ON THE 105TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION

Statement of the Communist Party of Poland

On the 105th anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution the Communist Party of Poland salutes this great breakthrough and one of the key moments in the human history.

The October Revolution was an unprecedented victory of socialism over forces of the bourgeois state and imperialism. The slogan of Bolsheviks „Peace, land and bread” announced the end of the bloody war, land for peasants and bread for the starving population. It was a sign of the new world built by the workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils under the guidance of the revolutionary party and its leader V.I. Lenin.

The Russian working class opposed the plan of the imperialist powers to subdue populations under the patriotic and militaristic slogans and use the war to gain profits for the huge capital. Workers and peasants refused to participate in the slaughter at the front. They directed their arms against the real oppressors – capitalists, landowners and decaying state institutions. The Revolution brought liberation to the millions oppressed by the autocratic monarchy and the bourgeois government. For the first time in history factories were controlled by the workers. The dictatorship of the proletariat was a new and efficient way of managing the affairs of the society, a realization of subjectivity of the working class in state politics.

This great social change was based on the principles of proletarian internationalism. People of various nationalities answered the call to defend socialism. They fought in revolutionary armies and participated in building socialist power.

The Revolution survived despite the attack by the coalition of imperialists, united against socialism, despite earlier hostilities and inter-imperialist war. The October Revolution gave hope to the oppressed people around the world. Collapse of the reactionary monarchies in Germany and Austro-Hungary, the German revolution and revolutionary strikes across Europe were an effect of the change taking place in Russia and organization of the working class on an unprecedented scale.

After the horrors of the Great War and the civil war, Soviet Russia, despite huge losses and poverty of the population, started to create the new world. Revolutionary Russia overcame foreign intervention and counterrevolutionary armies and started to build a socialist society, eliminating exploitation and advocating development. The gains of Soviet Russia under guidance of Lenin are unquestionable. The world's first socialist state, despite expectations of the capitalists, not only did not collapse, but made tremendous leaps in the economy, introducing free education and healthcare. It also gave various groups access to culture and means to improve their lives with scientific achievements and modernization.

After 105 years the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 is still seen as an inspiration for the exploited and a threat to global capitalism. Because of this it is being slandered in the new anti-communist version of the history. Reactionaries and exploiters are attempting to rewrite history in order to eliminate remembrance about socialism and its achievements. They are using the EU and other institutions controlled by the huge capital to spread propaganda, equating communism with nazism, under the name of „totalitarisms”. It is a part of the wider anti-communist campaign, bans on communist organizations and symbols imposed in Baltic States, Ukraine and attempted in Poland.

We have to draw a lesson from the history of the October Revolution, remember that the only efficient way to oppose capitalism and imperialism is to organise the working class. It has shown that the old system may seem to be invincible, but in conditions of crisis it may collapse in a short time. The October Revolution has swept away capitalism in Russia as well as nationalism, militarization of society and imperialist war. Main symptoms of the decaying capitalist system were removed and the new society created. It was done by brave and decisive actions, abandoning opportunism and delusions on reforms making capitalism „more humane”.

Our task is to adapt these lessons to modern situations, not only in honouring traditions of the Great October Socialist Revolution, but also in implementing the socialist ideas in everyday activity of our party.