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Accidents involving planes and helicopters are common in Russia’s far eastern region, which is sparsely populated and where there is often harsh weather [Al Jazeera]
The Royal Janitor
by
John Presco
When Reverend Eve Star came on stage for her Saturday sermon, the audience gasped. She was dressed as a Viking Warrior Woman, a Shieldmaiden. She strode across the stage with heavy gate. She was stomping about – carrying an axe! She was furious at the evil spectacle in Alaska that put her Viking ancestors in more peril!
“Red carpet – my ass! I have in my hand a copy of the speech Lennon gave. He talks speaks of an American Capitalist about purchasing Kamchatka, then leasing it, then, asking for sixty year lease – that would have ended in 1980 if it were not for my father – who found a recorded deed at the University of Oregon. He went to Senator Wayne Morse with his amazing fund, and Morst slipped it into a fishing rights bill. It was not noticed, and it got ratified. I am barred from the State and National archives.
My father is a direct descendant of Harald Hardrada. Morst gave Ivan a copy of the deed that was lost in the fire that destroyed our Trailor. He had proof that Lenin had betrayed the cause, and got $1,000, 000 dollars for Kamchatka that he kept for his person use. He built a secret underground palace on Kamchatka. We must open another front in order to save Kiev and Western Europe. I am thinking of a Holy Crusade! We can……BANG!
SUUDDENLY – HELICOPTERS SOURROUNDED THE CHURCH OF THE DIVINE VULVA!
“It’s the rogue general, Gunka Woggbottom! Remember Pearl Harbor and the Japanese promise of peace!” Eve is now shouting out these words from, the document as flashbangs and teargas canisters exploded all around hert!”
“An intense hostility is now developing between America and Japan. We are making use of this and are offering a lease of Kamchatka instead of giving it away gratis; These words will change fo the course of Western History! I must get them to President Zelenski!”
BANG!
To be continued
They now want to subdue us by means of a treaty. Until the revolution comes about, bourgeois capital will be useful to us. How can we speed up the development of our economy whilst we are an economically weaker country? We can do that with the aid of bourgeois capital. We now have before us two drafts of concessions. One of them is for a ten-year concession in Kamchatka. We were recently visited by an American multimillionaire, who told us very frankly of the reasons behind the treaty, viz., that America wants to have a base in Asia in case of a war against Japan. This multimillionaire said that if we sold Kamchatka to America, he could promise us such enthusiasm among the people of the United States that the American Government would immediately recognise the Soviets of Russia. If we gave them only the lease, there would be less enthusiasm. He is now on his way to America, where he will make it known that Soviet Russia is a far cry from what people believed her to he.
An intense hostility is now developing between America and Japan. We are making use of this and are offering a lease of Kamchatka instead of giving it away gratis; after all, Japan has taken a huge expanse of our territory in the Far East,[4] this by force of arms. It is far more to our advantage to run no risk, grant a lease of Kamchatka, and receive part of its products, the more so for our being unable, in any case, to run or exploit it. The treaty has not been signed, but it is already being spoken of in Japan with the utmost anger. Through this treaty we have aggravated the differences between our enemies.
V. I. Lenin
Speech Delivered At A Meeting of
Cells’ Secretaries Of The Moscow Organisation Of The R.C.P.(B.)
November 26, 1920[1]
Newspaper Report
Delivered: 26 November, 1920 or earlier.
First Published: Pravda No. 269, November 30, 1920; Published according to the Pravda text checked against the verbatim report.
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 31, pages 430-433
Translated: Julius Katzer
Transcription\HTML Markup: David Walters & R. Cymbala
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
In the first written question submitted, a comrade asks whether it is true that all institutions of administration are to he transferred to Petrograd. That is inaccurate. The rumour has arisen from the fact that the Moscow Soviet has had the idea of transferring non-essential institutions from Moscow to Petrograd because of the housing shortage in the capital. It appears that Petrograd can accept up to 10,000 Soviet office workers, who number 200,000 in Moscow. To study all aspects of the matter, a committee has been set up, which is now working. Its findings will be submitted to the Council of People’s Commissars.[2] So you see that this rumour is inaccurate in some respects.
