SPEECH BY COMRADE I. V. STALIN

at the pre-election meeting of voters of the Stalin Electoral District of the city of Moscow on December 11, 1937, at the Bolshoi Theatre

Chairman. The floor is given to our candidate, Comrade Stalin.

The appearance of Comrade Stalin on the rostrum is met by the voters with a storm of ovations, which lasts for several minutes. The entire hall of the Bolshoi Theatre rises to greet Comrade Stalin. From the hall there are continuous exclamations: “Long live the great Stalin, hurrah!”, “To the creator of the most democratic Soviet Constitution in the world, Comrade Stalin, hurrah!”, “Long live the leader of the oppressed of the whole world, Comrade Stalin, hurrah!”

Stalin. Comrades, I must confess that I had no intention of speaking. But our esteemed Nikita Sergeevich, one might say, dragged me here to the meeting: say, he says, a good speech. What is there to say, what sort of speech exactly? Everything that needed to be said before the elections has already been said and retold in the speeches of our leading comrades Kalinin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Yezhov, and many other responsible comrades. What more can be added to these speeches?

Clarifications are needed, they say, on certain questions of the election campaign. What clarifications, on what questions? Everything that needed to be clarified has already been clarified and re-clarified in the well-known appeals of the Party of Bolsheviks, the Komsomol, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, Osoaviakhim, and the Committee on Physical Culture. What more can be added to these clarifications?

Of course, one could deliver some sort of light speech about everything and nothing (light laughter). Perhaps such a speech would amuse the audience. They say that masters of such speeches exist not only there, in capitalist countries, but also among us, in the Soviet country (laughter, applause). But, first, I am no master of such speeches. Secondly, is it worth our while to occupy ourselves with matters of amusement now, when all of us Bolsheviks, as they say, have “our mouths full of work”? I think it is not.

It is clear that under such conditions one cannot make a good speech.

And yet, since I have mounted the rostrum, of course, I must in one way or another say at least something (stormy applause).

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude (applause) to the voters for the confidence they have shown (applause).

I have been nominated as a candidate for deputy, and the electoral commission of the Stalin district of the Soviet capital has registered me as a candidate for deputy. This, comrades, is a great trust. Allow me to convey to you my profound Bolshevik gratitude for the confidence you have shown in the Bolshevik Party, of which I am a member, and in me personally, as a representative of that party (stormy applause).

I know what trust means. It naturally imposes on me new, additional duties and, consequently, new, additional responsibility. Well, among us Bolsheviks it is not customary to refuse responsibility. I accept it willingly (stormy, prolonged applause).

For my part, I would like to assure you, comrades, that you may boldly rely on Comrade Stalin (stormy, long-unceasing ovation. Voices from the hall: “And we are all for Comrade Stalin!”). You may count on Comrade Stalin being able to fulfill his duty to the people (applause), to the working class (applause), to the peasantry (applause), to the intelligentsia (applause).

Further, comrades, I would like to congratulate you on the approaching nationwide holiday, on the day of elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (stormy applause). The forthcoming elections are not simply elections, comrades. They are truly a nationwide holiday of our workers, our peasants, our intelligentsia (stormy applause). Never before in the world have there been such truly free and truly democratic elections—never! History knows no other such example (applause). The point is not that we shall have universal, equal, secret, and direct elections, although this in itself is of great importance. The point is that universal elections will be conducted in our country as the freest elections and the most democratic, in comparison with the elections of any other country in the world.

Universal elections take place and are held also in some capitalist countries, the so-called democratic ones. But in what conditions are elections held there? In conditions of class clashes, in conditions of class enmity, in conditions of pressure upon the voters on the part of capitalists, landlords, bankers, and other sharks of capitalism. Such elections, even if they are universal, equal, secret, and direct, cannot be called fully free and fully democratic elections.

In our country, in our land, on the contrary, elections are held in entirely different conditions. We have no capitalists, no landlords; consequently, there is no pressure on the propertyless by the propertied classes. In our country, elections take place in an atmosphere of cooperation of wor-

workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, in an atmosphere of their mutual trust, in an atmosphere, I would say, of mutual friendship, because we have no capitalists, no landlords, no exploitation, and, in fact, there is no one to put pressure on the people in order to distort their will.

That is why our elections are the only genuinely free and genuinely democratic elections in the whole world (noisy applause).

Such free and genuinely democratic elections could arise only on the soil of the triumph of the socialist order, only on the basis of the fact that socialism in our country is not merely being built, but has already entered into the way of life, into the everyday life of the people. Ten years ago one might still have debated whether we could build socialism or not. Now this is no longer a matter for debate. Now it is a question of facts, a question of living reality, a question of a way of life that permeates the whole life of the people. In our factories and mills people work without capitalists. The work is directed by people from the people. This is what we call socialism in practice. In our fields the toilers of the land work without landlords, without kulaks. The work is directed by people from the people. This is what we call socialism in everyday life; this is what we call a free, socialist life.

It is on this basis that there have arisen among us the new, genuinely free and genuinely democratic elections—elections the like of which there has been no example in the history of mankind.

