editorial
On the 17th of October 1917 (according to the Russian calender of the time
- by our calender it was November the 7th) the Russian people, led by
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin launched a revolution and successfully establish-*
ed the first socialist government in the world. This was a crucial
turning point in the history of mankind in that for the first time in
modern history the working class and peasantry of a major country had
been able to organise themselves and form a government through which
the main tenets of the social theory outlined by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels could be implemented. With the successful establishment of a
peoplefs government' in Russia other revolts against capitalist governments took place in the rest of the Russian Empire. These culminated
in the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Naturally the success of this new venture did not please imperialist forces
in the rest of Europe and North America. First the Germans tried to
crush it in 1917, and a combined force of the allied powers, including
the United States, launched a number of attacks in 1918, but to no
avail*
Through many trials and vicissitudes the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, under Lenin's wise leadership not only was able to ward off
these imperialist attempts to stop the socialist revolution, but it
also went an .t.a xe.axgan.ise the political, economic, social, cultural
and scientific life of the whole country. The vitality which was thus
generated in the "life o'f "the people of the Soviet Union was such that
not even the whole might of fascist Germany and her East European
reactionaries could withstand their strength. After one of the most
costly .wars, in terms .of human life and material wealth, the people of
the Soviet Union, led by the Communist Party set their energies to the
task of rebuilding their ravaged country while at the same time doing
everything possible to support those who were fighting for national
independence and those who, inspired by Lenin's success, were launching
socialist revolutions in their own lands.
Now 50 years have come and gone and many things have been acheived. The
Russian Empire has been changed from a land of slavery and suffering
into a federation of 15 autonomous people's republics| from a land of
recurrent periods of hunger and death into a land of plenty and culture;
from a land of ignorence and superstition into a land of scientific
pioneering, exploring the whole cosmos*
There are many countries, however, where the government is not yet in the
hands of the people, where there is still suffering, hunger, virtual
slavery and ignorance, perpetuated by colonialism, capitalism and sheer
imperialist aggression.But in many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin
America the people have begun to rise up and fight these forces. In
Vietnam, in Bolivia, in Rhodesia, in the Portuguese colonies of Africa