Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East
The session opened at 8 p.m. Comrade Zinoviev took the chair.
Chairman: I declare the fourth session of the Congress of the Peoples of the East open.
Before proceeding to our ordinary business I wish to inform you of a decision which has just been taken by the Presidium of our Congress. The Presidium has discussed the question of the time during which the congress should carry on its work, so that we may conclude this work according to a definite plan. The Presidium has arrived at the view that our work should be finished by the 9th of this month, so that we have five days and nights at our disposal. In order that our work may be completed within this period, the Presidium finds it necessary to take some steps to cut our discussions short and has therefore decided, in the first place, to reduce the number of guest-speakers. We should, of course, be very pleased if all the foreign comrades who have come here could address us, but, unfortunately, the Congress has not time enough to hear all of them. Accordingly, we shall call on the British and French comrades only, while the speeches of the representatives of America, the Balkans, Spain, Holland, Austria, Japan and other countries will be printed in the newspapers and included in the report of our Congress. Further, the Presidium proposes that speeches be translated only into the three official languages: Russian, Azerbaidzhani-Turkish and Persian. Next, the Presidium requests the comrade delegates who do not understand any of these languages to do as we did in Moscow at the Congress of the Communist International: let the comrades who do not understand the speaker’s language sit together and try to arrange to have among them a comrade who does understand the language in question and can explain to them what is being said. In case of necessity, while a translation into one of the official languages is being given in the hall, they can give their translations either in the corridors or out in the street. This is awkward, of course, but it would be even more awkward to drag the Congress out interminably. Today only two speakers have spoken, for fifteen minutes each, while the rest of the time has been spent in giving translations, and an entire session has been spent like that. In addition, the Presidium has decided that the comrade interpreters shall abridge when they translate, conveying what was said in such a way that the translation takes only a quarter of the time taken by the speech itself. Hitherto matters have proceeded differently: the interpreter’s speech has taken a great deal longer than the original. We consider that at such a huge Congress as this we must proceed more economically. I call on the interpreters to translate. [Translation.]
Comrades, the Presidium has one other announcement to make. It proposes that the Congress agree to select from among the members of the Presidium two comrades to act as chairman: for its part, the Presidium proposes that these comrades be Narbutabekov and Narimanov. Then, the Presidium requests the Congress to confirm the appointment of two women as representatives of the women delegates to the Congress.
In order to speed up the proceedings, the Presidium has decided that plenary sessions of the Congress shall take place each day, starting at five o'clock, these plenums to continue until 11; and then, from 11 to 2, meetings either of the sections or of the fractions. Finally, I want to inform you of a rule proposed by the Presidium. A rapporteur will be allowed one hour and a co-rapporteur 30 minutes. For a concluding speech fifteen minutes, and for speeches other than those of the rapporteurs, 10 minutes. Speakers will not be allowed to speak more than twice. One will be called upon to speak ‘for’, and another to speak ‘against’. A rapporteur will reply at once to all questions which have been handed in. Opportunity for personal questions will be given at the end of the session. Questions will be called upon only on receipt of written requests. Statements will be submitted in writing. [Translation.]
Chairman: Comrades, in view of the fact that all these proposals have been adopted unanimously by the Presidium, I allow myself to ask the Congress to confirm them. Will anyone who is against the Presidium’s proposals please raise his hand.
[An interpreter translates into Turkic.]
Chairman: Those in favour of confirming the Presidium’s proposal, please raise your hands after the translation. [Translation.] Please put your hands down. Who is against? Nobody. Accepted unanimously. We shall proceed to next business. First of all, I call upon the delegate from the United Communist Party of Great Britain, Comrade Quelch.
[Quelch speaks in English.]
Chairman: The Russian translation will be given by Comrade Petrov.
Petrov: Comrade Quelch began his speech with a quotation from Marx. Karl Marx said that the British working class would be free only when the peoples of the British colonies were free. That is why he is here, representing the British Communist Party, because that Party recognises that the truth of what Karl Marx said is beyond any doubt.
Comrade Quelch says that the enemy of the British working class, the British capitalist class, is at the same time the enemy of the peoples of the East, the oppressed East.