The second question and the third ask about concessions. You will allow me to dwell on the subject.
In one of his books, Spargo, the American Socialist, a man who is something like our Aiexinsky, and has a vindictive hate of the Bolsheviks, speaks of concessions as proof of the collapse of communism. Our Mensheviks say the same thing. The challenge has been made, and we are ready to take it up. Let us consider the question in terms of the facts. Who has got the worse of it, we or the European bourgeoisie? For three years they have been calumniating us, calling us usurpers and bandits; they have had recourse to all and every means tooverthrow us, but have now had to confess to failure, which is in itself a victory for us. The Mensheviks assert that we are pledged to defeating the world bourgeoisie on our own. We have, however, always said that we are only a single link in the chain of the world revolution, and have never set ourselves the aim of achieving victory by our own means. The world revolution has not yet come about, but then we have not yet been overcome. While militarism is decaying, we are growing stronger; not we, but they have had the worse of it.
They now want to subdue us by means of a treaty. Until the revolution comes about, bourgeois capital will be useful to us. How can we speed up the development of our economy whilst we are an economically weaker country? We can do that with the aid of bourgeois capital. We now have before us two drafts of concessions. One of them is for a ten-year concession in Kamchatka. We were recently visited by an American multimillionaire, who told us very frankly of the reasons behind the treaty, viz., that America wants to have a base in Asia in case of a war against Japan. This multimillionaire said that if we sold Kamchatka to America, he could promise us such enthusiasm among the people of the United States that the American Government would immediately recognise the Soviets of Russia. If we gave them only the lease, there would be less enthusiasm. He is now on his way to America, where he will make it known that Soviet Russia is a far cry from what people believed her to he.
We have till now been more than a match for the world bourgeoisie, because they are incapable of uniting. The Treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Versailles[3] have both divided them. An intense hostility is now developing between America and Japan. We are making use of this and are offering a lease of Kamchatka instead of giving it away gratis; after all, Japan has taken a huge expanse of our territory in the Far East,[4] this by force of arms. It is far more to our advantage to run no risk, grant a lease of Kamchatka, and receive part of its products, the more so for our being unable, in any case, to run or exploit it. The treaty has not been signed, but it is already being spoken of in Japan with the utmost anger. Through this treaty we have aggravated the differences between our enemies.
The second kind of concession is represented by our granting the lease of several million dessiatines[a Russian unit of land measure equal to 2.7 acres.—Editor] of timberland in Archangel Gubernia which, despite all our efforts, we cannot fully exploit. We are arranging a kind of checker-board pattern, with sections of timberland we shall be exploiting alternating with the leased sections, so that our workers will be able to learn the use of felling equipment from their neighbours. All this is very much to our advantage.
And now for the final aspect of the question.
Concessions do not mean peace; they too are a kind of warfare, only in another form, one that is to our advantage. Previously war was waged with the aid of tanks, cannon and the like, which hindered our work; the war will now be conducted on the economic front. They may perhaps try to restore the freedom to trade, but they cannot get along without us. Besides, they have to submit to all our laws, and our workers can learn from them; in case of war—and we must always be prepared for war against the bourgeoisie—the property will remain in our hands by virtue of the laws of war. I repeat: concessions are a continuation of war on the economic front, but here we do not destroy our productive forces, but develop them. They will no doubt try to evade our laws and deceive us, but we have the appropriate bodies to deal with that, such as the All-Russia Cheka, the Moscow Cheka, the Gubernia Cheka, and so on, and we are sure that we shall win.
Eighteen months ago we wanted to sign a peace that would have given Denikin and Kolchak a vast territory. They turned this down and in consequence lost everything.,[5] We have napped out the right road to the world revolution, but this road is not a straight one, but goes in zigzags. We have weakened the bourgeoisie, so that it cannot overcome us by force of arms. They used to ban our conduct of communist propaganda; but there can be no question of that at present, and it would be ridiculous to demand such things. They are decaying from within, and that gives us strength. We do not imagine that we shall defeat the world bourgeoisie by force of arms alone, and the Mensheviks are wrong in ascribing that intention to us.
