â„–18548344[Quote]
Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Men of our army and navy! I am addressing you, my friends! The perfidious military attack on our Fatherland, begun on June 22nd by Hitler Germany, is continuing. In spite of the heroic resistance of the Red Army, and although the enemy's finest divisions and finest air force units have already been smashed and have met their doom on the field of battle, the enemy continues to push forward, hurling fresh forces to the front. A grave danger hangs over our country. How could it have happened that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and districts to fascist armies? Is it really true that German fascist troops are invincible, as is ceaselessly trumpeted by the boastful fascist propagandists? Of course not! History shows that no armies are invincible, and that armies are repeatedly beaten… The same will happen to the army of Hitlerite Germany. It may be asked how could the Soviet Government have consented to conclude a Non-Aggression Pact with such treacherous fiends as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was this not an error on the part of the Soviet Government? Of course not. Non-Aggression Pacts are pacts of peace between states. It was such a pact that Germany proposed to us in 1939… Could the Soviet Government have declined such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state could decline a peace treaty with a neighboring state even though the latter were headed by such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. What did we gain by concluding the Non-Aggression Pact? We secured our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces to repulse fascist Germany should she risk an attack on our country despite the pact. In consequence of this war which has been forced upon us, our country has come to death grips with its bitterest and most cunning enemy, German fascism. Our troops are fighting heroically against an enemy armed to the teeth… The main forces of the Red Army are coming into action armed with thousands of tanks and airplanes. The men of the Red Army are displaying unexampled valor. Our resistance to the enemy is growing in strength and power. Side by side with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people are rising in defense of our native land. What is required to put an end to the danger imperilling our country and what measures must be taken to smash the enemy? Above all it is essential that our people, the Soviet people, should appreciate the full immensity of the danger that threatens our country and give up all complacency… The enemy is cruel and implacable. He is out to seize our lands… to restore the rule of the landlords, to restore tsarism… to Germanize them, to turn them into the slaves of the German princes and barons. Thus the issue is one of life and death for the Soviet State, of life and death for the peoples of the U.S.S.R.; the issue is whether the peoples of the Soviet Union shall be free or fall into slavery. All our work must be immediately reorganized on a war footing, everything must be subordinated to the interests of the front and the task of organizing the destruction of the enemy. Comrades, our forces are numberless. The overweening enemy will soon learn this to his cost. Side by side with the Red Army many thousands of workers, collective farmers, intellectuals are rising to fight the enemy aggressor. The masses of our people will rise up in their millions. All our forces for support of our heroic Red Army and our glorious Red Navy! All forces of the people, for the demolition of the enemy! Forward, to our victory!