due to the support they have obtained from certain elements of labor outside of Russia. For in addition to the European revolutionary parties and factions already referred to other more or less neutral labor bodies have undoubtedly given them very valuable moral and defensive support.
All the successes of Soviet policy, to whatever extraneous causes they may be due, are attributed by the Bolshevists to the merit of their foreign propaganda and the invincibility of their international movement. This may be seen from a speech delivered by Lenin at a convention of the Communist Party in Moscow (Krasnaya Gazetta, November 23, 1920):
The world revolution, by whose aid alone we can win, does not mature at the speed with which we hoped for in the beginning.
But we have obtained not merely a breathing spell, but the possibility of existing amidst bourgeois countries. This means that the revolution has already matured within those countries.
After a period of three years, the Imperialists are compelled to give up their struggle against Russia which has, in comparison with their own military resources, practically none.
Our foes, burning with desire to crush us by armed force, are now compelled to conclude agreements with us, and to contribute to our consolidation and strengthening.
At the Communist Congress earlier in the year Lenin had said (see Soviet Russia, August 23, 1920):
