V.I. Lenin

Speech Delivered

At The Funeral Of Yakov Sverdlov

March 18, 1919

Newspaper Report

We have lowered into the grave the remains of a proletarian leader who did
more than anybody to organise the working class and to ensure victory. Now
that Soviet power is spreading throughout the world and the knowledge is
rapidly gaining ground of how the proletariat, organised in Soviets, is
struggling to put its ideas into effect, we are burying a representative
of the proletariat who set an example of how to fight for these
ideas.

Millions of proletarians will repeat our words: “Long live the
memory of Comrade Sverdlov. At his graveside we solemnly vow to fight
still harder for the overthrow of capital and for the complete
emancipation of the working people... .”