V. I. Lenin

Speech Delivered At The

Second All-Russia Congress Of Medical Workers ’ [1]

March 1, 1920

Minutes

(Comrade Lenin, who was greeted by prolonged applause and by the singing of the Internationale, delivered a brief speech of greeting.) Comrades, allow me to greet your
Congress on behalf of the Council of People’s
Commissars. There is no need to speak here at length about the
purposes of the Con-gress and the work you have done. With the
exception of the war front, there is perhaps no field of work that
has involved so many sacrifices as yours. Four years of
imperial-ist war have given mankind several million cripples and a
number of epidemics.

A tremendous, difficult and responsible task has fallen on our
shoulders. The struggle on the war front has shown that the
attempts of the imperialists have produced no results. The
greatest difficulties in the military field are behind us, but
we must now set about the task of peaceful de-velopment. The
experience we gained on the bloody front we shall apply to the
bloodless front, where we shall meet with far greater sympathy.

We have succeeded in enlisting the services of thousands of
experts, of a vast number of officers and generals, who are
occupying responsible posts side by side with Communist
workers. We must apply all the determination and all the
experience of the Civil War to the fight against epidemics.

Time was when members of the medical profession, too, entertained a
distrust of the working class; time was when they, too, dreamed
of the restoration of the bourgeois sys-tem. But now they, too,
are convinced that only together with the proletariat will it be
possible to achieve a flourish-ing state of culture in
Russia. Only collaboration between scientists and workers can
put an end to oppressive poverty, disease and dirt. And this
will be done.

No forces of darkness can withstand an alliance of the scientists, the proletariat and the technologists.

Endnotes

[1]
The Second All-Russia Congress of Medical Workers was held
February 25-March 2, 1920. It was attended by 312 delegates, of
whom 125 were Communists. The agenda of the Congress was the
following: report of the C.C. of the All-Russia Union of Medical
Workers, elections of the auditing commission, organisational
report, sanitary service in the Republic, medical service and
others. Lenin addressed the Congress with a brief speech of
greeting on March 1. The Congress paid special attention to the
organisation of the medical services. It also dealt with the
questions of training new medical personnel and drafted a plan for
the organisation of medical education.