November 6, 1945

Information Bulletin, Embassy of the U.S.S.R.

Comrades! After several years of a hard war we are today celebrating the 28th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution under conditions of peace and a glorious victory over fascism. We have left behind four years of war against Hitlerite Germany, which had ravaged our country and the whole of Europe, and also the war in the East against aggressive Japan, in which we had to join in the autumn of this year.

In an heroic struggle, in which the Soviet people played a part of decisive importance, peace has been won for the peoples of the entire world, and the main hotbeds of world fascism and world aggression, both in the West and in the East, have been crushed. Now we have the opportunity of returning to peaceful labor so as to consolidate our victory.

As Comrade Stalin said: "Our Soviet people have given unstintingly of their strength and their labor for the sake of victory. We have lived through hard years. But now each one of us can say: We have won. From now on we can consider our country saved from the threat of German invasion in the West and of Japanese invasion in the East. The long-awaited peace has come for the nations of the world."

The Germans invaded our country in the belief that the suddenness of their bandit attack would guarantee them success. Not in Germany alone, but also in other countries many people thought that the Soviet Union would not hold out for long, and that in a few weeks, or at any rate in a few months, Germany would smash the U.S.S.R. and Hitler would celebrate victory. After the comparatively easy successes of the Hitlerites in western Europe many believed this to be inevitable.

This conclusion was reached, in the first place, by those who in general did not recognize the "legitimate nature" of the October Revolution in Russia, and also by those who proved incapable of understanding the truly popular nature of the Soviet State created by our Revolution.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union was also a great test for our friends abroad, who with sinking hearts followed the exceptional hardships experienced by our country in the first phase of the war.

Despite the suddenness of the attack, the Soviet Union stayed on its feet. The material damage and deep wounds inflicted on it in the early part of the war failed to undermine its physical and spiritual strength.

The Red Army proved capable of reorganizing and recovering from the first blows. The Soviet people strained its forces and ensured a shattering rebuff to the enemy. Everyone remembers the time when our Army switched from the defensive to the offensive, at first on isolated sectors and then all along the front.

The interests of self-defense necessitated the formation of a united anti-Hitler front of democratic states, big and small. It is universally known that the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition effectively accomplished its historical task of organizing the joint struggle of the democratic countries against Hitlerism. It is also well known that the opening of the Second Front in Western Europe, when Germany was caught in a vise between two fronts, made the position of German fascism hopeless. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the radical turn in the situation on the Soviet-German front occurred fully one year before the opening of the Second Front, when the Hitlerite troops started rolling back in disgrace before the Red Army's powerful and ever-growing onslaught.

Thus the State created by the October Revolution succeeded not only in defending itself from fascist attack, but also in launching an offensive in order to put an end to the principal hotbed of fascism and aggression. It then became plain to everyone that the Soviet system bears no resemblance to the decrepit Tsarist power of the times of the First World War. Thus it became evident that the Soviet State could defend itself with credit, and withstand the gravest trials ever known in the country's history.

Hitlerite Germany threatened not only the Soviet State. Even before they attacked the U.S.S.R., the German-fascists seized Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Among their allies were not only fascist Italy, but a number of other European countries which had concluded military alliances with Germany. Spain and certain other countries rendered Hitler semi-open support. The menace of Hitlerite attack loomed over Britain. Had the drive into the Soviet Union ended in success, the whole of Europe could have fallen under Hitler's heel.

Already the Hitlerites were praising to the skies the "new order" they proposed to institute in Europe. Fascist underlings, like the Quislings and Lavals of all varieties, had already harnessed themselves to their German master's cart. Everywhere the domination of Hitlerism was established by destroying all democratic institutions and abolishing all the political rights of the working classes, while at the same time the Hitlerites plundered and squeezed the enslaved countries of all their material resources, the better to supply and arm their bandit fascist hordes.

Their initial successes, when they invaded the Soviet Union, turned the Hitlerites' heads more than ever. They started talking even more frankly not only of their domination of Europe, but of their claim to dominate the world. Their dangerous plans-adventurist plans to establish the domination of the German race over the other nations of Europe, and not of Europe alone-were revealed to the whole world. The German-fascist theory of the domination of a "master race" over other nations classed as "inferior races" became a direct menace to the existence of European civilization.

