Wilhelm Pieck 1948
Written: By Wilhelm Pieck, 1948;
Source: For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy! Vol. 2, no. 21; November 1, 1948;
Transcribed: David Adams, March 2022.
Thirty-one years ago in the battle for peace, freedom and independence, the power of the Soviets, the power of workers’ soldiers’ s and peasants’ deputies, was consolidated in Russia. In response to the call for peace addressed by Lenin to all peoples at the birth of he Socialist Fatherland, the Soviet people determined to put an end to the imperialist war and to secure peace which would end the slavery and exploitation of working people for all time.
The struggle of the Bolshevik Party for peace was inseparably linked with the struggle against the landlords and capitalists who had grown rich on the war. The Bolsheviks knew that only by breaking up and expropriating the material basis of the exploiting classes, by transferring the land and all mineral resources into the hands of the people, could a lasting peace be won for the working people.
Since the first days of Soviet power, the capitalist world, the bourgeois ideologists and their agents in the working class have been waging a vindictive struggle against the country where power is in the hands of the working people. But this can never detract from the great influence the Soviet Union has among the millions of exploited peoples. Those oppressed by imperialism see in the Soviet Union the heart of all the forces battling against social and national oppression a powerful bulwark the struggle for peace, for people’s democracy and Socialism.
The main light of the working people of Germany— workers, peasants and progressive intellectuals—is for peace and for the democratic development of our country. In the course of the past year, a broad people’s movement for unity and a just peace has come into being on the initiative of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. All the democratic, peace- loving forces in the country are uniting in the German People’s Council to win unity for Germany and a democratic peace treaty as soon as possible.
On this 31st Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the democratic forces of Germany recall with gratitude that the Soviet Army defeated Hitler’s fascist hordes, thus creating the conditions for the democratic development of our country.
We send our greeting and glorious Bolshevik Party and its brilliant leader, Generalissimo Stalin, Comrade and pupil of the great Lenin. May the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) and its experience continue to be an inspiring example of the victorious embodiment of the ideals of Marxism-Leninism to all champions of Socialism.
On this 31st Anniversary of the victory of Soviet power, we wish the Soviet peoples new successes in strengthening and building up Socialist Society, for therein lies the guarantee of peace and security for all peoples.