Statement to Krasnoarmeyets

Comrade Stalin, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, states that he cannot refrain from remarking on the quite exceptional cordiality with which the Red Army on the Polish Front is welcomed by the local population.

“Such an attitude I have not had occasion to observe either in the East or in the South,” Comrade Stalin says.

“Despite the poverty of the peasant masses in the West compared with the Volga area and the South, they were ready to share their last crust of bread with the Red Army men.

“The very onerous ‘cartage’ duty was performed without a murmur.

“The Red Army men were rendered every aid and assistance, and when at the close of May we were forced to begin a withdrawal the grief of the population was great.

“The population of the frontal zone had experienced all the misery of Polish occupation, and were therefore fully aware of what the incursion of the Polish gentry held in store for them.

“There is a whole group of units on our front the medical care of which has been entirely taken over by peasant men and women, who show the utmost concern and solicitude for our wounded Red Army men.

“As to the mood of the Byelorussian peasants on the other side of the front, we are informed that continuous revolts are breaking out there, and that guerilla detachments are active, disrupting the enemy’s rear, setting fire to stores, and wiping out landlords. “It may be safely said that the same thing is occurring here as happened to Kolchak in Siberia. “With the approach of our forces, everywhere the enemy’s rear begins to blow up from within. “What we are now witnessing in Byelorussia is a genuine peasant revolution against the Polish landlords.”

Krasnoarmeyets, No. 337,

July 15, 1920