In the countries invaded by the Hitlerite bands the peoples proved poorly prepared to offer a rebuff to the fascist invaders. Only gradually, thanks to the efforts of the finest patriot-democrats, did the democratic forces of resistance to the invaders begin to take shape and grow.

But even in those countries where, as in Yugoslavia, the entire people supported the uprising against the invaders, forces were lacking to break the military might of Hitlerism. It was not until our Army swung into the offensive and started battering the German troops, having divested them of their halo of invincibility, that broad opportunities opened for the liberation of the peoples enslaved by German imperialism. Advancing to the West, the Red Army brought liberation to neighboring countries and other European nations. The Soviet Armies, together with the Allied Armies, now acted as the liberators of the European countries, including those countries which had broken their alliance with Germany and joined the ranks of the nations fighting for the destruction of Hitlerism.

Thus the liberation of the European countries from Hitlerite oppression will go down in the history of our victorious Red Army as a glorious page.

Fascist Italy was the first to come in on Germany's side when she had unleashed war in Europe. At the time of the attack on the U.S.S.R., the governments of Rumania, Hungary and Finland, having concluded military alliances with Hitlerite Germany, plunged their countries into war against the Soviet Union. Bulgaria, with a government which at that time consisted of Hitlerite agents, also became Germany's ally. Thus, with some exceptions, those European countries where fascist regimes prevailed bound their destinies with those of Hitlerite Germany in the Second World War.

Germany's defeat, therefore, meant not only defeat for German fascism, it also resulted in the defeat of fascism in other European countries Consequently, the significance of our victory should be appraised not only in the light of the defeat of German fascism, but also in the light of the military, moral and political defeat of fascism throughout Europe.

After the termination of the war in Europe, the Allied powers were faced with the task of crushing Japanese aggression in the East in order to speed up restoration of world peace. The Soviet Union could not hold itself aloof from this task, both because of mutual obligations existing between the U.S.S.R. and its Allies, and because of the imperative demands of the interests of our security in the East.

All of us remember that in the past Japan more than once attacked our country, and that our State constantly faced the threat of Japanese invasion in the East. All this rendered inevitable the Soviet Union's entry into the war against Japan.

It is not difficult to see that, since the time when German fascism started suffering defeat after defeat on the Soviet-German front, the outcome of Japanese aggression in the East was also predetermined. Having finally come out against Japan, the Soviet Union accelerated her defeat and so hastened the end of the war in the East. Following in the footsteps of Hitlerite Germany, Japan surrendered to the Allies.

Both German imperialism's plan to dominate Europe, and the claims of Japanese imperialism to dominate Asia have crumbled, although but recently both western and eastern fascists regarded those plans only as a stepping stone to world domination-showing by their own example how short-sighted and adventurous aggressive intentions of this kind are in our times.

The defeat of Japanese imperialism, the main hotbed of fascism and aggression in the East, and the liberation of China from the Japanese invaders are of enormous positive significance for the democratic development of the countries of Asia, and not of Asia alone. The interests of all the democratic countries demand that this victory be consolidated.

It is therefore natural that the Soviet Union should attach such great significance to negotiations between the Allies on the establishment of proper control by the principal Allied powers over the execution of the terms of Japan's surrender. Difficulties arising out of this problem have not as yet been eliminated. But the Soviet Union expresses confidence that all the peace-loving powers fully realize the necessity of consolidating victory over aggressive Japan, and of creating proper conditions for the cooperation of the Allied powers for this purpose

Both Germany and Japan were forced to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. Thus the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition attained its goal. The people of our country realize with satisfaction that the Soviet Union has played a decisive part in bringing the Second World War to a victorious end in the interests of the democratic countries, and especially in crushing the most dangerous hotbed of fascism and aggression-Hitlerite Germany.

