"Anyone who loves freedom owes such a debt to the Red Army that it can never be repaid.”
— Ernest Hemingway.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary since the foundation, on February 1918, of the heroic Soviet Army- known in all over the world as the RED ARMY- we republish a speech by Joseph Stalin delivered on February 25, 1928 at the Moscow Soviet.
Three Distinctive Features of the Red Army
Pravda, No.50, February 28, 1928.
Original Source: Works, Vol.11, Jan.28-Mar.29, Moscow 1954.
Republished from Marxists Internet Archive.
Comrades,
permit me to convey the greetings of the Central Committee of our
Party to the men of our Red Army, the men of our Red Navy, the men of
our Red Air Force, and, lastly, to our potential servicemen, the
armed workers of the U.S.S.R.
The
Party is proud that, with the assistance of the workers and peasants,
it has succeeded in creating the first Red Army in the world, which
in great battles fought for and upheld the liberty of the workers and
peasants.
The
Party is proud that the Red Army has acquitted itself with honour in
travelling the hard route of fierce battles against internal and
external enemies of the working class and peasantry of our country,
that it has succeeded in taking shape as a mighty militant
revolutionary force, to the terror of the enemies of the working
class and the joy of all the oppressed and enslaved.
The
Party is proud that the Red Army, having travelled the long route of
the liberation of the workers and peasants from the yoke of the
landlords and capitalists, has at last won the right to celebrate its
jubilee, marking the completion of the tenth year since its birth.
Comrades,
wherein lies the strength, what is the source of the strength of our
Red Army?
What
are the features which radically distinguish our Red Army from all
armies that have ever existed in the world?
What
are the distinctive features which constitute the source of the
strength and might of our Red Army?
The
first fundamental distinctive feature of our Red Army is that it is
the army of the liberated workers and peasants, it is the army of the
October Revolution, the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
All
armies that have ever existed under capitalism, no matter what their
composition, have been armies for the furtherance of the power of
capital. They were, and are, armies of capitalist rule. The bourgeois
of all countries lie when they say that the army is politically
neutral. That is not true. In bourgeois countries, the army is
deprived of political rights, it is not allowed into the political
arena. That is true. But that by no means implies that it is
politically neutral. On the contrary, always and everywhere, in all
capitalist countries, the army was, and is, drawn into the political
struggle as an instrument for the suppression of the working people.
Is it not true that the army in those countries suppresses the
workers and serves as a buttress of the masters?
In
contrast to such armies, our Red Army is distinguished by the fact
that it is an instrument for the furtherance of the power of the
workers and peasants, an instrument for the furtherance of the
dictatorship of the proletariat, an instrument for the liberation of
the workers and peasants from the yoke of the landlords and
capitalists.
Our
army is an army of liberation of the working people.
Have
you considered the fact, comrades, that in the old days the people
feared the army, as indeed they fear it now in the capitalist
countries; that between the people and the army is a barrier
separating the one from the other? And how is it with us? With us, on
the contrary, people and army constitute a single whole, a single
family. Nowhere in the world is there such an attitude of love and
solicitude on the part of the people for the army as in our country.
In our country the army is loved and respected, it is the object of
general solicitude. Why? Because for the first time in the history of
the world the workers and peasants have created their own army, which
serves not the masters, but the former slaves, the now emancipated
workers and peasants.
There
you have a source of the strength of our Red Army.
And
what does the people’s love for their army mean? It means that such
an army will have the firmest of rears, that such an army is
invincible.
What
is an army without a firm rear? Nothing at all. The biggest armies,
the best-equipped armies collapsed and fell to pieces when they did
not have a firm rear, when they did not have the support and sympathy
of the rear, of the labouring population. Ours is the only army in
the world that has the sympathy and support of the workers and
peasants. Therein lies its strength, therein lies its might.
The
desire of the Party, its task, is to see to it that this distinctive
feature of the Red Army, its closeness to and fraternal connection
with the workers and peasants, is preserved and made permanent.
A
second distinctive feature of our Red Army is that it is an army of
brotherhood among the nations of our country, an army of liberation
of the oppressed nations of our country, an army of defence of the
liberty and independence of the nations of our country.
In
the old days, armies were usually trained in the spirit of
dominant-nation chauvinism, in the spirit of conquest, in the belief
of the need to subjugate weaker nations. That, indeed, explains why
armies of the old type, capitalist armies, were at the same time
armies of national, colonial oppression. Therein lay one of the
fundamental weaknesses of the old armies. Our army radically differs
from the armies of colonial oppression. Its whole nature, its whole
structure, is based on strengthening the ties of friendship among the
nations of our country, on the idea of liberating the oppressed
peoples, on the idea of defending the liberty and independence of the
socialist republics that go to make up the Soviet Union.
That
is a second and fundamental source of the strength and might of our
Red Army. Therein lies the pledge that at a critical moment our army
will have the fullest support of the vast masses of all the nations
and nationalities inhabiting our boundless land.
The
desire of the Party, its task, is to see to it that this distinctive
feature of our Red Army is likewise preserved and made permanent.
And,
lastly, a third distinctive feature of the Red Army. It is that the
spirit of internationalism is trained and fostered in our army, that
the spirit of internationalism imbues our Red Army through and
through.
In
the capitalist countries, armies are usually trained to hate the
peoples of other countries, to hate other states, to hate the workers
and peasants of other countries. Why is this done? In order to turn
the army into an obedient herd in the event of armed clashes between
states, between powers, between countries. That is a source of
weakness of all capitalist armies.
Our
army is built on entirely different principles. The strength of our
Red Army lies in the fact that from the day of its birth it has been
trained in a spirit of internationalism, that it has been trained to
respect the peoples of other countries, to love and respect the
workers of all countries, to preserve and promote peace among
countries. And precisely because our army is trained in the spirit of
internationalism, trained to understand that the interests of the
workers of all countries are one, precisely for this reason our army
is an army of the workers of all countries.
And
that this is a source of our army’s strength and might, the
bourgeois of all countries will learn if they should venture to
attack our country, for they will then see that our Red Army, trained
as it is in the spirit of internationalism, has countless friends and
allies in all parts of the world, from Shanghai to New York and from
London to Calcutta.
That,
comrades, is a third and fundamental distinctive feature which imbues
the spirit of our army and constitutes a source of its strength and
might.
The
desire of the Party, its task, is to see to it that this distinctive
feature of our army is likewise preserved and made permanent.
It
is to these three distinctive features that our army owes its
strength and might.
This,
too, explains the fact that our army knows where it is heading for,
because it consists not of tin soldiers, but of enlightened people
who understand where to head for and what to fight for.
But
an army that knows what it is fighting for is invincible, comrades.
That
is why our Red Army has every ground for being the best army in the
world.
Long
live our Red Army!
Long
live its soldiers!
Long
live its leaders!
Long
live the dictatorship of the proletariat which created the Red Army,
gave it victory and crowned it with glory!
