Marx-Engels |  Lenin  | Stalin |  Home Page

V. I. Lenin

PROPOSALS ON A CHECK-UP AND PURGE
OF THE R.C.P.(B.) MEMBERSHIP

Written in June not later than 21, 1921   First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI

Printed from the manuscript

From V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971

Vol. 42, pp. 315-16.

Translated from the Russian
by Bernard Isaacs

First printing 1969
Second printing 1971

---

Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@marx2mao.org (March 2001)

---

page 315

PROPOSALS ON A CHECK-UP AND PURGE
   OF THE R.C.P.(B.) MEMBERSHIP[367]

    The chief group responsible for registration should be made up of old Party members (not less than 5-7 years in the Party), necessarily workers.

    All members of the R.C.P. who are in any way dubious, unreliable, or who have failed to prove their stability, should be removed from the Party, with the right of re-admission upon further verification and test.

    1) People who joined from other parties after X.1917; 2) members from among officials and functionaries who had

page 316

held office under the old governments; 3) people who had held posts involving any privileges; 4) state employees -- these categories should all be subject to a thorough check-up, and workers, both Party and non-Party, who have had contact with the given member of the R.C.P. at his work, should be questioned.

    Recommending members should be required to give an accurate written testimonial and should have among them several workers with a length of Party membership of 5-7 years.

    Formalities should be reduced to a minimum in the case of real workers, actually working at their factory, and in the case of peasants engaged on their allotments; such people should not be troubled with reregistration.

NOTES

  ^{<"en367">[367]} Lenin's proposals were adopted at a meeting of the Politbureau on June 21, 1921 as directives for the Party Purge Commission. They were included, with certain amendments, in the decision of the Politbureau of June 25 concerning the check-up, revision and purge of the Party. In connection with the drafting of this decision Lenin jotted down notes concerning the conditions of admission to the Party (see Collected Works, Fifth [Russian] Edition, Vol. 43, p. 362). Lenin's remarks were also taken into consideration in the decision adopted by the Central Committee.    [p. 315]