The Soviet people gave the name of Great Patriotic War to their war against Hitlerite Germany. Their example became a model for patriots in other lands in their fight for their countries' freedom and independence. It is also well known that the Soviet people not only liberated our own country, but also fought heroically for the re-establishment of peace and freedom throughout Europe.

One year ago Comrade Stalin said: "It is now universally acknowledged that by their selfless struggle the Soviet people have saved the civilization of Europe from the fascist vandals. That is the great service rendered by the Soviet people to the history of mankind."

The Second World War differed from the First World War in many respects, and in the first place in the scale on which the nations participated, and in the number of victims and the material damage caused by the war. Four-fifths of the population of the globe participated, in varying degrees, in this last world war. More than 110,000,000 persons were mobilized in both belligerent camps. It is practically impossible to name any country which was neutral in those years.

For allowing the Second World War to break out, that is, for failing to take timely measures against the aggressive forces of fascism, which unleashed this war of unparalleled scale, humanity paid an incalculable price in human lives and in the devastation of many states. War was imposed on our people, whose answer to invasion was the proclamation of a Great Patriotic War.

Hitlerite Germany attacked the Soviet Union not only with the aim of seizing our territory and destroying the Soviet State. Hitlerism proclaimed that its aim was the extermination of the Russian people and the Slavs in general. Until the time when the Russian people, as also the other peoples of the Soviet Union, completely re-formed their ranks in conformity with Stalin's call, "Everything for the front," and when they finally broke the backbone of the German Army, the brutal Hitlerites did not stop at anything in pursuit of their man-hating purposes in the territories they seized. To forget this would be a crime against the memory of millions of absolutely guiltless people who have perished, against their orphaned families, against the entire nation. Nor can we forget the enormous material damage inflicted on us by the German invaders and their allies in the many long months of their brigandage on Soviet territory.

The chief war criminals, before all else, must be made to answer for this. The German-fascist invaders completely or partially demolished and burnt down 1,710 towns and more than 70,000 villages; burnt down or demolished over 6,000,000 buildings, and left nearly 25,000,000 people homeless. Among the demolished and most heavily damaged cities are the biggest industrial and cultural centers of our country, such as Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don and many more.

The Hitlerites demolished or damaged 31,850 industrial enterprises employing nearly 4,000,000 workers and office employees. They ruined and ransacked 98,000 collective farms, including most of the collective farms of the Ukraine and Byelorussia. They slaughtered or seized and carried away to Germany 7,000,000 horses, 17,000,000 head of cattle, and tens of millions of pigs and sheep.

The direct loss alone inflicted on our national economy and our citizens has been estimated by the Extraordinary State Committee at 679,000 million rubles at government prices. We cannot forget all this, and we must demand of the countries which unleashed the war that they at least partially indemnify the damage they caused. The justice of this desire of the Soviet people is undeniable. Nor should it be overlooked that the decisions of the Berlin Three Power Conference on reparations by Germany have not yet made satisfactory headway.

None of us, however, advocates a policy of revenge toward vanquished peoples. Comrade Stalin has pointed out more than once that the desire for revenge, like the desire for retribution for grievances, is a poor counsellor in politics and in relations among peoples.

We should not be guided by desires for revenge, where the vanquished peoples are concerned, but should strive to hinder the outbreak of fresh aggression, and to place any new aggressor in a position of utmost isolation among the nations. It is not past wrongs that should guide our actions, but the interests of the maintenance of the peace and security of the nations in the postwar period.

Indisputably, for the sake of ensuring a stable peace the peace-loving nations must possess the necessary armed force. This refers, at any rate, to the countries which bear the main responsibility for ensuring peace. But the interests of safeguarding peace have nothing in common with the policy of an armaments race among the Great Powers, which is preached abroad by certain especially zealous partisans of imperialist policies.

In this connection one should mention the discovery of atomic energy and the Atomic Bomb, whose application in the war with Japan demonstrated its enormous destructive power. However, atomic energy has not as yet been tested for the purpose of preventing aggression or safeguarding peace.

On the other hand, there can at present be no such technical secrets of great importance as could remain the possession of any single country or any narrow group of countries. Therefore the discovery of atomic energy should encourage neither fancies concerning the utilization of this discovery in the international play of forces, nor a carefree attitude toward the future of the peace-loving nations.

