everywhere. armed detachments of
workers, called the Red Guard, were
being formed.

Zinovyev and Kamenyev, who were
still against the uprising, resorted to
direct treachery by publishing an art-
icle in one of the newspapers, in which
they named the exact time of the up-
rising. Warned in this way, the Prov-
isional Government took urgent meas-
ures to suppress the imminent Revolu-
tion. Army units most loyal to the gov-
ernment were moved from the front.
Kamenyev and Zinovyev wrote in the
newspaper that the uprising would
start after the Second Congress of
Soviets, scheduled to open on October
25, but the Central Committee decided
to start it earlier, on the 24th. The up-
rising Centre was headquartered in
Smolny, a former institute for the
daughters of the nobility, and it was
here that Lenin arrived in the evening
of October 24 in order to direct the up-
rising personally.

On a command from the headquart-
ers, the Red Guard units seized the key
positions and cut off approaches to
Petrograd so as to block the way for
the troops coming in from the front.
On the night of the 24th all government
buildings, including the Winter Palace,
site of the Provisional Government,
were surrounded. By the morning of
the 25th the Provisional Government
was overthrown and on the 26th the
Winter Palace was taken by storm and

__ Rises the pilot Five-Point Stor,
ja, salutel Not to your lands,

~~ But to your deathless workingclass
Who broke the spears of all the Tsars
 Upe breasts, thot we might

aunted doys and harried ways,
hounded slaves who breathe

all the former ministers were arrested.

The Second All-Russia Congress of
Soviets, which opened on October 25,
1917, (the first took place in June), pro-
claimed Soviet Power and adopted its
first Decrees, chief of which were the
Decree on Peace and the Decree on
giving the land over to the peasants,
The first Soviet Government was form-
ed, called the Council of People’s Com-
missars, and headed by Vladimir
Lenin.

On November 2, armed uprising was
victorious in Moscow. In 1918 Moscow
was made capital of Russia. From Oc-
tober 1917 to January-February 1918,
the Socialist Revolution won over most
of the territory of the former Russian
empire.

The beginning of the Civil War
and the intervention

The exploiting classes overthrown
by the October Revolution, and the de-
feated counter-revolutionary parties

\ 9904 -

ME OCTOBER DAYS

-~ JAUAIRI DIF AY — \A? db redmavowl

began a struggle against the new
power by means of economic boycott
and open revolt. Internal counter-revo-
lution was heavily supported, material-
ly and morally, from abroad. Later the
Entente and the USA started their in-
tervention.

In order to preserve the gains of the
Revolution and to cope with counter-
revolution, it was crucial for Soviet
Russia to disentangle herself from the
World War. Therefore, following the
refusal of the Entente Governments to
discuss the Soviet Government’s pro-
posals on concluding peace and termi-
nating the war, Russia began separate
iegotiations with Germany which end-
ed by the conclusion in March 1917 of
a humiliating Brest Peace Treaty. In
this way Russia avoided a final milita-
ry debacle and won badly needed time
to create a new army to fight the coun-
ter-revolution,

September and October 1919 were
the most critical months for Soviet
Russia since the revolution. But. by
1920 the young Soviet Republic had
defeated the last shock troops of the
counter-revolution and intervention, the
West-armed 740,000 strong Polish
Army, and an 150,000 man army of
General Wrangel in the Crimea.

Russia paid a heavy price for its
victory. Eight million people had suf-
fered because of the Civil War and
intervention imposed upon the newly-
born country; 112,000 were killed by
the White Guards and the interveniion-
ists in prisoner camps and in jails.
Three million were left homeless.- The
total damage was estimated at 50,000,-
000,000 gold roubles (about $26,000,000, -
000 at the exchage rate of chat time).
By late 1920, Russia’s industrial output
stood at 20 percent the pre-war level
and agricultural output at 50 percent.

A Passage to Peaceful Construction

In 1920, Russia’s Electrification Plan
was adopted. It had been worked out
by a State Commission set up specially
for the purpose, which included more
than 200 prominent specialists.

The electrification program, abbrevi-
ated GOELRO, from the first letters of
its Russian name, covered for the first
time in Russian history, not only the
centre of Russia, but also the Urals,
the Volga area, Middle Asia, the Cau-
casus, Siberia and the Far North.

The fulfilment of this plan was the
chief factor that enabled Russia to re-
habilitate most of its economy by 1925
when the gross output reached 90-95
percent of the pre-war level. In 1926
this level was surpassed.

On the whole, Russia’s economy was
rehabilitated after the Civil War under
the so-called New Economic Policy
(NEP), which lifted the war-time re-
strictions on private trade, small and
middle sized capitalist enterprizes. The
agricultural surplus requisitioning sys-
tem was replaced by a fixed tax, which
permitted the peasants, once the tax
was delivered, to sell surplus products
freely. This led to the tightening of
economic links between town and
countryside.

Although some freedom was given
under NEP for capitalist elements, the
big industry, transport, the credit and
monetary.- system and an unlimited
right of control and regulation re-
mained in the hands of the state.

The NEP and the fulfilment of the
GOELRO plan paved the way for the
industrialization of the economy of
Soviet Russia, a course which was
adopted by the Party’s 14th Congress
in 1925. The fact that this course, was
adopted permitted Russia to avoid de-
pendence on the West and, as history
was later to demonstrate, to win the
war with Hitler’s Germany.

