V. I. Lenin

Speech At A Meeting Of The Prokhorov Textile Mills Workers, Held To Mark

The Fourth Anniversary Of The October Revolution

November 6, 1921 [1]

Brief Newspaper Report (The entire audience rises. Prolonged applause.) If we
glance back over the past four years we see that in no country
of the world but Russia have the proletariat won complete
victory over the bourgeoisie. But if we have been successful it
is only because the peasants and workers knew they were fighting
for their land and their rule. The war against Denikin, Wrangel
and Kolchak was the first occasion in history when the working
people fought successfully against their oppressors. The second
cause of our victory is that the Entente could not fling
sufficient numbers of loyal troops against Russia, as the
soldiers of France and the sailors of Britain did not want to go
and oppress their brothers.

Four years have enabled us to perform a miracle without
parallel, in that a starving, weak and half-ruined country has
defeated its enemies-the mighty capitalist countries.

We have won a strong position for ourselves in the world, one
without parallel and totally unforeseen. What still remains is
the tremendous task of setting our national economy going. All
that we have achieved goes to show that we base ourselves on the
most wonderful force in the world-that of the workers and
peasants. This makes us confident that we shall meet our next
anniversary with victory on the labour front.

Endnotes

[1] The meeting,
attended by 2,00 workers, was organised as an eveningof
reminiscences.

Lenin spoke in his capacity of Deputy to the Moscow Soveit
elected by the workers of the Prokhorov Textile Mills