The main thing is preserving ties with the millions of non-Party people.

Thus, we have before us not only the well-known immediate tasks of our party in the countryside, but also a number of favorable conditions facilitating the fulfillment of these tasks. The question now is to tackle the fulfillment of these tasks more cohesively.

In doing so, one should remember Lenin's immortal words that the strength of our Party lies in maintaining live contact between the Party and the millions-strong masses of non-Party people, that the more effective this contact, the more solid our successes. He said them at the Eleventh Congress of our Party. Here they are:

"In the popular mass we (communists. – J. St.) are nonetheless a drop in the sea, and we can govern only when we correctly express what the people are conscious of. Without this, the Communist Party will not lead the proletariat, and the proletariat will not lead the masses behind it, and the whole machine will fall apart"[69] (italics mine. – J. St.).

"Pravda" No. 242,

October 23, 1924