“FRIENDSHIP IS SEALED WITH BLOOD”

Grey River Argus, 25 February 1943, Page 6

“FRIENDSHIP IS SEALED WITH BLOOD”

112 Axis divisions routed, 700,000 killed an d taken prisoner during the present great offensive on t e ern front; nine million Axis soldiers killed wounded or captured on this front since the outbreak of war—these are v e achievements of the Red Army. This is its proud record during twenty months of war, as described by its supreme commander, Josef Stalin, in a speech delivered on Red Army way. A few days before Germany’s invasion of the U.S.S.R. the “Daily Sketch’’ had this to say:— “Hitler has everything to gain by attacking Russia and nothing to lose He is confident that he can go through Russia like a knife through gutter, for he despises the ramshackle Red Army, as a joke.” Fortunately for humanity the “joke” has proved a grim one as far as Hitler, is concerned. This fatuous opinion of the Red Army is typical of many that were made by prejudiced and ignorant people during the first weeks of the German attack on the U.S.S.R. Ana though history has now revealed the- stupidity of these opinions, there are all too few who understand the nature of the Red Army and the reasons for its brillant successes. The Red Army was born during the 1917 Revolution, and was hardened and welded together during the period o . civil war and foreign military intervention against the s Soviet government which lasted from 1918 until 19-2. In — 1 Red Army hurled the last of the interventionists out of the Soviet Union, and the peoples of that country were at length able to set about the changing of backward Russia into an advanced socialist country. The Red Army is an army of workers and peasants, an army of the toiling people. Being the product of a new civilisation, of socialism, it is stamped with the special characteristics of that civilisation:—complete democracy, conscious discipline, complete harmony with the outlook and aspirations of the Soviet people. No other army pays greater attention to education, and this intensive education is combined with real equality among all ranks, and the freest discussion on military, political and social matters. It is for this reason that the iron discipline of the Red Army is a conscious discipline as distinguished from blind discipline. The promotion of cadfes according to youth and intelligence, and not according to social origin, is a further source of strength, and inspires a supreme confidence throughout the whole army. Nor is it surprising* that a people whose orientation is towards the most advanced technique of production, should possess the best equipped, best generalled and most highly mechanised army in the world, with the emphasis on > OU U’ and intelligence it was inevitable that the Red Army should become the pioneer of modern military technique. It was the first of all armies to use paratroops. Its theorists were the first to work out the strategy of the mechanised blitz, and to /evelop methods of countering it. The present war with the German Fascist armies is a brilliant demonstration oi their ability to subordinate immediate tactics to the broad strategy ef warfare. • , This is the army, an army of a new type, which in alliance with the whole 'Soviet people is smashing the legend of the invincibility of Hitler’s Wermacht. It is this arm.x which we must thank for the prospect of victory which dawns upon humanity to-day. But it is not enough to look forward to victory, to sit by and wait for it, to play the part of comfortable spectators cheering the champion whom we should be actively assisting. 1 In his speech given on Red Army Day, Stalin stated that, duo to the absence of a Second Front, the Rod Army had borne alone the whole brunt of the European wait It might be as well to recall the words of Ilya Ehrenburg, brilliant Soviet writer, who said last last year:— “If Hitler’s game cannot be called anything but a hazardous gamble, even more hazardous is the game now played by our Allies—because nothing is more hazardous now .than marking time. “Bombs dropped on Dusseldorf will not change the course of hostilities in the East. “Our people.are now waiting for what the high contracting parties agreed upon in May. Friendship is sealed not with wax but with blood. I “While reckoning everything, weighing all the pros, and cons, the British and Americans must net overlook one quality, perhaps not easily definable but very important for the outcome of the war—l mean the Russian heart. “I have written an article in the newspaper 'Red Star’ entitled, ‘Fatherland in Danger.’ It is my duty to tell our Western friends, Britain and America are no less in danger. Neither the Channel nor the ocean will replace the Red Army. ’ ’