The opening a new epoch. The short speech given by Lenin, just emerging from the underground, on November 7, 1917 at the sitting of the Petrograd Soviet as it took power into its own hands.

‘Lenin’s First Speech After the Revolution’ (1917) from The Communist. Vol. 13 No. 1. January, 1934.

COMRADES: The workers’ and peasants’ revolution, of the necessity of which the Bolsheviks have always spoken, is accomplished. What significance has this workers’ and peasants’ revolution?  The significance of this revolution consists, above all, in the fact that we have a Soviet Government: our own organ of power, without any participation of the bourgeoisie. The suppressed masses themselves will constitute the power. The old State apparatus will be shattered to its foundation and a new administrative apparatus will be created in the shape of the Soviet organs.

There now commences a new epoch in the history of Russia. The present third Russian revolution must ultimately lead to the victory of socialism.

One of our next tasks is the immediate liquidation of the war. But in order to be able to end this war, which is closely bound up with the present capitalist order, it is obvious that capital itself must be vanquished.

In this cause the international labor movement, which is already beginning to rise in Italy, England and Germany, will hasten to our aid.

The just and immediate peace which we have proposed to international democracy will everywhere arouse an enthusiastic response among the masses of the international proletariat. In order to strengthen the confidence of the proletariat all secret treaties must be published.

In Russia a great part of the peasantry has said: Enough of playing with the capitalists. We shall go with the workers! We are winning the confidence of the peasants with a decree abolishing private property in land. The peasants will understand that they will find their well-being in alliance with the working class. We shall introduce a real workers’ control of production.

We have now learnt to work in firm fellowship together. That is proved by the revolution which has just been accomplished. We have at our disposal that force of a mass organization which will vanquish everything and lead the proletariat to world revolution. In Russia we must now engage in building up the proletarian socialist State.

Long live the socialist world revolution!

There are a number of journals with this name in the history of the movement. This ‘Communist’ was the main theoretical journal of the Communist Party from 1927 until 1944. Its origins lie with the folding of The Liberator, Soviet Russia Pictorial, and Labor Herald together into Workers Monthly as the new unified Communist Party’s official cultural and discussion magazine in November, 1924. Workers Monthly became The Communist in March 1927 and was also published monthly. The Communist contains the most thorough archive of the Communist Party’s positions and thinking during its run. The New Masses became the main cultural vehicle for the CP and the Communist, though it began with with more vibrancy and discussion, became increasingly an organ of Comintern and CP program. Over its run the tagline went from “A Theoretical Magazine for the Discussion of Revolutionary Problems” to “A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism” to “A Marxist Magazine Devoted to Advancement of Democratic Thought and Action.” The aesthetic of the journal also changed dramatically over its years. Editors included Earl Browder, Alex Bittelman, Max Bedacht, and Bertram D. Wolfe.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v13n01-jan-1934-communist.pdf