XIX Congress of the CPSU (b) - (October 5-14, 1952). Documents and Materials

October 6, (Morning session)

Presiding N.S. Khrushchev.

At the meeting, the report of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b) is heard. Then the congress goes on to discuss the reports of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b).

V.V. Grishin, (Moscow)

Comrades, yesterday we listened with great attention to the remarkable report of Comrade Malenkov, in which the results of the struggle and victories of our party in the period that have elapsed since the 18th party congress are summed up with exhaustiveness, shortcomings in the work are revealed and the tasks of the Communist Party are defined.

The report of the Central Committee equips the Party and the Soviet people with a magnificent program of struggle for the further growth of the power of the Soviet state, for the building of a communist society.

The historic victories with which the party came to its 19th Congress instill pride in the hearts of all working people for our Communist Party and evoke the desire to go forward and forward, overcome any difficulties, tirelessly fight for the further prosperity of the socialist Motherland, for new victories of the great cause of Lenin ‐ Stalin.

(Applause.)

The period between the 18th and 19th Party Congresses is a period of the triumph of the wise policy of the Communist Party, the triumph of the great ideas of Marxism‐Leninism.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, under the leadership of Comrade Stalin, defended the honor, freedom and independence of our Motherland in fierce battles with enemies, liberated the peoples of Europe from fascism, saved mankind from the threat of fascist enslavement.

In peaceful conditions, the Party roused the Soviet people to restore and further develop the national economy and culture. As a result of the early fulfillment of the post‐war five‐year plan, not only the waraffected economy was restored, but also the pre‐war level of development of industry, transport and agriculture was significantly surpassed, the material well‐being and the cultural level of the working people rose even higher.

Our country is now a powerful power, a bulwark of peace and democracy throughout the world, confidently moving along the path of further rapid prosperity.

Today I would like to repeat the wonderful words of Comrade Molotov, who wrote three years ago: “It is now especially clear what great happiness for our Motherland and for the whole cause of communism was that after Lenin, the Communist Party of the USSR was headed by Comrade Stalin, under whose leadership the Soviet Union had been victorious for more than a quarter of a century. is building a communist society ”.

Our entire party, the entire Soviet people express our deepest love, gratitude and boundless gratitude to Comrade Stalin for the fact that he rallied our party and unshakably leads the Soviet people along the path indicated by the great Lenin.

The name of Comrade Stalin is the most precious thing for our people, for ordinary people all over the world. Stalinʹs name is a symbol of the coming victory of communism.

Comrades! The Moscow Party organization, like our entire Party, came to the 19th Congress even stronger, more than ever rallied around the Lenin‐Stalin Central Committee, around our dear comrade Stalin. (Stormy applause.)

Since the 18th Party Congress, the Moscow Party organization has grown significantly, organizationally and ideologically strengthened, further strengthened its ties with the masses, and achieved a further increase in the activity of the working people in the struggle to fulfill the tasks of communist construction.

The number of communists has more than doubled during this time and now amounts to 706 thousand people. The number of primary party organizations increased, especially in the countryside. In 1939, when we had 6,556 collective farms, only 300 collective farms had party organizations, which was 4.5 percent. to their total number. Now, out of 1,419 enlarged collective farms, 1,180, or 85 percent, have Party organizations. collective farms.

The organizational role of party organizations has increased in the fulfillment of economic and political tasks, in the work of the communist education of the working people.

Improvement in organizational and party‐political work contributed to the successful fulfillment of tasks in all areas of economic and cultural development. The industry of Moscow and the region annually overfulfills state plans. The volume of industrial production in 1951 exceeded the level of 1940 almost twice. The tasks for mastering the production of new types of products are being successfully fulfilled, labor productivity is systematically increasing, the quality is increasing, and the cost of production is decreasing, the latest achievements of science and technology are being introduced into production.

Much work has been done to further develop agriculture, the consolidation of collective farms has been carried out and their further organizational and economic strengthening has been achieved. The level of mechanization of all agricultural work has increased significantly.

This year, the regionʹs collective farms have grown a good harvest, as in previous years, they fulfilled the grain procurement plan ahead of schedule, are harvesting potatoes and vegetables, fully provide themselves with seeds, and create the necessary public funds.

