Date: 1920
Source: ru:PSS/v40

# Report on the Work of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars at the First Session of the Seventh All-Russian Central Executive Committee on February 2, 1920
Source: CW vol 40

Comrades, my report on the activities of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, whose functions between sessions were carried out by the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, naturally divides into two main sections: first, on international policy and the international position of the Soviet Republic, and second, on internal construction and the main economic tasks. Allow me to present the main facts of our work for the reporting period, that is, for the last two months.

Regarding the international position of the Soviet Republic, the fundamental fact determining this position has been the successes of the Red Army. You are aware that the last remnants of Kolchak's army have almost been destroyed in the Far East, and a rivalry and enmity, which prevents them from fully deploying their forces against the Soviet Republic, is becoming increasingly evident between Japan and America, formally allied powers. After the destruction of Yudenich's troops, and after the capture of Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don in early January, such a decisive blow was dealt to the main part of their forces that the military situation of the Soviet Republic changed radically, and although the war was not over, it became clear to every state that their previous hopes of crushing the military forces of the Soviet Republic had failed.

The recognition of this radical change in the international position of the Soviet Republic was manifested in the radio transmission (not officially communicated) of the decision of the Supreme Council of the Allies. This decision, adopted by them on January 16, consisted in lifting the blockade from the Soviet Republic. The Supreme Council adopted a resolution, the main part of which reads: (reads){40}.

I do not need to criticize the diplomacy contained in this formulation; it is too obvious to dwell on the fact that the allies' attitude towards Russia has not changed. If the allies understand their policy in such a way that lifting the blockade does not mean a change in their previous policy, then they show the groundlessness of their policy. But for us, the important aspect of this decision is its economic side. The fact of lifting the blockade is a significant event of international importance and shows that a new phase of the socialist revolution has begun. For the blockade was indeed the main, truly solid weapon in the hands of the imperialists of the whole world to strangle Soviet Russia.

At the last Congress of Soviets, I had already pointed out and developed the idea that the struggle against Soviet Russia not only forced the workers and peasants of France, England, and other advanced countries to abandon the fight, but also led to the development of opposition to the blockade among the petty-bourgeois masses within these countries[6]. And, of course, such opposition from the middle classes within countries like England and France could not fail to influence the policy of the international imperialists. Knowing their diplomacy, we cannot expect them to act straightforwardly, without any reservations, without the desire to return to the old ways, or to sneak in their former policy through some trick, which they now cannot openly pursue. But it must be said that fundamentally we have achieved enormous victories, and even the weapon that was only in the hands of the allies – the fleet – we have wrested from their hands; we have wrested it, despite the wavering elements who warned that the fleet was invincible. Nevertheless, the development of political relations showed that even this invincible fleet proved unable to move against us. We, unable to offer military resistance at sea, forced the imperialist powers to abandon this weapon.

Of course, this change in international policy does not manifest itself immediately, but the fact is that we find ourselves in the sphere of worldwide inter-state relations, which gives us the opportunity to receive support from more advanced countries. Of course, the economic and financial situation of these countries is very sad, they are all going downhill, and we cannot count on much, but having the possibility to develop industry at home, we can count on obtaining machines for production, machines for the restoration of our industry. And the most important thing is that what completely cut us off, cut us off by means of the blockade from the advanced countries, has been broken.

After the Allied Supreme Council was forced to abandon this weapon, our victories in the field of international politics continued, and the most significant of these was that we managed to conclude peace with Estonia. Today we received a message from Joffe and Gukovsky, which states: "Today, February 2, at 2 a.m. Moscow time, a peace treaty was signed between Russia and Estonia. The Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Birk arrived for the signing from Tallinn."

Comrades, the text of this peace document, which was discussed extensively and represents a document of immense importance, has been sent by courier and should arrive tomorrow morning, but we have now received the exact text by telegraph, and it will be distributed tomorrow. It will be considered and ratified. This document is of immense importance to us. The peace treaty between Russia and Estonia has great world-historical significance, and therefore, having achieved a peace treaty with a government that is also becoming democratic and will now have stable relations with us, but which until now was supported by the entire imperialist world, we must view this as an act of great historical importance.

We know that people who stand between imperialism and democracy usually always end up siding with one or the other. As you can see, we are undoubtedly achieving victory because the peace has been signed, and now this state must come out against our enemy. The principled significance of this fact is that in the era of imperialism, the whole world is divided into a large number of big and small states, with the small states being completely helpless, a negligible bunch compared to the richest powers, which completely subjugate a series of small, weak states. Imperialism has created an era during which the entire world, the entire population of the earth, is divided into a minority of exploitative, oppressive countries and a majority of countries with a small, weak population, dependent on them as colonies.

