Date: 1918
Source: ru:PSS/v36

# 1. Report of the Council of People's Commissars on July 5
Source: CW vol 36

Comrades, allow me, despite the fact that the speech of the previous speaker was at times extremely agitated{180}, to present to you my report on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars in a general manner, touching upon the main principled issues as they deserve, and not engaging in the polemics which the previous speaker so desired and from which I, of course, do not intend to completely abstain. Comrades, you know that since the last congress, the main factor that determined our position, changed our policy, and defined our tactics and relations with some other parties in Russia, was the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. You remember that at the previous congress, so many accusations and charges were thrown at us, and so many voices were raised about how the so-called respite for Russia would not help, that the alliance of international imperialism is still concluded, and that the retreat we are leading will lead to nothing. This basic factor determined the situation of both the capitalist states, and naturally, it is necessary to dwell on this factor. I think, comrades, that after the past three and a half months, it has become absolutely indisputable that, despite the accusations and charges, we were right. We can say that the proletariat and peasants, who do not exploit others and do not profit from the people's hunger, all stand unconditionally for us and, in any case, against those who foolishly drag them into war and wish to tear up the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. (Noise.)

Nine-tenths stand for us, and, as the situation becomes clearer, it is more and more indisputable that now, when the Western European imperialist parties, the two main imperialist groups, are in a deadly struggle with each other, when they push each other closer and closer to the abyss, the outlines of which we clearly see, at such a moment, our tactics are especially clear, – this is especially well known and felt by those who have experienced the war, who have seen the war, who speak about the war not in light phrases. For us, it is especially clear that, while each of the groups is stronger than us and while the fundamental turning point, which will allow the workers and the toiling people of Russia to benefit from the results of the revolution, to recover from the blow dealt, and to rise to their full height, to create a new organized, disciplined army, to build it on new foundations, so that we could not in words but in deeds… (loud applause from the left, a voice from the right: "Kerensky!"), until this turning point comes, we must wait. Therefore, the deeper one goes into the masses, the closer one approaches the factory and plant workers and the toiling peasantry, who do not exploit hired labor, who do not defend the speculative interests of the kulaks, who hide their bread and fear the food dictatorship, the more surely one can say that there we meet and meet with, and now, with full conviction, one can say, we have met with complete sympathy and unity. Yes, now the people do not want, cannot, and will not fight against these enemies – the imperialists, no matter how, out of ignorance, in the heat of phrases, they are pushed into this war, whatever words they may use. Yes, comrades, whoever now, directly or indirectly, openly or covertly, speaks of war, whoever shouts against the Brest noose, does not see that the gentlemen Kerensky and the landowners, capitalists, and kulaks are putting the noose around the necks of the workers and peasants in Russia… (A voice: "Mirbach!." Noise.) No matter how much they shout at any meeting, their cause is hopeless among the people! (Applause. Noise.)

I am not at all surprised that in the situation in which these people find themselves, all that remains is to respond with screams, hysteria, abuse, and wild outbursts (applause), when there are no other arguments… (A voice: "There are arguments!." Noise.)

Ninety-nine hundredths of Russian soldiers know what incredible suffering the war cost. They know that to build a war on a new socialist and economic basis (outcries: "Mirbach will not allow!"), incredible efforts are needed, it was necessary to overcome the robber war. Knowing that the frenzied forces of imperialism continue to struggle, having moved several steps closer to the abyss over the three months that have passed since the previous congress, they will not enter this war. After we fulfilled our duty to all peoples, understanding the significance of the peace declaration and bringing this significance through our Brest delegation, headed by Comrade Trotsky, to the attention of the workers of all countries, when we openly proposed an honest democratic peace, this proposal was torn apart by the raging bourgeoisie of all countries. Our position can only be to wait, and the people will wait until these frenzied groups of imperialists, still strong now, fall into the abyss to which they are now approaching, – everyone sees this… (Applause.) Everyone sees this who does not deliberately close their eyes. This abyss, over the three and a half months, when the maddened imperialist party stands for prolonging the war, has undoubtedly come closer. We know, feel, and sense that we are not yet ready for war, this is said by soldiers, warriors, who have experienced the war in practice, and those cries that call for throwing off the Brest noose now come from the Mensheviks, the right SRs, and the supporters of Kerensky, the Cadets. You know where the supporters of the landowners, capitalists, where the hangers-on of the right SRs, the Cadets, remain. In that camp, the speeches of the left SRs, who also lean towards war, will be covered with loud applause. The left SRs, as the previous speakers pointed out, have found themselves in an unpleasant position: they entered one room and ended up in another. (Applause.)