How, then, after this, can I not congratulate you on the day of nationwide celebration, on the day of the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union! (Stormy ovation from the entire hall.)

Further, comrades, I would like to give you some advice, the advice of a candidate for deputy to his voters. If one takes the capitalist countries, then between deputies and voters there exist certain peculiar, I would say, rather strange relations. While elections are under way, the deputies flirt with the voters, fawn upon them, swear loyalty, and make heaps of all kinds of promises. It turns out that the deputies’ dependence on the voters is complete. As soon as the elections have taken place and the candidates have turned into deputies, relations change at the root. Instead of the deputies’ dependence on the voters, what results is their complete independence. For the space of four or five years, that is, right up to the new elections, the deputy feels himself entirely free, independent of the people, of his voters. He may pass from one camp to another, he may turn from the right road onto the wrong one, he may even become entangled in certain machinations of a not entirely proper character, he may tumble about as he pleases—he is independent.

Can such relations be considered normal? In no case, comrades. This circumstance was taken into account by our Constitution, and it has enacted a law by virtue of which the voters have the right to recall their deputies before the expiry of their term if they begin to play tricks, if they turn off the road, if they forget their dependence on the people, on the voters.

This is a remarkable law, comrades. A deputy must know that he is a servant of the people, its envoy to the Supreme Soviet, and that he must conduct himself along the line for which he has been given a mandate by the people. If he strays from the path, the voters have the right to demand the calling of new elections, and they have the right to give a deputy who has strayed from the path a ride on the blackballs (laughter, applause). This is a remarkable law. My advice, the advice of a candidate for deputy to his voters, is to remember this right of the voters—the right of the early recall of deputies—to keep watch over their deputies, to control them, and, should they take it into their heads to stray from the proper path, to shake them off their shoulders and demand the calling of new elections. The government is obliged to call new elections. My advice is to remember this law and to use it when necessary.

Finally, one more piece of advice from a candidate for deputy to his voters. What, in general, should be demanded of one’s deputies, if one takes the most elementary of all possible demands?

The voters, the people, must demand of their deputies that they remain equal to their tasks, that in their work they do not descend to the level of political philistines, that they remain at the post of political figures of the Lenin type, that they be as clear and definite figures as Lenin was (applause), that they be as fearless in battle and as merciless to the enemies of the people as Lenin was (applause), that they be free from any panic, from anything resembling panic, when matters begin to become complicated and some danger looms on the horizon, that they be just as free from anything resembling panic as Lenin was (applause), that they be as wise and unhurried in deciding complex questions, where all-round orientation and an all-round accounting of all the pluses and minuses are needed, as Lenin was (applause), that they be as truthful and honest as Lenin was (applause), that they love their people as Lenin loved them (applause).

Can we say that all candidates for deputy are precisely this sort of figure? I would not say so.

There are all sorts of people in the world, all sorts of figures in the world. There are people of whom one cannot say what they are: whether they are good or bad, whether courageous or cowardly, whether they are for the people to the end or for the enemies of the people. There are such people and there are such figures. We have them too, among the Bolsheviks. You know yourselves, comrades, every family has its black sheep (laughter, applause). Of such people of an indefinite type, of people who resemble political philistines rather than political figures, of people of such an indefinite, unformed type, the great Russian writer Gogol said quite aptly: “People, they say, are indefinite—neither one thing nor the other; you cannot make out what sort of people they are: neither Bogdan in the city, nor Selifan in the village” (laughter, applause). Of such indefinite people and figures, it is also quite aptly

people say among us: “Such a man is neither fish nor fowl” (general laughter, applause), “neither a candle to God nor a poker to the devil” (general laughter, applause).

I cannot say with complete certainty that among the candidates for deputy (I very much apologize to them, of course) and among our public figures there are no people who are more reminiscent of political philistines than anything else, who by their character, by their physiognomy, resemble people of the type of whom the people say: “neither a candle to God nor a poker to the devil” (laughter, applause).

I should like, comrades, for you to exert systematic influence on your deputies, to impress upon them that they must keep before them the great image of the great Lenin and emulate Lenin in everything (applause).

The functions of the electors do not end with the elections. They continue for the entire period of existence of the Supreme Soviet of the given convocation. I have already spoken of the law giving electors the right to recall their deputies before the end of their term if they turn away from the right road. It follows that the duty and the right of the electors consist in their keeping their deputies under control at all times, and in impressing upon them—not under any circumstances to descend to the level of political philistines, and in their, the electors’, impressing upon their deputies—to be as the great Lenin was (applause).

Such, comrades, is my second piece of advice to you, the advice of a candidate for deputy to his electors. (Stormy, prolonged applause, passing into an ovation. All rise and turn their eyes to the government box, where Comrade Stalin is passing. Cries are heard: “Hurrah for the great Stalin!”, “Hurrah for Comrade Stalin!”, “Long live Comrade Stalin, hurrah!”, “Long live the first Leninist—candidate for deputy to the Soviet of the Union—Comrade Stalin! Hurrah!”)