Page:Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (1922).djvu/12



HE Fourth World Congress of the Communist International, meeting in its first session in Petrograd, the city where the world proletarian revolution had its beginning and where the Soviet Government was born, sends its warmest greetings and congratulations to the workers, peasants, and Red Army men of Soviet Russia who are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the great November Revolution.

Comrades, five years ago, by your heroic assault upon the fortress of the old world, you have overthrown the rule of landlords and of the capitalist class in your country; you have conquered and torn out of the hands of capital the sixth part of the globe; you have defended in conditions of a most severe civil war, against world capitalism, the land of the Soviet Republic, this heritage of the entire world proletariat, and now you have the opportunity to advance every day along the path of peaceful Socialist reconstruction period.

This victory was not secured by you easily; hundreds of thousands of working men and peasants have laid down their lives for the cause of Communism. For a period of years the working class had to live in conditions of the greatest suffering and want, hearing every day and night the cries of their hungry children. But the working class did not lower its red banner, and led by its unbending vanguard—the Russian Communist Party—it has valiantly, and with firm step, gone through the most difficult part of its road.

Kneeling together with you before the innumerable graves of proletarians and Red Army men who have fallen for our common cause upon the vast plains of Soviet Russia, the Fourth Congress acknowledges with great joy that already at the time of the fifth anniversary of the November Revolution, and when only one year of peaceful reconstruction has passed, Soviet Russia is rapidly healing the wounds inflicted on her in the struggle. The industry and agriculture of the country are being noticeably re-established. The material conditions of the working class are: improving. A new generation of the youth of the working class is growing up which is mastering science and technical knowledge. The forces of the workers and peasants of the Red Army are increasing, and at the same time the working class of Russia hold fast in their hands the power of Government.

The Fourth Congress assembles on Soviet territory at a time when the dark clouds of capitalist reaction are gathering over the workers of the world. Everywhere capitalism is fighting against all economic achievements of the working class. Everywhere wages are being decreased, the eight-hour day is