Stalin on the Two Camps

Iosif Stalin, Speech on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the October Revolution, to the Moscow Soviet and Representatives of Moscow Party and Public Organizations. November 6, 1942

In this excerpt from Stalin’s anniversary address to the Moscow Soviet, he tries to turn a wartime marriage of convenience into a moral and political program. He draws a blunt line between two “camps,” contrasts Nazi aims with the stated goals of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition, and insists that ideological differences are not an obstacle to coordinated action. Read alongside Soviet demands for a second front, the passage shows how Soviet wartime rhetoric fused coalition diplomacy with a broader claim to democratic legitimacy.

Original Source:«Доклад Председателя Государственного Комитета Обороны товарища И. В. Сталина на торжественном заседании Московского Совета депутатов трудящихся с партийными и общественными организациями г. Москвы 6 ноября 1942 года», Известия, 7 November 1942 г., № 263 (7949)

... It may now be regarded as beyond dispute that in the course of the war imposed upon the nations by Hitlerite Germany, a radical demarcation of forces and the formation of two opposite camps have taken place: the camp of the Italian-German coalition, and the camp of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition.

It is equally beyond dispute that these two opposite coalitions are guided by two different and opposite programs of action.

The program of action of the Italian-German coalition may, be characterized by the following points: race hatred; domination of the "chosen" nations; subjugation of other nations and seizure of their territories; economic enslavement of the subjugated nations and spoliation of their national wealth; destruction of democratic liberties; universal institution of the Hitler regime.

The program of action of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition is: abolition of racial exclusiveness; equality of nations and inviolability of their territories; liberation of the enslaved nations and restoration of their sovereign rights; the right of every nation to manage its affairs in its own way; economic aid to war-ravaged nations and assistance in establishing their material welfare; restoration of democratic liberties; destruction of the Hitler regime ...

It is said that the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition has every chance of winning, and would certainly win if it did not suffer from an organic defect which might weaken and disintegrate it. This defect, in the opinion of these people, is that this coalition consists of heterogeneous elements having different ideologies, and that this circumstance will prevent them from organizing joint action against the common enemy.

I think that this assertion is wrong.

It would be ridiculous to deny the difference in the ideologies and social systems of the countries that constitute the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition. But does this preclude the possibility, and the expediency, of joint action on the part of the members of this coalition against the common enemy threatens to enslave them? Certainly not. Moreover, the existence of this threat imperatively dictates the necessity of joint action among the members of the coalition in order to save mankind from reversion to savagery and medieval brutality. Is not the program of action of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition a sufficient basis upon which to organize a joint struggle against Hitler tyranny and to vanquish it? I think it is quite sufficient...

Source: Soviet Foreign Policy during the Patriotic War, trans. Andrew Rothstein, pp. 45-49, London: Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., 1946; Adams, 198-201.