We know that a great revolution rises from the depths of the people, that this takes months and years, and we are not surprised that the left SR party has experienced incredible fluctuations during the revolution. Here, Trotsky spoke about these fluctuations, and I have only to add that on October 26, when we invited the left SR comrades to join the government, they refused, and when Krasnov stood at the gates of Petrograd, they were not with us, and therefore, it turned out that they helped not us, but Krasnov. We are not surprised by these fluctuations, yes, this party has experienced a lot. But, comrades, there is a limit to everything.

We know that a revolution is something that is studied through experience and practice, that only then does a revolution become a revolution when tens of millions of people rise in a unanimous surge. (Applause, drowning out Lenin's speech, cries: "Long live the Soviets!.") This struggle, which raises us to a new life, was begun by 115 million people: we must look at this great struggle with the deepest seriousness. (Stormy applause.) In October, when the Soviet power was established, on October 26, 1917, when… (noise, cries, applause) our party and its representatives in the Central Executive Committee proposed that the left SR party join the government, – it refused. At the moment when the left SRs refused to join our government, they were not with us, but against us. (Noise from the benches of the left SRs.) It is very unpleasant for me to have to say something that you did not like. (The noise from the right increases.) But what can be done? If the Cossack General Krasnov… (Noise, cries prevent the continuation of the speech.) When on October 26 you wavered, not knowing what you wanted, and refused to go with us… (Noise, continuing for several minutes.) The truth hurts! I will remind you that those who wavered, who do not know what they want, refuse to go with us, listen to others who tell fairy tales. I told you as a soldier who was at war… (Noise, applause.) When the previous speaker was speaking, the vast majority of the congress did not interrupt him. Indeed, it is understandable. If there are such people who prefer to leave the Soviet congress, then let them go! (Noise and commotion on the right benches. The chairman calls for the noise to stop.)

It did not bother them. And this is understandable. If there are people who prefer to leave the Soviet congress, then let them go! (Noise and commotion on the right benches. The chairman calls for silence.)

Comrades, the correctness of our decision to conclude the Brest peace has been proven by the course of events. Those who at the previous Congress of Soviets tried to make poor jokes about the respite have learned and seen that, although with incredible difficulty, we have gained a respite, and during this respite our workers and peasants have made tremendous progress in socialist construction, while, on the contrary, the Western powers have taken a huge step towards the abyss into which imperialism is falling all the faster as each week of this war passes.

Therefore, I can only explain the behavior of those people who, referring to the severity of our situation, attack our tactics, by complete confusion. I repeat that it is enough to refer to the last period of three and a half months. I remind those who were at that congress of the words that were said there, and I suggest that those who were not there read the minutes or newspaper articles about the previous congress to be convinced how fully events have justified our tactics. From the victories of the October Revolution to the victories of the international socialist revolution, there cannot be a boundary; explosions in other countries must begin. To accelerate them, we did everything possible during the Brest period. Anyone who has lived through the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, who has thought about them, and who has approached them thoughtfully and seriously, knows that in our country these revolutions were born with incredible difficulty.

Two months before January 1905 and February 1917, no revolutionary, no matter how experienced and knowledgeable, no one who knew the life of the people, could predict that such an event would explode Russia. To catch isolated outcries and throw appeals to the masses, which amount to ending the peace and throwing us into war, is the policy of people who are completely confused and have lost their heads. And to provide evidence of this confusion, I will give you an example from the words of a person whose sincerity neither I nor anyone else doubts—comrade Spiridonova, from a speech printed in the newspaper "Voice of the Working Peasantry"{181} and for which there was no retraction. In this speech on June 30, comrade Spiridonova included three meaningless lines, as if the Germans had presented us with an ultimatum—to send them two billion in manufactured goods.

