Dear comrades,

p During these days the whole Soviet people is experiencing a feeling of great joy, an incomparable spiritual upsurge. November 7, 1967, the glorious date marking the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the half-century jubilee of the world’s first socialist state, of our Soviet state, is approaching.

p For us the half-century of the existence of the Land of Soviets constitutes 50 years of heroic struggle and intensive work, 50 years of victories in the field of battle and labour in the name of the freedom, happiness and prosperity of all the peoples of our socialist motherland, in the name of communism. That is why this jubilee is so dear to our hearts and that is why we are marking it with such celebration, with such jubilation in our hearts.

p But our jubilee is dear not only to Soviet people. It is the birthday of the world’s first state of workers and peasants, of the first state where an end has been put once and for all to exploitation of man by man, a state which has shown other countries and peoples the road to the socialist future. That is why together with us the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution is being marked by millions upon millions of our friends in other countries as their own great festival.

p Comrades, in this hall are gathered the finest people of the city of Leningrad and of Leningrad Region—Party activists, deputies to the city and regional Soviets, veterans of the October Revolution and the Civil War, distinguished 78 workers of Leningrad’s enterprises, and soldiers and sailors of our valiant Armed Forces. On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics allow me to congratulate you and all the people of Leningrad on the approaching jubilee—the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. (Prolonged applause.)

p During these days our people and all our friends abroad are summing up the results of the glorious historical advance of our revolution. As you all know, the commemoration sitting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation devoted to this memorable date ended yesterday in Moscow. It was attended by leading personalities of the fraternal socialist countries and most of the Communist Parties of the world, and by delegates from countries that have recently won liberation from colonial tyranny. The speeches of our guests in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses resounded as an anthem of revolutionary internationalism. They spoke movingly of the feat accomplished by the Soviet people and their Communist Party, and of the homeland of Lenin, who raised the banner of socialism over the world. They noted that our Leninist Party and our Soviet people have always been true to the lofty principle of proletarian internationalism, that the Land of Soviets has been and remains a reliable bulwark of all the forces fighting for peace, freedom and progress. (Applause.)

p Indeed, the five decades of our great revolution occupy a prominent and inimitable place in the history of mankind. Indivisibly linked by revolutionary continuity, these glorious five decades have witnessed the titanic deeds of a people which has irrevocably shaken off the yoke of exploitation, poverty and ignorance and is confidently advancing towards the communist future.

p I’ll not hide the fact, dear Comrades Leningraders, that it is gratifying to be among you today, to be in the city which the Soviet people rightfully call the cradle of the October Revolution. Here everything is reminiscent of the unforgettable events of those historical days, of the work of our teacher and leader—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. (Stortny applause.)

p To this day the square in front of the Finland Railway 79 Station, where Vladimir Lenin called on the working people to start the socialist revolution, the Smolny Institute, which was the headquarters of the revolution, the Vyborg District and the Narva Gate, where workers’ Red Guard units, the assault forces of the revolution, were formed and the legendary cruiser Aurora, which gave the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace, continue to stir the minds of Soviet people and revolutionaries throughout the world and are illumined by the eternal flame of the Great October Revolution. (Prolonged applause.)

p October 1917 saw the realisation of what generations of revolutionaries had dreamed and for whose sake they had fought unremittingly in the course of many decades: the socialist revolution triumphed in our country.

p The chronicle of the great revolution will always preserve the memory of the peerless valour and staunchness of the proletarians of Petrograd and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, the workers of Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Minsk and Lugansk, and the working people of the Urals, Siberia and other regions where the first victories were won in the revolution’s triumphant march across our country.

p Educated and tempered by the Bolshevik Party, by the Party of Lenin, the revolutionary proletariat of Russia, the steel cohort of fighters of the revolution, in alliance with the millions of working peasants, completed the work of demolishing the hated system of exploitation and oppression. The Land of Soviets commenced building a new, socialist life.

p During the grim years of the Civil War and intervention, the workers of Petrograd along with the working people of the whole country courageously rose to defend the gains of the October Revolution and unflinchingly they repulsed the pressure of the internal counter-revolution and the foreign interventionists.

p Present here today are active participants in the heroic epic of those unforgettable years—participants in the October Revolution and the Civil War. During these commemorative days we wholeheartedly greet and congratulate the glorious guard of veterans of the revolution. (Prolonged applause.)

p Together with them we take immense pride in the fact that the cause for whose sake half a century ago they gave battle to the old world today triumphs in the glorious 80 achievements of the Soviet people, the builder of communism, and in the successes of the world socialist community. (Prolonged applause.)

