# A Message from the Petrograd Soviet

October 31st, 1919.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PETROGRAD SOVIET.
The People's Russian Information Bureau is now able to give the full text of the appeal which the recently elected new Petrograd Soviet addressed the workers soldiers and sailors of the Allied countries, and those of Esthonia and Poland. No publicity has bee given to this most important appeal, with the exception of a few extracts, published a little while ago by the general Press:
"AT a moment of great stress we, the workers of Petrograd, have re-elected our Soviet. The elections took place at a time when the armies of your Governments were threatening our city and when we were suffering terrible hunger in consequence of the blockade directed against us. Nevertheless, the workers of Petrograd remained at their posts. Hundreds of thousands of them took part in the elections, and to-day the new Soviet has met for the first time. Thousands of delegates representing the workers, the Red Army and the Red Navy are attending the session, and unanimously they have resolved to send you the following message: We shall continue to maintain the Soviet system, the political power of the workers and peasants. We shall fight to the last breath against the capitalist class for the triumph of Socialism.
"At this solemn hour we ask you:—
"Why have your Governments started the present campaign against our city?
"Why do they carry anarchy into our city; why do they shoot our fathers and brothers; why have they condemned us to death by starvation?
"All the stories spread by a corrupt Press about the reign of terror in Petrograd are lies. We are suffering from hunger, we collapse at work in the factories through sheer exhaustion; yet proletarian discipline and perfect order reign among us. We are defending ourselves against the enemies who are attacking us from all sides, but at the same time we are building up, step by step, the working class State. We are guilty in the eyes of your capitalists by the mere fact that we were the first to unfurl the Red Flag and the first to suppress Tsardom and Capitalism. It is not now two years since we took public power into our hands, and the land has belonged to the peasants, and the workshops to the workers? Your Government hate us because we published the secret treaties which had been concluded between them and Tsardom. They hate our city because it was the first to raise the hammer of the Revolution.
"We also address ourselves to the workers of Finland and Esthonia. For nearly two years you have been fed on lies. You are told that we want to annex Esthonia and Finland. That is not true. Our official representative, Zinovieff, declared at the meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, in the name of the entire Soviet Government, in plain and explicit words that our armies had received an express order not to cross the Esthonian or Finnish frontiers. The Central Executive Committee is the highest authority in the country, and an order issued by it has a binding official character. We are convinced that for you, to, the hour of emancipation from the yoke of Capitalism is near at hand, and your Governments are doing their best to avert their fall. We do not want to fight against you; it is your own Governments which started the war.
"Comrades all, how long will you allow your Governments to supply our executioners with arms, money, officers and provisions? On the Murmansk front we have to fight British, French, Italian and Serbian troops. On the Narva front we have had to deal with Swedish divisions. Along Esthonian and Finnish frontiers it is regular Ethonian and Finnish troops who are fighting us. Your Governments are sending spies and agents to Petrograd who organise explosions and distribute bags of gold among traitors. The White Government of Finland causes our railway stations and villages to be bombarded from aeroplanes. Yet we do not yield and shall never surrender. We are convinced, comrades, that in your countries, too, the Red Flag will triumph. We consider the general action which you have arranged fro July 21st as a symptom of your awakening consciousness. We live in the certain hope that the workers of Britain, France, America, Italy and other countries will soon refuse to act as gendarmes and executioners of the Labour Revolution.
"Your Governments deny any intention to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. This is a barefaced lie. Your Governments have appointed as the lawful autocrat of Russia a hangman and murderer, Admiral Koltchak, against whom all the workers and peasants of Siberia and the Urals are in revolt. Your Governments are spending millions in assisting Tsarist generals to restore the old Monarchy. The are providing the Russian counter-revolutionaries with all they need from tanks to spies. Your Governments have helped in the formation of the army of General Denikin, which has massacred thousands of workers in Kharkoff and Ekaterinaslav for the mere crime of being workers. Your Governments are responsible for the horrors of Perm where, on the eve of evacuation, many thousands of the Red Guards were burned alive. And your Governments are responsible for the famine in our country.
"Comrades all, forward to the Revolution. Put an end to the crimes of your Governments. Extend your brotherly hands to the workers of other countries. Do all you can to prevent any assistance being given to the Counter-Revolution in Russia. We send you our fraternal greetings, and call out with you: Long Live the Workers' Revolution in all countries."
Published by The People's Russian Information Bureau, 152, Fleet-street, London, E.C.4, and printed by the Friars Printing Association Ltd., 26a, Tudor-street, E.C.
This work was published in 1919 and is anonymous or pseudonymous due to unknown authorship. It is in the public domain in the United States as well as countries and areas where the copyright terms of anonymous or pseudonymous works are 104 years or less since publication.
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