A party that brings its most sincere representatives to such a terrible swamp of deception and lies is a party that is finally doomed. Workers and peasants cannot help but know what incredible efforts, what experiences, the signing of the Brest Treaty cost us. Do we still need fairy tales and fabrications to color the severity of this peace, to which even the most sincere people of this party resort? But we know where the people's truth lies, and by it we are guided, while they flail about in hysterical outcries. From this point of view, such behavior of complete confusion is worse than any provocation. Especially if we compare the sum of all parties in Russia, which a scientific approach to the revolution requires. We must never forget to look at the whole picture of the relations of all parties together. Individual persons, individual groups may err, may not be able to find or explain their own behavior, but if we take the sum of all parties in Russia and look at their relationship—there can be no mistake. Look at what the right SRs, Kerensky, Savinkov, and others are saying now, listening to the calls of the left SRs... They are clapping like mad. They are glad to drag Russia into war now, when it suits Milyukov. And to speak now about the Brest noose means to put the noose of the landowners around the neck of the Russian peasant. When we are told here about fighting against the Bolsheviks, as the previous speaker spoke about quarreling with the Bolsheviks, I answer: no, comrades, this is not a quarrel, it is a real, irreversible break, a break between those who bear the burden of the situation, telling the people the truth, but not allowing themselves to be intoxicated by outcries, and those who intoxicate themselves with these outcries and unwittingly do the work of provocateurs. (Applause.)

I am concluding the first part of my report. In three and a half months of imperialist madness, the imperialist states have come closer to the abyss into which they are pushing the people. For us, this bleeding beast has torn off many pieces of living flesh. Our enemies are approaching this abyss so quickly that, even if they were given more than three and a half months and the imperialist slaughter inflicted the same losses on us again, they would perish, not us, because the speed with which their resistance is falling is rapidly leading them to the abyss. And for us, in these three and a half months, despite the enormous burden, which we openly discuss with the entire people, despite all this, there are healthy shoots of a healthy organism—in industry and everywhere, constructive work, perhaps small, unimpressive, and quiet, is moving forward. It has yielded its most fruitful results, and with another three months, another six months, another winter campaign of such work, we will move forward, while the West European imperialist beast, tiring from the struggle, will not withstand such competition, because within it, forces are maturing, which, though they do not yet believe in themselves, will lead imperialism to destruction. And what has already begun there, fundamentally begun, will not be changed in three and a half months. This constructive, small, creative work is talked about too little, and I think we need to focus more on it. On my part, I cannot hide this, if only because it is necessary to take into account the attacks of the previous speaker. I refer to the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of April 29, 1918[50]. I made a report then, where I had to speak about the immediate tasks of the Soviet power[51], and emphasized that, along with the incredible difficulty of our situation, creative work inside the country should be placed at the forefront.

Here, without deluding ourselves, we must say that we must devote all our strength to this work, despite its difficulty. The experience I can share with you shows that in this respect, we have undoubtedly moved far ahead. True, if we limit ourselves to external results, as the bourgeoisie does, picking out individual examples of our mistakes, it is hardly possible to speak of success, but we look at this quite differently. The bourgeoisie takes some river fleet administration and points out how many times we have undertaken to reorganize it, gloats, and says that the Soviet power cannot cope with the task. To this, I reply: yes, we have reorganized our river fleet administration many times, as well as the railway administration, and now we are undertaking a major reorganization of the Council of National Economy. This is the significance of the revolution, that socialism has moved from the realm of dogma, about which only completely ignorant people can speak, from the realm of books and programs, to the realm of practical work. Now, with their own hands, workers and peasants are making socialism.

We, about which only those who understand nothing can speak, have moved from the realm of books and programs to the realm of practical work. Now, with their own hands, workers and peasants are building socialism.

For Russia, I am confident, those times when debates about socialist programs were conducted through books are irreversibly past. Today, one can speak about socialism only based on experience. The significance of the revolution is that for the first time it has cast off the old apparatus of bourgeois bureaucracy, the bourgeois system of administration, and created conditions where workers and peasants take matters into their own hands, an incredibly difficult task, the difficulties of which would be ridiculous to hide from oneself, since capitalists and landowners for centuries persecuted tens of millions of people merely for the thought of managing the land. And now, in a matter of weeks, in a matter of months, amid desperate, frenzied destruction, when war has maimed the entire body of Russia so that the people resemble a man beaten half to death—during such a time, when the tsars, landowners, and capitalists have left us with the greatest destruction, new classes, workers and those peasants who do not exploit hired labor and do not profit from speculative grain, must take up the new cause, the new construction. Yes, this is an incredibly difficult and incredibly rewarding task. Every month of such work and such experience is worth ten, if not twenty, years of our history. Yes, we are not at all afraid to admit to you what the acquaintance with our decrees indicates, that we have to constantly revise them; we have not yet created anything ready, we do not yet know such socialism that could be put into paragraphs. If now this congress can be presented with a Soviet constitution, it is only because Soviets have been created and tested in every corner of the country, because you have created it, you have tested it in every corner of the country; only half a year after the October Revolution, almost a year after the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets, we could write down what already exists in practice{182}.

