11th Congress

Eleventh Congress of the RCP (b). May-April 1922

Eleventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held in Moscow from March 27 to April 2, 1922, Moscow. 687 delegates from 532,000 party members, and 165 with an advisory vote.

The main task of the congress was to sum up the results of the first year of the implementation of the NEP. In the political report of the Central Committee, Lenin declared that the retreat - concessions to private capitalism - was over, a link with the peasant economy was being established, the alliance between the working class and the peasantry had strengthened, and economic achievements were evident. He put forward a new task: to halt the economic retreat and regroup forces to attack the capitalist elements. The essence of this provision was that the limits of the tolerance of capitalism in the conditions of the transition period were established and tested in practice. The expansion of the framework and possibilities for the development of capitalism in an environment of a multi-structured economy must be stopped. It is necessary to gradually involve the peasant masses in building socialism on the basis of the widespread use of trade and commodity-money relations, i.e., e. to build a new economy together with the entire working peasantry. The question "who will win?" the struggle between socialist and capitalist elements will be decided in favor of socialism. But in order to defeat capitalism, Lenin pointed out, it is necessary to learn how to manage and to prove that the communists know how to manage the economy better than the capitalists. Lenin put forward the slogan "learn to trade" and called on the communists to improve the organization of the management of the national economy, to raise culture. He sharply criticized conceit, glossing over mistakes and shortcomings; stressed the need for the correct selection and placement of personnel, the organization of a systematic verification of performance. The congress approved the political and organizational line of the Central Committee and indicated in the resolution that the concessions made to private capitalism have been exhausted and the next task is to regroup the party forces in order to launch an offensive against the capitalist elements. The resolution pointed out the need for a clearer distinction in the work of party and Soviet bodies, and drew attention to the increased role of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and local Soviets as practical leaders of economic life. Having approved the activities of the representatives of the RCP (B) in the ECCI, the congress fully agreed with the united front tactics pursued by the Comintern.

Great importance was attached to enhancing the role of trade unions under the conditions of NEP. They should become the closest and indispensable employees of state power in all its political and economic activities. In the resolution on financial policy, measures were developed to strengthen the ruble exchange rate, increase state income, stabilize prices, etc. The resolution "On Work in the Countryside" condemned attempts to exert administrative influence on agricultural institutions. cooperation. The main task of Party work in the countryside was to provide practical assistance to the peasantry in increasing agricultural production. production. Much attention at the congress was paid to raising the theoretical and ideological level of the communists, improving the qualitative composition of the party, and strengthening its ranks. The conditions for admission to the party were changed: it was difficult for “filthy proletarian elements” to join its ranks. The congress approved the resolution of the XI All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b) "On the question of strengthening the party, taking into account the experience of checking its personnel." In a resolution on the question of the Red Army, the congress recognized it necessary to continue working to increase its combat capability. The resolution “On the tasks and purposes of the control commissions” was adopted, the “Regulation on control commissions”, “Regulation on the Central Auditing Commission”, “On the question of the RKSM”, “On the press and propaganda”, “On the issue of work among workers and peasant women ". At the last (closed) meeting, a report was heard from the commission created by the congress, which considered the issue of some members of the former "workers' opposition" (A.M. Kollontai, S.P. Medvedev, G.I. Myasnikov, A.G. Shlyapnikov, and others.), which, contrary to the decision of the X Congress of the RCP (b) (1921) on the liquidation of all factions, continued factional activity. On the eve of the congress, they turned to the Comintern with a statement in which they stated their point of view on the situation in the party and the country, and pointed to the party's departure from the interests of the working class. The congress condemned the activities of the former members of the "workers' opposition", expelled the most vicious violators of party discipline from the party, and instructed the Central Committee, in the event of further anti-party behavior by others, to expel them from the party. In his closing remarks, Lenin criticized the speeches of Preobrazhensky, N. Osinsky (V.V. Obolensky), Shlyapnikov and others, who tried to revise the party's line in carrying out the NEP. expelled from the party the most vicious violators of party discipline and instructed the Central Committee, in the event that others manifest anti-party behavior in the future, expel them from the party. In his closing remarks, Lenin criticized the speeches of Preobrazhensky, N. Osinsky (V.V. Obolensky), Shlyapnikov and others, who tried to revise the party's line in carrying out the NEP. expelled from the party the most vicious violators of party discipline and instructed the Central Committee, in the event that others manifest anti-party behavior in the future, expel them from the party. In his closing remarks, Lenin criticized the speeches of Preobrazhensky, N. Osinsky (V.V. Obolensky), Shlyapnikov and others, who tried to revise the party's line in carrying out the NEP.

