Fidel Castro - SPEECH AT RED SQUARE lyrics

Dear Comrade Nikita Sergeyevich Krushchev, comrades from the CPSU Central Committee, comrades from the Council of Ministers, members of the diplomatic corps, Soviet citizens: This is the first time that I have had the good fortune to address such an audience, whose language I do not know. (Applause) (In Spanish--Ed: . . . that it is my task to address an audience whose language . . . . ) I see a large group of Cuban students here. (Cheers) It seems that they are the first to understand me. (Laughter) We should coordinate the situation a little for our comrades may confuse the issue if they are the first to applaud, the first to laugh, and in general the first to react. (Laughter, applause) I think we shall solve the problem easily as our interpreter is not bad. (Laughter) For us, this journey, this visit to the Soviet Union, is not only an exciting factor in itself, but presents for us great economic, political, and historic significance. Of course, we have come to your country with a certain bias in your favor. We have come here with a great desire to look at your life and to learn from you. Perhaps our enemies believe that our points of view are not objective, but they are mistaken. More than 24 hours have pa**ed since we stepped onto the territory of the USSR. We have already established the first contacts with the Soviet people. The impressions of which I speak are not for our enemies. If our enemies wish to delude themselves, that is their business. I am speaking to the Soviet people, and I am speaking to my own people. It is quite logical that we Cubans and Soviet people understand one another. Soviet people understand us because our revolution, our efforts, our dangers, and our difficulties remind them of their own revolution. We Cubans understand Soviet people because we an appreciate their successes, their victories, and their understanding achievements better than anyone, because we know how many enemies, how many difficulties and obstacles a genuine revolution encounters on its way. We know the achievements of the Soviet Union. They were possibly only thanks to the unshakable faith, stubbornness, and persistence of the people of this great country. What we see and what impresses us most profoundly reminds us above all, that all this has been done not by rich people, not by the "powers that be," not by the privileged cla**es, not by the bourgeois intelligentsia. (Phrase "not by the powers that be" omitted in Spanish--Ed.) All this has been done by the hands of simple workers and peasants, the exploited cla**es (applause) who had no experience of governing the country, who did not graduate from universities, and nevertheless created w completely new country, created a completely new society, and transformed browbeaten people into the Soviet workers and peasants led by their vanguard, the Communist Party. (Applause) We know the achievements of the Soviet Union. They were possible only thanks to the unshakable faith, stubbornness, and persistence of the people of this great country. What we see and what impresses us most profoundly reminds us above all, that all this has been done not by rich people, not by the "powers that be," not by the privileged cla**es, not by the bourgeois intelligentsia. (Phrase "not by the powers that be" omitted in Spanish--Ed.) All this has been done by the hands of simple workers and peasants, the exploited cla**es (applause) who had no experience of governing the country, who did not graduate from universities, and nevertheless created a completely new country, created a completely new society, and transformed browbeaten people into the Soviet workers and peasants led by their vanguard, the Communist Party. (Applause) They created the reality which is the Soviet Union today; a country where every year the largest number of engineers and other technical workers in the world complete courses at higher educational institutions; where the development of science is on a great upsurge; where rich experience has been accumulated in the administration, planning, and development of the economy. It is quite natural that we revolutionaries clearly see this and are delighted with it. But this is not the only merit. The proletariat of former Russia opened up before the world quite new prospects. It changed the whole course of the development of history and made possible things which formerly would have been unthinkable. It is not just a matter of real life, and in this sense we are living example of this reality. (Applause) Many Soviet people ask: How was it possible to accomplish the Cuban revolution? How was it possible to accomplish such a radical change in such a small, economically underdeveloped country, in a country which was under the American Yoke? (in Spanish--Ed. . . under the heel of American imperialism?) It is quite possible that many Soviet people admire Cuba for this very reason. And perhaps because of this we meet on all side with warm sympathy and cordiality toward our country. (Applause) However, we ourselves shall never forget one circumstance--the Cuban revolution became possibly only because the Russian revolution of 1917 had been accomplished long before. (Applause). Without the existence of the Soviet Union, Cuba's socialist revolution would have been impossible. However, this does not at all mean that the Cuban revolution was accomplished by the Soviet union. Among so many lies and slanders, the enemies of the Soviet Union have not gone as far as to say that. This means that without the existence of the Soviet Union, the imperialists would have strangled any national-liberation revolution in Latin America. And as they go as far as to crush even bourgeois revolutions, if these revolutions affect their imperialist interests, they would strangle socialist revolutions in Latin America with much greater rediness and hatred. Had the Soviet Union not existed, the imperialists would not even have had to resort to weapons. They would have strangled such a revolution with hunger. They would have liquidated it by only an economic blockade. But because the Soviet Union exists, it proved impossible to liquidate our revolution. When the imperialists, in a flagrant and unprecedented manner (in Spanish--Ed: arbitrarily), limited the quota of sugar purchased from us, this itself would have been enough to end the revolution, causing famine and ruin in the country. Then the Soviet Union came to our aid by buying our sugar. When the imperialists cut off the supply of oil, this would have been enough to inflict a mortal blow to the national economy of the country. Then the Soviet Union sent us oil. When the economic measures did not produce the