Therefore, the struggle of the British working class against British capitalism is at the same time your struggle, the struggle of the oppressed peoples of the East.
British imperialism is today oppressing and plundering hundreds of millions of people in Ireland, India and other countries. In Ireland at present there is a serious situation, a decisive struggle is taking place. The Irish people are fighting for their independence. In spite of the presence in Ireland of a huge number of British soldiers, the Irish people are fighting heroically and successfully for their independence. The same thing is happening, says Comrade Quelch, in India, which has been oppressed for centuries by British capitalism: to this day the British capitalists are sucking all the wealth out of wretched, starving India.
Moreover, so as to safeguard its rule in India, British imperialism is seizing Central Asia, extending its rule over the whole of Asia. British imperialism, says Comrade Quelch, is like a monster which can never be satiated. It is greedy, and grabs more and more territory, and oppresses the people who live there.
The British working class knows this, and has at its own congresses frequently protested against this policy of British imperialism. The organised workers of Britain have demanded and are demanding at their congresses that the right of self-determination be accorded to all peoples and nationalities. [Applause.] They are striving for complete liberation for all the peoples who are today oppressed by British imperialism. Comrade Quelch continues: recognising that the struggle of the British working class is directed against those who are your enemies too, that is, against British imperialism, the British Communist Party has sent a representative to Russia and to the Congress. But the moment will soon be here when the representatives of the British proletariat will be able to render more serious help in our struggle for liberation from British imperialism.
British imperialism costs the British proletariat very dear. The frontiers of the British empire are strewn with the bones of British workers killed for the glory of British imperialism.
The RSFSR stands at the head of all the workers and oppressed peoples and wages a decisive struggle for the complete liberation of mankind.
It is therefore natural that British, French, German and Austrian workers, and workers in other countries, are rallying in even greater numbers under the banner of the RSFSR, under the banner of Communism.
At the present time, Soviet Russia is negotiating with the British capitalist government, but the British workers know that these negotiations, and the temporary peace which the Russian Republic is trying to obtain, are only intended to win new positions for the continuance of this struggle. The workers of Britain and the other countries of Western Europe have complete confidence in the Russian Soviet Republic and support it in all the steps it takes, in its entire policy.
This great Congress, says Comrade Quelch, shows that you too, the peoples of the East, are marching behind the Russian Soviet Republic in its struggle for the liberation of mankind. He says that in Britain the working class is getting ready to take political power, that in Britain the social revolution is imminent [Applause], and he is sure that the peoples of the East will go forward together with the revolutionary proletariat under the banner of the Communist International right up to complete victory and the destruction of the old world, in order to create a new world of freedom and happiness for mankind.
He ended his speech with these slogans: Down with international imperialism, long live the Russian Soviet Republic! Long live the World Soviet Republic! Long live the International! [Applause.]
[Translations into Turkic and Persian.]
Chairman: The next speaker will be the representative of the French workers, the delegate of the Paris Committee of the Third International, Comrade Rosmer. [Applause.]
[Rosmer speaks in French.]
Chairman: I call on Comrade Pavlovich.
Pavlovich: I came to Russia, says Comrade Rosmer, to attend the Second Congress of the Communist International. I considered it my duty to come here, to Baku, to bring greetings from the workers and peasants of France to the oppressed peoples of the East.
When the world war began, the bourgeois press of all countries asserted that this world war would bring freedom to the oppressed nations, in opposition to barbarous Germany. But if that was so, says Rosmer, why did the great powers not begin by freeing the peoples they themselves oppressed? Why did Britain not give freedom to Ireland? Why did it keep the three hundred million people of India under its yoke? Why did France, which said it was fighting against German barbarism, oppress and hold down Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria and other Moslem countries?
When the war ended, France and Britain tried to take back from these peoples even the miserable crumbs they had given them. When it was necessary to fight the Germans, when hundreds of thousands of Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans had to be mobilized, they were promised various freedoms; but the very day after Germany had been defeated all these miserable freedoms were withdrawn, and when the representatives of Tunisia sent a delegation to France and pointed out that 45,000 Tunisians had fallen on the battlefield, and recalled the promises that had been made to them, these delegates were themselves put in prison, and those native newspapers which took the liberty of publishing the fact were closed down and confiscated.
