history

1. Gentlemen, what was the key accomplishment, the major concern, the great passionand service of the French Revolution? To have built this secular state, to have succeededin making the social organisms of society exclusively secular, to have taken away from theclergy its political organization and role as a cadre within the state that, precisely, is theFrench Revolution in its full reality. Well now, we do not presume to convert the honorablemembers seated on this side of the Chamber [i.e., on the right] to the doctrines of therevolution. We only wish to be well understood that we do not deviate from these doctrines.Convinced that the first concern, the first duty of a democratic government is to maintainincessant, powerful, vigilant and efficient control over public education, we insist that thiscontrol belong to no authority other than the State. We cannot admit, we will never admit,and this country of France will never admit that the State can be anything but a secular one.(Very good! Very good! from the left and center left.). 

2. At present, we are concerned with how the cult of Stalin has been gradually growing,the cult which became the source of a whole series of exceedingly serious perversions ofparty principles, of party democracy, of revolutionary legality. The central committeeconsiders it absolutely necessary to make material pertaining to this matter available to the20th congress.The great modesty of the genius of the revolution, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, is known. Leninalways stressed the role of the people as the creator of history. Lenin mercilesslystigmatised every manifestation of the cult of the individual. Lenin never imposed hisviews by force. He tried to convince. He patiently explained his opinions to others.Lenin detected in Stalin those negative characteristics which resulted later in graveconsequences. Fearing the future fate of the of the Soviet nation, Lenin pointed out that itwas necessary to consider transferring Stalin from the position of general secretarybecause Stalin did not have a proper attitude toward his comrades.In 1922 Vladimir Ilyich wrote: After taking over the position of general secretary,comrade Stalin accumulated immeasurable power in his hands and I am not certain whetherhe will be always able to use this power with the required care.Vladimir Ilyich said: I propose that the comrades consider the method by which Stalinwould be removed from this position and by which another man would be selected for it, aman who, above all, would differ from Stalin in only one quality, namely, greater tolerance,greater loyalty, greater kindness.Comrades! The party congress should become acquainted with new documents, whichconfirm Stalin’s character. In March 1923, Lenin sent Stalin the following letter: Dearcomrade Stalin! You permitted yourself a rude summons of my wife to the telephone anda rude reprimand of her. Despite the fact that she told you that she agreed to forget whatwas said, I have no intention to forget so easily. Comrades! I will not comment on thesedocuments. They speak eloquently for themselves.As later events have proven, Lenin’s anxiety was justified. Stalin, who absolutely did nottolerate collegiality in leadership and in work, acted not through persuasion, but byimposing his concepts and demanding absolute submission to his opinion. Stalin originatedthe concept enemy of the people. This term automatically made it unnecessary that theideological errors of a man be proven. It made possible the use of the cruellest repression,against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were onlysuspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations. 

3. Now I come to the point, which was mentioned to me just now from some quarters ofthe House, about the saving of peace. No one has been a more resolute anduncompromising struggler for peace than the Prime Minister. Everyone knows that. Neverhas there been such intense and undaunted determination to maintain and to secure peace.That is quite true. Nevertheless, I am not quite clear why there was so much danger ofGreat Britain or France being involved in a war with Germany at this juncture if, in fact,they were ready all along to sacrifice Czechoslovakia. The terms which the Prime Ministerbrought back with him I quite agree at the last moment; everything had got off the railsand nothing but his intervention could have saved the peace, but I am talking of the eventsof the summer could easily have been agreed, I believe, through the ordinary diplomaticchannels at any time during the summer. And I will say this, that I believe the Czechs, left to themselves and told they were going to get no help from the Western Powers, wouldhave been able to make better terms than they have got they could hardly have worse after all this tremendous perturbation.

 4. For an unemployed man the day lasts 13 hours, for a worker, 17 hours. The few leisurehours the employed worker enjoys after his eight-hour shift are carefully disposed of andincomparably richer and more active than the many hours forced upon the man out of work.Waking the children certainly does not take up a whole hour. Treers shop (where he spends3:004:00 P.M.) is only three minutes from where this man lives, and the distance from thepark to his home which he covers in the hour between 5:006:00 P.M. is about 300 yards.What happens in the intervals?… It is always the same: when he fills out his time sheet, theunemployed worker can recall only a few events. Between the three reference points ofgetting up, eating, and going to bed lie intervals of inactivity hard to describe for anobserver and apparently also difficult to describe for the man himself. 

5. We have said that there could not have been Social-Democratic consciousness amongthe workers. It would have to be brought to them from without. The history of all countriesshows that the working class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only tradeunion consciousness, i.e. the conviction that it is necessary to combine in unions, fight theemployers, and strive to compel the government to pass necessary labour legislation, etc.The theory of socialism, however, grew out of the philosophic, historical, and economictheories elaborated by educated representatives of the propertied classes, by intellectuals.By their social status, the founders of modern scientific socialism, Marx and Engels,themselves belonged to the bourgeois intelligentsia. In the very same way, in Russia, thetheoretical doctrine of Social-Democracy arose altogether independently of thespontaneous growth of the working-class movement; it arose as a natural and inevitableoutcome of the development of thought among the revolutionary socialist intelligentsia… 

6. A word as to missions in Africa. Beyond doubt I think the most useful missions are themedical and the industrial, in the initial stages of savage development. A combination ofthe two is, in my opinion, an ideal mission. Such is the work of the Scotch Free Church onLake Nyasa. The medical missionary begins work with every advantage. ThroughoutAfrica the ideas of the cure of the body and of the soul are closely allied. The medicineman is credited, not only with a knowledge of the simples and drugs which may avert orcure disease, but owing to the superstitions of the people, he is also supposed to have aknowledge of the charms and dawa which will invoke the aid of the Deity or appease Hiswrath, and of the witchcraft and magic (ulu) by which success in war, immunity fromdanger, or a supply of rain may be obtained. As the skill of the European in medicine assertsits superiority over the crude methods of the medicine man, so does he in proportion gainan influence in his teaching of the great truths of Christianity. He teaches the savage whereknowledge and art cease, how far natural remedies produce their effects, independent ofcharms or supernatural agencies, and where divine power overrules all human efforts. Suchdemonstration from a medicine man, whose skill they cannot fail to recognize as superiorto their own, has naturally more weight than any mere preaching. A mere preacher isdiscounted and his zeal is not understood. The medical missionary, moreover, gains an admission to the houses and homes of the natives by virtue of his art, which would not beso readily accorded to another. He becomes their adviser and referee, and his counsels aresubstituted for the magic and witchcraft which retard development. 

7. For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is anessential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which arerising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; and renunciationis a sign of decay and of death. Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent thetendencies and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising againafter many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. But empire demands discipline,the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice: this fact explainsmany aspects of the practical working of the regime, the character of many forces in theState, and the necessarily severe measures which must be taken against those who wouldoppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of Italy in the twentieth century, andwould oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the nineteenth century – repudiatedwheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great experiments of social andpolitical transformation; for never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, ofdirection and order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousandsigns which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time. For if a doctrinemust be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; andthat this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who havesuffered and died for it.