Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was founded by V. I. Lenin as the revolutionary Marxist party of the Russian proletariat; as a result of the victory of socialism in the USSR and the consolidation of the social, ideological, and political unity of Soviet society, the CPSU, while remaining the party of the working class, has become the party of the entire Soviet people. “The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the tried and tested militant vanguard of the Soviet people, which unites, on a voluntary basis, the more advanced, the politically more conscious section of the working class, collective-farm peasantry, and intelligentsia of the USSR. . . . The party exists for, and serves, the people. It is the highest form of sociopolitical organization, and it is the leading and guiding force of Soviet society. . . . The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an integral part of the international communist and working-class movement” (Ustav KPSS, 1976, pp. 3, 4, 6).
In 1898, at its First Congress, the party took the name Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which in 1917 was changed to Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik), or RSDLP(B). In March 1918, at its Seventh Congress, the party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), or RCP-(B). The reason for this change was given by V. I. Lenin in his report to the congress. “As we begin socialist reforms,” he pointed out, “we must have a clear conception of the goal toward which these reforms are in the final analysis directed, that is, the creation of a communist society” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 44). In 1925, at the party’s Fourteenth Congress, with the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the party’s name was changed to All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik), or ACP(B). At the party’s Nineteenth Congress, held in 1952, the party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
The CPSU had absorbed the revolutionary traditions of the entire preceding democratic liberation movement in Russia and throughout the world; it was able to combine defense of the proletariat’s class interests with the aspirations of all working and exploited people, to fuse the workers’ and peasants’ struggle against social oppression by the capitalists and landlords with the struggle of enslaved peoples and nationalities against national oppression, and to transform the Russian working class into the vanguard of the international working-class movement. Led by the Bolshevik Party, and in alliance with the poorer peasants, the working class accomplished the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and established the dictatorship of the proletariat. The CPSU was the first Marxist party in the world to lead the proletariat to political supremacy and put into practice the idea of creating a socialist state.
The CPSU is the heroic party of defense of the socialist fatherland, having organized the victory of the Soviet people over its worst enemies—the foreign interventionists and domestic counterrevolutionaries in the Civil War of 1918–20—as well as over the Hitlerite fascists, Japanese militarists, and their allies in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.
As a result of the self-sacrificing struggle of the Soviet people, led by the CPSU, the Soviet Union was transformed into a mighty industrial power with a collectivized agriculture, a land of progress in science and culture where an advanced socialist society has been built. The Leninist policies and practices of the CPSU have guaranteed the monolithic cohesion of the Soviet people around the party. During the building of socialism in the USSR, a new historical community of people has emerged—the Soviet people, strong in their singleness of purpose and unity of action in the struggle for the triumph of communism.
The CPSU is a party of scientific communism. Its theoretical basis is Marxism-Leninism—the scientific groundwork for the revolutionary transformation of society. Guided by Marxist-Leninist theory and creatively developing and enriching it, the CPSU in its programs has defined the immediate and long-range tasks of each historical stage. The party’s ultimate goal, which remains constant and unalterable, has been the building of communism.
The Second Congress of the RSDLP (1903) founded the Marxist Bolshevik Party. “As a current of political thought and as a political party,” wrote Lenin, “Bolshevism has existed since 1903” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 41, p. 6). The congress adopted the party’s first program, which called for the conquest of political power by the working class and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This program was realized with the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Republic. The Eighth Congress of the RCP(B), held in 1919, adopted the party’s second program—the building of socialism. Its implementation was crowned by the final and complete victory of socialism in the USSR.
The party’s third program—building a communist society in the USSR—was adopted by the Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU in 1961. This program formulated the threefold task of creating the material and technical basis for communism, developing communist social relations, and molding a new type of man.
The establishment of the material and technical basis for communism entails the complete electrification of the country, serving as the foundation for improvement of the techniques, technology, and organization of social production in all sectors of the national economy; the comprehensive mechanization and constantly growing automation of production processes; wide-ranging use of chemistry in the economy; vigorous development of economically efficient new sectors of production, new types of energy, and new materials; rational all-around utilization of natural, material, and labor resources; an organic fusion of science and production and a rapid pace of scientific and technical progress; a body of workers marked by a high level of culture and technical competence; and a substantial superiority in labor productivity over the more developed capitalist countries, this being a most important prerequisite for the victory of the communist system.
“As a result,” in the words of the program of the CPSU, “the USSR will possess productive forces of unparalleled might; it will surpass the technical level of the most developed countries and occupy first place in the world in per capita production. This will serve as a basis for the gradual transformation of socialist relations into communist social relations and for a development of industry and agriculture that will make it possible to meet in abundance the requirements of society and all its members” (Programma KPSS, 1976, pp. 66–67). “The CPSU sets the historically important task of achieving in the Soviet Union a living standard higher than that of any of the capitalist countries” (ibid., pp. 90–91). The program proceeds on the assumption that in the period of transition to communism it will become increasingly possible to mold a new man, who will harmoniously combine communist ideological conviction with spiritual wealth, moral purity, and perfect physical condition.
V. I. Lenin laid down the guidelines of the party’s political, ideological, and organizational activity and its strategy and tactics at various stages of the class struggle and revolutionary battles. He saw the party as the decisive factor in building socialism and communism. Basing himself on Marx’ and Engels’ ideas concerning the proletarian party and generalizing from the experiences of the Russian and international revolutionary movement from a critical point of view, Lenin fashioned a coherent doctrine that presents the party as the highest form of revolutionary organization for the working class. “In its struggle for power,” wrote Lenin in 1904, “the proletariat has no other weapon but organization. . . . The proletariat can, and inevitably will, become an invincible force only through its ideological unification on the principles of Marxism being reinforced by the material unity of organization, which welds millions of toilers into an army of the working class. Neither the senile rule of the Russian autocracy nor the senescent rule of international capital will be able to withstand this army” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 403–04).
Lenin created a proletarian party of a new type, which for the first time fused scientific socialism with the mass working-class movement. In contrast to the Social Democratic parties of the West, which called for social reform and parliamentary methods and denied the need for a socialist revolution and a dictatorship of the proletariat—in contrast to the parties of the Second International and their organizational impotence—Lenin built a militant and centralized political party of revolutionary action that was intransigent toward the bourgeoisie, closely bound to the masses, and capable of preparing the proletariat for the conquest of power; it was a party armed with revolutionary theory. “The role of vanguard fighter,” as Lenin pointed out, “can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 25).