That is how they behave in France, and in Britain too, that is how all the great powers treat the countries whose blood they made use of in order to defend themselves against German imperialism. But how are we to account for the fact that now, after the war, the European states are obliged to exploit the population of Africa and Asia as never before? This is very easy to explain. As a result of the war, bankruptcy and ruin, the productivity of labour has fallen, the French worker does not want to work for the capitalist as he used to, and it is impossible to force him to work. And so they have thought of a way: they want to squeeze the native population of Asia and Africa still harder, to turn them into slaves who will be forced to work not only for themselves but also for the French and British workers. The native world must understand the danger which threatens it. It must unite around Soviet Russia, that palladium of the independence of the peoples of the East, and raise the banner of revolt and holy war against the capitalist world.
Long live the Third International! [Applause.]
Chairman: Comrade Korkmasov will give a brief translation.
[Korkmasov translates.]
Chairman: The last speaker will be the representative of India, Comrade Fazli Kadyr.
[Fazli Kadyr speaks in Farsi.]
Interpreter: Comrades, the representative of India greets the first Congress of the Peoples of the East and says that the Indian peoples who are languishing under the yoke of British capitalism look for help from you and from Soviet Russia, which carries forward the revolutionary banner of the world proletariat, and, he says, we have long looked forward to the Congress, looked forward to the day when all the peoples of the East would unite and free ourselves from world imperialism.
He ends his speech with: Long live the world revolution, long live the unity of all the peoples of the East!
Declaration by the Indian Revolutionary Organisation in Turkestan:
To the comrade delegates to the Second Congress of the Communist International, in Baku.
The Indian Revolutionary Organization in Turkestan asks, on behalf of the three hundred million oppressed people in India, that the delegates to this congress and the representatives of Soviet Russia gathered here with the aim of liberating mankind, may help India, which is in such great need of their help. All who are striving for liberation hope that this help will be given without any interference in the internal and religious life of those who await liberation from the yoke of capitalism and imperialism. All revolutionaries appeal for help to Russia in their struggle to put their national programmes into effect. In the Eastern Question as a whole, one important fact especially stands out, the importance of which cannot be denied, namely, that India, and India alone is the real cause of serious conflicts in this world. History has shown more than once that freedom for India means freedom for the world and an end to all wars. From the huge population of India the brutal British forcibly take men for their army in order to attack other nations.
The Indian Revolutionary Organisation is in a position to prove this fact, and to do this before the First Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku. The organisation asks that the Congress give it as soon as possible the very great help which India so much needs.
Chairman of the Indian Revolutionary Organization,
Mahomed Abdur Rabe Berk
Tashkent, August 10, 1920
Chairman: In conclusion Comrade Shablin will give a brief statement on behalf of the Communist Party of the Balkans.
Shablin: Comrades, on behalf of the Balkan Communist Federation, to which belong the Bulgarian, Yugoslav, Greek and Romanian Communist Parties, I am authorised to say to you, delegates of the peoples of the East, that we, the Balkan peoples, are also oppressed and enslaved by the world bandits of Britain and France, just like you, that your struggle means our liberation as well.
The victorious Russian revolution, which is becoming a world revolution, shows us the path of the great struggle for liberation, once and for all, from exploitation of man by man.
Against the united front of the imperialist oppressors we bring forward the united front of the oppressed and enslaved peoples of the whole world.
Long live great proletarian solidarity!
Long live the liberation of the East!
Long live the alliance of the working people of the whole world!
Chairman: We have been obliged, unfortunately, to refrain from hearing from the comrade representatives from America, japan, Spain, Holland and Austria, owing to lack of time, and we ask permission for their speeches to be printed in the newspapers and also in the report of our Congress. [Voices: ‘Please, please.’]
Next, comrades, two prominent Turkish leaders, not delegates to our Congress, who are here in Baku, have sent the Presidium statements in writing, and as these statements are of great political importance, the Presidium has decided to make them public, both from this tribune and in the press. One of these statements is by Enver Pasha and the other by Ibrahim Tali, the representative of the Turkish People’s Government of Anatolia. We shall now read both of those statements. ['Please, please.’ Translation.]
