Radio to Inprecorr.
International Press Correspondence, Vol. 2 No. 102, 24 November 1922, p. 821.
Transcription & HTML Markup: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists’ Internet Archive (2021). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Moscow, November 14
Comrade Zetkin concluded her speech: Five years of Russian revolution and the prospects of the world revolution. The Bolscheviki have employed force, but they have not maintained themselves by force only. Communism can only be realized on international lines. The world revolution cannot advance at a run. Errors of calculation in the pace can be compensated again by perseverance and manoeuvring. A modus vivendi had to be found in dealing with the Russian peasantry and with world capitalism.
The speaker goes on to refer to the new economic policy, and points out that the agrarian policy of the Russian revolution is an object lesson of Marxist thought. The hunger for land under which 80 per cent of the peasant population suffered was utilized as a revolutionary factor. The weakness of the central power the lack of modern large-scale agricultural undertakings, and of an up-to-date peasant proletariat, determined the agrarian policy adopted by the Russian government. The electrification of the country is the best agrarian reform, accelerating the evolution towards communism. The initial aim of the Russian revolution was the socialization of large industrial undertakings, of the means of transport, the banks, and foreign trade; also the control of production Russia was forced info war-communism by the counter-revolutionary interventions. Despite this it has maintained more than its initial position. The concessioned industries will never become masters of the house, as the state power is always on the side of the worker. In Soviet Russia the political power of the proletariat rules. The eight-hour day, the socialized industries, the development of social legislation, and the education of the people, have brought about an improvement in the position of the proletariat. In Germany, on the other hand, the coalition is working towards placing industry in the hands of the Stinnes party, towards doing away with the eight hour day, and for abolishing the social laws; the masses of German workers, unable to ward off the catastrophe of the falling mark, sink into utter want and destitution. Soviet Russia is the highest type of the proletarian state. The policy of the Russian Communist Party is the consequent realization of Marxism. At the same time unity with the masses is preserved. We must learn from the revolutionary idealism of the Russian proletariat. (Applause)
Last updated on 5 January 2021