Page:Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky - Third Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (1921).djvu/17

 Rh The war with Poland compelled us to send against Wrangel inconsiderable forces, which offered him a chance to gather strength, until he was in a position to menace the Donetz basin and the whole of the Ukraine. It then became necessary to settle Wrangel at all costs. By the winter of 1920, he will undoubtedly have met with the fate of Denikin.

Celebrating the third anniversary of Soviet government, the workers and peasants of Russia may look back with pride upon the road trodden by them, and be full of hope for the future. They have maintained Labour Russia against the onslaughts of native and foreign capital at the cost of terrible sacrifices; they have created a powerful Red Army, and the time is not far distant when, after they have defeated all their enemies on the military front; they will turn the energies of the many millions of peasants and workers to the peaceful front of labour.

No bourgeois government in the world could maintain itself in power even for the space of three weeks under the impossible difficulties which the Soviet Government had to overcome in the three years of its power. A bitter heritage was left us by the Tsar and Kerensky. There was not a single branch of industry, a single railway, or a single factory which was not disorganised or on the point of collapse. The stock of raw materials was running out, and new supplies were not forthcoming. Machinery was wearing out and new material could not be obtained, and there was nobody to pay attention to it.