Lenin brought the party safely through harsh trials and savage persecution. “We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand,” he wrote. “We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy” (ibid., p. 9). In this struggle the party grew stronger and developed into the leading force of the Russian proletariat.
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution the Communist Party was the only political party in the country, enjoying the total confidence and support of the working masses. The petit bourgeois parties, such as the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR’s), revealed their true antiproletarian and antipopular nature. The politics of compromise led these parties to betray the interests of the working class and of all working people, and ultimately they ended up in the camp of counterrevolution. The CPSU became the ruling party. As Lenin pointed out in 1918, “We, the Bolshevik Party, have convinced Russia. We have won Russia from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. Now we must administer Russia” (ibid., vol. 36, p. 172). “To govern,” taught Lenin, “you need an army of steeled revolutionary Communists. We have it, and it is called the party” (ibid., vol. 42, p. 254).
The CPSU is the leading and guiding force of Soviet society; it is the core of its political system and of all state and public organizations, such as the soviets, the trade unions, the All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League (Komsomol), the unions of creative workers (including artists and writers), and the cultural groups, scientific and technical societies, and sports and defense organizations. Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory, the CPSU defines the general direction to be followed by society in its development and determines the country’s domestic and foreign policy; it guides the gigantic creative efforts of the Soviet people, and it gives to the people’s struggle for the victory of communism its planned and scientifically validated character. “No important political or organizational question is decided by any state institution in our republic without the guidance of the party’s Central Committee,” wrote Lenin (ibid., vol. 41, pp. 30–31).
Guided by the decisions of party congresses, the CPSU determines the course of the country’s economic and social development and the orientation of current and long-range economic plans, subject to approval by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The party provides for implementation of the chief objective of its domestic policy—namely, raising the people’s standard of living and substantially improving the material welfare of the working people.
The party strives to increase the efficiency of socialist production and to achieve an organic fusion between the gains of the scientific and technological revolution and the advantages of the
socialist economic system; it devotes much effort to the recruitment of politically trained personnel in order to strengthen state agencies and public organizations; and it provides leadership in the soviets, economic agencies, trade unions, the Komsomol, and other public organizations through the Communists who work in the organizations, without allowing the functions of the party to be confused with those of other agencies. The party not only gives guiding instructions and directives but also oversees their implementation.
The CPSU is a militant alliance of like-minded Communists. It is engaged in the creative effort of developing and enriching Marxist-Leninist doctrine by drawing on the experience of building socialism and communism in the USSR and the other socialist countries and on the experience of the world communist and workers’ movement. At the same time the party remains irreconcilable toward any manifestations of revisionism or dogmatism, which are profoundly alien to revolutionary theory.
With the establishment of Soviet power in 1917, the CPSU, which was now the ruling party in the Soviet state, was obliged to combat the various anti-Leninist tendencies and deviations within the party—the Trotskyists, right opportunists, and national deviationists, who distracted the party from its pressing political and economic tasks by shifting from advocacy of “revolutionary war against the world bourgeoisie” to a capitulatory position and who asserted that capitalist encirclement precluded the building of socialism in a single country. Failure to crush such tendencies would have made it impossible to build socialism in the USSR.
The CPSU holds high the banner of Marxism-Leninism in the battle against right-wing revisionism and petit bourgeois revolutionism in the world communist movement. While consistently defending the policy of peaceful coexistence between states with differing social systems, the CPSU is intransigent in the struggle against bourgeois ideology. It resolutely opposes anticommunism—the chief ideological and political weapon of imperialism.
The Communist Party is the ideological mentor of the people. It educates the working masses in the spirit of communist consciousness, carries on day-to-day propaganda and agitation work, and guides the media of mass information, including the press, television, and radio. The party strives to have every Communist observe the moral principles of communism, as presented in the Program and Rules of the CPSU, and to instill these principles in the hearts of all the working people.
Ideologically, structurally, and operationally, the CPSU is a consistently internationalist party. It was established as a single party for the proletariat of the entire multinational Russian state. Members of all the nations and nationalities of the USSR are united in the party’s ranks. Proletarian internationalism is the basis of the party’s Leninist national program, embodied in the booming economic growth and cultural flowering of all the Soviet republics and in the formation and development of the one multinational socialist state—the USSR, which is the bulwark of friendship and brotherhood among the Soviet peoples.
Internationalism is one of the underlying principles of the Leninist foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state—a policy that seeks to actively safeguard peace, strengthen international security, and ensure favorable external conditions for building communism in the USSR and defending socialism and the freedom of the peoples. The CPSU follows a consistent policy of consolidating and developing the world socialist system, strengthening friendship among the fraternal socialist countries, and building unity and international solidarity with the workers’ movement in the capitalist countries; it supports the peoples fighting for national liberation and social emancipation, for genuine political and economic independence, and against imperialism and neocolonialism.
The fundamental organizational principles of the CPSU are embodied in the Rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Rules define the norms of party activity, the ways and means of building the party, and the manner in which the
party guides all spheres of governmental, economic, ideological, and social activity. According to the Rules, the guiding principle of the party’s organizational structure is democratic centralism. Democratic centralism means the election of all leading bodies of the party, from the lowest to the highest; periodic reporting by party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; strict party discipline and subordination of the minority to the majority; and unconditional compliance by the lower bodies with the higher bodies’ decisions.
Criticism and self-criticism are practiced on the basis of internal party democracy, and party discipline is strengthened thereby. Any manifestation of factionalism is incompatible with Marxist-Leninist partiinost’ (party spirit). The supreme principle of party leadership dictates a collective leadership as the essential condition for the normal functioning of party organizations, the proper training of cadres, and the promotion of activity and initiative on the part of Communists.
Membership in the CPSU is open to any citizen of the Soviet Union who accepts the Program and the Rules of the party, actively participates in building communism, works in one of the party organizations, carries out the party’s decisions, and pays membership dues. It is the duty of party members to serve as models of the communist attitude toward labor and the fulfillment of one’s public obligations, to be firm and steadfast in implementing party decisions, to explain the party’s policies to the masses, and to take an active part in the country’s political life, in the administration of state affairs, in building up the economy, and in cultural work. Party members have an obligation to master Marxist-Leninist theory and resolutely combat all manifestations of bourgeois ideology, remnants of private-property psychology, religious prejudices, and other vestiges of the past; they must abide by the principles of communist morality, be considerate and attentive to people, actively promote the ideas of socialist internationalism and Soviet patriotism among the masses of the working people, and strengthen party unity by all possible means. Members of the party are expected to be truthful and honest with the party and the people, to practice criticism and self-criticism, to observe party and state discipline, which is equally binding on all party members, to display vigilance, and to help strengthen the defensive might of the USSR in every possible way.