I did not hear Comrade Kamenev’s report on the Conference, but I shall say that the latter teaches us a lesson: no matter how the struggle proceeded and whatever memories remain, we must put a complete end to everything. It should be remembered that the consolidation of our forces is the main and most important task. Tasks of economic construction await us. That transition will be difficult after six years of war, and we have to tackle the problem with united forces, on the platform of the All-Russia Conference’s resolutions, which must he carried out. The struggle against red-tape methods, and economic and administrative work call for unity. What is expected of us is propaganda by example; the non-Party masses have to be set an example. It will be no easy matter to carry out the resolutions, but we must concentrate all our forces on that task and set about working in all earnest. I call upon you to do that.
Endnotes
[1] Held in the Hall of Columns, the House of Trade Unions, on November 20, 1920, this meeting discussed reports on the Mos cow Gubernia Conference of the R.C.P.(B.) and the war situation. Lenin spoke at the meeting in connection with the publicationof the decree on concessions, on November 25.—Editor
[2] The Council of People’s Commissars, with Lenin as chairman, was formed by the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets in October 1917. It was occasionally called the great, or full, Council to distinguish it from the small, or limited, Council, whichfunctioned under its auspices from December 1917 to 1926 as acommission dealing with minor questions and preparing various questions for consideration by the full Council of People’sCommissars.—Editor
[3] The Peace Treaty of Versailles, which concluded the First World War, was signed on June 28, 1919, by the U.S.A., the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan and other Allied Powers, on the one hand, and Germany, on the other. Lenin wrote, “this is an unparalleled and predatory peace, whichhas made slaves of tens of millions of people, including the most civilised” (see p. 320 in this volume). The treaty consolidated the repartition of the capitalist world in favour of the victors, and established a system of relationships between countries which was aimed at strangling Soviet Russia and suppressingthe world revolutionary movement.—Editor
[4] The imperialist government of Japan, in collusion with U.S. and British ruling circles, invaded the Far East in the spring of 1918 in an attempt to seize Soviet territory east of Lake Baikal. On April 5, Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok. Operating from their main strategic base in Vladivostok, they occupied the Maritime Province, Northern Sakhalin and the Trans-Baikal region. The rout of Keichak at the end of 1919, the growing guerilla movement and the economic crisis in Japan in 1920-21, which was aggravated by the Japanese-American contradictions, spoiled the doom of the interventionists. By the autumn of 1922 their rout was complete and on October 25 the last interventionistsleft Vladivostok.—Editor
[5] The reference is to the talks with Bullitt (see Note 1from Speech at Conference of Workers and Red Army Men In Rogozhsko-Simonovsky District Of Moscow).
Collected Works Volume 31
Collected Works Table of Contents
Lenin Works Archive
When Viking Kings and Queens Ruled Medieval Russia
For four centuries, Vikings ruling from Kyiv held sway of parts of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
An illustration of Oleg. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
Published: December 04, 2019
Last Updated: May 28, 2025
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The historical people known as Vikings, who hailed from Scandinavia in Northern Europe, are well-known today for their exploits in the West. But the merchant warriors also made their way into Eastern Europe, where they helped found a medieval federation in the territory now known as Belarus, Ukraine and part of Russia. Their loose federation of principalities called Kievan Rus survived for nearly 400 years, finally collapsing during the 13th-century Mongol invasion.
Early Scandinavian settlements in the East
Life of a Viking
The Vikings are known as masters of the sea, but what was the viking life like before these warriors began their raids?
Vikings founded Kievan Rus in the mid-9th century, but Scandanavian settlements in Eastern Europe actually date back to at least A.D. 750. This is when pre-Viking-Age Scandanavians likely settled the northwestern Russian town of Staraya Ladoga (or “Old Ladoga”), across Lake Ladoga from what is now Finland. One of the artifacts archaeologists have unearthed from the city is a talisman with the face of Odin, the Norse god of war.
