Ibárruri offered a string of speeches, some of them radio broadcasts from Madrid: "Danger! To arms!" (July 19), "Our fighters must lack for nothing!" (July 24), "Discipline, composure, vigilance!" (July 29), "Restrain the hand of the foreign meddlers!" (July 30), "Fascism shall not pass!" (August 24), "Better to die standing up than to live kneeling down!" (September 3), "A salute to our militiawomen on the front line" (September 4), "Our battle cry has been heard by the whole world" (September 15). It can be inferred that the majority in Madrid rallied to the side of the Republic, that uncontrolled elements roamed the capital that many rounds of gunfire were wasted out of nerves (July 29), that Insurgents propaganda was more effective (July 30) and that she understood early on that the war would be lost without foreign aid (August 24). On October 2 she wrote a revealing letter to her son in Russia, apologizing for not having written earlier and described the harrowing situation, "You cannot even imagine, my son, how savage is the struggle going on in Spain now...Fighting is going on daily and round the clock. And in this fighting some of our finest and bravest comrades have perished." She recounted that she had spent many days beside the troops at the front, and reveals her misgivings about the outcome of the war, "It is my hope that in spite of all the difficulties, particularly the lack of weapons, we shall still win."