FORWARD, TO COMMUNISM!

The Eighteenth Congress of the Bolshevik Party has completed its work. Unanimously, at a high ideological-political and theoretical level, all the questions on the agenda of the congress were discussed. Decisions were adopted unanimously, in which, with exhaustive fullness, the political, economic, and organizational tasks of the Party were defined—the tasks of the Land of Soviets in the new phase of development, the phase of completing the construction of socialist society and of the gradual transition from socialism to communism. With the greatest unanimity, reflecting the unity of will of the entire Party, the Stalinist Central Committee was elected by the congress.

The Eighteenth Party Congress will go down in history as the congress that defined the majestic and victorious path of transition from socialism to communism. Communism! For many generations this word sounded like an unattainable ideal. For us, the happy people of the Soviet country, contemporaries of the Eighteenth Congress of the CPSU(b), communism is the immediate future. We are building and shall build a communist society, and there is no force in the world that could stop our movement forward. The unity of aim, the unity of action, the unity of will of the entire Bolshevik Party, rallied around the Stalinist Central Committee, found vivid and complete expression in the work of the Eighteenth Congress of the CPSU(b).

The Eighteenth Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) heard Comrade Stalin’s report on the work of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b)—a report unsurpassed in the depth and wisdom of its analysis of the path traversed by the Party, a report that illuminated, as if by a powerful search-

thus, our further path forward, toward communism. The congress heard Comrade Molotov’s report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR—the majestic plan of the third Stalinist five-year plan. The congress heard Comrade Zhdanov’s report on changes in the Rules of the AUCP(b)—a report sharpening the organizational weapon of the party. All the reports were subjected to comprehensive discussion.

Leaders of party organizations came to the high rostrum of the congress; Bolsheviks who head the most responsible sectors of the national economy, of the state apparatus, of the Red Army and the Navy came forward; delegates from many republics and regions of the country came forward. They brought to the congress the experience, thoughts, and proposals of hundreds of thousands of Bolsheviks, of the entire Soviet people. The delegates devoted their speeches to various questions. But one thought, one idea, one feeling ran like a red thread through all the speeches: boundless faith in the rightness of our cause, readiness to devote all one’s strength to the cause of communism, complete unanimity on all questions of party policy. A magnificent, gripping demonstration of the steel unity of our party! The electors of the party organizations, the delegates to the congress, expressed what the whole party, the whole Soviet people live and breathe by—the feeling of boundless love for the Stalinist Central Committee, for the inspirer and organizer of the great victories of socialism—Comrade Stalin.

In the period between the XVII and XVIII congresses our party exposed the cleverly camouflaged enemies, exposed and destroyed the contemptible gangs of Trotskyite-Bukharinite and bourgeois-nationalist double-dealers, spies, agents of fascism. “Having smashed the enemies of the people and cleansed the party and Soviet organizations of degenerates, the party became still more united in its political and organizational work, it became still more rallied around its Central Committee” (Stalin).

The work of the XVIII Congress is a splendid confirmation of Stalin’s words. This is a congress of Bolshevik unity and cohesion. Once again the complete unanimity of the whole party on all questions of party policy has been demonstrated. Against this unity, as against a rock, the enemies of the party, the enemies of the socialist state, have broken and will break their heads. This unity is the surest pledge of our further victories, of the full triumph of communism.

Into the Central Committee elected at the XVIII Congress of our party, alongside the most prominent political figures known to the whole world—the old Bolshevik party cadres—there entered

and younger comrades, young cadres, raised and nurtured by Stalin’s Central Committee over the past decade, tempered in battles for the general line of the Party.

At the Eighteenth Party Congress, Comrade Stalin pointed to the necessity of combining, of uniting “old and young cadres in one common orchestra of the guiding work of the Party and the state.” This Stalinist directive on combining young and old cadres, on their joint work and cooperation, found its brilliant reflection in the staff of the Bolshevik Party elected at the Eighteenth Congress—its Central Committee.

It may be said with confidence that in its entire history, at no congress has the Party yet had such a magnificent unanimity, has it seen such a brilliant demonstration of unity and militant cohesion as at the Eighteenth Congress of the CPSU(b). The unity and cohesion of the Bolshevik ranks, unseen and unknown to any party in the world, is founded on the moral and political unity of the entire Soviet people.

The triumph of socialism in the USSR ensured an internal moral and political unity of the people never before seen anywhere, the moral-political unity of the working people under the banner and leadership of the Communist Party and Soviet power. Unforgettable are the days of the Congress, when from all ends of the country thousands of greetings were sent to Moscow, to the Kremlin, when numerous delegations set out to convey to the Congress of Bolsheviks, to Comrade Stalin, the noble feelings of the people’s love and devotion. The cause of the Party has become in our country the cause of the entire people. Tens of millions of workers, collective farmers, and the Soviet intelligentsia are fighting for the implementation of the Party’s decisions. It cannot be otherwise! Our Party has no other interests than the interests of the people, no other goal than concern for the well-being and happiness of the people. Soviet people know this magnificently. They feel it daily, hourly.

The Eighteenth Congress has completed its work. The Party of Bolsheviks, the entire Soviet people have received a Stalinist mandate for the further path, toward communism. The road ahead will not be easy. We shall still have to overcome many obstacles and difficulties, sweeping from our path all enemies of communism. We must not forget for a single second that we are building communism while in capitalist encirclement. But we are confident in our strength, in the strength of our socialist state; we are confident in final victory! For history is on our side, for in our hands is the all-powerful weapon of Marxist-Leninist theo-

... for with us are the entire Soviet people, all the proletarians and the oppressed of the world; for at our head, the Bolsheviks, stands Comrade Stalin. Victory will be ours!

Long live the Leninist-Stalinist Central Committee of our glorious Bolshevik Party!

Long live the great helmsman of communism, our brilliant teacher and leader—Comrade Stalin!

Under the banner of Lenin—Stalin, forward to the complete triumph of communism!

Pravda, No. 80 (7765), March 22, 1939.