“The early Scandinavians were particularly attracted to Ladoga by the appearance of Islamic silver coins or dirhams there,” writes scholar Thomas S. Noonan. “The regular flow of Islamic dirhams from Russia to Scandinavia via Ladoga began in the early ninth century and is further evidence of a Viking presence in Ladoga long before 840.”
Prince Oleg expands territory, moves the capital to Kiev
Rurik and his brothers arriving in Staraya Ladog.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
It was after 840 that Scandanavian Vikings—who were known in Eastern Europe as “Varangians” or “Rus”—established Viking rule over Slavic tribes in what came to be called Kievan Rus. At first, the region was divided between three noble brothers.
“The oldest, Rurik, located himself at Novgorod; the second, Sineus, at Beloozero; and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk,” recounts the Russian Primary Chronicle, a history of the region completed in the 12th century by Kievan monks. “On account of these Varangians, the district of Novgorod became known as the land of Rus.” (“Rus,” which is where the name “Russia” comes from, purportedly derives from an old Nordic word for “men who row.”)
Rurik’s brothers died within two years, so he claimed their territory and established Novgorod as the capital of his domain. After Rurik died, his successor Prince Oleg of Novgorod (or Oleg the Prophet) captured the city of Kiev in 882 and moved the capital from Novgorod to Kiev. In addition to capturing new territories to increase the size of Kievan Rus, Oleg also increased its wealth by negotiating a favorable trade deal with Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Royal pains after Oleg
Did Viking Warrior Women Exist?
Viking warrior women were thought to be the stuff of legends. A 2017 DNA analysis proves they were real.
Archaeological discoveries in the region support the Russian Primary Chronicle’s historical account of Vikings in the region—at least, in part. However, historians caution readers to approach the Chronicle narrative with a grain of salt, since some of its stories have an exaggerated, mythical quality.
One such story: how Oleg allegedly died. According to the Chronicle, a prophecy during his lifetime foretold that one of his horses would cause his death. To avoid his fate, Oleg never rode that horse. But after he successfully expanded Kievan Rus territory and trade, he got a little cocky and began to wonder if he could ride the horse after all. By then the animal had died, so Oleg found its bones and mockingly stomped on its skull; but, the story goes, a serpent slithered from underneath and bit Oleg, killing him.
After Oleg came a period of royal distress. His successor was Rurik’s son, Igor of Kiev, who married a woman named Olga. Like Oleg, Igor collected tribute from the people he had conquered; but unlike Oleg, his prices were so high that they prompted a tribe to assassinate him. When he died, his wife Olga assumed power.
What reportedly happened next with Olga is one of those stories that likely lives more on the mythical end of the spectrum. Olga was (understandably) furious with the early Slavic tribe of Drevlians that had killed her husband. So when Drevlian emissaries went to see Olga to discuss whether she would marry one of their princes, she supposedly tricked them into being buried alive. The chronicle also says she invited a bunch of Drevlian wise men to visit her and then burned them alive inside a bathhouse.
End of the Kievan Rus era
Kievan Rus was largely pagan until the late 10th century, when Vladimir the Great took power and introduced Christianity. The conversion actually resulted from a deal between Vladimir and the Byzantine Emperor. Vladimir agreed to convert to Christianity and send the emperor 6,000 soldiers to defend his throne; in exchange, Vladimir would marry the emperor’s sister.
The exchange of soldiers led to the establishment of the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of imperial bodyguards. In addition, the deal led to the spread of Byzantine culture within Kievan Rus. Vladimir built churches to spread Christianity and schools to spread literacy (and also probably Christianity). The economy flourished, and Kievan Rus continued to expand. This cultural and economic growth likely peaked under the rule of Vladimir’s son Yaroslav I (or Yaroslav the Wise), who began the construction of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.
After this, the Kievan Rus federation was beset by royal fights for power. The Crusades brought further instability, so that by the time the Mongols invaded in the 13th century, Kievan Rus was weak and divided, and easily fell.
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