There is also quite a lot of noise going on in connection with the creation of blocs and groups of states as a means of safeguarding certain interests in foreign relations. The Soviet Union has never belonged to groupings of powers aimed against other peace-loving countries. In the West, however, attempts of this kind were made repeatedly, as is well known.

The anti-Soviet nature of a number of such groups in the past is also well known. In any case, the history of blocs and groupings of Western powers proves that they served not so much to curb aggressors, but rather on the contrary, to encourage aggression, and aggression by Germany in the first place.

That is why the Soviet Union and other peace-loving states should not relax their vigilance in this respect. The re-establishment of peace throughout the world has by no means resulted, and could not result, in the re-establishment of the prewar situation in relations among countries. For some time to come Germany, Italy and Japan have dropped out of the list of great powers which set the tune in international life as a whole. This is as it should be for the period during which the Allies exercise united control over them-control aimed at preventing the revival of aggressiveness in these countries, but which does not hinder their development and progress as democratic, peace-loving states.

Of considerable significance for the future of Europe is also the fact that a number of fascist and semi-fascist states have taken the democratic road, and are now striving to establish friendly relations with the Allied states. It seems evident that the consolidation of democratic principles in those states should be supported, not obstructed.

One cannot fail to notice that in the camp of the Allied countries, too, the war has brought about no insignificant changes. There, as a rule, the reactionary forces have been to a considerable extent dislodged from their former positions, clearing the road for democratic parties, old and new.

In a number of European countries radical social reforms have been carried out, such as the abolition of the antiquated system of big landed estates, and the transfer of the land to the poor peasants, which undermines the former mainstay of the reactionary fascist forces and stimulates the growth of the democratic and socialist movement in those countries.

Some states now place on the order of the day such important economic reforms as the nationalization of big industry, the eight-hour working day, and so on, which lends a new spirit and confidence to the growing ranks of the democratic movements in Europe and outside of Europe. Some reactionary press organs try to ascribe these bold democratic reforms mainly to the increased influence of the Soviet Union. The hollowness of such contentions is obvious, as it is common knowledge that problems of this kind have been successfully solved in the progressive European countries before now.

This does not mean that the forces of fascism have been finally crushed, and need not be reckoned with any longer. All of you have read the Crimean declaration of the Three Powers on liberated Europe, saying: "The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of nazism and fascism, and to create democratic institutions of their own choice."

Much still remains to be done to ensure the proper execution of the Crimean declaration. There is no doubt, however, that with all its negative consequences, the war against fascism, having ended in victory, has helped in many respects to clear the political atmosphere of Europe, and opened new roads for the regeneration and development of the anti-fascist forces as never before.

This situation undoubtedly meets the interests of the peace-loving states, and one should wish that realization of the necessity of "destroying the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism" may take even firmer root among the European peoples.

The Soviet Union has always been true to the policy of strengthening normal relations between all peace-loving states. In the years of war the Soviet Union established friendly relations with Great Britain and the United States, with France and China, with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and now has long-term treaties with nearly all these countries of alliance and mutual assistance against any possible new aggression by the states which were the main aggressors in this last world war.

On our part, everything possible is being done to establish normal and good relations also with those other countries which discarded their policy of hostility and mistrust of the Soviet Union. The same purpose is also served by the development of trade and economic relations between our country and an ever-growing circle of foreign states. With them cultural relations, too, are being strengthened.

The Anglo-Soviet-American anti-Hitler coalition, formed during the war, is now undergoing a test of its strength. Will this coalition prove as strong and capable of joint decisions under new conditions, when more and more new problems of the post-war period are arising? The failure of the London Conference of Five Ministers was a certain warning in this respect.

But the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition encountered difficulties during the war, as well. However, the coalition of three Powers proved able to find, though not always at once, the correct solution of the immediate problem in the interests of the entire anti-Hitler coalition of large and small states-a solution that also took into account the need for further strengthening the cooperation of the great democratic powers.

