Date: November 6, 1949
Source: World News and Views vol. 29, No. 46; November 12, 1949
Online Version: Marxists Internet Archive, August 2014
Transcription/HTML Markup/Proofreading: The Rust Belt School, August 2014
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2014). 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.
We print below extracts from the speech of G.M. Malenkov delivered at the celebration meeting of the Moscow Soviet on the occasion of the 32nd Anniversary of the Great October Revolution. —World News and Views
Suffice it to recall that in the thirty-two years of its existence the Soviet Union has stood the test of two strenuous wars—the war of 1918-1920 against internal and external enemies, and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 against the Nazi invaders.
On the other hand, we know that the United States of America, the strongest of the capitalist countries, developed for more than eighty years virtually in the midst of peace, without anyone hindering the building of its economy. This is a fact of no little significance, which no one who wants to form an honest and objective judgment of the achievements of the Socialist economic system should forget.
Our people profoundly believe in the rightness of their cause. The Marxist-Leninist theory, having gripped the minds of the masses, has become a stupendous force in the struggle for the triumph of the new over the old, for the triumph of Socialism over capitalism.
Comrades, if we are asked what is the main thing in our foreign policy, it is, to put it briefly, that the Soviet Union stands for peace and upholds the cause of peace. The Soviet Union unswervingly pursues a policy of peace and friendship among the nations. We do not want war and we shall do everything in our power to prevent it.
The peaceable policy of the Soviet Union springs from the very roots and underlying foundations of the Socialist system and from the interests of the Soviet people. We have completely abolished the age-old exploitation of man by man in our country, and thereby we have eliminated the reasons and causes which in the capitalist world give rise to the policy of exploiting and enslaving other nations.
We have created a model of brotherly co-operation among peoples of different races and nationalities which is unparalleled in human history, and thereby we have cast aside forever the policy of building the welfare of one State on the suppression of other States. A policy which makes the suppression of the national sovereignty of other peoples its guiding principle is alien to us.
A Socialist State has no need for foreign expansion. It has no need of colonial seizures. The Soviet Socialist system has eradicated the causes that give rise to economic crises, from which the rulers of the capitalist world usually seek escape in warlike gambles.
The imperialists pin their hopes on warlike gambles because they are afraid of peaceful competition with Socialism. But it is quite evident that warlike gambles promise the imperialists nothing but disaster.
The Soviet people do not fear peaceful competition with capitalism. That is why they are against a new war and stand in defence of peace, although they firmly know and are absolutely convinced that their strength is invincible.
The Soviet people are fully conscious of their responsibility to history. They showed this when, not sparing their strength, they rose in a solid wall to save their country and all progressive humanity from the onslaught of the fascist barbarians. They are showing it in the post-war years, when well-known imitators of the fascist barbarians are brandishing over the world the bloody sword of a new war.
True to its unswerving policy of peace, the Soviet Government has ever since the war stood for a programme which, if realised, would substantially strengthen peace and international security. This programme includes co-operation of the Great Powers, reduction of armaments and unconditional prohibition of the atomic weapon. This programme provides for the strict observance of the Potsdam decisions on the German question, a peace settlement with Japan and expansion of trade and economic relations among countries.
If this programme is not being realised, it is solely because it does not suit the warmongers. However, the Soviet Government is not relaxing its efforts for the strengthening of peace. It continues to recommend that the preparations for a new war which are being conducted in a number of countries, notably in the United States and Great Britain, should be condemned, that the atomic weapon be unconditionally prohibited and adequate international control be established.
The Soviet Government recently made a proposal that the five great Powers—the United States, Great Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union—should conclude a pact for the strengthening of peace. It is possible that the warmongers will frustrate this proposal.
Nevertheless, the Soviet Union will continue to fight for peace, and with still greater energy. The Soviet people will spare neither strength nor effort to consolidate and enlarge the ranks of the supporters of peace it the utmost and to foil the criminal plans of the aggressors.
One of the most important component elements of the aggressive line of the warmongers is what is known as atomic diplomacy, the adventurist character of which has now become fully, revealed. For, indeed, this diplomacy was based upon the absolutely false initial assumption that the United States possessed a monopoly of the atomic weapon. Actually, as we know, the Soviet Government made no secret of the fact that it possessed the atomic weapon. In 1947 the Soviet Government made it known to the world that the secret of the atomic bomb no longer existed. Nevertheless the overweening warmongers, devoid of all sense of reality, are still not desisting from their notorious atomic diplomacy.
We do not want war and we shall do everything on our part to prevent it. But let nobody think that we are scared by the warmongers' sabre-rattling. It is not we but the imperialists and aggressors who should be afraid of war.
What does the experience of history tell us?
It tells us that the First World War, unleashed by the imperialists, led to the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in our country.
The experience of history further tells us that the Second World War, unleashed by the imperialists, led to the establishment of people's democratic regimes in a number of countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe and to the victory of the great Chinese people.
Can there be any doubt that if the imperialists unleash a third world war, it will mean the grave not of individual capitalist States but of the whole world of capitalism?
And there is another thing which should be borne in mind. The time has passed when the warmongers could delude the American people into the belief that they will not have to make any heavy sacrifices in a war, that cannon-fodder for war can be found in plenty in Europe and Asia. The American people are beginning to realise that the time has come when the imperialists cannot fight only with the hands of other nations. The American people are beginning to realise that if the warmongers start a new slaughter of peoples or bloodbath, the grief of mothers, of wives, sisters and children will visit the American continent too. And it is a terrible grief. The warmongers will inevitably be suffocated and drowned by it.
Comrades, nearly one-third of a century has elapsed since that auspicious day when on one-sixth of the globe a new era began in the history of mankind.
Today we Soviet people recall with especial pride the epoch-making deeds performed by our Party and our people under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin.
The great October Socialist Revolution lives and triumphs in the deeds of our glorious Bolshevik Party, in the deeds of the glorious people of the Soviet land. The driving and directing force in our advance towards Communism is our Communist Party. The Party cements, inspires and organises the Soviet people, unites their efforts for the achievement of the great aim of building Communist society. Its living bond with the people grows stronger from day to day. Therein lies the source of the invincibility of the Party and the might of the Soviet State. Our Party is a united, monolithic and invincible force, rallied as never before around the
Central Committee, around Comrade Stalin. This unity of the Bolshevik ranks has always been, is and will be the basis of the strength of our Party.
The great October Revolution, its ideas of fighting for peace among nations, for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, for equality and friendship among nations, live and triumph in the Socialist construction now unfolded in all the People's Democracies, in the historic upsurge of the great Chinese people, in the foundation and consolidation of the peace-loving German Democratic Republic.
The great October Revolution lives and triumphs in the fight which the mighty front of the supporters of peace, democracy and Socialism is waging against the forces of imperialist aggression, against the instigators of a new war.
Let the doomed, the condemned by history, rage in their fury! The greater the frenzy in the camp of the warmongers, the greater should be the calm and restraint in our camp of peace. Guided by the genius of Comrade Stalin, our teacher and leader, we face the morrow with confidence. We firmly know that the worldwide triumph of Socialism and democracy is inevitable.
G.M. Malenkov Archive | MIA Library