Charles E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America, died on April 1, 1927. As were his wishes, his ashes were sent to Moscow for burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Thousands attended the funeral, with Bukharin giving this oration at his internment on April 26, 1927.

‘Funeral Oration for Comrade Charles E. Ruthenberg’ by Nikolai Bukharin from the Daily Worker. Vol. 4 No. 107. May 18, 1927.

Moscow, April 26, 1926.

COMRADES, we are lowering into the grave today the ashes of Comrade Ruthenberg, the leader of the comparatively small but energetic Communist Party of the United States of North America.

In the entire world, comrades, there exist two opposite poles of a struggle, two fundamental, powerful historical forces. around which secondary and weaker forces group themselves and unite: these two poles are on one side the United States of American the forces of the old, the forces of capitalist counter-revolution, the forces of imperialism; on the other side the Union of Socialist Republics–new forces, the forces of the Communist Revolt, the forces for the construction of socialism. And while our country which only ten years ago was the stronghold of the most barbarian, the most despotic tsarist reaction, has been transformed into the great land of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, at the other pole of the earth, in the United States of America, there still reigns, still flourishes, still rules the most powerfully armed, the most highly developed imperialistic capitalism. The bourgeoisie of the United States at the present time represents the hegemony, the leadership of all the plundering, reactionary, counter-revolutionary forces of the entire world, of everything tending to support the old order. And in the great events of the Chinese revolution we see the United States of America in league with Great Britain pursue their “peaceful” policy of robbing and torturing the Chinese people.

A great symbol is hidden in the present occasion. The fact that the ashes of comrade Ruthenberg are now here, that Comrade Ruthenberg, the leader of our American Communist Party, which carries on the struggle under the most difficult conditions, willed before his death to be buried in Moscow; that his ashes were brought here under our red banners; that his remains will rest side by side with the remains of our best fighters, side by side with Lenin, side by side with scores of other great proletarians, who raised the banner of revolt in the days of October and who sacrificed their lives on the barricades, fighters whose bones paved the road for the growth of our great future,–in all that there is a great symbol hidden.

OUR leader died in a country which at present is the main support of international capitalism. He willed that his ashes be transferred to the country of the Proletarian Dictatorship, a country which is incomparably weaker than his native country, which is a so-called “civilized” country, a country of refined executioners of the working class. In this there is a great symbol. Here is hidden the profoundest historical idea of unity of the world proletariat, the symbol of solidarity of the working class, the symbol of the Proletarian Dictatorship. The proletariat, the symbol of solidarity power directed against the enemies of the working class, is the embryo of the great brotherhood of all toilers, and it is easily understood that the workers of all lands, all nations, all languages, of all races see in the Communist International their banner, see in Moscow the capitol of that great country which will finally become the mother-country of the entire world. In the graves of the great fighters of the revolution, at the Kremlin wall, they see the commune of the dead martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the brotherhood of the working class.

COMRADES, we are particularly grieved over the loss of our comrade Ruthenberg. American capitalism is still powerful. Bourgeois ideology is still penetrating the American working class. Our American Party is still small, her leaders are few in number, the Communist movement is just beginning to develop in America. There is a great future before them, but, before they will reach that future, the fighters for American Communism will be compelled to pass many difficult roads and overcome many obstacles. Communism in America is just being born, and the Communist Party is passing through its period of childhood. The Party is growing day by day, but it is still small, while its enemy is the most powerful on earth. That is the reason for our great grief over the loss of the leader of the American Party. But we also know that our grief is not the grief of the people who are ready to shed tears. When we mourn the death of our leader; when we today mourn the death of Comrade Ruthenberg; when we assembled here today and bent our mourning draped banners over a new fresh grave, this gathering, this funeral, this meeting ought to serve as a signal for a more energetic fight for cur ideas, for our aims, and slogans, under whose banners Comrade Ruthenberg carried the fight.

COMRADES, again the world is entering a difficult stage in its development. Again we hear the march to battle, again are ripening powerful historical events. And now together with the growing Chinese revolution, with the conspiracy of the imperialists against U.S.S.R., together with the threatening danger of war, we hear the growing widening call of the communists, a call to carry on a systematic stubborn fight, a call to organize our forces, a call to raise the banners still higher, so that the working class of all countries, the oppressed peoples of all lands, the toiling peasants of the entire world, will meet the terrible hour in a different manner from the one in 1914 when the working class was fooled and stupefied by the bourgeoisie and deceived and betrayed by the social democrats. This preparatory work of mobilizing our forces can be done as it should be done by Communist Parties only, and only the Communist International, as the great international brotherhood of the working class, which is marching towards emancipation. Not for a moment, not for a second shall our energy become exhausted. On the contrary, again and again we say to ourselves: with the death of Comrade Ruthenberg we lost one of the most active workers of the Communist International. But we will answer this loss with still greater efforts on our part. We will answer this loss with still stronger mobilization of our forces. We will answer this loss with a more energetic organization of our great struggle, the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist yoke, the struggle for the emancipation of the entire oppressed humanity, a life and death struggle against the forces of imperialism, a life and death struggle for a Communist society, for the emancipation of all humanity. And at this time we say to ourselves: Comrades, workers, proletarians of all countries unite.

Courageously and fearlessly carry on the great struggle.

Long live our victory.

Long live the International Revolution.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1927/1927-ny/v04-n107-NY-may-18-1927-DW-LOC.pdf