In the economic sphere, where socialism is still being built, where a new discipline must be constructed, we do not have such experience; we are acquiring it through revisions and reconstructions. This is our main task; we say: every new social order requires new relations between people, a new discipline. There was a time when feudal discipline was necessary for managing the economy, when there was only one discipline—the stick; there was a time of capitalist domination when the force of discipline was hunger. But now, since the Soviet revolution, since the beginning of the socialist revolution, discipline must be created on entirely new principles, a discipline of trust in the organization of workers and poor peasants, a comradely discipline, a discipline of all respect, a discipline of independence and initiative in the struggle. Anyone who resorts to old capitalist methods, who during times of need and famine thinks in the old, capitalist way: if I sell my grain individually, I will make more profit, if I go to procure grain individually, it will be easier to get. Whoever reasons like this chooses the easier path, but they will not reach socialism.

It is simple and easy to remain in the old rut of habitual capitalist relations, but we want to go a new way. It demands great consciousness, great organization from us, from the entire people, it demands more time, it leads to greater mistakes. But we tell ourselves: he who does nothing practical makes no mistakes.

If the period about which I am giving you a report, from the point of view of the assembly, includes experiments in which corrections, amendments, and returns to the old are often encountered, then this is not the main task, the main content, the main value of the period we are experiencing. The old apparatus of bureaucratic management, for which it was enough to order a salary increase, has passed. We have to deal with workers' organizations that are taking the management of the economy into their own hands. We encounter the railway proletariat, which was worse off than others, and it has the legitimate right to demand an improvement in its position; tomorrow the river proletariat will present its demands, the day after tomorrow the middle peasant, about whom I will speak in more detail, who often feels worse than a worker, to whom we pay the greatest attention, whose interests all the decrees are dedicated, which the previous speaker absolutely did not understand, will present demands—this all causes incredible difficulties, but these are the difficulties under which workers and poor peasants, for the first time after centuries, are organizing the entire national economy of Russia with their own hands. And so, we have to find ways to satisfy just demands, to revise decrees, to reorganize administrations. Alongside examples and cases of failure and collapse, which are seized upon by the bourgeois press and, of course, are numerous, we achieve successes, for it is precisely through partial failures and mistakes that we learn by experience to build the socialist edifice. And when we see new demands coming from all sides, we say: this is how it should be, this is socialism, when everyone wants to improve their condition, when all want to enjoy the benefits of life. But the country is poor, the country is destitute—it is impossible to satisfy all demands for now, hence it is so difficult to build a new edifice amid the destruction. But he who thinks that socialism can be built in a peaceful, calm time is deeply mistaken: it will always be built amid destruction, amid famine, and it should be so, and when we see representatives of genuine ideas, then we tell ourselves: with thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of hands, workers and toiling peasants have taken up the construction of the new, socialist edifice. Now a profound upheaval is beginning in the countryside, where agitating kulaks are trying to hinder the toiling peasants, who do not exploit the labor of others and do not profit from grain speculation, and there the task is different. In the cities, it is necessary to organize factories, the metal industry, and after the military destruction, to distribute production, to distribute raw materials, materials—the implementation of this task is very difficult. There, the worker is learning this business and creating organs of central management, there we have to revise the Supreme Council of National Economy, for the old laws, issued at the beginning of the year, are already outdated, the workers' movement is advancing, the old workers' control is already outdated, and trade unions are turning into the embryos of organs for managing the entire industry. (Applause.) Much has already been done in this area, but still, we cannot boast of brilliant success. We know that in this area, bourgeois elements, capitalists, landowners, and kulaks, still have the opportunity to agitate for a long time, saying that, as always, the issued decree has not been implemented, another one has just been issued, and it is corrected three months later, and here, speculation, as it was under capitalism, remains. Yes, we do not know any all-encompassing charlatan's recipe that could immediately kill speculation. The habits of the capitalist system are too strong, to re-educate a people brought up in these habits for centuries is a difficult and time-consuming task. But we say: our method of struggle is organization. We must organize everything, take everything into our own hands, check the kulaks and speculators at every step, declare relentless struggle against them, and not let them breathe, checking every step. (Applause.)

From experience, we know that the revision of decrees is necessary, for new difficulties arise, from which the revision draws new strength. And if in the question of food supply we have now come to the organization of the rural poor, and if now our former comrades, the Left SRs, with all sincerity, which cannot be doubted, say that our paths have diverged, then we firmly answer them: the worse for you, for this means that you have departed from socialism. (Applause.)