This year a new international organization, the "United Nations," has at last been founded. It has been set up on the initiative of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition, which thereby assumes chief responsibility for the results of its future work.

It is clear to us that the "United Nations" organization should not resemble the League of Nations, which proved absolutely impotent in the matter of resistance to aggression and the organization of the forces of resistance to aggression once begun.

On the other hand, the new organization should not become the tool of any great power, since for any single power to claim a leading role in general world affairs is just as inconsistent as for it to claim world domination. Only the joint efforts of those powers which bore the burden of the war, and ensured the victory of the democratic countries over fascism-only such cooperation can make for the success of the work of the new international organization for lasting peace.

For this, it is not enough to express good intentions. What has to be proved is one's ability to cooperate in this fashion, in the interests of all peace-loving states.

The Soviet Union has been and will be a bulwark protecting the peace and security of the nations, and is ready to prove it by deeds, not words.

The glorious victories of our army will go down in the history of our country, and in world history, linked with the name of Generalissimo Stalin. Guided by Stalin, that great leader and organizer, we have now proceeded to peaceful construction, in order to attain the true blossoming of the forces of socialist society, and to justify the best hopes of our friends the world over.

The four years of war with Germany was a test for all the forces of the Soviet State. The Soviet Union passed this test with flying colors. The words of great, immortal Lenin again came true: "Never will that people be vanquished whose workers and peasants, in their majority, have realized, felt, and seen that they are defending their own Soviet power-the power of the working people; that they are defending a cause whose victory will secure for them and their children the possibility of enjoying all the blessings of culture; all the creations of human labor."

The Red Army emerged from the war covered with the glory of the victor. It has matured as an armed force, and grown even stronger in its Soviet fighting spirit.

Millions of people, so badly needed by the collective farms, mills and factories, and by our entire country, which has now addressed itself to the great task of securing a new upsurge of socialist construction, are now returning home to peaceful labor.

The Soviet people is now united around its Party as never before, and advances in organized ranks under the leadership of the Party of Lenin and Stalin. It was our great good fortune that in the hard years of war the Red Army and the Soviet people were led forward by the wise and tried leader of the Soviet Union-great Stalin.

Everyone knows how greatly the international prestige of the U.S.S.R. has grown. This became possible because of the military, economic and political achievements of our country. One year ago Comrade Stalin expressed this in the following words: "Just as the Red Army achieved military victory over the fascist forces in its long and arduous single-handed struggle, so the workers in the Soviet rear won economic victory over the enemy in their lone fight against Hitler Germany and her associates."

Comrade Stalin also said: "It is not only military defeat that the Hitlerites have suffered in this war, but moral and political defeat as well. The war has demonstrated to everyone how greatly our country has grown and strengthened in a military-economic respect. The war has also shown to no less an extent how greatly the Soviet Union's moral and political prestige has increased in the eyes of other peoples. We experienced exceptional economic hardships in the early years of the war; nevertheless our country proved capable of supplying our heroic army with everything it needed, including first-rate armaments superior in quality to the enemy's weapons."

Enduring the privations and hardships of wartime, the Soviet people worked without folding their hands, and we must pay tribute to our workers in the rear, especially to the selfless Soviet women and young people, so boundlessly loyal to their Motherland. It was this which permitted us to maintain the living standard of our people in the difficult time of war.

Millions of sons of the working class were mobilized and fought at the front. Yet the mills and factories continued working, owing to the influx of new cadres, especially from among the women and youth. Quite a few new factories, power stations, mines and railways were built during the war, mostly in the eastern districts of the country. Socialist emulation and new methods of raising labor productivity were invariably the main concern of the advanced workers and of the entire working class.

The trade unions and other workers' organizations carried on intensive organizational and educational work among the working masses. The workers, men and women alike, worked harder than before the war. Many difficulties were overcome as a result.

The collective farm peasantry demonstrated in war time its political consciousness and organization in agriculture, developed by the collective farm system. The peasants, men and women, have now perfectly realized the importance of socialist emulation on collective farms, and have done much to make up for the enormous damage inflicted on agriculture by the German invaders' temporary seizure of part of our country's territory.