A party member has the right to elect and be elected to party bodies; to speak freely on party policy and practical issues at party meetings, conferences, and congresses, at meetings of party committees, and in the party press; to submit proposals and openly express and defend his opinion as long as the party organization concerned has not adopted a decision; and to criticize any Communist, regardless of the latter’s position, at party meetings, conferences, and congresses, as well as at plenary meetings of party committees.
Applicants are admitted to party membership on an exclusively individual basis. Membership in the party is open to individuals devoted to the communist cause—politically conscious and active workers, peasants, and members of the intelligentsia. All persons joining the party must go through a one-year probationary period as candidate members. The minimum age for party membership is 18. Young people aged 18 through 23 may join the party only through the Komsomol.
A party member or candidate member who fails to fulfill his duties under the Rules or who commits other offenses shall be called to account and may be subjected to penalties. The highest party penalty is expulsion from the party.
The CPSU is organized on the territorial-and-production principle; the party’s primary organizations, which are established wherever Communists are employed, are grouped together territorially—for example, in raion organizations and city organizations. The highest leadership body of a party organization is its general meeting (in the case of primary organizations), conference (in the case of city, raion, okrug, oblast, and krai organizations), or congress (in the case of the Communist parties of Union republics and the CPSU). The general meeting, conference, or congress elects a bureau or committee, which acts as its executive body and directs all the ongoing work of the party organization. The election of party bodies is by secret ballot. (Figures 1–5 show the structure of various levels of the party.)
The supreme body of the CPSU is the party congress. The congress elects the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission. Congresses are convened at least once every five years. Between congresses the Central Committee of the CPSU directs all the work of the party. The Central Committee elects the Politburo to direct the work of the party between plenums of the Central Committee, and it elects the Secretariat to direct day-to-day work, consisting chiefly of the selection of personnel and verification of the fulfillment of party decisions. The Central Committee elects its general secretary and organizes the Committee of Party Control under its own direction.
The local party organizations are integral parts of a single party—the CPSU; they cover the entire territory of the USSR. Within their territorial boundaries, the local organizations carry out the party’s policies, providing for implementation of the directives of the party’s higher bodies.
The primary organizations are the basis of the party. They are established at all workplaces—for example, plants and factories, sovkhozes and other state enterprises, kolkhozes, units of the Soviet Army, offices, and educational institutions—where there are at least three party members. Primary organizations may also be established on the residential principle—in rural areas or in the housing maintenance offices of residential buildings.
The party’s primary organizations admit new members to the CPSU and educate Communists in the spirit of loyalty to the party’s cause and commitment to communist ideology and morality; they organize the study of Marxist-Leninist theory by Communists and conduct political education and propaganda work among the masses. The primary organizations strive to enhance the vanguard role of Communists in the sphere of labor and in social, political, and economic activities; they organize the working people to accomplish the current tasks of communist construction; they head the socialist competition movement and seek to strengthen labor discipline, to promote a steady rise in labor productivity, and to improve the quality of production. The primary organizations use extensive criticism and self-criticism to combat instances of bureaucratism, parochialism, violations of state discipline, and other shortcomings.
In the early 1970’s, party members were issued new membership books, which stimulated greater activity on the part of Communists and party organizations to carry out the tasks of communist construction and strengthen party discipline.
The party’s primary organizations in industry, transport, communications, construction, material and technical supply, trade, public catering, community and domestic services, kolkhozes and sovkhozes, other agricultural enterprises, planning and design bureaus, research institutes, and educational, cultural, and medical institutions have the right to control the work of their respective administrations.
Party organizations at ministries, state committees, and other central and local government or economic agencies and departments exercise control over the work of the apparatus with respect to implementation of party and government directives and compliance with Soviet laws. They must actively promote improvement in the work of the apparatus, cultivate a high sense of responsibility among apparatus personnel toward their assigned work, institute measures to strengthen state discipline and improve services to the population, firmly combat bureaucratism and red tape, and give timely notice to the appropriate party bodies about shortcomings in the work of the respective offices and officials, regardless of what positions the latter may occupy. Guidance of party work in the armed forces is exercised by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which functions as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
The All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League, or Komsomol, working under the guidance of the CPSU, actively helps the party and serves as the party’s reserve contingent.
As of March 1981, the CPSU consisted of 17,480,000 Communists. They belonged to 14 Communist parties of the Union republics and to 6 krai, 148 oblast, 10 okrug, 822 city, 576 urban raion, 2,851 rural raion, and 394,000 primary party organizations.
| Table 1. Number of members in the CPSU (as of January 1 of each year) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Members | Candidate members | Total | |
| 1October | |||
| 19171 ............... | 350,000 | none | 350,000 |
| 1927 ............... | 786,288 | 426,217 | 1,212,505 |
| 1937 ............... | 1,453,828 | 527,869 | 1,981,697 |
| 1941 ............... | 2,490,479 | 1,381,986 | 3,872,465 |
| 1945 ............... | 3,965,530 | 1,794,839 | 5,760,369 |
| 1950 ............... | 5,510,787 | 829,396 | 6,340,183 |
| 1955 ............... | 6,610,238 | 346,867 | 6,957,105 |
| 1960 ............... | 8,017,249 | 691,418 | 8,708,667 |
| 1965 ............... | 10,811,443 | 946,726 | 11,758,169 |
| 1970 ............... | 13,395,253 | 616,531 | 14,011,784 |
| 1977 ............... | 15,365,600 | 628,876 | 15,994,476 |
| 1981 ............... | 16,732,408 | 698,005 | 17,430,413 |
Party membership for various years, beginning in 1917, is shown in Table 1.
Table 2 shows the social composition of the CPSU as of Jan. 1, 1977. As the table indicates, the greater number of party members are workers or peasants. Of the office and other employees belonging to the party, almost three-quarters are members of the intelligentsia—that is, white-collar workers and specialists in various fields of knowledge.