Chairman: I call upon Comrade Ostrovsky to read the statements. [Uproar, exclamations.] Comrades, please be absolutely quiet.
Enver Pasha’s Declaration:
Comrades, I thank on my own behalf and on that of my comrades the Third International and its Presidium, who have enabled us fighters against world imperialism and capitalism to assemble in Baku today.
Comrades, we consider ourselves fortunate that, in opposition to imperialism and capitalism, which is not satisfied with robbing us and stripping us naked but is trying to drink our blood and destroy us, and in opposition to the lying politicians of Europe, we today stand shoulder to shoulder with a true and honest ally, the Third International.
Comrades, when Turkey entered the war, the world was divided into two camps. In one was imperialist and capitalist old Tsarist Russia and its allies, and in the other Germany, also imperialist and capitalist, with its allies. Of these two groups, we, fighting against Tsarist Russia, Britain and their friends, who wanted to strangle and destroy us utterly, took the side of Germany, which at least agreed to let us live.
German imperialism used us for its bandit aims. But our desire was only to safeguard our independence.
Comrades, the sentiment which caused us to leave a calm, refuge-seeking life for the burning deserts of Tripoli and the poor tents of the Beduin, and forced us to spend there the most difficult time of our lives, was no sentiment of imperialism. We were trying to save Tripoli for the Tripolitanians, and we are glad that now, after nine years of war, they have succeeded in driving out the Italian imperialists. Nor did we have any different intention where Azerbaidzhan was concerned. We consider that Azerbaidzhan belongs to the Azerbaidzhanis. If we fell into a false situation, that was our bad luck.
Comrades, during the world war I occupied a very important post. I assure you that I regret that we were obliged to fight on the side of German imperialism. I hate and curse German imperialism and the German imperialists just as much as I hate and curse British imperialism and the British imperialists. In my view, all who have made it their aim to enrich those who do not work deserve to be destroyed. That is my viewpoint where imperialism is concerned.
Comrades, I assure you that if the Russia of today had been in existence then, and had been fighting the war with its present aims, we should have been fighting on your side, just as today, with all our energy. So as to show more clearly that my idea is correct, I will tell you that when we decided to act together with Soviet Russia, and did so, Yudenich’s army was near Petrograd, Kolchak held the Urals, and Denikin was approaching Moscow from the South. The Entente, advancing its forces and regarding the game as already won, was showing its predatory teeth and rubbing its hands with glee. That was the situation when we began to be friends with Russia. Had the Black Sea storms not forced me back, breaking the mast of my vessel, if the bars of the prisons of Kovno and Riga, and crashes by the aeroplanes in which I was flying, had not delayed me, I should have been with you in Russia’s most difficult hour, and it would not have been necessary to relate these personal details in order to explain matters to certain comrades.
Comrades, you know that in the imperialist conflict of this world war we were defeated. But from the standpoint of the war of the oppressed I do not regard us as having been defeated, for Turkey, as a result of the closing of her Straits, became one of the factors which brought about the collapse of insatiable Tsarist Russia and its replacement by the natural ally of all the oppressed, Soviet Russia. Thereby Turkey helped to bring it about that a new road has been opened for the salvation of the world. From the standpoint of the oppressed I see this as a victory.
Comrades, the army which at the present time is waging a heroic struggle against imperialism and which draws its strength from the peasantry, was, as I have said, not defeated, it only temporarily laid down its arms. And now, after fighting against the same enemy for 15 years it is still, despite the greatest privations, fighting on for another year. It is impossible to compare the present struggle with the previous one. Seeing that, now, the Eastern world has come forward in alliance with the Third International, and the oppressed of the whole world support its just claims, this struggle is filled with resolute hope of victory.
Comrades, the intense phase of imperialist war, which began at the time of the Transvaal war, continued with the war between the imperialists from 1914 to 1917, which has now ended. But the war at the present time has entered a decisive period, and it will certainly end in victory for us, that is, victory for the oppressed, and not just with imperialism and capitalism piling their arms, but with their complete destruction.