All this enabled us to carry on through the war years with reliable grain stocks, and to supply the essential industrial enterprises with agricultural raw materials. It was not easy to cope with this task, especially if we recall that our Red Army consists chiefly of collective farmers.

Another factor which enabled us to cope with our war time tasks at the front and in the rear was that the Soviet intelligentsia did their duty to their Motherland. The war showed clearly what our intelligentsia has become under the Soviet system. One hears no more talk of the "old" and "new" intelligentsia. Life itself has eliminated this problem. The overwhelming majority of the intelligentsia honestly and effectively discharges its noble duty in organizing economic life, in training new cadres of specialists, in safeguarding the public health, and in raising the cultural level of the population. Today we may say with satisfaction that the Soviet intelligentsia are worthy of their people, and loyally serve their country.

The friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union has grown stronger during the war. Our multi-national state, with its different languages and varying modes of life, its varying culture and history, became even more united, and the Soviet peoples grew ever closer to each other.

No other multi-national state could have withstood the trials through which we passed during the war. Only our state, in which there is no place for the exploitation of man by man, in which there are no antagonistic classes, but instead workers, peasants and intellectuals, all equal citizens, administering both local affairs and the affairs of state-only such a state, and not the old Russia of nobles and merchants, could have withstood the German invasion in the hard years of 1941-42, smashed the reckless enemy with its own forces, thrown him out of its territory, and moreover rendered powerful assistance to other nations in their liberation from foreign enslavers.

Today in our country there are no oppressed or unequal peoples like those which only recently, under the Tsarist regime, were of colonial or semi-colonial status. In the Soviet State the rights of every people to independence and free national development are recognized. All peoples are reared in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect. They are also reared to recognize the services of each people, in accordance with its efforts to develop its own national culture and to advance still further the Soviet State as a whole.

The activity of our countless trade union, industrial, cultural, sports and other workers' organizations, the creation of collective farms uniting many millions of Soviet peasants all over the vast territory of the Soviet Union, the steady growth of socialist emulation at mills and factories, on collective and state farms, in mines and on railways-all these manifestations of the flourishing of a real democracy of the people, such as we did not know in the old days, and which cannot exist in any other state, divided into classes of oppressors and oppressed, a thing which in our country was done away with long ago by Soviet power.

The rapid progress of cultural life in our country, and the fact that our intelligentsia, the advanced and most cultured section of the people, have now merged with their people, so raising the moral and political unity of Soviet society to an even higher level-in all this one cannot fail to perceive a new advance of Soviet democracy, which inspires us with new hopes and confidence for our country's future.

The fact that the Soviets have ensured to all the peoples the steady progress of their national cultures, active care in fostering national talents, and growing friendship and fraternal mutual assistance among equal Soviet peoples, which was lacking in the old Russia, and which does not exist as yet in other countries, under either monarchist or republic regimes-all this bears witness to the all-conquering force of Soviet democracy, to its great significance for the truly progressive development of the peoples.

The mobilizing force of Soviet democracy and Soviet patriotism as a source of inspiration for heroic exploits was revealed with particular force during the war. The Soviet people are happy because, thanks to the October Revolution which saved our country from being reduced to the status of a second-rate state, the forces of the people, fettered by the regime of the nobility, bourgeoisie and big landowners, were set free and given unheard-of opportunities for development on the basis of the Soviet system. That is why our victory over fascism was also a great victory of Soviet democracy.

In the course of the war, the Soviet people had to step far beyond the borders of their country. The strong resistance of fascism compelled our troops to enter a number of foreign states, to learn more about life in their towns and villages, and to enter western capitals such as Vienna, Budapest and Berlin.

In all those states, including those which yesterday sided with fascism, the Soviet people easily found a common language with the working classes and democratic circles. Naturally, one could not expect that they would regard as their friends the enemies of yesterday, belonging to the camp of the servants of fascism and the upper circles of society which had been kept in their position by fascist regimes.

Acquaintance with the life of other nations will certainly be of benefit to our people, and will broaden their outlook. It is interesting, however, that the Soviet people return home with an even more ardent feeling of loyalty to their Motherland and the Soviet system.

