Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

THIRD ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF SOVIETS4794SUMMING-UP SPEECH AT THE CONGRESSJANUARY 18 (31)Comrades, before the Third Congress of Soviets closes wemust establish with complete impartiality the momentouspart it has had to play in the history of the internationalrevolution and of mankind. There are incontestable groundsfor saying that the Third Congress of Soviets has opened anew epoch in world history and there is growing awareness ofits significance in these times of world revolution. It hasconsolidated the organisation of the new state power whichwas created by the October Revolution and has projectedthe lines of future socialist construction for the whole world,for the working people of all countries.The new system of the socialist Soviet Republic, as a federationof free republics of the different nations inhabitingRussia, has been finally accepted in this country in thesphere of domestic politics. It is now clear to all, and evento our enemies, I daresay, that the new system, the Sovietpower, is not an invention or a party trick, but is the resultof the development of life itself, the outcome of the worldrevolution as it spontaneously takes shape. You will recallthat all great revolutions invariably strove to raze the oldcapitalist system to the ground; they strove not only to winpolitical rights but also to wrest the very reins of governmentfrom the hands of the ruling classes, and all the exploitersand oppressors of the working people, so as to put anend to all exploitation and all oppression for good. Greatrevolutions strove to demolish this old exploiting state machinebut had not managed to bring it off until now. Andnow Russia, in virtue of the peculiarities of her economicand political position, has first achieved this transfer of