[Classics] Platform of the Joint Opposition

10. The Red Army and the Red Fleet

The international situation is bringing more and more to the front the question of the defence of the Soviet Union. The party, the working class, and the peasantry ought to give renewed and greater attention to the Red Army and the Red Fleet.

All the facts of our economy, politics, and culture, are connected with the problem of defence. The army is a pattern of the whole social structure. It reflects, in the sharpest possible manner, not only the strong, but the weak sides of the existing regime. Experience teaches that in this sphere least of all is it safe to rely upon appearances. Here especially it is better to err upon the side of triple tests and self-criticism, than on the side of easy-going trust and confidence.

The question of the mutual relation of classes in the country, and the true policy of the party in this sphere, has a decisive significance for the inner solidarity of the army and for the mutual relations between the commanding staff and the body of the soldiers. The question of industrialisation has decisive significance for the technical resources of our defence. All the measures advocated in the present platform–in the sphere of international politics and the international workers’ movement, industry, agriculture, the Soviet system, the national question, the party, and the League of Communist Youth–all these questions are of first-class importance in strengthening the Red Army and the Red Fleet.

Our practical proposals in this field have been presented to the Politburo.