The Eighth Congress of Soviets held at the end of 1920 is, perhaps, best remembered for its national electrification plan and Lenin’s missive, ‘Communism is the Soviet Government plus the electrification of the whole country,’ taken from this speech.

‘Problems before the Eighth Congress’ by Nikolai Lenin from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 4 No. 11. March 12, 1921.

[The following speech was made by Lenin after the speech of the chairman, Kalinin, at the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets which opened in Moscow on December 22. It is a report on the international and internal situation of the Soviet Republic.]

THE policy of the Entente, which is directed towards military intervention and the military suppression of the Soviet Government is continually suffering defeat. We are continually drawing into our policy of peace an ever-growing number of states that are undoubtedly hostile to the Soviet Government. The number of states that are signing peace treaties with us is growing, and it can be said with full confidence that the final peace treaty with Poland will be signed in the immediate future. Thus, another grave blow will be dealt to the alliance of capitalist countries, which has been striving to overthrow us by military means.

Wrangel’s Defeat

Our temporary setbacks in the war against Poland were due to the fact that we were compelled to fight Wrangel, who was officially recognized by one of the imperialist powers, and who received incredible military supplies and all other kinds of material means. We had to crush Wrangel at all costs, and you know what unprecedented heroism our Red Army displayed in overcoming these obstacles, storming fortifications recognized by military experts to be invulnerable. The complete, decisive, rapid, and splendid victory that we gained against Wrangel forms one of the brightest pages in the history of our Red Army. The war forced upon us by the Russian White Guards is liquidated.

On the Alert

We can now set to work on economic construction with much more assurance, but we should be on the alert; under no circumstances can we consider ourselves insured against war. The capitalist powers and the remnants of Wrangel’s forces are not yet exterminated. Other White Guard Russian organizations are endeavoring to organize military forces, to throw themselves upon Soviet Russia at any convenient moment. We must therefore preserve our military preparedness at all costs. Nay, we should improve the fighting quality of the Red Army. This, of course, does not hinder the freeing of a certain part of the army and its rapid demobilization. We think that the vast experience that has been acquired by the Red Army and its leaders during the period of the war will help us to improve its quality. And in diminishing our army, we will preserve a fundamental nucleus that will not be an excessive burden to the Republic, and yet will at the same time make it possible to mobilize and fit out large military forces, more easily than has been the case hitherto.

Our Relations With the Neighboring States

All the neighboring states have already learned the lesson of the past. After three years, they have all been forced to see that when we manifest the most conciliatory and peaceful spirit, we are at the same time ever ready in the military sense, and that every attempt to involve us in war will turn against our enemies and they will get worse terms than those they might have obtained without war. This is not a mere threat, but has been proved by facts. Thanks to this circumstance, our relations with the neighboring states are constantly’ improving.

In regard to the Latvian Government, I must say that at one time there was the danger of break in the relations, even going as far as the idea of suspending diplomatic relations. At the last moment, however, we learned that a change had taken place in the policy of Latvia and that many misunderstandings had been removed. There is hope that we will be in close economic relations with Latvia in the near future.

The Success of Our Policy in the East

Our policy in the East during the last year has achieved great success. The instances of Bokhara and Azerbaijan have shown that the ideas and principles of the Soviet Government are accessible to and immediately realizable not only in industrially developed countries with such a social support as the proletariat, but also among the peasantry. The idea of the peasant soviets has triumphed.

We should likewise hail the imminent signing of the treaty with Persia. Similar friendly relations are likewise assured with Afghanistan and still more with Turkey.

As regards the latter, all the plotting of the Entente has proved futile; union and friendly relations are assured in so far as the international policy of the imperialist states inevitably results in the rapprochement, the union, and friendship of all the oppressed.

The Negotiations With England

At the present time, negotiations are still going on with England. But unfortunately these negotiations are being protracted, and not by any fault of ours. We are ready to sign the commercial contracts immediately, and the fact that they have not been signed up till now is exclusively the fault of those in the British ruling circles who desire to sever the negotiations, against the will of the majority even of the bourgeoisie, let alone of the workers. The longer this kind of policy is going to continue the more acute is the financial situation in England going to become; England is only approaching nearer to a full agreement, instead of perhaps a half agreement.

Concessions

Among the number of important laws that the Soviet Government has passed for this period is the Decree on Concessions. We do not in the least hide the risk that the Soviet Republic runs in making these concessions, as it is a very weak and backward country. Here I must quote a highly characteristic statement made by a non-party peasant concerning concessions at the Arzamas County Congress of Soviets: “Comrades”, he said, “we are sending you to the National Congress and declare that we, peasants, are prepared to starve, freeze, and suffer for another three years, if we know that mother Russia won’t be sold by concessions.”