The 11th Congress was the last one attended by Lenin. At the first meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) elected by the congress, JV Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee.

The XI Party Congress took place a year after the start of the New Economic Policy. This was the first year passed without armed intervention, without attacks on us by the capitalist states.

The replacement of food appropriation by the food tax and the permission of local trade gave an impetus to the restoration of agriculture, and at the same time to raise all the productive forces of the country.

Already in November 1921, at the Second Congress of Political Education, Lenin noted a noticeable improvement in the economic situation of the peasantry. In December of the same year, speaking at the Ninth Congress of Soviets, Lenin cited figures showing the beginning of the restoration of large-scale socialist industry. On the basis of these positive results of the first year of NEP, Lenin announced at a meeting of the communist faction of the All-Russian Congress of Metalworkers on March 6, 1922, that the economic retreat had ended. "Enough, we will not go further back, but we will focus on correctly deploying and grouping forces."

The party began to fulfill the main task of NEP: building the foundation of the socialist economy.

In order to build such a foundation, it was necessary to create a large-scale industry, for "the only possible" Economic basis of socialism, Lenin wrote, is large-scale machine industry. "

But the development of large-scale industry was possible only if there was an upsurge in agriculture. The ruined, impoverished small peasant was unable to raise agriculture on his own. It was necessary to help the peasant. It was necessary to prove “that we know how to help him — Lenin said — that the Communists ... are helping him now in practice”. “We are building our economy in connection with the peasantry”, therefore, “you need to know — said Lenin — that the main, decisive task of NEP, subordinating everything else to itself, is to establish a bond between the new economy that we have begun to build (very bad, very clumsily, but still they began to build ...) and the peasant economy, which is home to millions and millions of peasants"

The question of the link between socialist industry and the peasant economy became a question of the very existence of Soviet power. "The question of the bond — said Comrade Stalin — is the question of the existence of our industry, the question of the existence of the proletariat itself, the question of the life and death of our republic, the question of the victory of socialism in our country."

The main meaning of this Leninist slogan was that "in the simplest, easiest and most accessible way for the peasant” gradually lead him to the main thing: to the socialist remaking of agriculture.

The main link that had to be seized upon in order to find a link between socialist industry and the peasant economy was trade at this stage. In this one! the region faced a very serious competition with private capitalism.

"The task is," said Comrade Stalin, "to use the efforts of millions of small proprietors to seize trade, take over the main supplies of the countryside and the city into the hands of the state and cooperatives, and thus organize an inseparable link between industry and peasant economy, an indissoluble bond.,

Therefore, the slogan "learn to trade" sounds like a battle order in all Lenin's speeches at the XI Congress. Either we will prove in the coming year that we have learned to manage, "or — Lenin said — Soviet power cannot exist".

In connection with the cessation of the retreat and the regrouping of forces for the transition to the socialist offensive, the class struggle has intensified and become more complex, both inside! countries and the struggle of the capitalist world against the Soviet Union. A new form of struggle by international capital against Soviet power was the convening of "economic" conferences in Genoa and The Hague in order to force the Soviet government to capitulate to world imperialism. A new form of struggle against Soviet power was the changeover of the "new bourgeoisie, growing and gradually closing in on the kulak and with the service intelligentsia"

Thus, although there was no direct onslaught on us, we were not grabbed by the throat, as Lenin put it, “nevertheless, the struggle against capitalist society became a hundred times fiercer and more dangerous, because we do not always clearly see where it is against us. enemy, and who is our friend ...

New tasks and new conditions of struggle have raised before the Party the question of restructuring all Party, trade union and economic work. The selection of people and the verification of execution were highlighted by Lenin.

