Video clips of Lenin, Trotsky and Russian Revolution Print E-mail
By In Defence of Marxism   
Wednesday, 07 November 2007

 
Below we provide some links for our readers of video clips of Lenin and Trotsky speaking.

Russian Revolution in colour

From Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution:

"The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old régime. Only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events, and the approval of the masses. The fundamental political process of the revolution thus consists in the gradual comprehension by a class of the problems arising from the social crisis -- the active orientation of the masses by a method of successive approximations. The different stages of a revolutionary process, certified by a change of parties in which the more extreme always supersedes the less, express the growing pressure to the left of the masses -- so long as the swing of the movement does not run into objective obstacles. When it does, there begins a reaction: disappointments of the different layers of the revolutionary class, growth of indifferentism, and therewith a strengthening of the position of the counter-revolutionary forces. Such, at least, is the general outline of the old revolutions.

"Only on the basis of a study of political processes in the masses themselves, can we understand the rôle of parties and leaders, whom we least of all are inclined to ignore. They constitute not an independent, but nevertheless a very important, element in the process. Without a guiding organisation, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston-box. But nevertheless what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam.

"The difficulties which stand in the way of studying the changes of mass consciousness in a revolutionary epoch are quite obvious. The oppressed classes make history in the factories, in the barracks, in the villages, on the streets of the cities. Moreover, they are least of all accustomed to write things down. Periods of high tension in social passions leave little room for contemplation and reflection. All the muses -- even the plebeian muse of journalism, in spite of her sturdy hips -- have hard sledding in times of revolution. Still the historian's situation is by no means hopeless. The records are incomplete, scattered, accidental. But in the light of the events themselves these fragments often permit a guess as to the direction and rhythm of the hidden process. For better or worse, a revolutionary party bases its tactics upon a calculation of the changes of mass consciousness. The historic course of Bolshevism demonstrates that such a calculation, at least in its rough features, can be made. If it can be made by a revolutionary leader in the whirlpool of the struggle, why not by the historian afterwards?

"However, the processes taking place in the consciousness of the masses are not unrelated and independent. No matter how the idealists and the eclectics rage, consciousness is nevertheless determined by conditions. In the historic conditions which formed Russia, her economy, her classes, her State, in the action upon her of other states, we ought to be able to find the premises both of the February revolution and of the October revolution which replaced it. Since the greatest enigma is the fact that a backward country was the first to place the proletariat in power, it behoves us to seek the solution of that enigma in the peculiarities of that backward country -- that is, in its differences from other countries.

"The historic peculiarities of Russia and their relative weight will be characterised by us in the early chapters of this book which give a short outline of the development of Russian society and its inner forces. We venture to hope that the inevitable schematism of these chapters will not repel the reader. In the further development of the book he will meet these same forces in living action.

"This work will not rely in any degree upon personal recollections. The circumstance that the author was a participant in the events does not free him from the obligation to base his exposition upon historically verified documents. The author speaks of himself, in so far as that is demanded by the course of events, in the third person. And that is not a mere literary form: the subjective tone, inevitable in autobiographies or memoirs, is not permissible in a work of history.

"However, the fact that the author did participate in the struggle naturally makes easier his understanding, not only of the psychology of the forces in action, both individual and collective, but also of the inner connection of events. This advantage will give positive results only if one condition is observed: that he does not rely upon the testimony of his own memory either in trivial details or in important matters, either in questions of fact or questions of motive and mood. The author believes that in so far as in him lies he has fulfilled this condition."

Lenin speaks!

The text of the speech is as follows:

"Comrade (Red Army) soldiers! The capitalists of England, America and France are waging a war against Russia. They are taking revenge on the Soviet Peasants & Workers' Republic for her...

Leon Trotsky 1919 speech on "Brotherly Union of Soviet Republics."

Text of the speech translated into English:

"Comrades! Old Tsarist Russia was forged together by an iron hoop of violence and despotism. During the last, cruel world war, this hoop was broken and fell apart. And along with it, old Tsarist Russia fell apart. And to many it seemed that the peoples of Russia will never come together as one. But, with our own eyes, we see a great historical miracle in the making. The Soviet power unites the peoples of tsarist Russia as one whole. The Soviet armies liberated Kharkov and Kiev. And what, the Ukranian people, do they want to live a separate life from the rest of Russia? No, they want a friendly, brotherly union and an indissoluble bond. The Red regiments liberated Riga and Vilna. And what, the Lettish people, the Lithuanian people, the Belorussian people, are they set on separating from us by a stone wall? No, they want a friendly, close-knit union. And the same will happen tomorrow with Eastland, Caucasus, Siberia, with all now isolated parts of old tsarist empire. This means that in the hearts of toiling peoples, lives an unconquerable striving for putting together their forces. There, where there was the old tsarist empire forged by blood and iron, there was along with that, in the depths of people's consciousness, a striving for a brotherly life, without hatred, struggle and brawl of one nation with other nation. And now, the toiling people, who got in their hands the means of ruling the state, they build a new Soviet Federative Russia. And this new Soviet Russia reaches its hands to an awakening Germany. And there will be, in the whole world, a United Soviet Republic of All Peoples!"

Leon Trotsky "The Sacred Task of the Red Army." (March 20, 1920)

Text of the speech translated into English:

"Comrade soldiers of the Red Army! On March 8, this year an old Tatar named Kurmayev, born in Samara province, came to see me at the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. He had come to Moscow at the desire of his fellow-villagers, Tatar working peasants, and, with tears in his eyes, he thanked the Soviet power for liberating Samara province from Dutov's bands.

"This is what he told me. 'When the Cossacks were stationed in our village we suffered many misfortunes. The Cossack officers not only took from us horses, cattle and grain without paying anything, especially where poor peasants were concerned, but, worse still, they mocked us, persecuted us, beat and shot at us. We Tatars had it worse than anyone else. We heard that the Red Army was advancing into Samara province, but we didn't know whether that would mean better times for us, or worse. When the Cossacks had left our village and the Red Army men came in, we saw at once that these were a different sort of people. We were not insulted any more. The soldiers talked with us in a brotherly way, and order was established in the village and all around. We breathed freely, and blessed the Red Army.'

"That is what I was told by the old Tatar, father of a numerous family. And when, comrade soldiers, I heard these words. I felt proud of our workers' and peasants' Red Army. In this little example the true character of the revolutionary forces was revealed, together with the significance of this war which we have been forced to wage. On the one hand, the bourgeois-landlord troops restore in practice, everywhere that they go, the black injustice that prevailed under the Tsars, the oppression of the poor. The task of the soldiers of the Red Army, their sacred task, is to defend the poor against the rich. Woe to the soldier who does not understand what he has been appointed to do, and uses his power against his oppressed brothers and sisters.

"But to the true soldier of the Red Army, who bravely and honourably defends the rights and interests of the poor -- honour and glory, and the gratitude of the working masses."

Trotsky speaking in English

Text of the speech:

"Stalin's trial against me is built upon false confessions, extorted by modern Inquisitorial methods, in the interests of the ruling clique. There are no crimes in history more terrible in intention or execution than the Moscow trials of Zinoviev-Kamenev and of Radek-Piatakov. These trials develop not from communism, not from socialism, but from Stalinism, that is, from the irresponsible despotism of the bureaucracy over the people!"

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