Thanks to the day‐to‐day care of the Party, government and Comrade Stalin, a further improvement in the material and cultural well‐being of the working people has been achieved. A striking indicator of the growth in the well‐being of the working people is, in particular, the fact that in recent years 4.5 million square meters of new living space, hundreds of schools, hospitals and other cultural and social institutions have been built in Moscow and the region. 1.300 thousand square meters of new residential space will be built this year.

Along with the successes achieved, there are still many shortcomings in our work. In industry there are many enterprises that do not cope with the fulfillment of production plans, work irregularly, do not use the available opportunities for further growth of production and improvement of quality indicators of work. The struggle for the strictest economy is being waged weakly. In agriculture, a number of collective farms and state farms receive low yields, do not fulfill plans to increase the livestock population and increase its productivity, many collective farms are slowly developing their social economy, and there are frequent cases of violation of the Rules of the agricultural artel.

These shortcomings are mainly explained by the fact that some Party organizations are not sufficiently engaged in the work of enterprises, collective farms, state farms and machine‐tractor stations, have not yet learned how to correctly combine Party work with economic work, they often artificially separate political work from the solution of economic problems, substitute for Soviet and economic bodies. , take upon themselves the solution of minor economic issues, which leads to a weakening of the leadership of party political and economic work.

Comrade Stalin teaches that politics cannot be separated from economics, for in practice politics and economics are inseparable. We are striving to ensure the correct combination of political and economic work, we are taking measures to strengthen Soviet and economic organs, and we are directing the attention of Party organizations to improving political work among the working people.

Following the instructions of the Party that the success of the cause depends on the correct selection and training of cadres, the Moscow Party organization is doing a lot to strengthen the composition of the leading cadres. A large number of comrades who have grown up in practical work and have actually proved their loyalty to the Party and the ability to carry out its policy have been nominated for leading party, Soviet and economic work.

The composition of leading education personnel has improved. At present, 70 percent of the secretaries of city and district party committees have higher education, and the rest have secondary education.

As a rule, the secretaries of the party organizations of enterprises are engineers and technicians who know production and have the skills of party work.

Communists who are more prepared in business and political terms have been promoted to the leadership of collective farm party organizations.

Measures have been taken to strengthen the personnel of collective farms and machine and tractor stations. Recently, 710 specialists and practitioners have been sent to work as chairmen of collective farms. Now, among the chairmen of collective farms, 410 people, or 28 percent, have higher and secondary education, 74 percent of the chairmen of collective farms are communists.

The most trained and experienced comrades have been nominated for work at MTS. This is evidenced by the data on the composition of the MTS leadership personnel in education. At present, MTS directors ‐ 74 percent, deputy directors for political affairs ‐ 60 percent, chief engineers ‐ 99 percent, chief agronomists ‐ 44 percent have higher education.

Improving work on the selection, placement and education of cadres has a positive effect on the activities of Party, Soviet and economic organizations. However, it should be noted that we still have major shortcomings in working with personnel. Some employees make mistakes in the selection of cadres, as a result of which there are cases when random people get into leading positions in party and economic organizations.

The evil of recruiting on the basis of friendship, personal loyalty and kinship has not yet been overcome. Certain leaders of party and economic organizations admit the unsuitable practice of covering up failed workers, transferring from one position to another people who cannot cope with the assigned task. There are still workers who deceive the state, violate party and state discipline, thereby causing serious damage to the cause of the party.

The task of the Moscow party organization is to further improve the work with cadres, to strengthen the education of cadres in the spirit of high responsibility for the assigned task, in the spirit of strict observance of party and state discipline.

The immense tasks of communist construction require further improvement of internal Party work, an increase in the fighting efficiency of Party organizations, and the active participation of every communist in the struggle to carry out Party policy. This is facilitated by the improvement in the verification of performance, the widespread deployment of intraparty democracy, criticism and self‐criticism that reveals shortcomings in work, a decisive struggle against delight in success, arrogance and disdain for criticism from below.

Regular holding of plenums, meetings of party activists and meetings of communists in primary party organizations is of paramount importance in the development of inner‐party democracy, criticism and self‐criticism.

