In Memory of M. V. Frunze

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(Speech at a memorial meeting dedicated to the memory of Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, in the city of Kislovodsk on November 2, 1925)

In recent years blow follows blow, creating one breach after another in the ranks of the vanguard fighters of the Soviet country. The final blow – one of the heaviest – hit us on October 31st. At about three o'clock in the afternoon I received a telegram from Comrade Stalin from Moscow, which concluded with a short but terrible text: "Frunze died today of heart paralysis." I knew, like all of you, or at least many of you, that Comrade Frunze was ill – but who of the older generation of revolutionaries is healthy? – and each of us thought that his illness was transitory, that he would return to his responsible work. And now – the dreadful telegram, which a few hours later, in a more extensive form, received the whole country, the entire Soviet Union. And just like many of you, I was holding in my hands a piece of paper with the sad news and tried to read not what was written there, but something else, less formidable, less hopeless. But the text did not allow any interpretation, just as the terrible fact that it communicates – alas! – cannot be either contested or cancelled. Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze is gone, one of the bravest, of the best, of the most worthy is gone forever, and tomorrow revolutionary proletarian Moscow will bury the deceased fighter on Red Square. The first feeling was to go to Moscow, where Mikhail Vasilyevich's work had been going on for the last period, in order to pay him the last tribute, in the ranks of his closest comrades-in-arms and friends. But on Saturday and Sunday there was no train to Moscow, and the one that left today will come to Moscow too late. But all the same, comrades, not only Moscow, but the entire Soviet Union in mourning today, bowing heads and banners, pays tribute to the memory of the glorious fighter. And here, in Kislovodsk, we are united by one bitter feeling, one sorrowful thought, which merges with the thoughts and feelings of the entire working class and its leader, the Communist Party, which has lost one of its best sons.

As a young student, Mikhail Vasilyevich joined the cause of the working class. In Ivanovo-Voznesensk, his work proceeded during the days of the first revolution (1905) and in the subsequent difficult and gloomy years of reaction. Even then, this young revolutionary, who stood out from the rest, was characterised by his personal audacity. He fired on the local police chief, who took part in the violence against the Ivanovo-Voznesensk workers, and this act, along with all the rest of his work, brought Mikhail Vasilyevich to the hard labour camp in 1907, where he spent a long series of years in the most difficult conditions that undermined his health. Only in 1915 did he arrive at a place in exile.

The conditions of the hard labour camp undermined his health, but did not break his spirit: he left the gates of the hard labor prison the same as he entered it, a firm, unyielding revolutionary Bolshevik.

The 1917 revolution finds him in the same Ivanovo-Voznesensk. He is back in the textile workers environment. He is an agitator, he is an organizer, he is a leader of the struggle. The ranks were gathering all around him in the glorious days of October 1917. Mikhail Vasilyevich did not live to see the eighth anniversary of the October victory only seven days later!

After October, Frunze devoted his exceptional forces, mainly to the organization of the defence of the Soviet state. He works as a senior war commissar of the Yaroslavl military district, from young textile workers he creates the first strong, knit regular units.

The civil war encircles the country with a ring, and Mikhail Vasilyevich comes to Moscow, knocks on the door of the Central Committee and demands to be sent to the military front of the civil war. And here he is in the East, in the battles against Kolchak, he commands an army, he – a former revolutionary student, a convict who has not undergone any military training – turns out to be at the head of one of the revolutionary armies, with some doubts, with distrust of others, with the natural question of everyone: will he cope? But he coped with both honour and glory. He soon becomes the head of a group of four armies. I remember with what love and pride he let the regiment of Ivanovo-Voznesensk textile workers go to a review, I think, in Samara. "These won't give in!" And they really didn't give in ...

In the region of the Ural Army, then in Turkestan, then in Bukhara are the paths along which M. V. Frunze led his revolutionary regiments. Even then, the army, the party and the Central Committee had already formed a firm opinion: where it is difficult, where the front is not firm, where extraordinary courage, strong will, a quick eye are required – send Frunze there. And here in Ukraine he is leading the fighting against the last major armed enemy, against Wrangel. It is enough to name one geographical name so that it illuminates the name of MV Frunze with a bright flame of glory: this word is Perekop! In the pages of the heroic struggle of the Red Army, it burns with an unfading flash of heroism and, at the same time, correct, methodically conducted preparation.