The entire world, the entire population of the earth, is being divided into a minority of exploitative countries – countries that oppress – and a majority of small, weakly populated countries that are in colonial dependence on them.

When we conquered the world with Estonia, we proved that we know how to move forward as a proletarian and communist state. How? It has been proven to all the warring powers of the Entente, which were against peace, that the sympathies we can instill in our opponents and bourgeois governments, that the sympathies of a small country, are stronger than all the military oppression and all the financial aid and all those economic threads that bind this small country to the world's most powerful states. The Entente saw that we can win not only when we apply violence – we are capable of disproving the lies and slander spread against us by the bourgeois governments of the whole world, saying that the Bolsheviks survive only through violence. What gave us the upper hand over the combined forces of world imperialism regarding Estonia, which always saw violence from the tsarist landowning Russia? The fact that we proved our ability to timely and conscientiously renounce violence for a transition to a peaceful policy, winning the sympathies of the bourgeois government of a small state, despite all the support of international capital. This is a fact of historical significance. Estonia is a small country, a small republic, but it is so oppressed in thousands of ways, economically and militarily, by world imperialist capital that its entire population is under this pressure. And this peace proves that, despite all the fatigue, weakness, and disunity, we can win victories over the White Guard army, to which they provided support. The mighty Entente knows how to respond to violence with even more victorious violence, but this peace proves that it is not through violence that we know how to gain the sympathy and support of the bourgeoisie.

Here stood the most difficult international task. The development of capitalism in different countries proceeds at different rates, in different conditions, and with different methods and means. A socialist republic of one country finds itself next to the capitalist countries of the whole world and makes their bourgeoisie waver. From this, they drew the conclusion: "So, your position is hopeless; if you defeated the White Guards with violence, what will you do with the rest of the world?" – We will defeat it too. That this is not just talk is proven by the peace with Estonia. All the pressure of international capital was overcome in the area where our renunciation of violence was recognized as sincere. International capital said: "Do not conclude peace with the Bolsheviks, or else we will conquer you with hunger, we will not give you any financial or economic assistance." And Estonia turned out to be one of those small, formally independent countries that said to itself: "We rely more on the fact that the Bolsheviks are capable of living in peace with other, weaker peoples, even with a bourgeois government, than on the all-powerful world democracy of the Entente."

The greatest manifestation of democracy is primarily the question of war and peace. All the powers are in such a state that they are preparing a new imperialist war. Workers around the world see this every day. Any day now, America and Japan will pounce on each other; England, after its victory over Germany, seized so many colonies that other imperialist powers will never reconcile themselves to this. A new frenzied war is being prepared, and the masses are aware of this. And here the democratic peace between Estonia and Russia, with its enormous forces, emerges, accused of, having finished off Yudenich, Kolchak, and Denikin, throwing all its forces against a small state. Moreover, the peace was concluded on such terms that we made a number of territorial concessions, concessions that did not fully correspond to the strict observance of the principle of self-determination of nations, when we proved in practice that the question of borders for us is a secondary issue, and the question of peaceful relations, the question of the ability to wait for the development of living conditions within each people, is not only a matter of principle but also one in which we have managed to win the trust of the nations hostile to us. If we managed to do this with regard to Estonia, there was nothing accidental about it; it was a manifestation of the fact that a separately existing and seemingly powerless, weak proletarian republic began to win over to its side those countries that are dependent on imperialist countries, and there are a great many such countries. This is why our peace with Estonia has worldwide-historical significance. No matter how much the Entente strains its forces to start a war – even if it manages to replace this peace with war again – in any case, it remains an unshakable fact in history that, despite all the pressure of world capital, we managed to instill greater trust in a small country, governed by the bourgeoisie, than the supposedly democratic, but in reality predatory, imperialist bourgeoisie.

On the question of how our policy compared with the policy of the supposedly democratic, but in reality predatory, powers of the whole world, we happen to have particularly interesting documents, which I will allow myself to communicate to you. These documents were delivered by a White Guard officer or official named Oleynikov, who had been entrusted by one White Guard government to deliver important documents to another, and he delivered these documents to us{41}. (Applause.) These documents were successfully smuggled into Russia, and I will read them to you, although they will take quite a bit of time. Nevertheless, they are very interesting because they clearly show the background of the policy. The first document is a telegram to Minister Gulkovich from Sazonov: Paris, October 14, 1919, No. 668.

