Grigory Zinoviev

“ Following the easy victories in the Ukraine the Poles will begin to feel the wrath of the workers and peasants of the whole of Russia, the wrath even of non-party circles who have finally learned to see in the Soviet Government the protector of the independance of a great country which having given freedom to all oppressed nations demands now that right which she herself has recognised even for the smallest peoples,—the right of arranging her life upon her own territory in accordance with the expressed will of the popular masses of Russia. ”

“ This is the reason why France is so persistently, so anxiously encouraging Poland to fight Soviet Russia. The reason for the impatience evinced by France is the apprehension lest the Worker Peasant Government in Russia gather sufficient strength to impress Poland of the hopelessness of her, Poland's, undertaking, and lest the movement of the Polish Working masses, which is growing from day to day compell the ruling classes of that country to repudiate this military adventure. ”

“ You know that Soviet Russia brings Poland not oppression but national freedom, emancipation from the chains of Allied capital and help in the struggle against their own capitalists. The victory of Worker Peasant Russia will be the victory of the Polish Proletariat the brother and ally of the Russian Workers and Peasants. ”

“ Poland's economic position was driven into an ever growing impass. The masses of the people are starving; speculators and prostitute officials are holding banquets;—a festival in time of plague, it may be called. The wave of public indignation is growing with every day.
The hope entertained, that Poland as a country not loaded with State debt, will be helped by the Allies to obtain a large credit abroad.—was completely shattered. Polish currency is at a lower rate than that of defeated Germany. For all the goods received from the Allies the Poles have to pay at exhorbitant prices ”

“ Soviet Russia has upon many ocassions offered to begin peace negotiations with the Polish Republic; Soviet Russia emphasised not only her readiness for the complete recognition of Polish independance but also its willingness to solve all disputed questions by the means of peaceful negotiations. Soviet Russia has done all in her power to prevent a new war and new bloodshed. ”

“ The governments of France, England and America who are alleged to have been waging a bloody war for the last four years in the name of democracy, liberty and the establishment of a stable and lasting peace between nations, are now egging on Poland to fight Soviet Russia ”

“ At Versailles they made every endeavour economically and forever to destroy Germany and to split up Central Europ into small States—to dismember it so that the sharks of international capital may the easier swallow the peoples of Germany, Austria and the Bakans piece by piece. But the peoples of Europe are neither Hindoos nor Negroes, and knowing this, the knights of French capital tremble with fear before the consequences of their own policy. ”

“ The Governments of all the Allied countries are guilty of this war, by each supporting the Polish aggressor and robbers to a larger or lesser degree.
Workers of all countries! Soviet Russia will destroy the impudent bands of Polish imperialism just as she has destroyed those of Udenitch, Kolchak and Denikin whom your governments supported. ”

“ The war of capitalist and landlord Poland against Soviet Russia is causing an interruption in the constructive work which the workers and peasants of Russia have undertaken so soon as they have defeated the attacks of Kolchak, Denikin and Udenitch, so soon as they have liberated their land, their factories and their freedoms from the attacks of international capitalism. ”

“ The French capitalists do not beleive that the German people with its neck in the Versailles noose will calmly and patiently bear the yoke of an ignominious slavery. Just us after the defeat of France in 1871 Bismark lived all the time under the fear of the possibility of a Franco-Russian Alliance against Germany, just so the present rulers of France are constantly faced with the threatening vision of the nations of Central Europe rising against them. ”

“ Workers of all countries. Once again blood is being shed. Once again vast territories are being laid waste by war operations, once again the working masses of Russia hungering for peace, hungering to get on with their work of reconstructing their land from out of the ruins, are forced to take up the rifle. ”

“ The French capitalists have sent to Poland not only a vast quantity of armaments but they have also dispatched 600 officers with general Anri at the head, who are to assist the incapable Polish officers to lay waste to Soviet Russia. ”

“ If by the time of that victory Soviet Russia is wiped off the face of the earth Marshal Foch will occupy, unimpeded, the Rhine coal basis with black and yellow troops, cutting off the proletarian German revolution from its most important source of life and of power. Once the Russian and the German revolutions are severally settled the French exploiters calculate that to put an end to the insurrection of ther own proletariat will be a comparatively easy matter. ”

“ The Italian government of Nitti, in mortal fear before its revolutionary masses, avows its friendly feelings towards the Russian people, yet it had not courage openly to protest against the war of white-guard Poland but is sending her armaments through Austria. It is needless to add a word as regards the American Government. American airman are dropping bombs upon Ukrainian towns. ”

“ The French bourgeoisie has other fears besides, It is in no small degree afraid of a strong «great» landlord, capitalist Russia. Should the Russian reaction, with the aid of the Allies, have succeeded in gaining a victory over Worker Peasant Russia,—it would then, in alliance with the defeted imperialist Germany, be compelled to fall upon its saviours for the express purpose of forcing from them a portion of the booty which the capitalists of France, England, of America and Japan have divided amongst thems2Ives. ”

“ It is their have by means of trading with Soviet Russia to disorganise that country from within, but still more hopes are laid by a number of persons who form the composite government of the Entente upon the expectation that with the attack of some counter-revolutionary power against Worker Peasant Russia it will be possible with the assistance of these bands once more to harness the Russian proletariat and the Russian peasantry. ”

“ American capital is leaving petty European intrigues, concentrating its attention on the Pacific Ocean, on the conflict with Japan, which it is expected will give the American bourgeoisie an apportuniy of arousing once again the popular masses to fight for the interests of capital, to fight for new sources of capitalist profits. The position of British imperialism is growing more difficult daily. In England herself, the dissaffection of the wide masses of the population is constantly increasing ”