Speech by Stavros Evagorou, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL, at the event in honour of the October Revolution

 

5th November 2015, Nicosia

 

This year ninety eight years will have elapsed since the Great October Socialist Revolution. Ninety eight years since the Bolsheviks of V.I. Lenin were fulfilling the vision of millions of impoverished people not only in revolutionary Russia, but all over the world grasping the fate of their destiny in their hands; the vision for a better, more just and more humane world that shows the path of the Revolution of Great October.

The impoverished, the humble and exploited not only change the course of history, but create and write history.

The birth of the October Revolution led to the world’s first socialist state of workers and peasants.

The shackles of exploitation broke and the bosses were overthrown. The Bolsheviks with a clear Marxist revolutionary ideology, goals and visions and led by V. I. Lenin undertake an unprecedented unthinkable – until then – venture to construct the first socialist state in the world.

Comrades and friends,

1917 was a revolutionary year for Russia, as well as a fateful year for the rest of the world which was following perplexed, but anxious. Just like the 1905 revolution so the bourgeois revolution of February too, are fires that spring up from the flames that sparked demonstrations, protests and the strikes of the workers of Petrograd. On 25th February 1917 more than 200,000 strikers paralyze St. Petersburg. The violent repression of the demonstrations and the arrest of nearly all the members of the leadership of the General Confederation of Labour further exacerbate developments. The then chairman of the Duma and leader of the faction of bourgeois liberals Mikhail Rodzianko advised the Tsar to change the government in an attempt to defuse the whole situation. The Tsar obeys but it is too late. The people have already imposed their own power, the self-government committees, the Soviets.

So between then and Great October there would coexist in Russia on the one hand the central government of the Tsar and the parallel informal power of the Soviets on the other.

The Soviets that in February 1917 only four Bolsheviks exist and act. Nevertheless, the popular reaction to the misery caused by the exploitation and the impact of the First World War lead Tsar Nicholas to resign in favour of his successor and to the formation of new government under Prince Lvof which declares its intention to continue the war alongside the British and the French, provoking even greater reaction among the war stricken and weary Russian people. Only Lenin, this great revolutionary and visionary, succeeded in grasping the will of the people, putting forth the slogan “Down with the war”, a slogan that grabs the people and converted it into their banner.

With the support of the Bolsheviks Lenin, who monitors and guides from Switzerland, the Soviets are turned into a compact force with enormous power and influence in society.

So they command to the provisional government of Lvof on 1st March the renaming of the soldiers of tsarist Russia into citizens (these in just a little while would represent the heart of the people’s army). They also forced the Government to declare the autonomy of Finland and proclaim a general amnesty, banishing the tsarist family to Tsarskoye Selo.

On 24th March the Soviets force the bourgeois provisional government to implement the eight hour working day, while on 2nd April women gain the right to vote. “When the conditions mature, nothing can keep the old regime in place”, Marx wrote who in the case of Russia is confirmed in an astonishing way.

In early April Lenin arrives from Zurich to St. Petersburg. From the station of Petersburg he promotes the slogan that triggers the great upsurge. “No support for the Russian capitalist government! Down with the imperialist war! Long live the Social Revolution!” Just a few days later, the great revolutionary attends and addresses the first All-Russian Conference of Soviets taking place in Minsk. His words and thoughts are concise, dialectical, class-based, revolutionary, rebellious and simultaneously explosive. “All Power to the Soviets!”, “Peace now!” and “The Land to the peasants!” Anything else and nothing different could have touched the hearts of millions of impoverished people.

Here lies the great revolutionary genius of Lenin who just five days after returning his homeland, together with the Party of Bolsheviks, took matters into their own hands and become the dominant political figure in Russia.

Since late May the Soviets passed entirely into the hands of the Bolsheviks with Trotsky joining their ranks who up till then had remained uninvolved in the clash between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. At the same time the revolutionary impatience of the Russian people leads to the spontaneous siege of the palaces of Tabriz and the seizure by thousands of armed workers of the Naval Base of Kronstadt near Petrograd. Lenin still believes that the conditions need to further mature for the final blow to be dealt; a blow which is imminent.