S. D. Sazonov, expressing his complete respect to Konstantin Nikolaevich, has the honor to enclose herewith, for information, copies of telegrams from B. A. Bakhmetev, No. 1050, and I. I. Sukin, No. 23, on the question of the situation in the Baltic provinces.

Next, a more interesting document – a telegram from October 11 from Washington:

Received October 12, 1919. Incoming No. 3346.

Bakhmetev – Minister.

Washington, October 11, 1919, No. 1050.

Referring to my telegram No. 1045.

(code) The State Department orally acquainted me with the instructions given to Gedu. He is called the commissioner of the American government in the Baltic provinces of Russia. He is not accredited to any of the Russian governments. His mission is to observe and inform. His behavior should not give the local population hope that the American government might agree to support separatist movements going beyond autonomy. On the contrary, the American government hopes that the Baltic population will help their Russian brothers in their general state work. The instructions are based on the interpretation of the agreement of the allied governments with the supreme ruler, as set out in my memorandum to the government on June 17. Gedu is given excerpts from the latest speeches of the president, in which he denounced Bolshevism.

Thus, the American government communicated that its representative could give any instructions, but not support independence, i.e., not guarantee it with respect to these states. This is what directly or indirectly shone through and could not be hidden from Estonia, that the great powers were deceiving it. Of course, everyone could guess this, but we have documents, and they will be published:

Received October 12, 1919. Incoming No. 3347.

Sukin – Minister.

Omsk, October 9, 1919, No. 28.

They are deceiving her. Of course, everyone could guess this, but we have documents, and they will be published:

Received 12 October 1919. Incoming No. 3347.

Sukin – Minister.

Omsk, 9 October 1919, No. 28.

(code) Knox transmitted to the Supreme Ruler a message from the British War Ministry, in which the latter warns of the inclination of the Baltic states to conclude peace with the Bolsheviks, who guarantee them immediate recognition of independence. In this, the British War Ministry raises the question of whether the government should not paralyze these promises by, in turn, satisfying the wishes of the said states. We responded to Knox by referring to the principles set forth in the note of the Supreme Ruler to the powers on June 4, and at the same time, we pointed out that the conclusion of peace by the Baltic states with the Bolsheviks represents an undeniable danger, as it would allow part of the Soviet forces to be freed and would remove the barrier preventing the spread of Bolshevism to the West. The very fact of readiness to talk about peace, in our opinion, testifies to the extreme demoralization of the parties of these self-governing units, which themselves cannot defend... against the penetration of aggressive Bolshevism.

Expressing confidence that the powers cannot sympathize with the further spread of Bolshevism, we pointed out the necessity of stopping further aid to the Baltic states, which is a real means of influence in the hands of the powers and, moreover, more expedient than competing in promises with the Bolsheviks, who have nothing left to lose.

Transmitting the above, I request you to make the appropriate representation in Paris and London; we will address Bakhmetev separately.

Received 9 October 1919. Incoming No. 3286.

Sablin – Minister.

London, 7 October 1919, No. 677.

(code) In a letter to Guchkov, the head of the operational department of the War Ministry, to whom G. had turned with a proposal for our tonnage to facilitate the delivery of supplies to Yudenich, reports that, according to the War Ministry, Y. now has everything, and that England is having difficulties in further supplying him. He adds, however, that if we have ships, we could organize the supply of Y. on a commercial basis, provided we find credits. General Radcliffe, at the same time, acknowledges that Y.'s army must be properly equipped, as it is "the only force among the Baltic states capable of undertaking active operations against the Bolsheviks."

Minister – Bakhmetev in Washington.

Paris, 30 September 1919, No. 2442.

(code) From a very reliable Swedish source, I learn that the American envoy in Stockholm, Morris, speaks of growing sympathy for the Bolsheviks in America and the intention to stop helping Kolchak in order to enter into relations with Moscow in the interests of American trade. Such statements by an official representative make a strange impression.

Received 5 October 1919. Incoming No. 3244.

Bakhmetev – Minister.

Washington, 4 October 1919, No. 1021.

Referring to your telegram No. 2442.

(code) In the State Department, I was confidentially informed that indeed, the envoy Morris in Stockholm and especially Hengut in Copenhagen are known for their personal left-wing sympathies, but that they do not enjoy any influence or authority here, and that the government is forced to periodically instruct them, categorically indicating that American policy is invariably directed towards supporting our government in the struggle against the Bolsheviks.

