our experience, glancing at how this problem confronts us daily, surveying the practical work of the Central Committee, it seems to me that our Party has in the main found a solution to this problem.
We have encountered immense difficulties, but this was the only way the problem could be solved. The bourgeois experts must be hemmed in by our constructive joint activities, so they will be compelled to fall in line with the proletariat though they resist and fight back at every step. We must put them to work as a technical and cultural driving force. In this way we preserve them and we transform our uncultured barbarian capitalist country into a cultured communist country.
And it seems to me that over this last year we learned how to build, we took the right road and presently we shall not be turned from it.1
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5. ALL OUT FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST DENIKIN!
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The Soviet Republic is a fortress besieged by world capital. We can concede the right of sanctuary from Kolchak and the right of residence generally only to those who take an active part in the war and help us in every way.
Hence our right and our duty to mobilize the whole population for the war to a man, some for Army work in the strict sense, others for every type of auxiliary job.
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It will suffice here to raise the question and draw the comrades' attention without giving specific instructions or making proposals.
Let us only observe that petty-bourgeois democrats who stand nearest to the Soviets and call themselves socialists out of habit (some "Left" Mensheviks and the like, for example) are particularly wont to wax indignant at the "barbaric" practice (in their opinion) of taking hostages.
Let them wax indignant, but unless this is done the war can not be waged, and when the danger becomes acute the use of this strategy must be extended and multiplied in every sense.
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6. LETTER TO THE WORKERS AND PEASANTS APROPOS OF THE VICTORY OVER KOLCHAK.
Comrades, Red troops have liberated the entire Urals area from Kolchak and have begun the liberation of Siberia. The workers and peasants of the Urals and Siberia are enthusiastically welcoming the Soviet power, for it is sweeping away with an iron broom all the landowner and capitalist scum who ground the people down with exactions, humiliations, floggings and the restoration of tsarist oppression.
Although we all rejoice at the liberation of the Urals and the entry of Red troops in Siberia we must not let ourselves be lulled into a false sense of security. The enemy is still far from being destroyed. He has not even been decisively shattered.
Every effort must be made to drive Kolchak and the Japanese and other foreign bandits out of Siberia, and an even greater effort is needed to destroy the enemy, to prevent him from restarting his banditry over and over again.
How is that to be achieved?
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Here are the five chief lessons which all workers and peasants, all the working people, must draw from this experience to ensure themselves against a repetition of the calamities of the Kolchak rule.
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Fourth lesson. It is criminal to forget not only that the Kolchak movement began with trifles but also that the Mensheviks ("Social-Democrats") and S.R.s ("Socialist-Revolutionaries") assisted its birth and directly supported it. It is high time we learned to judge political parties not by their words but by their deeds.1
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Fifth lesson. If Kolchak and his rule are to be destroyed and not be allowed to recur, all the peasants must unhesitatingly make their choice in favour of a workers' state. Some people (especially all the Mensheviks and all the Socialist-Revolutionaries, even their "Lefts") are trying to scare the peasants with the bogey of the "dictatorship of one party," the Bolshevik Party, Communists.
The peasants have learned from their experience of the Kolchak regime to not be afraid of this bogey.
Either the dictatorship (i.e., the iron rule) of landowners and capitalists or the dictatorship of the working class.
There is no middle course. The scions of the aristocracy, intellectualists and petty gentry, badly educated on bad books,2 dream of a middle course. There is no middle course anywhere in the world nor can there be. Either the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (masked by ornate Socialist-Revolutionary or Menshevik phrases about a people's government, a Constituent Assembly, civil liberties, and the like) or the dictatorship of the proletariat.
He who has not learned this from the whole history of the nineteenth century is a hopeless idiot.
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7. THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR.
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Across valleys and over the hills (1915-1922) |
How Glorious is our Lord in Zion (1794) |
Berlin: The Russian press confirms the invasion of Crimea by Soviet troops. The port is still controlled by Entente troops that fight on without the least hope of victory.
Berlin: Reports say that the Red Army has captured Odessa. French and Greek naval forces took part in the fighting. After violent combats four Greek regiments were annihilated.
Russian chaos. News from Petrograd state that aggressions continue in terrifying fashion. The soviets have decreed death by firing squad for all terrorists and many persons were executed. Many factories were ablaze in the heavy fighting. There were many dead and wounded. Russian detachments occupied the city of Proskurov defended by two hundred and fifty Bolsheviks; the Bolsheviks had fifty casualties and thirty-five were made prisoner; the Bolsheviks destroyed many bridges in their retreat.
Paris: The National Assembly of the General Confederation of Labour sent a message to the French fleet in the Black Sea after learning that its sailors had refused to engage the Russian revolutionaries, forcing France to recall the warships. The message congratulates the crews for their courage and determination, it expresses solidarity and it vows to defend the sailors against whatever penalties or punishments the French Government may decide to impose.
Warsaw: As Polish troops head to eastern Galicia the Polish Diet declares that the region's affinity secures its continuation as an integral part of the state. Galicia will enjoy wide autonomy guaranteed by the Ruthenians while the Polish State pledges to improve their economy. The Diet adds that the one million Poles who dwell in Ukraine will enjoy the same autonomy promised to the Ruthenians and to Galicia. The Diet made a similar declaration regarding Lithuania and White Russia.
The latest news from Russia inform that the offensive of General Kolchak is successful all along the front, capturing many towns, making a large number of prisoners and obtaining great quantities of matériel. Fighting continues, the enemy is suffering many casualties.
This morning Estonian and Finnish troops entered Petrograd; the people gave the liberation troops a "delirious" welcome.
Stockholm: The Government of the Soviets is agitating for revolution in the East in order to create a republic of the "United States of the Orient" comprising Turkey, Persia and India.
Copenhaguen: The Estonian diplomatic mission brands the news about the fall of Petrograd "inexact" and thinks it's unlikely to happen for some time because the Bolsheviks command important forces on the approaches to the capital.
London: Statements made in the British Parliament to the effect that British troops deployed in Russia are stationed far from the frontlines and do not intervene in the fighting show that French troops alone are helping generals Kolchak and Denikin.
The White Army captured an important fort on the south shore of the Finland Gulf. It is advancing on Kronstadt and will be able to enter Petrograd within a few weeks if it's supplied with weapons, ammunition and victuals. British minesweepers are clearing the Finland Gulf of naval mines.
More news from Russia. Fires and explosions continue in Libau. The Red Guard evacuates several towns.
The fall of Odessa. The troops of General ??? have taken Odessa. The Bolshevik hordes flee pell-mell, completely demoralized.
The fall of Bielgorod. Reports from Ekaterinodar state that the White Army took the city of Bielgorod on June 26th.
The latest reports concur that a discredited and fugitive Lenin has firmly decided to resign. These contrast with others of reliable origin which vouch for the definitive disappearance of the famous agitator.
The Bolsheviks have arrested Maxim Gorky the famous Russian revolutionary and his wife.
Libau: The Bolsheviks have launched an offensive.
London: News from Russia say that the incidence of cholera rises in the Don Region; the mortality rate is 30%.
Reval (Germany): Great Britain promises to supply victuals, weapons, ammunition and tanks to General Yudenich for another march on Petrograd.
General Denikin has taken Odessa after two days of bombardment.
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