Order of the Day, No. 345

November 7, 1942

Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerillas! Working people of the Soviet Union!

On behalf of the Soviet Government and our Bolshevik Party, I greet you and congratulate you on this day of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the victory of the great October Socialist Revolution.

A quarter of a century ago the workers and peasants, under the leadership of the Party of Bolsheviks and of the great Lenin, established in our country the Power of the Soviets. The peoples of the Soviet Union have traversed a glorious path during this period.

In the course of twenty-five years our Motherland has become a mighty Socialist industrial and collective farming power. The peoples of the Soviet State, having won their freedom and independence, united in indissoluble fraternal friendship. The Soviet people were freed from all oppression, and by their stubborn labour ensured for themselves a prosperous and cultured life.

At the present time the peoples of our country are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the great October Socialist Revolution in the heat of fierce struggle against the German-fascist invaders and their accomplices in Europe.

At the beginning of this year, in the winter period, the Red Army inflicted substantial blows on the German-fascist troops. Having beaten off the attack of the Germans against Moscow, it took the initiative into its hands, passed to the offensive and drove the German troops to the west, liberating a number of regions of our country from German slavery.

Thus the Red Army showed that, under certain favourable conditions, it could overcome the German-fascist troops.

In the summer, however, the situation at the front changed for the worse. Utilizing the absence of a second front, the Germans and their allies swept together all their reserves, hurled them against our Ukrainian front and pierced it.

At the cost of enormous losses, the German-fascist troops succeeded in advancing in the south and threatening Stalingrad, the Black Sea coast, Grozny and the approaches to the Trans-Caucasus.

True, the steadfastness and courage of the Red Army shattered the plans of the Germans for outflanking Moscow from the east and delivering a blow from the rear against the capital of our country. The enemy was halted at Stalingrad. But, having been halted at Stalingrad, and having already left there tens of thousands of his soldiers and officers, the enemy is throwing new divisions into battle, exerting his last efforts. The struggle on the Soviet-German front is becoming more and more tense. On its outcome depends the fate of the Soviet State, the freedom and independence of our Motherland.

Our Soviet people have passed with honour through the ordeals which have fallen to their lot and are filled with unshakable faith in victory. The war has been a stern test of the strength and stability of the Soviet system. The calculations of the German imperialists that the Soviet State would disintegrate have been completely confounded.

The socialist industry, the collective farm system, the friendship of the peoples of our country, the Soviet State, have displayed their stability and invincibility. Workers and peasants, all the intelligentsia of our country, our whole rear, are honestly and self-sacrificingly working to satisfy the requirements of our front.

The Red Army is bearing the whole brunt of the war against Hitlerite Germany and its satellites. By its selfsacrificing struggle against the fascist army it has won the love and respect of all freedom-loving peoples of the world. The men and commanders of the Red Army, who previously had not had adequate military experience, have learned to smite the enemy for sure, to destroy his manpower and equipment, to frustrate his hostile plans, and steadfastly to defend our towns and villages from the foreign enslavers. The heroic defenders of Moscow and Tula, Odessa and Sevastopol, Leningrad and Stalingrad displayed examples of supreme courage, iron discipline, steadfastness and the ability to conquer. The whole of our Red Army is on a par with these heroes. The enemy has already felt on his hide the Red Army’s capacity for resistance. He will learn still more of the force of the smashing blows of the Red Army. There can be no doubt that the German invaders will again hurl themselves into new adventures. But the forces of the enemy have already been blunted and strained to the limit.

During the course of the war, the Red Army has put out of action over 8,000,000 enemy men and officers. The Hitlerite Army, diluted with Rumanians, Hungarians, Italians and Finns, has now become considerably weaker than in the summer and autumn of 1941.

Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerillas!

On your stubbornness and steadfastness, on your fighting ability and readiness to fulfil your duty to the Motherland depends the rout of the German-fascist army, the clearing of Soviet soil from the Hitlerite invaders! We can and must clear our Soviet soil of the Hitlerite filth!

To do this it is essential:

1. Steadfastly and stubbornly to defend the line of our front, not to permit the enemy to advance further, with all our strength to wear down the enemy, to exterminate his man power, to destroy his equipment.

2. To strengthen to the utmost degree iron discipline, strict order and single command in our army, to perfect the military training of troops, and to prepare, stubbornly and persistently, a crushing blow against the enemy. 3. To fan the flames of the popular guerilla movement in the rear of the enemy, to devastate the enemy rear, to exterminate the German-fascist blackguards.

Comrades! Once already the enemy has felt the force of the blows of the Red Army at Rostov, at Moscow, at Tikhvin. The day is not far distant when the enemy will feel the force of new blows of the Red Army. There will be rejoicing in our streets. Long live the twenty-fifth anniversary of the great Socialist October Revolution! Long live our Red Army!

Long live our Navy!

Long live our glorious men and women guerillas! Death to the German-fascist invaders!

(Signed) J. V. Stalin

People’s Commissar for Defence