It should be admitted that some city and district party committees rarely hold plenums. A number of district committees of the city of Moscow and the cities of the region do not convene meetings of party activists for a long time, some primary party organizations hold party meetings irregularly, which deprives the communists of the opportunity to express their critical remarks. In some party organizations, the importance of criticism and self‐criticism is still underestimated. Some leading workers not only do not create the necessary conditions for widespread self‐criticism and criticism from below, but, on the contrary, gloss over mistakes and shortcomings, talk a lot about their loyalty to the Party, but in fact muffle criticism, thereby causing great harm to the cause of the Party.

At some enterprises and institutions in Moscow and the Moscow region, there were cases of clamping down on criticism and reprisals for criticism. On all these facts, measures were taken, silencers of criticism were severely punished. The Moscow party organization will continue to wage an irreconcilable struggle against the suppressors of criticism, strive for a broad development of intra‐party democracy, and educate all communists in the spirit of an irreconcilable attitude towards shortcomings.

Comrades! The Communist Party has always paid great attention to ideological work, improving the work of party propaganda, and the Marxist‐Leninist education of cadres. During the period of the gradual transition of our country from socialism to communism, the role of ideological work increases even more.

In the postwar years, the Party Central Committee adopted a number of important decisions on ideological issues. Comrade Stalinʹs work ʺMarxism and Questions of Linguisticsʺ is an invaluable contribution to the treasury of Marxism‐Leninism. Comrade Stalinʹs new classic work, The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, published on the eve of the 19th Party Congress, raises Marxist‐Leninist science to a new, higher level, equips the Party and the entire Soviet people with a mighty ideological weapon in the struggle for communism.

The decisions of the Party, the instructions of Comrade Stalin determine the most important tasks of ideological work, outline the ways and means of their implementation, and underline the high responsibility of the Party organizations for the communist education of the working people.

The Moscow party organization is carrying out significant work on the ideological and political education of the leading cadres, all members and candidates of the party. Last academic year, about 550 thousand communists and more than 300 thousand non‐party comrades were involved in the network of party education. Every year the number of party members and candidates studying the ʺShort Course in the History of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviksʺ and other works of the classics of Marxism‐Leninism, philosophy and political economy is growing.

At the same time, it must be said that in many party organizations in Moscow and the Moscow region there is still an underestimation of ideological work, and the propaganda of Marxism‐Leninism is unsatisfactory. There are many examples when the importance of ideological issues is belittled, when they are assigned a secondary role in the general work of party organizations. Many party committees do not delve into the content of party propaganda, struggle weakly against the dogmatic, pedagogical approach to the study of theory, and do not exercise proper control over the political self‐education of cadres. There are also significant shortcomings in lecture propaganda.

The success of party propaganda largely depends on the correct selection and training of propagandists. More than 64 thousand propagandists work in Moscow and the region. Most of them have the necessary theoretical training, experience in advocacy and do a good job with the assigned task. However, many city and district party committees underestimate this work and admit indiscriminate selection of propaganda cadres.

Some party organizations do not show the necessary acuteness in the struggle against shortcomings and errors in ideological work, they are poorly educating communists in the spirit of Bolshevik vigilance, an irreconcilable attitude towards attempts to smuggle in views hostile to Bolshevism.

In his report comrade. Malenkov quite correctly pointed out that insufficient attention was paid to ideological work in the Moscow party organization. Deficiencies in ideological work were severely criticized at the past reporting and election party meetings and conferences. The Moscow Party Committee is clearly and distinctly aware of these shortcomings and is taking measures to eliminate them as quickly as possible, to raise organizational and ideological work to the level of the tasks that the Party puts before us.

Improving ideological work and strengthening the communist education of the working people is the most important task of the Moscow party organization.

Let me assure the 19th Party Congress, our great leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin, that the Moscow Party organization will improve party organizational and ideological work and increase the creative activity of the communists.

The Moscow Party organization was, is and always will be the vanguard of our glorious Communist Party, a reliable support of the Central Committee of the Party, it will rally its ranks even more closely around our great leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

Armed with the historical documents of the 19th Party Congress, headed by the Lenin‐Stalinist Central Committee, headed by the great Stalin, the Moscow party organization, together with the entire party, will tirelessly fight for the achievement of new victories, for the implementation of the majestic program of communist construction.

Long live the great party of Lenin and Stalin, leading the Soviet people to communism!

Long live our brilliant leader, father and teacher, the great Stalin! (Prolonged applause.)