The present congress brings fresh strength to the Red Army, which has shed its blood in defence of the oppressed, and also to the Turkish fighters. In the same way, this congress contributes to ensure that the struggle will end in our victory, that is, in the victory of justice. It is not only our endeavour to find support in the struggle we have begun that has caused us to draw near to the Third International. It may be that another factor is the similarity of our principles. We have always drawn our revolutionary strength from the people, that is, from the peasants. If our factory workers had been a strong force, I should have mentioned them first. However, they too were with us. They worked with us, body and soul. That is how it is now, too. Consequently, we base ourselves upon the oppressed section of the people. We feel their pain, and we live and die along with them.
Comrades, taking account of the people’s desires, we stand for recognizing their right to self-determination. We consider ourselves bound by the strongest ties for the whole of our fives to those who want to five together with us: as for those who do not want to do this, we are willing to recognize their right to decide their fate for themselves. That is our view on the national question.
Comrades, we are against war, that is, we are against people strangling each other for the sake of power. And in order to achieve permanent peace we march with the Third International, and therefore we are now, despite all obstacles, waging a bloody struggle and shall continue this struggle.
Comrades, we want happiness for the working people, that is, we are against speculators, whether foreign or native, profiting by the fruits of others’ labour. It is necessary to oppose that without any hesitation. We want our country to enjoy the fruits of common labour through the development of agriculture and industry on a large scale. That is what we think about the economic question.
Comrades, we are convinced that only a conscious people can achieve happiness and freedom. We want sound knowledge, associated with labour and guaranteeing us genuine freedom, to bring enlightenment to our country, and in this matter we recognise no distinction between men and women. That is what we think about social policy.
Comrades, I declare to you that the union of revolutionary organisations of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Egypt, Arabia and India, which has sent me here as its representative, is in full solidarity with you in this respect. It is fully convinced that, by using all revolutionary means, it will succeed in breaking the teeth of the wild beasts and depriving them of their strength for good.
Comrades, the hands raised for this purpose reach out to each other. I shake the hands of all those who will work with us to the conclusion of this struggle, which will go on for a long time, but which will end in our victory. I wish them success.
Long live the alliance of the oppressed!
Down with the oppressors, who tremble before this alliance!
Chairman: I call upon Comrade Mehmet Emin to translate Enver Pasha’s statement into Turkish.
[Mehmet Emin translates.]
Chairman: Comrade Ostrovsky will now read the statement by the representative of the Ankara Government, Ibrahim Tali.
Statement by Ibrahim Tali:
World imperialism, having exploded in Central Europe and stretched out its hands to the vital arteries of Turkey, at the end of four years had brought Turkey to a state of complete breakdown.
The Turkish peasant who, when he took up arms, had no other aim than to protect his national frontiers and defend his productive forces from foreign exploitation, believed the promises of the lying American professor when he said that now every people would be ensured the right to life and freedom and that all workers would be happy, and he laid down his arms.
But then, when he saw that these arms were being turned against him , that they were beginning to destroy all his sacred rights for the benefit of the Western capitalists, and that they wanted to take from him his last crust of bread, this Turkish peasant at once became angry, and rebelled.
Comrades, I will here explain to you the causes and factors which led to this revolt, and also its essential character, and the story of how the Government born of this revolt came into being. The Anatolian revolt was due to causes of two kinds, external and internal. The external ones were these: the Turkish peasant, who had for four years been fighting on more than eleven fronts against t he most powerful bourgeois states, at last felt a strong desire to eat in peace the bread he had won with the sweat of his brow and to live in peace in his own village. But the Western capitalists decided to send against this Turkish peasant, who had laid down his arms, the myrmidons in their service — from the West the Venizelist Greeks and from the East the Dashnak Armenians. The Turkish peasant knew that the imperialists and their myrmidons acted with fire and sword and bombs wherever they went, and that these were robbers, a small group of whom were seizing by force the fruits of the labour of the working class. But, thinking that this monstrous decision would not be put into practice, the Turkish peasantry remained calm for a while. However, France, which had said that it was fighting for the freedom of the peoples, not satisfied with having taken Syria, seized in addition, amid conflagrations and acts of violence, Adana, Marash and Yurknesh. At the same time the French Prime Minister, who had said that he was acting in the interests of civilisation, after he had made sure of victory over our country, threw off the mask and announced in the Palais Bourbon, for all to hear: ‘In order to safeguard her economic interests in the East, France must have control of all the mineral resources situated in the zone extending to Mosul. And so we consider it necessary to continue our advance as far as Mardin. We must take into account the importance of the natural resources to be found there, from the standpoint of France’s industry.'
