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

512SPEECH TO PROPAGANDISTSON THEIR WAY TO THE PROVINCESJANUARY 23 (FEBRUARY 5), 1918NEWSPAPER REPORTComrades, you all know that Soviet power has been recognisedby the majority of the workers, soldiers and peasantsof the Russian nation and of other nations which inthe old days were part of Russia by compulsion and are nowparts of the free Russian Republic. We now have before usa short struggle against the pathetic remnants of Kaledin’scounter-revolutionary troops, who, it seems, has to savehimself from the revolutionary Cossacks in his home Donarea.Now that the last bastion of the counter-revolution isabout to collapse it is safe to say that Soviet power is growingstronger and it will be consolidated. Everyone canunderstand this, for there is compelling proof that only thispower—the workers, soldiers and peasants in their Soviets—can lead Russia to a free working people’s community.We are confronted with two powerful enemies, the firstof which is international capital. There it stands ragingat the consolidation of Soviet power it hates. There is nodoubt that these multi-millionaires must wage war over anextra piece of the pie grabbed from someone else. There isno doubt either that they are as yet stronger than the SovietRepublic.But it turns out that although the capitalists are strongerthan we are, they have already been sending their mento our Commissars, and might even recognise Soviet powerand, what is more, our repudiation of the loans, which forthese tightwads would really be a most painful and terribleblow. The fact that the agents of the international financialoligarchy have broached the subject shows that the capi-