Of the 7,924,000 specialists with higher education or specialized secondary education (constituting 49.5 percent of the total), 22,598 have doctoral degrees, and 177,329 hold the degree of candidate of sciences. The party includes 3,947,616 women members.
| Table 2. Social composition of the CPSU (in percent, as of Jan. 1, 1981) | |
|---|---|
| Workers ............... | 43.4 |
| Peasants (collective farmers) ............... | 12.8 |
| Office workers and others ............... | 43.8 |
| Total ............... | 100 |
In the academic year 1976–77, some 20 million persons were enrolled in the party education system. Leading party and state cadres attend the Academy of Social Sciences Attached to the Central Committee of the CPSU as well as the Central Committee’s Higher Party School and Higher Party Correspondence School. The system also includes 13 higher party schools operating at the Union republic and interoblast levels and 20 soviet-and-party schools.
The Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the CPSU is the party’s center of scholarship and research and has branches in the Union republics.
The financial resources of the party and its organizations consist of membership dues and income from party enterprises and other sources.
The CPSU is engaged in a broad range of publishing activities. The newspaper Pravda has been the press organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1912. In addition, the Central Committee publishes several newspapers—such as Sovetskaia Rossiia (since 1956), Sotsialisticheskaia industriia (since 1969), Sel’skaia zhizn’ (since 1929), and Sovetskaia kul’tura (since 1953)—and the weekly newspaper Ekonomicheskaia gazeta (since 1918). Kommunist has been the theoretical and political magazine of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1924. Other magazines published by the Central Committee are Agitator (since 1923), Partiinaia zhizn’ (since 1919), and Politicheskoe samoobrazovanie (since 1957). The Pravda Publishing House, the Political Literature Publishing House (Politizdat), and Plakat, which publishes posters, are under the jurisdiction of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Similarly, the central committees of the Communist parties of the Union republics operate their own publishing enterprises.
First Congress of the RSDLP. The First Congress of the RSDLP was held in Minsk on Mar. 1–3 (13–15), 1898. It was attended by nine delegates from six organizations—one delegate each from the Leagues of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ekaterinoslav, and Kiev; two delegates from the newspaper Rabochaia gazeta in Kiev; and three delegates from the Bund. The congress announced the formation of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), elected the party’s Central Committee, consisting of three members, and instructed the Central Committee to issue a manifesto in the name of the party. Because of the arrest of the members of the Central Committee shortly after the congress, the committee was unable to continue its work and in effect ceased to exist.
Second Congress of the RSDLP. The Second Congress of the RSDLP was held in Brussels and London from July 17 to Aug. 10 (July 30–Aug. 23), 1903. It was attended by 43 voting delegates with 51 votes and 14 delegates with observer status. Among the 26 organizations represented at the congress were the Iskra organization, the League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy Abroad, the Liberation of Labor, the Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad, the Central Committee of the Bund, the Bund Committee Abroad, the luzhnyi rabochii group, 14 local committees, four Social Democratic unions, and the St. Petersburg Workers’ Organization (an Economist group).
The agenda of the congress consisted of (1) the constitution of the congress, election of bureaus, adoption of the rules and agenda of the congress, report of the Organizing Committee, and election of a credentials committee to determine the composition of the congress; (2) the place of the Bund in the RSDLP; (3) the party program; (4) the central organ of the party; (5) delegates’ reports; (6) party organization; (7) regional and national organizations; (8) separate groups within the party; (9) the national question; (10) the economic struggle and the trade union movement; (11) May Day celebration; (12) the International Socialist Congress of 1904 in Amsterdam; (13) demonstrations and uprisings; (14) terrorism; (15) internal questions of party work—(a) propaganda, (b) agitation, (c) production of party literature, (d) organization of work among the peasants, (e) organization of work in the army, (f) organization of work among students, and (g) organization of work among members of sectarian groups; (16) attitude of the RSDLP toward the SR’s; (17) attitude of the RSDLP toward the Russian liberal movements; (18) election of the Central Committee and of the editorial board of the party’s central organ; (19) election of the Party Council; and (20) procedures for disseminating the resolutions and protocols of the congress and procedures for the assumption and discharge of duties on the part of elected individuals and institutions. The question of the party’s Rules was discussed under point 6 of the agenda.
Third Congress of the RSDLP. The Third Congress of the RSDLP was held in London from Apr. 12 to Apr. 27 (Apr. 25–May 10), 1905. It was attended by 24 voting delegates and 14 delegates with observer status. The agenda consisted of (1) the report of the Organizing Committee; (2) the tactical questions of armed uprising, attitude toward the government’s policies before and during the revolution, and attitude toward the peasant movement; (3) organizational questions—(a) relations between the workers and the intelligentsia in the party organizations and (b) the Rules of the party; (4) attitude toward other parties and currents—namely, toward the group that had split off from the RSDLP, toward the national Social Democratic organizations, and toward the liberals—and the question of practical agreements with the SR’s; (5) internal issues, propaganda, and agitation; (6) delegates’ reports, report of the Central Committee, and reports of local committee delegates; and (7) elections and procedural questions with respect to dissemination of the resolutions and protocols of the congress and the assumption of official duties by those duly authorized.
Conference of Social Democratic Organizations in Russia. Held in Riga from Sept. 7 to Sept. 9 (20–22), 1905, the Conference of Social Democratic Organizations in Russia was called by the Central Committee of the RSDLP to work out tactics with respect to the State Duma. The conference was attended by representatives of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, the Menshevik Organizational Commission, the Bund, the Social Democratic parties of Latvia and Poland, and the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party.
First Conference of the RSDLP. The First Conference of the RSDLP was held in Tammerfors, Finland, from Dec. 12 to Dec. 17 (Dec. 25–30), 1905. It was attended by 41 delegates. The agenda consisted of (1) local reports, (2) report on the current situation, (3) organizational report of the Central Committee, (4) discussion on unification of the two sections of the RSDLP, (5) reorganization of the party, (6) the agrarian question, and (7) the State Duma.
Fourth (Unity) Congress of the RSDLP. The Fourth, or Unity, Congress of the RSDLP was held in Stockholm from Apr. 10 to Apr. 25 (Apr. 23–May 8), 1906. It was attended by 112 voting delegates from 57 local organizations of the RSDLP and 22 delegates with observer status; in addition, various national Social Democratic parties were represented by delegates with observer status—namely, three delegates from the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, three from the Bund, three from the Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party, and one each from the Ukrainian, Finnish, and Bulgarian Social Democratic parties. Among others who attended the congress were G. V. Plekhanov and P. B. Aksel’rod.