When the Socialist-Revolutionaries, with all sincerity, which cannot be doubted, say that our paths have diverged, we firmly reply to them: so much the worse for you, for this means that you have turned away from socialism. (Applause.)

Comrades! The food question is the main question, the one to which we pay the most attention in our policy. A mass of small measures, which are not visible from the outside but have been adopted by the Council of People's Commissars: improving water and railway transport, cleaning up the quartermaster's warehouses, fighting speculation—all were aimed at getting the food situation under control. Not only our country, but also all those very cultured countries that did not know what hunger was before the war, now find themselves in the most deplorable state, created by the imperialists in their struggle for the dominance of one or another group. Tens of millions of people in the West are suffering from hunger. This is precisely what makes a social revolution inevitable, for a social revolution does not grow out of programs, but out of the fact that tens of millions of people say: "We will not live in hunger, better to die for the revolution." (Applause.)

The terrible calamity—hunger—is descending upon us, and the more difficult our situation, the more acute the food crisis, the more the capitalists' struggle against Soviet power intensifies. You know that the Czechoslovak mutiny is a mutiny of people bought by Anglo-French imperialists. We constantly hear that here and there, revolts are breaking out against the Soviets. Revolts of the kulaks are spreading to new areas. On the Don, Krasnov, whom the Russian workers generously released in Petrograd when he came and handed over his sword, because the prejudices of the intelligentsia are still strong and the intelligentsia protested against the death penalty, was released due to the intelligentsia's prejudice against the death penalty. And now I would like to see a people's court, a workers' and peasants' court, that would not shoot Krasnov as he shoots workers and peasants. They tell us that when Dzerzhinsky's commission{183} carries out executions—it is good, but if an open court, in the face of the entire people, says: he is a counter-revolutionary and deserves to be shot, then it is bad. People who have reached such hypocrisy are politically dead. (Applause.) No, a revolutionary who does not want to be a hypocrite cannot renounce the death penalty. There has never been a revolution or a period of civil war without executions.

Our food situation has reached almost catastrophic proportions. We have entered a phase that is the most difficult period of our revolution. The most challenging period lies ahead: there has never been a more challenging period in the workers' and peasants' Russia—precisely the period until the harvest. Having seen many party disagreements and revolutionary disputes, I am not surprised that in such a difficult period, the number of people who fall into hysteria and shout: I will leave the Soviets, increases. They refer to decrees abolishing the death penalty. But a poor revolutionary is one who, in a moment of acute struggle, stops before the inviolability of the law. Laws in a transitional period have a temporary significance. And if a law hinders the development of the revolution, it is abolished or amended. Comrades, the more hunger descends upon us, the clearer it becomes that desperate measures are needed to fight this desperate calamity.

Socialism, I repeat, has ceased to be a dogma, as it may have ceased to be a program. In our party, a new program has not yet been written, and the old one is no good. (Applause.) To distribute bread correctly and evenly—this is the essence of socialism today. (Applause.) The war left us a legacy of ruin; through the efforts of Kerensky and the landowner-kulaks, who said: after us, the deluge, the country has been brought to such a state that they say: the worse, the better. The war left us such calamities that now, on the question of bread, we are experiencing the very essence of the entire socialist system and must take this question in hand and solve it practically. Here we say to ourselves: how to deal with bread, in the old way, in the capitalist way, when peasants, taking advantage of the situation, make thousands of rubles on bread, calling themselves laboring peasants, and sometimes even left Socialist-Revolutionaries? (Applause, noise.) They reason like this: if the people are starving, then the price of bread rises; if there is hunger in the cities, then my purse is full; and if they starve even more, then I will make even more thousands. Comrades, I know perfectly well that individual persons are not to blame for this reasoning. All the vile old legacy of the landlord and capitalist society has taught people to think, to think, and to live like this, and it is terribly difficult to change the lives of tens of millions of people; for this, long and persistent work is needed, and we have only just begun this work. It has never occurred to us to accuse those people who, individually, tormented by hunger and not seeing the benefit of organizing socialist distribution of bread, rush to help themselves alone, waving everything off—such people cannot be blamed. But we say: when representatives of parties come forward, when we see people who have joined a certain party, when we see large groups of people, then we demand that they look at this matter not from the point of view of a tormented, tortured, and hungry person, on whom no one can raise a hand, but from the point of view of building a new society.

