Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women
guerillas! Working people of the Soviet Union!
On behalf of the Soviet
Government and our Bolshevik Party, I greet you and congratulate you on
this day of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the victory of the great
October Socialist Revolution.
A quarter of a century ago the workers
and peasants, under the leadership of the Party of Bolsheviks and of
the great Lenin, established in our country the Power of the Soviets.
The peoples of the Soviet Union have traversed a glorious path during
this period.
In the course of twenty-five years our Motherland has
become a mighty Socialist industrial and collective farming power. The
peoples of the Soviet State, having won their freedom and independence,
united in indissoluble fraternal friendship. The Soviet people were
freed from all oppression, and by their stubborn labour ensured for
themselves a prosperous and cultured life.
At the present time the peoples of our country are celebrating the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the great October Socialist Revolution in
the heat of fierce struggle against the German-fascist invaders and
their accomplices in Europe.
At the beginning of this year, in the winter period, the Red Army
inflicted substantial blows on the German-fascist troops. Having beaten
off the attack of the Germans against Moscow, it took the initiative
into its hands, passed to the offensive and drove the German troops to
the west, liberating a number of regions of our country from German
slavery.
Thus the Red Army showed that, under certain favourable
conditions, it could overcome the German-fascist troops.
In the summer, however, the situation at the front changed for the
worse. Utilizing the absence of a second front, the Germans and their
allies swept together all their reserves, hurled them against our
Ukrainian front and pierced it.
At the cost of enormous losses, the
German-fascist troops succeeded in advancing in the south and
threatening Stalingrad, the Black Sea coast, Grozny and the approaches
to the Trans-Caucasus.
True, the steadfastness and courage of the Red Army shattered the plans
of the Germans for outflanking Moscow from the east and delivering a
blow from the rear against the capital of our country. The enemy was
halted at Stalingrad.
But, having been halted at Stalingrad, and having
already left there tens of thousands of his soldiers and officers, the
enemy is throwing new divisions into battle, exerting his last efforts.
The struggle on the Soviet-German front is becoming more and more
tense. On its outcome depends the fate of the Soviet State, the freedom
and independence of our Motherland.
Our Soviet people have passed with
honour through the ordeals which have fallen to their lot and are
filled with unshakable faith in victory. The war has been a stern test
of the strength and stability of the Soviet system. The calculations of
the German imperialists that the Soviet State would disintegrate have
been completely confounded.
The socialist industry, the collective farm
system, the friendship of the peoples of our country, the Soviet State,
have displayed their stability and invincibility. Workers and peasants,
all the intelligentsia of our country, our whole rear, are honestly and
self-sacrificingly working to satisfy the requirements of our front.
The Red Army is bearing the whole brunt of the war against Hitlerite
Germany and its satellites. By its self-sacrificing struggle against
the fascist army it has won the love and respect of all freedom-loving
peoples of the world.
The men and commanders of the Red Army, who
previously had not had adequate military experience, have learned to
smite the enemy for sure, to destroy his man-power and equipment, to
frustrate his hostile plans, and steadfastly to defend our towns and
villages from the foreign enslavers.
The heroic defenders of Moscow and
Tula, Odessa and Sevastopol, Leningrad and Stalingrad displayed
examples of supreme courage, iron discipline, steadfastness and the
ability to conquer. The whole of our Red Army is on a par with these
heroes. The enemy has already felt on his hide the Red Army’s capacity
for resistance. He will learn still more of the force of the smashing
blows of the Red Army.
There can be no doubt that the German invaders will again hurl
themselves into new adventures. But the forces of the enemy have
already been blunted and strained to the limit.
During the course of
the war, the Red Army has put out of action over 8,000,000 enemy men
and officers. The Hitlerite Army, diluted with Rumanians, Hungarians,
Italians and Finns, has now become considerably weaker than in the
summer and autumn of 1941.
Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerillas!
On your stubbornness and steadfastness, on your fighting ability and
readiness to fulfil your duty to the Motherland depends the rout of the
German-fascist army, the clearing of Soviet soil from the Hitlerite
invaders!
We can and must clear our Soviet soil of the Hitlerite filth!
To do this it is essential:
1. Steadfastly and stubbornly to defend the line of our front, not to
permit the enemy to advance further, with all our strength to wear down
the enemy, to exterminate his man power, to destroy his equipment.
2. To strengthen to the utmost degree iron discipline, strict order and
single command in our army, to perfect the military training of troops,
and to prepare, stubbornly and persistently, a crushing blow against
the enemy.
3. To fan the flames of the popular guerilla movement in the rear of
the enemy, to devastate the enemy rear, to exterminate the
German-fascist blackguards.
Comrades! Once already the enemy has felt the force of the blows of the
Red Army at Rostov, at Moscow, at Tikhvin. The day is not far distant
when the enemy will feel the force of new blows of the Red Army. There
will be rejoicing in our streets.
Long live the twenty-fifth anniversary of the great Socialist October Revolution!
Long live our Red Army!
Long live our Navy!
Long live our glorious men and women guerillas!
Death to the German-fascist invaders!
(Signed) J. V. Stalin People’s Commissar for Defence