# Rykov's speech on the Anglo-Russian conference

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/rykovs-speech-on-the-anglo-russian-conference/
- Published: 1924-05-22T19:15:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T19:50:49+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/pramova-rykava-pra-anhielska-rasiejskuju-kanferencyju.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/ryech-rykova-ob-anglo-russkoy-konfyeryentsii.md

> The Chairman of the Council of Commissars warned that the negotiations with Britain would yield nothing if London sided with its bankers. Of the army he said: the USSR has reduced it, but has not lowered its quality.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-788-1024x585.webp)

At a party meeting in Moscow the Chairman of the Council of Commissars gave a speech in which he declared, among other things, that the Anglo-Russian conference would not give favorable results if the British government defended the wishes of British bankers as the basis for an agreement.

Speaking of armaments in Europe and the possibility of war, he said that the USSR, in spite of this, had reduced the size of its army, but could not reduce its quality.

The USSR cannot arm its army as England and France do theirs, but it will know how to do this better than Poland and Romania.

"And because the dictators of present-day bourgeois Europe do not fight themselves, but send their servants to fight in their place, we hope that we will smash these lackeys with our army."

("Kur. Polski").