I repeat, socialism can never be built at a time when everything is smooth and calm; socialism can never be realized without fierce resistance from the landlords and capitalists. The more joyfully they rub their hands, the more difficult the situation; the more they rise in rebellion; the more difficult, the more saboteurs we have, the more eagerly they throw themselves into Czechoslovak and Krasnov affairs. And we say: this must be overcome not in the old way, no matter how hard it is to pull the cart forward, uphill, rather than letting it roll back, downhill. We know perfectly well that not a week, or even a day, has passed when we in the Council of People's Commissars have not been occupied with the food question, when thousands of proposals, orders, and decrees have come from us, and when we have not raised the question of how to fight hunger. They say: there should be no special prices, no fixed prices, no grain monopolies. Trade as you please. The rich will get even richer, and if the poor perish, they have always died of hunger. But a socialist cannot reason like this: at this moment, when the hill is steepest and the cart has to be dragged over the greatest steepness, the question of socialism has ceased to be a question of party differences and has become a question of life: will you stand firm in the struggle with the kulaks, in alliance with the peasants who do not speculate on grain, will you stand firm now, when it is necessary to fight, when the hardest work lies ahead? We have been told about committees of the poor. For those who have actually seen the torments of hunger, it is clear that to break and mercilessly suppress the kulaks, the harshest, merciless measures are needed. Embarking on the organization of unions of the poor, we did so with full awareness of the severity and cruelty of this measure, because only the union of the city and the rural poor, and those who have reserves but do not speculate, those who want to decisively overcome difficulties and achieve the goal that the surplus grain goes to the state and is distributed among the workers—only such a union is the sole means of this struggle. And this struggle must not be waged in programs and speeches; in this struggle against hunger, it must be shown who is going straight to socialism, despite all trials, and who gives in to the tricks and deceptions of the kulaks.

This struggle must not be waged in programs and speeches; in this struggle against hunger, it must become clear who is moving straight toward socialism, despite all trials, and who is giving in to the tricks and deceptions of the rural rich.

And if there are people from the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party who will say, as the previous speaker, one of the most sincere and therefore often carried away, often changing their opinions, – if they say: we cannot work with the Bolsheviks, we are leaving, – we will not regret this for a single minute. Those socialists who leave at such a moment, when dozens and thousands of people are dying of hunger, while others have such large surpluses of grain that they did not sell them until August of last year, when they doubled the fixed prices for grain, against which all the democracy was rising; those who know that the people are suffering unspeakable torments of hunger but do not want to sell grain at the prices at which the middle peasants sell, are enemies of the people, destroyers of the revolution, and supporters of violence, they are friends of the capitalists! War on them and relentless war! (Applause from the entire hall, and a significant part of the Left SRs also applaud.) A thousand times wrong is he, a thousand times mistaken is he, who allows himself even for a moment to be carried away by others' words and says that this is a struggle against the peasantry, as sometimes careless or thoughtless members of the Left SRs say. No, this is a struggle against a tiny minority of rural rich, this is a struggle to save socialism and to distribute bread correctly in Russia. (Cries: "And what about goods?") We will fight in alliance with the vast majority of the peasantry. In this struggle, we will win, and then every European worker will see in practice what socialism is.

In the present struggle, anyone who, perhaps, does not know scientifically what socialism is, but who has worked all his life and knows that bread came to him at a hard price, will understand us. Such a person will be with us. To the rural rich, who have surpluses of grain and are capable, in the moment of the greatest calamity for the people, of hiding grain, at a time when all the conquests of the revolution are at stake, when Skoropadskys of all shades and from all corners, occupied and unoccupied, are stretching their necks and waiting to see if they can overthrow the peasant and worker power and return the landlords, – at such a moment to declare relentless war on these rural rich is our first socialist duty. Whoever, in this most difficult moment of the greatest trials for the starving people and the greatest trials for the socialist revolution, washes his hands and repeats the bourgeois fables, is a poor socialist.

