Thirteen years ago the proletarians of Moscow raised the banner of uprising against tsarism. This was the highest point of development of the first workers' revolution against tsarism. The workers suffered defeat, and Presnya was drenched in workers' blood.

The unforgettable heroism of the Moscow workers provided an example of struggle to all the toiling masses of Russia. But these masses were then still too underdeveloped, too disunited, and did not support the heroes of Presnya and Moscow, who, arms in hand, rose up against the tsarist, landowner monarchy.

After the defeat of the Moscow workers came the defeat of the entire first revolution. Twelve long, agonizing years of the most savage landowner reaction tormented all the workers and peasants of all the peoples of Russia.

The heroic deed of the Presnya workers was not in vain. Their sacrifices were not futile. The first breach was made in the tsarist monarchy, a breach that slowly but steadily widened and weakened the old, medieval order. Into the toiling masses of town and country, the heroic deed of the Moscow workers brought deep ferment, the traces of which no longer died away, despite all persecution.

Before the armed uprising in December 1905, the people in Russia had proved incapable of mass armed struggle against the exploiters. After December, it was no longer the same people. It had been reborn. It received its baptism of fire. It was steeled in the uprising. It prepared the ranks of fighters who were victorious in 1917 and who now—through all the incredible difficulties, overcoming the torments of hunger and the ruin created by the imperialist war—are upholding the cause of the world victory of socialism.

Long live the workers of Red Presnya, the vanguard detachment of the world workers' revolution!

_Kommunar_ No. 63, December 22, 1918. Signed: N. Lenin

_Bednota_ No. 222, December 24, 1918. Signed: N. Lenin

Printed according to the text of the newspaper _Bednota_