Evening star., 1942-11-08
Red Anniversary


brated the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the Bolshevik revolution. A quar-
ter-century ago the extreme revolu-
tionary group, headed by Lenin and
Trotzky, overthrew the moderate
Socialist Kerensky regime and es-
tablished state founded on commu-
mist principles. This radical expert
ment, the first Of its kind in the
modern world, has transformed the
rather primitive agricultural Russia
of the Cars into a heavily indus
trialized and mechanized federation
of Socialist Soviet Republics" ex-
tending from the Baltic and the
Black Seas to the Pacific Ocean and
embracing approximately one-sixth
of the land area of the globe.
It is a tragic commentary on our
times that, after quarter century
of existence, the Soviet Union should
be facing an ordeal as grim as that
of it's beginning. Then, as now, Rus
sia was beset by the same German
foe. Yet, today, the outlook is less
desperate than it was in 1917, because
all Russians stand united against the
same foreign enemy, whereas the
Bc!shevik revolution gave the signal
for desolating civil war and i'm
posed the necessity of a humiliatlng
peace with the Germans.
The temper of present-day Soviet
Russia is best exemplified by the ad-
dress of it's supreme leader, Joseph
Stain, "The Man of Steel" delivered
in Moscow before select audience OF
Communist party members meeting
in a secret place. Reviewing the
immensity of the Axis attack on the
Soviet Union, much greater propor-
tionately and absolutely than that
delivered by the Central Powers in
the First World War, Stain asserted
confidently that Red Russia had
breasted the supreme shock, that the
Axis plans had gone awry and that
it's strength was on the decline. De-
spite the trials which still lie ahead,
he confidently predicted the ultimate
triumph of Soviet Russia and its
Allies. "The Anglo-Soviet-American
coalition has all the possibilities for
victory, and they will win"
Stain frequently referred to the
much-desired second front" in
Western Europe, and deplored its alb
sence this year, asserting that it it
had been set up 1--WE would now be
witnessing the end of the German
Fascist armies However, these
references to the second front were
in a very different tone from that
employed in his "open letter" to the
Moscow representative Of the Asso-
ciated Press earlier this autumn.
Answering his own rhetorical ques-
/ ton, "Will there be second front?'
Stain replied: Eyes, there will be
one sooner or later, because 1t is no
less essential for our Allies than Tor
us, Our Allies must understand that
after the fall of France the absence
of a second front can mean catas-
trophe for them"
In this fortnight address the
Soviet war aims were listed as de-
struction of Hitlerism, which is both
possible and essential" elimination
of the slave system which Germany
calls the New Order" and annihila-
ton of its architects. However
Stain said mo sane man" would at
tempt to destroy Germany itself, "but
we will destroy the Hitlerites' mill
tary power"
The same note of assured conf
dence was struck in Stalin's order OF
the day to the Russian people, which
gave the keynote to the anniversary
celebrat tions. The coming winter
doubtless will be hard and grim for
the Soviet Union. but embattled
stalingrad still holds, the Axis drives
in the Caucasus appear to be stalled
and the rest of the eastern front is
stabilized There is thus solid basis
for Stalin's prediction that the worst
is over and that the ultimate out
come is clear.