First Published: Morning Freiheit, November 16, 1975.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Today, November 7th, marks the 58th year of the start of the great October Revolution (according to the old calendar) when the workers, peasants and soldiers established the state of the Soviets in Russia.
The October Revolution ushered in the epoch of socialism on a world scale.
Since those revolutionary days 13 other Socialist governments were established in Europe, Asia and Latin America and various countries in all continents are striving to introduce Socialism as well.
In the Soviet Union itself since November 7, 1917 they have abolished hunger and unemployment and the country has developed into one of the mightiest nations in the fields of economy, science, culture and military achievement.
During the Second World War the Soviet Union played a decisive role in defeating and destroying German nazism. It is thanks to the heroism of the Red Army that hundreds of thousands of Jews were saved from annihilation and millions of others from slavery.
Since the October Revolution the Jewish population of that country was freed from forced residence in ghetto areas and from the general lack of civil rights they endured for many generations under the czars.
The road to Socialism in the Soviet Union was not strewn with roses. The country underwent terrible experiences such as the war with the nazis and the brutal Stalinist rule and other distortions of the Socialist ideal. The heritage of those distortions are evident to this day in the attitude to Yiddish culture and to the Jewish question in general and in respect to the rights of many other citizens. However, there can be no doubt that the Socialist system of the country which was able to overcome the horrors of the Second World War and of Stalinism will also manage to overcome the Stalinist remnants in bureaucracy, in dogmatic conceptions and distortions in the nationalities question.
The Soviet Union occupies the proper Socialist-Leninist position when it stands in the forefront of the struggle to curb the arms race, to reduce the size of the armies in Europe, to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons and for detente and coexistence with the large capitalist nations and for world peace.
The struggle for detente is in the interests of the United States, of all nations and also of the State of Israel. It is only through the complete achievement of detente that the existence of Israel and of the peace of the world can really be assured.
(Morning Freiheit Editorial of November 7, 1975)(Transl. by S.R.)