It was Stalin who first put forward the proposition that "you will be beaten if you fall behind". This proposition was put forward in his speech "On the Task of Economic Workers" delivered at the first congress of socialist industrial workers in the whole Soviet Union on February 4, 193 1, and was profoundly expounded.
In this famous speech, when it comes to the need to speed up the pace of socialist economic construction, Stalin said:
"People sometimes ask: Can't we slow down a little bit and slow down the progress? No, you can't, comrades! Never slow down! On the contrary, we must try our best to speed up as much as possible. Our obligations to Soviet workers and peasants require us to do so. Our obligation to the working class all over the world requires us to do so.
"Slow is backward. The laggards will be defeated. But we don't want to be defeated. No, we absolutely don't want to!
"One of the characteristics of the history of old Russia was that it was constantly beaten because of backwardness. Khan of Mongolia hit it. Buick, Turkey (note: South Caucasus, Central Asia, Turkish aristocrats, aristocrats). ) Go ahead. Swedish feudalism played a leading role in it. The landlords in Poland and Lithuania defeated it. British and French capitalists defeated it. Japanese aristocrats defeated it. Everyone has played because they are backward. Because of its backward military, culture, national sports, industry and agriculture. Everyone hits it because it can make a profit and will not be punished. Do you remember the words of a poet before the revolution: "Russian mother! "You are poor and I am rich, and you are strong and weak." (Note: Quoted from Ni A Necrasov's poem "Who can be happy and free in Russia". These gentlemen learn this sentence by heart from the old poet. They say "you have money" while playing, so that they can get rich from you. When they hit you, they say "you are poor and weak", so they can hit you and rob you with impunity.
"Beat the laggards and the weak,-this has become the law of exploiters. This is the law of the jungle of capitalism. If you are weak and backward, you are unreasonable, so you can beat you and enslave you. You are strong, then you are right, so you should be careful.
"Because of this, we can't fall behind.
"In the past, we did not and could not have a motherland. But now, when we overthrew capitalism and the political power is in the hands of us and the people, we have our motherland and we want to defend its independence. Are you willing to let our socialist motherland be defeated and lose its independence? If you don't want to, then you should eliminate its backwardness in the shortest time and launch the real Bolshevik speed in its socialist economic construction. There is no other way. Because of this, Lenin said on the eve of the October Revolution:' Either perish or catch up with and surpass the advanced capitalist countries.'
"We are 50 to 100 years behind advanced countries. We should run the distance in ten years. Either we do this or we are knocked down. "