We hail this expression of sentiment—which is very widespread—with delight. For us it is highly demonstrative that among the non-party masses of both worker and peasants during these three years there has grown that political experience which allows and induces one to appreciate above all the emancipation from the capitalists, which induces one to regard with threefold vigilance and intense suspicion every step that may possibly carry with it new danger as far as the reestablishment of capitalism is concerned. We, undoubtedly, mark such statements with great attention, but we should explain there can be no talk about selling Russia to the capitalists. The concession contracts have nothing in common with the selling of Russia, but they do give the possibility of alleviating the position of our workers and peasants, and this is a thing that cannot be trifled with.

The Moment of Transition

The present political moment is characterized by the fact that we are living through a transition period, when we leave the war and go over to economic construction.

The dictatorship of the proletariat has survived because it was able to combine coercion with conviction. The Kolchak and Denikin experiences have convinced the peasantry that only the iron hand of proletarian leadership will save the peasants from exploitation and violence. And it is only thanks to the fact that we have succeeded in convincing the peasantry of this, that our policy, based on the firm and absolute conviction of its righteousness, has achieved such great success. Now we should remember that in going over to the front of labor, the same task is put before us under new circumstances and on a broader scale. In our war with the White Guards, our worker and peasant masses displayed an energy that was not and could not have been equalled in any other country. This was one of the basic reasons why we, after all, defeated the stronger enemy.

At the present moment, new economic problems are coming to the fore, the problem of the single economic plan, the reorganization of the very foundations of Russian economy and of small peasant farming. These problems demand that absolutely all the members of the trade unions be drawn into this work. The peasant masses and the members of the trade unions must learn to understand that Russia belongs to us, that we, the workers and peasants, by our activity and our strict labor discipline alone can rebuild the old economic conditions of existence into one great economic plan. Outside of this there is no salvation.

We must get all, absolutely all, the members of the trade unions interested in production, and see that they understand that Soviet Russia can triumph on the economic front as well, only by increasing the productivity of labor.

Development of Agricultural Production

I now pass on to the bill concerning the development of the farming industry and support of the peasant farms, which the Council of People’s Commissars has submitted to the Congress for confirmation.

We have been and remain a country of small farmers, and with us the transition to Communism is infinitely harder than under any other conditions.

Our fundamental task here is to convince the peasant masses of the necessity for State levies, in the interests of all the toilers of Soviet Russia. All our forces of propaganda, all our State means and our education, all our Party forces, should be resolutely applied to uplift our non-party peasants. Only after we have convinced the bulk of the peasantry of the necessity for intensified farming shall we be able to establish our chief mainstay, agriculture and farming. We are the peasants’ debtor, we recognize that we have taken his crops in exchange for paper-money, but we will return this debt as soon as we establish our industry. And to establish it we must have the surplus of the farming industry.

Electrification

Allow me a few words on the last question, the question of electrification, which has been put on the agenda of the Congress. This report on this most cardinal question, upon which the development of future proletarian Russia depends, should serve as the prologue to a whole series of similar special reports, which from now on should be put on the agenda of all our congresses, both in the center and in the provinces. I think that we here today are the witnesses of a very great change: the rostrum of our national congresses will be occupied not only by politicians and administrators, but also by engineers and agriculturalists. This is the beginning of that happy epoch when people will speak less and less about politics, and the whole attention of our congresses and conferences will be fixed on economic construction, and the enrichment of Soviet Russia with new creative realities. This change should encompass our Soviets and organizations from top to bottom.

From the reports of the State Commission on Electrification you can see what tremendous work has been accomplished in this sphere. A number of the best specialists of the Supreme Council of Public Economy, over one hundred men, have entirely devoted themselves to this task, and as a result we see a printed volume of their investigations. In my opinion, this book should become the second program of the Party, for we can’t start on actual construction unless we have electrification. The reestablishment of our farming industry, the reestablishment of transport and other important branches of industry, is possible only through the steady carrying out of the program of electrification, of which I have spoken.

Communism is the Soviet Government plus the electrification of the whole country. Our victory will be final only after we have electrified the whole country, when our industry, agriculture, and transport will be organized on the technical basis of big industry.

I have been to the Volokalamsky country in a village during the opening of an electric station. One of the local peasants who spoke at this celebration, said:

“We peasants have been living in the dark, and now we have been given unnatural light, light that will illuminate our peasant life.”

Of course, it isn’t the light that is unnatural, but it is unnatural that the peasants have lived for centuries in darkness and oppression. We must make it our task that every factory and every electric station shall become a hearth of enlightenment. And when Russia is enveloped in a dense network of electric stations and powerful technical plants, then our Communist economy will become an example for the future Socialist Europe and Asia.

Soviet Russia began in the summer of 1919, published by the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia and replaced The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. In lieu of an Embassy the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was the official voice of the Soviets in the US. Soviet Russia was published as the official organ of the RSGB until February 1922 when Soviet Russia became to the official organ of The Friends of Soviet Russia, becoming Soviet Russia Pictorial in 1923. There is no better US-published source for information on the Soviet state at this time, and includes official statements, articles by prominent Bolsheviks, data on the Soviet economy, weekly reports on the wars for survival the Soviets were engaged in, as well as efforts to in the US to lift the blockade and begin trade with the emerging Soviet Union.

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