These are all the documents that we will publish and which clearly show how the struggle around and near Estonia was going, how the Entente, together with Kolchak, America, England, and France, exerted all pressure on Estonia, so that no peace would be concluded with the Bolsheviks, and how the Bolsheviks, promising territorial concessions and guaranteeing independence, won in this competition. I say that this victory has enormous historical significance because it was achieved without the use of violence, this victory was won over world imperialism, a victory thanks to which the Bolsheviks gain the sympathy of the whole world. This victory does not show that a general peace will be concluded immediately, but it shows that we represent peaceful interests in relation to the majority of the world's population against the military-imperialist predators. And such an assessment led to the fact that bourgeois Estonia, being an opponent of communism, concluded peace with us. If we, as a proletarian organization, a Soviet republic, conclude peace, act in a peaceful spirit towards bourgeois governments, which are in an oppressed position in relation to the great magnates of imperialism, then it follows that our international policy should be shaped in this way.

We now set ourselves the main task: to defeat the exploiters and win over the wavering – this is a worldwide task. Wavering are also a number of bourgeois states, which, as bourgeois states, hate us, but, on the other hand, as the oppressed, prefer peace with us. From this follows an explanation of the peace concluded with Estonia. Of course, this peace is only the first step and will only be felt in the future, but that it will be felt – this is a fact. With Latvia, we have had only Red Cross negotiations so far, as well as with the Polish government{42}. I repeat, peace with Estonia will certainly have an impact, because the foundations are the same – Latvia and Poland are also being drawn into war with Russia, just like Estonia. And this may succeed, and we must be vigilant in view of the possibility of war with Poland, but we are confident – the basic conquests prove this – that we can conclude peace and make concessions that give the opportunity for the development of any democracy. And now this acquires particular importance because the issue with Poland is very acute. We have a whole series of reports that, apart from bourgeois, conservative, landowning Poland, apart from the influence of all Polish capitalist parties, all the states of the Entente are going to great lengths to draw Poland into war with us.

You know that the Sovnarkom issued an appeal to the working people of Poland{43}. We will ask you to approve this appeal to rise against the incitement that the landowning circles of Poland are conducting. We will propose additional text to the Polish working masses. This appeal will be a blow to the imperialist powers, which are trying to incite Poland against us, while for us, the interests of the working majority come first.

I will now take the liberty of reading a telegram that we intercepted yesterday, which shows how American capital works to present us in a certain light and to draw us into war with Poland. This telegram says (reads). I did not say anything like this and have not heard it, but they can lie because, for good reason, they allocate their capital with the specific purpose of spreading false rumors. This secures their bourgeois government. (Continues reading the telegram.) Here, this telegram goes from Europe to America, it is serviced by the capitalists' funds and carries out the deed through which they will most shamelessly try to draw us into war with Poland. American capital is doing its utmost to exert this pressure on Poland and is doing so shamelessly, presenting the matter in such a way that the Bolsheviks want to finish off Kolchak and Denikin to throw all their "iron troops" on Poland.

to reduce this pressure on Poland and does so unscrupulously, presenting the matter in such a way that the Bolsheviks want to finish off Kolchak and Denikin in order to throw all their "iron troops" at Poland.

It is important that we now, here, approve the decision of the Council of People's Commissars, and then we must do what we have done before with regard to other states, as well as what we undertook with regard to the troops of Kolchak and Denikin. We must do this in order to immediately appeal to the Polish democracy and explain the real state of affairs. We know very well this means of ours, which has the most positive effect in terms of their disintegration. And ultimately, this method leads to the path that we need, the one it has led the working population of all countries. This policy, no matter how difficult it may be, must establish a certain beginning, and we, having started, will carry it through to the full end.

I must note that we pursued the same policy with regard to the other states. We offered Georgia and Azerbaijan an agreement against Denikin. They refused, citing that they do not interfere in the affairs of other states. We will see how the workers and peasants of Georgia and Azerbaijan will view this.

This policy towards the Western peoples was even more cautious than when it came to the peoples of Russia. It touched upon such states as Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and on the other hand, a whole range of Eastern states, whose level of development is the level of development of the vast majority of colonial countries, which make up the majority of the world's population. They are oppressed by England, which still keeps colonial slaves in its hands. If our policy towards the Western European states is characterized by such caution, requiring a period of time to allow them to outlive their Kerenskyism, then in the East, where we have much more backward countries, which were under the yoke of religious fanaticism, imbued with great distrust of the Russian people, for decades and centuries under the yoke of tsarist capitalist policy and imperialism, which Great Power Russia carried out against them – here our policy must be even more cautious and patient.