Comrades, as a result, there began an offensive against our only outlet to the Mediterranean Sea, against Smyrna, which brought about a union of the defenders of national rights, in the West and in the East, against the robbers. After the seizure of Smyrna, in the East, on the initiative of the opponents of the imperialists, that is, on the initiative of the population of Erzerum and Trebizond, a national assembly was convened in Erzerum, at which it was resolved to defend our rights. Subsequently, at congresses in Sivas and Ankara, this decision was reiterated and confirmed.
The internal causes were these. The poor peasant of Anatolia had for centuries suffered from the violence and tyranny of the bourgeoisie, he was oppressed, he was worn out by the disease that came from Stambul — the bureaucracy, the dictatorship both of the Sultan’s government and of the aristocrats, and also the parasitic officials sent to him by the Government, and now there awakened in him a feeling of holy anger against those aristocrats and Pashas who had never spent one day of their lives with him when the peasant was working in his fields and dying of hunger, but, in splendid palaces and villas on the shore of the Bosphorus, had given themselves up to the vilest pleasures, consuming the results of the work of the poor class and always acting provocatively towards the peasantry. By this revolt the peasant made it clear that in future he would give not a single crust of his bread to Stambul, its Pashas and Beys and their parasitical hangers-on. There, comrades, are the causes and factors of the recent revolution in Anatolia, so that this is not in the least a movement based on the bourgeoisie, as is supposed in the West. Speaking frankly, I can tell you that since the accomplices of Western capitalism in the East — the Dashnaks, the supporters of Venizelos, and the old courtier Pashas too, their tools, who have used the Sultan’s court in the interests of British capitalism — since these have thrown themselves into the arms of the Entente, the Anatolian revolutionaries have turned to the East, where the Red revolution has risen like the dawn. The classes whose interests are endangered by this popular movement have striven with their combined forces to advance the counter-revolution everywhere. And the counter-revolutionaries parasites upon the people like Sheikii-Redjeb in Sivas, Sheikh-Eshref in Baiburt, and also the Chaban-Oglu family, who have been used for centuries to leading a carefree, debauched life at the expense of the poor people, and likewise Yuzgada and other such persons — all these together organised a revolt in Stambul, where it seemed natural to them for the Anatolian peasant to five in slavery, and along with Anzavur Pasha set themselves to defend religion.
Comrades, the Anatolian peasants and the revolutionaries who had remained among these criminals and brigands reacted with enthusiasm and rejoicing to the international revolution, which they felt sure would bring liberation and happiness to all mankind, and they are convinced that their destiny is bound up with that of the Third International.
The revolutionary people’s government organised (after the dispersal of the parliament by the imperialists) by the defenders of the people’s rights and the national congresses, confirmed this through the delegation they sent to Moscow. They are happy that the hand sincerely extended from Anatolia has been clasped with the same sincerity, and they are ready to utilise the social and moral results of this revolution, the principles of which they consider salutary for mankind.
Comrades, from these explanations it is clear that Anatolia, on the road to developing enlightenment, has resolved to defend its fate and its independence to the last breath of the last of its sons. And it accepts with complete sincerity the hand of friendship extended to it by Soviet Russia.
Long live revolutionary Russia which has set out on this road, and revolutionary Russia’s backer — the revolutionary East!
Zinoviev: In connection with the declarations we have just heard, the Presidium proposes that a resolution be adopted. The text of this resolution will be presented to you by our Hungarian comrade, Bela Kun.
Bela Kun: The Presidium of the Congress of the Peoples of the East has unanimously resolved to present this resolution to you:
‘Having heard Enver Pasha’s statement on the Turkish national movement, the Congress of the Peoples of the East adopts the following resolution:
‘1. The Congress expresses its sympathy with all Turkish fighters in combat against world imperialism, the oppressor and exploiter of the Eastern peoples, which holds in slavery the working people of the whole world, and first and foremost against the British and French imperialist bandits. Like the Second Congress of the Communist International, the First Congress of the Peoples of the East declares that it will support those general-national revolutionary movements which seek to free the oppressed peoples of the East from the yoke of foreign imperialists.
