Churchill’s attitude to Communism
Churchill’s attitude to Communism
What does this source tell us about Churchill’s attitude to Communism?
Source A – Speech by Churchill to the United Wards Club luncheon at the Canon Street Hotel in London, 4 November 1920
According to Mr. H.G. Wells who has just returned from Russia, the whole apparatus of civilization in Russia has collapsed. Cities are dying, and dying fast: railways are breaking up: manufactures and commerce of all kinds are at a standstill. Mr. Wells suggests that this irreparable catastrophe is not the fault of the Bolshevists. But I submit as a most unchallengeable conviction that those disasters in Russia are solely due to the Bolshevists, and are solely due to a very few men, to a revolutionary and terrible sect of fanatics, whose devastating doctrines have laid Russia low, and will lay every nation low in which they obtain ascendancy.
Mr. Wells attributes Russia's downfall to the inherent rottenness of Capitalism, Imperialism, and the war. What utter nonsense! The Bolshevists did it. And they alone to the last generation of mankind will feel this fearful responsibility. No doubt the war struck Russia a heavy blow, but none from which she could not have survived. It was a deadly and paralysing sect that destroyed Russia and plunged it deep into unspeakable misery. We must never cease proclaiming this fact as a warning to other nations in the world, and for the preservation of our own country. The Bolshevists are responsible for the catastrophe.
But if we can do little for Russia, we can do much for Britain. We do not want any of these experiments here. [Cheers.] Any such experiments in this country would be followed by the destruction of the great majority of the persons dwelling in these islands. We can at any rate make sure that in our life and time the deadly disease which has struck down Russia should not be allowed to spring up here and poison us as it is poisoning them.
In every city there are small bands
What does this source tell us about Churchill’s attitude to Communism?
Source A – Speech by Churchill to the United Wards Club luncheon at the Canon Street Hotel in London, 4 November 1920
According to Mr. H.G. Wells who has just returned from Russia, the whole apparatus of civilization in Russia has collapsed. Cities are dying, and dying fast: railways are breaking up: manufactures and commerce of all kinds are at a standstill. Mr. Wells suggests that this irreparable catastrophe is not the fault of the Bolshevists. But I submit as a most unchallengeable conviction that those disasters in Russia are solely due to the Bolshevists, and are solely due to a very few men, to a revolutionary and terrible sect of fanatics, whose devastating doctrines have laid Russia low, and will lay every nation low in which they obtain ascendancy.
Mr. Wells attributes Russia's downfall to the inherent rottenness of Capitalism, Imperialism, and the war. What utter nonsense! The Bolshevists did it. And they alone to the last generation of mankind will feel this fearful responsibility. No doubt the war struck Russia a heavy blow, but none from which she could not have survived. It was a deadly and paralysing sect that destroyed Russia and plunged it deep into unspeakable misery. We must never cease proclaiming this fact as a warning to other nations in the world, and for the preservation of our own country. The Bolshevists are responsible for the catastrophe.
But if we can do little for Russia, we can do much for Britain. We do not want any of these experiments here. [Cheers.] Any such experiments in this country would be followed by the destruction of the great majority of the persons dwelling in these islands. We can at any rate make sure that in our life and time the deadly disease which has struck down Russia should not be allowed to spring up here and poison us as it is poisoning them.
In every city there are small bands