For two features alike characterized this commander. First of all, personal courage, which is necessary for every soldier, no matter whether he is an ordinary soldier or one who leads regiments, detachments and armies into battle. Personal courage distinguished Mikhail Vasilyevich, as a revolutionary and as a soldier, from head to toe. He did not know the dismay of soul in the face of the enemy and of danger. He was under fire – and under hot fire – more than once, and the enemy bullet, which sometimes did not spare the horse under him, spared him. But personal courage is not enough for a commander. He needs the courage of decision. In the face of the enemy, when so much depends on the decision, doubts are natural: which way to strike? which way to choose? how to group forces? Should we advance today or wait? Should we advance at all or retreat? There are dozens of possible choices, and a thought burdened with responsibility wavers between these choices. Frunze knew how to calmly and soberly ponder, listen and weigh. Weigh and choose firmly. And having chosen – to bring it to the end. He had the courage of determination, without which there is no military leader, no commander. And he directly ensured our country a brilliant victory over Wrangel. The name Frunze, along with the other name – Perekop, will forever remain in human memory as a wonderful revolutionary legend based on living historical fact.

Frunze then leads the organization of military forces in the Ukraine, which he cleans from banditry, combining political penetration with military strike. Then Mikhail Vasilyevich was transferred by the party to Moscow, where he was placed at the head of the Red Army and the Red Fleet. And we all had the right to expect that here his exceptional strengths and talents would unfold in full. But a cruel fate did not augur this. He who went through the ordeals of hard labor, he who passed unscathed through the fire of the civil war, he who more than once, twice, where the revolution demanded it, put his life at risk on the battlefield – he fell under the blow of convulsive contraction of a small muscle called the human heart. This muscle is the engine of our body. And the one who himself was the mighty engine of the revolution and the army fell, suddenly struck down when his inner engine, his heart, was paralysed forever.

And tomorrow, comrades, Red Moscow will bury M. V. Frunze. And we, who have gathered here, like many thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions in our entire Union, unite with Moscow in a common bitter feeling of irrevocable loss. It is difficult to look for words of consolation in these hours, and there is no and there can be no personal consolation, because a heroic human personality has disappeared, gone forever, who cannot be returned, comrades, who cannot be returned ... But we not only grieve and mourn the glorious comrade-in-arms. As revolutionaries, we think not only about today, but also about tomorrow. And if there is no personal consolation over the loss of a heroic human personality, then there is general, collective consolation, political consolation in the deep consciousness that the cause, which from his youth to the last beat of his sick heart M.V. Frunze served, day after day, that this cause is triumphant, and that those banners of mourning that will bow over the grave of the deceased tomorrow will not fall out of the firm hands of the victorious working class. There is consolation in the fact that the Red Army, in the ranks of which, and then at the head of which the deceased worked, fought and served the cause of the proletariat, that this army is growing, rallying and ready to repel, as before – and better than ever – possible blows of enemies. Yes, there is consolation in the fact that the case that Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze served and from which he was torn away by a cruel rapist – death –, that this case is immortal. It will pass from peoples to peoples, it will pass from centuries to centuries, and wherever our distant descendants remember the heroic struggle of the proletariat, they will gratefully, respectfully, lovingly name the one whom Moscow is going to see off tomorrow on his last journey. Let us bow our banners and our hearts weighed down with grief before the memory of the fighter and say: farewell, heroic warrior of the October Revolution, farewell, glorious commander of the Red Army, farewell, Mikhail Vasilyevich, unforgettable fighter, fearless revolutionary – farewell forever!

And we, the remaining, will this time again do what revolutionaries are supposed to do in the hours of their gravest losses: we will close ranks closer in order to fill the breach as soon as possible. A man of great dimensions has left – we will put two, three, five, but we will fill the breach. For the struggle knows no hold. For the party, which has lost one of its bravest standard-bearers, will lead the working class forward, to new battles, to new sacrifices, and will carry to the peoples of the whole world the banner under which the heroic warrior of the revolution Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze gloriously lived and fought.