New tasks required new qualities from the communists. Devotion to the revolution, the ability to win on military fronts, had to be supplemented by the ability to manage the economy by knowledge of the concrete task entrusted by the party. "The whole point now," Lenin said at the congress, is that the vanguard should not be afraid of the task of working on itself, remaking itself, openly admitting its insufficient preparation, insufficient skill. "

Pointing out to the congress all the difficulties and dangers of NEP, Lenin declared with unshakable firmness that we would undoubtedly overcome all these difficulties, provided that there was no intervention and we did not make political mistakes. Lenin emphasized that the most important condition for victory over difficulties is the observance of the strictest party discipline and the preservation of party unity. Lenin noted that the party was carrying out the new economic policy with extreme unanimity, that this unanimity was achieved by the party in the struggle on two fronts - against the right-wing opportunistic perversions of the essence, tasks and ways of pursuing the new economic policy and against leftist resistance to the introduction of the new economic policy , against attempts to violate the unity of the party by representatives of the old, defeated opposition groups - Trotskyists, "workers' opposition", "democratic centralism", etc.

At the Eleventh Congress, these groups resumed their struggle against the party along all lines. The frank interpretation of the new economic policy by Shlyapnikov, Medvedev and Kollontai as a policy of retreat, the interpretation of Lenin's slogan "linking with the peasant economy" as a slogan allegedly going along the line of searching for a base outside the proletariat, found a response in the more or less veiled speeches of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Drums, Kamenev ...

A new attempt to push through the views condemned by the party were the speeches of the leaders b. The 'workers' opposition ', as well as Ryazanov and Trotsky on the question of trade unions. The latter's slanderous statement that the theses of the Central Committee on trade unions "entirely follow" from his, Trotsky's, old position, that the resolutions of the 10th congress allegedly “did not suffice even for a year”, was clearly aimed at discrediting the decisions of the 10th party congress.

A direct distortion of the history of Bolshevism and a revision of Lenin's theory of the proletarian revolution was Zinoviev's Trotskyist statement that until 1917 the party was unclear about the nature of the future revolution.

With Bolshevik unanimity, the congress adopted resolutions both on the Central Committee's report and on other issues on the agenda.

The congress subjected to a complete and final defeat the group of the "workers' opposition", which spoke at the congress with a demagogic aim of preparing a split in the party.

All the work of the Eleventh Congress took place from the point of view of fulfilling the main tasks set by Lenin in the political report of the Central Committee. Three groups of major issues were discussed by the Eleventh Congress after Lenin's report: 1) organizational and propaganda work of the party (party building, purging the party, strengthening the ranks of the party, the work of the party's control bodies); 2) trade unions, the Red Army, the Komsomol; 3) financial issue.

The decisions of the congress covered both sides of the main task — building the foundation of the socialist economy.

The Eleventh Congress was the last one attended and chaired by Lenin. His speeches at the X and XI Congresses, his last speeches, and articles of 1922-1923. constitute a single harmonious whole of Lenin's grandiose plan for building socialism in our country.

The further development and implementation of this great plan was carried out by the brilliant student and companion of Lenin, Comrade Stalin, elected, at the suggestion of Lenin, by the plenum of the Central Committee immediately after the XI Congress as General Secretary of the Central Committee of our party.

Under the leadership of Comrade Stalin, the building of socialism in our country is being successfully completed. By the end of the first five-year plan, the foundation of the socialist economy had been built. By the 17th Congress, the socialist system had become "the undivided dominant and sole commanding force in the entire national economy."

In an irreconcilable struggle on two fronts, in a struggle against all attempts to frustrate the cause of socialism, socialism in our country has triumphed finally and irrevocably. "NEP Russia has turned into socialist Russia" (Molotov).

The present edition of the minutes of the XI Congress has been significantly expanded in comparison with the 1922 edition. The text is checked against stenographic notes, supplemented, and clarified.

It was not possible to find a number of amendments to the resolutions mentioned in the speeches of the speakers (for example, Shumyatsky's amendments), the resolution of a conference of delegates to the 11th Congress - professionalists, etc. - was not found.

