Title | One year of revolution |
Alternative Title | One year of revolution: celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the Russian Soviet Republic, November 7, 1918 |
Creator (LCNAF) |
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Publisher | Socialist Publication Society |
Place of Creation (TGN) |
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Date | 1918 |
Subject.Name (LCNAF) |
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Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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Genre (AAT) |
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Language | English; Russian; German |
Type (DCMI) |
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Original Item Extent | 32 pages: illustrations; 28 cm. |
Original Item Location | DK265.S62 1918 |
Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304499~S11 |
Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
File Name | index.cpd |
Title | Image 12 |
Format (IMT) |
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File Name | uhlib_6770052_011.jpg |
Transcript | the persecutions of the old regime have sent to other countries the best that Russia had to give of revolutionary material. It is equally due to the enormous adaptability that everywhere characterizes the Russian Socialist, his ability to become an active, integral part of the movement into which he has come, and last but not least his intense and real conception of the spirit of Internationalism which makes him more ready than the German or the Englishman, than the Scandinavian or the Frenchman to adapt himself to new conditions, to use these new conditions for his purposes. This happy faculty was developed in Trotzky to an unusual degree. Driven from country to country by the bloodhounds of capital and the almighty Czar, forced to use not a little of his time to establish a home for himself and his family and for the regulation of numerous personal obligations, he nevertheless gained, in the few weeks of his stay, an insight into American conditions that amazed everyone with whom he came in contact. While the "lights" of the New York Russian Socialist colony still pooh-poohed the idea of American intervention, he proved that America's participation in the war was inevitable. And when later the revolutionary flood in Russia had carried Czarism before it, he assured me that the day might not be far distant when the American government would become the friend in need of the Russian bourgeoisie. "The European proletariat," he declared at a meeting shortly before he left, "is vitally interested in the growth of a strong, revolutionary American movement. For your democracy is the only hope, the last refuge of the European bourgeoisie, who will appeal to your capitalists for help." How near his prophecy has come to fulfillment! * Leon Trotzky is still a young man, at the beginning of the forties. And yet he has stood in the thickest of the fight for more than twenty years. He was, for a short time, the President of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Council of the Revolution of 1905. His life has been a life of greatest self-abnegation for the cause of the working-class. Like his comrade. Lenine. he knows the steppes of Siberia, has made the intimate acquaintance of the vilest prisons, of the tortures and the martyrdom of the blood-thirsty system of Feudal- Capitalism. From his "fatherland" he fled into exile, he was banished from the Kaiser's Germany and afterward sentenced to six months in prison for writing his classic book, "The International and the World War," (Bolsheviki and the World Peace). From republican France he was driven by a socialist Minister, and neither democratic Switzerland nor the constitutional monarchy of Spain tolerated the dangerous revolutionist within their borders. But nothing could discourage his strong, hopeful assurance. On the contrary, he seemed to grow, to become greater and more powerful with each new oppressive measure. He steeled his socialist convictions in the white fire of persecution, in it he hardened his belief in the uncompromising class antagonism of modern society. Wherever he went he found numerous friends and devoted supporters. Whenever he was driven away, he left behind him the brightly burning fire of revolutionary enthusiasm. Today, on the first anniversary of Soviet rule in Russia, Trotzky and his comrades may hold up their heads proudly before the working-class of the world. The seed that the Russians sowed has taken root; all over Europe, in Germany, in Austria-Hungary, and in Bulgaria, the first shoots of revolutionary uprising have already raised their heads above the ground. Trotzky's prophecy that the Russian Revolution will and must win because the working class of the nations of Europe will be forced to take up the struggle against their governments has received splendid vindication. The fulfillment of our proudest dreams is at hand. The night through which the proletariat has lived in mental darkness and physical suffering is retreating, the light of the sun is already shining down upon us. On the ruins of a world destroyed and devastated by capitalism the proletariat will build a new existence. To the master-builder, Leon Trotzky, to our friend and comrade in times of stress and in victory, greetings and thanks. Ludwig Lore < 10 |