We have granted autonomy to the Bashkir Republic{44}. We must create an autonomous Tatar Republic{45} and continue the same policy with regard to all Eastern peoples, telling ourselves: standing against a huge front of imperialist powers, we, fighting against imperialism, represent a union that requires close military cohesion, and any attempts to disrupt this cohesion we consider as an absolutely unacceptable phenomenon, as a betrayal of the interests of the struggle against international imperialism. But, while pursuing this policy, we must be even more cautious. If European countries have to go through a period of Kerenskyism, then countries at a lower stage of development contain even more elements of distrust. A longer-term approach is required for them. We support the independence and self-determination of these states. We appeal to their working masses. We say: unity of military forces is necessary, deviation from this unity is unacceptable.

We are confident that, by systematically continuing our policy of a close alliance, we will achieve greater success with regard to the peoples of the East than we have so far. And these successes are great. Among all the Eastern peoples, the Soviet Republic enjoys enormous popularity for the same reason that we managed to conclude peace with a small Western state, precisely because they see in us an unyielding fighter against imperialism, because we are the only republic that wages war against imperialism and knows how to use every situation, acting not by force, but also winning by refusing to use force.

It goes without saying that the same policy, in a much more defined form, is being pursued with regard to the Ukrainian Republic. Here, the issue is simplified by the earlier concluded agreement between the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic{46}. On the basis of this agreement, which means a close federation of the two republics in the struggle against the imperialist countries, we are building an ever closer union. And the mass of Ukrainian peasants and workers, through the bitter experience of Denikin's rule, is convinced that only the closest alliance with the Russian Republic will truly be invincible for international imperialism and that state separation cannot be advantageous in the context of the struggle against imperialism, as it uses any division to suppress the Soviet power; such division is a crime. Our policy is taking deep roots in Ukraine, and we are confident that the upcoming All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies will solemnly confirm this policy. These are the brief remarks I must limit myself to on the question of the international situation, and the practical proposals I must address on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars and the VSNK, I have listed them, and I will ask to approve all these projects at this session.

Moving on to the work of internal construction, I must first dwell on some individual measures of our government, and then move on to the main thing – the transition to new tracks, the transition from military tasks to the tasks of state construction.

Regarding the basic measures of our domestic policy, which over the past two months stand out somewhat from the series of current works, it is especially important to mention the following decision, which needs to be approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. This is the decision on the abolition of the death penalty. You know that immediately after the main victory over Denikin, after the capture of Rostov, Comrade Dzerzhinsky, who heads the Cheka and the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, proposed to the Council of People's Commissars and implemented in his department that any application of the death penalty dependent on the Cheka be abolished. If in Europe, bourgeois democracy is spreading lies about Soviet Russia, claiming that it is primarily terrorist, if both bourgeois democracy and the socialists of the Second International spread this, and if Kautsky could write a special book entitled "Terrorism and Communism," in which he claims that the communist power rests on terrorism, then you can imagine what kind of lies are being spread about this, and to refute this lie, we have come to the step taken by Comrade Dzerzhinsky, which was approved by the Council of People's Commissars, and this step needs to be confirmed by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

Terror was imposed on us by the terrorism of the Entente, when the world-powerful states descended upon us with their hordes, stopping at nothing. We would not have been able to hold out for even two days if we had not responded mercilessly to the attempts of the officers and White Guards, and this meant terror, but it was imposed on us by the terrorist methods of the Entente. And as soon as we achieved a decisive victory, even before the end of the war, immediately after the capture of Rostov, we renounced the application of the death penalty and thus showed that we relate to our own program as we promised. We say that the use of violence is dictated by the task of suppressing the exploiters, suppressing the landlords and capitalists; once this is resolved, we renounce all exceptional measures. We have proven this in practice. And I think, hope, and am sure that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee will unanimously confirm this measure of the Council of People's Commissars and resolve it in such a way that the application of the death penalty in Russia becomes impossible. It goes without saying that any attempt by the Entente to resume the methods of war will force us to resume the former terror; we know that we live in a time of predation, when good words do not work; this is what we had in mind, and as soon as the decisive struggle was over, we immediately began to abolish the measures that in all other states are applied indefinitely.