It is false, and a thousand times false, that this is a struggle against the peasantry! I have read hundreds of times in the pages of the Cadet newspapers about this, and it does not surprise me when they shout there that the workers have split from the peasantry, when they hysterically write: "Peasants, wake up, come to your senses, and abandon the Bolsheviks." When I hear and read this there, it does not surprise me. It is fitting there. There they serve the master they are destined to serve, but I would not wish to be in the skin of a socialist who has fallen to such speeches! (Stormy applause.) Comrades, we perfectly well know how incredibly difficult it is to solve the food question. Here are the deepest prejudices. Here are the fundamental interests of the rural rich; here is division, stagnation, dispersion in the countryside, darkness, in many cases, everyone unites against us, and we say: despite these difficulties, it is impossible to give up, one cannot joke with hunger, and the masses of the people, if not helped in their hunger, are capable of rushing even to Skoropadsky out of hunger. It is not true that this is a struggle against the peasants! Whoever says this is the greatest criminal, and the greatest misfortune has befallen the person who hysterically allowed themselves to be carried away to such speeches. No, not only with the poorest peasants, but also with the middle peasants, we do not fight. The middle peasants have insignificant surpluses of grain throughout Russia. The middle peasants lived for decades before the revolution in conditions worse than those of a worker. Before the revolution, they saw only need and oppression. With these middle peasants, we go the way of agreement.

The socialist revolution brings equality for all working masses; it is unjust if each urban worker receives more than the average peasant, who does not exploit the labor of others through hiring or speculation – the peasant lives and sees more need and oppression than the worker, and lives even worse. They do not have organizations and trade unions that would deal with the question of improving their condition. Even with the workers' unions, we have to hold dozens of meetings to equalize wages between professions. And still, we cannot establish it. Every sensible worker knows that a long period is necessary for this. How many complaints will you find in the Commissariat of Labor? You will see that each profession raises its head: we do not want to live as before, we do not want to live in slavery! We want in a poor country, a destitute country, to heal the wounds inflicted upon it. We must try somehow to keep the economy, which has almost completely collapsed. We can do this only through organization. To organize the peasantry, we issued a decree on committees of the poor. Only enemies of socialism can be against this decree. We said that we consider it fair to lower the prices on manufactured goods. We take everything into account, nationalize everything resolutely. (Applause.) And this gives us the opportunity to regulate the distribution of industrial products.

We said: reduce the prices on manufactured goods for the poor by half, for the middle peasant by 25 percent. Perhaps this is an incorrect rate. We do not claim to have solved the question correctly. We do not assert this. To solve the question, go and solve it together. (Applause.) If you sit in the main administration and fight against speculation, catching swindlers who secretly arrange their affairs, you will not solve the question.

Only when the Commissariat of Food, together with the Commissariat of Agriculture, nationalized all goods, established prices, – only then do we approach socialism. Approaching it are only the working people of the cities and the rural poor, all those who work, do not grab what is not theirs, do not exploit the labor of others either in the form of hiring or in the form of speculation, because whoever takes a hundred rubles or more for bread is no less a speculator than if he hires wage workers; perhaps he is even worse, an even more bitter speculator. After six months of desperately difficult Soviet management, we have come to the organization of the rural poor, it is a pity that it did not happen in half a week – that is our fault! If we were reproached for the fact that the decree on the organization of the rural poor and the food dictatorship was delayed by half a year, we would be glad for this criticism. We say: only now, when we have embarked on this path, has socialism ceased to be just a phrase and become a living matter. Perhaps the decree is unsuccessful, perhaps our rates are incorrect. Where could we have taken them from? Only from your experience. How many times have we redone the rates for railway workers, although they have unions, and there are no unions among the poor. Let's check together whether the rates set in the decree on the poor, that the poorest get half the price, the middle ones get a quarter of the price, and take everything from the rich, are correct or not?

to check together whether the rates set in the decree on the poor are correct, that is, half price for the poorest, a quarter off for the middle, and take everything from the rich—are these rates correct or not?

If there is to be a fight, then we will go into this fight with bold decrees and without a moment's hesitation. This will be a real fight for socialism, not for dogma, not for a program, not for a party, not for a faction, but for living socialism, for the distribution of bread among hundreds of thousands, millions of hungry people in the advanced regions of Russia, so that when there is bread, it can be taken and distributed more fairly. I repeat: here we have not the slightest doubt that ninety-nine out of a hundred peasants, when they learn the truth, when they receive the decree, check it, try it out, when they tell us how it needs to be corrected, and we correct it, when we adjust these rates, when they take up this work, when they assess its practical difficulty—these peasants will be with us and will say: we are showing the healthy instinct of every working person, that here and only here the real, fundamental, vital question of socialism is being decided. We will establish fair prices for goods, establish a monopoly on bread, on manufactured goods, on all products, and then the people will say: yes, the distribution of labor, the distribution of bread and products, which socialism gives us, is better than before, and the people are beginning to say this. Alongside a mass of difficulties, alongside a mass of mistakes, alongside cases, which we do not at all conceal, but bring to light, to shame—those cases where our detachments themselves fall into speculation, into that slippery abyss into which all the habits, all the practices of capitalists drag them—yes, such cases happen everywhere, we know that people cannot be changed immediately, that faith in socialism cannot be instilled in tens of millions of people at once (where would they get this faith? From their heads?—From their experience)—alongside all this, they begin to say that bread can be obtained not through speculation, that hunger can be prevented only through the union of urban and factory workers with the rural poor, because only the rural poor do not speculate with bread. Yes, the average peasant, when he sees our decrees, when he reads them himself, when he compares them with the phrases and slanders of the right SRs and the defenders of the kulaks, will say: if people set one rate for the poor, another for the middle, and take bread for free from the kulaks, they are acting justly. He may not say that they are acting as socialists, he may not even know this word, but he is our most reliable ally, because he does not speculate with bread; he will understand and agree that speculating with bread at a time of greatest danger for the socialist revolution is the greatest crime against the people.