The agenda consisted of (1) review of the agrarian program; (2) current situation; (3) tactics with regard to the outcome of elections to the State Duma and with regard to the Duma itself; (4) armed uprising; (5) partisan actions; (6) provisional revolutionary government and revolutionary self-government; (7) attitude toward the soviets of workers’ deputies; (8) trade unions; (9) attitude toward the peasant movement; (10) attitude toward other than Social Democratic parties and organizations; (11) attitude toward the demand for a special constituent assembly for Poland in connection with the question of nationalities in the party program; (12) party organization; (13) unification with national Social Democratic organizations (Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the Bund); (14) reports; and (15) elections.
Second (First All-Russian) Conference of the RSDLP. The Second, or First All-Russian, Conference of the RSDLP was held in Tammerfors, Finland, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 7 (Nov. 16–20), 1906. It was attended by 32 delegates and by members of the Central Committee and of the editorial board of the central organ, who had observer status. The agenda consisted of (1) the election campaign, (2) the party congress, (3) the workers’ congress, (4) the struggle against the Black Hundreds and against pogroms, and (5) partisan actions.
Fifth (London) Congress of the RSDLP. The Fifth, or London, Congress of the RSDLP was held in London from Apr. 30 to May 19 (May 13–June 1), 1907. It was attended by 303 voting delegates and 39 delegates with observer status. Among the voting delegates were 177 members of the RSDLP (including 89 Bolsheviks), 45 from the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, 26 from the Social Democracy of the Latvian Territory, and 55 from the Bund.
The agenda consisted of (1) report of the Central Committee, (2) report of the Duma group and discussion of its organization, (3) attitude toward the bourgeois parties, (4) the State Duma, (5) workers’ congress and nonparty workers’ organizations, (6) trade unions and the party, (7) partisan actions, (8) unemployment, the economic crisis, and lockouts, (9) organizational questions, (10) international congress in Stuttgart, (11) work in the army, and (12) miscellaneous matters.
Third (Second All-Russian) Conference of the RSDLP. The Third, or Second All-Russian, Conference of the RSDLP was held in Kotka, Finland, on July 21–23 (Aug. 3–5), 1907. It was attended by 26 delegates—nine Bolsheviks, five Mensheviks, five Polish Social Democrats, five Bundists, and two Latvian Social Democrats. The purpose of the conference was to discuss tactical questions in connection with the disbanding of the Second State Duma (the counterrevolutionary coup d’etat of June 3) and the convocation of the Third State Duma.
Fourth (Third All-Russian) Conference of the RSDLP. The Fourth, or Third All-Russian, Conference of the RSDLP was held in Helsinki from Nov. 5 to Nov. 12 (Nov. 18–25), 1907. It was attended by 27 delegates—ten Bolsheviks, four Mensheviks, five Polish Social Democrats, five Bundists, and three Latvian Social Democrats. The agenda included discussion of the tactics to be used by the Social Democratic faction in the Duma, the question of factional centers and of strengthening the ties between the Central Committee and local organizations, and the question of writing for the bourgeois press.
Fifth Conference of the RSDLP (All-Russian Conference of 1908). The Fifth (All-Russian) Conference of the RSDLP was held in Paris from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27, 1908 (Jan. 3–9, 1909). It was attended by 16 voting delegates—five Bolsheviks, three Mensheviks, five Polish Social Democrats, and three Bundists. The agenda consisted of (1) reports by the Central Committee of the RSDLP, the Central Committee of the Polish Social Democratic party, the Central Committee of the Bund, the St. Petersburg and Moscow organizations, and the organizations of the Central Industrial Region, the Urals, and the Caucasus; (2) the current political situation and the party’s tasks; (3) the Social Democratic faction in the Duma; (4) organizational questions related to the changed political situation; (5) unification with local national organizations; and (6) activities abroad.
Sixth (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP. The Sixth, or Prague, All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP was held in Prague from Jan. 5 to Jan. 17 (Jan. 18–30), 1912. More than 20 party organizations, or almost all the organizations active in Russia, were represented at the conference, which therefore assumed the importance of a party congress. Among those attending with observer status were representatives from the editorial staff of the party’s central organ, from the editorial staff of the newspaper Rabochaia gazeta, and from the Foreign Organization Committee of the RSDLP.
The items on the agenda were (1) reports, including reports from the Russian Organizational Commission, from local groups, and from the party’s central organ; (2) the constitution of the conference; (3) the current situation and the tasks facing the party; (4) elections to the Fourth State Duma; (5) the Duma faction; (6) state insurance for workers; (7) the strike movement and the trade unions (this item was subsequently combined with the one on organizational questions, and a resolution was passed covering both items—On the Nature and Organizational Forms of Party Work); (8) the “petition campaign”; (9) Liquidationism; (10) tasks facing Social Democrats in the struggle against famine; (11) party literature; (12) organizational questions; (13) party work abroad; (14) elections; and (15) miscellaneous matters.
Conference of RSDLP Sections Abroad. Held in Bern from Feb. 14 to Feb. 19 (Feb. 27–Mar. 4), 1915, the Conference of RSDLP Sections Abroad was attended by representatives of the Party’s Central Committee and central organ and by delegates from the Social Democratic women’s organization, from the party’s Paris, Zürich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, and London sections, and from the Baugy group. The items on the agenda were (1) reports from local groups; (2) the war and the party’s tasks (attitude toward other political groups); (3) the tasks facing organizations abroad (attitude toward joint actions and undertakings by various groups); (4) the central organ and the newspaper; (5) attitude toward the activities of the émigré “colonies”; (6) elections to the Foreign Organization Committee of the RSDLP; and (7) miscellaneous matters.
Seventh (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP(B). The Seventh, or April, All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP(B) was held in Petrograd from Apr. 24 to Apr. 29 (May 7–12), 1917. It was attended by 133 voting delegates and 18 delegates with observer status, representing 80,000 party members. The agenda consisted of (1) the current situation (including the question of the war and the Provisional Government), (2) the peace conference, (3) attitude toward the soviets of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies, (4) revision of the party program, (5) the situation in the International and the party’s tasks, (6) unification of the internationalist Social Democratic organizations, (7) the agrarian question, (8) the national question, (9) the Constituent Assembly, (10) organizational questions, (11) regional reports, and (12) election of a new Central Committee.
Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(B). The Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(B) was held in Petrograd from July 26 to Aug. 3 (Aug. 8–16), 1917. It was attended by 157 voting delegates and 110 delegates with observer status, representing approximately 240,000 party members. The agenda consisted of (1) report of the Organizational Bureau; (2) report of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(B); (3) reports from local groups; (4) the current situation—(a) the war and the international situation and (b) the political and economic situation; (5) revision of the party program; (6) organizational questions; (7) elections to the Constituent Assembly; (8) the International; (9) unification of the party; (10) the trade union movement; (11) elections; and (12) miscellaneous matters. A resolution on the youth leagues was adopted as well. In addition, the congress discussed a report on Lenin’s failure to appear before a court of the bourgeois Provisional Government.
Seventh Congress of the RCP(B). The Seventh Congress of the RCP(B), held in Petrograd from Mar. 6 to Mar. 8, 1918, was called as an extraordinary congress to decide the question of Soviet Russia’s withdrawal from the imperialist war. The congress was attended by 47 voting delegates and 59 delegates with observer status. The agenda consisted of (1) report of the Central Committee, (2) the question of war and peace, (3) revision of the party program and renaming of the party, (4) organizational questions, and (5) election of a new Central Committee.
Eighth Congress of the RCP(B). Held in Moscow from Mar. 18 to Mar. 23, 1919, the Eighth Congress of the RCP(B) was attended by 301 voting delegates, representing 313,766 members of the party, and 102 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) report of the Central Committee, (2) the program of the RCP(B), (3) establishment of the Communist International, or Comintern, (4) the military situation and military policy, (5) work in the rural areas, (6) organizational questions, and (7) election of a new Central Committee.
Eighth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B). The Eighth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B) was held in Moscow on Dec. 2–4, 1919. It was attended by 45 voting delegates and 73 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) political and organizational report of the Central Committee, (2) the international situation, (3) the agenda of the Seventh All-Russian Congress of Soviets, (4) Soviet power in the Ukraine, (5) the Rules of the party, (6) discussion about working with new party members admitted during Party Week, and (7) the fuel crisis.
Ninth Congress of the RCP(B). The Ninth Congress of the RCP(B), held in Moscow from Mar. 29 to Apr. 5, 1920, was attended by 554 voting delegates, representing 611,978 party members, and 162 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) report of the Central Committee, (2) immediate tasks of economic construction, (3) the trade union movement, (4) the tasks of the Comintern, (5) organizational questions, (6) attitude toward the cooperatives, (7) transition to the militia system, and (8) election of a new Central Committee.
Ninth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B). The Ninth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B), held in Moscow from Sept. 22 to Sept. 25, 1920, was attended by 116 voting delegates and 125 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) report by the Polish Communists’ representative, (2) political report of the Central Committee, (3) organizational report of the Central Committee, (4) immediate tasks of building up the party, and (5) report on the Second Congress of the Comintern.
Tenth Congress of the RCP(B). The Tenth Congress of the RCP(B) was held in Moscow from Mar. 8 to Mar. 16, 1921. It was attended by 694 voting delegates, representing 732,521 party members, and 296 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) political and organizational report of the Central Committee and report of the Central Control Commission, (2) the Glavpolitprosvet and the party’s propaganda and agitation work, (3) the national question, (4) the trade unions and their role in the national economy, (5) the problem of building up the party, (6) the replacement of surplus grain requisitions with a tax in kind, (7) the capitalist encirclement of Soviet Russia, (8) report by the representatives of the RCP(B) in the Comintern, (9) the question of party unity and of the anarchosyndicalist deviation, and (10) election of the party’s governing bodies.
Tenth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B). Held in Moscow from May 26 to May 28, 1921, the Tenth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B) was attended by 239 delegates. The items on the agenda were (1) economic policy—(a) the tax in kind, (b) the cooperatives, (c) financial reform, and (d) small industry; (2) the role of the SR’s and Mensheviks at the moment; and (3) the Third Congress of the Comintern. In addition, the conference heard informational reports on the work of the Communist faction at the Fourth Congress of Trade Unions and on the immediate organizational tasks facing the party.
Eleventh All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B). The Eleventh All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B) was held in Moscow from Dec. 19 to Dec. 22, 1921. It was attended by 125 voting delegates and 116 delegates with observer status. The agenda consisted of (1) the party’s immediate tasks for the restoration of the economy, (2) industry, (3) agriculture, (4) cooperatives, (5) preliminary results of the party purge, and (6) questions related to the Comintern.
Eleventh Congress of the RCP(B). Held in Moscow from Mar. 27 to Apr. 2, 1922, the Eleventh Congress of the RCP(B) was attended by 522 voting delegates, representing 532,000 party members, and 165 delegates with observer status. The items on the agenda were (1) political report of the Central Committee, (2) organizational report of the Central Committee, (3) report of the Auditing Commission, (4) report of the Central Control Commission, (5) report of the party’s delegation in the Comintern, (6) the trade unions, (7) the Red Army, (8) financial policy, (9) results of the party purge and the consequent strengthening of its ranks with supplementary reports on youth work, the press, and propaganda, and (10) election of a new Central Committee and Central Control Commission.
Twelfth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B). The Twelfth All-Russian Conference of the RCP(B), held in Moscow from Aug. 4 to Aug. 7, 1922, was attended by 129 voting delegates and 92 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) the international situation, (2) the trade unions, (3) party work in the cooperatives, (4) anti-Soviet parties and tendencies, (5) the work of the section on the party’s Rules, (6) improvement of material provisions for party members, and (7) the Fourth Congress of the Comintern.
Twelfth Congress of the RCP(B). The Twelfth Congress of the RCP(B) was held in Moscow from Apr. 17 to Apr. 25, 1923. It was attended by 408 voting delegates, representing 386,000 party members, and 417 delegates with observer status. The agenda consisted of (1) report of the Central Committee—(a) political report and (b) organizational report; (2) report of the Auditing Commission; (3) report of the Central Control Commission; (4) report of the Russian representatives on the Executive Committee of the Comintern; (5) industry; (6) national aspects of the work of building the party and the state; (7) tax policy in the rural areas; (8) regionalization; and (9) election of central bodies.