Well, when kind words do not work; this is what we meant, and as soon as the decisive struggle was over, we immediately began to repeal measures that in all other states are applied indefinitely.

Next, I wanted to note the discussion of the question of the Workers' Inspection. On this issue, you will have a special report, and I would be wrong if I dwelled on it for too long. Here, the task of involving the broad masses in management comes to the forefront, and it stands more acutely than the tasks of broad construction. You will have detailed projects, and after discussing and correcting them, you will understand that this construction must continue with the broader participation of the broad working masses. This is our main task, and it is very difficult to approach it given the current state of disintegration, but we are moving towards it unswervingly.

Another question before us is that of cooperation. We have set ourselves the task of uniting the entire population into cooperatives, which would differ from the old cooperatives that, at best, included only the upper echelons.

Socialism would be impossible if it did not learn to use the technology, the culture, and the apparatus created by bourgeois culture, the culture of capitalism. Among these apparatuses is cooperation, which develops more as the country stands at a higher level of capitalist development. We have set our cooperation the task of covering the entire country. Cooperation so far has covered the upper echelons, giving advantages to those who have the means to make share contributions, and not allowing the working masses to benefit from its services. With this cooperation, we have resolutely broken, but not in such a way as to nullify cooperation altogether; in March and April 1918, we gave cooperation the task of covering the entire population. If there are cooperators who value the teachings of the founders of the cooperative movement (the old tasks of cooperation – satisfying the interests of the workers) – they should sympathize with this. And we are confident that we have the sympathy of the majority of participants in cooperative organizations, although we do not harbor any illusions about having won the sympathy of the majority of the leaders of cooperation, who stand on a bourgeois and petty-bourgeois point of view, understanding cooperation as only a new form of capitalist enterprise and the notorious freedom of trade, which means profit for a few and ruin for the many. Instead, we declared it a state task for cooperation to transition to actual service of the working masses so that cooperation covers the entire population. This could not be done immediately. Having set such a task, we systematically worked and will continue to work to complete this matter, to unite the entire population through cooperatives, and we can say with confidence that the entire Soviet republic, perhaps in a few weeks, or perhaps in a small number of months, will turn into one great cooperative of the workers. After this, the development of the self-activity of the workers and their involvement in construction will proceed on a broader scale.

To complete this, we decided that all types of cooperatives, not only consumer but also credit, production, etc., should be united, with due gradualness and caution, into Centrosouz. In this regard, we are confident that the steps we have taken will receive the support of the Central Executive Committee and the workers on the ground, who, after the formal completion of the unification of cooperatives, will, through their work in economic construction and the involvement of the majority of workers and peasants, achieve – and this we set as one of the most important tasks – that cooperation becomes, among other things, an important factor in the struggle against bureaucracy, which is inherited from the old capitalist state, a struggle that we declared in our program as one of the most important tasks. And we will carry out this struggle in all departments, by all means, and, among other things, through the unification of cooperatives and appealing from the bourgeois cooperative upper echelons to the real working masses, who must all go to independent work in cooperative construction.

Then, I want to note from the issues of internal construction what has been done in the field of agriculture. To regulate land use, the People's Commissar of Agriculture issued a circular in July 1919 on measures to combat frequent redistributions of allotment land. This circular was published on July 1 in "Izvestia of the VTsIK" and entered into the "Collection of Laws and Decrees of the Workers' and Peasants' Government." This circular is important because it responds to numerous indications and statements from peasants, pointing out that frequent redistributions hindered, in the context of small-scale farming, the improvement of labor discipline and the increase in labor productivity. The Sovnarkom, which stands on this point of view, gave the Commissariat of Agriculture the task of drafting a regulation on the procedure for redistributions. This draft will be considered in the near future{47}. Similarly, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture sets itself the task of a series of urgent measures to restore live and dead agricultural inventory. In this regard, systematic work by local workers is of great importance, and we hope that members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee will exert appropriate pressure on the authorities and provide assistance so that these measures of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture are implemented in the shortest possible time.

Now I move on to the last question of our construction and, in essence, to the most important question – the question of labor armies and labor mobilization. The most difficult task during sharp transitions and changes in social life is the task of taking into account the specificity of each transition. How to fight socialists within a capitalist society – this is not a difficult task, and it has long been solved. How to envision a developed socialist society – this is also not difficult. This task has also been solved. But how to practically implement the transition from the old, familiar, and well-known capitalism to the new, yet unborn, and without a stable base, socialism – this is the most difficult task. This transition will take many years at best. Within this period, our policy breaks down into a series of even smaller transitions. And the entire difficulty of the task that lies upon us, the entire difficulty of the policy and all the art of the policy, consists in taking into account the specific tasks of each such transition.