The strength of the Soviet Government is its closeness to the people. Unlike parliamentary democracy, Soviet democracy is of a truly popular nature. Therefore the Soviet State, as a state of a new type, has tasks which are not inherent in states of the old type. Thus the duties of the Soviet State include the political education of the people in the spirit of safeguarding the interests of world peace, of establishing friendship and cooperation between peoples-which far from excluding, on the contrary calls for the exposure of all attempts to prepare new aggression and to regenerate fascism. This necessity should not be forgotten in the post-war years.

Under the Soviet Constitution it is a crime to preach hatred between races and nations, anti-Semitism, and so on-just as it is not permitted in our press to exalt crime, robbery and violence against man. Such "restrictions" are as natural, under Soviet democracy, as the very opposite is natural, unfortunately, in some other countries. In some countries freedom of speech and of the press is still interpreted in such a way that the mercenaries of fascism do not have to don masks in order to carry on unbridled propaganda in the interests of aggression and fascism, even though the peoples in all quarters of the globe have already paid an enormous price in blood and hardship for the orgy of the world aggression and fascism which they earlier allowed.

It is not every state that has enough strength to undertake the task of educating the people politically. When the fascist states tackled it, the only result was that they trampled on the spiritual life, culture and rights of the people.

The advantage of Soviet democracy were proved by the Soviet Union during the war with particular vividness. The U.S.S.R. passed through the fire of the war ordeal, and grew even stronger, as a genuine state of the people. As is generally known, in our country the Bolshevik Party bears a special responsibility for the political education of the people. It is in the first place to our great Party that we owe our achievements in this respect. That is why the Soviet people's words of gratitude and love for the leader of the Bolshevik Party-"Our teacher, our father and leader, Comrade Stalin"-are so full of meaning.

We are nearing the new elections to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. These general elections take place after ail the trials experienced by the Soviet State in the Great Patriotic War. Our people will bring to the polls the wealth of political experience they have gained in those years, after pondering deeply the destinies of their country, and developments in Europe and the whole world. The Bolshevik Party, together with wide circles of active Soviet nonparty citizens, is preparing for these elections, which it regards as a most important manifestation of Soviet democracy, and one more powerful means of rallying our people and further strengthening the Soviet State.

Our country has switched over to peaceful construction. Great new tasks are facing all the people. Naturally, we shall devote the necessary attention also to the new territories which have become part of the U.S.S.R. As is well known, the enemy who invaded our country prevented us from giving due attention to the organization of the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia, which before the war had formed part of the Soviet Union for only a short.

Now, by treaty with Poland, the new Soviet-Polish frontier has been established. As a result, all territories inhabited by Byelorussians have been finally reunited in one Soviet Byelorussia, which can advance with confidence along the road of free national development.

By virtue of the treaty with Czechoslovakia, as is known, the Transcarpathian Ukraine has also at last become part of our state, and now the Soviet Ukraine unites all the Ukrainian lands-an age-old dream of our Ukrainian brothers

By treaty with Rumania, Soviet Moldavia now embraces all the territories inhabited by Moldavians, which affords them extensive opportunities for further national development.

The western frontier of our country has likewise been extended by the inclusion of the Koenigsberg region in the Soviet Union, which gives us a good ice-free port on the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic area Soviet Lithuania, Soviet Latvia and Soviet Esthonia have been re-established.

Such are the contours of our present western frontier, which is of the greatest importance from the point of view of safeguarding the security of the Soviet Union.

In the northwest we have restored our frontier with Finland in conformity with the Soviet-Finnish Peace Treaty of 1940. Furthermore, the Pechenga (Petsamo) Territory, in the north, has been restored to the Soviet Union.

Lastly, as regards the Far East. Here the Soviet Union takes over South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands, which is important for the security of the U.S.S.R. in the East.

It remains to mention the restoration of the rights of our state to the railway in Manchuria, and to the Port Arthur and Daloy areas in the southern part of Manchuria.