Thirteenth Conference of the RCP(B). The Thirteenth Conference of the RCP(B) was held in Moscow from Jan. 16 to Jan. 18, 1924. It was attended by 128 voting delegates and 222 delegates with observer status. The items on the agenda were (1) the immediate tasks of economic policy, (2) building up the party, and (3) the international situation. In addition, the conference passed a resolution on the results of the debate and on the petit bourgeois deviation in the party as well as a resolution welcoming Pravda as the party’s central organ.
Thirteenth Congress of the RCP(B). The Thirteenth Congress of the RCP(B) was heldin Moscow from May 23 to May 31, 1924. It was attended by 748 voting delegates, representing 735,881 party members and candidate members, and 416 delegates with observer status. The items on the agenda were (1) the right of candidate members of the RCP to vote in the elections to the Thirteenth Congress; (2) political report of the Central Committee; (3) organizational report of the Central Committee; (4) report of the Central Auditing Commission; (5) report of the Central Control Commission; (6) report of the representatives of the RCP on the Executive Committee of the Comintern; (7) domestic trade and the cooperatives—(a) commodity turnover and planning and (b) the cooperatives; (8) work in the rural areas; (9) party organization; (10) youth work; (11) report on the manuscripts of Marx and Engels; (12) report on the work of the Lenin Institute; and (13) election of the party’s central bodies.
Fourteenth Conference of the RCP(B). Held in Moscow from Apr. 27 to Apr. 29, 1925, the Fourteenth Conference of the RCP(B) was attended by 178 voting delegates and 392 delegates with observer status. The agenda was (1) party organizational questions, (2) the cooperatives, (3) the agricultural tax, (4) the metalworking industry, (5) the enlarged plenum of the Comintern’s Executive Committee, and (6) revolutionary legality.
Fourteenth Congress of the ACP(B). The Fourteenth Congress of the ACP(B) was held in Moscow from Dec. 18 to Dec. 31, 1925. It was attended by 665 voting delegates and 641 delegates with observer status, representing 643,000 party members and 445,000 candidate members. The agenda was (1) political report of the Central Committee, (2) organizational report of the Central Committee, (3) report of the Central Auditing Commission, (4) report of the Central Control Commission, (5) report of the representatives of the RCP(B) on the Comintern’s Executive Committee, (6) current economic problems, (7) trade union activities, (8) Komsomol activities, (9) changes in the party’s Rules, and (10) election of the party’s central bodies.
Fifteenth Conference of the ACP(B). The Fifteenth Conference of the ACP(B), held in Moscow from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, 1926, was attended by 194 voting delegates and 640 delegates with observer status. On the agenda were (1) the international situation, (2) the national economy and the party’s tasks, (3) the achievements and current tasks of the trade unions, and (4) the opposition and the internal situation in the party.
Fifteenth Congress of the ACP(B). The Fifteenth Congress of the ACP(B) was held in Moscow from Dec. 2 to Dec. 19, 1927. It was attended by 898 voting delegates and 771 delegates with observer status, representing 887,233 party members and 348,957 candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the Central Committee, (2) report of the Central Auditing Commission, (3) report of the Central Control Commission and the People’s Commissariat for Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, (4) report of the party’s delegation to the Comintern, (5) directives for drawing up the five-year plan for development of the national economy, (6) work in the rural areas, and (7) election of central bodies.
Sixteenth Conference of the ACP(B). The Sixteenth Conference of the ACP(B), held in Moscow from Apr. 23 to Apr. 29, 1929, was attended by 254 voting delegates and 679 delegates with observer status. On the agenda were (1) the five-year plan for development of the national economy, (2) ways of raising agricultural production and easing the tax burden on the middle peasant, (3) results and immediate tasks of the struggle against bureaucratism, and (4) the party purge and verification of members and candidate members of the ACP(B). In addition, the conference heard a report on the joint April plenum of the party’s Central Committee and Central Control Commission.
Sixteenth Congress of the ACP(B). The Sixteenth Congress of the ACP(B) was held in Moscow from June 26 to July 13, 1930. It was attended by 1,268 voting delegates and 891 delegates with observer status, representing 1,260,874 party members and 711,609 candidate members. The agenda was (1) political report of the Central Committee, (2) organizational report of the Central Committee, (3) report of the Central Auditing Commission, (4) report of the Central Control Commission, (5) report of the party’s delegation to the Executive Committee of the Comintern, (6) fulfillment of the five-year plan for industry, (7) the kolkhoz movement and the improvement of agriculture, (8) the tasks of the trade unions in the period of reconstruction, and (9) election of the party’s central bodies.
Seventeenth Conference of the ACP(B). Held in Moscow from Jan. 30 to Feb. 4, 1932, the Seventeenth Conference of the ACP(B) was attended by 386 voting delegates and 525 delegates with observer status. On the agenda were (1) results achieved in industrial development during 1931 and tasks for 1932 and (2) directives for drafting the second five-year plan (1933–37) for the national economy of the USSR.
Seventeenth Congress of the ACP(B). The Seventeenth Congress of the ACP(B) was held in Moscow from Jan. 26 to Feb. 10, 1934. It was attended by 1,225 voting delegates and 736 delegates with observer status, representing 1,872,488 party members and 935,298 candidate members. On the agenda were (1) reports of the party’s Central Committee and Central Auditing Commission, joint report of the Central Control Commission and People’s Commissariat for Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, and report of the party’s delegation to the Comintern’s Executive Committee; (2) the second five-year plan; (3) organization of the party and the soviets; and (4) election of the party’s central bodies.
Eighteenth Congress of the ACP(B). The Eighteenth Congress of the ACP(B) was held in Moscow from Mar. 10 to Mar. 21, 1939. It was attended by 1,569 voting delegates and 466 delegates with observer status, representing 1,588,852 party members and 888,814 candidate members. On the agenda were (1) reports of the party’s Central Committee, Central Auditing Commission, and delegation to the Comintern’s Executive Committee; (2) the third five-year plan (1938–42) for the development of the national economy of the USSR; (3) changes in the Rules of the ACP(B); (4) election of a commission to change the party program; and (5) election of the party’s central bodies.
Eighteenth Conference of the ACP(B). The Eighteenth Conference of the ACP(B), held in Moscow from Feb. 15 to Feb. 20, 1941, was attended by 456 voting delegates and 138 delegates with observer status. On the agenda were (1) the tasks of party organizations in industry and transport, (2) economic accomplishments of 1940 and the economic development plan for 1941, and (3) organizational questions.
Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU. The Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Oct. 5 to Oct. 14, 1952. It was attended by 1,192 voting delegates and 167 delegates with observer status, representing 6,013,259 party members and 868,886 candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the Central Committee of the ACP(B), (2) report of the Central Auditing Commission of the ACP(B), (3) directives of the party’s Nineteenth Congress with regard to the fifth five-year plan (1951–55) for the development of the national economy of the USSR, (4) changes in the Rules of the ACP(B), and (5) election of the party’s central bodies.
Twentieth Congress of the CPSU. The Twentieth Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Feb. 14 to Feb. 25, 1956. It was attended by 1,349 voting delegates and 81 delegates with observer status, representing 7,215,505 party members and candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the Central Committee of the CPSU, (2) report of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU, (3) directives of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU with regard to the sixth five-year plan (1956–60) for the development of the national economy of the USSR, and (4) election of the party’s central bodies. At a closed session, the congress heard the report “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” and passed a resolution on the subject.
Twenty-first (Extraordinary) Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-first, or Extraordinary, Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5, 1959. It was attended by 1,261 voting delegates and 106 delegates with observer status, representing 8,239,131 party members and candidate members. The agenda included examination of the target figures for the development of the national economy of the USSR for the years 1959–65.
Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Oct. 17 to Oct. 31, 1961. It was attended by 4,394 voting delegates and 405 delegates with observer status, representing 9,716,005 party members and candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the party’s Central Committee, (2) report of the party’s Central Auditing Commission, (3) proposed program of the CPSU, (4) changes in the Rules of the CPSU, and (5) election of the party’s central bodies. In addition, the congress adopted the resolution “On the Mausoleum of Vladimir Il’ich Lenin.”
Twenty-third Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-third Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Mar. 29 to Apr. 8,1966. It was attended by 4,619 voting delegates and 323 delegates with observer status, representing 12,471,079 party members and candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the party’s Central Committee, (2) report of the party’s Central Auditing Commission, (3) directives of the party’s Twenty-third Congress with regard to the five-year plan for 1966–70 for the development of the national economy of the USSR, and (4) election of the party’s central bodies. In addition, the congress adopted a declaration with respect to the United States’ aggression in Vietnam.
Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Mar. 30 to Apr. 9, 1971. Of the elected delegates, 4,740 were voting delegates and 223 had observer status; they represented 13,810,089 party members and 645,232 candidate members. The agenda was (1) report of the party’s Central Committee, (2) report of the party’s Central Auditing Commission, (3) directives of the party’s Twenty-fourth Congress with regard to the five-year plan for 1971–75 for the development of the national economy of the USSR, and (4) election of the party’s central bodies.
Twenty-fifth Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-fifth Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Feb. 24 to Mar. 5, 1976. Elected to the congress were 4,998 delegates, representing 15,058,017 party members. The agenda was (1) report of the party’s Central Committee and the immediate tasks of the party in domestic and foreign policy (delivered by L. I. Brezhnev), (2) report of the party’s Central Auditing Commission (delivered by G. F. Sizov), (3) report on the guidelines for the development of the national economy of the USSR for the period 1976–80 (delivered by A. N. Kosygin), and (4) election of the party’s central bodies.
Twenty-sixth Congress of the CPSU. The Twenty-sixth Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow from Feb. 23 to Mar. 3, 1981. Elected to the congress were 5,002 delegates representing 17,480,000 Communists. The agenda included (1) report of the party’s Central Committee and the immediate tasks of the party in domestic and foreign policy (delivered by L. I. Brezhnev), (2) report of the party’s Central Auditing Commission (delivered by G. F. Sizov), (3) report on the guidelines for the economic and social development of the USSR for 1981–85 and for the period ending in 1990 (delivered by N. A. Tikhonov), and (4) election of the party’s central bodies.
The composition of the congress was a follows: 1,370 workers from industry; 877 agricultural workers; 609 representatives of economic management, including 358 directors of production associations, combines, enterprises, and construction projects; 269 scientists, writers, artists, doctors, teachers, actors, and other representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia, including 118 academicians and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, of its branches, or of academies of sciences of the Union republics; 12 cosmonauts; 1,077 party workers, including 589 secretaries of okrug, city, and raion party committees; more than 550 secretaries of primary and shop organizations and leaders of party groups; and 691 soviet, trade union, and Komsomol staff workers. More than two-thirds of the delegates were deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR or of supreme soviets of Union or autonomous republics.
Of the delegates to the Twenty-sixth Congress, 1,329, or 26.6 percent, were women. Sixty-six nations and nationalities of the USSR were represented at the congress. The percentage of delegates under 35 years of age was 12.2 percent; 50.4 percent were between 35 and 50, 25.7 percent between 51 and 60, and 11.7 percent over 60 years of age. With regard to length of service in the party, 6 delegates had joined before the October Revolution, 264 from November 1917 to 1941,461 during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, and 4,271 in the postwar period, including 1,637 who had been admitted to party membership during the last 15 years.
More than 94 percent of the delegates had completed their higher education, had some higher education, or had completed secondary schooling. The delegates included 498 holders of doctorates or candidate of science degrees. Some 97 percent of the delegates had been awarded orders and medals of the USSR; 57 delegates held the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 670 that of Hero of Socialist Labor. A total of 342 delegates had won the Lenin Prize or the State Prize of the USSR, including 99 workers and kolkhozniks.
The Twenty-sixth Congress of the CPSU comprehensively analyzed the results of the USSR’s development in all spheres of public life, the condition of the party’s organizational, political, ideological, and educational work, and the international situation. The congress approved the guidelines for the economic and social development of the USSR for 1981–85 and for the period ending in 1990. The congress discussed the topical questions of further development of the USSR’s political system and noted that the latter’s profoundly democratic character had been embodied in the new Constitution of the USSR. In view of the fact that 20 years had passed since the Program of the CPSU was adopted, the Twenty-sixth Congress of the party instructed the Central Committee of the CPSU to introduce the necessary amendments and additions into the present program—which, on the whole, correctly mirrors the laws of social development in the world and the aims and fundamental tasks of the party and the Soviet people in building communism—and to redraft the Program of the CPSU by the time of the next congress of the party. In terms of further development of the Peace Program, the congress made important constructive proposals for consolidating détente and international security.
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