We have just decided, in the main and fundamental outlines, though not yet completely, the task of war. We set ourselves the task of repelling the onslaught of the White Guards at all costs. We said: everything must be for the war. This was the correct policy. We know perfectly well that this policy was expressed in unheard-of hardships in the rear, cold, hunger, and devastation, but precisely the fact that the Red Army, which, incidentally, receives such an assessment, examples of which I read, solved this task in the most backward country – proves that there are new forces in this country, otherwise it would be unthinkable to create this exemplary army and defeat materially stronger armies. But after we sharpened the entire state apparatus on this and managed to solve the specificity of this task – to subordinate everything entirely to the interests of the war – the situation requires a rapid and sharp transition. We have not yet ended the war. We must preserve full military readiness, we must destroy Denikin's troops, we must show the landlords and capitalists of any country that if they wish to still consider Russia a war, they will suffer the same fate as Kolchak and Denikin. Therefore, we cannot take a single step to weaken our military forces. And at the same time, we need to transfer the whole country onto other tracks, to restructure the entire mechanism. It is no longer possible and unnecessary to sharpen – everything for the war, because, in essence, the task of the war has been solved.

military forces. And at the same time, it is necessary to transfer the entire country onto other tracks, to reorganize the entire mechanism. It is no longer possible or necessary to sharpen—everything for war, because the main task of the war has been resolved.

The task of transitioning from war to peaceful construction under such unique conditions arises that we cannot disband the army, as we must take into account at least the possibility of an offensive by the same Poland or any power that the Entente continues to incite against us. This uniqueness of the task, when we cannot weaken our military forces but must transfer the entire machinery of Soviet power, which was focused on war, onto new tracks of peaceful economic construction—requires extraordinary attention and shows an example of how here we cannot cope with the help of general formulas, general provisions of the program, general principles of communism, but must take into account the uniqueness of these conditions of transition from capitalism to communism, from a situation where all the attention of the country was devoted to war, to a situation where the country has achieved a decisive victory in the military sphere and must move to a military solution of economic tasks, a military solution because, as you all know, the situation is extremely difficult. The end of winter brings and has brought unheard-of hardships to the working masses—hunger, cold, ruin. We must overcome all this at all costs. We know that we can do this. The energy of the Red Army has proven this to us.

If until now we could fight, being surrounded on all sides and cut off from the most grain and coal regions, then now, when we have received all this, when we have the opportunity together with Ukraine to solve the tasks of economic construction—we can solve the main task: to collect a large amount of grain and food products, to deliver them to industrial centers, to begin industrial construction. On this task, we need to concentrate all our forces. Any distraction from it to any other practical tasks is unacceptable; it must be solved with military means, with complete ruthlessness, with complete suppression of all other interests. We know that a whole range of legitimate demands and interests will suffer, but if we did not go for this damage—in the war, we would not have won. Now it is required to make a sharp and rapid transition to create a base for peaceful economic construction. This base should be the creation of large stocks of food and their delivery to the central region; the task of transport—the task of delivering raw materials and products. If from August 1917 to August 1918 we collected 30 million poods of grain, in the second year—110 million, now in 5 months—90 million, collected by the apparatus of our Comprod, collected by a socialist, not capitalist method, at fixed prices, by distribution among peasants, not by sale on the free market—this means we have found our way. We are confident that it is correct and will give us the opportunity to achieve such results that would ensure us a huge economic construction.

All forces must be dedicated to this task, all military forces that have shown themselves in military construction must be thrown onto these new tracks. This is the unique situation, this unique transition that gave rise to the idea of labor armies, led to the law on the creation of the first labor army in the Urals and the Ukrainian labor army, then the law on the redirection of the reserve army's forces to labor tasks, then the decree issued by the Soviet power on committees for labor duty{48}. All these laws will be presented to you in detail by a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Of course, I cannot go into this area, because it can be illuminated sufficiently brightly in a special report. I only emphasize the significance of this in our general policy, the significance of this transition, which sets before us unique tasks—to strain all forces in a military manner, to organize them, to collect large stocks of food products and deliver them to the centers of industrial construction. For this, at all costs, to create labor armies, to organize ourselves in a military manner, to compress, narrow, even close a whole series of institutions, so that in the coming months, at all costs, to overcome the collapse of transport, to get out of this desperate situation, when the end of winter brings such cold, hunger, and impoverishment. We must get out of this. We can do this. And when the All-Russian Central Executive Committee confirms all measures on labor duty and labor armies, when it further instills this idea into the broad masses of the population and demands its implementation from all local workers—we are completely confident that we will cope with this most difficult task without weakening our military readiness in the slightest.