Bread cannot be distributed by decree. But when, after long, persistent work of organizing, correcting—the union of factory, urban workers, and the rural poor, toiling peasants who do not hire any workers and do not engage in speculation—we get this matter organized in practice, then no hysterical outcries against our party will tear apart this union. (Applause.)

When we promised the peasantry the socialization of the land, we made a concession, for we understood that nationalization could not be introduced immediately. We know that this may be a mistake, that we put your socialization of the land into our law of October 26[52]. This was a concession to the left SRs, who refused power and said they would stay only if this law was passed. A thousand times wrong is Spiridonova, when she brings you isolated facts, that she came to me, supposedly humbled herself and begged. Comrades, many have been to me and know that this cannot be, that such an attitude toward a comrade is impossible. The party must be bad if its best representatives stoop to fairy tales. (Noise.) I have a letter from Comrade Spiridonova—she often wrote to me—and I will find and hand over this letter tomorrow. She writes: "Why don't you want to give two million for the agricultural commune?" And this on the very day when the People's Commissar of Agriculture, Sereda, whose activities she does not understand, submitted a report on the allocation of 10 million for the agricultural commune{184}. (Prolonged applause.) You heard this from the speech of Comrade Spiridonova, but a bad party it is, where even the most sincere people in their agitation sink to fairy tales. I repeat: what a bad party, whose best, most sincere representatives come to such fairy tales about Soviet power! All the worse for them! Every peasant who comes to the Commissariat of Agriculture will read that 10 million has been allocated for agricultural communes, will see, believe his own eyes and ears more than others' speeches, will understand that these people have resorted to fairy tales, and will turn away from this party. (Applause.) In conclusion, I will say one thing. Before us, until the new harvest, until this harvest is brought to the starving areas, Petrograd, and Moscow, lies a difficult period of the Russian revolution. Only the closest union of urban workers with the rural poor, with the rural toiling masses, who do not speculate with bread—this is what will save the revolution.

The Congress shows us that the union of all toilers, despite everything, is strengthening, broadening, and growing not only in Russia but throughout the world. Abroad, they know laughably, terrifyingly little about our revolution. There, military censorship lets nothing through. Comrades who have come from abroad tell about this. But, despite everything, by instinct alone, European workers are on the side of the Bolshevik government. And more and more voices are multiplying, showing that sympathy for the socialist revolution in Europe is growing in those countries where the imperialist war continues. From German socialists and other people, whose names every conscious worker and peasant knows, like Clara Zetkin and Franz Mehring, the Bolshevik government receives expressions of gratitude and support. In Italy, Lazzari, the old secretary of the party, who treated the Bolsheviks with distrust at Zimmerwald, now sits in prison for expressing sympathy for us.

Understanding of the revolution is growing. In France, those comrades and workers who at the Zimmerwald conference treated the Bolsheviks with the greatest distrust, have recently issued an appeal in the name of the Committee for International Relations{185}, in which they warmly express support for the Bolshevik government and opposition to any party adventures.

Therefore, comrades, no matter how difficult and heavy the period we have to go through, we must tell the whole truth and open our eyes to it, for only the people, through their initiative and organization, by putting forward new and new conditions and defending the socialist republic, will help us. And we say: comrades, there is not the slightest doubt that if we follow the path we have chosen and which events have confirmed, if we firmly and unwaveringly follow this path, if we do not let phrases, illusions, deceptions, or hysteria lead us astray, then we have the greatest chances in the world to hold on and firmly help the victory of socialism in Russia, and thereby help the victory of the worldwide socialist revolution! (Stormy and prolonged applause, turning into an ovation.)