By 1927 Russian industry was e€x-
pending at an annual rate of 18 per-
cent.

Successes in industry permitted the
launching of vast socialist transforma-
tion in agriculture. The program,
known as collectivization, was adopted
by the 15th Congress of the Party in
December 1927. ©

as,

~

N SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 Germany,
by her attack on Poland, unleash-
ed the Second World War, which

was immediately joined by France and
Britain. At that time the USSR and
Germany were bound by a non-aggres-
sion pact, which the Soviet Union had
been obliged to conclude after the
British and French governments had
deliberately disrupted the Anglo-
Franco-Soviet negotiations for collec-
tive security“ in Europe.

It was no secret to Moscow that
sooner or later the German fascists
would attack the USSR, since aggres-
sion against the USSR was inherent in
the foreign policy line of the Third

_ Reich. But to refuse under those cir-

cumstances to sign a non-aggression
pact with Germany would have been
to bring grist to the mill of those forc-
es in Britain, France and the USA who
plotted to plunge the USSR and Ger-
many into a war with each other. Be-
sides, the conclusion of the Soviet-
German treaty in a way obviated the
danger of the formation of a united
front of the fascist powers with the
most reactionary forces of the West-
_ern countries.

But Hitler was not long in breaking
the agreement with the USSR. On the
night of June 22, 1941, German forces,
without. declaring war, crossed the
Soviet borders. At the same time Luft-
waffe planes began to rain bombs on
border garrisons and peaceful Soviet
cities.

Taking advantage of the surprise
factor, the Hitler armies began to ad-
vance deep into Soviet territory. From
the very first hours of the war the Ger-
man army encountered more deter-
mined resistance than on any of the
earlier fronts. A case in point was the
heroic defense of the Brest fortress on
the westernmost frontier of the USSR,
whose few survivors now traditionally
meet in Victory Day on its ruins to
honor the almost 3,000 men who died
in its defense.

The German forces rushed against
the fortress outnumbered its defenders
10 to 1. The nazis launched the storm
of the fortress in the morning of June
22, soon bringing up fresh troops and
air units. But even on June 30 they
still continued to meet with bitter re-
sistance from the few Soviet soldiers
who had not fallen victim to artillery
shelling and air bombardments.

Being better prepared for the war,
with the resources of virtually all oc-
cupied Europe behind it, the Hitler
army scored substantial gains in the
first stage of the war. Putting down
the resistance of the numerically weak-
er Soviet forces, the nazis continued
to march on eastward, towards Mos-
cow.

Causes of early setbacks

What were the reasons for the un-
preparedness of the USSR for the war
with Germany in June 1941? The an-
swer cannot be limited to the personal
errors made by Joseph Stalin and the
Soviet High Command of that time.
There were other, more weighty and
objective reasons for the early reverses
suffered by the Soviet army.

The Soviet defense industry was just
beginning to take shape when Hitler
attacked the Soviet Union. Before that
the entire resources of the country had
to be used to restore its economy
ruined by the First World War, the
Civil. War and the intervention of the

November 4, 1967+—~ PACH T

_in the whole of the war

iP th
Western powers in Russia afte
October Revolution. Ct
At the outbreak of nostiliti® cake
ny enjoyed a great prepot 1 tt ‘
armed forces. Against a SOV. asam
of 4.2 million men, Hitler BA agi™
lion troops with two yen we
ind tH me
perience in Europe beh 4 plat ey
h

factor of surprise too ha
part.

On the very first
June 22, 1941, some 900 fi
were destroyed on Soviet
fields and many lines of com r)
were cut, interfering with we
interaction of the Soviet fo%

The winter campaign % 7

Measures to reinforce — jf

The German High Comm
me

Germans but taking UP sc!
offensive. The victory at ‘
important not only militat! ve
more so from the point 0” | sali
effect on the morale 0 he
ring sides. For this was t

man army sustained a 5€
(During the nearly thre? 9
fighting near Moscow the | on |
es put out of action 38 ors
sions.) e
This success was largely a Dm
strong effort made by thé, ay |
ernment to mobilize all i the ae
resources for the needs ©) alli)
Women and children took pall
the men leaving for t as |
The peasants in the ets
gions put in a double ame ast,
to make up for the lost acre ne
used to yield almost half Ti al i
harvest and an even Di
of dairy products. we
New industrial centres \s
ily created in the 18
Siberia, Kazakhstan a?
Republics of Asia, with
plants in the territories i
the enemy evacuated ther
1942, the Soviet rear
more than the whole r) A
fore the war. - 108 Ae
The first year of the “ ne ot ie
ilitary plans ae.
only the military p dots

:
t

i]

temporary reverses of ¢ e
the Russian rear failed
peasantry, far from in8
against Soviet power t0_ 14 DY fh
collectivization, manifest gov
their total support of ¢ La
effort. ~< of oh
From the very outbre? 4 yp?
a partisan and underBror’ realy
sprang up in the en€™? "inf jf
summer of 1942 no pe
man divisions had t geal
from the front line 1 ress!
partisans, The prutal es,
ticed by the forces © Pe.
strengthened popular eS
despite the fact that a
hanged every Soviet cl
tive of sex and age,
of aiding the partisa?
down complete village |,
their population. In th.
anian village of Pirch
ed and all women,
men were burned alivé
During the whole °
than a million people