We must, without weakening our military readiness, at all costs, transfer the Soviet republic onto new tracks of economic construction. In the coming weeks, perhaps in the coming months, this task must be carried out. Each Soviet or party organization must strain all its forces to put an end to the collapse of transport, to increase grain reserves.

Only then will we have a base, a solid foundation for broad industrial construction, for the electrification of Russia. And to show the population, and especially the peasantry, that we have broad plans in this regard, not taken from fantasy, but supported by technology, prepared by science—for this, I think, we must pass—I hope that the Central Executive Committee will approve—a resolution proposing that the Supreme Council of National Economy and the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, in agreement with each other, develop a project on the issue of the electrification of Russia.

Thanks to the help of the State Publishing House and the energy of the workers of the former Kusnerev printing house, now the 17th state printing house, I managed to achieve the publication of Krzhizhanovsky's brochure "Basic Tasks of the Electrification of Russia" in a very short time. Tomorrow, this brochure will be distributed to all members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. This brochure by Comrade Krzhizhanovsky, who works in the electrical engineering sub-department of the Supreme Council of National Economy, summarizes what has already been done and raises questions, the propaganda of which—not the practical application, but the propaganda—will now be one of the most important tasks.

I hope that the Central Executive Committee will adopt the resolution that, on behalf of the Central Executive Committee, sets the task for the Supreme Council of National Economy and the People's Commissariat of Agriculture to develop, over several months—our practical tasks during this time will be different—to develop, with the assistance of representatives of science and technology, a broad and complete plan for the electrification of Russia. The author of the brochure is absolutely right when he chose as an epigraph for it the saying: "The age of steam—the age of the bourgeoisie, the age of electricity—the age of socialism." We must have a new technical base for new economic construction. This new technical base is electricity. We will have to build everything on this base. This will take many years. We are not afraid to work for 10 and 20 years, but we must show the peasantry that instead of the old isolation of industry and agriculture, this deepest contradiction that fed capitalism, sowed discord between industrial workers and agricultural workers—we set the task of returning to the peasantry what we received from it in the form of grain, for we know that paper money, of course, is not an equivalent of grain. This loan we must return through the organization of industry and the supply of its products to the peasantry. We must show the peasants that the organization of industry on the modern highest technical base, on the basis of electrification, which will connect the city and the countryside, will put an end to the discord between the city and the countryside, will make it possible to culturally raise the countryside, to overcome even in the most remote corners backwardness, darkness, poverty, disease, and barbarism. We will start this immediately, as soon as we cope with our next, main task. For this, we will not be distracted from our main practical task for a minute.

darkness, poverty, disease, and barbarism. We will take this up immediately after we have coped with our immediate, primary task. We will not be distracted from our primary practical task for a single moment.

In the coming months – all efforts on the delivery of food and the expansion of the food base. There must be no slightest distraction from this. And alongside this, let the specialists in science and technology develop a many-year plan for the electrification of all Russia{49}. Let the connection with the outside world, with capitalist Europe, which we have established, that window which we have broken through by concluding peace with Estonia, serve to provide us with the necessary technical assistance immediately. And having resolved the primary tasks of transport and food in the coming months, having resolved the tasks of labor conscription, on which we will concentrate all our forces, without being distracted by anything else in the near future, having resolved them, we will show that we are capable of moving on to the tasks of construction for a number of years, to the tasks of transferring all of Russia to a higher technical base, which will eliminate the division between town and country and give the opportunity to completely and decisively overcome that backwardness, that fragmentation, dispersion, rural darkness, which is the main cause of all stagnation, all backwardness, all oppression up to now. And in this area, in the area of this peaceful victory on the bloodless front of industrial reorganization, if we apply all our military skills, with all our energy, with all the concentration of forces on this task, we will achieve victories even more decisive, even greater, than those we achieved on the military field. (Applause.)

A brief newspaper report was published on February 3, 1920, in "Pravda" No. 23 and "Izvestia VCIK" No. 23

First published in full in 1950 in the 4th edition of the Collected Works of V. I. Lenin, Vol. 30

Printed from the stenographic record