‘2. However, the Congress notes that the general-national revolutionary movement in Turkey is directed only against foreign oppressors, and that success for this movement would not in the least signify the emancipation of the Turkish peasants and workers from oppression and exploitation of every kind. The success of this movement would not entail the solution of questions which are of the greatest importance for the Turkish toiling classes, namely, the agrarian question and the question of taxes, and would not eliminate the principal obstacles to the liberation of the East, namely, national discords.
‘3. The Congress finds it necessary to show particular caution in relation to those leaders of the movement who in the past led the Turkish peasants and workers to the slaughter in the interests of one of the imperialist groups and thereby subjected the toiling masses of Turkey to twofold ruin in the interests of a small group of rich men and high-ranking officers. The Congress proposes to these leaders that they prove in deeds that they are now ready to serve the toiling people and make amends for their false steps in the past. In calling on the toiling masses of Turkey and the entire East to support the general-national revolutionary movement in Turkey, the Congress urges the peasants and workers of Turkey to come together in independent organisations, to be ready to carry the cause of emancipation through to the end, and not to allow the foreign imperialists who are trying to hinder the work of emancipation to make use of their connections and influence among the Turkish rich, kulaks, bureaucrats and generals (the Pashas, Derebeileri, and so on). Only in this way can the toiling people of Turkey succeed in freeing themselves from all their oppressors and exploiters, and only then will the land, the factories, the mines, and all the country’s wealth be put at the service of the toilers and the toilers alone. And only in this way.'
[Izmail Hakki translated the resolution.]
Chairman: I now put to the vote the resolution which the Presidium has unanimously recommended to you. [Uproar. A voice: ‘I want to speak.’]
The Presidium proposes that the vote be taken without discussion, and according to the rule you should have handed up a note. [A voice: ‘I did hand up a note.’ The vote is taken.] All in favour of the resolution that was read to you, please raise your hands. [Uproar. Voices: ‘I handed up a note.’ ‘Let me reveal the truth.’]
Please do not make a row. There are 1,800 of us here. It is impossible to carry on like this. Please put your hands down. Who is against? Any abstentions? The resolution is carried. [Applause.]
Comrades, we have thereby disposed of the first two points on the agenda. We propose that the Congress empower the Presidium to apply itself to drawing up two appeals. One appeal will be addressed to the peoples of the East, in which, on behalf of our Congress, the situation in the East will be described, the oppression to which the peoples of the East are subjected by British imperialism. This appeal will conclude with a call to a holy war of the toiling masses against the robbers of the East — the French and British imperialists. [Loud applause. Shouts of ‘Hurrah’.]
The second appeal we propose to address to the toiling masses of Europe and America, to the workers, our brothers in labour. In this we shall first show, on behalf of the Congress of the Peoples of the East, how vilely the bourgeoisie of their countries have dealt with you, and, finally, we shall call upon them to give their attention to this situation in the East, call upon the British workers to support not only Soviet Russia but also the peoples of the East, oppressed by the British Government. We are sure that this appeal, in the name of tens of millions of toilers of the East, to the workers of Britain, America and France will be listened to, and printed in workers’ newspapers throughout the world, and the workers of the whole world will understand what a tremendous duty is incumbent upon them, and they will strive to fulfil this duty to the peoples of the East. [Applause.]
Comrades! These two appeals have been composed. In a day or two, tomorrow or the day after, proofs of them will be issued to you. These appeals will have to appear over the signatures of all the members of the Presidium you have elected. [Applause.]
[An interpreter translates. Applause.]
Chairman: Will all those who agree that these two appeals be issued on behalf of the Congress please raise their hands. Please put your hands down. Who is against? Any abstentions? None.
The Congress will meet tomorrow at 5 p.m.
The next question on the agenda is the colonial-national question. At 11 a.m. the agrarian section is due to meet at the Army Club. If the elections have not been carried out, this will have to be seen to, and at 11 a.m. the agrarian section will meet at the Army Club. The Congress of the Peoples will reassemble at 5 p.m.
The session was closed at 11 p.m.