Page:Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky - Third Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (1921).djvu/16

 16 peace was concluded with Esthonia. It seemed that we had finished with the chief enemies of the Soviet Government. In the spring of 1920 the workers and peasants were preparing to pass over to peaceful labour. The government of the workers and peasants of Russia decided to conclude peace with the Polish White Guards, and offered them most advantageous terms. However, the Polish landlords and capitalists did not wish to have peace, and at the command of the English and French capitalists, attacked the workers and peasants of Russia at the moment when they were passing over to peaceful labour and the Red Army was being demobilised. The Polish White Guards took Kiev and threatened Smolensk. The toiling masses of the people entered this war, which was forced upon Russia, with a strong belief in final victory.

The enemy had to be defeated so thoroughly that the Polish landlords' sword might never again hang as a menace over the heads of the peasants and workers of Russia engaged in peaceful labour. The Polish White Guards were unable to stand the shock of the Red Army and they retreated upon Warsaw. But their army remained intact. It was necessary to crush this army commanded from Paris and London by foreign capitalists, and end the war. The Polish barons, however, having gathered strength, took the offensive, compelling us once more to retreat, and a new winter campaign was in contemplation. The Soviet Government, wishing to spare the people, proposed once more peace to the Polish capitalists and landlords on terms very favourable for them and difficult for us.