-DATE-
19721222
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
USSR'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY
-PLACE-
KREMLIN
-SOURCE-
MOSCOW DOMESTIC SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19721226
-TEXT-
Castro Speech Text

Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 0734 GMT 22 Dec 72 L

[Speech by Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party
Central Committee, at the USSR's 50th anniversary celebration in the
Kremlin--live in Spanish, with Russian Translation superimposed]

[Text] Dear comrades, it is a great privilege and joy to celebrate together
with you this jubilee, which is undoubtedly something which belongs to
revolutionaries throughout the world. How remarkably Comrade Brezhnev
described the great successes achieved in these past 50 years; and what a
moving sight it was, what conviction and strength we were shown by the
Komsomol members and Pioneers at the end of yesterday's session in this
theater. How wonderful were the words of an old Bolshevik, a participant in
the first congress of the Soviets, who is celebrating together with us
today this victorious jubilee! He described how proud he was of the
victories gained by the country through such strenuous efforts, of the
faith in the party held by the new generation of communists, their
dedication to the traditions of the fighters of October and the immortal
ideas of Lenin! [applause]

Optimism, faith in the future, absolute conviction in the final victory of
the communist ideal--those are the feelings which fill everyone on this
noteworthy day. [applause]

Fifty years ago the capitalist powers laughed derisively when speaking
about the foundation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The
immense cultural and technical backwardness added to the destruction caused
by war and intervention, the blockade and isolation to which they subjected
the USSR, allowed them to hope that the socialist revolution and
consequently the USSR, too, would suffer a crushing defeat. Fifty years ago
even the very concept of socialism was virtually banned and was anathema to
the great majority of the governments of the world and the ruling classes.
How the situation has altered in the comparatively few years since then.
Today, thanks to the impressive successes of the Soviet Union, thanks to
its feats in the sphere of economic construction, its main and decisive
victory in the struggle against fascism, which made possible the liberation
of tens of oppressed peoples and opened up the broadest opportunities of
the national liberation movements, thanks to its no less remarkable
successes in the field of culture and science, the peoples of the world,
and especially the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, turn with
increasing attention to socialism, seeking in it the solution to the
problems which can never be provided by the capitalist development of their
economy and the unequal international relations on which it is based.
[applause]

Just 25 years ago when World War II ended, imperialism, which was still
powerful and extremely rich in comparison with the USSR whose towns and
villages had been devastated by perfidious fascist aggression, created a
system of military alliances and encircled the Soviet people with strategic
bases, and for its aggressive aims monopolized nuclear weapons. Now the
fabrications whereby imperialism tried to deceive mankind in order to
justify its policies by representing the USSR as a threat to the European
and world security have lost all their force. Its military alliances are
straining at the seams. The ring of strategic bases is becoming more and
more unstable. Its nuclear monopoly has long since ceased to exist. Europe
is beginning to become aware of the realities of the present-day world and
is preparing for peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union. Even peoples
as remote from Europe as those of New Zealand and Australia, which in their
time obediently followed in Washington's wake, are today manifesting a
clear tendency to proceed along their own sensible path.

And who 50 years ago could have thought of the existence of revolutionary
Cuba? Who then would have believed that our tiny homeland, thanks to the
generous aid and solidarity of the Soviet Union, the 50th anniversary of
which we are marking today, would turn into the first socialist state of
Latin America, situated 90 miles from the United States. [applause]

Neither the capitalist intervention against the Soviet Union in the years
which followed the October Bolshevik Revolution, the economic blockade, the
fascist aggression, the ring of strategic bases, the nuclear monopoly, nor
the military alliances reached their aim. Other countries on all continents
are moving along the path opened up by the October Revolution, and ever
more peoples are entering this worthy and inspiring path. [applause]

No one anymore dares to laugh at what the Soviet Union means. No one
anymore can ban socialism and communism by decree. The Soviet Union is not
alone anymore. Today there is the socialist camp, of which we are happily a
part. [applause] There is in addition the mighty movement of peoples who
have freed themselves from the yoke of colonialism, or who are conducting a
heroical, tenacious, victorious struggle for national liberation--such
peoples as the Vietnamese and other people of Indochina. They are
heroically fighting for their liberation. The might of the working class in
the capitalist world is also growing.

No one anymore can doubt that the future belongs entirely to socialism. In
the light of history, Lenin's figure assumes before us an even higher
stature. His brilliant ideas are becoming the common patrimony of the
revolutionary fighters in all corners of the globe. [applause]

This is the wonderful and inspiring sum which you, dear comrades, can make
for the 50th anniversary of the USSR, and on this account we congratulate
with all our hearts the representatives who are gathered here from the
various republics of the Soviet Union, the leaders of the Communist Party
and the Soviet state. [applause]

We would like to add a few more words in connection with the jubilee we are
marking. The development of the community of socialist republics within the
framework of a united and multinational state undoubtedly created the
prototype for the world of the future, a world of more cohesive socialist
nations, mankind's dream for a world without boundaries finally, comes
true, and we share this ideal. [applause]

Jose Marti, the leader and apostle of our struggle for independence against
Spain, imbued in us this spirit of internationalism which Marx, Engels and
Lenin affirmed in the awareness of our people. Marti considered that the
homeland was mankind, and he painted before us the image of a united Latin
America, confronting the other America--imperialist and arrogant, distorted
and cruel, as he said, an America which despised us. The basis for this
Latin American community, which will one day become a part of the socialist
world, is now being created by the firm resolve of the Chilean people to
implement socialist transformations, by the revolutionary nationalism of
the military leaders in Peru, by the resistance of Panama, by the heroism
of thousands of Latin American fighters who fell in the struggle, who were
imprisoned and persecuted. In this struggle the existence of the Soviet
Union is an example and a guarantee.

Without the existence of the Soviet Union, American imperialism would have
its hands free for carrying out the bestial role of gendarme, which it has
taken upon itself. Cuba--we want to repeat this--was able to repulse the
onslaught of the mightiest imperialism in history not only thanks to the
steadfastness, abnegation and determination of its people but also as a
result of the unprecedented solidarity of the Soviet Union. [applause]

That solidarity expresses Lenin's approach to international relations, the
spirit of fraternal help to peoples, which represents the essence of the
relations between the peoples composing the Soviet Union. We want once
again, on this significant day, to express our eternal gratitude for that
solidarity, which is the expression of the proletarian internationalism of
the great motherland of Lenin. [applause]

Today is a festive day for the communists, for the revolutionaries, for the
anti-imperialists. However, we cannot forget, and nobody among us forgets,
the millions of workers, peasants, Negroes, Indians, who are not yet living
in conditions (?of happiness). But, they feel hopeful when they look at
that victory of socialism which we are celebrating here. We also cannot
experience today the joy which will be naturally experienced by all honest
men and women of the world after the victory of the Vietnamese people. With
imperialist stubborness, Nixon is trying to delay, with the help of
senseless bloodshed, barbaric destruction, diplomatic perfidy, his defeat,
which the imperialists themselves are already compelled to admit. But
Vietnam, with the firm and determined support on the part of all of us,
will also be victorious. [applause]

And this will be yet another sign of the fact that imperialism cannot
survive and the socialism--which in the USSR 50 years ago won the struggle
against the (?blockade), the most devastating war in history, the merciless
encirclement of the enemies--will create in the near future a world in
which nations and people will exist in humane, solidarity and fraternal
relations, an unfading example of which is being shown today by the peoples
of the Soviet Union. [applause]

Long live the immortal ideas of Lenin! [applause] Long live proletarian
internationalism! [applause] Long live the Soviet Union! [applause]
-END-