V. I. Lenin

Appeal To The International Proletariat [1]

Several gubernias in Russia have been hit by a famine whose
proportions are apparently only slightly less than those of the
1891 calamity.

It is the painful aftermath of Russia’s backwardness and
of seven years of war, first, the imperialist, and then, the
Civil War, which was forced upon the workers and peasants by the
landowners and capitalists of all countries.

We need help. The Soviet Republic of workers and peasants
expects this help from the working people, the industrial
workers and the small farmers.

The mass of both the former and the latter are themselves
oppressed by capitalism and imperialism everywhere, but we are
convinced that they will respond to our appeal, despite their
own hard condition caused by unemployment and the rising cost of
living.

Those who have suffered from capitalist oppression all their
lives will understand the position of the workers and peasants
of Russia, they will grasp or, guided by the instinct of working
and exploited people, will sense the need of helping the Soviet
Republic, whose lot it was to be the first to undertake the hard
but gratifying task of overthrowing capitalism. That is why the
capitalists of all countries are revenging themselves upon the
Soviet Republic; that is why they are planning a fresh campaign,
intervention, and counter-revolutionary conspiracies against
it.

All the greater, we trust, will be the vigour and the self-sacrifice with which the workers and the small labouring
farmers of all countries will help us.

N. Lenin

August 2, 1921

Endnotes

[1] Lenin’s
Appeal to the International Proletariat in connection with the
famine which hit almost 33 million people in the Volga area and
South Ukraine met with a broad response among the working people
of all countries. An “Ad hoc Foreign Committee for
Assistance to Russia” was set up on the initiative of the
Comintern in August 1921. French revolutionary trade unions
called on the workers to contribute a day’s earnings for
the famine stricken population of Russia. Henri Barbusse and
Anatole France played an active part in organising assistance,
and the latter contributed to the fund the Nobel Prize he was
awarded in 1921. About one million francs were collected in
France. Czechoslovakia contributed 7,5 million korunas in cash
and 2 million korunas’ worth of food; the German Communist
Part collected 1.3 million marks in cash and I million marks’ worth of food; Dutch Communists collected 100,000
guilders; the Italians, about 1 million liras; the Norwegians,
100,000 krones; the Austrians, 3 million krones; the Spaniards,
50,000 marks; the Poles, 9 million marks; the Danes, 500,000
marks, etc. By December 20, 1921, Communist organisations had
bought 312,000 poods of food and collected 1 million gold
rubles. The organisations of the Amsterdam International bought
85,625 poods of food and collected 485,000 gold rubles.