er Zinoviev, president of the Executive Committee of the Third
(Moscow) International, who presided.

Zinoviev said:

"We believe this Congress to be one of the greatest events in history,
for it proves not only that the progressive workers and working peasants
of Europe and America are awakened, but that we have at last seen the
day of the awakening, not of a few, but of tens of thousands, of
hundreds of thousands, of millions of the labouring class of the peoples
of the East. These peoples form the majority of the world's whole
population, and they alone, therefore, are able to bring the war
between capital and labour to a conclusive decision....

"The Communist International said from the very first day of its
existence: 'There are four times as many people living in Asia as live
in Europe. We will free all peoples, all who labour.'... We know that
the labouring masses of the East are in part retrograde, though not by
their own fault; they cannot read or write, are ignorant, are bound in
superstition, believe in the evil spirit, are unable to read any
newspapers, do not know what is happening in the world, have not the
slightest idea of the most elementary laws of hygiene. Comrades, our
Moscow International discussed the question whether a socialist
revolution could take place in the countries of the East before those
countries had passed through the capitalist stage. You know that the
view which long prevailed was that every country must first go through
the period of capitalism ... before socialism could become a live
question. We now believe that this is no longer true. Russia has done
this, and from that moment we are able to say that China, India, Turkey,
Persia, Armenia also can, and must, make a direct fight to get the
Soviet System. These countries can, and must, prepare themselves to be
Soviet republics.

"I say that we give patient aid to groups of persons who do not believe
in our ideas, who are even opposed to us on some points. In this way,
the Soviet Government supports Kemal in Turkey. Never for one moment do
we forget that the movement headed by Kemal is not a communist movement.
We know it. I have here extracts from the verbatim reports of the first
session of the Turkish people's Government at Angora. Kemal himself says
that 'the Caliph's person is sacred and inviolable.' The movement headed
by Kemal wants to rescue the Caliph's 'sacred' person from the hands of
the foe. That is the Turkish Nati