The interim government of Lvof filled with panic now orders the arrest of Lenin and Trotsky. Lenin, together with Zinoviev, take refuge in neighbouring Finland, while three of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, Lunacharsky, Trotsky and Krylenko are thrown in jail. The people react and revolt, Prince Lvof resigns and Kerensky, a former Menshevik, takes his place who was trying to keep the bourgeois revolution going.

In vain however, after the die is cast. The Bolsheviks of Lenin now control almost all Soviets of the large cities. Trotsky is democratically elected president of the powerful Petrograd Soviet. Lenin already proclaims unequivocally the position for an outright revolution. So a few days later, on 10th October the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party decided with 10 votes for 2 against in favour of the immediate preparation for seizing power. Fourteen days later the Red Guard of Petrograd and large groups of armed people occupy the central telegraph office, the State Bank, railway stations and the bridges of the River Neva.

On 25th October, and while the Kerensky government continues its overnight meeting, a volley of the cruiser “Avrora” tears the Russian sky, announcing the beginning of a new era.

The Kerensky government collapses like a house of cards. The great revolutionary guides the revolution from his headquarters at the Smolny Institute that will realize in practice the previous slogan: “All Power to the Soviets!”

Comrades and friends,

What happened in Russia with the Great October of 1917 is staggering. Incredible, yet grandiose. For the first time in the history of humanity, the damned of the Earth, like the lyrics reflected in the hymn of the “International”, are in power. The revolutionary Russian people would invade the Winter Palace in the heart of Russian despotism and establish there the Soviet state – the world’s first state of workers and peasants.

Without delay the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets begins. There, in the palace of the Tsars they decided to break their chains.

The meeting of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets lasted two days. There, the first decree of the Bolshevik government is issued. It’s the Decree on Peace which states “The workers’ and peasants’ government, created by the Revolution of October 24-25 and basing itself on the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, calls upon all the belligerent peoples and their government to start immediate negotiations for a just, democratic peace.”

A second decree read personally by Lenin followed. This decree repealed without compensation the property of landowners which passes now to the peasants.

Finally by a Decree the Council of the People’s Commissars – as the government chaired by Lenin is called – is formed.

Comrades,

Today 98 years later, Red October, its great ideals continue to inspire and guide the working people in their struggles for a better life, for social justice.

The Great October Socialist Revolution gave birth to the first socialist state in the world. The goal of Lenin and his comrades for a socialist transformation of society is embraced by the people who through indescribable excitement build the new world.

A devastated and exhausted from war and hardship society and economy stands on is feet again and performs miracles. Socialism releases enormous forces. Over the next decades the Soviet Union is transformed into a powerful and measurable political, economic and military power. An advanced industrial country which innovates and excels in science, culture and sports.

A country that despite the heavy price paid by the Soviet people managed to defeat and humiliate Hitler fascism.

The Soviet Union, so as not to we forget, was the first country in the world which introduced free education and health for the people. It provided shelter to its citizens and secure work and access to culture for all. No one can and no one is entitled to negate and erase the achievements of socialism. Yes, it is true that in the seventy year old path of building socialism mistakes were committed as well as omissions, even crimes were committed that stained and tarnished the selfless vision of many people for a better world and a better life.

The lowering of the Soviet flag in the Kremlin and the collapse of socialism may constitute a serious setback in the struggle of the peoples for a better society, but we, in defiance of the times, continue. We continue the struggle begun by the pioneering communists for social justice and socialism.

Armed with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, cohesive and united around the vanguard party of the Cypriot working people, AKEL, class-oriented, we struggle daily with the people for the people. We grasp, listen and respond to their worries, concerns and problems and we are in the forefront of the struggles to raise and resolve them.

This is who we are and this is what we must be.

Comrades and friends,

What if capitalism with all its changes has shown an incredible versatility. Its nature remains the same. It is a ruthlessly exploitative system that generates injustice and exploitation.

At the same time as almost a billion of our fellow human beings are living in dire poverty, when tens of thousands of children die every day from hunger in Africa and Asia, hundreds of millions of people live on less than 1.25 dollars a day, 1% of the world’s population enjoys 50% of global wealth. At the same time as the richest 10% of the world’s population controls 90% of global wealth. Just 740 multinationals control 80% of global wealth, while the fortunes and wealth of the world’s seven richest people could eradicate poverty.

