October, Lenin and the Prospects of Our Development

Stalin made this speech when the Soviet Union commemorated the 8th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution. It was first published in the 255th issue of Pravda on November 7, 1925. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 7 of the Complete Works of Stalin.

In view of the debate on socialist construction in the party at that time, Stalin put forward the idea of building socialism in order to unify the ideological understanding of the whole party.

First of all, the article compares the situation in 1925 with the October Revolution in 1917. Both 1925 and 1917 marked turning points in the revolutionary development. In 1917, the power of the bourgeoisie was transformed into the power of the proletariat, and in 1925, the economy that could not be completely called socialism was transformed into a socialist economy.

Stalin recalled the domestic and foreign environment at the time of the October Revolution. Internationally, there was war between the two European alliances, the socialist factor was growing throughout Europe, and there was the threat of a separate peace with Germany to stifle the Russian Revolution. Domestically, the Bolsheviks fought for a majority in the Soviets, peasant revolts were taking place throughout the country, the revolutionary movement on the front was on the rise, and the bourgeois government was isolated. This turning point ended with the victory of the workers’ and peasants’ revolts and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Later, Stalin summed up the domestic and foreign environment faced by the Soviet socialist economic construction in 1925. Internationally, the capitalist and socialist camps are in a temporary “breathing” state. There will be no war between capitalism and socialism. At home, the Soviet Union’s industry and cooperatives are growing, the living standards of workers and farmers are improving, the relationship between workers and farmers is improving, and the party’s prestige among the masses is increasing.

Finally, Stalin proposed the next task of the Soviet Union: (1) At home, the task is, on the one hand, to link the proletariat and poor peasants with the middle peasants on the basis of a firm alliance between them, to ensure the leadership of the proletariat within that alliance, to accelerate the development and re-equipment of our industry, to draw the vast masses of the peasantry into the co-operatives and thereby ensure the victory of the socialist core of our economy over the capitalist elements. (2) At the international level, the task is to establish an alliance both with the proletarians of all countries and with the colonial peoples of the oppressed countries in order to help the revolutionary proletariat in its struggle for victory over capitalism.