p The decision adopted in 1924 by the Second Ail-Union Congress of Soviets to rename Petrograd Leningrad was the highest assessment of the heroic deeds of the proletarians of Petrograd, of their services to the revolution and the whole country. This historical document states: «Henceforth may this major centre of the proletarian revolution be forever associated with the name of the greatest leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov-Lenin.» [80•1

p Leningrad has proved to be worthy of its name. (Stormy applause.) Both in peaceful socialist construction and during the stern trials of wartime, the people of Leningrad have always honourably discharged their revolutionary duty.

p The unparalleled staunchness, valour and courage displayed by Leningraders during the Great Patriotic War virtually stunned the peoples of the world. With the powerful support of the entire Soviet motherland, the city of Lenin held out in the life-and-death struggle with a brutal and strong enemy, surmounted the immense trials of the blockade, endured everything—and won. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p The star of Leningrad shines brightly in the galaxy of hero-cities of Moscow, Sevastopol, Volgograd, Odessa, and Kiev, and the hero-fortress of Brest. (Applause.)

p The banner of Leningrad has been decorated with the motherland’s highest awards. The people of Leningrad have deserved them by their heroism in battle and outstanding achievements in peaceful labour.

p Today, as in the years of the first five-year plans and the postwar rehabilitation, Leningrad is making a large contribution towards the great projects of our people. The creative innovatory thinking, skill and energy of the workers, engineers, designers and all working people of the city of Lenin are to be found in the giant power stations on the Volga, the Angara and the Yenisei, in the new projects in the North and in Siberia, at numerous factories and mills, in all the Union republics—wherever the creative 81 work of Soviet people is in full swing today. (Applause.) The scientists, writers, musicians, artists and stage and screen actors of Leningrad occupy a prominent place in the development of science and culture, in the creation of the cultural values of socialism.

p The factory workers, collective farmers and state-farm workers of our country are marking the half-century jubilee of the October Revolution with valorous deeds. Here, too, us always, the people of Leningrad are in the forefront. During these days sixty-one working collectives of the city of Leningrad and Leningrad Region have been awarded commemorative banners of the Party Central Committee, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Ail-Union Central Council of Trade Unions in token of the motherland’s gratitude for their labour achievements. (Applause.) This honour has been conferred on the machine-tool builders of the noted Kirov Works (or the Krasny Putilovets as it used to be called), the metalworkers of Krasny Vyborzhets, shipbuilders, the makers of giant turbines and generators that have won world renown, the makers of the most precise and most up-to-date kinds of output—electronic machines and the most intricate optical instruments—the workers of the Krasny Treugolnik Rubber Works, the shoemakers of the Skorokhod Factory, and many other contingents of the Leningrad working class, and also the foremost state and collective farms in the region. (Applause.) Red banners of labour valour have been awarded to the winners of the jubilee competition in perpetuity. They are a great honour and, at the same time, impose a great responsibility. ( Applause.) We wish the decorated collectives to be always worthy of the high honour that has been conferred on them. (Stormy applause.)

p Dear comrades. Esteemed Leningraders. Further joyful news was flashed round the country yesterday: Leningrad, the cradle of the revolution, and Moscow, our country’s capital, were the first to be decorated with the newly instituted Order of the October Revolution for outstanding services in the revolution and in strengthening Soviet power, for courage and heroism in the battles with the enemies of the Soviet state, and for achievements in peaceful labour, in the building of communism. (Stormy, prolonged applause. All rise.) It may be said with certainty that all Soviet people 82 wholeheartedly welcome this decision, which justly marks the services rendered by Leningraders and Muscovites to the people and the revolution. (Prolonged applause.)

p Several generations of Leningraders have earned this new high decoration by their absolute devotion to the cause of socialism and communism, by their heroism in battle, and by their conspicuous achievements in labour.

p The award to Leningrad is a decoration for the glorious working class of the city of Lenin (applause), its numerous technical intelligentsia, its distinguished workers in science, culture and art, Party and local government functionaries, and men of the Soviet Army and Fleet, in short, for all who live and work in your splendid city. (Prolonged applause.) For us, your guests—Nikolai Victorovich Podgorny, Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin and me—it is a great pleasure to be among you, dear Comrades Leningraders, and warmly, from the bottom of our hearts, to congratulate you and all the people of the city of Lenin on the receipt of a further high decoration from the motherland. (Stormy, prolonged applause. All rise.)

p Comrades, the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet Government are fully confident that Leningraders shall continue to be in the front ranks of the builders of communism, that they shall always be true to the fine revolutionary traditions of their fathers and that they shall be always worthy of their distinguished title of citizens of a Hero-City, of a city that bears the name of the great Lenin. (Prolonged applause.)

p Honour and glory to those who took part in the Great October Socialist Revolution! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p Honour and glory to the heroes who in battle upheld the gains of the October Revolution!

Honour and glory to the Soviet people, builders of communism, who raised high over the world the torch of freedom lit by the October Revolution! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

Enviado por Enrique Ibañes