In our country comrades we are today going through a period of economic and humanitarian crisis. In today’s Cyprus austerity, cuts and Memoranda. In the Cyprus of the onslaught of the neoliberal right policies of the Right.

In EU Cyprus, where one third of the population, that is to say 230,000 of our compatriots are living in poverty and exclusion. In the Cyprus of 2015, where 130,000 people are deprived of essential goods. With 65,000 people unemployed. In the Cyprus of the Eurozone whose sons and daughters, its young people are emigrating in search of a better future.

The nature of capitalism, namely the sacrificing of people for the sake of profit, the savage exploitation of working people and the unequal distribution of the produced wealth has not changed in our country too. The contradictions however have sharpened. The haircut on bank deposits, the cuts in wages, pensions and the dismantling of the welfare state and the health system, the curbing of growth and developmental expenditure, the downgrading of Cooperatives and the institution of local self-government are characteristic examples of a neoliberal right-wing government that does not hesitate to sacrifice people’s social gains for the sake of the interests of the privileged few.

These harsh realities are placing on the shoulders of our own Party and the class-based trade union movement heavy tasks. Our very nature itself sets us at the forefront of struggles to defend gains, to support the weak, to win back what has been lost. Continuous daily class struggle is present. For the umpteenth time history challenges and invites us – and not by chance.

AKEL is the worthy successor of the Communist Party of Cyprus which was born as a result of developments and events that culminated in the Great October Socialist Revolution which shook not only Russia, but the whole world. In the uphill struggle in our 90-year history, we have marched guided by the beacon of Marxist – Leninist ideology. They have hunted us, imprisoned us, we lost precious comrades, and we have faced persecution and terror. But we did not yield or surrender. The founders and pioneering Cypriot communists and their successors have left to us a cohesive party, a strong political force that is in the frontline of political and socio-economic developments and life of our country.

AKEL is today, and that’s why we must be proud, a modern Communist Party that fights daily for the common people, for their needs, maintaining strong ties with the workers, the youth, farmers, the women’s movement and the people of the arts and letters.

In our long history we have achieved that every gain of our people has our own mark and stamp. We fought Hitler fascism, against the intolerance and chauvinism. We are the leading political force that struggles with consistency and without regressions and deviations for the reunification of our homeland and people.

AKEL is deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of Cypriot working people.

Many people tried to uproot us from the people, both in the past, but also very recently. Indeed only recently, they tried in a dishonest, cruel and even immoral way. In defiance of the times, we did not succumb or yield. We have held on and endured, we withstood and are standing upright and marching forward steadily in the way prescribed by history. We are doing so, correcting mistakes and shortcomings and modernizing our activity.

Comrades and friends,

Red October, the Great October Socialist Revolution has indelibly marked the course of humanity. The visions of the pioneer revolutionaries and the messages of the revolution remain alive.

The future of humanity cannot be what we are experiencing today. Our future cannot be capitalism. As long as the wealth of the land is concentrated in the hands of a privileged few, as long as poverty, misery and poverty is the life of the majority, at the same time as the guided mass media cultivate apathy, inertia and depoliticisation, at the same time as rampant populism replaces serious and concise political discourse, the eye and the hopes of the weak and non-privileged will focus on us again.

On our own shoulders, the shoulders of the Left falls the task of rallying the people in their daily struggles for peace, democracy, development and social progress.

With our goal always focused on the vision of a democratic and humane socialism, socialism is not just an illusionary slogan but a historical necessity; a historical necessity that represents the opposite of cruelty, oppression and exploitation of today’s capitalism.

Therefore, for us Cypriot communists, as for the entire communist movement, we have plenty to do in a struggle for which we must move ahead with confidence.

Building again through our struggles the hope for a better world, a humane world, a socialist world.

Marching on the path outlined by Lenin and Red October!

Long live the Great October Socialist Revolution!

Long live the struggle of the peoples for peace, social justice and socialism!