All these areas, and also the area of our Porkkala-Udd naval base on Finnish territory, must receive proper attention from us, and in so far as they are new Soviet territories, will require the special attention of our state.

We must cope as soon as we can with our urgent tasks in Soviet territories which were temporarily occupied by the enemy armies. The Germans left behind them many ruined cities, thousands of ruined and plundered villages. Restoration began everywhere in these parts immediately the invader was driven out, but as yet only a small part of the work has been done.

The Soviet people, all the Soviet Republics, should bend their efforts to secure the early and complete economic and cultural rehabilitation of these districts.

The restoration of factories and mills, collective farms, machine-tractor stations and state farms, of schools and hospitals and dwellings-to give every urban and rural resident a home of his own for himself and his family-these are our urgent tasks.

Soviet institutions and trade unions, Party and Young Communist League organizations, also the collective farms and their organizations in the countryside should regard it as their chief duty to care for the men who did the fighting, and are now returning home from the army-to care, also, for the invalids, and for the orphaned families of Red Army soldiers. We must do everything in our power to cope effectively with this responsible task, and to heal the wounds of war at the earliest date. That is another urgent duty.

Right now, we must tackle the fundamental task of developing the national economy so that within a few years we may considerably surpass our pre-war standard of economic development, and ensure a considerable improvement in the living standard of the entire population.

That is the meaning of the recently published decision of the Party and the Government, on the drafting of a Five Year Plan for the rehabilitation and development of the national economy of the U.S.S.R., in the years 1946-50, and of the similar plan for the rehabilitation and development of railway transport.

Our people well know the power of the Stalin Five Year Plans which built up the might of our state, and ensured our victory. We need a new advance in heavy industry, in order to provide the country with more metal, coal, oil locomotives, rolling-stock, tractors, agricultural machines and automobiles, vessels of various kinds, power stations and many other things.

The people of the towns and villages expect a considerable increase in the output of consumer goods, also an improved food supply. The task of satisfying the needs of the collective farms, and the requirements of agriculture has become more urgent than ever. Our cultural requirements have grown and become more varied. Again, not for a moment can we forget our great duty to provide properly for the needs of the country's defense, the needs of the Red Army, the needs of the Navy.

We have no unemployment; and shall not have any. In our country everyone has work, for ours is a state of the working people. We must give more thought to the better organization of labor in industry, in agriculture, in transport and in all our institutions, so that the labor productivity of the Soviet citizen, and the quality of his work, may yield the best results.

In our day of advanced technology and the extensive application of science in industry, when it has even become possible to utilize atomic energy and other great technical discoveries, the utmost attention should be paid, in economic plans, to problems of technology, of raising the technological level of our industry, and of training highly skilled technical cadres.

We must keep abreast of the achievements of modern world technology in every branch of industry and the national economy, and secure conditions for an all-round advancement of Soviet science and technology.

The enemy interfered with our peaceful constructive work. But we shall catch up with everything as it should be, and will attain prosperity for our country. We shall have atomic energy too, and many other things.

So let us tackle these tasks with all our inexhaustible Bolshevik energy, with the mighty energy of Soviet people. Let us work as Comrade Stalin teaches us!

Lastly, about our tasks in foreign policy. The Soviet Union has always given first place to promoting peace and cooperation with other countries for the sake of universal peace and the development of international business relations.

While we are living in a "system of states," and while the roots of fascism and imperialist aggression have not been finally extirpated, our vigilance in regard to possible new violators of peace should not slacken, and concern for the strengthening of cooperation between the peace-loving powers will continue to be our most important duty.

We have no more important task than that of consolidating our victory, which we won in staunch struggle, and which has opened the road to a new great advance for our country and for further raising of living standards of our people. Never before have we faced prospects of socialist construction on so vast a scale, or such opportunities for the growth of the strength of the Soviet Union. Our people are full of faith in their great cause, the cause of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Long live the Soviet people, the victor people, and their Red Army and Navy!

Long live and prosper our great Motherland, the Motherland of the October Revolution!

Long live the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!

Long live the Party of Lenin and Stalin-inspirer and organizer of our victories!

Long live the leader of the Soviet people-great Stalin!