The Marriott Hotel, 7 May 1992

I hope your understand that you have in me a person who has gone through a great deal. I am not a naive individual.

What has been happening over the past few years should have happened much earlier. During World War II, we were all able to unite in a great coalition against Nazissm, and in uniting we overcame the things that separated us, particularly ideological obstacles and barriers. We have to regret that the politicians of that time missed the opportunity that was opened by that common victory over Nazism. We are meeting on the eve fo the anniversary of that great victory, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my very special feelings of gratitude to the generation of people that endured that very difficult fight.

We unfortunately missed the opportunity of uniting after the war, of cooperating together to go along a new path. And so we had to go through very difficult decades. That led to the early 1980s, when the world found itself on the edge of a precipice, when people intuitively felt that trouble was knocking at their doors.

I would like to pay tribute to the generation of political leaders who understood the concern and anxiety of their peoples, and who then opted for a new policy that changed that situation. Here I must mention the contributions of President Reagan, Prime Minister Thatcher, President Mitterand, Chancellor Kohl, Prime Minister Andrieotti of Italy, and many others who understood the challenge of the times.

From the very outset it was my view that without a new relationship, a relationship of partnership and eventually fo friendship, between the Soviet Union and the United States, nothing would change in the world. Our partners understood that too. It was very difficult to take the first step. But we did take that step, and today we find ourselves in a totally new situation.

But today I am concerned, because there are many ways that this new situation could be used. We could stop and content ourselves with what has been achieved, or we can continue to work together to unite the efforts of the peoples and governments of all nations to cooperate for a new world. Because of my concern, I have decided to take the opportunity offered by hundreds of invitations from the United States to come to your country. I very much appreciate the efforts of Secretary of State Shultz, my partner and friend, who together with President Reagan, the honorary chairman of the host committee, organized this trip and the itinerary of my American visit. I very much value the fact that my path crossed with George Shultz. We found in ourselves the strength to work for a new world, to pave the way for a new world, and I pay tribute to Secretary Shultz for his contribution.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM FLOOR

Q. You say that you believed that the October Revolution of 1917 was a genuine people's revolution. But many critics argue that it was an anti-democratic movement from the very beginning. How do you respond?

A. After the February Revolution of 1917, also a great event in our history, developments took a dramatic turn. The situation was probably affected by the fact that the country was in a midst of war and also by the fact that after the Romanov dynasty was removed, we did not have any democratic institutions or traditions in our country. The economic situation in the country was extremely severe. All of these factors palyed a role to some extent, and as a result, it was inevitable that developments took the turn that they took after the February Revolution. The question then was whether there would be a military dictatorship - and there were people who wished to become military dictators - or whether there would be another attempt for a political and economic revolution that would continue the transformations that began in February. The events of July of 1917 accelerated the process that culminated in the events of October 1917. And as a result, power was transferred to the Bolveshiks. The slogans that the Bolveshiks upheld at that time - "Land to the peasants," "Factories to the Workers," "Peace for Peoples," and "Self-determination to all nations" - had the support of the people.

What happened next is now history - our history. We are now trying to understand why those slogans and the hopes of the people were not fulfilled. In the final months of his life, Lenin was able to engage in a very critical analysis of what had happened, and he decided that there was a need for a new policy. He developed a new policy, but it was not his fate to be able to implement that policy. So the whole nation was forced into a Utopian and unrealistic model, one that had nothing to do with real life and with the vital interests of the people. How it all ended is well known. It was the goal of perestroika to find a way out of the crisis of that system and to implement political reforms, reforms of ownership, and reforms in our multi-ehtnic state whcih would make it possible to end the crisis. Step-by-step we were moving in that direction.

Thank you.

Mikhail Gorbachev