It was not possible to find the election results of the Central Auditing Commission. Obviously, the old composition of the Central Auditing Commission was re-elected — vols. Nogin, Kurski, Skvortsov-Stepanov (see verbatim report of the XII Congress).

In addition to the main text of the minutes and resolutions, this publication contains the following sections: 1) Lenin and the XI Congress; 2) Materials of the Congress and 3) Appendices.

The section "Lenin and the XI Congress" contains documents characterizing Lenin's preparation for the congress ("Plan of the political report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) at the XI Party Congress", "Letter to VM Molotov about the plan of the political report at the XI Congress", "Speech plan at the congress on March 27, 1922 "), his work at the congress (" Recording of the debate on the report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) at the XI Party Congress "," Outline of the plan for the final word on the report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) at the XI Party Congress ", etc. .), and a number of other important Leninist documents, for example “On the conditions for the admission of new members to the party. Two notes to VM Molotov ", in which Lenin asks to submit to the plenum of the Central Committee a proposal to extend the length of service for admitting new members to the party, proposing to leave six months of experience only for those workers who have actually worked at large industrial enterprises for at least 10 years. in order to hinder access to the party for people who have not gone through a serious factory school, in spite of Zinoviev, who offered too short periods of candidate experience.

"Letter on Preobrazhensky's Theses" and "Letter to Comrade Osinsky" expose and sharply criticize the attempts of Preobrazhensky and Osinsky to revise the beginning of the New Economic Policy, expressed in their demand to include in the agenda of the Eleventh Congress the question "On Party Policy in the Countryside", already decided by the party. Of extreme interest is the "Note by V. I. Lenin, 'to L. Kamenev ..." at the end of the section, in which Lenin demands the correction of the erroneous decision of the congress regarding the publication of announcements in Pravda (see note No. 173).

The section "Materials of the Congress" publishes reports of the Central Committee and its departments and the theses of the Central Committee for the XI Congress, lists of delegates to the Congress, the report of the XI Congress commission on the group of the former "Workers' Opposition", etc. For the first time, three documents stored in the IMEL archive are published: 1) Initial draft regulation on control commissions; 2) The initial draft of the regulations on the Central Auditing Commission and 3) Resolutions adopted at a meeting of military delegates to the XI Party Congress.

In the section "Appendices" there are: a notice from the Central Committee on the convocation of the congress and a message on the order of the day of the congress; a circular on the purge of the party; an article “on the results of verification, revision and purge of the party”; materials on the issue of the group of "workers' opposition" at the XI Congress, card for the registration of All-Russian and provincial congresses and conferences.

This edition of the minutes of the XI Congress is supplied with notes, subject and name indexes and indexes of speakers, local party organizations and literary sources. Work on the preparation for publication of this publication was carried out by E. Ye. Steinman (prepared) and | t. A. A. Ivanov (working editor),

REGULATIONS OF THE XI CONGRESS

1. The Presidium of the Congress is elected in the number of ... people and ... secretaries.

2. Sessions of the Congress take place from 10 am to 3 pm and from 6 pm to 10 am.

3. Speakers will have 45 minutes and 25 minutes for closing remarks.

4. Each voting group of 40 delegates may nominate their own speaker.

5. Speakers are given the floor for the first time 15 minutes, for the second time, 5 minutes.

Each question can only be spoken twice.

6. Personal statements, extraordinary inquiries and statements and factual remarks shall be submitted to the presidium in writing and announced by decision of the presidium. Extraordinary requests and statements signed by at least 20 delegates are announced immediately, no debate on requests and statements is allowed.

7. Words to order and proposals are introduced to the presidium in writing.

8. One "for" and one "against" is allowed to speak to the order no more than 3 minutes.

9. With regard to proposals, the floor is given to one “for” and one “against” for 5 minutes.

10. For reasons of voting, 3 minutes are given after voting.

11. All questions are decided by a simple majority of votes.

At the request of 15 comrades with casting votes, a roll-call vote must be taken.

12. The Presidium is given the right to form sections on individual items on the agenda or on individual detailed questions of party work. Section resolutions are forwarded to the congress presidium.