necessary effect, work began on plans for intervention. Now a single capitalist country wished to sell us arms. Right then the countries of the socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union, decided to help us help us acquire the arms we needed. Thanks to this aid, and with these arms, we succeeded in defeating the interventionists at Playa Giron. (Applause) If there were no Soviet union, the imperialists would not have hesitated to carry out a direct military attack on our country. This might of the Soviet Union and of the whole socialist camp stopped imperialist aggression against our country. It is quite natural that we nourish feelings of profound and eternal gratitude to the Soviet Union. (Applause) This teaches us two main things: that any people, no matter how small, no matter how distant, can wage the struggle for a better life, sure of the fact that the imperialists are unable to suppress it unpunished. At the same time this teaches us that the merits of the Soviet people are vast, the merits of the Soviet workers and their brilliant leader, Lenin, are vast, (applause) and of the party which he founded. We know that the Soviet people are aware of all the good things which they have done for mankind. We know that to preserve and to defend your revolution was not an easy thing. We know what sacrifices you have made, to how many attacks from the aggressors you have been subjected. We know the history of your revolution. We know of the world imperialist reactionary plots. We know of the intervention organized against your country. We know of the vast sacrifices you made in repulsing fascist aggression. We know of the spilled blood, of your sacrifices. Yesterday, when we were in Murmansk, we saw a completely new town, thousands of new buildings. We were also shown photographs depicting Murmansk immediately after the war, without a single house untouched by bombs. We know that the Soviet people have been obliged to rebuild their lives more than once. But we understand that the Soviet people do this will full awareness each time. We have understood it since the first moment on this soil and we shall never forget the very first impressions which we have retained from the first day of our stay in the Soviet Union. For the first time we met a society where there is no exploited cla** and where there is no cla** of exploiters. We are meeting here the builder-people and we understand that such a people, such a society, is something extraordinary. (applause) The courage, patriotism, and healthy spirit of the citizens of the country where socialism has been fully victorious leave not the smallest doubt that the CPSU Program will be fully carried out, (applause) that the present generation of the Soviet people will live under communism, (applause) and that your forward movement cannot be halted by anyone--since they were unable to halt your forward movement when your workers and peasants possessed practically nothing, when they lacked the basis of an industrial society, when they lacked the experience of today. From the bottom of their hearts the peoples of the entire world, all the peoples of the world, must regard your success as their own. (applause) For your revolution was accomplished in the name of the good of all mankind, and what the imperialists say about this is not important. Their slanders are not important. (Applause) We know what these slanders are worth because in relation to us they did not stint slander, but that is not important. All these slanders will crumble on contact with reality. I have always believed this. We believe this is a thousand times more since I became acquainted with the soviet people. (applause) Mankind will proceed along its victorious path. Mankind has every reason to be optimistic, to believe in the strength of those progressive forces which will overcome the forces of reaction, to believe that the forces of peace will emerge victorious over all those reactionary forces which want war. (Applause) The successes of the Soviet Union will help others also to progress victoriously--all peoples which, like our for example, today are forced to defend themselves from the intrigues and attacks of the imperialists. We have always been great admirers of Lenin. (Applause) But after we see what his people have accomplished, after we become acquainted with the Soviet Union, the image of Lenin grows to gigantic dimensions in our eyes and becomes for us still more immortal. Soviet people, if you want me in one word to give you my opinion of your people, I will say to you a word uttered by one of the members of our delegation when I asked his opinion. He answered me: This is a people of giants! (Applause) Today Comrade Khrushchev expressed his confidence in the victory of the Cuban revolution, and we are sure that this is how it will be. (Applause) We are sure that our people will not be defeated, for there are two conditions absolutely indispensable for a victory--there is the revolutionary and patriotic spirit of our people, and the solidarity of the socialist camp with the Soviet Union at its head. (Applause) Moreover, there is the revolutionary solidarity of the working people of the entire world, there is the solidarity of all the peoples who have themselves experienced the meaning of imperialism and colonialism. Soviet people, about communism and socialism we can also say with the words used in our motherland: "We shall win!" (Applause) The future of mankind is the future of socialism and communism. (Applause) Allow me to express warm and heartfelt (thanks?) here at Red Square, which is steeped in history and about which Comrade Khrushchev spoke here, and in the name of (words indistinct) for the opportunity to meet you here and to express to your our boundless gratitude for the honor that you grant us on this historic square where the new history of the world began to be written. Allow me, as the most just expression of my feelings, to express our deepest gratitude to the great man, Lenin. (Applause) (The preceding paragraph was given in Spanish as follows--Ed: For this reason, let me say with greater fervor than ever that it is a doubly great honor, for which we are most grateful, to meet in this Red Square which, as Comrade Khrushchev said, is so steeped in history. Here in Red Square, where the first pages of the new world history were written, let me, as a most homage, express my deepest gratitude to that great man, Lenin (applause), by shouting: "Long Live Lenin.") Long live proletarian internationalism! (Applause) Long live friendship between the Soviet and the Cuban people! (Applause) Long live the Soviet Union? (Applause) Fatherland or d**h! We shall win! (Applause) -END-